Navy CPO Dress Blues Jacket

[jgibbs00]

Hello,

well I have visited your site before so I thought I would join and ask the pros. I acquired this CPO jacket. I have asked a few people if they can tell tell me anything about it but no luck. thanks, also if I have had collectors ask to buy it from me what is a fair price.

[MySonsDad]

This is an older US Navy Chief Petty Officers Service Dress Blues Coat by the looks of the style of stitching on the rating patch. The rating patch signifies that the CPO was a Yeoman. The red strips, at the bottom of the sleeve are service stripes, each strip indicating 4 years of service so this CPO had 24 plus years of service but less than 28. A sailor in the US Navy having 12 or more consecutive years with out any type of disciplinary action taken against him or her will wear gold colored service strips. The strips on this coat, being red indicate this CPO got into some mischief.

[jagdhorn]

This is an older US Navy Chief Petty Officers Service Dress Blues Coat by the looks of the style of stitching on the rating patch. The rating patch signifies that the CPO was a Yeoman. The red strips, at the bottom of the sleeve are service stripes, each strip indicating 4 years of service so this CPO had 24 plus years of service but less than 28. A sailor in the US Navy having 12 or more consecutive years with out any type of disciplinary action taken against him or her will wear gold colored service strips. The strips on this coat, being red indicate this CPO got into some mischief.

Not always! When I was in the US Navy, one had the option of wearing gold after 12 good years. But it was an expensive option. Many of the chiefs had two coats- one with the gold and one with red. My father was a chief for about 16 years, (35 years service) and he mostly had red, he did have some coats with gold, but he rarely updated the service stripes, so that he might have only 4-5 gold strips. Even withthe red, he rarely worried about updating them.

This was in the 1950s and 60s,when I believe the navy was filled with vets from WW2, Korea, and so there was less interest in showing off stuff. My dad often (usually!) did not wear his ribbons either, when I met him at the airport once, I asked were they were, and he paused for a minute and then remembered he had them in his pcket. I remember this only becasue a friend and I were picking him up after our full dress inspection and we were wearing our medals, and submarine insignia, we looked quite sharp and my dad looked like a hobo wearing a surplu store uniform!
Jagdhorn