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Letters

Stick with shore training

Moving the schools from shore to the fleet is going to be a bad idea [“Immediate frocking ends,” Sept. 15]. I have been to the school on the shore side, and it was great.

I learned a lot of new leadership skills that I needed to learn, and I was able to interact with petty officers from all different commands and fields.

If the training and classes are going to be on the ship, petty officers might get training from other petty officers who more than likely are going to be forced to train the young sailors — and may not want to.

Also, sailors in training won’t be able to interact with other petty officers from different fields.

Leaders are going to see the hard way that this way is not going to work.

OS2 (SW) David Veldkamp

Alexandria, Va.

Style should not change

The idea of a “fashionable” women’s uniform is an outrage [“Style at sea,” Frontlines, Sept. 15].

First of all, let’s get real: It is not like the men look all that great in their working uniforms (although, I do think that nothing is finer than a man in his crackerjacks). Second, women are enough of a distraction on the ships without having a uniform that would accent their shapes.

CS3 Paula Hubbard

Grants Pass, Ore.

Enough with the bad press

Your Sept. 22 issue had the headline “Ex-sailor faces second assault charge” [News Breaks] describing a former airman who apparently was on active duty from 1998 to 2002.

Our local newspaper loves to headline negative stories this way, regardless of how long or how long ago the offending person was associated with the military.

I have yet to see an article about an ex-plumber or an ex-mechanic. I really resent this gratuitous negativity toward our military. I have come to expect it from our local media but certainly not from Navy Times.

And we wonder where some civilians get a poor image of our military.

Capt. C.F. O’Keefe (ret.)

San Diego

A duty to vote

Lt. Cmdr. Joe D. Haines is wrong in many areas, but most of all in his failure to recognize that we get the government that we deserve [“Our patriotic duty,” Back Talk, Sept. 22].

He lays the blame for America’s problems on the major political parties, the greed of corporations, the professional politicians and the special interest groups. He holds blameless the “disillusioned” people who choose not to participate in the political process, while noting that “complaining about problems without offering some solution is little more than whining.”

The solution he offers? Don’t vote — i.e. don’t complain, don’t make your voice heard, don’t choose the lesser of two evils. He says that “tragically, Americans have abdicated their responsibility,” but in the same breath advocates a further abdication of our responsibilities.

Get informed and get actively involved in politics. Run for office or campaign for someone else who is up for election. Write your representatives. Contribute to your favorite causes. At the very least, exercise your privilege as an American. Vote!

Reserve Capt. Mike Shewchuk (ret.)

Charlotte, N.C.

Hard Labor more than fair

I’m sorry, I just can’t find it in my heart to feel sorry for former Fire Controlman 3rd Class Pablo Paredes [“Is hard labor fair?” Sept. 15]. The fact that he had to pull weeds in an empty lot with his bare hands has no bearing on me; he was given that punishment, and I think it was appropriate.

Each command can use discretion to define “hard labor.” The fact that he wanted to make a statement on the morning of his ship’s cruise by wearing a shirt that said “Like a cabinet member, I resign” while TV cameras were there boils my blood.

What gets me even hotter is the fact that the masters-at-arms did not drag him onto the ship and make him sail. When you are in direct violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, you get taken to the MA’s office, you don’t stay on the pier to mingle with the loved ones of the families left behind.

MAC (AW) James Wilk (ret.)

Chesterfield, Mich.

CG right to send release

I find nothing wrong with the news release naming the Coast Guard captain who was accused of wrongfully using cocaine and obstructing justice [“Coast Guard O-6 allegedly used cocaine,” News Breaks, Sept. 1].

Lt. Elizabeth Gillis argues that the news release unnecessarily humiliates an officer who has not been found guilty and that the information could contaminate the jury pool of potential court-martial.

I strongly disagree.

First, Capt. Michael Sullivan was relieved because he is accused of committing major violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Other senior Coast Guard and Navy officers have been relieved of duty in a public way not always because of alleged criminal conduct but because a superior lost confidence in their ability to command. I don’t believe they were any less humiliated.

Second, I fail to see how information so general could taint a court-martial jury pool.

Third, it’s difficult to believe that in a service as small as ours, some word of the accusation wouldn’t quickly reach most senior officers, independent of the news release.

Fourth, the first reporter getting stonewalled would smell a cover-up and eventually break the story, and the Coast Guard would be, well, unnecessarily humiliated.

Coast Guard Reserve Lt. Cmdr. Phil Johnson (ret.)

Seattle