Bob Wilson, aka Charlie Day, appeared in a pre-Christmas series over at Men From Back Then ,
and I lamented in the comments that I only had a few pictures of this fine model. The next day I
had a veritable feast in my inbox from Brian E. So today we'll take a look at this guy getting out
of a U.S. Navy Lieutenant Junior Grade outfit. I doubt that he was actually a naval officer,
given the number of large tattoos he had, but who knows? Also, we never see him
actually fully in the uniform, so it may not have even fit him. Thanks, Brian!
A U.S. Navy Lieutenant Junior Grade is a Sub-lieutenant in the Royal Navy. My father's cedar wood Navy trunk had that rank stencilled on the top. A wartime navy is very much a different creature from a peacetime professional fighting force and non-commissioned officers were regularly promoted to officer rank. There were two provisos other than competence: to know which knife and fork to use in the ward room and NO TATTOOS. It was the one thing that separated the ranks. My family would not have had tattoos anyway, but I remember Atty at school (also known as Wah-Wah because of his affected accent), a retired Lt Commander - who played cricket, took Navigation lessons and otherwise was the school's part time notice board - was forever stripping off and he had no tattoos and told us all in portentous tones never to get one. I can't speak for the US Navy, of course, but I would imagine it was very much the same.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure tattoos on an officer were a no-no back then, but they are allowed within limits today.
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