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kell553 wrote:

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I've been watching it. Quite a contrast from Submarine life. [/quote]

I know what you mean their are a lot of differences from the small boys as well, but with 5000 people on board and more officers than the entire crew of 2 DDG's you are not going to know everyone on the ship like you would a sub or destroyer.

Interesting how on the CVN making Petty Officer Third (E4) was a big deal and set you apart. On the subs a qualified E3 is more valuable than a nub E4 and sometimes even a non-qual E5.

The show so far has shown mostly non-technical people, if they showed the ET's, FC's, CTT, ect it would be different, E-4 isn't a big deal to a technical rate since you pretty much get it after "C" school. To a BM, CS or whatever E-4 is a big deal. I agree with you about the quals as well.

A person TDY (messcooking for us bubbleheads) and the only job they have is cleaning Chiefs and Officers heads and berthing???? (Hey Ens. ever think of wiping the sink down after you use it rather than sluffing it off on some Enlisted blueshirt scum?)

We called it Food Service Attendant (or cranking) and on surface ships you have the enlisted FSA's (help in the galley and run the mess decks), the Chiefs Mess FSA's and the Wardroom FSA's. On a small boy the CPO Mess and Wardroom FSA's serve the food and clean the heads and berthings but with 800 officers I would imagine that is a full time job in itself. What really sucked was she said she was very close to completing a major qual, something that probably would of been more benefit to the ship rather than her cleaning officers country all day.

One part i did find real bothersome though. That was the story of the kid from Texas who had the race issues. He's constantly cracking on how he IS a racist (but that was because the way he was raised...no accounting for ignorant parents) but REAL racists don't see themselves in that view. He was buds with people across the spectrum, during the part when he was drunk on the beach was a real eye opener. When your that blitzed your true personality come out. Yet here he was having a strait up conversation with a black guy, shaking hands and, for a moment, had a sudden look of comprehension in his attitude. The next scenes show him going to Mast and finally getting tossed from the Navy.

I found that a bit odd as well. I think their is more to that story than what was shown and I got the impression that he was using that as an excuse to get out.

The part that bugs me was when the Captain mentioned that despite all the couselling from peers and seniors he just didn't get it and was not part of the team. Yet through the entire scene the ONLY person who actually reached out and interacted with him was the one moment drunk on the beach. The kid had been in for a year (meaning he was probably on the ship less than 6 months) so I wonder just how much effort was really put into this kid? It apears the only 'counselling' he ever got was going to legal to sign whatever current report chit he had on him.

To be honest I'm not impressed with a lot of the leadership as it is portrayed either, especially from the CMC, he seems more interested in going around looking for people to get in trouble than anything else.
One of the parts that bothered me was that girl who went to the ships dental in pain then that pilot who showed up after her for a routine cleaning was taken in first, that was just annoying.

Sure, his parents screwed him up (and he KNEW it which tells me he understands right and wrong), but looking at the way he was interacting with others it looked more a case of him being incautious of his words rather than any actual racial hatreds. Maybe it's just me, but it looked like the Command failed this kid and just washed their hands of the whole mess.
I guess when you have 5000 people on a ship you can afford to dump an occasional nub without hurting your capability.

I've seen 2 incidents of racism and both ended in all hands captains mast in both times the guy at fault got the standard navy punishment and some sort of real counseling not an admin discharge with an OTH, his command SCREWED him. Either their is more that wasn't shown or his command really didn't want to put forth any effort to help him.

Overall the series is quite the eye-opener. I only hope no after-action is taken on these enlisteds who came out and told it strait up. That would suck to have someone get masted just because the LPO is a jerk-off who saw one of his juniors cracking on him when he wasn't around and decided to retaliate.

I think that is one of the reasons why the show is being aired now and not when it was filmed. Some of the very junior people are probably still their but everyone else has transfered or gotten out. On the PBS site they have a short little "Where are they now", quite a few of them are gone from the navy.