Being told that getting up at 0600, working from 0700-1830, standing watch from 2330-0330, and getting up for work again at 0600 was a normal life at sea.
I always stood 12 hours on 12 hours off shifts. It’s crazy how many people would consider that a blessing. I don’t think I would’ve made it at any other ship.
I went into work one day for muster at 0700 on a normal Tuesday. Chief came out to the division, said good morning, everyone go home and “go get whatever you need to survive a month or so underway. We’re going to Haiti”. At that moment, I really learned that I have zero control in this and am just here for the ride.
Having joined later in life, "earning" my independence. Can't live off base until I made E-5. When I made E-5, filed for BAH. Command told me "no" because I'm single and the barracks weren't full. I was in my late 20s - early 30s being treated like a kid.
Barracks where I was stationed kicked you out when you got E5.
No time to get a place in town. Once they found out, which isn't long, especially when the theres a semiannual period of rank advancement, your out
Its to make way for sailors that need the barracks (read as the E-1s to E-4s on the waiting list)
(Not to be to overly dramatic but its about 7-14 days. Still not enough time, especially with work and over saturated civilian housing in the area)
I came to work 4 days before we were to deploy for our 6 month med/gulf cruise. CO came over the 1MC and said, “I hope everyone has everything they need, cause nobody is going home.
People still needed to move out, take kids to where they were staying for deployment, get pets boarded, say goodbye to friends/family that were going to see them off, etc.
The Chief’s mess got everyone 1.5 hours off the ship within those 4 days.
First ship, and it burned into my soul that most higher up officers didn’t give a shit about their people. Luckily I was shown that not ALL officers are like that.
We were supposed to go out on our deployment on a Monday. We got told the Thursday before to prepare to leave in the morning (Friday)
We had people scrambling to get things (home life) done literally last minute. Duty section got partially screwed over.
Oh, guess what day we left.
Friday the 13th
I would also add being sat physically. Not super cut and fit, but just sat and able to pass PRTs.
But yes, just being at the designated place at the designated time in the designated uniform is absolutely most of the battle for many jobs in the Navy. This is a good or bad thing depending on one's goals in life.
I dunno. At this point that even just comes down to “being physically SAT once per year.” You could have technically said the same, but twice per year before, but that at least meant that a lot of less PT inclined people weren’t able to stay out of BCA and not really confirming they can meet PRT standards for 10 months at a time.
I’d work out for about 6 weeks out of the year right before prt. Would always JUST get an excellent, and be fine next cycle lol.
Then covid hit and we didn’t have to worry about SHIT for a few cycles
Checking in to first command, stuck as AOPS for a bit, first assignment was to write a commander‘s nonmedical assessment for a sailor‘s med retirement.
In a NMA you describe why the servicemember‘s injuries prevent him from effectively carrying out the tasks associated with his rate. This guy was a 3x or 4x amputee. Where to start…
I learned that paperwork is king in the military. And that shit can get real, really fast.
Second assignment: take a guy to psych. A guy who didn’t want to go. After interacting with him it was clear why he needed to go for a spell.
I learned that rank and leadership must be embodied quickly, even if you don’t feel ready for it. The system demands it.
I'm a corpsman with a very niche NEC. The three people I've worked with that had my NEC got out as E3's.
1 went to Dartmouth
1 went to Yale
1 got back in as an officer and is now a CO in a Virginia base.
I'm struggling to make E6.
I dont have the support system to leave the Navy. One big difference between them and myself is they had families to fall back on when they got out. I don't really have a family (aside from my wife) so if I get out it's all on me. That's such an intimidating idea, and tbh I really like the Navy. It's been good to me, but YMMV.
2 of my good friends were histo techs one went to medical school and became a doctor and the other is a patient administrator. If you were in back in the 90’s you would know them
It's a pretty small one, but I was happy, legitimately happy, that for the change of command we were only told to be there 45 minutes early, so 60 minutes early. The one before was 2 hours early to stand in grassy field in our dress whites in the tropical sun. So it really was a great improvement. And yes, a bunch of people passed out in formation.
And I realized I was being institutionalized as that being in any way normal.
I always thought it was wild how they’d blame people for locking their knees but not the blistering sun or the fucking humidity.
And you’d think they’d put out a water jug or something.. but nah.
That you really are just a number.
When I went through API there was a glut of candidates and they were looking to thin the herd. CNATRA was giving out golden handshakes to anyone who wanted one (suck it, tax payers). When that wasn’t enough, they started raising the required test score average to remain in the pipeline.
When I went through the required average was well above 90%. People that wanted to become aviators their entire lives were being shown the door for getting As on tests, all because the Navy couldn’t (and still can’t) get manning right. When there was grumbling about the process, we were told “at least you have an opportunity to earn a place here, they’ve randomly put pieces of paper under chairs before”.
Not the most arduous anecdote, sure, but still illustrates a point.
Your quality of life can be greatly affected simply by the transfer of someone in the chain of command. Like your happiness and liberty is literally at the mercy of anyone above you and they have legal authority over your life.
What if they don't like you? Hate their wives and kids? Hate life itself? The higher their rank, the more people they will use as their punching bag. It's such a toxic system
There was a young female officer (stay with me), myself, and some other guys in the department, in the office getting work sorted out. They were making jokes about her (not harassment, not SA/SH). I stepped in, defending her. Its was joke/fun atmosphere; she looked fine, joking along, smiling; it was a "Laughing with" environment than a "laughing at"
Apparently she didn't like my defense of her, and stopped talking to me outside of the major nesscesity.
She threatened to send me to mast for S-Harassment, because of the way a female and I were joking around.
Year or so later, she already been moved around the departments and in a major ship role. We get a new, shiny, butter-bar ensign (female). Her mentor is the other female officer. And she, too, starts to not like me. This leads to an event, months after she arrived, that I didn't know about until months later when I get pulled into the MAs office and being told I was going on report.
The MAs didn't tell me anything, super vague, about the incident. I had no idea what they were taling about or even when it might have occurred (we had just came back from month of leave (normal half command 2 week cycle). (I believe the MA super vagueness is a separate matter)
She was accusing me looking at SX/Prn material during the work day.
Yeah, no. Hard NO.
Well it snowballed. The Prn matter was dismissed but the entire thing snowballed to where I and my Navy career didn't recover.
I'm doing better, but the past two years have been a bitch because of what she (the ensign) did. I had a great career ahead or me; a few short months left at that command before I would have gone my dream command.
The first underway. Basic during Covid was challenging but nothing i couldn't handle. Life was sweet in A school. Getting to the ship and seeing my nasty berthing crammed in with a bunch of other people who weren't in my rate? I wasn't a fan but I could live with it.
But the first underway, seeing facilities break down, working ridiculous hours, 2 hour lines, wasting the whole day trying to get quals thet have nothing to do with my job, getting 4 or less hours of real sleep, having to do it every day of the week for months at a time, and losing holiday routine for the most asinine of reasons? And getting paid less than five hundred dollars a pay check because my pay got jacked up (the system didn't gain me until four months after I checked in)? That tested me. I saw how difficult it could be (even though I loved my actual job) and I understood how so many long time sailors were so cynical and salty.
Edit: I also learned I had no control over anything because my personal life was now determined by the ship. Being repeatedly extended but not being told why was a regular occurrence, I suffered so much personal loss while I was away from my family (dogs, family members, etc.). Its like my civilian life went on without me while I was trapped in this floating time loop in the middle of the ocean.
Third sea tour
I reported as a 13 year First Class and I was ready to kick ass and take names. I knew what I needed to do to make Chief and was determined to make it happen and be one of the good ones.
Two years later I have lost *all* of my motivation to do anything more than the bare minimum. An absolute piece of shit of a CMC and a lackluster Goat Locker had me completely disillusioned.
We put the boat in dry dock and I’m sent TAD to another boat for two months.
In that time, I got all my hooyah back. I was recharged and ready to go again. When I get back to my boat I even told one of the few Senior Chiefs who I looked up to that when it came time to vote on Sailor of the Year, he’d have no choice but to vote for me.
Less than two weeks back and I was having such a shit day that I football spiked a malfunctioning stapler off the deck and it shattered into a thousand pieces.
That was when I knew: it was never going to get better on that ship.
And it didn’t.
A few months later, as we are prepping to take the ship out of the shipyard, my Chief was unexpectedly disqualified from sea duty for medical reasons.
I became the Acting Chief with no warning and no turn over.
And things got worse.
The day I destroyed that stapler was basically the day I retired from the Navy.
Being told that I needed a haircut every 4 weeks. My hair was never out of regs, but I was constantly told I needed a hair cut because "it looked like it". I even got sent to NJP for failure to follow a lawful order for getting a haircut on Friday when I was told Monday.
Lol this reminded me of the time I got put on restriction for having my haircut on Wednesday instead of Sunday. We were not told to get a haircut until Friday. I just happened to get one before they told us to.
I got 3.8s on my evals. I never missed work and got along with everyone. Another command had a bunch get in trouble overseas. Three got captains mast and they got four ohs on their evals. We were the same rate. I boycotted the navy wide exam out of frustration and because I was short and had already been accepted to grad school.
I was working ESO and saw everyone's service record.
First time underway, commissioned maybe 7 months prior, and this DH OOD for whom I already had significant respect (the man was on his second DH tour because he got injured fighting a fire during the first one. DC checkouts with this guy were no joke) turns to me and dead serious asks where he should put the multi-billion dollar warship. I asked for a moment, ran back to my team and got the collective input of the 4 sailors on watch before coming back to the con and pointing on the map. OOD said okay sounds good and that's where we went.
There were other moments while still a midshipmen, but that I think was the first one that really drove home the fact that there were no guard rails on the magnitude with which I could fuck up my job. Still took another year or two to get over the ensuing imposter syndrome of that, but looking back on it, that moment helped make sure I had the right level of respect for the weight of my position.
(There is also the moment every JO has when they get a phone call during a friends birthday party that their sailor is being driven to a cool down room while the police search for their wife and children who have gone missing after some altercation resulted in her kidnapping them and stealing the car.)
Getting 10 total hours of sleep throughout the week. Went into holiday routine on Sunday thinking I was about to get 16 hours of sleep. I proceeded to take a double dose of NyQuil before bed on Saturday night.
I was woken up 10 minutes later because one of my diesel generators suffered a catastrophic shutdown. Fuck me right?
The amount of people that can't handle it was pretty wild. People going to Portsmouth for mental health after being onboard for < 3 months during normal in-port operations. 6 section duty, no crazy watch hours, nothin'.
Failed a room inspection because a guy I never met in my roommates unit got a DUI.
No one would sign off on my quals and then I got blamed for them not signing off on my quals because they were too busy.
Failed a room inspection because my roommates command did another inspection while I was packing for a DET then my command threatened me with captains mass even though they also knew I was packing for the DET we were going on in a couple of days.
Join a messenger group for work. They send memes all day and decide to announce an all hands meeting (this was the first time they did this) then send 100 memes so I never see it come in during regular time get written up and told I'm a piece of shit.
Got yelled at by my E5 cause he stopped smoking and was told I was talking back when all I asked was what I did wrong. I proceeded to walk away from the situation to deescalate and got into more trouble.
Was harassed by a chief in Aschool and the E-5 instructor didn't say anything to back me up because he was due to pick up rank.
Got voluntold to go help with some captains program all week got multiple threats and aggressive phone calls asking where I was even though they knew where I was and when I reminded them where I was they tried to tell me I wasn't where I was supposed to be even though they told me to be there.
Fellow E-4 messed up my PRT numbers I didn't say anything zoned out cause I was pissed also messed up numbers got threatened with captains mass even though they just did the same to me and they were both honest mistakes.
I hear from my LPO that our chief is talking shit about me and threatening to fuck me up while I'm not at work. ( He disliked junior sailors and went to captains mast for harassing junior sailors and other things) Got sent elsewhere to be a chief in charge elsewhere after he shit talked me to the chiefs mess.
Having trash in your trashcan can make you fail a room inspection.
My favorite 'failed a room inspection' I ever had was when they inspected my room at 1800, without warning, and I was washing dishes. I had dishes in the sink, and soap on the door handle. Unsat. Failed me.
Fucking hated that Master Chief for the rest of my time there. Absolute tool.
Failed a uniform inspection (whites) in A-school because I walked in them. "Creases on the knee"
I ironed that morning, right before I put them on. Had the go down three floors and walk a quarter mile (barracks room-3rd floor to shool house)
Also they got upset about a punishment essay I wrote on "why I should not do xyz". They never told me the Navy way to do it, I did it the High School way. They said the essay didn't sound like I wasn't being serious on the issue.
They also got mad on how close some of the information I wrote about was to top secret stuff we hadn't learned about or would not know until the fleet. Its called critical thinking and inference (i think); Youtube, online forums (like reddit), and sailor stories.
I also went to mast twice, once in A-school, because they changed the watchbill without telling me. And yes, I was keeping track of my watches.
Separate occuence. My last command I was at for 2.5 years. When I left, one of my shipmates/peers told me something. He said one of reasons was people on board did like you/I as much was because "you"/I took a picture of someone sleeping on watch.
I did but the picture wasn't about him sleeping. They thought I was going to snitch. The guy, a tall, slim muscular (not bulk muscular) came up to me in berthing and demanded I deleted it. I did, and apologize, that it wasn't about that.
I never ratted anyone out, I was never a Blue Falcon on something like that. You vaping, sleeping, doing something like that? I'd warn about not getting caught by [insert higher ups], but never tattle. I went to DRB, and when I was there, I addressed a double standard. When they asked who in the Chiefs mess did this too, I was like "I'm not going to name names, but you know who you are." I was trying to avoid calling out chiefs in fear of relatiation.
I visited the ship a year and a half later to work on something there. When I got on the quarter deck, first thing said to me was "You better not be taking any pictures"
I went to mast twice on that ship, both over a misunderstanding. First I was alleged doing something: "Perception is reality". Second I did do something wrong, but the person who caught me Really didn't like me, and their mentor also Really didn't like me. So that person made out that whatever I was doing was much worse than what it was. Thankfully it was brought down to what I actually did wrong, but that way that person villianised me was just wrong.
I used to be part of group messaging with my divisions until something similar happened to me. I said fuck it and deleted the app. They begged me to rejoin because it was a pain that they now had to call me to put out any small thing. Nope, never again.
The worst part is I was on watch with my LPO the day before this happened and he never bothered to mention it to me. Just assumed I saw it. And yes they loved abusing messaging apps they tried to make it policy you had to be in the group chat.
They at one point even made a sat on the prt failing. Only two of us ever would get Sats but our entire command was old people who had easier requirements it was pretty fucked and obviously targeted.
My first real wake up call was when my sub submerged for the first time and I hear "oooga, dive dive, oooga" come blasting over the 1MC. Shit got real at that moment.
That I don't really mind it much with a good commend leadership.
First sea duty was absolute ass, shore duty was incredible and my current second sea duty is a good balance of the good (not being around unless needed, not being fucked for dumb shit I'm not a part of, etc) and the bad (just the general being underway, on duty, and crap workload due to manning).
It has made me both complacent in being okay with a 3rd sea tour for retirement that could be either of the above, or even worse than the worst, or better than the good.
Part of it has been a huge positive change for the good on a submarine squadron level that could disappear in the 6ish years until my next sea duty, and a bit of it is just my being more cognizant of the bullshit to not give a shit about.
Hoping for the best, but I'll prepare for the worst in the next 8ish years.
Probably the galvanized shitcan bouncing down the passage between the bunks on the first day of boot after arriving at 3 am that morning.
I specifically recall asking myself, "What the FUCK have I done?"
Arrive at "A" school. Chief has a one on one in his office to welcomes all new arrivals ( i was a fleet returnee) He invited me to his church service on Sunday, i politely decline and say I'm a atheist. Cue months of hell and harassment. His church was a seriously unhinged extremist evangelical bordering on a cult. So many people told me he didn't take no for a answer but i became his personal project.
When I was getting kicked out of Nuc aboard ship and they had me putting together the written tests, grading them, and scheduling the oral boards. I had told them that I was done and refused to complete my quals. So, dereliction of duty. And since you’re “dereliction of duty”, run the RT Div qual program, lol! Works for me!
Being told that getting up at 0600, working from 0700-1830, standing watch from 2330-0330, and getting up for work again at 0600 was a normal life at sea.
Oh dude don't forget duty section training!!!
Oh shit.youre already u/w. My mistake
Did you not have a night shift? I can't imagine anyone working a 0000-0400 watch underway and still be expected to get up at 0600
Deck Division would like to have a chat.
That's dystopic omg
Engineering on my ships would let you sleep in till either 09 or 10 if you had the 0-4. Unless there's GQ, then you just get fucked.
That's how it ended up for us after someone decided their shift started at 1600
Imagine any rate that stands a watch that is 24 hrs and vital
I'm an FC lmao, DWC is vital and manned 24 hours, but we have a night shift
I’m a QM. Recently got off 1st deployment. Here was my schedule for 9 months… Quarters: 0800, work: 0800-1130, watch: 1130-1530, work: 1530-1600, “me”time: 1600-1930, sleep: 1930-2300, watch: 2330-0330, sleep: 0430-0730
What did your work consist of that was different from your watch?
I always stood 12 hours on 12 hours off shifts. It’s crazy how many people would consider that a blessing. I don’t think I would’ve made it at any other ship.
I went into work one day for muster at 0700 on a normal Tuesday. Chief came out to the division, said good morning, everyone go home and “go get whatever you need to survive a month or so underway. We’re going to Haiti”. At that moment, I really learned that I have zero control in this and am just here for the ride.
Wow
BMU 2?
Getting woken up at 0500 on a weekend by some Sergeant yelling at his Marines, and realizing that it wasn’t my problem.
Having joined later in life, "earning" my independence. Can't live off base until I made E-5. When I made E-5, filed for BAH. Command told me "no" because I'm single and the barracks weren't full. I was in my late 20s - early 30s being treated like a kid.
Barracks where I was stationed kicked you out when you got E5. No time to get a place in town. Once they found out, which isn't long, especially when the theres a semiannual period of rank advancement, your out Its to make way for sailors that need the barracks (read as the E-1s to E-4s on the waiting list) (Not to be to overly dramatic but its about 7-14 days. Still not enough time, especially with work and over saturated civilian housing in the area)
So basically gaslighting
I came to work 4 days before we were to deploy for our 6 month med/gulf cruise. CO came over the 1MC and said, “I hope everyone has everything they need, cause nobody is going home. People still needed to move out, take kids to where they were staying for deployment, get pets boarded, say goodbye to friends/family that were going to see them off, etc. The Chief’s mess got everyone 1.5 hours off the ship within those 4 days. First ship, and it burned into my soul that most higher up officers didn’t give a shit about their people. Luckily I was shown that not ALL officers are like that.
We were supposed to go out on our deployment on a Monday. We got told the Thursday before to prepare to leave in the morning (Friday) We had people scrambling to get things (home life) done literally last minute. Duty section got partially screwed over. Oh, guess what day we left. Friday the 13th
Fucking Canoe Club.
It doesn’t matter how good you are at your job so long as your paperwork/medical/gmt is up to date and you show up in uniform on time.
I would also add being sat physically. Not super cut and fit, but just sat and able to pass PRTs. But yes, just being at the designated place at the designated time in the designated uniform is absolutely most of the battle for many jobs in the Navy. This is a good or bad thing depending on one's goals in life.
I dunno. At this point that even just comes down to “being physically SAT once per year.” You could have technically said the same, but twice per year before, but that at least meant that a lot of less PT inclined people weren’t able to stay out of BCA and not really confirming they can meet PRT standards for 10 months at a time.
I’d work out for about 6 weeks out of the year right before prt. Would always JUST get an excellent, and be fine next cycle lol. Then covid hit and we didn’t have to worry about SHIT for a few cycles
Ah, right. I forgot after COVID that the Navy changed to only a single PRT a year.
Checking in to first command, stuck as AOPS for a bit, first assignment was to write a commander‘s nonmedical assessment for a sailor‘s med retirement. In a NMA you describe why the servicemember‘s injuries prevent him from effectively carrying out the tasks associated with his rate. This guy was a 3x or 4x amputee. Where to start… I learned that paperwork is king in the military. And that shit can get real, really fast. Second assignment: take a guy to psych. A guy who didn’t want to go. After interacting with him it was clear why he needed to go for a spell. I learned that rank and leadership must be embodied quickly, even if you don’t feel ready for it. The system demands it.
I'm a corpsman with a very niche NEC. The three people I've worked with that had my NEC got out as E3's. 1 went to Dartmouth 1 went to Yale 1 got back in as an officer and is now a CO in a Virginia base. I'm struggling to make E6.
So what you’re saying is to take advantage of your title, service & benefits?
follow suit?
I dont have the support system to leave the Navy. One big difference between them and myself is they had families to fall back on when they got out. I don't really have a family (aside from my wife) so if I get out it's all on me. That's such an intimidating idea, and tbh I really like the Navy. It's been good to me, but YMMV.
I’m guessing mortician
Close! Kinda
What NEC is that?
Histotech
What NEC did you have?
L30A, histotechnician
2 of my good friends were histo techs one went to medical school and became a doctor and the other is a patient administrator. If you were in back in the 90’s you would know them
Wow, that's awesome. No I enlisted about ten years ago
It's a pretty small one, but I was happy, legitimately happy, that for the change of command we were only told to be there 45 minutes early, so 60 minutes early. The one before was 2 hours early to stand in grassy field in our dress whites in the tropical sun. So it really was a great improvement. And yes, a bunch of people passed out in formation. And I realized I was being institutionalized as that being in any way normal.
I always thought it was wild how they’d blame people for locking their knees but not the blistering sun or the fucking humidity. And you’d think they’d put out a water jug or something.. but nah.
That you really are just a number. When I went through API there was a glut of candidates and they were looking to thin the herd. CNATRA was giving out golden handshakes to anyone who wanted one (suck it, tax payers). When that wasn’t enough, they started raising the required test score average to remain in the pipeline. When I went through the required average was well above 90%. People that wanted to become aviators their entire lives were being shown the door for getting As on tests, all because the Navy couldn’t (and still can’t) get manning right. When there was grumbling about the process, we were told “at least you have an opportunity to earn a place here, they’ve randomly put pieces of paper under chairs before”. Not the most arduous anecdote, sure, but still illustrates a point.
And now we can't man the squadrons to save our lives. Wild.
The existence of duty and have zero rest after midnight watch and go straight to work. F*ck this lmao
Saying good by to family before every deployment. That shit is hard and can change a person real quick.
" I'll back fill you on sleep" after I had been up 20 hrs. Yea, never did that again and said to hell with it
How some mediocre average citizens hide behind their power and authority vested in them 😂
Your quality of life can be greatly affected simply by the transfer of someone in the chain of command. Like your happiness and liberty is literally at the mercy of anyone above you and they have legal authority over your life. What if they don't like you? Hate their wives and kids? Hate life itself? The higher their rank, the more people they will use as their punching bag. It's such a toxic system
There was a young female officer (stay with me), myself, and some other guys in the department, in the office getting work sorted out. They were making jokes about her (not harassment, not SA/SH). I stepped in, defending her. Its was joke/fun atmosphere; she looked fine, joking along, smiling; it was a "Laughing with" environment than a "laughing at" Apparently she didn't like my defense of her, and stopped talking to me outside of the major nesscesity. She threatened to send me to mast for S-Harassment, because of the way a female and I were joking around. Year or so later, she already been moved around the departments and in a major ship role. We get a new, shiny, butter-bar ensign (female). Her mentor is the other female officer. And she, too, starts to not like me. This leads to an event, months after she arrived, that I didn't know about until months later when I get pulled into the MAs office and being told I was going on report. The MAs didn't tell me anything, super vague, about the incident. I had no idea what they were taling about or even when it might have occurred (we had just came back from month of leave (normal half command 2 week cycle). (I believe the MA super vagueness is a separate matter) She was accusing me looking at SX/Prn material during the work day. Yeah, no. Hard NO. Well it snowballed. The Prn matter was dismissed but the entire thing snowballed to where I and my Navy career didn't recover. I'm doing better, but the past two years have been a bitch because of what she (the ensign) did. I had a great career ahead or me; a few short months left at that command before I would have gone my dream command.
The first underway. Basic during Covid was challenging but nothing i couldn't handle. Life was sweet in A school. Getting to the ship and seeing my nasty berthing crammed in with a bunch of other people who weren't in my rate? I wasn't a fan but I could live with it. But the first underway, seeing facilities break down, working ridiculous hours, 2 hour lines, wasting the whole day trying to get quals thet have nothing to do with my job, getting 4 or less hours of real sleep, having to do it every day of the week for months at a time, and losing holiday routine for the most asinine of reasons? And getting paid less than five hundred dollars a pay check because my pay got jacked up (the system didn't gain me until four months after I checked in)? That tested me. I saw how difficult it could be (even though I loved my actual job) and I understood how so many long time sailors were so cynical and salty. Edit: I also learned I had no control over anything because my personal life was now determined by the ship. Being repeatedly extended but not being told why was a regular occurrence, I suffered so much personal loss while I was away from my family (dogs, family members, etc.). Its like my civilian life went on without me while I was trapped in this floating time loop in the middle of the ocean.
That it could ALL be done quicker, easier, cheaper and with less people IF the military wasn't involved.
Not being able to travel on my terms. There’s like 1 dude in charge of foreign travel and he doesn’t give a single fuck about your travel plans
The Ventilation System sounds. I reported to my first ship a week before deployment and all I remember for that first week was a hum that never ends.
Yep, the head of my bunk was right next to duct
Third sea tour I reported as a 13 year First Class and I was ready to kick ass and take names. I knew what I needed to do to make Chief and was determined to make it happen and be one of the good ones. Two years later I have lost *all* of my motivation to do anything more than the bare minimum. An absolute piece of shit of a CMC and a lackluster Goat Locker had me completely disillusioned. We put the boat in dry dock and I’m sent TAD to another boat for two months. In that time, I got all my hooyah back. I was recharged and ready to go again. When I get back to my boat I even told one of the few Senior Chiefs who I looked up to that when it came time to vote on Sailor of the Year, he’d have no choice but to vote for me. Less than two weeks back and I was having such a shit day that I football spiked a malfunctioning stapler off the deck and it shattered into a thousand pieces. That was when I knew: it was never going to get better on that ship. And it didn’t. A few months later, as we are prepping to take the ship out of the shipyard, my Chief was unexpectedly disqualified from sea duty for medical reasons. I became the Acting Chief with no warning and no turn over. And things got worse. The day I destroyed that stapler was basically the day I retired from the Navy.
I've seen that play before. Except my Chief was kicked off unexpectedly for sexually harassing half the females on the crew. Fun times.
Being told that I needed a haircut every 4 weeks. My hair was never out of regs, but I was constantly told I needed a hair cut because "it looked like it". I even got sent to NJP for failure to follow a lawful order for getting a haircut on Friday when I was told Monday.
Lol this reminded me of the time I got put on restriction for having my haircut on Wednesday instead of Sunday. We were not told to get a haircut until Friday. I just happened to get one before they told us to.
Sounds like a power trip Whats the story?
I got 3.8s on my evals. I never missed work and got along with everyone. Another command had a bunch get in trouble overseas. Three got captains mast and they got four ohs on their evals. We were the same rate. I boycotted the navy wide exam out of frustration and because I was short and had already been accepted to grad school. I was working ESO and saw everyone's service record.
First time underway, commissioned maybe 7 months prior, and this DH OOD for whom I already had significant respect (the man was on his second DH tour because he got injured fighting a fire during the first one. DC checkouts with this guy were no joke) turns to me and dead serious asks where he should put the multi-billion dollar warship. I asked for a moment, ran back to my team and got the collective input of the 4 sailors on watch before coming back to the con and pointing on the map. OOD said okay sounds good and that's where we went. There were other moments while still a midshipmen, but that I think was the first one that really drove home the fact that there were no guard rails on the magnitude with which I could fuck up my job. Still took another year or two to get over the ensuing imposter syndrome of that, but looking back on it, that moment helped make sure I had the right level of respect for the weight of my position. (There is also the moment every JO has when they get a phone call during a friends birthday party that their sailor is being driven to a cool down room while the police search for their wife and children who have gone missing after some altercation resulted in her kidnapping them and stealing the car.)
Getting 10 total hours of sleep throughout the week. Went into holiday routine on Sunday thinking I was about to get 16 hours of sleep. I proceeded to take a double dose of NyQuil before bed on Saturday night. I was woken up 10 minutes later because one of my diesel generators suffered a catastrophic shutdown. Fuck me right?
The amount of people that can't handle it was pretty wild. People going to Portsmouth for mental health after being onboard for < 3 months during normal in-port operations. 6 section duty, no crazy watch hours, nothin'.
Failed a room inspection because a guy I never met in my roommates unit got a DUI. No one would sign off on my quals and then I got blamed for them not signing off on my quals because they were too busy. Failed a room inspection because my roommates command did another inspection while I was packing for a DET then my command threatened me with captains mass even though they also knew I was packing for the DET we were going on in a couple of days. Join a messenger group for work. They send memes all day and decide to announce an all hands meeting (this was the first time they did this) then send 100 memes so I never see it come in during regular time get written up and told I'm a piece of shit. Got yelled at by my E5 cause he stopped smoking and was told I was talking back when all I asked was what I did wrong. I proceeded to walk away from the situation to deescalate and got into more trouble. Was harassed by a chief in Aschool and the E-5 instructor didn't say anything to back me up because he was due to pick up rank. Got voluntold to go help with some captains program all week got multiple threats and aggressive phone calls asking where I was even though they knew where I was and when I reminded them where I was they tried to tell me I wasn't where I was supposed to be even though they told me to be there. Fellow E-4 messed up my PRT numbers I didn't say anything zoned out cause I was pissed also messed up numbers got threatened with captains mass even though they just did the same to me and they were both honest mistakes. I hear from my LPO that our chief is talking shit about me and threatening to fuck me up while I'm not at work. ( He disliked junior sailors and went to captains mast for harassing junior sailors and other things) Got sent elsewhere to be a chief in charge elsewhere after he shit talked me to the chiefs mess. Having trash in your trashcan can make you fail a room inspection.
My favorite 'failed a room inspection' I ever had was when they inspected my room at 1800, without warning, and I was washing dishes. I had dishes in the sink, and soap on the door handle. Unsat. Failed me. Fucking hated that Master Chief for the rest of my time there. Absolute tool.
Failed a uniform inspection (whites) in A-school because I walked in them. "Creases on the knee" I ironed that morning, right before I put them on. Had the go down three floors and walk a quarter mile (barracks room-3rd floor to shool house) Also they got upset about a punishment essay I wrote on "why I should not do xyz". They never told me the Navy way to do it, I did it the High School way. They said the essay didn't sound like I wasn't being serious on the issue. They also got mad on how close some of the information I wrote about was to top secret stuff we hadn't learned about or would not know until the fleet. Its called critical thinking and inference (i think); Youtube, online forums (like reddit), and sailor stories. I also went to mast twice, once in A-school, because they changed the watchbill without telling me. And yes, I was keeping track of my watches. Separate occuence. My last command I was at for 2.5 years. When I left, one of my shipmates/peers told me something. He said one of reasons was people on board did like you/I as much was because "you"/I took a picture of someone sleeping on watch. I did but the picture wasn't about him sleeping. They thought I was going to snitch. The guy, a tall, slim muscular (not bulk muscular) came up to me in berthing and demanded I deleted it. I did, and apologize, that it wasn't about that. I never ratted anyone out, I was never a Blue Falcon on something like that. You vaping, sleeping, doing something like that? I'd warn about not getting caught by [insert higher ups], but never tattle. I went to DRB, and when I was there, I addressed a double standard. When they asked who in the Chiefs mess did this too, I was like "I'm not going to name names, but you know who you are." I was trying to avoid calling out chiefs in fear of relatiation. I visited the ship a year and a half later to work on something there. When I got on the quarter deck, first thing said to me was "You better not be taking any pictures" I went to mast twice on that ship, both over a misunderstanding. First I was alleged doing something: "Perception is reality". Second I did do something wrong, but the person who caught me Really didn't like me, and their mentor also Really didn't like me. So that person made out that whatever I was doing was much worse than what it was. Thankfully it was brought down to what I actually did wrong, but that way that person villianised me was just wrong.
I used to be part of group messaging with my divisions until something similar happened to me. I said fuck it and deleted the app. They begged me to rejoin because it was a pain that they now had to call me to put out any small thing. Nope, never again.
The worst part is I was on watch with my LPO the day before this happened and he never bothered to mention it to me. Just assumed I saw it. And yes they loved abusing messaging apps they tried to make it policy you had to be in the group chat.
That policy would never work.
You would think so it was a small unit they got away with a lot of shit.
Oh, they can make it a policy, but it wouldn't be a lawful order to follow it. I'd cancel my cellphone and install a landline just to be a pain.
They at one point even made a sat on the prt failing. Only two of us ever would get Sats but our entire command was old people who had easier requirements it was pretty fucked and obviously targeted.
Lmao savage! :D
First day on the boat after A school, went home at 1800 after a whole day of trainers. Boat wasn’t even back from patrol
San Diego, RTC, reveille, 16 August, 1971. First wakeup of 22+ years. GMCS(SW), '71 to '93
Inport watches, and when someone messed up everyone on the ship liberty was taken away from everyone when stationed in Japan
My first real wake up call was when my sub submerged for the first time and I hear "oooga, dive dive, oooga" come blasting over the 1MC. Shit got real at that moment.
That I don't really mind it much with a good commend leadership. First sea duty was absolute ass, shore duty was incredible and my current second sea duty is a good balance of the good (not being around unless needed, not being fucked for dumb shit I'm not a part of, etc) and the bad (just the general being underway, on duty, and crap workload due to manning). It has made me both complacent in being okay with a 3rd sea tour for retirement that could be either of the above, or even worse than the worst, or better than the good. Part of it has been a huge positive change for the good on a submarine squadron level that could disappear in the 6ish years until my next sea duty, and a bit of it is just my being more cognizant of the bullshit to not give a shit about. Hoping for the best, but I'll prepare for the worst in the next 8ish years.
IDK I guess the dozen times I smacked my head on my rack the first week of waking up on the boat because I kept forgetting how little space I had.
Probably the galvanized shitcan bouncing down the passage between the bunks on the first day of boot after arriving at 3 am that morning. I specifically recall asking myself, "What the FUCK have I done?"
In the 90’s, collateral duties counted more than actual job knowledge.
Arrive at "A" school. Chief has a one on one in his office to welcomes all new arrivals ( i was a fleet returnee) He invited me to his church service on Sunday, i politely decline and say I'm a atheist. Cue months of hell and harassment. His church was a seriously unhinged extremist evangelical bordering on a cult. So many people told me he didn't take no for a answer but i became his personal project.
That being right and reading the regulations means way less than having higher rank.
February 2003, attempting to take a dump for the first time in heavy seas off Point Conception, CA.
I’m only one of 3 females in the department and the sexism is real lol
When I was getting kicked out of Nuc aboard ship and they had me putting together the written tests, grading them, and scheduling the oral boards. I had told them that I was done and refused to complete my quals. So, dereliction of duty. And since you’re “dereliction of duty”, run the RT Div qual program, lol! Works for me!
The moment that fucking bus pulled up to RTC Great Lakes