In any organization, there always will be one person who knows what is going on. That person must be fired.
All posts by Jim
Fifth Law of Unreliability
To err is human but to really foul things up requires a computer.
The Law of Employment
The last person who quit or was fired will be held responsible for everything that goes wrong…until the next person quits or is fired.
Marty Tales
As i have previously noted Major Marty Linville was an Army officer. So technically these are Army war stories, not Navy sea stories. But they are kin, and Marty deserves to be included in my sea stories.
i have written two posts about my friend, an inadequate description for the relationships we had and what many other folks had with Marty Linville after he crossed over the bridge. i plan to post more of stories about him. They are meant to honor him. This is one of my favorite ones:
After Marty finished the Army’s Officer Candidate School and artillery training, he reported to Fort Carson and was in charge of a 105 mm Howitzer unit. A large exercise between Marty’s side and the “Orange” opposition.
On the first day, Marty’s unit was directed to set the battery and conduct a non-live firing operation. As it began, a gas attack was simulated and Marty and his unit donned protection against gas warfare, including gas masks. When Marty began to give his unit orders for operating the system, the soldiers could not understand him, and he couldn’t understand them. Finally, in frustration, he yanked off his gas mask so his troops could understand his direction.
An exercise umpire overseeing the howitzer unit, halted the action. He then proceeded to chew out the second lieutenant, vividly pointing out that all exercises should be treated as if they were actual conditions, not simulated. Marty saluted and snapped, “Yes, Sir,” taking the admonition to heart.
The operation continued the next day. Marty’s unit was ordered to move into a position to fire on the orange forces. They proceeded down a rough road headed for the position when they were confronted with a problem. The orange forces had downed several trees and blocked the road with the logs making the passage through the road impossible. The unit would have to detour, a significant added distance, which would prevent them from reaching their objective on time.
Remembering his chewing out and the direction to treat the war game as if it were real, Lieutenant Linville called his top sergeant to his side. He asked Top what he thought about clearing the blockade with the howitzer. The top sergeant was excited about the opportunity to shoot the howitzer in live fire.
The backed up the big gun up and blew away the blockade.
Marty relates the next morning, he had breakfast with the commanding general. Or rather, the general had breakfast while Marty stood at attention while between bites, the general let Marty bear the philippic in no uncertain terms.
A letter was entered into Marty’s service record noting the general’s reproof of the incident. i’m sure the letter kept from Marty from being promoted beyond major. He proved his mettle and leadership in Vietnam, receiving the Silver Star and Purple Heart for his actions when a North Vietnamese company conducted an attack on Marty’s 13-man Howitzer unit.
Marty is one of the finest military officers i ever met.
The general made a huge mistake.
A Tale of the Sea and Me: the Old Navy
i have been away from sea stories too long. But i had a lot of things going on. One was a trip to Utah for a week of golf with a SEAL i met in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia in 1979. i produced three posts around that adventure. If you would like to read them, you can go to my website, jimjewell.com. They will be the first ones listed after this one. Now, i’m back to the USS Hollister (DD 788) in Long Beach as we began preparations for our overhaul, which was scheduled for September 1974. i was CHENG and, consequently, the Overhaul coordinator.
One of the requirements shortly before entering the yards was a complete inspection of our four 600 lb. boilers’ interiors. The inspection was to be done by an boiler expert accompanied by me. He came aboard when the ship was moored along the quay wall at the Long Beach Naval Base. He was a big, gritty, old Navy sailor. i wish i remembered his name. I do remember vividly he was the first of the Boiler Repair rating i had ever met. He was a Boiler Repairman Master Chief (BRCM). Before we donned our coveralls to crawl through the interior of the massive boilers, we hit it off.
The inspection was critical. It was done thoroughly. i was a bit surprised the four boilers were in as good shape as they were. Of course, there was considerable work to be done on them in the yards. The BRCM documented the needs very well.
As we crawled through the stuffy and sooty boilers, the master chief didn’t really complain but decided to tell me what is was like in his Navy.
“You know, sir” (it seemed to me him calling me “sir” was almost silly, that i should be calling him “sir”), he said, “back in the old days, all the sailors on the ship were required to wear their undress blues everywhere on board except in their work spaces. The firemen had to change from their dungarees to their undress blues in the fireroom before they came out of the hatch in the ship’s main passageway.”
“Really,” i said with amazement. i knew it was a rough life but i was surprised dungarees weren’t allowed throughout the ship.
“Yes, sir,” the BRCM continued, “I was on one can assigned to the after fireroom. Our chief was a tough old goat. He would make sure all of his BTs conformed to the uniform requirement. When there was a change of watch, he would stand over the hatch in the main passageway holding a dogging wrench for the hatch. If a BT emerged still in his dungarees, the chief would whack him on the head with the dogging wrench, knocking the BT down the ladder back into the fireroom.
“We learned real quick,” he laughed.
i’m pretty sure my mouth was agape when he told me that. i wish i could have spent more time with him.
That, my friends, is the real “old Navy.”