PETTY OFFICER SECOND CLASS (PO2) — U.S. NAVY E-5
The Navy's mid-grade non-commissioned officer — work-center supervisors and senior watchstanders.
OVERVIEW
Petty Officer Second Class (PO2) is the U.S. Navy E-5 enlisted paygrade. Promotion from PO3 to PO2 is competitive and requires passing the Navy-wide E-5 advancement exam, satisfactory evaluations, and time-in-rate. PO2s typically supervise multi-person work centers, lead complex shipboard or aviation maintenance evolutions, and are routinely qualified as senior watchstanders.
PO2s are addressed by their rating and paygrade — for example, "Operations Specialist Second Class (OS2)." They wear the rating mark on a crow consisting of an eagle over two chevrons.
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Supervise a multi-Sailor work center
- Lead routine and complex shipboard or aviation maintenance evolutions
- Stand qualified senior watch as Engineering Officer of the Watch (EOOW) candidate, CIC Watch Officer, or aviation maintenance shift supervisor
- Mentor and develop junior Petty Officers and Seamen
HISTORY
The "Second Class" Petty Officer designation dates to the U.S. Navy's mid-19th-century reorganization of enlisted grades. The two-chevron PO2 crow has been worn in roughly its current form since 1885.
The PO2 grade is widely considered the Navy's first true "supervisory NCO" grade — PO2s are the Sailors most commonly entrusted with running a discrete work center on their own.
PAY
- Pass the Navy-wide E-5 advancement exam in selected rating
- Time-in-rate and time-in-service minimums per OPNAVINST
- Satisfactory evaluations and warfare-qualification progress
- Work-center supervisor in an assigned shipboard division
- Senior watchstander in CIC, engineering, or aviation maintenance
- "A"-school or "C"-school instructor at a Navy training command