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Challenge Coin Design and Manufacturing

Sailor History

HONORARY CHIEF PETTY OFFICERS!

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What is an Honorary Chief Petty Officer and who can become a Honorary Chief?!

By regulation, only the MCPON may authorize the recognition of an individual as an Honorary Chief Petty Officer.

An individual just can’t be recommended by anyone, well they could however, the recommendation has to be initiated by a Command Master Chief, Chief of the Boat, Command Senior Chief, or Senior Enlisted Advisor.

The recommendation needs to be backed by substantial factual data regarding the individual’s continuing involvement with the Navy’s Chief Petty Officer’s Mess, as well as justifying actions that exhibit the nominee’s advancement towards the professional objectives of the CPO Mess as well as demonstrating the principles consistent with the CPO Mess.

The recognition of Honorary Chief Petty Officer is intended to recognize a sustained contribution, not just a single act. The idea is that the individual has been and still is constantly contributing to the collective CPO community, enlisted force.and the Navy.

The title of Honorary Chief Petty Officer is in nature symbolic, there is no pay associated with it, nor is the individual eligible for any veteran’s benefits.

This recognition isn’t restricted to celebrities, nor prior enlisted Navy.

Department of Defense Civilians are eligible for this honor. Commissioned officers have been recognized as an honorary CPO. Even members of the Army, Marine Corps and Air Force may be recognized as an Honorary CPO.

Even children may be recognized as an Honorary CPO, in special cases, the youngest individual to be recognized was Diego Enrique Santiago, who received this honor at the age of 5 years old.

Diego was 5 year-old child who was at the time battling lung cancer, a battle that, sadly, he lost. But his wish was to be just like his dad, a Chief Petty Officer.

Politicians can also be honored as a Honorary Chief – Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) Ray Mabus was recognized as an Honorary Chief in 2010.

Per the instruction, though, Honorary Chief is the highest grade that can be honored, no Honorary Senior Chief or Honorary Master Chief.

The idea being that’s appreciation from the Chief Mess as a whole, and not to divide the recipients based on current or prior rank.

However, we do have a few Honorary Master Chiefs….

ONE Honorary Master Chief is Robert Stetham who was made an Honorary Master Chief in 2010. I posted his story and his recognition on FB before. If anyone wants me to re-post that story, let me know.

The Office of the MCPON is tasked with creating and displaying a log list for all Honorary Chiefs, with information as their name, whether or not they had prior service in the military, and the date they were recognized.

However, at the moment, this log seems to be specifically hard copy in the MCPON’s office. There’s no public list that I could find.

Also the United States Coast Guard also has an Honorary Chief designation, with pretty much the same requirements. And, like the Office of the MCPON, the office of the Master Chief of the Coast Guard is also tasked with maintaining a log of individuals recognized.

PITCH AND RUDDER SERVICES

Making custom quality challenge coins and Military belt buckles are one of our specialties. If you’re interested in getting a designing a custom buckle or Quality Challenge coin for your Division, Command, or Mess we’ve streamlined the process, click the get started link at the bottom of the page and someone from our design team will be with you within 48 hours to bring your vision to life.  When your working with us, we want to be as transparent as possible if you’re looking for shirts, you are going to be working with Chuck’s and his Team, If you’re working with metal you will be working with Grady’s Team.

A Sailors History of Tattoos

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Why are Tattoos a lot of time associated with Sailors?

Tattoos have long been associated with Sailors, for good reason.

Travelers from way back in history got tattoos to identify who they were and where they had been, as a portable and indestructible record. Sailors who explored the world picked up tattoos from all over.

Body art was particularly well-suited to the transient and dangerous nature of life at sea.

These Sailors were traveling the world, and wanted to bring back souvenirs from places they had visited.

Aboard a ship, you don’t have much room to carry fancy souvenirs, so you end up getting tattoos as travel marks.

By the late 18th century, navy records show that around a third of British and a fifth of American Sailors had at least one tattoo, while other accounts reveal that French, German, and Scandinavian navies were also fond of getting inked.

But beyond mere records of their travels, tattoos also served a superstitious purpose among those living an unpredictable, and often risky, lifestyle.

Sailors are extremely superstitious, so they would get specific tattoos to relieve this anxiety over their beliefs.

There are stories of Sailors in the old, wooden-ship days who would get Christ’s head tattooed on their backs so if they got into trouble and had to take lashes, the person wielding the lash would be more sympathetic.

Sailors had other tattoos for various reasons, like hinges on their elbows to ward off arthritis, and later, evidence of war campaigns they participated in.

Below are but a few of the popular tattoos of a seaman’s life.

A PIG, on the top of one foot and a ROOSTER, on the other. This is said to protect the seaman from drowning, because both of these barnyard animals cannot swim so they would get the seaman quickly to shore.

An ANCHOR showed the seaman had sailed the Atlantic/Pacific Ocean.

A FULL-RIGGED SHIP showed the seaman had sailed around Cape Horn.

A DRAGON showed the seaman had served on a China station.

A SHELLBACK TURTLE denotes a seaman who has crossed the equator.

A GOLDEN DRAGON denotes a seaman who has crossed the International Date Line.

PORT & STARBOARD ship lights were tattooed on the left (port) and right (starboard) side of the body.

ROPE, tattooed around the wrist meant the seaman was a deckhand.

CREATING CUSTOM CHALLENGE COINS WITH PITCH AND RUDDER

Here at Pitch and Rudder, we really hope that over the last few mins as you read through the article you gained some new information on custom challenge coins.  We hope that you can take this and all the other articles that we have written and apply them to your own custom coins and make them even better!  We would love to work with you designing some Rockstar coins but ultimately we wanted to ensure that your next venture was done with just a few more tools!

PITCH AND RUDDER SERVICES

Making custom quality challenge coins and Military belt buckles are one of our specialties. If you’re interested in getting a designing a custom buckle or Quality Challenge coin for your Division, Command, or Mess we’ve streamlined the process, click the get started link at the bottom of the page and someone from our design team will be with you within 48 hours to bring your vision to life.  When your working with us, we want to be as transparent as possible if you’re looking for shirts, you are going to be working with Chuck’s and his Team, If you’re working with metal you will be working with Grady’s Team