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Quote (berettagt5spd @ Oct. 23 2004,14:29)My car is only beautiful in pics!  ÂÂÂ
Your car is beautiful and even more so when you're in the pic!

LMAO! I wish I was beautiful..

.... :tumble weed : ....  ÂÂÂ


So what shall we talk about now?  

How your going to give me Christine for my birthday....  

hmm.. maybe when I am rich! lol

Jimmmm... Where are you???

*runs through field like in little house on the prairie with pigtails flying and little blue dress blowing in the wind*

Present and accounted for, ma'am! *throws up a smart salute*

Which salute would that be? The one fingered one?

LOL

Well, I have been busy talking to our Chief Petty Officer community on the changes the Navy and it's leadership has been going through.
Yesterday I spent an extra two hours (past the normal working hours) to sit down, collect my thoughts, and present to them what I have written below. I know that none of you probably don't have any recollection (and I understand you don't have a need to), of the Navy's Chain of Command, traditions, and committed excellence to leadership, but these were my thoughts:
(To help explain where I am coming from, my response was driven by an article I had read about how a Destroyer Chief's Mess was giong to replace the Division Officer role on that ship as an experiment in the Navy's never ending quest for downsizing.)

"Putting Chief's in charge of divisions." Since when weren't they?

"It's going to allow for the first classes, the second classes ...
to step up and now become more team-involved."
Which, if you read TMCM Vimislik's article in Proceedings (The Court
has Adjourned), it would give back the responsibility to be the 'backbone'
we once knew coming up through the ranks; to the Second-Class.

I think we can all remember when we wore the two chevrons and
thought we "ran the ship."

Off-topic:
 [rant]
There is a little more to what you are reading than just what's on
the surface. This sounds more like the Navy I used to know; where Chief's
ran the ship and First and Second-Classes were the technicians that made the
Chief look good.
As an LPO I knew the best spot for my Chief/Senior Chief was in the
mess or in his rack. If he wasn't there it was either eval time, zone
inspection, sea detail or #### was going to hit the fan. The years when
you'd see a Chief and duck into another passageway just to stay out of his
way.
Now days they try to walk through you when meeting at a WTD in a
passageway. Corrected on the spot of course.
Something is not happening at Boot Camp that happened when we went
through; something is not happening at the CPO Initiation that happened when
we went through.
And thanks to the wonderful evaluation system, the Chief you see
behind you may only have been in for 6 years and has no recollection of the
"real Navy."
Compare the 'hands on' leadership this 6/8 year Chief has to ours,
that which is two to three times as much (if not more), then you will have
answered your own question as to why WE need to make the difference.
All of these things add up, and this is what you have. Sailors
laying around in the grass in front of PSD at Corry Station with empty
plastic water bottles tossed about littering the area. A young man in
working whites at the NEX with a backpack slung around both shoulders with
tennis shoes tied off by the laces dangling from the back striking behind
his knees as he walks. Where is the proffesionalism?
Some of you may say that it's time to go, that the changes are too
much and it's not the Navy we used to know. Feels overwhelming doesn't it?
But you know, I look down at my uniform and at my collars and think how hard
I worked to get here; how hard we all must have worked to get where we are
at. And then I think about how, as a junior sailor, I dare not step out in
public and disgrace my Navy.
My Chief wouldn't have accepted it, yours wouldn't, and as Chief's
we wont. Don't expect that Junior Officer to correct it either, he's got
enough things on his mind; saluting as you walk-by because he sees khaki
and a ton of ribbons, thinking you are some sort of Fleet Admiral. "Relax
son, I am a Chief, and yes, you'll be working for me soon."
The wheel is set in motion and our community is already going
through changes. But for as long as we are active, it is our duty, to
ourselves and the Chiefs before us, to uphold the tradition and maintain our
steadfast integrity as CHIEFS. ÂÂÂ
[/rant]

i know exactly where youre comin from, jim (i can call ya that now..im officially a civillian on the USS Neversail, RE-1 code )

i was walkin to a local mall a few weeks ago, in civvies, and saw a recent addition to our Navy (Airman,

That would all depend on what uniform he was in; this is changing too. It is not all too often you can find a sailor running around town, in Pensacola, taking care of business in his dungarees. Which was totally unauthorized when I was 'growing up' in the Navy.

he was in "dungs"..you know..the new ones..the ones that make you look like a gas station attendant, rather than an escaped jailbird on the way to the disco

and yes, aside from "to and from base/work, and if stopping for gas only" it was completely unauthorized...

another thing.......coveralls are now authorized uniforms on base o.O ...i joined before they became seabag issue. (JUL97)

things are wierd...not to mention the new, NEW PFA rules...can we say OVERKILL!!?? i was floored. heard the navy has a new policy.."If you cant run, youre done"

Quote (Jeph @ Oct. 28 2004,15:39)dont call me sir, i work for a living
The guy working at Starbucks told my friend and I that one day!

Sorry we were brought up having respect for our elders.  

in the navy (dont sing!), a lot of enlisted guys say that, because we refer to officers as sir. officers, as a general rule, dont work. they push paper. most dont exactly run the group theyre in. they just kinda "oversee" things. like jim said...
Quote As an LPO I knew the best spot for my Chief/Senior Chief was in the
mess or in his rack. If he wasn't there it was either eval time, zone
inspection, sea detail or #### was going to hit the fan. The years when
you'd see a Chief and duck into another passageway just to stay out of his
way.


thats the truth. we always loved when our chief would say "if you need me, ill be on station" AYE, CHIEF! made life good for us..boss man went home.

slightly off topic...i can honestly say.."in all my years", that i have never saluted an O-1. Ensigns arent exactly seasoned vets...i usually nodded and said "how ya doin Ensign?" or a nod and a "sir" with the classic tight-lipped smile as i passed him.

P-cola was great for that....watchin midshipmen (i think they were called pleebs?) salute squirrels and trees was CLASSIC!