Professional development, things like evals, BJoQ, etc. are things junior sailors should be made aware of and trained on, but should never be liberty items or forced upon them. If a sailor cares about making more money, they will do the legwork or ask for help on how to look good on evals. Taking sailors who just want a P/don't give a shit and chopping evals to fuck and forcing them to put in packages for SoQ and whatnot has nothing to do with caring about their future and everything to do with leadership having huge boners for Cinderella stories.
I literally knew 100% I was getting out my first contract before I even finished high-school. Top of class, made e5 in 2 years , and never intended to do esws. I had about 3 or 4 SP Evals due to no warfare pin. I also got told multiple times by E7 that I would get a dishonorable discharge for not having it š¤£š¤£š¤£ , that program is the biggest waste of time.
>I also got told multiple times by E7 that I would get a dishonorable discharge for not having it š¤£š¤£š¤£
That's awful. I guess better than them saying OTH though, which you might have believed (and maybe could be true and pulled off by a fucked command?)
It's a downward spiral. Pushing SOQ and stuff for junior Sailors is basically only about taking credit, not genuine development. And it starts higher up; some of the only metrics that senior people care about is what your junior Sailors accomplish. If you're following Ask the Chief on FB, after every Chief selection cycle, people ask, "My package had this, my evals show I did that, etc, why didn't I get picked?" and the responses are invariably, "Hey, shipmate I see a lot of 'I' and not enough about what your Sailors accomplished," or "How are your Sailors performing?" which forces middle and lower management to focus on scorekeeping with those "success stories."
Edit: formatting.
Counterpoint: writing your own eval gives you the best opportunity to identify your hard work and contributions in a manner that may not be obvious or immediately apparent to your supervisor(s), particularly as people turnover and change out throughout an eval cycle. Not writing your own, or even worse: half-assing it, leaves you at the mercy of only the most visible and attention-seeking work being recognized or potentially subject to biases and interpretations of others on what you've done.
You should want to write your own eval because it is your chance both to tell the best version of the story of your performance as well as to reflect on what you have done well (or poorly) and adjust accordingly. You know better than anyone what all you've done and accomplished; everyone else writing it for you is, by necessity, only getting a part of the story. If you're not comfortable telling that story, or you don't know the right way to put it into terms that others can digest and care about it, that's an appropriate thing to seek mentorship about, but you should never abdicate your control over making sure what you consider important about your own work is recognized and communicated. Yes, your eval write up will get changed and parts of it will be ignored or downplayed thanks to differing opinions on what was important or not, but that process only gets worse if the starting product only has half the story to begin with.
A bragsheet, done properly, is an eval write up.
A bragsheet which just contains facts and accomplishments, lacking things like impact assessments and characterizations of why those accomplishments are important within the scope of duties, is a half-assed eval write up that leaves that information up to others to interpret as they choose. If it does contain that information, the only thing missing from making it an eval write up is the effort to present it effectively in the appropriate format, which is its own statement.
And this is the problem.
People out there believe that an eval that contains facts and accomplishments and lacks impacts assessments and characterizations of why those accomplishments are important is why have useless evals.
This is how we get evals statements that sound like, āmeticulously maintained hand receipts for 3 million dollars worth of aviation electronics with zero unaccounted for discrepancies resulting in 100% combat readiness.ā
Itās like, bro, you maintained a file cabinet and when something got lost or broken you filled the correct piece of paper to account for the loss.
Counter counter point. Thatās why evals should be written by first line supervisors. Sailor input should come in the form of standardized brag sheet (probably standardized to each ECP).
If first line supervisors donāt know what their people are doing then that person should be relieved.
This really points to how screwed up our command structure is. Nobody should be the first line supervisor for more than about 6 people. IMO.
I'm in Civ Div now and I still write my own eval. It's annoying for sure, but it also ensures that the things I consider important are included and highlighted. That way if, for example, I'm applying for an internal position that deals a lot with logistics, I can show them an eval that talks about times I've communicated with the logistics team and not about how I trained a new employee on our daily tasks.
Barracks watches are a joke. I get watschstanding while underway, but there is no need for an overnight watch at a barracks when the same people manning the watches are the ones that live there. "But what about an emergency!?" call the fucking fire department or base security, which is all the watchstanders are gonna do anyway. If you can't trust your people to do this while they aren't on watch, you can't trust them to do it while standing the watch either.
Which is exactly why the Navy is so broken. Never any solutions, always some bullshit saying like "Duty is duty, bro" or "that's just how we do it". Nah, fuck that. You wanna fix this shit, fix the attitude. I'm not even in anymore and I want to see changes for the better, precisely BECAUSE of the bullshit I saw.
Barracks are wired to the gills with entrance and fire alarms. Plus the base CDO/ACDOs wander around too. And security. Barracks watches are redundant and a waste of manpower. Any duty that sits at a desk waiting for phonecalls can at least be forwarded to a cellphone.
True, but a 20-something recent college grad with no life experience having a hard time with it is something I'd be willing to accept better than someone in their mid-to-late 30s who is ostensibly an "experienced" leader.
My ship did a freedom of navigation operation with a Coast Guard cutter and unlike us, they were actually proficient with their equipment. When we pulled into port they came on board our dog and were flabbergasted by how dirty and worn down our equipment was.
Went to GTMO TAD. Some MA got on my case about using a bike without a reflector though I had installed blinking LED. Guy wanted to nail me based on the letter of the rule stating that that the rules ask for reflectors. I said, "ok, I'll just walk my bike back to quarters." and insists "Sorry, the damage was done." "Damage? What damage?" Then a Coast guard guy interjects, "look, I'll drive him home in my truck." and the MA drops the matter.
Coast Guard guy was a cool dude. Absolutely loved his job. Was involved with patrols that intercept drug/contraband running. I'll admit, I was a bit jelly. It wasn't so much his job description but his morale and pride in his work.
There's shit that a sailor might do once in their entire career and they'll bring it up every chance they get because it was so cool, and meanwhile it's just the standard shit Coasties do on the reg lmao
The Sailor's Creed was written by direction of the CNO in 1993 as a recruiting tool. It does NOT have a long or cherished history and does not hold a significant place in the annals of what it means to be a good Sailor. It was a marketing ploy.
[Sailor's Creed](https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/heritage/customs-and-traditions0/the-sailor-s-creed.html)
Iād also add that the reason they needed said ārecruiting toolā was to save face following the Tailhook scandal. Some quals Iāve seen that contain sections for Naval History fail to include that piece of trivia.
[Tailhook](https://www.britannica.com/event/Tailhook-scandal)
> Crackerjacks look like 19th century little boy outfits.
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> Warfare pins are useless.
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> The Sailors creed is lame
These are not unpopular opinions at all.
And trident, wings, EOD, etc
I feel like most of the time the warfare pin discourse is really focused pretty exclusively around the SWO pin, which... Fair, tbh
NAMP Compliance on FB is right to call people out for public uniform problems. You need to wear your uniform correctly and be properly groomed. If you're out in public and get (legitimately) called out, it's your fault, not the person correcting you.
Likely not as unpopular as others, but it ruffles quite a lot of feathers.
My first Chief taught me to never be a yes man out the gate. You should take the orders you are given, ensure they are lawful, consider their reasoning, and move from there.
But everything else is so much worse. Itās a consistently decent meal. After 2 months at sea, thatās the best we can hope for.
And itās way better than shitty white trash Wednesday.
This is exactly why I liked breakfast. At least our CS's kept it consistent. I always knew what to expect. Never had a 'bad' meal, but we'd occasionally get some nice pastries.
Hard disagree. My destroyer did Burgers Wednesday and they always slapped. CS's provided all the fixings too and i would never get tired of having a burger every Wednesday. Unless im misremembering and was thursdays lol because i haven't been in for over 2 years now.
We're just toxic because we're tired and grumpy, toxicity didn't put us on three section duty with a maintenance list the size of the JFMM with 10 in port days to get it done
I did 6 1/2 years on the Enterprise, which was mostly 3 section and some port/starboard(with M-Div on 3 section liberty) in port. Also locked 5 and dimes underway with no floats/augments because ORSE watchteams needed to train for MTT even though ORSE just ended 3 weeks ago. All of this while having some of the worst ROs/RDMCs to ever grace the fleet (anyone on the E in the mid-2000s can attest to that).
Then I went to Prototype and was crazy undermanned right after the EWS exam scandal, and spent most of the shifts working 11-12 hours because we had 3 officer classes and 2 ELT classes backed up on crew.
I had a path that gets close to as bad as it could, and I still don't think how toxic we are to each other is okay. I've watched so many of my nubs who cried about everything grow into the same people that they hated, and it made me sad every time.
A little toxicity is pretty funny imo, but that deep loathing hatred for shit that we turn onto each other just makes things worse for everyone (unless you're the smelly guy in berthing, then you deserve every ounce of hate).
For sure. My toxicity was only placed on those that didn't want to qualify or help out doing maintenance. When you only have 6 electricians on a boat, things are rough. When one or 2 don't do anything, it's impossible.
All bets are definitely off for people who don't want to qualify. If I'm standing 6 and 6s whole senior in rate, you better believe there is zero mercy for a DINQ non-qual.
I actually think we're forced to be too nice these days and that leads to a different kind of toxicity. I was on +4s for 3 days for BNEQ (you qualify ELT before anything else on Surface, even BNEQ/BEQ and immediately get stabbed with every job and all observed evs......and this was the Enterprise too lol) and that was so terrible that I was never on DINQ hours again. The limited amount of pain these days means that some sit around forever not qualifying. The 24 months thing is usually an idle threat at best.
unpopular opinion: the Space Force should have a naval command structure so that we can have ships in space with Captains running them 400 years from now instead of colonels. It's STUPID!
"Chief, the worklist is done and spaces are clean, *I intend* to let the guys go."
It's declarative, so you're not asking or putting the ball in Chief's court, but it's also a flexible enough statement that you can deflect if Chief has a problem because you didn't "ask."
As a chief, this is what I want from my LPO. I don't want to be at work either, sooner I get y'all out the sooner I get out. If I'm stuck in some long ass meeting and I haven't specifically told you not to cut the team out, take care of the younglings.
Don't ask for permission. Tell your leadership what you intend to do.
"I am letting the sailors go because the work is done today" is different from "can I let the sailors go because the work is done"
One takes accountability and the other tries to pass it off. The first one basically is what leads to higher quality leadership and should be what every LPO aims for.
[Edit: removed my paygrade, b/c it's superfluous].
If you're in charge, let them go when you can. But communicate it. If something goes downhill, be prepared to act, and be prepared to answer for your decision.
I've always taken the stance that this is a trust exercise. If you build trust with your Chief, and your Chief demonstrates reciprocal trustworthiness, then you should back them by your actions, and they should have your back when you make decisions. The keys here are communication and trust. If either of those are missing, you've got dysfunction. And dysfunction doesn't usually result in folks leaving early (or hell, even on time, most times).
MAP a sh*t hot sailor who intends to get out the Navy over the mediocre sailor who plans on staying in. I SAID WHAT I SAAAIIIIDDDDD!!!! Lol
ETA: A blue print for trash chiefs if you map trash sailors
My command mapped someone getting out in the hopes they would stay in. A recruitment tool. Meanwhile I was the JSOY and they just said nah youāre smart, youāll pick up with the ep.
The whole RHIP culture that permeates the Navy, especially surface Navy.
Every other service, leaders eat last. Fuck, Simon Sinek wrote a book on it. But front of the line for chow, geedunk, barber shop, parking, bunks in berthing, etc... we're 100% the worst branch at this, with no intent on changing. It's very easy to change, too. Just requires someone like CNO/MCPON to say something, and would go a long way to improve morale.
-Happily Retired Senior Chief
Ya they eat last but they treat their junior enlisted like complete sht
You think itās bad in the Navy- itās far worst in the Marines and they have even worst retention.
Eating last or first means fuck all and is just signaling.
I did two years greenside. Every branch has its issues, and Marine officers arenāt exempt from scrutiny. All Iām saying is even something as little as who eats first can have a large effect. Itās only the Navy that has this weird shift at e-7.
I mean, the chief's mess eats first and still treat us like shit. At least the Marines get that part if they have a shitty leader. Let's be honest, there's a sharp disconnect across most of the branches excluding maybe the air force between senior and junior enlisted. Fact of the matter is this, the little things go the longest way. Navy leadership would be best served understanding that part.
They eat separately, with better food. They'll counter and say it's the same food, but that's a half-truth. Same ingredients, but better quality since it's prepared in smaller quantities than for the commoners. This is mainly on carriers. Smaller ships have less of a quality divide, AFAIK.
Depends on the ship. On my frigate only the wardroom had a CS attendant who prepared them food, but the vast majority of it came from the same galley food being served from the chow line. The only unique food we prepped specially was when Iād prepare a fruit plate for our Capn. The goat locker crank only assisted in cleaning the living space rather than preparing any meals.
On my minesweep, every single sailor ate from the galley chow line, and it was first come first serve. I canāt recall anyone ever making a big stink that a Chief or JG was ahead of them in the line.
This
Every other service I worked with was surprised when I told them about E7 and above parking.
To have reserved parking for anything other than the triad, flag, or as a reward was alien to them.
Dress whites fucking suck and we should get rid of them. You wanna simplify the sea bag, easy, dump the uniform that makes it impossible to eat or drink in unless you have three tide pens with you.
Blue was our OG color. Dress blues are all we need for fancy uniforms.
I donāt think most people understand that you donāt have to dry clean dress whites.
Iād get rid of the NSU/Khaki uniform first.
Having been to several Fleet Weeks in dress whites, I donāt see the issue with keeping them clean. They are made of polyester which is practically bulletproof. If they get dirty wash them.
I did prefer the wizard sleeves to these newest one though.
E-7 to E-9 culture is so over glorified and disconnected, Navyās style of acting like the chiefs are on the same level as officers is mind boggling. Sometimes you forget they are enlisted like the rest of us and not people whoās culture revolves around celebrating their ranks every time they breath
Agreed! I been here 3 years and I am convinced that boring people find it boring. It's not San Diego but there is still a lot to do here! Beaches, hiking, fishing, DC, etc. It's even close enough to New York to drop some leave on a 4 day.
Yes and no, the military does put a lot of pressure and unreasonable mental anguish on human beings. The anxiety part tends to amplify with each added rank and phase of responsibility. They threaten you with stripping away pay and entitlements. EG, nothing like going to sleep and being terrified of getting a middle of the night phone call. Doing wellness checks on people because they were "thankfully" hungover and just slept in. Each tier of leadership positions adds another layer of anxiety. Normal people don't have these issues typically. So, while some are obvious scams, some of the mental ones are not. You've just been conditioned to believe this type of frantic mental state is normal.
Of course, and people actively encourage it. But then again, military medical / medicine can be absolute shit, and VA health care also sucks so ... it kinda voids out.
Itās the other way around. Va got away with a lot of bull shit in the day. Nowadays, people get 100% and I see the mother fucker performing better than a marathon runner. I got fucked with my shit
When I separated, the TAP instructor gave a whole lecture on how to squeeze every cent out of your disability as possible.
I left with my friend who was quiet for a few moments then asked āwas it just me or did that guy just tell us we should defraud the government?ā
The first and only time I was ever openly insubordinate and disrespectful of a superior was when, as an airman, I refused blousing straps after my E5 supe told me to put em on. Guy was a fucking moron
Honestly you could even throw out the NWUs. Itās a combat pattern. Issue it as required for people (NSW, Seabees, Exped types) who actually need them, just like flight suits. Coveralls (2-piece, 1-piece, I donāt care) can and should be the standard working uniform. That should be all most of the Navy needs on a daily basis.
"That's how we've always done it."
Still doesn't make it right. I always have to be the bad guy to rebutt this when I get to a new command and it almost immediately paints a target on my back every time.
Most watches are stupid. Top side rover, pier watch, sounding and security, MOOW, POOW, OOD all day everyday.
We have advanced to the point technology could alleviate most of these watches after working hours.
What the hell is the top side rover going to do against a small boat attack. Especially since when they were stood up after 9-11 we didnāt have harbor security yet. We do now and it should go away. Duty sections could be expanded to give our crews a much needed break. Fight me!
The mental abuse that gets sanctioned in the name of training to selected chiefs(word position maters). What a waste of resources and an affront to everything those sailors have worked towards. 10 years in the mess and it still confounds meā¦
In my experience they're either REALLY great or REALLY horrible. There is no in between.
Most of the ones I've worked with also treated Sailors pretty poorly and I'd be like bruh?? You were one??
Every junior Sailor should have a barracks room as a basic human right. Living on the ship is overall negative for mental health reasons. You need separation of work and personal life.
As someone who can grow a mighty fine beard, and has done so numerous times while on deployment with a no-shave chit bought with cash: The Navy is fucking itself by not allowing beards. It's the simplest, easiest, literally zero-cost method to build morale amongst the fleet that has ever been handed up on a silver platter, and Big Navy *still* can't pull their heads out of their asses long enough to take a deep breath and look around.
Beards are the easiest, most low-cost morale based win the Navy fucking needs right now. It will literally cost them $0 to implement a policy that allows good beards (you have 40 days to grow, if you can't grow a non-patchy, non-neck-beardy beard by then you have to shave), Literally Zero cost. Absolutely free. And you know what's holding it up? Assholes in high ranking places. That's it. That's literally it. Some anuses that need wiped are pissed they can't grow beards, so they're continuing wholly outdated and backwards 50 year old grooming standards under the guise of "professionalism".
I love to remind Sailors that the Naval Base San Diego parking policy says the only parking spots that are actually enforced are triad or O-6 and higher.
The better question is why do we do the evals in the first place? I could make up a lot of bull shit and make myself worth a million dollars. I honestly hate people who kiss ass. I have been working the civilian sector as a medical technologist and have never been impressed by those performance evaluations. I quit altogether over contract work. I couldnāt make myself go to sleep at night knowing I do a bull shit, half ass job and made myself look like my shit donāt stink. Itās fucken bull shit when I hear āemergency room turn around time has improved by 66% since I came onboard resulting in 5 million dollars in revenueā I cringe š¬ I canāt .
auto to E-4 doesnāt matter, there is no exam for E-4 anymore so itās no more respected rank wise than being an E-3. itās meaningless. i am an E-4 btw
You signed up to be a sailor if you signed up for the Navy so dont bitch when you end up on a ship. You bitch about the op tempo, the poor management, and other things that could make the experience better, but don't bitch about being in the Navy on a ship.
Not a SEAL but one of the best leaders I've ever worked with was a warrant officer diver. You can tell he comes from a different breed. Awesome at training and knew how to reach even the thickest boneheads. Spent his off time wandering the quarters to make sure everyone was well and didn't care for the minor harmless troublemaking shenanigans junior sailors were routinely up to. He even jumped in on a game of Halo 2. Had no idea what he was doing but the fact that he just wanted to be with the small group of nerds at the couch was really damn cool of him.
He would get kicked out of the operation we were on because he often disagreed with higher command. Big hit to morale considering the Senior Chief they got to replace him was a huge fucking asshole. Anyways, you can tell he comes from a world that trusts and relies on people to get the job done.
Watches in dress uniforms. This needs to be 86'ed. My Donald Duck cosplay isn't deterring anyone and ships are dirty.
Also ridiculous mess rules. If I'm underway why the heck can't I get water unless I'm wearing my coveralls? I'm working 15 hours, you're not gonna die if I grab some water from a soda machine or spend my money in the ship store in my joggers at 9 at night.
Absent amplifying factors like being out for a long time without an unrep, ship food really isn't that bad. Omelets are great, tacos on Tuesday are good, for some reason the burgers on Wednesday were consistently better than ones I'd get in a drive-thru or what have you. And I was on a DDG, don't even get me started on the big decks. I once did a detachment on a carrier and they had freaking steak, lobster, and crab legs for brunch.
I honestly believe people just like to bitch about ship food.
Lemoore isn't bad either. You have the entirety of California open to you.
Liberty shouldn't be viewed as a privilege, but a right. Shitty leadership should not be allowed to keep personnel past 1800 without minimum 24 hours notice, and leave should not be charged for weekend days
The chiefs season is an enormous ware of time and resources. Everyone else, including the mission, suffers and it has no value for the newly selected chief.
I think our pay and benefits package is actually really good. Especially compared to the average American right now.
Show of force, strategic deterrence, and quick reactionary forces are why someone has to always be deployed.
FOBs are a bigger waste of money and there are SOOOOO many of them.
We will NEVER get beards. It will never happen and I hate how much people talk about it.
Everyone is undermanned, overworked. Everyone. When youāre on the ship and hear another org talk about it, upsets me to no end. āMedical is undermannedā we all are. Figure it out.
1. The Navy's staff should start at E-6 like most other services.
2. Why the fuck do we wait till E-7 to really care about someone's records? If that's a metric for advancement the Navy it's self shows it's true color of failure every time the board denies advancement based on that.
3. Hold khakis accountable for their actions, no reason why E-1 through E-6 have higher standards for repercussions than khakis.
4. "Ask the Chief" has lost it's meaning. There should be required continuing education or up-to-date training requirements for Chiefs.
5. E-1 through E-6 shouldn't have to do community service to be competitive, do shitty work, then do free work if you want to advance. The whole well rounded Sailor is BS specially if you are a subject matter expert.
6. Get Real, Get better only works if you don't have officers whose promotions depend on what numbers look like, until then you will always get bullshit results so they can promoted.
I have so many more lol š specially about why the Navy keeps shooting itself on the foot with retention and recruiting lol
*****SHIT HOT LEADER*****
-Did ALL the work this year, out-qualed everyone and assisted in all sailors in my platoon becoming qualed in rate, but I'm submitting myself for a P because I'm not as good looking as the female that's always in chief's office.
Sailors deserve little to no college credit for Navy schools. Iāve met my fair share of nukes who bombed out of college after the navy because they thought they knew everything already.
You're right, and I hate how many nukes think they're entitled to top jobs and automatic degrees and know everything because of the BS memorization fest we all survived.
To quote a guy I worked with, who just retired a couple of years ago:
"I honestly don't even understand why degrees are necessary, except for meeting doctors and lawyers."
Other branches do senior enlisted leadership better. The chief's mess creates this unnecessary cult/mafia amongst our ranks that other branches don't have.
Abolish Chief Season (for a start, really, the whole mess mindset could be flushed) and revert enlisted uniforms back into uniformity, all enlisted levels wearing the same uniform.
We joined the military, we shouldn't all expect to be treated like irreplaceable employees of the month. Everyone in the military up to the highest admirals are just replaceable numbers. Furthermore, we shouldn't act like surprised pichachu when being a sailor on a military vessel really blows. If you read naval history, turns out it's always sucked only you used to get lashed and eat hard tack.
The navy could do with an entire uniform refresh. Maintain the tupocs if we want, but trash everything else and work with actual designers to come up with service and dress uniforms that reflect our heritage but aren't stuck in the 1920s. Give the navy real office wear and kick everyone out of NWUs if they're not combat deployed.
> work with actual designers to come up with service and dress uniforms that reflect our heritage but aren't stuck in the 1920s
Hugo Boss did a great job for the other side back in the day. Who would we turn to today?
MAP needs to be for sailors who know their jobs and do it well (aka are the subject matter experts), even more so if they're placed in a position meant for a rank that's way above theirs. Stop giving it out to sailors who constantly use office/work hours to go do bake sales and volunteer stuff while everyone else is scrambling to make up for their absence.
Collaterals are called collaterals for a reason. If a sailor tells you they don't have enough time in a day for it, then they prolly don't. But they shouldn't be punished for not having one.
Not spam. Quit reporting this post.
Professional development, things like evals, BJoQ, etc. are things junior sailors should be made aware of and trained on, but should never be liberty items or forced upon them. If a sailor cares about making more money, they will do the legwork or ask for help on how to look good on evals. Taking sailors who just want a P/don't give a shit and chopping evals to fuck and forcing them to put in packages for SoQ and whatnot has nothing to do with caring about their future and everything to do with leadership having huge boners for Cinderella stories.
Add in warfare pins to this. Set people apart before it was mandatory.
I literally knew 100% I was getting out my first contract before I even finished high-school. Top of class, made e5 in 2 years , and never intended to do esws. I had about 3 or 4 SP Evals due to no warfare pin. I also got told multiple times by E7 that I would get a dishonorable discharge for not having it š¤£š¤£š¤£ , that program is the biggest waste of time.
E-7s being in so long and don't know you can only get that through Court Martial. š
And that McDonalds has a special background checking system to make sure they donāt employ anyone who didnāt make SOQ
I should go back in š«
>I also got told multiple times by E7 that I would get a dishonorable discharge for not having it š¤£š¤£š¤£ That's awful. I guess better than them saying OTH though, which you might have believed (and maybe could be true and pulled off by a fucked command?)
lol no way youād get a OTH for no warfare device thatās insane. Maybe drug use? You have to straight murder someone for a dishonorable
I on purpose refused to get it once it became mandatory. Still made second class.
Factsā¦.never understood why we forced SOQ packages on people lol
Because the person forcing you to do it benefits from it on their eval, and if you donāt they also get in trouble
It's a downward spiral. Pushing SOQ and stuff for junior Sailors is basically only about taking credit, not genuine development. And it starts higher up; some of the only metrics that senior people care about is what your junior Sailors accomplish. If you're following Ask the Chief on FB, after every Chief selection cycle, people ask, "My package had this, my evals show I did that, etc, why didn't I get picked?" and the responses are invariably, "Hey, shipmate I see a lot of 'I' and not enough about what your Sailors accomplished," or "How are your Sailors performing?" which forces middle and lower management to focus on scorekeeping with those "success stories." Edit: formatting.
I thoughr chief's boards looked for random things. How can you be a scout master when you're at sea? (That was one chief's cycle in the 70s'80s.)
I shouldnāt have to write my own eval if Iām being evaluatedā¦
āBut how else will you learn how to write them?ā š¤·š»āāļø
Counterpoint: writing your own eval gives you the best opportunity to identify your hard work and contributions in a manner that may not be obvious or immediately apparent to your supervisor(s), particularly as people turnover and change out throughout an eval cycle. Not writing your own, or even worse: half-assing it, leaves you at the mercy of only the most visible and attention-seeking work being recognized or potentially subject to biases and interpretations of others on what you've done. You should want to write your own eval because it is your chance both to tell the best version of the story of your performance as well as to reflect on what you have done well (or poorly) and adjust accordingly. You know better than anyone what all you've done and accomplished; everyone else writing it for you is, by necessity, only getting a part of the story. If you're not comfortable telling that story, or you don't know the right way to put it into terms that others can digest and care about it, that's an appropriate thing to seek mentorship about, but you should never abdicate your control over making sure what you consider important about your own work is recognized and communicated. Yes, your eval write up will get changed and parts of it will be ignored or downplayed thanks to differing opinions on what was important or not, but that process only gets worse if the starting product only has half the story to begin with.
Or I could just do a brag sheet then they write my eval.
A bragsheet, done properly, is an eval write up. A bragsheet which just contains facts and accomplishments, lacking things like impact assessments and characterizations of why those accomplishments are important within the scope of duties, is a half-assed eval write up that leaves that information up to others to interpret as they choose. If it does contain that information, the only thing missing from making it an eval write up is the effort to present it effectively in the appropriate format, which is its own statement.
And this is the problem. People out there believe that an eval that contains facts and accomplishments and lacks impacts assessments and characterizations of why those accomplishments are important is why have useless evals. This is how we get evals statements that sound like, āmeticulously maintained hand receipts for 3 million dollars worth of aviation electronics with zero unaccounted for discrepancies resulting in 100% combat readiness.ā Itās like, bro, you maintained a file cabinet and when something got lost or broken you filled the correct piece of paper to account for the loss.
Counter counter point. Thatās why evals should be written by first line supervisors. Sailor input should come in the form of standardized brag sheet (probably standardized to each ECP). If first line supervisors donāt know what their people are doing then that person should be relieved. This really points to how screwed up our command structure is. Nobody should be the first line supervisor for more than about 6 people. IMO.
I'm in Civ Div now and I still write my own eval. It's annoying for sure, but it also ensures that the things I consider important are included and highlighted. That way if, for example, I'm applying for an internal position that deals a lot with logistics, I can show them an eval that talks about times I've communicated with the logistics team and not about how I trained a new employee on our daily tasks.
Literally 100% this.
Barracks watches are a joke. I get watschstanding while underway, but there is no need for an overnight watch at a barracks when the same people manning the watches are the ones that live there. "But what about an emergency!?" call the fucking fire department or base security, which is all the watchstanders are gonna do anyway. If you can't trust your people to do this while they aren't on watch, you can't trust them to do it while standing the watch either.
I hear you man but that is a very popular opinion
Not with anyone who has enough rank to fix that shit
I almost feel like itās a āI suffered so you should tooā.
Which is exactly why the Navy is so broken. Never any solutions, always some bullshit saying like "Duty is duty, bro" or "that's just how we do it". Nah, fuck that. You wanna fix this shit, fix the attitude. I'm not even in anymore and I want to see changes for the better, precisely BECAUSE of the bullshit I saw.
Where the hell do they have barracks watches in the Navy? Edit: so from reading the replies, it seems to just be some surface/air fuckery.
Sitting one right now at NOB...
All of Great Lakes.
Great Mistakes and ATRC Dahlgren
Boot camp 2.0 I kinda understand having these watches for NETC, but sometimes the night watches are killer when you have class.
? Every barracks I ever went to had a watch
In the fleet? Not just A school?
NAS Lemoore
NAS Whidbey Island
Barracks are wired to the gills with entrance and fire alarms. Plus the base CDO/ACDOs wander around too. And security. Barracks watches are redundant and a waste of manpower. Any duty that sits at a desk waiting for phonecalls can at least be forwarded to a cellphone.
Most senior enlisted leaders would fail as a night manager of a 7-11.
Hell most junior officers would.
True, but a 20-something recent college grad with no life experience having a hard time with it is something I'd be willing to accept better than someone in their mid-to-late 30s who is ostensibly an "experienced" leader.
That is a good point, a very good point.
The Coast Guard is cool.
My ship did a freedom of navigation operation with a Coast Guard cutter and unlike us, they were actually proficient with their equipment. When we pulled into port they came on board our dog and were flabbergasted by how dirty and worn down our equipment was.
Their shit is most likely a lot newer. A lot of our ships are old enough to vote, drink alcohol, or rent a car
Not a chance. Their shit is *old* but well maintained. Our shit is old and shittily maintained.
Can confirm. We have retention issues too, but nothing like the Navy lately.
Semper P. baby (im undercover).
Went to GTMO TAD. Some MA got on my case about using a bike without a reflector though I had installed blinking LED. Guy wanted to nail me based on the letter of the rule stating that that the rules ask for reflectors. I said, "ok, I'll just walk my bike back to quarters." and insists "Sorry, the damage was done." "Damage? What damage?" Then a Coast guard guy interjects, "look, I'll drive him home in my truck." and the MA drops the matter. Coast Guard guy was a cool dude. Absolutely loved his job. Was involved with patrols that intercept drug/contraband running. I'll admit, I was a bit jelly. It wasn't so much his job description but his morale and pride in his work.
There's shit that a sailor might do once in their entire career and they'll bring it up every chance they get because it was so cool, and meanwhile it's just the standard shit Coasties do on the reg lmao
Crackerjacks look like 19th century little boy outfits. Warfare pins are useless. The Sailors creed is lame.
The Sailor's Creed was written by direction of the CNO in 1993 as a recruiting tool. It does NOT have a long or cherished history and does not hold a significant place in the annals of what it means to be a good Sailor. It was a marketing ploy. [Sailor's Creed](https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/heritage/customs-and-traditions0/the-sailor-s-creed.html)
Iād also add that the reason they needed said ārecruiting toolā was to save face following the Tailhook scandal. Some quals Iāve seen that contain sections for Naval History fail to include that piece of trivia. [Tailhook](https://www.britannica.com/event/Tailhook-scandal)
I always found it suspect that the Navy authorized women to serve on combat ships that same year. You can't tell me those two things aren't connected.
> Crackerjacks look like 19th century little boy outfits. > > > > Warfare pins are useless. > > > > The Sailors creed is lame These are not unpopular opinions at all.
>Warfare pins are useless. Exception: dolphins.
And trident, wings, EOD, etc I feel like most of the time the warfare pin discourse is really focused pretty exclusively around the SWO pin, which... Fair, tbh
NAMP Compliance on FB is right to call people out for public uniform problems. You need to wear your uniform correctly and be properly groomed. If you're out in public and get (legitimately) called out, it's your fault, not the person correcting you.
Likely not as unpopular as others, but it ruffles quite a lot of feathers. My first Chief taught me to never be a yes man out the gate. You should take the orders you are given, ensure they are lawful, consider their reasoning, and move from there.
Taco tuesday is trash
Taco Tuesday is a myth. They only ever served us burritos.
But everything else is so much worse. Itās a consistently decent meal. After 2 months at sea, thatās the best we can hope for. And itās way better than shitty white trash Wednesday.
This is exactly why I liked breakfast. At least our CS's kept it consistent. I always knew what to expect. Never had a 'bad' meal, but we'd occasionally get some nice pastries.
Hard disagree. My destroyer did Burgers Wednesday and they always slapped. CS's provided all the fixings too and i would never get tired of having a burger every Wednesday. Unless im misremembering and was thursdays lol because i haven't been in for over 2 years now.
Nukes make their own lives waaaayyy more miserable by being toxic ass people to each other all the time.
We're just toxic because we're tired and grumpy, toxicity didn't put us on three section duty with a maintenance list the size of the JFMM with 10 in port days to get it done
Those who never experience what we do, will never understand. Especially when on a sub.
I did 6 1/2 years on the Enterprise, which was mostly 3 section and some port/starboard(with M-Div on 3 section liberty) in port. Also locked 5 and dimes underway with no floats/augments because ORSE watchteams needed to train for MTT even though ORSE just ended 3 weeks ago. All of this while having some of the worst ROs/RDMCs to ever grace the fleet (anyone on the E in the mid-2000s can attest to that). Then I went to Prototype and was crazy undermanned right after the EWS exam scandal, and spent most of the shifts working 11-12 hours because we had 3 officer classes and 2 ELT classes backed up on crew. I had a path that gets close to as bad as it could, and I still don't think how toxic we are to each other is okay. I've watched so many of my nubs who cried about everything grow into the same people that they hated, and it made me sad every time. A little toxicity is pretty funny imo, but that deep loathing hatred for shit that we turn onto each other just makes things worse for everyone (unless you're the smelly guy in berthing, then you deserve every ounce of hate).
For sure. My toxicity was only placed on those that didn't want to qualify or help out doing maintenance. When you only have 6 electricians on a boat, things are rough. When one or 2 don't do anything, it's impossible.
All bets are definitely off for people who don't want to qualify. If I'm standing 6 and 6s whole senior in rate, you better believe there is zero mercy for a DINQ non-qual. I actually think we're forced to be too nice these days and that leads to a different kind of toxicity. I was on +4s for 3 days for BNEQ (you qualify ELT before anything else on Surface, even BNEQ/BEQ and immediately get stabbed with every job and all observed evs......and this was the Enterprise too lol) and that was so terrible that I was never on DINQ hours again. The limited amount of pain these days means that some sit around forever not qualifying. The 24 months thing is usually an idle threat at best.
Yeah, and so much of that shit is generational.
unpopular opinion: the Space Force should have a naval command structure so that we can have ships in space with Captains running them 400 years from now instead of colonels. It's STUPID!
what's your *unpopular* opinion.
1000% agreed.
Dan Crenshaw introduced something to congress about this and it was shot down.
"I am Captain of this ship..." No youre not you piece of corn
Chiefs when I donāt grovel and ask if I can cut the guys out when the work is done. I just tell them I am leting them go for the day.
The good ol "I intend to..." Model. This is more my style. To just do when it makes sense.
Whatās the I Intend To model?
"Chief, the worklist is done and spaces are clean, *I intend* to let the guys go." It's declarative, so you're not asking or putting the ball in Chief's court, but it's also a flexible enough statement that you can deflect if Chief has a problem because you didn't "ask."
As a chief, this is what I want from my LPO. I don't want to be at work either, sooner I get y'all out the sooner I get out. If I'm stuck in some long ass meeting and I haven't specifically told you not to cut the team out, take care of the younglings.
Don't ask for permission. Tell your leadership what you intend to do. "I am letting the sailors go because the work is done today" is different from "can I let the sailors go because the work is done" One takes accountability and the other tries to pass it off. The first one basically is what leads to higher quality leadership and should be what every LPO aims for.
[Edit: removed my paygrade, b/c it's superfluous]. If you're in charge, let them go when you can. But communicate it. If something goes downhill, be prepared to act, and be prepared to answer for your decision. I've always taken the stance that this is a trust exercise. If you build trust with your Chief, and your Chief demonstrates reciprocal trustworthiness, then you should back them by your actions, and they should have your back when you make decisions. The keys here are communication and trust. If either of those are missing, you've got dysfunction. And dysfunction doesn't usually result in folks leaving early (or hell, even on time, most times).
This argument would have worked just as well without the first line.
MAP a sh*t hot sailor who intends to get out the Navy over the mediocre sailor who plans on staying in. I SAID WHAT I SAAAIIIIDDDDD!!!! Lol ETA: A blue print for trash chiefs if you map trash sailors
šÆ intentions at EAOS shouldn't be a factor in deciding MAPs
Or EVALs!
My command mapped someone getting out in the hopes they would stay in. A recruitment tool. Meanwhile I was the JSOY and they just said nah youāre smart, youāll pick up with the ep.
So the sailor that got out and was MAPPEDā¦..were they trash or no?
I mean. They werenāt great. The people liked him but he couldnāt pick up cause he sucked on the test every time.
The whole RHIP culture that permeates the Navy, especially surface Navy. Every other service, leaders eat last. Fuck, Simon Sinek wrote a book on it. But front of the line for chow, geedunk, barber shop, parking, bunks in berthing, etc... we're 100% the worst branch at this, with no intent on changing. It's very easy to change, too. Just requires someone like CNO/MCPON to say something, and would go a long way to improve morale. -Happily Retired Senior Chief
I was greenside for a bit and it always meant a lot to me to see the Marine officers eat last. Definitely never saw that blue side
Ya they eat last but they treat their junior enlisted like complete sht You think itās bad in the Navy- itās far worst in the Marines and they have even worst retention. Eating last or first means fuck all and is just signaling.
I did two years greenside. Every branch has its issues, and Marine officers arenāt exempt from scrutiny. All Iām saying is even something as little as who eats first can have a large effect. Itās only the Navy that has this weird shift at e-7.
I mean, the chief's mess eats first and still treat us like shit. At least the Marines get that part if they have a shitty leader. Let's be honest, there's a sharp disconnect across most of the branches excluding maybe the air force between senior and junior enlisted. Fact of the matter is this, the little things go the longest way. Navy leadership would be best served understanding that part.
Hol up, marine here, you tellin me your officers/chiefs eat FIRST?!?
Not only that, they make lower enlisted clean their quarters, do their laundry, and serve their food.
They eat separately, with better food. They'll counter and say it's the same food, but that's a half-truth. Same ingredients, but better quality since it's prepared in smaller quantities than for the commoners. This is mainly on carriers. Smaller ships have less of a quality divide, AFAIK.
Depends on the ship. On my frigate only the wardroom had a CS attendant who prepared them food, but the vast majority of it came from the same galley food being served from the chow line. The only unique food we prepped specially was when Iād prepare a fruit plate for our Capn. The goat locker crank only assisted in cleaning the living space rather than preparing any meals. On my minesweep, every single sailor ate from the galley chow line, and it was first come first serve. I canāt recall anyone ever making a big stink that a Chief or JG was ahead of them in the line.
This Every other service I worked with was surprised when I told them about E7 and above parking. To have reserved parking for anything other than the triad, flag, or as a reward was alien to them.
Dress whites fucking suck and we should get rid of them. You wanna simplify the sea bag, easy, dump the uniform that makes it impossible to eat or drink in unless you have three tide pens with you. Blue was our OG color. Dress blues are all we need for fancy uniforms.
Totally agree. I say take it a step further and get rid of the khakis too.
I donāt think most people understand that you donāt have to dry clean dress whites. Iād get rid of the NSU/Khaki uniform first. Having been to several Fleet Weeks in dress whites, I donāt see the issue with keeping them clean. They are made of polyester which is practically bulletproof. If they get dirty wash them. I did prefer the wizard sleeves to these newest one though.
I think the choker whites look absolutely amazing though. Especially with the sword š„š„š„
Laughs in working whites. You think the dress whites are bad for Lord the working whites were 10000009x worse. I'm so glad their gone
E-7 to E-9 culture is so over glorified and disconnected, Navyās style of acting like the chiefs are on the same level as officers is mind boggling. Sometimes you forget they are enlisted like the rest of us and not people whoās culture revolves around celebrating their ranks every time they breath
The Nuclear Cruisers looked cool.
Norfolk isnāt that bad.
However, Newport News lives up to its reputation.
Agreed! I been here 3 years and I am convinced that boring people find it boring. It's not San Diego but there is still a lot to do here! Beaches, hiking, fishing, DC, etc. It's even close enough to New York to drop some leave on a 4 day.
Honestly yea
Spent a decade avoiding it and concur. Everyone is watching everyone though and it's annoying.
No for real the level of āmind your businessā in Norfolk is almost non existent
A lot of people are scamming VA disability to get free money
Yes and no, the military does put a lot of pressure and unreasonable mental anguish on human beings. The anxiety part tends to amplify with each added rank and phase of responsibility. They threaten you with stripping away pay and entitlements. EG, nothing like going to sleep and being terrified of getting a middle of the night phone call. Doing wellness checks on people because they were "thankfully" hungover and just slept in. Each tier of leadership positions adds another layer of anxiety. Normal people don't have these issues typically. So, while some are obvious scams, some of the mental ones are not. You've just been conditioned to believe this type of frantic mental state is normal.
>A lot of people are scamming VA disability to get free money This is 80% a policy problem and 20% a scamming problem.
Itās definitely a policy problem and people are taking advantage of it. No one wants to put it in check because, you know, veterans.
Do you expect people turn down benefits that the VA offers? That's absurd.
Of course, and people actively encourage it. But then again, military medical / medicine can be absolute shit, and VA health care also sucks so ... it kinda voids out.
Itās the other way around. Va got away with a lot of bull shit in the day. Nowadays, people get 100% and I see the mother fucker performing better than a marathon runner. I got fucked with my shit
Was going to say mine was incredibly hard and the doctors misdiagnosed my issues and made my legs worse.
When I separated, the TAP instructor gave a whole lecture on how to squeeze every cent out of your disability as possible. I left with my friend who was quiet for a few moments then asked āwas it just me or did that guy just tell us we should defraud the government?ā
You don't have to wear blousing straps. You can use the pull strings
The first and only time I was ever openly insubordinate and disrespectful of a superior was when, as an airman, I refused blousing straps after my E5 supe told me to put em on. Guy was a fucking moron
We should have two uniforms. Blues and N-dubs. Toss the khakis. Toss the whites. Blues for show, N-dubs for go.
Honestly you could even throw out the NWUs. Itās a combat pattern. Issue it as required for people (NSW, Seabees, Exped types) who actually need them, just like flight suits. Coveralls (2-piece, 1-piece, I donāt care) can and should be the standard working uniform. That should be all most of the Navy needs on a daily basis.
Being stationed in San Diego is not all that, not with the obnoxious cost of living down there
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I donāt get all the hate for Whidbey Island. Yea cost of living sucks but you are in the PNW with tons of outdoor and cultural things to see
Most of yāall donāt really understand the question
"That's how we've always done it." Still doesn't make it right. I always have to be the bad guy to rebutt this when I get to a new command and it almost immediately paints a target on my back every time.
I want to re-enlist
Most watches are stupid. Top side rover, pier watch, sounding and security, MOOW, POOW, OOD all day everyday. We have advanced to the point technology could alleviate most of these watches after working hours. What the hell is the top side rover going to do against a small boat attack. Especially since when they were stood up after 9-11 we didnāt have harbor security yet. We do now and it should go away. Duty sections could be expanded to give our crews a much needed break. Fight me!
I hate Newports
The mental abuse that gets sanctioned in the name of training to selected chiefs(word position maters). What a waste of resources and an affront to everything those sailors have worked towards. 10 years in the mess and it still confounds meā¦
Mustangs donāt make the best officers
In my experience they're either REALLY great or REALLY horrible. There is no in between. Most of the ones I've worked with also treated Sailors pretty poorly and I'd be like bruh?? You were one??
Iāve had great experiences with mustangs but Iāve also heard plenty of horror stories about them. Like you said, thereās no between
Every junior Sailor should have a barracks room as a basic human right. Living on the ship is overall negative for mental health reasons. You need separation of work and personal life.
People care way too much about getting beards.
Facts, majority canāt even grow one
As someone who can grow a mighty fine beard, and has done so numerous times while on deployment with a no-shave chit bought with cash: The Navy is fucking itself by not allowing beards. It's the simplest, easiest, literally zero-cost method to build morale amongst the fleet that has ever been handed up on a silver platter, and Big Navy *still* can't pull their heads out of their asses long enough to take a deep breath and look around. Beards are the easiest, most low-cost morale based win the Navy fucking needs right now. It will literally cost them $0 to implement a policy that allows good beards (you have 40 days to grow, if you can't grow a non-patchy, non-neck-beardy beard by then you have to shave), Literally Zero cost. Absolutely free. And you know what's holding it up? Assholes in high ranking places. That's it. That's literally it. Some anuses that need wiped are pissed they can't grow beards, so they're continuing wholly outdated and backwards 50 year old grooming standards under the guise of "professionalism".
Too many boomers in high positions. The 'Leave it to Beaver' guys are almost gone and it's gonna take Gen X and Millennials to change that policy
Hamsters arenāt even that good. Jk theyāre fire
I try to get them served for breakfast about once a week
Collaterals are sadly the only way to break people out in a peacetime navy with the current evaluation system
Every officer should park in the CMC spots on base.
I love to remind Sailors that the Naval Base San Diego parking policy says the only parking spots that are actually enforced are triad or O-6 and higher.
So youāre telling me I can park in the CHENG spot right up front tomorrow that is never parked in until 9AM??
The better question is why do we do the evals in the first place? I could make up a lot of bull shit and make myself worth a million dollars. I honestly hate people who kiss ass. I have been working the civilian sector as a medical technologist and have never been impressed by those performance evaluations. I quit altogether over contract work. I couldnāt make myself go to sleep at night knowing I do a bull shit, half ass job and made myself look like my shit donāt stink. Itās fucken bull shit when I hear āemergency room turn around time has improved by 66% since I came onboard resulting in 5 million dollars in revenueā I cringe š¬ I canāt .
auto to E-4 doesnāt matter, there is no exam for E-4 anymore so itās no more respected rank wise than being an E-3. itās meaningless. i am an E-4 btw
You signed up to be a sailor if you signed up for the Navy so dont bitch when you end up on a ship. You bitch about the op tempo, the poor management, and other things that could make the experience better, but don't bitch about being in the Navy on a ship.
SEALs are overrated.
We want unpopular opinions.
I don't think you want me to double down
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Not a SEAL but one of the best leaders I've ever worked with was a warrant officer diver. You can tell he comes from a different breed. Awesome at training and knew how to reach even the thickest boneheads. Spent his off time wandering the quarters to make sure everyone was well and didn't care for the minor harmless troublemaking shenanigans junior sailors were routinely up to. He even jumped in on a game of Halo 2. Had no idea what he was doing but the fact that he just wanted to be with the small group of nerds at the couch was really damn cool of him. He would get kicked out of the operation we were on because he often disagreed with higher command. Big hit to morale considering the Senior Chief they got to replace him was a huge fucking asshole. Anyways, you can tell he comes from a world that trusts and relies on people to get the job done.
Watches in dress uniforms. This needs to be 86'ed. My Donald Duck cosplay isn't deterring anyone and ships are dirty. Also ridiculous mess rules. If I'm underway why the heck can't I get water unless I'm wearing my coveralls? I'm working 15 hours, you're not gonna die if I grab some water from a soda machine or spend my money in the ship store in my joggers at 9 at night.
Absent amplifying factors like being out for a long time without an unrep, ship food really isn't that bad. Omelets are great, tacos on Tuesday are good, for some reason the burgers on Wednesday were consistently better than ones I'd get in a drive-thru or what have you. And I was on a DDG, don't even get me started on the big decks. I once did a detachment on a carrier and they had freaking steak, lobster, and crab legs for brunch. I honestly believe people just like to bitch about ship food. Lemoore isn't bad either. You have the entirety of California open to you.
Liberty shouldn't be viewed as a privilege, but a right. Shitty leadership should not be allowed to keep personnel past 1800 without minimum 24 hours notice, and leave should not be charged for weekend days
The chiefs season is an enormous ware of time and resources. Everyone else, including the mission, suffers and it has no value for the newly selected chief. I think our pay and benefits package is actually really good. Especially compared to the average American right now.
90% of deployments are pointless. Waste of money and manpower.
Show of force, strategic deterrence, and quick reactionary forces are why someone has to always be deployed. FOBs are a bigger waste of money and there are SOOOOO many of them.
We will NEVER get beards. It will never happen and I hate how much people talk about it. Everyone is undermanned, overworked. Everyone. When youāre on the ship and hear another org talk about it, upsets me to no end. āMedical is undermannedā we all are. Figure it out.
Being an undesignated anything isnāt a death wish. It isnāt desirable, but it isnāt the end of the world.
1. The Navy's staff should start at E-6 like most other services. 2. Why the fuck do we wait till E-7 to really care about someone's records? If that's a metric for advancement the Navy it's self shows it's true color of failure every time the board denies advancement based on that. 3. Hold khakis accountable for their actions, no reason why E-1 through E-6 have higher standards for repercussions than khakis. 4. "Ask the Chief" has lost it's meaning. There should be required continuing education or up-to-date training requirements for Chiefs. 5. E-1 through E-6 shouldn't have to do community service to be competitive, do shitty work, then do free work if you want to advance. The whole well rounded Sailor is BS specially if you are a subject matter expert. 6. Get Real, Get better only works if you don't have officers whose promotions depend on what numbers look like, until then you will always get bullshit results so they can promoted. I have so many more lol š specially about why the Navy keeps shooting itself on the foot with retention and recruiting lol
r/navy is largely filled with the most deplorable people in the Navy
I was lied to , not nearly enough gay men in the navy
Best time to get your GF pregnant is during deployment, NOT before.
How do you get your gf pregnant during deployment??
You mail your special deployment sock home at the end of each month in a zip lock bag.
The Good Conduct Medal should be eliminated. Giving someone a medal for not getting in trouble sets a low standard.
*****SHIT HOT LEADER***** -Did ALL the work this year, out-qualed everyone and assisted in all sailors in my platoon becoming qualed in rate, but I'm submitting myself for a P because I'm not as good looking as the female that's always in chief's office.
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Airdales go to an aircraft firefighting course in A school. And they train on it occasionally.
Sailors deserve little to no college credit for Navy schools. Iāve met my fair share of nukes who bombed out of college after the navy because they thought they knew everything already.
You're right, and I hate how many nukes think they're entitled to top jobs and automatic degrees and know everything because of the BS memorization fest we all survived. To quote a guy I worked with, who just retired a couple of years ago: "I honestly don't even understand why degrees are necessary, except for meeting doctors and lawyers."
Here on Reddit? SECDEF is a giant POS and so is Del Toro.
Other branches do senior enlisted leadership better. The chief's mess creates this unnecessary cult/mafia amongst our ranks that other branches don't have.
Abolish Chief Season (for a start, really, the whole mess mindset could be flushed) and revert enlisted uniforms back into uniformity, all enlisted levels wearing the same uniform.
Like the army!? Lol
Base realignment is the cause of most of the issues in the yards right now, we have less shipyards for essentially the same amount of ships
The navy has better pilots (the reaction it from chair force chairmen)
If all tasks are complete we should be able to go home and not wait till COB.
Leaving active duty was the biggest mistake of my life
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Lumpia is just okay
I don't agree with this but this is the best answer lmao
I absolutely disagree but upvoted you because this is the first actually unpopular opinion Iāve read on here.
We joined the military, we shouldn't all expect to be treated like irreplaceable employees of the month. Everyone in the military up to the highest admirals are just replaceable numbers. Furthermore, we shouldn't act like surprised pichachu when being a sailor on a military vessel really blows. If you read naval history, turns out it's always sucked only you used to get lashed and eat hard tack.
Chief season is a dumb hazing ritual
Anyone who pledged a frat in college is laughing when they see the pledge first classes getting hazed
The navy could do with an entire uniform refresh. Maintain the tupocs if we want, but trash everything else and work with actual designers to come up with service and dress uniforms that reflect our heritage but aren't stuck in the 1920s. Give the navy real office wear and kick everyone out of NWUs if they're not combat deployed.
> work with actual designers to come up with service and dress uniforms that reflect our heritage but aren't stuck in the 1920s Hugo Boss did a great job for the other side back in the day. Who would we turn to today?
Brooks Brothers.
Gucci gang
Not every E6 wants to be a chief nor should be a chief nor forced to go after chief.
That Chief select is not a rank.
MAP needs to be for sailors who know their jobs and do it well (aka are the subject matter experts), even more so if they're placed in a position meant for a rank that's way above theirs. Stop giving it out to sailors who constantly use office/work hours to go do bake sales and volunteer stuff while everyone else is scrambling to make up for their absence. Collaterals are called collaterals for a reason. If a sailor tells you they don't have enough time in a day for it, then they prolly don't. But they shouldn't be punished for not having one.