"Burn A Flick"

IMHO, two of the most important things affecting crew morale happened in Crew's Mess. Everyone knows that the quality of food is a very important indicator of crew happiness, but I always thought that how a submarine handled movies was an excellent indicator of how "together" they were. I would imagine that, with portable electronic devices available to the crew that allows them to watch movies or play games in their rack, this would be less important nowadays, but back in the day, it was very meaningful.

How a boat chose which movie to watch said a lot about them, but what happened after the movie was chosen was most telling. I believe that the most successful boats would do a rotation -- usually by division -- with breaks in the schedule when someone earned their fish, wherein the newest Submariner would choose. The most important part, however, would be how the crew reacted if an unpopular movie was selected. The best and most cohesive crews would respect their shipmate enough to sit through the movie; if the movie was a stinker, they'd give the picker the appropriate level of abuse, but they'd at least give the guy a chance. How did your boat handle movie time?

(Also, re: movies, I liked the midwatch game wherein people would have to choose which from a group of two movies they liked best, or disliked least. You could learn a lot about someone that way. My personal favorite for dividing the world, back in the day, was the "Body Double" vs. "Body Heat" question.)