He was a lousy POTUS. He & Ford opened the door for state sponsored terrorism. That said Carter despite his many faults brought back Navy traditions under his tenure. February 1977 there were no Bosun whistles, no Crackerjacks, lifers were leaving, people were deserting literally under a policy started under Rummy which was the 31 day AWOL discharge. To his credit all got addressed in Carter's tenure even a decent retention effort. $15-$18K bonus to re-up in 1980 kept a lot of guys in. Carter was also connected directly to the Nuclear Propulsion Program and showed some heroics in his time in the program at Chalk River. That added to POTUS yeah I could see him having a namesake.
A lousy POTUS in most aspects but he seemed to be a good Naval Officer an underling Rickover. Carter like many men left the service going back home to take the roll as head of his family after his dad passed.
Yeah. I know. I served under Carter too, and there was some rot in the Navy at the time, but there was rot everywhere, in all branches, and in society too. I had a great time in the Seventies, but there were a LOT of people who struggled to get by, and the country and military had a general air of decrepitness and depressing disrepair to it.
I detest Carter and all he ever stood for, but like you, I recognize that he served and I don’t find fault with him there, even though I have no idea in what esteem he was held by in the eyes of his peers or the men who served under him. And having worked as a Nuc Med tech for years, I have interest in and have read quite a bit and understand to a better degree than most people the nuclear industry, and I had read accounts of the Chalk River incident. (we learned a lot from that about cleanup, which was why he was there. IIRC, Rickover sent Navy people up there on his own, didn’t consult with anyone)
The USS Jimmy Carter is a bit of a mild running joke, though I would be interested to hear what any of her crew members think.
But the USS Harvey Milk is an abomination.
I have a much higher regard for Gerald Ford than Carter, for a couple of reasons.
I don’t think Ford was ambitious in a presidential sense, and I don’t think he was talented or even very high on the intellectual scale. He was in over his head, and I thought he ran in 1976 because...he felt like it was his duty to do so. Not so with Carter, he wasn’t a dummy, but I don’t think he had a lick of common sense, he was all vinegar and ambition.
Plus, I respect the Hell out of Gerald Ford’s service in WWII. His service on the Monterrey was marked by some real danger and peril, and he acquitted himself well, coming within a few inches of losing his life. Plus, when the SS Mayaguez was hijacked, he took action. At a time when America would scream “No! No more!” going after the Mayaguez would be unpopular, and the military botched it pretty bad from nearly every angle, but I give him credit for making the decision.