Hey! I was on the Kennedy at that time too! We had to be shipmates!
I must say-I was alarmed and a little frightened by a display Captain Tuttle put on one time.
Before I continue, I will say-he had plenty of good reason to be as angry as he was, but IMO, it was not the place for his performance. It was extremely poor leadership. Even if he was justified, he should never have done what he did.
I was in a squadron, and some guys were discovered smoking pot on the ship. I even heard a rumor that a couple of them went on the flight deck while high. (If I had known that, I would have ratted them out, no questions asked. But people thought I was a narc anyway, I was so straight-laced with respect to drugs in those days) I still cannot believe they did that, but now, who knows.
Anyway, he got our squadron lined up in the hangar bay, and absolutely went insane. His eyes were bulging, and he had spittle coming out of his mouth as he screamed.
I remember feeling real fear.
I thought “Mother of God. This is the Captain of one of the most powerful ships in the world, with nuclear weapons aboard, and he is completely become unhinged! WTF!”
He had lost control of himself, IMO.
I could absolutely see him doing this behind closed doors, and he had damn good reason to. But doing it in front of everyone, the world...well, that isn’t what a Captain does.
That’s poor leadership, and not what you want from the Captain of a ship.
With the passing years, my conviction has only grown deeper.
I was an Airedale too...
The same day I was in line behind him at chow, a snipe hole opened up, and out popped the pastiest white dude, with hair about down to his shoulders... He closed and sealed the snipe hole, turned around and was face to face with the captain.
Jerry just looked at him and said, Get your ass to the barber shop.
I served on a slightly newer aircraft carrier(CVN 68) The commanding officers(CO and XO) were top notch. I went through a couple of them while on board. That said, at the departmental level, that wasn’t necessarily the case. I had an outgoing departmental head (Lt. Commander) tell me to lay low because the new incoming department head was an asshole. One of the best piece of advice I received from a boss ever...