Communications officer

Signal lamps are one of the warship communications systems supervised by the communications officer

A communications officer is a naval line officer responsible for supervising operation and maintenance of a warship's signal flags, signal lamps, and radio transmitters and receivers. The communications officer is usually responsible for encrypting and decrypting secret message traffic and for distribution and safe storage of secret messages. Aboard some ships, the communications officer is responsible for the ship's secret publications inventory or for the ship's post office and distribution of mail.