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When I first reported to the 633 we were doing refit in Charleston. Since the boat was lacking a soda machine the rec committee decided to buy a truck full of canned soda to sell during the patrol. Of course I was not involved in this planning.
I was on board for perhaps a week when someone tells me to meet the guy with the "Piggedly-Wiggedly" truck and get the soda stored. Of course I figured they were messing with me but sure enough I went to the pier and there was the soda truck..............and what appeared to be a thousand cases of pop.
This is why I should never be trusted with anything important................. I gave a crane operator a few cases in exchange for him swinging the pop onto the missile deck. The weak link was me not understanding that you need to pile the cases onto pallets before picking it up, I just put then onto cargo nets and had them lifted. The result was a fair percentage of the individual cans falling into the Cooper River, much to my dismay.
At least I never got asked to that again. Have a nice evening Brother of the Phin.
A BM would have known the difference. I would not have known.
My first refit was in Rota. At the end of crew turnover when the off-going crew went topside in dress uniforms with seabags in hand to come home, a crane broke and dropped a pallet load onto our topside and killed four of the off-going crewmen.
Need to be careful with cranes.
I made a couple refits in Charleston on the 633, right before Decomm. We Decomm'ed in Bermerton, so we had to cross through the Panama Canal. Squadron had us spend a week near Jax so P-3s reservist crews could train doing ASW. We had a 100' antenna tower mounted with lights on it and loose chains welded to our hull [the lights were so the plane pilots would always be able to see us as their crews tried to detect us. The chains were so we would make a lot of noise going through the water to show up on the sonobuoys]. The boat was really loud with those loose chains slapping the hull. But I guess it gave the P3s enough of an edge to 'find' us. I was on the #2 periscope a few times when we could see the P3s, but they had not yet located us.
Later on that trip squadron routed us to circle St. Thomas for a week. The message traffic made it clear they expected our CO to request a liberty port there. When he failed to request one the Admiral ordered our CO to pull in for 3 days of liberty. Our CO's hesitation was that in his 25 year career and climb to O6 he had never participated in a liberty port previously. That stop in St. Thomas was his first liberty port.
I was in A-Gang, and I can tell you a secret. When the ice cream machine breaks down, you have to fix it. That's our job. And it has to be tested. That's our job.
You would think. But that wasn't my experience. Some of the worst techs and operators went on to the higher ranks because they can play the game. Some genuinely scare me and worry me that they'll one day get someone injured or killed.
For the enlisted ranks, it seemed like the collateral duty warriors got the promotions. Organizing a bake sale was more important than knowing your job.
For Officers, It's very political. I knew a lot of senior pilots who couldn't fly their way out of a paper bag and deliberately flew the least amount of hours. But, they knew how to sell themselves and push paper. One of them is now a Flag Officer.
Absolutely.
I came in as a direct ascension and had no idea about how the military worked. From what I've seen, to be a successful officer in this situation, you either need to:
1) Kiss ass like crazy
2) Be extremely meek
3) Be extremely charismatic
If you do not have one of those characteristics, you're going to have a rough time.
As an enlisted guy, you have some time to learn how to play the game. As an officer, you'd better learn quickly.
I pissed off a commander when I first got to my base and that followed me around for my entire 4 years in the service. The military wasn't for me anyway and I decided pretty early on that I would be getting out after my first tour. But it would have been devastating had I wanted to make a career out of it.
I came in as a direct ascension and had no idea about how the military worked. From what I've seen, to be a successful officer in this situation, you either need to:
1) Kiss ass like crazy
2) Be extremely meek
3) Be extremely charismatic
If you do not have one of those characteristics, you're going to have a rough time.
Doesn't sound too different from the civilian world and how some people seem to climb their way up the management ladder.
Doesn't sound too different from the civilian world and how some people seem to climb their way up the management ladder.
Only difference is that if you find yourself in a situation where you are a poor fit in that area or have a really bad boss, you can't just quit. You're stuck.
Only difference is that if you find yourself in a situation where you are a poor fit in that area or have a really bad boss, you can't just quit. You're stuck.
The most miserable people I saw in the Navy were officers who ... just ... didn't ... fit.
Only difference is that if you find yourself in a situation where you are a poor fit in that area or have a really bad boss, you can't just quit. You're stuck.
And yes, in the Air Force we did have air conditioned tents in the Gulf War. Ain't no shame in that.
As I said earlier, the Air Force certainly knows how to take care of its people.
The older I get and the more people I hire, the more I realize how important that is. If you want to run a successful organization/business/agency, you can't discount the importance of hiring good people and taking care of them. I think a lot of people in organizational leadership roles lose sight of that and their organizations suffer because of it. Keep your people happy and the organization as a whole is generally more likely to flourish.
I believe this is even more important in the military. The rah-rah flag waiving stuff will get people to join, but what kind of troops do you want to have working for you? How much turnover are you willing to accept?
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