Work Stations, Battle Stations, and Watch

"While in boot camp, you were an apprentice seaman. Once on board ship, you entered either the seaman or fireman branch. The seaman branch consisted of yeomen, hospital corpsmen, storekeepers, gunner’s mates, boatswain’s mates, quartermasters, signalmen, radiomen, fire controlmen, etc. The fireman branch consisted of the men associated with the engine room and auxiliaries such as water tenders, boilermakers, machinist’s mates, electrician’s mates, etc. When you came on board, you became seaman or fireman second class. After about four months, you became a seaman or fireman second. You took an oral exam to become seaman or fireman first. You could tell which branch a man was in by a single stripe that encircled his shoulder seam. The seaman stripe was white and on the right shoulder. A fireman wore a red stripe on the left shoulder. While a seaman or fireman, you were a striker for a rate within your division. Striking is on the job training as opposed to attending one of the official navy schools. Rate is a word for your job like radioman or boatswain. Within the rate are first, second, and third classes. Class refers to your experience and that you have passed qualifying exams.

Within a division, the orders came down through the captain and or executive officer to the department head who gave direction to the various division officers in his department. The division officer passed the orders to the division’s first class petty officer. The first class petty officer directed a couple of second class petty officers who supervised the group of third class petty officers to get the job done. The highest-ranking enlisted men were chiefs. These men were highly regarded for their expertise. They really trained the junior officers. In many ways, the chiefs ran the Navy.

Your rate basically described your job that was known as your work or duty station. It was where you carried out your daily tasks. Normally, you worked 8 hours, unless you had watch duty.

Watch duty was in addition to your work station. Everybody stood watch except the laundry guys. Your watch lasted four hours. If you had watch during the night, you still had to put in eight hours at your work station. The purpose of watch is to keep the ship at battle readiness. So all the guns, radio rooms, damage control, fire control, engine rooms, bridge, etc. would have watches 24 hours a day to be ready. The ship was divided into port and starboard watches and each division was divided into sections. This system enabled the ship to fill six 4-hour watches per day.

Everybody had battle stations, even barbers, bakers, and band members. So your battle station may not relate directly to your work station. All during the war, General Quarters (the correct name for battle stations) an hour before sunrise and an hour before sunset – both times when they were concerned about possible air attacks."

- Paul A. Wieser