correct title for retired officers

[srz]

Wonderful news. The Premise Alert System for Pennsylvania will be rolled out in a ceremony in the Rotunda in April. I am putting together a list of invitations to people who have worked on this with us for the past almost 3 years. Now for the question

Some of these men have retired since we started. What is the correct way to address these invitations.

Retired Lt. ___________
Retired Commander______________
Retired Chief ________

DO you add the Department they retired from?
Pennsylvania State Police
____Township PD


I can't seem to find this information on the web. I must be using the wrong search words.

Thanks

srz

[Drew27k9]

I was always told you call the person with the same name as they had prior to retirement.

So if the person retired as a chief, you would still call him chief so and so. No need to add retired next to his name. and the same goes for the other titles.

For example, look at all the former presidents. they still call them President so and so. Same goes with judges and the military.

[Creeker]

... Now for the question

Some of these men have retired since we started. What is the correct way to address these invitations.

Retired Lt. ___________
Retired Commander______________
Retired Chief ________

DO you add the Department they retired from?
Pennsylvania State Police
____Township PD


I can't seem to find this information on the web. I must be using the wrong search words.

Thanks

srz

I'm no expert, but I suspect this would be correct:

Lt. ___________,(Ret.)
Commander______________,(Ret.)
Chief ________,(Ret.)

I also suspect that unless you use these guys home addresses, their former agency will just dump their mail in the round bin. I know I've never gotten anything forwarded to me from mine, no matter what it was.

It seems that when you hit the Retirement exit door, your information gets the delete button from everyone except HR, who will keep dunning you to join the Health & Life Insurance Plan, and the Prosecutors Office.

[Switchback]

I'm w/ Drew and Creeker. When addressing them, use the title that they used to hold. However, when written formally, use the "(Ret.)".

[srz]

I'm w/ Drew and Creeker. When addressing them, use the title that they used to hold. However, when written formally, use the "(Ret.)".

Thank you, Everyone. I will do that. I have some home addresses. I hope to find the few others through some folks still working.

One of my favorite men, a retired Col. who is now in his late 70's. While he didn't officially help with moving the project forward, he did some behind the scenes "encouragement." on behalf of the project
To him, I just say "hello Handsome"
everyone else I do use their title. ;)

Thanks again. It will be a wonderful day.

srz

[Cat_Doc]

Proper protocol for law enforcement is the same as the military. The retired member retains their rank in formal correspondence or mention.

Captain John Doe (LAPD Ret)

While introducing them as a speaker or guest, it would also be proper to refer to them by title and name.

"And now, I will turn over the podium to Sheriff John Doe."

All retired members that I see, especially if there are third parties in hearing distance, will receive the honor of being greeted with their retired rank. “Good morning, Sheriff, how are you?” “Hey, Sarge, you are looking great.”

From personal experience, I can tell you this small measure of respect goes a long way. When recently acknowledged at my old P.D.'s (from which I retired) annual ball, I felt very proud when the Chief introduced me as Sergeant **** *********.

[srz]

Proper protocol for law enforcement is the same as the military. The retired member retains their rank in formal correspondence or mention.

Captain John Doe (LAPD Ret)

While introducing them as a speaker or guest, it would also be proper to refer to them by title and name.

"And now, I will turn over the podium to Sheriff John Doe."

All retired members that I see, especially if there are third parties in hearing distance, will receive the honor of being greeted with their retired rank. “Good morning, Sheriff, how are you?” “Hey, Sarge, you are looking great.”

From personal experience, I can tell you this small measure of respect goes a long way. When recently acknowledged at my old P.D.'s (from which I retired) annual ball, I felt very proud when the Chief introduced me as Sergeant **** *********.

I have a great deal of respect for the uniform, police and military but very little knowledge of rank and protocol. I worked on this project with a Police Chief that I've known since I was a kid and he was a rookie. One of my favorite conversations with the Chief while working on this went something like this

Him "You need to understand the importance of military rank and all that it means"

Me: " You need to understand that everything I know about military rank I learned from watching M*A*S*H ;)

I treat everyone with respect and I do use their title when addressing them unless they ask me to call them by their first name and even so I'll say their title when we first meet again.

srz

[mcsap]

I'm w/ Drew and Creeker. When addressing them, use the title that they used to hold. However, when written formally, use the "(Ret.)".

+ 1

[Wolfman]

I think this has already been answered well, but I wanted to put in a little bit more info/examples. My wife and I got married not too long ago (and formal addressing is pretty much the same).

We had a mixture of Navy, Marines, Police, etc. and (if I remember correctly) we basically used this format:

[Rank] [Name - First/Last]
[Organization] , [Status - If active, no status necessary]
[Street Address of Individual]
[City] , [State] [ZIP]

Examples:

Chief John Doe
Somewhere Police Department, Retired
5555 Lane Road
Anywhere, ST 00000

Sergeant Chuck Walker
Texas Rangers
1111 Another Road
Somewhere, TX 00000

Officer Jack Black
Los Angeles Police Department
1212 Fredricks Lane
Los Angeles, CA 90012

If inviting his wife as well:

Chief and Mrs. John Doe
Somewhere Police Department, Retired
[address information]

***Some etiquette books state that if the recipient is under a certain rank (usually below an O-3/4 , or an Army Captain/Major or Navy Lieutenant/Lieutenant Commander) then their rank goes after their name instead of before it, some also state that retired ranks are only if someone is a certain rank or above - i.e. a retired Army Lieutenant may not "rate" putting his/her rank and organization and then a comma and retired as in the first example

However, we both agreed that it was more fitting to put everyone who was retired or serving in the same light, and did so. If you were to use the other format however it would look like this:

Chuck Walker
Sergeant, Texas Rangers
[address]

--The sites below have some pretty good information:

http://www.militarywives.com/index.p...10/Itemid,179/

http://www.armywives.com/index.php/c...10/Itemid,179/

http://chadduck.com/ymarines/protocol/invitations.htm

I think I have written enough, and I hope this helps, if you have any questions please just shoot me an e-mail I'd be glad to help.

-Wolfman

[SSA1811]

This is just redundant and reiterates what all of the other Forum members have already advised, but if you ever needed to cite a reference, this is an excerpt from the US State Department's Foreign Affairs Handbook. They put the word "Retired", unabbreviated, after the Service/Organization/Department/Agency:




.

[oscarmitre]

Jeez, all we get here is "mate".....

[srz]

Thank you everyone. I really appreciate your help. I have one more question this one is about Col and Lt. Col. rankings.
, one of the men I worked on with this who has retired, introduces himself as Colonel ________ but his business card says Lt. Col.________ AT a social gathering I introduced him to my children as Col _________because I knew that is how he introduced himself to me, but at this event I may have to introduce him to the crowd and his Colonel will be there. I assume there is a difference in the two ranks I am leaning towards going with what is printed on his card.

[SSA1811]

Using the same reference, apparently Generals, Colonels, Lieutenants, and Sergeants are referred to in salutations and introductions by their "generic" rank rather than their full or actual rank:



Life would be much simpler if as oscarmitre indicated, we referred to everyone as "Mate". The link to the entire Handbook is: http://govdocs.evergreen.edu/usgovt-forms-address.pdf

.

[srz]

Thank you all for everything. You have made this task a lot easier. I'll let you know how it goes.

I have arranged for the Chief to recieve a citation from the House of Reps. (He doesn't know that yet, its a surprise) and the Philly PD to recieve a commendation for their program that is similar and yet they were willing to help us and will accept our form or their own.

I think it is important to thank everyone who helped and to get the word out.

srz

Susan