Even in the blacked out CIC, I had the con. I was the one driving the ship. I didn't order flank reverse and never would (I was CHENG and reverse power blows the hell out of weaker engine head gaskets.) So I didn't do it, while wearing a rig that made my every breathing word audible to every single person on the 1MC which included the helmsman and lee helmsman.
At which point came the voice of the aft lookout on the 1MC screaming that there was a mine we were now backing into.
We found the rest on my way out of the mine field.
People reach positions of power far beyond their acumen. They are dangerous. They will kill you.
Allow me to tell you just precisely who those people are:
They graduated from Harvard.
They graduated from Yale.
They graduated from Princeton.
If you can kill them before they take office, we all might survive. To be honest, if I still had them, I'd nuke every single one of them. They are nothing less than the utter embodiment of absolute evil. They love and snuggle with Cuba and Venezuela and they're too obtuse and stupid to realize how devastating socialism is.
Yea, the pitch. 3 full feet in reverse. Waukeshas could barely handle that, my home ship would have exploded as every single cylinder blew out on Packard's. Been there, done that, a lot.
What was amazing to me that it was my DCA who gave the order over the Bitch Box to Main Control and he knew better.
He's probably a Congressman or Senator by now.
5 comments:
That must have added a few gray hairs.
I suppose that now you still consider yourself better off not in the infantry. there, those who are predisposed to not take the advice of those who know better and fail in their mission while getting their people destroyed end up with a grenade in their pants or worse-intelligence.
Mike, the DCA and OOD, was one of mine. He was my home ship DCA. BTVB was from the north fleet up in Seattle or Tacoma and a lousy man in most respects. The last time I saw him was in my office in Bahrain and he was Commodore of MINERON TWO. I was the only man he trusted to drive the ship in the fields. He sacked my relief, the XO, and told me I would spend 12 hours a day driving the ship in the fields looking for mines and he would stand in for pee breaks and meals. I didn't regret that part. The XO was an absolute moron who did paperwork while hunting for mines. But I still had all my other jobs. For about 3 months I averaged about 3 hours of sleep a day and not all at once. No no. I had that fucked over XO who always found some reason to wake me every time I slept.
That picture of me with the sword was from about a month before we started Ernest Will and 3 months before Praying Mantis. After that, I had a shock of gray hairs just like the CHENG I relieved (normal course of rotation) in San Diego. I didn't think it would happen to me.
It took me three reads to find your message. I'm a slow learner.
My dad, 28 years in the Army as an Artilleryman.
His dad, 30 years in the Army as an Artilleryman.
Me, navy.
We don't do infantry. If you ever read David Hackworth's 'About Face' or Battles In the Monsoon, that artillery battery commander firing in support, my dad. My grandfather worked for Patton for the whole of the war.
Me?????! Walk????! No way.
I was a lot more blessed in the listen to advice column. My first job in the Navy was Auxo on a flagship/LPD and my CHENG and every other officer in engineering were LDO, CWO, or Chiefs. All of them were the best. I learned from them.
As Repair Locker leader for both 3 and 5 I learned a bunch more. Mostly the things that destroy ships, they're pretty final for everybody onboard. Very few swim away and survive.
Thank you for commenting as you do. Every time, you bring back the memory and none of it, to be honest, was bad. 29 years in uniform and I was lucky and so were the guys I worked with.
Merry Christmas!
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