Keeping the blogosphere posted on the goings on of the world of submarines since late 2004... and mocking and belittling general foolishness wherever it may be found. Idaho's first and foremost submarine blog. (If you don't like something on this blog, please E-mail me; don't call me at home.)
The guys over at Castle Argghhh!!! have a question up for Navy guys on whether or not a "caste system", or division between officers and enlisted, still exists in the Navy. Give it a look, and I'm sure they'd love to hear your comments if you have any.
posted by Bubblehead at 11:30 AM
I'm Joel Kennedy -- a married, 50-something year old retired submarine officer and esophageal cancer survivor with three kids who has finally made the transition to civilian life. Politically, I'm a Radical Moderate. (If you don't like something on this blog, please E-mail me. Don't call me at home.)
3 Comments:
I would agree that the submarine Officer/Enlisted exchange is more laid back. There were some rules of etiquette to follow. Remover you cover in the Wardroom Passage and knock before entering the Wardroom. The major one was “NEVER” sit in the Captains Wardroom chair. I was blessed with great Wardrooms and Goat Lockers on all four of my boats and on my last boat, even the Officers knocked before entering the Goat Locker. I crossed the paths of a lot of good “O-gangers” and some not so good but I have to say the same about Enlisted people to. There were several Officers I would follow to Hell with a squirt gun and if they called and said they wanted me to run their A-Gang, I would not hesitate.
The major difference that I saw between the Officer/Enlisted crew was always brought on by Academy Graduates. Not all of them, but a few. It is my opinion that there was a definite difference in the attitude and behavior between the Academy and ROTC Graduates, not only between the Enlisted crew but with each other. I was COW one time when the discussion was taking place between the Supply Officer ( Texas A&M, standing DOOW) and the Weapons Officer (Academy, standing OOD). After the Chop threw a “Trade School” remark at the Weps, I quietly suggested that the conversation may not be suitable for the control room. I have seen first-hand the “don’t trust the blue shirt” attitude with our new Engineer. It took me several months to get him to back off and let me run A-Gang with no history of doing it badly.
I do find that there is a tremendous “Good-ol-boy” network after retirement. I have worked for two Defense Contractors after retirement and one thing I have noticed was that the corner offices are always retired or ex-Officers. I spent 13 year’s of holding down a full time job, helping raise two kids and going to night school to earn my MBA and because I wasn’t an Officer, I can never get into a corner office. At my last company, I was very qualified for three leadership positions that were vacant but they got filled by Junior Officers (Academy Grads) with a whole four years of experience(I'm not bitter), who were getting out of the Navy and were recruited by my Director, himself an Academy Grad.
That Damn Good Looking Aganger From Iowa
3/14/2005 2:24 PM
I think I was lucky in that I never felt like the Academy-types were sticking together, at least on the boats I was on. I've heard of that happening on other boats, though...
3/14/2005 3:10 PM
OH yeah. The boat where only Academy guys got NAMs, the Academy guys went forward and the ROTC guys stayed aft, *every*single*freaking*meal* included discussion from the Old Man about meals at the Academy or other Academy life. None of this overt or conscious, mind you, that's just the results...
The last year on that boat was a screwed up situation in more than one way, but this one was pretty irritating.
3/24/2005 9:55 AM
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