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BME8-E9

Boatswain's Mate

E-8 to E-9 (Senior NCO) · Navy

E1–E3E-4E-5E-6E-7E8–E9
HEADS UP

BMCS and BMCM are the senior and master chief tiers where the institutional voice of the rate lives. You are not the LCPO of a deck division anymore — you are the senior enlisted deck seamanship authority for a command, a type-commander, or the fleet. The deckplate reads the standard off your posture. The post-Navy plan should be in motion 24-36 months before retirement.

The Honest MOS Read
Boatswain's Mate Senior Chief Petty Officer (BMCS, E-8) and Boatswain's Mate Master Chief Petty Officer (BMCM, E-9) are the senior and master chief tiers of the oldest rating in the United States Navy — and the ranks at which the institutional voice of the BM rate lives. At BMCS and BMCM, you are not running a deck division. You are running the enlisted readiness posture of a command, a type-command element, or in the case of the most senior BMCMs, the fleet-level seamanship program that every surface combatant's deck department operates against. The scope of the BMCS or BMCM billet varies widely by assignment. On a carrier (CVN) or large-deck amphibious ship (LHD), the BMCS may be the ship's command senior chief or the department senior chief responsible for the boat, deck, and quarterdeck divisions simultaneously — 100-150 sailors and every piece of deck equipment on the largest surface vessels in the fleet. On a TYCOM (Type Commander) staff — SURFOR, SURFPAC, or a numbered fleet staff — the BMCS or BMCM is the senior enlisted deck seamanship advisor to the type commander, translating fleet seamanship requirements into command-level training standards, reviewing UNREP casualty reports fleet-wide, and representing the BM rate's institutional standards to the flag officer staff. At the MCPON level, the BMCM who reaches the fleet master chief track is one of a handful of senior enlisted sailors who represent the entire surface-warfare enlisted community to OPNAV and the CNO. The eEVAL writing at BMCS and BMCM picks the Chief and Senior Chief slates. The BMCS who writes input for BMCs that the commanding officer defends at the command ranking board is producing Chief-to-Senior-Chief selectees at the rate the fleet needs. The BMCM who writes the annual input for BMCS candidates whose records she has tracked across the full senior chief tour is producing the Master Chief slate. At this paygrade, the eEVAL input is not a quarterly task — it is a two-year project per sailor, built from the first day the BMCS or BMCM takes accountability for the sailor's career trajectory. The command master chief (CMC) or command senior chief (COB — on submarines; CSC on surface ships) billet is the career goal for many BMCS and BMCM chiefs whose professional trajectory runs through command-level enlisted leadership. The CMC is the senior enlisted advisor to the commanding officer — the chief who sits in every command-team meeting, who manages the command's enlisted climate, who handles the most sensitive retention, discipline, and personnel issues, and who is the CO's primary informant on the command's enlisted health. The CMC billet is competitive; it requires a SURFOR / fleet staff endorsement and a competitive record at the BMCS level. The BMCS who wants a CMC billet builds the record toward it — command tour diversity, staff-level experience, engagement with SURFOR MCPON advocacy, and the endorsement of the current CO. The post-Navy transition plan for BMCS and BMCM is a 24-36 month project, not a 90-day project at retirement. The Boatswain's Mate's post-service market is real: the United States Merchant Marine (deck officer licensing through the National Maritime Center — STCW certifications, USCG Merchant Mariner Credential, Ordinary Seaman through Able Seaman through Mate); the maritime academy faculty track (SUNY Maritime, California Maritime, Mass Maritime, Texas A&M Maritime — most take senior enlisted veterans as faculty for seamanship and marlinspike courses); the longshoreman and maritime supervisor track (ILWU, ILA — the dock foreman and supervisor pipeline values the BMCM's cargo handling and rigging experience directly); federal maritime employment (MARAD — Maritime Administration; USCG civilian inspector and marine casualty investigator positions); and defense contractor maritime operations support. Start the credential plan — STCW certification, USCG MMC, TWIC card — two years before the retirement date, not two months.
Career Arc
  • 01BMCS pin-on after CPO board selection; Master Chief board conversation with LCPO begins at first BMCS evaluation period.
  • 02Command senior chief, TYCOM staff, or large-deck LCPO billet assumption — enlisted readiness accountability expands from a department to a command or fleet element.
  • 03Command master chief (CMC) application window — SURFOR / fleet staff endorsement, competitive record, CO recommendation.
  • 04BMCM selection (for those who reach Master Chief) — fleet master chief, MCPON pathway, or command BMCM on flagship platforms.
  • 05Post-Navy transition plan in motion 24-36 months from retirement — merchant marine licensing, maritime academy, federal maritime, defense contractor maritime.
  • 06Retirement at 20+ years as the rate's institutional voice for an entire generation of BM chiefs and petty officers.
Common Screwups
  • ×Allowing a deckplate UNREP or small-craft procedure to drift from the NWP/NAVSEA standard because the ship's force 'always does it this way' — the casualty investigation asks who the senior BM was and whether they knew.
  • ×Stopping physical readiness and BCA discipline because the rank is Senior or Master Chief — the rate reads it immediately and the deckplate climate follows your example downhill faster than you expect.
  • ×Treating force-shaping conversations about marginal performers as someone else's responsibility — at BMCS/BMCM the billets you protect for the wrong sailors are billets the next generation of chiefs never gets.
  • ×Waiting until the final year of service to build the post-Navy credentials bridge — merchant marine licensing, STCW certification, USCG MMC take time and money that should be budgeted and started two years out.
  • ×Letting CMC-track conversations about junior BMCs drift because operational tempo is high — the MCPON and SURFOR fleet master chief are watching who is developing the next bench and who is executing the current schedule.

A Day in the Life

  • 0500Wake up. Review the overnight duty senior chief report — command-level personnel incidents, equipment casualties, watchbill issues. The BMCS or BMCM who arrives at quarters aware of everything the overnight watch touched is the senior chief who controls the morning narrative.
  • 0545-0700Command PT or ship's PT if assigned to a sea billet. The BMCS or BMCM who participates in command PT — not runs the BCA program from a desk chair — is the one whose BCA program the command takes seriously. Walk out of PT with the BMCs; the informal status of the command comes from the chiefs who trust you enough to say the real thing before quarters.
  • 0700-0800Quarters and post-quarters sweep. At BMCS/BMCM your quarters role is presence and standard — you brief the senior enlisted elements the CO and XO are using you to reinforce. Post-quarters: walk the deck department spaces with the senior BMC. The senior chief who walks the deck before 0900 is the senior chief who owns the day.
  • 0800-1000Command team sync or department head sync as the senior enlisted advisor. The BMCS or BMCM provides the enlisted readiness picture — not a formatted brief, but the honest characterization of where the command's enlisted deck force is and what it needs. The CO or XO asks; the answer is current, direct, and actionable.
  • 1000-1130UNREP evolution supervision if underway — the BMCS or BMCM is the senior deck voice for the evolution. Evolution brief review with the BMC, deck walk, connected period visibility position. After break-away: department-level debrief with the BMC, then release to the BM1 section-level debrief.
  • 1130-1300Flag brief prep if the weekly readiness brief is this week. Review the department's tracker with the BMC: PMS rates, advancement pipeline, eEVAL status, any personnel issues. The flag brief runs in four minutes; prepare it in forty.
  • 1300-1500Chief board packet review sessions — one BMC per week on a rotating calendar, 30 minutes, service record and packet gap analysis. TYCOM or OPNAV staff coordination if the billet involves fleet-level advisement. Senior Chief board packet work for the BMCS's own package if not yet selected to BMCM.
  • 1500-1700Force shaping conversations — the marginal performer conversation that was deferred last week is not deferred again. Post-Navy transition plan review — STCW progress, NMC application status, USCG MMC timeline. Personal fitness block — the BMCM who protects personal fitness time is the BMCM who passes the BCA cycle that the command watches for.
  • 1700-1900Secure or duty. If standing duty as the command senior chief, transition to the duty senior chief role — overnight command accountability, personnel situation awareness, duty watchbill confirmation.
  • 1900-2100Post-Navy transition work — STCW coursework via TA, merchant marine licensing application review, maritime academy faculty outreach, or VA/NMC credential gap course completion.
  • 2100-2200Check overnight watchbill with the duty chief. The command that has a problem overnight and the BMCS learns about it at quarters the next morning is the command where the duty chief does not trust the BMCS with real-time information. Build that trust by being available, not by being reachable only in emergencies.

Weekly Cadence

The week at BMCS/BMCM runs on the command team sync rhythm, not on the division officer or BM1 section lead sync that structured the junior and mid-grade career. Monday is the command team briefing — the BMCS or BMCM briefs the enlisted readiness picture to the CO and XO, receives the week's command priorities, and returns to the enlisted chain with direction that the BMCs and BM1s can execute. The senior enlisted leader at this tier does not manage work details; she manages the chain of leaders who manage the work details. The senior chief who is still directing individual BM3s and BMSNs has not made the transition to the E-8 management level. Tuesday through Thursday are the execution days. UNREP approaches and major evolutions are on the ship's schedule; the senior chief is present for every significant evolution in a supervision role, not an execution role. The Chief board packet review sessions with individual BMCs are on the calendar one per week. The force-shaping conversations about marginal performers happen in the middle of the week, not on the Friday before a long port visit. The post-Navy credential work happens during the afternoon study window — the BMCM who has been at this for two years has a visible credential plan that the command can see is being executed. Friday is the command synthesis — the weekly readiness brief, the flag update if scheduled, the week-ahead alignment for the BM1s and BMCs. The BMCS or BMCM who leaves Friday knowing what Monday looks like for every BM1 in the command — which evolutions, which PQS milestones, which Chief board packet items are due — is the senior chief whose chain executes the following week without mid-week direction. The chain that needs mid-week direction from the senior chief on routine execution questions is the chain the senior chief has not developed to operate independently.

Key Skills — How to Drill Each

  1. 01
    Run a senior enlisted command climate across a deck department or command that produces certified deck sailors, SWS-pinned petty officers, and Chief selectees at rates above the type-command average.
    The command climate is built in the first 90 days at the billet. Walk every deck space, meet every BM in the command, and establish the standard in the first weeks — not by announcement, but by personal presence and by the first correction you give in public view of the section. The standard you enforce in the first week is the standard the department operates to for the rest of the tour. Track advancement rates, warfare device pipeline, PMS completion, and eEVAL profile across the command by name — not by aggregate percentages. The BMCS or BMCM who knows every BM3's NWAE score and every BM1's Chief board timeline can drive targeted interventions; the one who knows only the fleet average cannot.
  2. 02
    Brief the CO, XO, TYCOM, or OPNAV on deck and small-craft readiness in language the flag officer can use without rewriting.
    The flag-level brief has a specific format: bottom line up front (BLUF), three to five supporting data points, risk characterization, and a recommendation. No narrative wind-up. No qualification hedges before the point. The BMCS or BMCM who brief the flag on deck seamanship readiness in four minutes and leaves with a decision or a tasker is the senior enlisted leader the flag trusts with the next assessment. Prepare the brief as if you have four minutes regardless of how much time is scheduled — the flag may give you all of it or none of it, and the quality of the BLUF determines which.
  3. 03
    Sit on Chief and Senior Chief selection board panels with the discipline and confidentiality the convening authority requires.
    Board members are bound by the convening authority's instructions on deliberation standards, scoring criteria, and confidentiality. Review the convening order before the first board session. The board member who cannot compartmentalize deliberation from personal relationships — who shares a score or a ranking observation outside the board room — is the board member the convening authority replaces. The board member who scores consistently to the established criteria and defends each score from the record rather than from personal impression is the board member whose panel produces selection decisions the fleet accepts.
  4. 04
    Translate NAVSEA, TYCOM, and OPNAV deck seamanship strategy into command-level enlisted talent management decisions.
    When OPNAV or SURFOR publishes a new deck seamanship initiative — a new UNREP rig procedure, a small-craft safety directive, a qualification currency standard — the BMCS or BMCM translates it into specific talent management decisions: which BM1s need the requalification, which commands need additional BMC billets to meet the new standard, which NEC pipeline needs to be sourced differently to meet the fleet's new requirement. The senior chief who reads a NAVSEA directive and routes it to the BM1s without a translation layer has abdicated the institutional knowledge role the rate assigned her. The senior chief who reads the directive, identifies the talent gap, and has a corrective plan on the department head's desk within two weeks is the senior chief the TYCOM calls by name.
  5. 05
    Run a casualty notification with the dignity the family deserves — as the senior enlisted representative of a command that the family is meeting for the first time in the worst moment of their life.
    The casualty notification protocol (CACO — Casualty Assistance Calls Officer support) has a specific process and the BMCS or BMCM who represents the command in a notification is the institutional face of the Navy at that moment. Prepare specifically: know the sailor's record, know the family's name and address, dress appropriately, arrive with the CACO officer, say only what is authorized to be said, do not answer questions you do not have authorized answers for, and follow up. The family remembers who showed up and how they were treated. The command's reputation for caring about its sailors is established at the worst moments, not the best ones.

Manuals & References — What Chapters Matter

  • OPNAVINST 3120.32 — Standard Organization and Regulations of the U.S. Navy (SORN)
    Full command-level familiarity. At BMCS/BMCM you are the reference for junior officers who are learning the SORN rather than the SORN being a reference for you. When the new division officer asks a SORN question about watch bill authority, LPO responsibility, or deck log standards, the answer comes from the BMCM who has operated to the SORN standard for 18 years — not from a printed copy she consults in the moment.
  • NWP 4-01.4 + NAVSEA UNREP technical publications
    At BMCS/BMCM you translate policy to the deckplate and you read the NAVSEA investigation reports when the deckplate gets it wrong. The technical publications inform the investigation — the BMCS who reads the NAVSEA investigation reports from the fleet's UNREP casualties and identifies the procedural drift that caused them is the BMCS who can tell the TYCOM what corrective training the fleet needs before the next casualty.
  • MILPERSMAN 1610.10 + BUPERSNOTE annual guidance
    You build eEVAL culture and the competitive ranking system across a command. The annual BUPERSNOTE on promotion board policies is the operating instruction for how the selection boards weight eEVAL inputs, leadership narratives, and duty station diversity. The BMCS who reads the BUPERSNOTE every year and adjusts the eEVAL program to match the current board priorities is the BMCS whose command produces selectees. The BMCS who writes eEVAL input the same way each year regardless of what the board priorities have shifted to is the BMCS whose selection rate drifts below the fleet average.
  • MCPON / SURFOR enlisted strategic guidance (current cycle)
    You are the translation layer between the MCPON's fleet-master-chief messaging and the deckplate. When the MCPON publishes a message on enlisted retention, physical readiness standards, or professional development priorities, the BMCS or BMCM at the command level is expected to have read it, understood it, and integrated it into the command's enlisted program within 30 days. The commanding officer reads the MCPON message and looks to the senior chief or master chief to translate it to the deckplate. The BMCS who reads the message on the same day the CO does and has a translation plan ready is the BMCS the CO refers to by name at the next command team meeting.

Standards — How to Hit Each

  • Command deck readiness and seamanship metrics briefable to the flag without caveats or last-minute corrections.
    The readiness brief format for the flag is BLUF-driven — bottom line, three to five supporting data points, risk statement, recommendation. Build the data infrastructure that keeps every metric current without a pre-brief data pull. PMS completion by division, SWS device pipeline by name, NWAE history by rate, advancement rates by division, UNREP evolution performance metrics — all maintained in a living tracker that is never more than one week stale. The BMCS who walks into the flag brief with a printed tracker that was updated this morning is the BMCS who can answer follow-up questions without delay.
  • Chief and Senior Chief selection rates from your command at or above type-command average, year over year.
    Selection rate tracking is retrospective accountability. Build the prospective accountability system: for every BMC and BMCS in the command whose selection eligibility opens in the next 24 months, the BMCS or BMCM has a documented packet review, a gap analysis, and a timeline for closing the gaps. The command that produces Senior Chief selectees above fleet average does not do it by accident — it does it because the senior enlisted leader built the tracking system two years before the board convened.
  • Post-Navy transition plan 24-36 months out — maritime credential plan documented, licensing and certification timeline confirmed.
    The STCW (Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers) certification process through the National Maritime Center and the USCG Merchant Mariner Credential application have specific prerequisites, timelines, and costs. Start the process by requesting an evaluation from the NMC of your existing naval seamanship qualifications against the STCW table of equivalencies — much of what a senior BM chief has done in 20 years maps directly to STCW requirements. The TWIC (Transportation Worker Identification Credential) card application is a separate process. Both take time. Start 24 months out, not 6 months out.

Technical Mistakes — Concrete Consequences

  • Allowing a deckplate UNREP or small-craft procedure to drift from the NWP/NAVSEA standard because the ship's force 'always does it this way.'
    The NAVSEA investigation after the casualty asks who the senior BM at the command was and whether they were aware of the procedural drift. The BMCS or BMCM who was aware and did not correct it owns the command climate that produced the casualty. The BMCS or BMCM who was not aware has a different problem — the deckplate operated outside standard without the senior chief's knowledge, which is the definition of a failed leadership climate. Either path leads to the same investigation table.
  • Stopping physical readiness and BCA discipline because the rank is Senior or Master Chief.
    The rate reads it immediately. When the BMCS who runs the BCA program for the command fails the BCA herself, the deckplate's respect for the program and the person running it drops simultaneously and does not recover quickly. The BCA standard applies to the senior chief who enforces it — there is no seniority exemption, and the command that sees the BMCS failing her own BCA program loses confidence in the program's enforcement.
  • Treating force-shaping conversations about marginal performers as someone else's problem.
    The billets held by marginal performers at the senior enlisted tier are billets the next generation of chiefs cannot access. The BMCS or BMCM who defers force-shaping conversations about a BMC whose performance is not competitive is the senior enlisted leader who owns the talent pipeline gap three years later when the billet produces no selectees and the type command asks why. The conversation is hard; the consequences of deferring it are harder.
  • Waiting until the final year of service to start the post-Navy credentials bridge.
    Merchant marine licensing, STCW certification, USCG MMC application, TWIC card — the timeline for the full credential set is 18-24 months when done properly, including the NMC evaluation, the required courses for gaps, and the USCG application processing. The BMCM who starts this at the 12-month mark is rushing the process; the BMCM who starts at the 6-month mark is likely to retire without the credentials in hand. Start at 24-36 months. The TA and VA education benefits that can fund the transition coursework are available on active duty — use them while they are.

Career Decisions at This Rank

  • Master Chief board versus retirement at Senior Chief — the honest calculation
    The BMCM selection board convenes annually and selects from BMCS who have competed across multiple Senior Chief evaluation periods. The record the board reads is the full career from BM3 to BMCS — eEVAL profile, duty station diversity, command endorsements, MCPON engagement, professional education, and the leadership accomplishment narrative that reflects the depth and breadth of the senior chief's contribution to the fleet. The BMCS who is on the Master Chief track has built a record that is consistently superior across all metrics; the BMCS who has been competitive but not in the top tier of the slate is making a genuine choice between competing for BMCM or retiring with a strong senior chief record and a well-timed transition to the post-Navy market. Both are valid choices. The BMCS who is honest with herself about where her record stands in the competitive pool has better outcomes than the BMCS who chases BMCM selection past the point where the post-Navy transition opportunity cost is justified.
  • Command Master Chief (CMC) track versus subject-matter expert staff track
    The CMC track — command senior chief on a small command, department senior chief on a large deck, fleet master chief pathway — requires competitive endorsement from SURFOR or the numbered fleet staff and a record that demonstrates command climate leadership as a primary competency. The subject-matter expert staff track — TYCOM deck seamanship staff, NAVSEA technical liaison, OPNAV N86 surface warfare staff, maritime law enforcement academic appointment — builds the BMCS's institutional knowledge and policy influence without the command climate management accountability. Neither track is inherently superior; the question is which kind of leadership work the BMCS does best and what the post-Navy career transition looks like from each. The CMC who retires after three command tours has a different post-Navy profile than the TYCOM staff BMCS who spent ten years advising on fleet seamanship standards.
  • Post-Navy transition — merchant marine, maritime academy, federal maritime, defense contractor
    The BM rate's post-service market is more direct than most Navy ratings because the civilian maritime sector values the practical seamanship competency directly. Merchant marine deck officer licensing through the National Maritime Center (USCG MMC application, STCW certification, OS-AB-Mate progression) is the most direct translation — the BMCM with 20 years of surface warfare deck experience and an STCW-compliant credential can sit for the AB (Able-Bodied Seaman) and Officer in Charge of a Navigational Watch (OICNW) endorsements. Maritime academy faculty positions at SUNY Maritime, California Maritime, Mass Maritime, Texas A&M Maritime, and SUNY Maritime value senior enlisted instructors who can teach seamanship, rigging, and small craft operations from operational experience. Federal maritime positions (MARAD, USCG civilian inspector, marine casualty investigator) value the BM rate's NWP/NAVSEA familiarity directly. Defense contractor maritime operations support roles at Booz Allen, SAIC, Leidos, and maritime-specialized contractors value the command-level seamanship expertise for fleet support contracts. Start the credential plan — NMC evaluation request, STCW course identification, USCG MMC application — 24-36 months before the retirement date.

How the Seat Varies by Unit Type

  • DDG Arleigh Burke (deck division BMN/BM3/BM2)
    A BMCS or BMCM on a DDG is the ship's senior enlisted advisor (SEA) or command senior enlisted leader — a relatively small ship's company means high individual visibility and direct CO interaction. The deck department on a DDG is smaller than on a large-deck platform, which means the BMCS or BMCM's management bandwidth is available for broader command climate work — retention, advancement, professional development — rather than purely deck department technical management. The DDG deployment cycle (6-8 months with UNREP-intensive forward presence) produces a high density of deck evolution performance data that the BMCS tracks as the fleet seamanship readiness picture for the command.
  • LHD/LPD (amphibious, larger deck crew)
    On a large-deck amphibious ship, the BMCS or BMCM may be the department senior chief for the boat, deck, and quarterdeck division complex — 100-150 sailors and the full range of surface warfare deck seamanship, well deck operations, flight deck perimeter safety, and UNREP rig management for a vessel that displaces 40,000 tons. The management complexity is the highest in the surface fleet for a BM senior chief billet. The MEU workup and deployment cycle is the defining rhythm; the BMCS or BMCM who has done a MEU deployment on a large-deck platform has the broadest deck seamanship portfolio the surface fleet produces.
  • MSC (Military Sealift Command — civilian mariners)
    MSC CIVMAR senior deck leadership is a maritime labor management position, not a Navy senior enlisted billet. Active-duty BMCS or BMCM billets in MSC context are typically the senior Navy detachment enlisted leader — managing the Navy detachment's discipline, readiness, and admin while the vessel's deck operations are run by the civilian master and mates. The BMCS or BMCM in this context operates as the fleet command's representative to the vessel, not as the vessel's deck supervisor.
  • FRC/patrol craft or small boat unit
    A BMCS or BMCM at an expeditionary strike group, NECC command, or patrol boat squadron is typically the command senior enlisted advisor for an organization with multiple vessel types, multiple operational theaters, and a combination of active-duty and reserve billets. The scope of deck seamanship oversight may include Cyclone-class PCs, Mk VI patrol boats, RHIB detachments, and riverine craft simultaneously. The community is operationally distinctive and the post-Navy transition to maritime law enforcement or port-security consulting is more direct from this background than from the surface fleet UNREP rotation.

What Good Looks Like at This Rank

The good BMCS or BMCM is the senior enlisted deck leader the TYCOM cites by name in the fleet seamanship lessons-learned brief — because when this command had an UNREP casualty trend developing, the BMCS saw it in the deck log data before the NAVSEA inspection and corrected it without a fleet-level directive requiring the fix. Her commands produce Chief and Senior Chief selectees above fleet average not because she tells BM1s and BMCs to perform better, but because she built the tracking infrastructure — the packet reviews, the eEVAL timeline management, the gap-analysis conversations — that makes selection a predictable outcome of consistent performance, not a lottery. The commanding officer of every ship where this BMCS or BMCM has served has listed her name in the final SITREP. Not because she demanded recognition, but because the deck department's safety record and the enlisted retention rate and the advancement rate were all better at the end of the tour than at the beginning, and the CO knows exactly who built those outcomes. The deckplate chiefs in her current command run the deck department to standard whether she is watching or not — because the standard she established in the first 90 days of the tour became the section leaders' standard, not just the BMCS's expectation. She has started the merchant marine licensing process. The STCW evaluation request is in to the National Maritime Center; the credential gaps are mapped; the USCG MMC application timeline is on the calendar. The maritime academy that offered her a seamanship faculty position two years ago will hear back from her in eighteen months with a real answer, not a 'maybe after retirement.' The sailors who served under her in the deck division across three commands will see her name in the SUNY Maritime faculty catalog someday and know exactly who taught the next generation of merchant mariners how to coil a line.

Preview — The Next Rank

There is no E-10. The BMCM is the top of the rate, and for the very small number of BMCMs who reach the fleet master chief track, the MCPON's office is the ceiling of the career. But the next level for the BMCS or BMCM is not measured in rank — it is measured in legacy. How many Chief Petty Officers were selected from sailors this BMCS mentored? How many UNREP evolutions ran without casualties because this BMCM built the standard that the deck departments operate against? How many families were served with dignity at the worst moments of their lives because this command senior chief understood that the institutional face of the Navy is present in those moments? The post-Navy market is the practical next level. The merchant mariner standing a bridge watch on a container ship in the North Atlantic who learned marlinspike seamanship from a BMCM at RTC Great Lakes; the maritime academy sophomore who is learning deck seamanship from an adjunct faculty member who retired as a BMCS from USS Makin Island; the MARAD marine casualty investigator who reads NAVSEA investigation reports for a living because a career of reading them on active duty built the pattern recognition the federal government needs — these are the next-level contributions the rate makes through its senior enlisted leaders after the uniform comes off. Start the credential plan. The career built something. Carry it forward.
FAQ

BM E8-E9 — Frequently Asked Questions

Q01What does a E8-E9 BM (Boatswain's Mate) actually do?
As BMCS or BMCM you run the senior enlisted boatswain's mate posture for a large-deck platform (carrier, amphibious assault ship), a surface warfare command staff, a TYCOM deck branch, a Naval Station small craft detachment, or — for the top of the rate — the fleet master chief track where the MCPON offices sit.
Q02What's the most important thing to know as a E8-E9 BM?
BMCS and BMCM are the senior and master chief tiers where the institutional voice of the rate lives.
Q03What does a typical day look like for a E8-E9 BM?
Time-blocked day at the E8-E9 BM rank tier: 0500 Wake up. Review the overnight duty senior chief report — command-level personnel incidents, equipment casualties, watchbill issues. The BMCS or BMCM who arrives at quarters aware of everything the overnight watch touched is the senior chief who controls the morning narrative, 0545-0700 Command PT or ship's PT if assigned to a sea billet. The BMCS or BMCM who participates in command PT — not runs the BCA program from a desk chair — is the one whose BCA program the command takes seriously. Walk out of PT with the BMCs;…
Q04What mistakes get E8-E9 BM soldiers fired or relieved?
Allowing a deckplate UNREP or small-craft procedure to drift from the NWP/NAVSEA standard because the ship's force 'always does it this way' — the casualty investigation asks who the senior BM was and whether they knew; Stopping physical readiness and BCA discipline because the rank is Senior or Master Chief — the rate reads it immediately and the deckplate climate follows your example downhill faster than you expect;…
Q05What career decisions matter most at the E8-E9 BM rank tier?
Master Chief board versus retirement at Senior Chief — the honest calculation — The BMCM selection board convenes annually and selects from BMCS who have competed across multiple Senior Chief evaluation periods. The record the board reads is the full career from BM3 to BMCS — eEVAL profile, duty station diversity, command endorsements, MCPON engagement, professional education, and the leadership accomplishment narrative that reflects the depth and breadth of the senior chief's contribution to the fleet.…
Q06What's next after E8-E9 for a BM (Boatswain's Mate) in the Navy?
There is no E-10.
Q07What manuals and regulations does a E8-E9 BM need to know cold?
OPNAVINST 3120.32 (SORN) — full command-level familiarity; you are the JOs' reference, not the other way.; NWP 4-01.4 + NAVSEA UNREP technical publications — you translate policy to deckplate.; MILPERSMAN 1610.10 + BUPERSNOTE annual guidance — you build eEVAL culture and the competitive ranking system the command uses.

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Published by the Honest MOS Editorial DeskVerified against DoD/.gov sourcesUpdated May 2026Editorial standards