Meaning of reserve officer "S" designation?

My grandfather served in the Pacific as a Navy Supply Officer in WWII. His NAVPERS 553 Notice of Separation from the U.S. Naval Service lists his rank as "Lt. Comdr. SC(S) USNR."

I looked up the "(S)" on line and came up with this:

"S -- USNR officer designation of Special Service, Unlimited. Formerly (S)"

So my question is, what qualified a reserve naval officer to be designated "S" back in those days (1943 - 1948)?

Thanks in advance for any help with this, and apologies if it's been covered here before.

 

Welcome aboard, Tom!

I don't pay much thought to the alphabet of abbreviations except in the naval aviation end of the business. A problem you may run into is that around late 1944 all USNR officer designation changed.

The S designation meant he had or qualified for some specialist or special duties within the Supply Corps. Generally, beyond the generic SC designation USNR Supply Corps officers fell into two broad categories:
SCR - General Service Supply Corps
SCS - Special Service Supply Corps
These two came after the designation changes of late 1944.

I know, I didn't tell you anything you'd already figured out.

You'd have to get your hands on his personnel jacket and see where he might have stationed for specialist training, presuming, of course, that he did not have some prior to service educational attainment which would already have provided the specialist background.

Rich

 

Thanks - have sent off to the National Personnel Records Center to see what additional info they can provide. Will post here if I learn anything.

 

It will take them a while. Good thing is that the USN records are the ones that did not burn up back in the 70's.