Sunday, October 16, 2016

Because actually fixing the Navy is hard, but playing SJB

is easy.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus is facing furor in the ranks over his decision to break with centuries of tradition and stop all identification of sailors by their job titles. It’s a lunatic fight to be having when the Navy faces multiple disasters.
Those challenges include crippling flaws in its newest class of ships, as well as serious problems with the new supercarrier, the Gerald R. Ford.
...
“Machinist mate” may mean nothing to a civilian, but it can be a swabby’s badge of honor — yet it’s one of hundreds of titles Mabus wants removed from daily use, demanding that all crew just call each other “sailor.” (The Marines, God bless them, so far refuse to abandon “rifleman.”)

Mabus is an asshat with the authority and backing to screw with literally centuries of tradition for the sake of showing how much he 'cares'.  And he doesn't give a damn how much damage he does.


Terrible when the facts don't fit your preferred narrative, isn't it?
San Bernardino, Calif., Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta privately wished that the shooter’s name were Christopher Hayes, hacked emails show.

After MSNBC reporter Chris Hayes identified one of the two shooters in the attack as Syeed Farook, Podesta wrote, “Better if a guy named Sayeed Farouk was reporting that a guy named Christopher Hayes was the shooter.”

2 comments:

tsquared said...

A few days over but the Navy is a service that has 241 years of tradition that is unimpeded by progress.

But all branches of the service ain't what it used to be.

xtron said...

I spent 6 years in the navy, so I think my opinion should cary a little weight....

the rating designator is part of who you are as a sailor. from day one in basic the goal of every recruit is to no longer be called "seaman". one of the proudest days in my navy career was the day I got my rating.

in the army and the marines everyone has a default job...infantryman for the army, rifleman for the marines...if your job goes away or cannot be done, you pick up a rifle and dig a foxhole. everyone...EVERYONE receives training on how to do this, and gets refresher training on a regular basis.
in the navy, that just can't happen. if the ship you are on has a fire, flooding, or other problem that makes your job undoable, there is no default back up job specialty you are trained for. the best you can do is "general labor"...what ever needs to be done that you can do with 2 minutes training .. maybe less.
in the army, when someone is introduced to new members, the first question is usually "what is your MOS??" .. the navy seldom askes this question, because it is part of their title.. yeoman second class (YM2) Jones.
my daughter is a HNSN stationed in iwakuni japan and she tells me this stupid directive is being universally ignored. like some politician stated some time ago "you passed your law, now try to enforse it"