Posted on 07/28/2020 5:19:24 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
No kidding.
Thank you for posting it.
I am as critical of the current culture of the Navy as anyone else, even more so in some respects, and I was ready to pick this apart.
But I couldn’t. It was nicely done without having to include quotas of men, women, Asians, blacks, homosexuals or transsexuals.
They just let the Navy job speak for itself. I was good with that, because I needed to prepare myself to be irritated, and was grateful I wasn’t.
I know. I have been extremely discouraged seeing the culture of the USN during the last 30 years beginning with the Tailhook crap.
Ships colliding because people were unwilling to enforce training and observe procedures, and key people refusing to talk to each other.
Captured sailors kneeling submissively with their hands on their heads.
This asinine Leftist culture of having people in positions they have no reason for being in. A black woman being promoted to four star over the heads of others who had careers and qualifications that absolutely buried hers.
Marines and SEALs being prosecuted for crimes they didn’t commit, and not even being given the benefit of the doubt in combat situations.
The overt political correctness of it all.
Yes, I was ready to rip this apart. But I couldn’t. I don’t know who created it, but I wish I could thank them. Even if all that BS still goes on in the background (and it does I am certain) someone who knew better could put out this.
I had the same reaction going in as you. But wasn’t it great to see all races both men and women working hard together for one objective? It showed all the jobs needed to keep the Navy going from the most mundane to the most exciting.
It didn't tell a story about a black red-shirted Ordinanceman with a hispanic lesbian mother by his side lifting a missile onto a plane as white fueling guy pulls the hose away and a young female officer in the Deck Division directs a young blue vested black girl to pull the chocks from a wheel....
You get the idea. What it did tell was a story of the US Navy performing various missions with everyone doing their job.
But instead of a black red-shirted Ordinanceman , a hispanic lesbian mother, a white fueling guy in a purple jersey, a female officer and a blue vested black girl...
you have: two red-shirted Ordinancemen , a "grape" wearing a purple jersey, an officer and a blue vest deck hand.
And THAT is equality.
I owe my government so much for giving me access to the US Navy, and to the Navy itself. Out of high school, I didn't have a high opinion of myself (like I do now:) and I was largely rudderless.
I was expected to want to go to college and be smart, but wasn't smart. And in retrospect, didn't really want to go to college. I joined the Navy instead. My best friend came with me. And my parents (a 30 year old retired Navy vet and his Navy wife; my mom) were just as pleased as punch...:)
I learned in the Navy how to be good at something.
How to accept a task and make it yours-put your mark on it, and make it mean something, not only to you, but to others.
I learned how to be truly responsible, and what being responsible for something meant.
The US military was a great democratizing agent, though I never needed that due to my upbringing.
It was great to see it in action when I joined the Navy in the mid-Seventies. And that time has a reputation for being a time when racial friction was high in the US military. Real democratization not based on someone imposing it with an agenda, but an existing democratizing equality of skill and spirit that was completely merit based. There were white people who didn't like black people, and there were black people that didn't like white people. But what I found over time is that while there hard core people who stayed in their opinion, on both sides of that color divide, far more learned to swim in both oceans.
A lot of people just didn't care. And it was easier that way, too.
I had an incident one time when my squadron was back down in Cecil Field, andvI was walking back from the chow hall one night in between the barracks, and I felt a very sharp, hard kick in the ass. I whirled around to see a black guy grinning at me, and when I asked why he had kicked me, he said "I don't like your hat" (referring to my squadron hat for the VA-46 Clansmen)
I said, "That is too damn bad because you and I are going to have at it" and as I removed my glasses, four other black guys stepped around the corner. They encircled me as I stepped backwards, and not knowing what else to do, I assumed a martial arts pose hoping to buy a few seconds of time with their uncertainty. It worked as one of them said "Ah, he knows karate..." but that only lasted a few seconds until one lunged at me, I took a swing and down I went.
They were kicking the crap out of me, so I balled up and protected my face and vitals as best I could. They were trying to kick me in the nuts and the face, but fortunately for me, they smelled like they had been drinking, and landed more kicks on each other's legs and ankles than they did on me.
It seemed like it went on for five minutes, but I suppose it may have been only 15 or 30 seconds, at which point I saw an opening in their circle, bolted up and shot through it in one motion with all five of them running after me. I jumped on the concrete steps into the barracks, but knew if I grabbed the door to open it, they would be on me, so I grabbed a swab that was sitting in a bucket there and began jabbing and swinging it at them. I think I had been screaming "HELP!" over and over again at the top of my lungs throughout the entire time, but I don't really remember doing it.
They finally melted away, and I went across the street to the hangar and found my boss, who was on duty, an AD1. When I told him what happened, he said: "Do you want to get together a bunch of our guys and go find them?"
Woods was a black guy. And he offered to stick up for me. That is the kind of guy he was. An extremely competent mechanic and a good boss who didn't take unnecessary crap from people.
Anyway, I declined. I wasn't hurt, just still washed with adrenaline.
For months after, I searched the face of every black guy I passed on that base, but I simply could not remember the faces.
So that assault itself doesn't really stick with me in a bad way.
But what has stuck with me in a positive way was that simple, unasked, willingness of my boss, my black boss, to take my side and stand with me against a bunch of black guys who jumped me. His response kept me, I think, from developing any long-term animosity towards blacks because of it. He'll never know, but I hope to somehow meet him again and thank him in some way.
That is real leadership there.
Great bio and story. Thanks for writing that up. And thanks for your service. My dad was a Marine, but I didn’t serve. He was in the invasion force sailing for Japan when we ended the war with the two bombs.
I’m doing a lot of genealogical research during COVID. You should take the story you wrote and use it as a basis for a memoir for your family. Generations down the road would appreciate that.
My great grandfather wrote a four page letter to his kids in 1928 when he was 63. It was his bio up to that point in his life. I just had it translated from German to English, so this is the very first time I read what he wrote. It is amazing reading what he had to say about life, hard work, picking yourself up after setbacks. I love how he ended his letter. He told his adult children that, when life knocks you down, remember my letter to you and get back in the game. Just timeless advice.
Thank you for your kind words.
There is a lot of wisdom in your great grandfather’s letter to his kids. How true your statement: “Timeless advice” indeed.
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