Quote:
Originally Posted by crustychief
As a 20 + year Surface Warfare Navy Chief, OOD qualified and now a Naval weapons contractor working on Navy ships worldwide daily...
Before smartphones, sailors could text and send pictures and were mildly distracted while in cell phone range. As a CPO, you would ensure the phones were put away while on watch and in other situations. Sailors ( especially junior Officers and junior enlisted) being of the same age group would play video games and watch movies in common areas. When smartphones started making the scene it became a lot tougher because now the sailors did not have to be at a "plugged in" television or video game to play or watch their favorite shows. The last part of my active duty career I found many sailors standing watch playing fruit ninja, watching downloaded movies etc. Ass chewing first offense, Disciplinary review board and or Captains mast were the order of the day. Being retired since 2008 and still boarding ships daily, all those junior sailors are now the CPO's and command rank officers. Sometimes it is hard not to fall back on reliving my days as a Chief and tell them to put their phones away and pay attention. This is just one of the major issues I see daily. Another issue is ( especially in the LCS community) the contracting of everything from sweepers ( yes they have maids now) to stores onloads and routine maintenance. It has fostered a new level of apathy and a very serious atrophy of basic seamanship/occupational skills. I remember sailors used to have a sense of ownership for what their commands had accomplished and I just don't see that anymore. In the LCS community, even the Commanding officer participates in cleaning passageways. How does that affect the eager Junior officers aspirations to excel and become a Commanding Officer when they are pretty much on the same level doing menial tasks? I love my sailors but do get concerned at what I see daily. Sorry for the rant, just had to throw it out there
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That's pretty much what I saw happening in the USCG also Chief. I retired from my twenty in 2009. Huge changes huh? Our OINC's and CO's and Chief's all had the Viet Nam ribbon when I got in just like yours did, so it was such a different world. You would still get taken to either the paint locker or Boatswain hole for attitude training. By the time I got out, boot's would pull the "I'm stressed out" BS and fully expect that to be acceptable. We went from no internet to smart phones. I saw new ships built under minimal manning just because they could now use cameras to check the spaces where roving watches did the rounds. That's great, except in my head, less people on a crew also means less people to respond for a damage party. I'm sure you knew how heavy a P-250 was and now with minimal crew that's less folks to drag those around.
For me I went from small boats with cable throttles with instant response to drive by wire. There was a delay in throttle response so you had to spend a lot of hours learning to engage the props early before the boat even responded. Doesn't sound like much but in a surf zone a two second delay could end you with the keel facing up. When the SAR alarm went off, you actually had to run to a computer and check a boat out before the launch. You were supposed to sit down with your duty crew and fill out a GAR model to go over possible dangers and how tough the mission may be. Bare in mind this was all supposed to happen while you can hear someone begging for their life over the radio.
Most of my career when that alarm went off and you were sprinting to the boats, it was already running and lines singled up, because your crew had beat you there.
For the snipes they actually have to go to a tool locker, have a tool issued and logged in the computer and return the tool to check back at the end of the work day. Even if it was a single screwdriver. So you'd have Droopy sailor, moping his way to a wrench, then twiddle his thumbs get his wrench, then mope his way to the job, work five minutes, then mope his way back to check it in before coffee break, then re-check it out, mope back to the job, then it was time to check it back in for lunch...on and on. In my day they got a damn tool bag and went to work and were proud when they came back all sooty and oily. Probably why most of us called them the dirty people.
All the cool computer stuff actually just made everyone spend vastly more time in front of a desk than actually doing a job.
I went to SAR stations the rest of my career (you get locked in as a Surfman it was too specialized) so I was in a way different field than our Cutterman. I only saw real brass on rare official visits a couple of times a year. Warrants and Chiefs commanded the small boat communities. Officers do not command CG small boats unless its a huge training unit and they have to be qualified Surfman to do such. Which is incredibly rare. . I'm glad I wasn't a squid with so many people to deal with. There are more jarheads on Paris Island than the whole CG and we liked it that way. Anyway great insight Chief thank you. Fair Winds. -WW