Some sailors may undergo additional training in a 'C' school either before or after a tour of duty.

Ratings are earned through 'A' schools, which are attended before deployment and after undergoing initial basic training at Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, Illinois, or (less commonly) by 'striking' for a rating through on-the-job training (OJT) in the Fleet. Personnel in pay grade E-1, since 1996, do not have an insignia to wear. E-2s and E-3s have color-coded group rate marks based on their career field. Rates are displayed on a rating badge, which is a combination of rate and rating. All E-7s are called chief petty officer, E-8s senior chief petty officer, and E-9s master chief petty officer. E-4 through E-6 are called petty officers. All E-1s through E-3s are known as seaman, fireman, airman, constructionman, or hospitalman.

This enlisted numbering system is the same across all six branches of the U.S. Associated with the enlisted pay grades is a numbering system from the most junior enlisted sailor ('E-1') to the most senior enlisted sailor ('E-9'). This is not to be confused with the term 'rating', which refers to one's area of occupational specialization within the enlisted Navy (see below and also List of United States Navy ratings ). Navy, only officers carry the term rank, while it is proper to refer to an enlisted sailor's pay grade as rate. In the United States Navy, a rate is the military rank of an enlisted sailor, indicating where the sailor stands within the chain of command, and also defining one's pay grade. Navy, worn on a service dress blue uniform's sleeve The badge of the Master Chief Petty Officer of the U.S. US Navy 'ranking' AKA rates for enlisted sailors

Civil war navy enlisted ranks