|
Are there any boots we actually wear inside regulation besides the Bates? The squeaking drives me loving insane, and it has to annoy everyone that walks near sailors inside. I started wearing the 922s just for comfort and because nobody ever really looks too hard at your boots at a joint command. Tired of all those airmen and their Nike boots. As for NWUs, I'm not a big fan. Material wise I don't really care, but the blue just looks ridiculous. It's like someone though "Hey they work near the ocean and thats blue right?" I'm okay with NSUs for the most part, except that I don't like we don't have a long-sleeve or tie option. We're always short-sleeved business-casual at the neck. I know that's not for everybody but it'd be a nice option at least. I'm looking forward to seeing what comes of the decision to try a joint service uniform and if that'll extend to shore duty commands too or if it's just to get us all in the same pattern downrange.
|
#
¿
Jun 1, 2014 18:48
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 16, 2024 23:08 |
|
|
Sir Lucius posted:The long sleeve option is that sweater you can get. Sadly, this is also the one that I'm always told to take off anytime I enter a meeting so I look uniform with the people without it. So it's a good sweater for walking from duty to duty.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 1, 2014 21:23
|
|
|
Sir Lucius posted:That's the dumbest poo poo right there. When it's cold out I'm always going to wear my fleece. If it's hot out, I'm always going to have my sleeves rolled up. Who are we trying to impress with this "all sleeves up or all sleeves down" nonsense. It's just another one of those little comfort sacrifices so LPO/Chief/CMC can exclaim how great our military bearing is. Military bearing is non-existent in any form at my command. We're a joint command and the Navy only handles our paperwork, we work for the Army. If I want leave? Army operational approval first, then Navy. if I want a day off? Army says sure, take whenever, Navy says "it better be a tuesday, wednesay or a thursday and never twice in a row SHIPMATE" I feel like the senior leadership just wants to feel like they're actually Naval senior leadership. Chiefs in the community (CT) are a joke. They don't lead operations or handle anything but paperwork for the division, they even more rarely actually know anything about the platforms and systems their sailors are using. The CT's ridiculous advancement rate (an attempt to keep people from getting out because our attrition is horrendous) only made it so now we have a fuckton of incompetent LPOs and Chiefs running around who got promoted because they washed cars and literally held bake sales and the only leadership they're capable of is leading a division to failure. Now of course there's exceptions to this rule and there's a lot of Chiefs that I actually look up to, but mostly because they made Chief by flipping off their own Chiefs and busting rear end at the mission. I think there's a reason most of our operational decisions are made by SFCs and DoD Civilians, our E6/7s don't know what they're doing but want to feel like we're all Navy so bad they come up with this arbitrary bullshit just for the sake of making a Navy policy. The only way I'll stay in is if my 3rd attempt at STA-21 goes through next year. The last two times I didn't even get to finish the application because the CO said I was too "operationally significant" which is funny because he refuses to approve training requests to other sailors to qualify them at the same levels because they never had the time to get IDW, which is the sole indicator of a stellar sailor. Three years ago at DLI they gave NAM's to four people that raised a grand for Navy Day ball in one month. Two weeks prior to that quarters I broke into a room and intervened in a suicide on a midwatch, I was put in for a NAM and the CO denied it without citation. That's the day I realized what kind of Navy we were all becoming.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 1, 2014 23:02
|
|
|
That almost makes me glad I'm a brown-water sailor right now. In some ways I think it's worse when the Navy is a 9-5, because you start to feel like a regular civilian, but one that still has to do stupid poo poo every day for what feels like no reason with new arbitrary rules every week.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 6, 2014 03:11
|
|
|
Our detailer came to the command and specifically told us not to call him and ask for any orders but shore. They're getting rid of our air and surface billets (CTI) over the next three years and unless you drew the right straw leaving A-School getting into anything but shore takes nothing short of an act of God. He held a 45 minute all-call giving us examples of times we've called and how stupid we were for ever thinking we'd leave our one duty station. We have a chief who's been at my command for 16 years without ever leaving. Join the navy, they said. See the world, they said.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 9, 2014 21:52
|
|
|
Found out today I'm "facing mast" when I get back to my command for the lofty criminal act of charging meals to my government travel card while on TDY orders. 4200 per diem after lodging and I dared use 1200 of it for meals over 90 days. "EXCESSIVE" The best part was the email exchange. "come in please R/ CTR1" "I'm still in Virginia, but I can call you." I should try going awol, apparently nobody notices when you're gone for four months even though they're calling to reprimand you for being TDY. Hobo de los Muertos posted:16 Years at one command... Would that chief happen to be a 9HEB? This guy knows a person or two.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 10, 2014 21:13
|
|
|
Christoff posted:I don't know how anyone making any level of enlisted pay can afford a raptor A friend of mine in STA-21 got a raptor. I never asked how he managed to even afford the down payment on it. Needless to say he had a subaru five months later. I calculated the payments once and they were a whole mid-month paycheck.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 10, 2014 21:19
|
|
|
Pandasmores posted:It's pre-approved! Special Military Financing! Even Admirals are approved! E1 OKAY! Yeah I've got the reg all printed out and highlighted already, I know what the YN is mixing up so it should be an easy thing to fix but until then it's always interesting to watch navy admin break down at such monumental tasks as managing someone's TDY. Pandasmores posted:There was a guy now that I remember. E-3 with a Raptor and a Harley. When one of the Chiefs caught wind of it, he got all excited about putting the kid up for Mast for poo poo, turns out he comes from a rich family and his parents pay for everything cash. That happened at my last command. One of the fresh E3s was driving around in a Lotus Exige and the command came down on him like a sledgehammer about losing his clearance for financial misconduct and they were making him out to be this dumbass. Turned out his parents owned a lot of lumber yards in like Montana and he had like a couple million in his bank account to show the YNs. Everyone looked stupid but the guy driving the lotus for once Analogical fucked around with this message at 21:29 on Jun 10, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Jun 10, 2014 21:26
|
|
|
LordNad posted:
I sent them that exact line of the reg. These same clowns forgot to activate my card until a week into my TDY too. You ever drive a thousand miles in an F150? It isn't cheap. Thanks for the link though, may as well print that out at home here.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 10, 2014 21:39
|
|
|
Mad Dragon posted:He has millionaire parents, and he's enlisted? Who, exactly, is the stupid one here? He was basically trying to be Charlie Sheen from Platoon.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 10, 2014 21:48
|
|
|
Sir Lucius posted:It's a $50,000, so it's not impossible. But really it's also good motivation to get the gently caress out and get a real job so I can buy things I want. I rode in it a few times and my own F150 is just a disappointment in comparison. It's not impossible but it really fucks your funds. Maybe if you didn't mind living in it and putting all of your BAH into a car payment.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 10, 2014 22:22
|
|
|
When I joined, my E3 mistake was a 70 mustang, but I only spent six grand on it. Paid it off, held onto it for a few years then sold it for 12. For two years though I had the number for every tow truck in town. My defining tow moment was breaking down in the busiest intersection in town during rush hour and having a high school football team materialize from the truck behind me with their coach and push me into an alley. I made pretty good on the money I put in though even including repairs and some interior restoration.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 11, 2014 00:41
|
|
|
This has been bugging the poo poo out of me. What coat is this?  I've googled everything but I've never seen it before. Then again I'm also a shore sailor. Is that some coverall-approved coat/parka?
|
|
#
¿
Jun 12, 2014 00:58
|
|
|
I don't mind the Ike if the liner is removed except that the elastic at the bottom always bunches up at my waist and makes me look like I'm expanding. I had to cut some of the strands to keep it from looking stupid. We wear NWUs every day of the year except a heritage day every other month or so if you happen to be on watch that day. Nobody wears NSUs but we're allowed to, so I usually throw those on with the NSU sweater because I feel like walking around hundreds of miles inland in a blue camo sailor costume looks loving ridiculous.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 12, 2014 04:09
|
|
|
I kept a clothing bag from the cleaners and keep each set of my uniforms ready in it incase some weird bullshit comes up but I haven't had to wear any other uniform for over a year. Even the dress uniform transitions unless I'm at work that day everyone wears them for those inspections I just bring it in on a hanger the next shift. I don't like how the NSUs look without the sweater though. We're getting those new whites next year too right? The ones with the blue piping. I also heard the dress blues are actually going to be navy blue again, and they're coming with zippers next year to first issue at basic. We're the only branch that just can't get away with using our uniform allowance on poo poo besides uniforms seeing as they change every other year.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 12, 2014 05:42
|
|
|
I wore my peacoat when I was a SN but I never wanted to throw my rank onto it. I've worn my peacoat more in civilian clothes on cold days than I have in uniform. If it's cold out I throw my NSU sweater on. If it's COLD out I wear my NWUs with a parka. The peacoat just doesn't fit in that equation
|
|
#
¿
Jun 12, 2014 23:33
|
|
|
Coveralls are good for yard work and shop work. I wore them to bed once when I had no clean clothes in A-school on a weekend because I'm lazy as poo poo and didn't do my laundry, so naturally there is a health and wellness that night and I'm the jackass standing in the lounge in my coveralls. I'll never forget the look Chief gave me when she saw me in bed in those things. Too bad I never saw her agai-- HAHA OH WAIT she's my Chief suddenly three years later again and I was still that guy she caught in the coveralls. 
|
|
#
¿
Jun 13, 2014 00:53
|
|
|
Sir Lucius posted:If under 21 find a good enabler and don't get caught! "Shipmate; what were you thinking? You're out here cokin' and jokin' meanwhile we got sailors comin' home in pine boxes"
|
|
#
¿
Jun 13, 2014 02:21
|
|
|
BovineAdapter posted:Just curious about those air and surface billets -- are they moving them somewhere else (which may be highly unlikely since you seem to be at one of the Centers of Excellence™) or are they deleting/converting the billets entirely? They've been saying they're getting rid of aircrew for years now, but they have a tentative date of 2019 now and this year's contracts were supposed to be the last. Surface is going in the same timeframe, this is for MENA languages, they'll probably keep surface out of Oahu. There's just no real need for us to be on a ship or a plane when they can stream it to us shoreside as fast as they can now. We just go off what our insane detailer yells at us about though.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 13, 2014 12:02
|
|
|
BovineAdapter posted:the guy told everyone that CTIs should be prepared to see an advancement slowdown due to over-advancement through the previous 7 years or so. He also mentioned the FLPB restructure. I knew that was coming because there was no way in hell PERSCOM was gonna pay folks $1000/month for testing in their primary language plus any other DLPT they could get their hands on (Italian, Spanish, French or the slavic languages for RuLings/SCroats). That ridiculous advancement rate completely killed our rating. We only had those rates because our attrition rate is and was still extremely high. Contractors will take a CTI starting at 85k and they hunt us out at work to remind us of that, so there's little reason to re-up for a 30k SRB for four years, that's about 7500 extra a year, or you can make 30k extra a year as a contractor. I haven't had FLPP pay in years. I stopped using my language when the war ended and basically am a CTN now to the point I had over 100 hours of OJT logged as a basic network op. Because of the 100% advancement we also have a ton (80%+) of E6/7s that aren't fit to even lead a division to failure, but we have so many "senior" enlisted that everyone has to get a shot at being an LPO to get leadership points for their chief board. With one exception every LPO I've had is entirely incompetent at leading and still acts like an E5 jerkoff. Our Chiefs don't lead operations, manage sailors, manage anything. All our Chiefs do is navy fundraising "operations" ie car washes, and they sign off on our leave chits AFTER the army already has. Our chain of command is army and DoD, the Navy just gives us our minimum wage and makes us sit through GMTs, then whines at us endlessly that we don't "act like sailors" when I just saw my very first Navy ship today passing DC Naval Yard. I'm not even sure what the hell it was. A destroyer? Either way, it was the first time I've seen Navy hardware in my life and it was only for 20 seconds.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 14, 2014 06:44
|
|
|
I tried to grab a pic but I managed to jack that up while I was driving. I remember it had "33". It wasn't a Burke, and now that I google I realize it was the USS Barry. So I'm back to never having seen an active navy ship again now  I got sent TDY a few months ago and then they announced a fleet familiarization week and sent a bunch of CTIs to Norfolk to see how the other half lives. I'd been pleading with my chain for two years to let us do that and instead I got to watch everyone else do it through facebook. I know the grass is always greener but poo poo, if I wanted to live at a desk my whole career I'd have joined the air force.
Analogical fucked around with this message at 07:20 on Jun 14, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Jun 14, 2014 07:17
|
|
|
buttplug posted:Mmmm the Barry is a Burke, and it's DDG-52...not 33. We don't actually have surface vessels in the Navy that have a hull number of 33. DDGs start at 51, CGs at 47, FFGs at 7 but 33 has be decommed. it was this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Barry_(DD-933) It's a museum ship there apparently and I spotted it crossing a bridge
|
|
#
¿
Jun 14, 2014 17:38
|
|
|
Anyone done STA-21 before? I'm putting my packet together. Figure its the only way I'll stay in. My SFC keeps insisting I apply for army intel warrant but I'd really rather try to get to an NROTC and butterbar up. My friend from HS got his 20k bonus for MM Nuke, then went STA-21, then failed his nuke interview on purpose and now is an NFO. gently caress that guy. I speak three languages and was an LNO for a year.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 15, 2014 04:54
|
|
|
genderstomper58 posted:well considering you can't deal w/ 72 hour weeks i'm on nuke friends side lol They aren't killin me, I'm just pissed they're the cause of sect bullshit we don't need to be part of lol
|
|
#
¿
Jun 15, 2014 05:35
|
|
|
Leadership in my community isn't even about having two silver bars on your chest. I just would rather make O1 than E6 at this point. my last CDR said "[I] need to finish training in [my] AOR before I consider training as an officer" and wouldn't sign off off on my annapolis package, but now I'm too old even with a waiver to go to Annapolis.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 15, 2014 07:22
|
|
|
As far as intel enlisted goes, if I was an O-3 with 10 years of service I'd be making less gross but more net take-home than an equally-positioned private contractor through BAH/BAS, language pay and taxes, since my state doesn't tax my income if I'm military I just pay federal for everything. For my particular position here it'd be a good way to go and right now it's the only way I'd stay in the Navy, since I don't want to be living off E-X income until retirement if making officer just means getting a college degree basically free anyway. I have half a petroleum engineering degree and I speak arabic, so I know I could get paid a fair amount working in oil so staying enlisted either has to rock my tits or start to meet the salaries I'm capable of pulling in outside it. I just don't want to tell my wife later on "Yeah well, it all could have been better but that packet was poo poo" Income aside it means I could also go to other duty stations, like Misawa, Bahrain, Qatar, San Diego or Jacksonville. Which don't sound that great but it is when you compare it to either Georgia or Maryland the rest of your career. Yeah, it's too late to do anything for this year since the packet date is July 1st, but I'm going to use the time to get next year's together. The CO here might decide not to shoot me down for trivial reasons this time before I even have my officer's board. Good advice in here though, I appreciate it.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 16, 2014 18:09
|
|
|
Sir Lucius posted:Right now they're sending a bunch of CTNs to Hawaii and there's a good chance I might get sent there too. I guess it wouldn't be the end of the world, but it seems like the kind of place I'd get really sick of after the first year. If you're an N brancher Hawaii is the best tour before the Navy plants your rear end at Meade until you retire, that'll happen no matter what you try to do so you may as well get some sun while you can.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 18, 2014 04:35
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 16, 2024 23:08 |
|
|
BovineAdapter posted:There was one they bought into before I enlisted. It was TQL or Total Quality Leadership which I believe was Total Quality Management (TQM) in the civilian world. My Command (500+ personnel) had a dedicated TQL office and a Senior Chief as Command TQL Coordinator. When I made Second Class, I had to attend their apprentice/journeyman TQL class. Shortly after that, they scrapped the whole program Navy-wide. Too many people acting with capacity, a plummeting of DUI and ARIs?? LPOs with the situation awareness to realize their orders directly conflict with command-level POTW directives BEFORE severely counseling you?? We had to scrap it, shipmate, we need to stick to Naval Tradition.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 26, 2014 17:23
|
|