Carrier on PBS

[hausdok]

Hi All,

I hope some of you watched, or are watching, Carrier on PBS tonight. I just watched the first segment and the second is just starting. Man, I'm a ground pounder, but this show makes one pretty damned proud of the men and women in our Navy. If you don't watch it, you're missing a huge opportunity to learn something about the grit that is America.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[qhinspect]

I laughed when I heard some of the crew describe their experience as an extended high school.

When you have 18, 19 and 20 year olds that are the majority of such a powerful ship, there has to be order. I give the most credit to the people that can control this type of crew.[:-thumbu]

[hausdok]

Hi,

Yeah, but it's not just the 18 to 20 year olds. Most folks in the military go in young and mature in the military so they tend to continue that behavior the older they get; even the noncoms. When they talk about "work hard - play hard" that's exactly what they're referring to. Everyone is trained to do his job and is expected to know how to do the job of the persons immediately above him or below him in his chain of command, so work time is exactly that; they've got a job to do and they do it and anyone slackin' get a rope snapped in his ass real quick.

What's tough is bottling them all up in that small space for months without a means for them to vent, and then trying to keep them from kicking the crap out of each other when they're tired and tempers are short. Back during Desert Storm we had a whole friggin cruise ship in Bahrain that everyone dubbed "The Love Boat" where we'd rotate troops for 3-day R & R's. That ship was the only place in the gulf that a troop could get openly shit-faced on alcohol and even those who normally didn't drink usually came back from there with hangovers. It worked though, it gave them someplace to vent and someplace to look forward to venting; kind of like liberty call in a port for that ship.

That's where the camaraderie of the "play hard" part helps; troops are more likely to listen to and respect a firm supervisor that they view as one of them than they are a prig who's got a rule book crammed up his ass. Noncoms are critical in that regard because officers are literally forbidden to openly fraternize with enlisteds. Oh sure, they can play sports with them at the gym or have a friendly conversation about most any topic, and even make a courtesy call on a troop's party have one drink and leave but they aren't allowed to buddy up.

Remember the one guy who explained the officers as being the idea guys, the troops as the doers, and the noncoms as the guys who get the doers to do it? That's exactly how it works and it works well. That Command Master Chief is the equivalent of an army Sergeant Major and is the most feared and most loved guy on that whole ship. I bet that'll come out before the series ends.

By the way, I see that Mike B. has been having a little bit of fun. Some of you folks should pass your cursor over your avatars.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[ozofprev]

Just hypothetically, mind you...

It doesn't mean you're a wimp if your eyes secrete some sort of saline solution while watching this show, right?

Hypothetically!

[Bob White]

Originally posted by hausdok

. . . .

What's tough is bottling them all up in that small space for months without a means for them to vent, and then trying to keep them from kicking the crap out of each other when they're tired and tempers are short. . . . .

Mike

0f course it's been a long time since I served, and I maintain all the respect in the world for these young people who serve (I even refrain from calling them "skimmer pukes" anymore), but, having served in the submarine force, I can't see where they're being "bottled up."

Let's put them in a steel tube and sink them for a coupla months, and then see how well they get along.....[:-crazy]

Seriously, though, these kids do an amazing job under some tough circumstances.

[hausdok]

I agree,

Can't be as tough as the submariners have it; that's for sure.

If it does, I guess I'm kind of a wimp, Gary.

The thing I liked about this military documentary - more than all others - is that most of it was centered on the junior enlisted men and women. It always ticks me off to see the media try to do some piece about the military, that's supposed to make people understand what things are like for troops, and then 95% of the folks they interview and center on are very junior or very senior officers with hardly a mention of an enlisted man or woman.

Ya couldn't help feeling bad for that young seaman at the end being dumped by that girl when she was carrying his kid and all he'd done for six months at sea was look forward to the day that he could be back with her again and be a new Daddy. I wanted to reach into the TV and throttle that pea-brained twit of a girl.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike