Re: PBS Series: "The Carrier"


"Grey Satterfield" <gsatterfield@xxxxxxx> wrote...
, "Mark Borgerson" <mborgerson@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

SAdly I see Navy females have not immproved
much in 20 years. NOT a Looker in the bunch.....


Did you miss the part where they were talking to the female pilot?

Absolutely right! That was one good looking young young aviator.

On another topic, I don't know how much many of you know about Jay,
Oklahoma, where the redneck kid who got in trouble for racism came from.
It
is in far northeastern Oklahoma, in the Cookson Hills area, near the
Arkansas border. It is so remote that there used to be a joke that you
had
to have a visa to go there. The kid wasn't a rocket scientist but when
you
consider how remote where he came from is, it's a little less surprising
than it might otherwise have been.


The series was better than I expected, although ignoring the ship's company
officers except for the CO and XO (and air department pukes) seems a
damaging omission. Obviously, CIC was largely off limits due to posted
info/status boards/etc., and Main Control still out of bounds due to
classification issues a bit silly in today's world, but the Bridge and the
interplay there (especially entering leaving port/replenishing and a dozen
other evolutions would have added a bit of punch. I was not greatly
impressed by the CO or XO, sort of characterless talking heads except when
the XO revealed his insecurity by losing his cool over an unfound sailor
during a suspected man overboard. That's one a good XO handles over the
phone with the Division Officer and later in private. Some of the "girls"
were better looking than I expected, and how are you going to keep'em down
on the farm if they want to go to sea?

I agree with the comments on the bad sailor.. I hope more noticed that the
kid's racism surfaced when in contact with AfricanAmericans/others not among
fellow E3s and below in his own small (and quite integrated) division. His
racism, expectable for one reared in Jay or similar communities more
manifests itself as a classic xenophobia, the redneck disease, much
aggravated by what is likely already a well developed long jump down the
road to alcoholism.

I've commanded all too many sailors who fell into this category, both on
active duty and the reserves. They don't acclimate and improve as mess
cooks or compartment cleaners, are inevitably in trouble in foreign ports,
and would never admit that the prospect of discharge under less than
honorable conditions caused them any apprehension. Chances are, they spend
the rest of their lives as "outs", rarely if ever encountering a place to
"fit". The same perspective may be found among sailors from S. Boston,
Queens, New Jersey, and any one of several Southern states. The worst case
I remember was from Idaho.

Biggest disappointment? Other than aviators aviating, it showed little of
the interaction between senior officers/department heads and junior
officers, and revealed even less of junior officers "working" in their
dealings with CPOs, LPOs and other senior POs. As an ensign/young OI
division officer my superiors, the CIC and OPS officers expected me to
regularly visit the berthing compartment (never w/o the Chief or LPO) to
either formally inspect or monitor, and to spend time every day with my
senior POs along with holding regular "Office Hours"
(disciplinary/motivational/complimentary/critical/fucking exasperated) for
the sailors

I returned from a week + on the road, some business, some pleasure, but 2500
miles of driving with a couple of 650 mile days, harder now than when young,
over in the mountains of North Carolina to find little changed, although the
discussion of "Carrier" does represent some grasp at tenuous reality and
naval subject matter.

Welcome back, Grey.

TMO


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