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Letters

STOP SLOPPINESS

If you’re a petty officer and you’re allowing your peers and the ranks below you to look shabby, you are more to blame than they are [“Stopping sloppy sailors,” Aug. 31]. There used to be a time in which you were doing everything possible as a first class — or as a petty officer in general — to avoid your chief seeing someone in your department out of line.

Until our petty officers are held accountable by the chiefs’ mess, and they police themselves and everyone below them in rank, we’re going to continue to have problems with discipline, morale, uniform appearance, unit pride and cohesion.

While the buck stops here when someone in my department messes up, my petty officers feel a little of the pain because they should be ashamed that something got so out of hand that their senior chief had to step in — especially something that they have the rank and authority to take care of. If you can’t handle your rank, you should give it to someone who can.

Perhaps everyone’s “open-door policies” have blurred the ranking structure, in that “Seaman Recruit Jones” thinks he can go directly to his chief and that he doesn’t have to listen to anyone in between. I just would ask that my chief brothers and sisters begin to crack down on our petty officers. They have got to learn accountability somewhere.

— HMCS (SW/FMF) Charles Canterbury, Okinawa, Japan

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I served aboard five Essex-class carriers from the mid ’50s to the late ’60s. When liberty call was announced, everyone who rated liberty had to muster on the hangar deck and be inspected prior to departing the ship.

This may seem like “chicken regs” in today’s Navy, but if the higher ranking petty officers can’t keep them neat and in line, then maybe this would help. Sailors not having shined shoes or squared-away uniforms were sent back to their compartments to correct same, or they didn’t leave the ship. The same could also apply to civvies being neat and proper.

— RMC Larry Berggren (ret.), Wilcox, Neb.

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I can’t believe how much finger-pointing is going on. At quarters in the morning, my engine room people had better show up in clean working uniform, shined shoes and a good haircut — or else.

I would not allow sloppiness, and I taught my second classes to start monitoring the people we had working for us. I was proud of my uniform, and I wanted my men to be just as proud. Leadership starts in boot camp.

— MM1 Jon Fincher Sr. (ret.), Shickshinny, Pa.

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I understand former Surface Force Master Chief (SW/AW) Mike Schanche’s frustration. Whatever happened to muster, instruction and inspection? From what I read, it seems like commands on the waterfront at San Diego need to get back to basics.

— AVCM (AW) Fred Orlowske (ret.), Winona, Minn.

PLANNED PREGNANCIES

Pregnancy, childbirth and child-rearing certainly can be compatible with Navy service, but the responsible, career-minded sailor will plan her pregnancy for her shore tour [“More moms-to-be,” Aug. 31]. When they started allowing a sailor to delay returning to sea duty for 12 months following delivery, they weighted the system in favor of the scammers and the irresponsible.

Look around any shore command that gets stuck finding billets for these junior females while they wait to deliver or “recover” from their pregnancy. What is the rate of back-to-back pregnancies? I hear young women bragging about how they conned the system to get out of a less-than-desirable sea tour and will never have to go back to sea. I see E-3s pregnant with their second child.

Is anyone really surprised that pregnancy rates jumped? A sailor can spend minimal time at sea, get pregnant, and then spend anywhere from 15 to 18 months on shore duty. Before she is required to return to sea, she gets pregnant again and repeats the cycle. By the time the second pregnancy tour is up, she departs the Navy, GI Bill in hand, having done nothing for the Navy.

— AMC Aileen Koke (ret.), Norfolk, Va.

keep uavs for pilots only

I would like to offer some additional insight on using enlisted personnel as pilots for unmanned aerial vehicles [“Experimental UAV program puts enlisted in pilot’s seat,” Aug. 24].

Not all UAVs are created equal, and grouping them all together is a big mistake. In the article, the author references a Federal Aviation Administration study comparing the mishap rates of the Shadow and the Predator, but this is comparing apples and oranges.

A Shadow has a wingspan of 14 feet, weighs 50 pounds and has a range of 68 nautical miles. A Predator, on the other hand, has a 50-foot wingspan, can drop live ordnance, has a beyond-line-of-sight capability and has a speed of over 220 knots.

The Global Hawk is more complex, flying faster than 300 knots, up to 65,000 feet and with a range of more than 8,000 miles. In short, the larger UAVs are a far more complex group of systems than the smaller UAVs, and it is faulty logic to assume that putting a less-qualified person at the controls will decrease a mishap rate.

Another issue is the perception of the general public. If the aircraft are to be flown in U.S. airspace, we will need support from the public. It will be infinitely easier to sell the idea of a flying machine with a pilot at the controls.

The most important part of being a pilot is no longer stick-and-rudder skills but aviation judgment. These aircraft may be flying in complex airspace with other UAVs as well as manned aircraft. Does five weeks of training meet this requirement? The larger UAVs are not video games or model aircraft — they are full-size, fully operational aircraft with multiperson crews. Would you put the enlisted person in the front seat of your current aircraft as pilot in command?

— Cmdr. Michael Capasso (ret.), Leonardtown, Md.

NO WEAR LIMITS FOR NWU

Having served more than 23 years in the Navy, with nine enlisted years as an aviation rescue swimmer, I’m convinced the Navy Working Uniform isn’t what or where our leaders want it to be [“No-brainer,” July 27]. If the NWU is truly a working uniform, let’s not limit where it can be worn.

The Army authorized soldiers to wear the Army Combat Uniform in the capital region. On any workday, you’ll see ACU-clad soldiers transiting the Metro and conducting business in the Pentagon/Crystal City area.

Although I didn’t see any NWUs in Navy District Washington, I saw naval aviators in flight suits. I love the flight suit, but I’m having a difficult time understanding why flights suits are authorized and the NWU isn’t in the Washington area.

— Lt. Cmdr. John Pethel, Virginia Beach, Va.