All posts by Jim

Our Flag and Shame

A Pocket of Resistance

When reaching my age or thereabouts, many suffer from old age pestilence. Cancer; tendons, ligaments, and bones weakening, breaking or disappearing. At eighty, i too have some of those ills but marginally so compared to many of my friends and others.

Many in all age groups that call themselves adults have their problems because they were in the military service, a large number of them in battle, some in hand to hand combat, some who didn’t come home or died early because what our country required them to do. Oh, i was too close to battle numerous times but was never in actual combat. i experienced losing someone at sea, an electrician losing his arm in ship’s switchboard, a airman losing his leg in a helicopter crash, and a list of such harms too long to list here. i was in a number of situations on ships that had the potential for losing my life. Like those casualties and those life threatening situations, they occurred in service of our country.

i play golf once a week or more at a military golf course, mostly at Sea ‘n Air, Naval Station North Island’s course. Usually there are about six to eight of us. We play early. Somewhere around the fourth through sixth holes, we hear a bugle play first call to colors from base loudspeakers. Five minutes later, our National Anthem begins. If golfers are out of earshot, someone who can hear the opening notes, yells “colors.”

Everyone on the course stops, takes off their covers (hats to you civilians) and puts their right hand over their heart until the anthem is concluded and “carry on” rings out from the bugle call. The players resume play.

You see, these folks served their country and continue to honor their country by honoring our flag according the “U.S. Flag Code.” They are not honoring a president, a congress, the supreme court, or a political party, or philosophical position on government. They are honoring our country. They are honoring our citizens, all of them, whom they defended, through showing respect for our flag.

It seems the citizens of our country don’t feel they should honor and respect the flag. Judge Alito and his wife displaying the flag upside down was a gross disrespect for our flag and our country. The US Flag is not a platform nor should be used as one to state a political stance or be used in a squabble between neighbors. i am not taking sides politically. i’m done with that. All political parties have lost their moral compass to get their people elected.

The citizens are even worse in their disrespect for the flag and our country’s constitution. Here are some things all should consider before displaying our flag. These come straight from the U.S. Flag Code:

The flag should not be displayed on a float in a parade except from a staff.

The flag should not be draped over the hood, top, sides, or back of a vehicle or of a railroad train or a boat. When the flag is displayed on a motorcar, the staff shall be fixed firmly to the chassis or clamped to the right fender.

When displayed either horizontally or vertically against a wall, the union should be uppermost and to the flag’s own right, that is, to the observer’s left. When displayed in a window, the flag should be displayed in the same way, with the union or blue field to the left of the observer in the street.

No disrespect should be shown to the flag of the United States of America; the flag should not be dipped to any person or thing.

The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.

The flag should never touch anything beneath it, such as the ground, the floor, water, or merchandise.

The flag should never be carried flat or horizontally, but always aloft and free.

The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery. It should never be festooned, drawn back, nor up, in folds, but always allowed to fall free. Bunting of blue, white, and red, always arranged with the blue above, the white in the middle, and the red below, should be used for covering a speaker’s desk, draping the front of the platform, and for decoration in general.

The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.

The flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever. It should not be embroidered on such articles as cushions or handkerchiefs and the like, printed or otherwise impressed on paper napkins or boxes or anything that is designed for temporary use and discard. Advertising signs should not be fastened to a staff or halyard from which the flag is flown.

This includes political advertising. And making it different colors or otherwise altering its appearance is disrespect for it and our country.

No part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic uniform. However, a flag patch may be affixed to the uniform of military personnel, firemen, policemen, and members of patriotic organizations. The flag represents a living country and is itself considered a living thing. Therefore, the lapel flag pin being a replica, should be worn on the left lapel near the heart.

So now, if you are using the flag to support your political position, you are not only showing disrespect for our flag, but for our country and for those who have served to defend that flag, our country, and our citizens.

No, i’m not going to come after you or try to punish you. My service to my country was, in part, to defend your rights to say and do what you want within legal limitations. But you should be ashamed. You are showing disrespect for the country that allows you to do what you are doing. Shame.

There are many other things i would like to include here, but those things smack of politics, which i try to avoid. i will add an observation:

Folks of my vintage and beginnings, think of the Golden Rule as being espoused by Jesus in the New Testament of the Bible. It was. It also was a key rule from around 2340 BEC in Egypt and is found in nearly all religions in various forms — DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU.

It seems to me all of our politicians and damn near all of everyone else in this country, especially those who claim they are “religious,” have decided to ignore that dictum. i think the world would be a whole lot better off if each of us made that our primary watchword.

i am a citizen of the United States of America, i served my country in the Navy for more than 22 years and sacrificed some of my rights while serving. i believe our constitution with some flaws due to the time in which it was written contains the ideas for the best government on this earth throughout history. i belief many, from the start, has abused its ideas of equality and freedom to gain wealth and power and abuse others. i honor the United States of America Flag, Old Glory to signify my beliefs.

i am worried we are destroying our constitution and our country by our selfish and blind adherence to party politics. It seems we have not learned from history, just ignoring it to repeat its failures.

i am ashamed of what it appears we have become, or at least on the road to becoming.

A Tale of the Sea and Me – A Change of Mind

Sea Stories

i had the afternoon watch (1200-1600) the next day after our close call with the freighter on the mid-watch.

It was a beautiful Mediterranean afternoon, bright sun, deep blue sea, a sprinkling of clouds in the azure sky. Captain Butts (i know, i know, he was a commander then, but ship commanding officers will always be “Captain” to me) sat in the captain’s chair on the forward starboard side of the pilot house as usual. i was standing by the centerline gyro repeater at the bridge window when Combat (we called Combat Information Center or CIC “Combat”) reported a contact.

It was a similar situation as the night before except the contact was on our starboard side. A more significant difference was there was a small bearing drift, i.e. she wasn’t on a collision course. The biggest difference was she was on our starboard side and therefore the “privileged vessel.” She was required to maintain her course and speed. The Luce was responsible for maneuvering to avoid a collision.

When she was at roughly eight miles, i spotted her masts. Our term for such a sighting was she was “hull down.” i tracked her with the repeater. She had a very slight right bearing drift, meaning we would pass ahead of her if we stayed on track.

Combat and my JOOD’s maneuvering board solutions concurred our CPA would be just over a mile as we passed the contact (i hope landlubbers have read enough of these things to catch all of the acronyms and Navy lingo). She was a freighter similar to the close call the night before. For ships at sea, a mile of separation is an uncomfortable distance. i recommended to the captain that we turn to starboard and pass astern of the freighter. He disagreed and ordered me to maintain course and speed. i, of course, replied “Aye, Aye, sir,” and continued as ordered.

We kept getting closer and the CPA remained constant.

Then, we were about 500 yards from crossing the freighter’s bow, Captain Butts changed his mind and told me to pass astern of the freighter. It was too close to turn to starboard toward the contact. i turned to port and did a circle to set a course to pass astern at about 1,000 yards.

The CO got out of his captain’s chair and told me he would be in his in-port cabin. He had a smile on his face.

i have tried to figure out what my commanding officer was thinking that afternoon. i suspect he might have been teaching me one more time about bearing drift and CBDR. But CDR Butts was a gentleman and courteous in all things, especially when following the nautical rules of the road.

There were several other close calls in the Med during that deployment. It seemed i was on the bridge as OOD on every one of them.

We had my hail and farewell party after we returned in May 1973. It was our home in Fort Adams’ very old officer’s quarters previously used almost exclusively for the Naval War College attendees. Earl Major, my childhood friend would also be at Destroyer School for the department head program.

Earl attended the party along with my fellow Luce wardroom officers and my brother coming down from Boston where he was a graduate student for a double masters in theology and philosophy.

Toward the end of the party, CDR Butts and Earl had a conversation. The CO told Earl i was one of the best OODs he had ever had, but he was glad to see me go. When Earl asked why, CDR Butts replied that every time i had the watch, we had a close call with bogies.

The best, for me, was yet to come.

A Tale of the Sea and Me – Too Close for Comfort

Sea Stories

Mid-watch. Somewhere in the middle of the Mediterranean, October 1972. Quiet. The USS Luce (DLG 7) steaming independently.

The scheduled liberty port visit to Venice had been changed to Naples. Surprise. i was scheduled for several Italian and other ports, but they were always cancelled because the Navy needed my ship to come to Naples. But we were at sea, not in Naples yet.

The seas were calm. It was a cloudless night with an uncountable number of stars.

Combat (CIC) reported to the OOD (me) they had spotted a contact on the radar at 20 miles, right at the limit that radar could detect a ship, and were tracking. i checked the radar in the pilot house just to verify there was indeed a blip at about 20 miles.

In a few minutes, they reported the contract was “CBDR.” That is not a good thing. For landlubbers, this means “constant bearing, decreasing range,” i.e. that damn contact was on a collision course with us. My JOOD worked his own maneuvering board, an engineering/math, a piece of paper 12×12 inches, that was marvel using relative bearing and speeds of the contact and the ship to determine the amount the two ships would have their closest point of approach (CPA), in this case zero by any measurement. His solution agreed with CIC.

i have forgotten the specifics of the captain’s night orders for the OOD. i know those night orders required me to report any contact at 10,000 miles if the CPA was closer than 2,000 yards. i waited. When the bogie (we also contacts bogies, especially if we did not know who they were) reached 10,000 yards, i called the captain and woke him up. It was around 0200. i reported the situation and added, “Captain, we are the privileged ship, and she should maneuver to pass astern of us.” He told me to keep watching and let him know when the contact was at five miles.

The nautical rules of the road designates the ship with another ship to her port side as the “privileged vessel,” which was the Luce in this situation and requires the privileged vessel to remain on her course while the “burdened vessel” with the other ship on her starboard side must maneuver to pass astern of the “privileged vessel.”

The contact’s mast with it’s running lights became visible just over seven miles, the horizon from our bridge.

As ordered, i called the captain when the contact was at 5,000 yards. i told him the contact remained CBDR and asked him to come to the bridge. He complied. Commander Richard Butts joined me on the port bridge wing.

“She’s down to four thousand yards, Captain, still CBDR.”

“Keep watching,” he replied

“Aye, sir,” i said, and stood at the gyro compass repeater and continued to peer through the sight. No change. Then at about 2,000 yards, i told CDR Butts it seemed there was a slight change to the right. i recommended we go starboard (an avoidance maneuver to avoid a collision when a ship is in “extremis).”

Captain Butts asked, “Do you still have bearing change?”

“Yes, sir, but it’s only a degree or so.”

Captain: “Continue on course and speed.”

The freighter crossed our bow when her bow was about 100 yards from us. When his fantail passed our bow, it was less than 50 yards, a minuscule amount for ships at sea. The captain and i looked up to their pilot house. There was no one there. The damn freighter was on auto-pilot.

We all gave not sighs, but gasps of relief.

Captain Butts paused on the bridge wing and said to me, “If you have bearing drift, you won’t have a collision at sea.”

To this day, i am convinced one of the best COs i had maintained our course and speed to teach me a lesson. He did.

The next day, he gave me another lesson.