Until 1948, the Warrant Officer categories for Sailors serving as Torpedoman’s Mates were, to no one’s surprise, Torpedoman and Chief Torpedoman. With the overhaul of the Warrant Officer system in late 1940s, the title became Underwater Ordnance Technician and had a Warrant Officer Designation of O3; the “O” stood for “Ordnance, which was the Limited Duty Officer classification (LDOs were established that same year) for Torpedoman’s Mates. Other classifications included Deck; Administration; Hull; Engineering; Electronics; Aviation Engineering, Operations, Electronics, and Ordnance; Supply; and Civil Engineering.
A full system of officer designator numbers would not appear in the Navy
Register, which listed all Commissioned and Warrant Officers in both the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, until 1952, although “Designations” were used to classify Duty officers (Engineering, Aeronautical, Special Duty, Limited Duty, Naval Aviator, and Submarines) beginning in 1950.
The Torpedoman rating was established in 1921, with the insignia of a torpedo being introduced in the 1922 Uniform Regulations. Just how this new rating was to be spelled had apparently not been decided at the time: the first mention in the 1922 manual is written “Torpedo men,” while subsequent references to the rating appear as “Torpedoman.” The Warrant Officer categories of Torpedoman and Chief Torpedoman were established in 1942, with the name of the enlisted rating being modified to “Torpedoman’s Mate.”
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