Seaman apprentice
military rank
Seaman apprentice is the second lowest enlisted rate in the U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, and the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps just above seaman recruit and below seaman; this rank was formerly known as seaman second class.
The current rank of seaman apprentice should not be confused with the rank of apprentice seaman which was the lowest Navy rank from 1904 to 1948. In the old system apprentice seaman was followed by seaman 2nd class and seaman 1st class. (The three tiered rank system for seamen dates from the 18th Century Royal Navy when the ranks were called landsman, ordinary seaman and able seaman.)
The actual title for an E-2 in the U.S. Navy varies based on the community to which the sailor belongs. Likewise, the color of their group rate marks also depends on their community.
Those in the general deck and administrative community are seamen apprentice (SA). They wear white stripes on navy blue uniforms, and navy blue (black) stripes on white uniforms.
Hospital corpsmen are hospital apprentice (HA). They are the only rate in this community. They wear white stripes on navy blue uniforms, and navy blue stripes on white uniforms.
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This entry incorporates text from “Seaman apprentice” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.