Every Sunday my wife and I jump in the car and drive down to the local Navy Commissary to do our weekly shopping. Now I’ve been retired from the Navy for just over a year but I can’t help notice every time I look at the Navy Times there seems to be an article about some Commanding Officer on some USS Shipwreck getting relieved for some cockamamie hair brain excuse for misconduct…
Yeah it seems the reasons are pretty legitimate on the surface… personal misconduct, public drunkenness, fraternization, adultery, abusive behavior and other such misdemeanors of the like… but the question keeps being asked,
“Why are our Officers being put in Command positions failing us?”
Sometimes I wonder if the sons-a-bitches running today’s Navy watched too many gaudamned 1950’s black & white War Movies mixed in with a few episodes of ‘Leave it to Beaver’… you know the ones where officers always have a pipe in their mouth on the Bridge and the crackerjacks are all clean cut and say things like,
"Gee whiz, fellas” … or ... “Golly Gee Willickers”
I think sometimes they forget what it’s like to live in the zoo down below we call a berthing… with a coffin locker the size of a grocery cart and little to no gaudamn privacy… you couldn’t even take a shit without some bastard trying to strike a conversation while your rubbing one off in the stall… What gives with that anyway. When I’m taking a dump I like to be left alone… not talk about size of that fat girls titties at the bar the night before… but I’m getting off track here!
I’ve pitched my bitches and complaints about the ‘PC’ Navy before…. It has become just what it was gaudamned intended to be! It’s an elaborate and treacherous pattern of censorship and cultural oppression exacted upon our sailors with the definitive purpose of manipulating, exploiting, brainwashing, and destroying our traditional way of life…
I’ve pitched my bitches and complaints about the ‘PC’ Navy before…. It has become just what it was gaudamned intended to be! It’s an elaborate and treacherous pattern of censorship and cultural oppression exacted upon our sailors with the definitive purpose of manipulating, exploiting, brainwashing, and destroying our traditional way of life…
Now our sailors are only allowed to say what is safe to say… always following the assertions of what the Chain-of-Command expects no matter how wrong it might be… God forbid some sorry son-of-a-bitch says something that might be embarrassing to the Navy…
Even now as I speak we can see reverse discrimination in our Navy where often less qualified personnel are admitted in the guise of affirmative action… Hey if you think it doesn’t exist then you’re a fool… why else do they hold these statistics in Recruiting…
Even now as I speak we can see reverse discrimination in our Navy where often less qualified personnel are admitted in the guise of affirmative action… Hey if you think it doesn’t exist then you’re a fool… why else do they hold these statistics in Recruiting…
“We have to make sure there are a fair share of every minority group in every statistical bracket so we don’t look like a bunch of ‘Right Wing’ Bigots!”
It’s one thing to be thoughtful, respectful, and have good manners… I get the whole ‘Honor’ ‘Courage’ and ‘Commitment’ thing. But it’s a whole different ball of wax to be forced to do and say things that are way out in left field in order to comply with the subjective precepts of a failed and fearful organization…
I’ll say this…
Having a damn good memory can sometimes be a curse and sometimes a wonderful God-given gift. There were sunrises and sunsets, rolling seas, visits to exotic places, and ladies with loose panties & low hanging brazeers. It was a time when the world’s population revered the American Sailor… Liberty in port meant good times, hell-raising and calling in extra barmaids at the local watering hole when the ship was in-port.
The Chain-of-Command would put their butt on the line to protect their people… now they put their people on the line to protect their own ass! Our top officers were professionals first and commanded respect… now they are a bunch’a gaudamned political ‘pussies’ trying to find out how to move up into the next rank!!!
There was a time when we were loud and proud… We had a right to be. We danced with the devil's mistress and all her naughty daughters. We were young, testosterone-driven red blooded Crackerjacks… and we apologized to nobody…
If we wanted cheap beer and interesting conversation we’d head down to the ‘EN Club’ and get as plastered as we wanted to be… and if you got too gaudamned shitty you could always count on your shipmates to get you back to the ship so you could sleep it off!
Now the ‘EN Clubs’ are all but gone… and if they find out you’re getting drunk off duty then you must have a drinking problem and they slap your happy ass into rehab and ruin your gaudamn career…
During the days gone by we called the enemy ‘Commie Bastards’,‘Reds’, Gerries, ‘Japs’, ‘Zipperheads’, ‘Gooks’ and all other sorts of other slanderous names…
Now we call them ‘Opposing Forces’ and ‘Aggressors’ so we don’t offend anybody…
Now everything has become extremely complicated and requires three years of sensitivity training… how the hell are we ever gonna have time to fight a ship???
I remember the start of this PC stuff. We had a CO on the O'Bannon Flarety (or something like it) was his name. The SOB would return to the ship plastered, pass out in a passageway, and the next morning hold CO's mast to take a stripe from 1st or 2nd class for needing a drunk watch the previous night.
ReplyDeleteFlaherty. Mark O Flaherty, to be exact. Used to call him MO-Gamma on CNN-70 during his tour as Reactor Officer.
DeleteI was on board the mighty warship USS O'BANNON DD-987, 86-90 S-3 Div and remember CDR Flaherty very well
DeleteIn some regard, I agree with everything he said. Umm,I had a CMC at my very last command who said that leadership was terrible when he was a junior sailor. This was a man who had over 24 years of experience. I came in '88 and got just a little of the ole' school navy. It was around '91-'92 when PC first was introduced. As a African American, I truly have to say, it was for the better. As far as leadership, conduct has dropped tremendously. Physical standards, drunkenness and substance abuse have dropped,but nothing else. It's like Dan said 'Doing more with less". There are more women onboard war ships than ever before. That was not the case in the late 80's and early 90's. I hear now the Navy is considering putting women on subs. GO FIGURE! Nothing against women, I just think that some of the top brass are out of touch. Or maybe not, because they know first hand. Yaeh, I saw a dreadful end! Hopefully, things can get turned around.
ReplyDeleteLOL, all of those "legitimate reasons" you listed in your second paragraph remind me of a typical weekend of liberty back in the day. Sad to see what the old Canoe Club is turning into...
ReplyDeleteI agree totally Dan. The USN has always been used for one type of "social experiment" or another, even when I was active in the late 70's and 1980's. Starting in the 90's though, it really got out of hand... right around when "Bubba" took office...Coincidence? I don't think so.
ReplyDeleteI read about stuff like Boots getting some sort of "stress card" that they can use when they feel a little too intimidated to get their CC's to back off and have to ask, "WTF?". I thought part of the reason so much stress was put on you in basic was:
1- To toughen you up so you could face a combat situation without coming unglued.
2- To prepare you to some extent for the type of stress you may have to endure as a POW.
3- To separate those who could not handle the stress and either give them some enhanced training or discharge them if they just could not hack it.
If the pussification of the USN continues unabated, we will find ourselves in serious trouble if we end up in a general war.
Would anyone believe the enemy is going to be "PC" when you are POW? Why did we do some of the things we did in boot camp, crossing the line, CPO initiations and so on? Or why did plebes have to take what they did in the old days of the Academy?
ReplyDeleteAlso remember COs dismissing cases at Mast because the reason the accused was there was because someone talked trash about his ship.
I do agree that seeing the CO drunk on his ass the night before busting someone for d/d is a bit hypocritical. After all, we as khakis did have to set the example. Your troops don't respect you in the morning when you make a total fool out of yourself - remember that the Chief is still the Chief, even in his skivvies.
As always spot on Dan. I would have given my left nut to serve with you...I believe our outlook on the Navy (regardless of mine being 'downunder') parallels mine a bit too closely!
ReplyDeleteI came in during the late 60s and retired at the end of the 80s. I could see it coming, so I retired. I'd be afraid we'd get our asses kicked in the next war, but our opponents have the same problems. And those who don't are so far down the food chain that they'll never catch up.
ReplyDeleteSo I guess it's just part of his world's "progress." I'm just glad I was in the NAV before most of it got too far along. I wouldn't have lasted very long swimming in all that BS.
Enlisted in the 50's served with some WW2 hard asses, retired in the 70's. Not my Navy out there today.
ReplyDeleteI saw the trend downward start mid 80s and just perpetuate. I had a minority Cdr relieve me when I left a shore station and the poor guy couldn't fit in my chair he was so overweight. When I say 150 lbs and more, I'm not lying. And across the street they were throwing Marines out for not meeting regs on weight. We lost a lost of great people due to pc and para-psychological nonsense.
ReplyDeleteIn the area of Pc.....let's not forget that a water incersion is a friggin' leak
ReplyDeleteFlip charts became Chart Packs, White out became Correction fluid, and the navy started turning out PC pussies... er... uh... I mean PC feminine intercourse orifices.
ReplyDelete