“I Don’t Need No Stink’n Liberty Plan!”

On my latest deployment I had been faced with a relatively new phenomenon. In the 7th Fleet our sailors are now required to submit detailed liberty plans specifying their off duty activities. There’s a variety of questions that deal with drinking such as who they will be drinking with, how much and for how long. Once finished, it has to be reviewed and then approved by the Chain-of-Command (COC). If the sailor deviates from said plan, he must get written authorization to do so. Furthermore, a copy of the plan must be with them at all times and revealed to any COC who asks for it.

From Guam to Japan and as far west as Singapore this has been directed as the result of a young Japanese girl who had been raped by one of our very own. So as it goes, the whole entire 7th Fleet is to pay the price. Please don’t misinterpret my assessment as indifferent or to think these atrocities as acceptable. But why not hold these jackasses solely accountable instead of the whole damn fleet. Better yet, why not turn them over to the Japanese authorities and let them have their way with these assholes.

For the first time in my Navy career I had witnessed one of my own sailors go to Captain’s Mast for numerous trumped up charges related to the liberty plans. Fortunately for him all but “Disobeying a Direct Order” were dropped. But had it not been for the existence of this liberty plan, my sailor’s actions would never have been in doubt. His misgivings didn’t even fit the spirit of the damn liberty plan in the first place. Just some bitter asshole out to rack up as many charges on this cat as he could finagle. This same asshole thought it was such a grand idea he suggested we utilize liberty plans every time we leave our homeport. Can you imagine filling out liberty plans for San Diego? Thank goodness the Skipper shot that idea down.

Restricting the liberty of sailors after weeks sometimes even months at sea will only cause them to become more audacious and unrestrained as they revel in their abandonment. They’re not simply robots you can preprogram or dogs you can put on a leash. It’s called liberty for a reason damn it! I’ve seen officers piss on furniture in hotel lobbies and commandeer foreign liberty boats causing international incidents. These aren’t junior sailors mind you which only goes to prove that even the educated minds of our illustrious COC can partake in the scandalous behaviors of real idiots when cooped up for too long. You treat your people like shit and you see what happens? Somewhere it has been stated,

“It’s the same reason the preachers’ daughters are freaks in my opinion. You keep them cooped up in the house, don’t let them out and experience the real world. Once they get that chance they don’t know what to do except go crazy.”

I don’t regret a minute of my service, and I don’t feel like I have “wasted time”, like so many say they have. It’s merely the Mickey Mouse leadership we have come to deal with that can drive a man insane. Is it a wonder that we have had over 133 Commanding Officers fired in the last ten years? Or that countless Chiefs and Officers are caught in the sticky web of fraternization and inappropriate behavior. We didn’t have these problems prior to the 1990s. Was the Navy that much better than now or were we just so screwed up beyond belief that no one wanted to deal with it?

And what about this asinine fuckulous of an idea they call intrusive leadership? We can’t fraternize with the troops and we surely can’t be hanging around with them twenty-four seven! But damned the Chief who can’t keep a tight lid on his people and prevent them from getting a DUI after weekly doses of alcohol deglamorization brainwashing or from going out raping some young girl in Japan! The little asshole knows this is wrong already, so how is my intrusive invasion of his privacy going to prevent his testosterone levels from overrunning his damn brain! When I was a young seaman it wasn’t entirely culpable for a Chief or First Class to put his size 12 boot up my ass with a little ol’ fashioned wall to wall counseling! But now that would be grounds for Courts Martial due to assaulting a junior sailor. My how times have changed.

The best years of my life were served in the United States Navy. But this so called political correctness has gone haywire! I once read a quote in a blog somewhere that went like this,

“I dearly love Japan and the Japanese people are absolutely wonderful, but do you really think that we would have “liberty plans” if Nimitz was in charge? How about MacArthur? Yep, they used to win wars!”

I sure the hell don't send my kids out with a liberty plan before they spend the night at a friends house or go hang out at the mall. So does it make me a bad guy to jump ship before it sinks? Retirement is the ultimate solution for an ol' salt and I am glad I’m reaching my tenure. All that can be asked is that adults be treated like adults and held accountable to their own merit!