In the United States
Navy and Coast Guard, and in the Navies of various
country's- the lowest level of senior enlistedmen. An informal, but widely used, contraction of the title Chief Petty Officer (US grade
E-7).
The most important promotion in an enlistedman's career, the title carries with it significant responsibilities, not limited to training and mentoring junior commissioned officers (
15 or so years younger than themselves) and playing father figure to a bunch of juvenile imbeciles the
Navy has the audacity to call sailors.
Chiefs are well respected by senior officers, feared by junior enlisted men and are treated like a general pain in the ass by far too many junior officers. Identified by their khaki uniforms, they maintain a separate mess that
even a
Captain can't enter without permission and cannot be demoted short of a conviction at Court Martial.
"Chief says he'll burn my ass if I'm late for work again. Goddamn it, I'm a
fucking Ensign, no
fucking way should that dickhead be able to go over my
head like that."
"You've been in 9 months, and know shit. Say that after you've put in 15 years."