VIP about to receive second officer (4)

'officer' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I don't see?

'vip about to receive second' is the wordplay.
'vip' becomes 'nob' (I've seen this in other clues).
'about' says the letters should be written backwards.
'to receive' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'second' becomes 's' (common abbreviation).
'nob' reversed gives 'bon'.
'bon' going around 's' is 'BOS'N'.

Can you help me to learn more?