Rare & Special Privilege

[Griff]

Yesterday I had a rare and special privilege. Last week, after visiting BlaineG in WA, I went up to Whidbey Island NAS and loaded up tools and gear for the Navy's VAQ-140 squadron to haul to the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in Norfolk, VA. I arrived at 0700 as planned (actually early to allow for rush hour traffic getting onto the base). While unloading I had the change to chat with and more importantly THANK the Commanding Officer, his XO and a couple of the pilots for their service. As is my habit, I was wearing my VN Vet ball cap, and was honored to also receive their thanks for my service. There was a crew of about 10 sailors (from a Master Cheif to Seaman Apprentices and all rates inbetween (E-9 to E-2) actually unloading the gear and stowing it aboard ship. And I made it around to all of them to shake their hands and thank them for their support of those flyboys and their missions in harm's way.

Oh, we had some moments of jocularity, me teasin' the Senior Cheif for "bein' in the way of actual work", (The CO about spit all his coffee out his nose when I said that)! The Senior Chief turn red, (hard for a black man to do) when I pointed out to 'im, "...what heck is a Master Chief doing running a pallet jack..."; And then there was LS3 (who shall remain nameless)... operating the forklift, "... do YOU know the definition of "Depth Perception?" I thought the Senior Chief was going to have a fit when I 'spained THAT one to his 3rd class PO! He remined me that "...we can't talk to our men like that in this Navy." More's the pity if you ask me. A good ol' fashioned butt chewin' is sometimes needed to get the point across! We discussed Polywogs, Shellbacks, "petty" Officers and that Rank vs Rate thing!

The XO of this squadron is a former enlisted submariner (and the same rating as I was), before going to school, getting his pilot's license and becoming a "flyboy". The "coward-in-chief" may not be worthy of respect... but these men (and women) are the real deal. They asked how my trip across country was... and related how one of their craft had to force land due to violent storms in KS... and did so with a flat tire! So now the crew is reading tools, equipment and parts to go back and rescue that plane. Never a dull moment when taking to the air!

Like I said, privileged and heartened by the dedication and service of these guys and gals.

Right Hand SALUTE!

PS: the new navy uniforms SUCK! One PO3 I saw wearing the "dress Whites" that I knew, others wearing "black & tans" and most wearing the "stupid, stupid, stupid" Navy 'flage work uniform.

[86er]

Great story, Griff and I fine, memorable day!

[Pitchy]

[Hobie]

Thanks for sharing...

[earlmck]

Thanks for sharing the story, Griff. Brings back a batch of memories -- I was "ships company" for a couple of cruises on the old Bon Homme Richard (CVA 31) back in the days. We floated around peacefully in the Gulf of Tonkin while the flyboys got to visit the busy skies above Hanoi to play with the targets personally selected for them by LBJ.

Does sound like the Navy might have changed a bunch -- Chiefs got to use any words they wanted back then and maybe could use a little physical emphasis if the words weren't getting through ...

[AJMD429]

He remined me that "...we can't talk to our men like that in this Navy."

I fear our modern military is being pressured to be too politically-correct regarding language and behavior. All the soldiers I've met were perfect gentlemen when in the company of civilians, and far more polite and appropriate than your average male. . . but 90% of them when in the presence of their fellow soldiers would string together a selection of varied obscenities like true artists; I think I heard my cousin fit about twenty things you can't say on television into a single sentence, just describing what he thought of drivers who follow too closely...

[MrMurphy]

The new Navy uniforms are designed to be able to get dirty and not look it.

Having a father (former Army sergeant and retired Navy RM1) and brother (EM3)'s related experiences while myself working around USAF maintainers, keeping clean is a major issue. Having been on 2 frigates, 2 battleships (while they were still in service) and four aircraft carriers, staying clean ON a ship is even worse.

I saw three or four of the various uniforms the Navy was testing on MA's in training at Lackland (they used our school) and the final variant is apparently comfortable, useful, and most importantly, does not look like a grease covered disaster within three days of being new after being worn aboard ship. The digital pattern is not designed to hide as camoflauge, it's designed to hide stains. Does that very well.

Having spoken to guys wearing it now......they like it better than dungarees or the old blue coveralls (favorite of my brother working wiring, etc in the ship).

They're no worse about falling overboard and disappearing than the previous blue uniforms.

They've been trying to significantly cut down the amount of issued (and rarely worn) uniforms troops have to keep up with, which also adds storage room on board. No different than the Army or Air Force wearing ACU/ABUs for most things, or Marines with utilities. The USMC kept more variants on the dress uniform, but they also use all of them, regularly.

[piller]

Sounds as if the crew who had to land in Kansas did so safely, even with a flat tire. Kansas is a bad place for a pilot due to the wind. Southwest Kansas is the only place on the planet to have recorded more than 365 straight days of windspeed never dropping below 18 mph. Landing anything with a flat tire in Kansas and keeping the main part of the plane together is impressive.

[Griff]

MrMurphy,

I don't doubt what you say. But, nothing sez "sailor" more than dungarees, chambray or dress whites or blues. Tradition is too often overlooked in espirit de corps. When I was issued my tigerstripes I was never so proud. For they were DIFFERENT from the Army & Marines, (from the rest of the Navy also, but that was what we were). When I was transferred back to the fleet, I mighta felt like a failure (not really the case but when has that affected how we feel about something), I was never embarrassed by my uniform. Whatever their reasons, changing the Navy work & dress uniforms FEELS like they're throwing away some part of what I worked, fought and bled for... Tradition.

Might be, I'm takin' it too personal, Lord knows it ain't the first time... as a child of the '60s, I always felt comfortable in the bell-bottomed Seafarer™ dungarees! man

[Blaine]

At Ft Lewis, we would provide ceremonial and dance band music for Whidby NAS when they had a Dining In....Those boys knew how to party. They always fed us the same dinner they were having, and bought us a keg of beer. It was not unusual for the head table to get into a dinner roll shoot with the close tables...Everyone was about the same rank those evenings....The Army officers at Ft Lewis, OTOH, were stiff azzholes. They would have been happy to put us behind a curtain so we wouldn't spoil their view, never a beer or a speck of food, unless we wanted to gleen over the munchy trays they brought in after happy hour....

[MrMurphy]

Try being in the Air Force, which 'embraces heritage' by changing stuff every five years so some senior officer can get promotion points.



Our berets were 'earned not issued'. Not quite as hard to get as a Ranger's, or Airborne, etc, but it still took work, and we took pride in them (as much as we cursed them as a useless hat in the sun, they did make us stand out among normal troops). They were not always worn, around only for the last 20 years, but I know what you mean.

[Ray]

Deleted.

[Sixgun]

Neat story Griff! I have always wanted to see one of those big ships up close. I hear there's something like 5K men on board--at least thats what I see on the Military History Channel, my favorite.

Geeze, is there any state you have never been in?-----Sixgun

[MrMurphy]

Depending on the size of the carrier, yeah, around 5,000 men (and now women).

My brother was on the Kitty Hawk, an improved-Forrestal and it had around 4,800 or so. The larger Nimitz and similar class nuclear carriers have a few more on board.