USS Tortuga officers relieved of duty

Stars and Stripes ^ | 11 Jan 09 | Teri Weaver

[hgro]

As a sailor during and after WW2 its easy to see that the ship captain and exec officer were nailed. These jobs are like being royalty and many officers get away with a lot. Sometimes they get caught. Admiral Halsey pulled a lot of “shenanigans” with female Navy nurses in WW2.

[cva66snipe]

Funny. I actually liked the prison style dungaree uniform. It was sort of truth in advertising. Just like when some people (instead of asking what your job or rate was) would say, “What are you in for?” You however should be happy to know the dungaree uniform was phased out around the end of 2000, althought the replacement was the same color pattern. As far as the dress uniforms... well they do look like something my mother made me wear when I was two years old.

The dungarees were functional. I had no issues with them but I liked my coveralls I got to wear on Boat Crew better. A lot of snipes preferred coveralls when working. The dress blues is another story. I was in 76-80 and the issued dress blues was the most dysfunctional and high maintenance uniform in the services. Next to impossible to stow on a ship too. There was also a material safety issue related to being near LOX IIRC.

We got the Crackerjacks back in early 1980 I think and not a moment too soon. That was done as much as anything as a morale booster as the Navy personnel wise was going through a rebuild then. A lot of tradition was brought back in a short time. I had to buy a set for mustering out sea bag inspection. The boondockers? LOL My feet hurt for four years. I found a pair of Flight Deck boots doing a safety search in Fire Department during overhaul that served me well.

[itsahoot]

They may not have lost any rank but they can consider they navy careers over.

Not necessarily, Obama will surely tackle the don't ask, don't tell policy, and this sounds like one of those issues to me.

[antiunion person]

I know of many people in the service, mostly officers, who are going to give up their commissions due to the fact that Obama is our new president.
When Obama promises to make three million new jobs, like Rush says, it will be a draft, where about 60,000 people will be called upon to serve their country under less than honorable conditions for Obama’s political career.

[itsahoot]

go upstairs to admin.

My, my. Upstairs? Next you will be calling the deck a floor. :)

[itsahoot]

I know of many people in the service, mostly officers, who are going to give up their commissions due to the fact that Obama is our new president.

I understand fully, my fear is who will replace them?

we have had a bloodless coup (so far) and the people are asleep.

[60Gunner]

Man, I remember how awesome those things were at the time. They make great paperweights these days.

[60Gunner]

Wow. as I recall, it was a more modern (for the time) Olds or Buick. At any rate, I thought it looked pretty damned cool.

Still, I thought he was a pretty decent fellow. I wonder what happened to him?

[60Gunner]

I grew up Navy. And I have to tell you, I still think the Cracker Jacks (dress blue uniforms for E-1 through E-6 for the layperson) look damned sharp.

In spite of (or perhaps because of) my service in the Army, I hold a deep and long-standing love of the Navy and Marine corps because of my upbringing.

Now, I don't care which branch a person may serve in; you are all HEROES and HEROINES in my book. God bless, keep, and protect you all!

[ilovemysailor]

umm.. all i know is that my sailor is on that ship and he was working 7 days a week around 5am-10pm with 1 chow rotation and they were lucky if they got to eat and, i know their engineering dept all got fired and they brought in higher ups to fix things..the CO was already on a 30 day basis to fix his ship in the first place..lol
but my sailor really liked the the CO said he was a real cool guy.

[GATOR NAVY]

Ping. See #110. I know the most miserable period of time I spent in my career was when one the LSTs I was on failed OPPE and I wasn’t even a snipe. That’s not what they call it now and it doesn’t begin to compare to when a PEB came on board but failing it can still have consequences, if that was what happened here (and it is not entirely clear that it did).

[cva66snipe]

I'd be curious as to what their 2Kilo request looked like meaning request for yard work. How much was denied or waived till the next period. I was in during what was supposed to be the worse time for the military. We did not Flunk critical readiness inspections and the Inspectors were tough as nails. Our MPA left the ship in 78 to go to P.E.B. Nothing got by the man. He was one of the best engineering officers in the Navy as far as knowledge goes.

One notable thing did change as far as ship maintenance goes. Back in 79 we went into drydock overhaul. A considerable amount of the work was then done by ships company by squids with less than a year till EAOS. As long as the funding is there so the parts are available and purchased even that can work to a certain extent. There's too many ships having the same readiness issues they had before 2001. I can trace readiness issues back to the days of Poppy Bush where it was getting lax and ships were missing yard rotations or they were modified ones.

My home page has a lot of the article links on this but the articles due to a glitch in FR are gone now. These were ongoing {maintenance} readiness issues even when the GOP had both houses. Congress is the one who allots funds to the military.

In my days we lost a boiler room due to a DFT line rupturing into the switchboard which in effect was one forth the ships steam and electrical production taken out. We kept steaming and mission ready. We had our share of problems. But the inspections were passed and the shipyard work got done. If even Hollow Jimmy Carter years can manage as much why can't todays leaders? Sad to say I don't think it will get better.

Don't get me wrong. I fully believe in Chain of Command responsibility for ship readiness. But if high readiness is demanded then congress and Sec of Def on down in the civilian side should very well do their part to see to it that the right people do the work and have the needed funds to do so.

Just so some will understand. To even change out an oven for bread in the galley you must cut a hole in the hanger bay deck to get the old one out and new one in. If it is sizable piece of equipment in the machinery rooms you cut through 6 decks on bigger ships. This in turn effects the ships water tight integrity and at minimal is a process involving days not hours to do it right. IOW you do not do it at sea and for such task the yards are the prefered venue.

[60Gunner]

Yep. Even in my good old Merchant Marine, it's "Lay above."

Sheesh. Lubbers.