It’s certainly not the Navy I did my four years in. I haven’t seen it written but I wonder if the proliferation of cell phones and the hand-held devices that hook you right up to the internet and facebook/twitter etc. might be to blame for the seemingly lax state of readiness. Hard to mind your watch tasks when you are constantly posting and reading facebookers with their pictures of kids, pets, cars, morning dumps, half eaten sandwiches and whatever else they put on there. It was a big deal when we got mail call every second or fifth day out at sea. Of course guys would re-read every letter from mom/wife/girlfried and sometimes on watch. But there was no buzzing or ringing phone or lit-up screen to distract you. Halfway through my first WestPac, it was a big deal to be able to car my mom in Pennsylvania on a payphone along the seawall on the Wanchai side of Hong Kong. The conversation was clear as an Alexander Graham Bell and cost my parents $16.00 for the half hour. This was in ‘69. If I were CNO I’d be thinking long and hard about imposing severe restrictions on personal communications devices and internet access.
I agree 100% and I have also wondered if that has any effect. I was a letter writing machine at sea (if you didn’t write any letters...you didn’t get any letters)
I have also assumed that it would be strictly and completely verboten to have a laptop, tablet, or phone on any kind of watch, no matter what (unless it was some desk watch in a building while ashore or something) but I don’t know anything about that.
I wonder if some other Freepers who have more recent experience could enlighten us.
There also seems to be unverified statements going around that Navy ships at sea no longer have exterior deck watch lookouts, and I simply refuse 100% to believe that unless someone can verify that with evidence. But that is the nature of the Internet now, people are repeating that, without evidence, in a number of threads.
On a lighter side, how I remember buying those rolls of quarters...and the “dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...” as you entered them in, all the while there might be someone on the other end going “Hello? Hello! Hello?”
Hehehehe...then in the middle of the discussion the recording “Please add another dollar twenty five to continue the conversation...”
Don’t miss that. You know what I do miss, though? Wanting to be home so bad I could taste it! Actually, not the actually wanting to be home, but the way the anticipation racked up the experience so far, you couldn’t help but have fun. I just talked to someone recently who said that when I came home, nobody slept for the entire time I was home, because I wouldn’t let them!
“””I haven’t seen it written but I wonder if the proliferation of cell phones and the hand-held devices that hook you right up to the internet and facebook/twitter etc. might be to blame for the seemingly lax state of readiness.”””
Your comment has merit.
The Fitzgerald was near Oshima and Toshima Islands when the collision occurred. Were the Fitzgerald sailors distracted by making their last smart phone calls to friends back home before losing cellular service for an extended period of time?
The McCain was approaching Singapore when the collision occurred. Were the McCain sailors distracted by making their first smart phone calls to friends back home after having no cellular service for an extended period of time?
Smart phones are addictive.
We have all witnessed people having a ‘smart phone hit’ when airplanes touch down and passengers immediately power up their smart phone to check messages.