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Letters

SWOs deserve respect

I recently read the Back Talk piece by Donnie Horner in the March 23 edition of Navy Times [“A failure of leadership”]. In fact, I read the column four or five times. I understand that Horner comes with numerous credits to his name, including being a U.S. Military Academy graduate, chair and distinguished professor of leadership, ethics and law at the Naval Academy, and having been an Army officer. It is clear that he has many impressive credentials and could be considered someone who can speak on good leadership.

Over my 22-year career in the surface Navy I have served aboard five Navy ships and com¬pleted 12 deployments, and I can say without any reservation that I disagree with the column. It men¬tioned that the “intent was to get an honest, no-kidding assessment from folks who would know.” It refers to two lieutenant comman¬der-selects and portrays those offi¬cers’ opinions as representative of the Navy.

Some of the comments: “It’s like being in high school. [Surface war¬fare officers] eat their young. You earn respect for ripping into peo¬ple and just being generally ‘hard core.’” And “to deal with the bul¬lies, you become a bully. And, if you survive, you wear your SWO pin ‘like a badge of honor.’”

The column goes on to say that these two comments “provide a classic illustration of in-groups and out-groups, and the enormous amount of wasted energy that goes into their formation and maintenance.” I beg to differ with the thought process. Simply put, what these two comments reflect are two people with their own opinions. Don’t pick out two peo¬ple and focus on these viewpoints as representative of the entire community.

Horner’s column depicts a cul¬ture that maintains or encourages a “cut-throat mentality” and al¬ludes to a lack of regard for treat¬ing people with respect. I disagree with those opinions and the choice of people used to justify such thoughts on a community that is full of incredible people and lead¬ers. I would venture that there are many others in the surface community who will also disagree with Horner’s thoughts and opin¬ions. But that is the beauty of our country, our military, our Navy and of the surface warfare com¬munity. We are not close-minded.

Chiefs aren’t broken

After reviewing article after ar¬ticle about how bad the chiefs are, I have to voice my opinion. The last two master chief petty officers of the Navy have raised the bar on deck-plate leadership, and we have responded.

The Feb. 23 Navy Times dis¬played a broken anchor, which upset most of the chiefs I know [“Nukes caught cheating”]. The chiefs are not broken; in fact, they are as strong as ever.

I challenge all of the chiefs out there to voice your opinion and not to let them tear us down. I am proud to be a chief, and for the last nine years I have been trying to teach the new selectees how to become strong leaders.

It’s a shame that an article has to be written about an isolated in¬cident and blamed on the whole chief community. I have not seen articles on how the chiefs are leading the way in Iraq and Af¬ghanistan. We worked hand-in-hand with our Army brothers to get the job done. I saw several out¬standing chiefs leading their peo¬ple into harm’s way. To my fellow chief petty officers, thank you for your continued and dedicated ser¬vice to the U.S. Navy.

Flight training critical

Not being a Monday morning quarterback, one would have to stop and think who was doing what in the cockpit [“P-3 mishap report: 2 of 3 pilots short on flight hours,” March 2].

The article listed 10 things that went wrong; my question was, who was in the seat? Did they swap in the middle of the emer¬gency with an aircraft pulling negative Gs?

The article basically said that there were too many hands in the cockpit and it was not clear who was in charge and who was doing what. I must say they were blessed, and the main objective was that they got the crew and the aircraft back on the ground.

Flight hours are important; if not in flight then in [simulator] time. Training, training, training and crew coordination are essential for the cockpit to avert such situations in the future.

Remembering Sanctuary

Regarding Rear Adm. William Wyatt’s recent letter on the Sanc¬tuary [“More on the Sanctuary,” Letters, March 23], I was a senior enlisted crew member onboard the ship during the time of which he speaks, having reported aboard just weeks after her re-commissioning as a dependent support ship in November 1972.

I took her through refresher training, then sailed her to Colom¬bia, Panama, Haiti, and later the Bahamas, Wilmington, N.C., and Port Everglades on her many Florida excursions. I remained faithfully planted onboard into her decommissioning in Philadelphia, leaving her in February 1975 only when she was clearly doomed.

Sanctuary’s crew was the “tight¬est” I ever had the pleasure of serving with.

Since February 1975, I have kept in contact with several Sanc¬tuary crew members and mourn the ongoing loss of some really great shipmates. I’ve often stated that if the Sanctuary were still in commission, I’d still be aboard her, and I’m sure most of my close Sanctuary friends feel the same way. She was one of a kind.

Defending Chiropractic

Your March 23 Tricare Help col¬umn, “Chiropractic has no place in Tricare,” offered a one-sided and inaccurate look at chiropractic.

Here are the facts: Tricare does not currently cover services pro¬vided by doctors of chiropractic. However, the Chiropractic Care Health Care Program is available to active-duty service members (including activated National Guard and reserve members) at 49 designated military treatment facilities throughout the U.S.

While active-duty family mem¬bers, retirees and their families, former spouses, and survivors are not eligible for this program, they may seek chiropractic care in the local community at their own expense.

Contrary to your article, doctors of chiropractic — not osteopaths — are the only U.S. health care professionals extensively trained in manipulation techniques and are the true masters of spinal ma¬nipulation, a form of treatment performed 94 percent of the time in this country by doctors of chiro¬practic, according to the Rand Corp.

In managing chronic pain, there’s no magic solution that works for everyone, but chiroprac¬tic care is certainly an effective treatment option — and it only makes sense to put your health in the hands of the most highly trained provider available.

People wishing to learn more about the benefits of full-scope chiropractic services or to find a doctor of chiropractic may visit our association’s Web site at www.ACAtoday.org or contact us directly at (703) 276-8800.