Posted on 09/11/2022 1:56:22 PM PDT by rlmorel
My Father was a sailor and my earliest memories are of the Navy, being on bases, seeing sailors in uniform, standing formation, marching in straight lines, counting cadence., doing the manual at arms as one, functioning like a huge living organism with one purpose..."
"...When you say, “right full rudder,” the rudder better come right full or lives could be lost. You think I exaggerate? Constant bearing and decreasing range…what to do? Seconds to decide and lives are at risk. Ask the crews of the USS McCain or USS Fitzgerald, the ones who are still with us, sailors who will never forget the horror of a collision at sea. And, untold thousands who have gone before. The sea is unforgiving and history echoes with its millions lost there..."
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Especially the essence of this passage from the article above:
When you say, “right full rudder,” the rudder better come right full or lives could be lost. You think I exaggerate? Constant bearing and decreasing range…what to do? Seconds to decide and lives are at risk. Ask the crews of the USS McCain or USS Fitzgerald, the ones who are still with us, sailors who will never forget the horror of a collision at sea. And, untold thousands who have gone before. The sea is unforgiving and history echoes with its millions lost there. Add the element of combat or even just rivalry and the danger rises. This is not the place for social experiment. This is not the place for debate on what should happen next. This is not the place for watching out for hurting someone’s feelings or wondering what pronoun to use. I speak from experience as one with thousands of hours at sea on the bridge. I speak from the experience of a dangerous and once highly classified tracking of a Soviet Yankee-class submarine for five days nonstop during the Cold War. I speak from the experience of conning a damaged ship for five days up the East Coast being chased by a hurricane…. you know, that fun following seas action. It takes shipmates, competent shipmates with unquestioning obedience and quick action to survive those waters. It takes a crew that literally and figuratively are pulling on the same end of the rope..."
Ping to article about Woke Navy.
I mourn with you for the terrible damage done to our services by flakes not fit to polish our duty boots (no one else touches the Class A’s). It may be considered fascist but they’ve justified Robert Heinlein’s proposal to make full citizenship dependent on service. Not doing so has led to this crap.
At Annapolis, 13 separate affinity groups are listed including Black Studies, Chinese culture, and Native American cultures. A whole month is devoted to “pride” of those attracted to the same sex while ignoring the 70% of the straight, Christian members who abhor what their faith teaches is wrong. That is not how you promote unity. Demeaning the faith of a majority of the military is both wrong and stupid.
and there it is...
We were dead in the water because of heavy fog. A merchant ship decided they would ignore the fog and came within feet of ramming into us.
Times have changed. Patriots are still patriots, our republic is bleeding...
I hear you, FRiend...
This is just nauseating.
Which is exactly the point of this excellent piece.
And what classes were bumped for that garbage? I thought movies where the protagonists kept needing their therapist’s advice were comedies but I fear we have an entire generation of officers just as wussified. (I get extra credit for replacing the ‘P’ with a ‘W’.)
The slippery slope started when they allowed women on ships with men.
Good Lord. My wife and I went on a Windjammer Cruise off the coast of Maine a few years back, one other couple, and the Captain and Mate.
On the morning we were returning, early morning was a thick, peas soup fog, but the sun, as it rose, could be seen above us, and we were in the center of a “cylinder” of clear zone in that blanket of fog.
The ship didn’t have a horn, so the mate stood near the bowsprit, blowing a party horn at intervals!
Then...we heard a boat. Probably a lobster boat by the sound of it. The growl of its Diesel engine getting louder and louder.
It sounded like it was coming straight for us, and I will say, it was a bit frightening.
Then, about fifty yards in front of us, the lobster boat broke into the cylinder of fog free area, and passed perpendicular in front of us, the white bow wave standing out.
I can’t imagine being on a large ship, and seeing another large ship appear out of the fog like that anc seeing a ghostly apparition like that appear, coming right for you.
I would want to make sure I had my brown pants on.
That is part of what is painful-they are still out there. You can still talk with patriots.
But everyone seems somewhat helpless to stop this insanity.
If I were in the Merchant Marine, I wouldn’t have as much of an issue with that.
I am dead set against having male/female crews on warships. All warships are potential combat areas, and I don’t think woman should be permitted in combat, and have plenty of valid reasons.
But, “that ship has sailed”. It is a done deal, and nothing can be done about it.
You were likely lost in the radar clutter and it could not ‘see’ you.
Used to be a time when a naval career could be derailed by even a simple mistake or lapse in judgment. When I served in the Marine Corps, it seemed an impossibly high standard but most of us ended up living up to it. It certainly kept us all on our toes.
Yes.
On the flight line at Whiting Field {long ago and far away - Fall of 1961 to be precise} was a small Blue & Gold sign setting forth naval aviation's modified statement of the rule, to wit, 'The sky, like the sea, is not inherently dangerous, it is merely unforgiving'. The fatality rate during the nine months I was there underscored the point - even for a nineteen year old MarCad who considered such events to be Naval Air Breaks.
Whiting Field?
Was that the one in south Alabama?
But realistically someone would have pushed my temper over in all that time PC was invading and I understand Leavenworth sucks. Just as well LOL.
IIRCC, couldn't drop a paint bomb on the Alabama line but Brewton AL couldn't have been more than 25 or 30 miles north of Whiting. The place was wall to wall T-28s, Bs & Cs. North Field [VT-2} was fam and aerobatics and South Field {VT-3} was formation, gunnery, instruments and done. Then down to VT-5 at Saufley for carquals. After that I went to Kingsville, TX for advanced training and wings in Dec 62.
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