What kind of work do navy sailors do on the ship besides their specific rateing jobs?

I know that when you are onboard a us navy ship you do the job for which you are trained, but there are alot of other jobs that I have seen no ratings for, the more menial tasks of scrubbing, cleaning, scraping, ect. Who does these jobs and how is it decided? do certain rates get to bypass that kind of work? Also, if anyone could give me a general idea of how watches are scheduled, that would be cool. Does every sailor stand the exact same amount of watches on a ship?

What kind of work do navy sailors do on the ship besides their specific rateing jobs?
EVERYBODY mess cranks. EVERYBODY does sweepers. EVERYBODY has at least one collateral duty and EVERYBODY is on the Damage Control team.





Watches are the purview of the Chain of command. you could stand a watch every week or ten days, or you could work 12 hours on, 12 hours off. Watches can be as short as 2 hours long, or as long as 18 hours. not everyone will stand the same type , number or length of watches. some are based on the division's needs, others by manpower needs, and still others by rank.
Reply:Each division is given certain parts of the ship to take care of...then they give the work to lower ranking crewmen to take care of...the rating that does the MOST of that kinds of work boatsmen. No rate gets to by pass that...just part of life until you hit e-4-e5.





watches depend again on you rating how big the ship is.


when I was in a I was a MM worked a 8 on 8 off, schedule.


8 hours of watch/work, 8 hours eat sleep shower play.
Reply:different departments have different duties and responsibilties. yeah everybody has different jobs, deck division does most of the bullshit work, thats where all teh dumb f*cks go. but each division still has to keep thier berthing clean, and thier equipment. pretty much as soon as you get on the ship you will be doing bullshit work, cuz thats all ur qualified to do. but the longer u are there, u get qualified to do other stuff, and newer people will be doing the crap work you used to do. No, not everybody stand the same watches, it depends on your job, and how many other people are qualified to do you job.


the most important thing about picking your job is what kind of training is it going to give you that you can use in the civilian world? machinists mate will get you training that u can use to operate power plants in the civilian world, or will teach you how to be a heating and air conditioning tech. or you coul be an enginman and work on diesel engines. or on a flight crew and work on airplane and helocopter engines. electricians mate will teach you electric. pick a good job that will pay off later.
Reply:Usually the people who come in undesignated get stuck with the **** jobs. Also unqualified lower ranking personnel with get stuck with working gee dunks, galleys, and what not. Basically, whatever your rate, get your quals asap.
Reply:watch standing, mess cooking,compartment cleaning, general quarters station which maybe as a phone talker, on a gun mount and a lot of other jobs. watch standing varies by dept and by ship. the ones I was on it normally was 4 on and 8 off although at times it was 6 on and 6 off. to change the times you are on watch the do what they call dog the watch which is 2 two hr watches, the dept I was in dog-ed the watch once a week, the deck force every day. you also have in port watches during your duty day, the ships ive been on had 3 section in port watches which was the same as at sea ,the watch I liked best was the mid watch (2400-0400) because there were not many people around to bug you.