Navy Captain With The Right Stuff

[Ausfahrt]

Why the captain of a US Navy aircraft carrier fighting in the Red Sea is always posting about things like Taco Tuesday and cookies​

https://www.yahoo.com/news/why-captain-us-navy-aircraft-113001509.html

The best part to me was that he let the enlisted sailors sit in the captain's chair and eat a cookie.

As I understand it, they ran ship wide contests and lotteries to win 5 minutes in the Captain's chair with a cookie but by the end of the tour the Captain made sure that everyone who wanted 5 minutes in the chair got it. Too cool.

This young man is proud to provide continuous propulsion and electricity to the best **** ship in the Navy!

This story makes me proud to be an American.

 

[FowVay]

I didn't read the article but my comment is on your commentary. I was a young enlisted Army soldier in the middle 1980's stationed in Berlin, Germany. My brother was a naval officer stationed on a Maritime Prepositioning Ship (MPS) at the same time. In 1986 the military conducted one of their infamous "REFORGER" exercises where they amass military weapons and personnel onto the European continent in training for another world war. REFORGER is the acronym for "return of forces to Germany" and during the cold war was a common annual mission.

When my brother's ship came into port in Bremerhaven, Germany, I hopped the duty train from Berlin to meet with him. I had a broken leg at the time so I was a bit crippled. When I met up with my brother he made arrangements for me to stay in the Captain's Quarters on the ship. I was junior enlisted at the time and here I was taking quarters in the O-6's room.

The first morning of my stay the telephone rang and it scared me half to death. Does Private Fowvay answer the phone and take responsibility or let it ring? I chose to let it ring. A short time later my brother came to the room to get me for breakfast. Boy, naval officers eat quite a bit better than Army enlisted members and I was soaking it up.

OK, just a run-through of a memory of mine.

 

[Astro14]

Leadership exists in many forms. We can talk about important things like clarity, vision, articulating purpose.

But sometimes, leadership involves making a personal connection, making people feel valued.

Reckon the latter is what is taking place here.

 

[Malo83]

7 to 9 month cruises can take a toll on some people, on all my cruises the CO would put on beer days every 45 days with giant BBQ's on the flight deck, we had ice cream socials in the hanger bay and all holidays they put on special meals, the ADMIRAL and CO were dishing out food on the chow line, black jack night and bingo were some of the other festivities, on the way back from Desert Storm they held a raffle for a HD motorcycle. they did us right.

 

[Astro14]

7 to 9 month cruises can take a toll on some people, on all my cruises the CO would put on beer days every 45 days with giant BBQ's on the flight deck, we had ice cream socials in the hanger bay and all holidays they put on special meals, the ADMIRAL and CO were dishing out food on the chow line, black jack night and bingo were some of the other festivities, on the way back from Desert Storm they held a raffle for a HD motorcycle. they did us right.

I suppose the statute of limitations has expired so I can share at least one of my “steel beach” stories.

45 days into our Desert Storm cruise we stood down and did a steel beach. Now, of course, in accordance with Navy regs, there was a limit of two beers per person.

But nobody was checking the officer line. I went back through the line, and grabbed two more. I happened to run into our “line shack”, the plane captains, the junior sailors, E3 and E4, who did the daily work prepping our airplanes for launch. In appreciation of their hard work, and the long hours that they spent keeping the airplanes cleaned and prepped, I handed over my two “extra” beers.

I went back through that beer line about six more times. Each time returning to the line shack, and handing out a couple of extras.

I remember their faces, their names, but mostly, how young and hard working they were. Good kids. All of them.

The face of that young man in the article above reminds me of them.

 

[Owen Lucas]

All I can think of doing from the Captain's chair is pointing my hand forward and saying, ENGAGE!

 

[I<3oil]

I didn't read the article but my comment is on your commentary. I was a young enlisted Army soldier in the middle 1980's stationed in Berlin, Germany. My brother was a naval officer stationed on a Maritime Prepositioning Ship (MPS) at the same time. In 1986 the military conducted one of their infamous "REFORGER" exercises where they amass military weapons and personnel onto the European continent in training for another world war. REFORGER is the acronym for "return of forces to Germany" and during the cold war was a common annual mission.

When my brother's ship came into port in Bremerhaven, Germany, I hopped the duty train from Berlin to meet with him. I had a broken leg at the time so I was a bit crippled. When I met up with my brother he made arrangements for me to stay in the Captain's Quarters on the ship. I was junior enlisted at the time and here I was taking quarters in the O-6's room.

The first morning of my stay the telephone rang and it scared me half to death. Does Private Fowvay answer the phone and take responsibility or let it ring? I chose to let it ring. A short time later my brother came to the room to get me for breakfast. Boy, naval officers eat quite a bit better than Army enlisted members and I was soaking it up.

OK, just a run-through of a memory of mine.

Navy in general has the best food, due to the circumstances of putting thousands of people on ships for months at a time around the globe.

 

[Passport1]

I didn't read the article but my comment is on your commentary. I was a young enlisted Army soldier in the middle 1980's stationed in Berlin, Germany. My brother was a naval officer stationed on a Maritime Prepositioning Ship (MPS) at the same time. In 1986 the military conducted one of their infamous "REFORGER" exercises where they amass military weapons and personnel onto the European continent in training for another world war. REFORGER is the acronym for "return of forces to Germany" and during the cold war was a common annual mission.

When my brother's ship came into port in Bremerhaven, Germany, I hopped the duty train from Berlin to meet with him. I had a broken leg at the time so I was a bit crippled. When I met up with my brother he made arrangements for me to stay in the Captain's Quarters on the ship. I was junior enlisted at the time and here I was taking quarters in the O-6's room.

The first morning of my stay the telephone rang and it scared me half to death. Does Private Fowvay answer the phone and take responsibility or let it ring? I chose to let it ring. A short time later my brother came to the room to get me for breakfast. Boy, naval officers eat quite a bit better than Army enlisted members and I was soaking it up.

OK, just a run-through of a memory of mine.

Good story. Life in the military experiences are always intersting.

 

[I<3oil]

Leadership exists in many forms. We can talk about important things like clarity, vision, articulating purpose.

But sometimes, leadership involves making a personal connection, making people feel valued.

Reckon the latter is what is taking place here.

Correkt.

 

[Passport1]

Navy in general has the best food, due to the circumstances of putting thousands of people on ships for months at a time around the globe.

The 'geen side' of the Navy has terrible food probably because you usually don't have a permanent place to eat it. Can't fix a proper meal when the gunny starts barking 'alright everybody grab your gear and let's go.'

 

[ls1mike]

That is a good thing he is doing. Submarines are a little different the crew is tight and everyone knows everyone. We used to do a "halfway night" typically halfway through deployment. We would have raffles, a special meal, a talent show and we would do CO, XO, and COB (Chief of the Boat, top enlisted person on the boat) for a day. Officers and Chiefs would do all the dish washing and trash disposal operations. It was always a good break during the deployment and the order of the day was fun, well as much fun as you can have on a Submarine. It was always a morale booster and the CO, XO and COB of the day made all the rules, within reason.

One other thing we would do, which is rare on a sub, is a steel beach. I remember going through the Panama Canal in 1995 and bringing grills topside to BBQ burgers and chicken. COs can make or break a crew and change your mind on what your plans are in the Navy. They need more COs like this guy.