WHATEVER HAPPENED TO “SEMPER FORTIS?”
by OPOVV, ©2017
(Oct. 11, 2017) — The Captain
Do what you’re told to do and keep your mouth shut. I’ve been in the man’s Navy for fifteen years and I’ve never seen it so messed-up as I see it now. So maybe I say something, but what good would it do? Five more years and I get a retirement that I can live on.
I’ve done pretty well for myself: made Captain the first round, but I’ve got to stay out of trouble. The class of nitwits that they give me these days seems to be getting worse and worse. No doubt the Gulf of Mexico will be where the US NAVY will be confined when the New World Order takes over.
INTERLUDE: “Moonlight Serenade” (3:21)
The OOD
I wonder if the Old Man knows what he’s doing. All we do is train; why, he had me train for six months before he’d sign off on my qualifications to even be the OOD in port. I’m, without a doubt, the most qualified of the qualified. I could run this ship from my stateroom, lights out, door closed, and I could tell how many revolutions the screws are turning and which way the wind’s blowing.
I must say that this ship is pretty well-trained; I’ll give him that, but that’s all we do, is train, even in port. I was going to stay in for 30 but I doubt I’ll even make it to 20.
INTERLUDE: “Nessun Dorma” (3:19)
The Chief Boatswains mate
The ship is going around in circles, just like the NAVY. The Captain is scared he’ll get his ship scratched by a dock bumper or an anchor chain.
The sailors they give us these days couldn’t make it through Boot Camp 20 years ago. All they talk about is getting out after just four years and going to college on the GI Bill. The sailors with electronic training have basically an electrical engineering degree without the sociology and biology and they’re getting out early so the taxpayer ends up getting cheated on their investment.
In a couple of years I’ll have made my 30 and then it’ll be lazy days. First I thought about living in the Philippines, somewhere around Olongapo, near Subic Bay, but now I’m thinking a suburb of Yokohama, Japan.
This man’s NAVY has sure gone downhill ever since Obama, sad to say. It’s too bad, because it really used to be a Force of Nature, but the quality and character of people they have nowadays leaves this Old Boat just shaking his head.
INTERLUDE: “Now and Then” (2:27)
Missile Fire Control Technician 3rd Class
This isn’t at all what my grandfather told me it would be like. The officers are afraid of their own shadow, out of offending a “person of color,” for Pete’s sake.
But I must say the Captain knows his stuff. We were patrolling off the coast of, well, somewhere, and these patrol boats came out to, well, we’ll never know because we sunk them, blew them clear out of the water, every one of them, and didn’t stop to pick up survivors.
But I’m still getting out after four years. It’s all political correctness, as if they never heard of Trump. And we all know what happened to LTC Terry Lakin, even though he was Army, so we don’t have much faith in the “Powers-that-Be”: the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who couldn’t come to the aid of one of their own when he was in need of protection from the corrupt politicians. No, if they can’t play by the rules, I’m out of here at my first opportunity.
I keep a Short-Timer’s Calendar* in my Wheel Book** so if someone asks me to do something I can whip it out and say, “Well, I’d like to help out, but, see here? It says I’ve got but 45 days left, yes sir, so I’m afraid I just won’t have enough time to do whatever you’re thinking of asking me to do. Ask a Lifer***; they got plenty of time. Matter of fact, that’s all they’ve got.”
[*Short-Timer Calendar: a calendar that runs backwards, counting down the days when an enlistment is up.]
[**Wheel Book: a notebook carried by people who need a lot of information quickly in order to function most efficiently.]
[***Lifer: an officer or enlisted who wants to make the military service a career, either for 20 or 30 years. Has to be able to have a particular mindset.]
ENDING: “Just A Closer Walk With Thee” (3:09)