I was feeling pretty patriotic in my last post. It is soon memorial day after all. So my post was more like a commercial.
Like everything, the Navy had its share of cons, a lot of it in the form of individual incompetence rather than unit ineffectiveness. However, these things affected me very little compared to how similar situations affected me in the civilian world. Most of the time things still worked because the leadership or other sailors were strong enough to pick up the slack for the slackers.
Yes, incompetent officers was one of them. I still remember one guy, who somehow got through officer school and wAs a skinny nerdy looking dude. The captain wouldn't let him stand watch as Officer of the Deck (guy in charge off hours when the captain ain't around) because he looked frail. The guy literally looked like he didn't have a spine, physically. He wasn't an asshole like the other officers so I tolerated him.
Then there were some of the Annapolis academy fags that considered themselves to have some air of superiority above the enlisted men. There were not many officers that I would have had a beer with. Even the ones I would, most were prior enlisted. They were effective administrators to put the cogs in place as far as planning and strategy. However, their execution was lackluster at best.
Aside from the officers, you also had the bottom of the barrel that could have been from the ghetto or from the red neck of the deep south or even immigrants like myself that just wanted to do the bare minimum to get citizenship. However, this was VERY few of them. The military was their last hope so they "volunteered." There was a higher trend among these guys getting kicked out for doing something stupid or neglecting their job.
Then there was the bureaucracy. Sometimes it was tough to get shit done and enlisted people's voices often meant nothing to an officer that you just met. You can prove yourself to one guy but when another guy sees you as a lower ranked scrub, at some commands or units, they will often dismiss your ideas.
Now another thing about unit effectiveness that all of this was overshadowed by as I initially noted. Most ships in the Navy go through extensive practice drills and pretty rigorous inspections that ensure that people are ready for shit to go down. There is a lot of shit that happens inside the belly of a ship if it gets hit off the coast of Bosnia. Everyone counts and everyone's skill level and diligence is important. They train pretty extensively on everything from patching pipes to fighting fires to ensuring the safety of key personnel. This system is a well oiled machine. Even from a maintenance stand point, if there is a pipe or some plumbing that literally doesn't work, someone would know about it.
Ah yes, and the fire control systems. There are specific Fire Control Technicians that are trained to absolutely know their shit. A fighter plane, a sub or another ship cannot even get close to a ship within the battle group without being known tracked and destroyed by simple fire control. That could be automatic, or even more controlled depending on the speed and trajectory of the enemy. I know it well and I've seen it work. I highly doubt that other countries are as well trained in these systems as we are. I am extremely comfortable that we will never be invaded by sea or non-commercial air in my lifetime.
And oh yeah, again, the diversity and having people form different backgrounds in certain jobs definitely oiled certain departments on the command better than others. There were a few samoans for example that were Gun controlmen and they were the shit. Mofos taught me everything I know about weapons. Some awesome phillipinos that were amazing at damage control and even engineering. Then there were some awesome black men (and women) that were just great at deck seamanship. Shit was real and it was the real america the way it should be on the outside.
Like everything, the Navy had its share of cons, a lot of it in the form of individual incompetence rather than unit ineffectiveness. However, these things affected me very little compared to how similar situations affected me in the civilian world. Most of the time things still worked because the leadership or other sailors were strong enough to pick up the slack for the slackers.
Yes, incompetent officers was one of them. I still remember one guy, who somehow got through officer school and wAs a skinny nerdy looking dude. The captain wouldn't let him stand watch as Officer of the Deck (guy in charge off hours when the captain ain't around) because he looked frail. The guy literally looked like he didn't have a spine, physically. He wasn't an asshole like the other officers so I tolerated him.
Then there were some of the Annapolis academy fags that considered themselves to have some air of superiority above the enlisted men. There were not many officers that I would have had a beer with. Even the ones I would, most were prior enlisted. They were effective administrators to put the cogs in place as far as planning and strategy. However, their execution was lackluster at best.
Aside from the officers, you also had the bottom of the barrel that could have been from the ghetto or from the red neck of the deep south or even immigrants like myself that just wanted to do the bare minimum to get citizenship. However, this was VERY few of them. The military was their last hope so they "volunteered." There was a higher trend among these guys getting kicked out for doing something stupid or neglecting their job.
Then there was the bureaucracy. Sometimes it was tough to get shit done and enlisted people's voices often meant nothing to an officer that you just met. You can prove yourself to one guy but when another guy sees you as a lower ranked scrub, at some commands or units, they will often dismiss your ideas.
Now another thing about unit effectiveness that all of this was overshadowed by as I initially noted. Most ships in the Navy go through extensive practice drills and pretty rigorous inspections that ensure that people are ready for shit to go down. There is a lot of shit that happens inside the belly of a ship if it gets hit off the coast of Bosnia. Everyone counts and everyone's skill level and diligence is important. They train pretty extensively on everything from patching pipes to fighting fires to ensuring the safety of key personnel. This system is a well oiled machine. Even from a maintenance stand point, if there is a pipe or some plumbing that literally doesn't work, someone would know about it.
Ah yes, and the fire control systems. There are specific Fire Control Technicians that are trained to absolutely know their shit. A fighter plane, a sub or another ship cannot even get close to a ship within the battle group without being known tracked and destroyed by simple fire control. That could be automatic, or even more controlled depending on the speed and trajectory of the enemy. I know it well and I've seen it work. I highly doubt that other countries are as well trained in these systems as we are. I am extremely comfortable that we will never be invaded by sea or non-commercial air in my lifetime.
And oh yeah, again, the diversity and having people form different backgrounds in certain jobs definitely oiled certain departments on the command better than others. There were a few samoans for example that were Gun controlmen and they were the shit. Mofos taught me everything I know about weapons. Some awesome phillipinos that were amazing at damage control and even engineering. Then there were some awesome black men (and women) that were just great at deck seamanship. Shit was real and it was the real america the way it should be on the outside.