GW CO & XO relieved

[Mumbles]

There are a ton of P-3 pilots and FEs that are dippers..... I've been guilty of it once or twice. I can't imagine ever going back to it again, because it truly is disgusting to do and see...Sorry if I'm pontificating.

 

[Harrier Dude]

If you are dipping in uniform, you are wrong. It looks unprofessional and is just.....nasty.

I dip in my office all day long. I must be the nastiest Marine ever.

It's fairly common in the Marine Corps. There are varying degrees to enforcement based on local commanders. Every now and then somebody gets bent out of shape about it (like when the ships XO tossed me from the wardroom).

The more discrete you are about it, the more sucessful you'll be. Not trying to hide it, exactly, just not being obnoxious about it.

YMMV.

 

[Herc_Dude]

Another dipping Marine here ...

Like anything, the more you do it, the 'better' you get. Even I get annoyed at someone who spits in a drinking fountain. I always have a bottle near by and besides a slight bulge in my lip, you might never know.

No one has ever made a big deal about it. Like HD said, it's pretty common amongst Marines.

BTW HD, you are not the nastiest... all my time here alone in the Q has me dippin at the cyclic rate lately.

 

[Huggy Bear]

I think just about every instructor I had in primary dipped; they would use the relief tube to spit. Blehhh! How could you put your mouth where some guy had his Johnson?

 

[Flash]

Ah Senator Foghorn Leghorn..... or Mr Elizabeth Taylor?

I was talking about the WWII and Korean War vet, former Marine and Navy veteran, and former Secretary of the Navy. That one.

It's fairly common in the Marine Corps. There are varying degrees to enforcement based on local commanders. Every now and then somebody gets bent out of shape about it (like when the ships XO tossed me from the wardroom).

The more discrete you are about it, the more sucessful you'll be. Not trying to hide it, exactly, just not being obnoxious about it.

Ahhh, the dipping debate finally rears its ugly head here.

I have never dipped, and don't ever intend to. I have been around dipping ever since I went to college, where about 90% of my fellow students dipped at one point or another and we had spitoons built into the walkways in the barracks. The worst offenders, the Army guys. They seemed to thrive on the stuff. And ever since then it has disgusted me, just the smell makes me nauseated.

But I have held my tongue and have rarely said anything to a sailor or a Marine who is dipping when not in public. But it still bothers me, and I still find it disgusting. Especially when some idiot spills it, making the rest of us endure it even more (it even happend on a P-3 I was on once).

But beyond all of that, I also think it is unprofessional and surprisingly enough, it is also against the rules. I am willing to tolerate it to a degree in the 'locker room', but there is a time and place for it. I have seen more than a few guys do it in an office/public enviroment where they deal with civilians and the public. And shocklingly enough, the rest of the professional world doesn't dip anymore. So when I see a Marine Major briefing a bunch of senior civilians on the finer points of his job with a giant wad of dip in his mouth, I am not impressed. At the hazardous risk of sounding elitist, it is just low class.

Oh yeah, in case you all forgot, tobacco use of any kind is prohibited on Navy aircraft. And I thought Marines were sticklers for the rules, I guess only as long as it suits them.......

 

[Zissou]

I don't know if my trigger finger will even function without a dip?

But only at work, no female has ever seen me dip and I intend to keep it that way.

 

[Scoob]

I was talking about the WWII and Korean War vet, former Marine and Navy veteran, and former Secretary of the Navy. That one.

Before you go canonizing the man as the reincarnation of Arleigh Burke and Chesty Puller just because he holds a seat on the U.S. Senate:

The Senator’s first public service opportunity began during World War II when, in January 1945, at age 17, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. He served on active duty until the summer of 1946 when he was honorably discharged as Petty Officer 3rd Class, electronic technician's mate.

At the outbreak of the Korean War in the summer of 1950, Senator Warner interrupted his law studies and commenced a second tour of active military duty, beginning in October 1950, this time as an officer in the United States Marine Corps. A year later, in October 1951, as a first lieutenant in communications, he volunteered for duty in Korea and served as a ground officer with the First Marine Air Wing. Following his active service in Korea, he remained in the Marine Corps Reserve for 10 years and was promoted to the rank of Captain.

Hardly the requisite level of uniformed military experience required before one should have so critical a stance on the performance of a Commanding Officer, particularly in defiance of such clear support from the Senior Ranking Officer of the United States Navy.

 

[Flash]

Before you go canonizing the man as the reincarnation of Arleigh Burke and Chesty Puller just because he holds a seat on the U.S. Senate:

I didn't canonize him, just merely stated his record. It was partly serious, and partly in jest in response to Mumbles' post. But how the heck did you get that I was putting him in the same category as Burke or Puller?

Hardly the requisite level of uniformed military experience required before one should have so critical a stance on the performance of a Commanding Officer, particularly in defiance of such clear support from the Senior Ranking Officer of the United States Navy.

You need to throttle back a little bit there. It doesn't really matter if you think he has the requisite experience to block an officer's promotion. By law, the Senate approves most military officer promotions, so it is by that right that he blocked his promotion. So who the heck is he defying? He answers the people of Virginia, not the Navy. Not only that, ADM Clark's support of CDR Lippold was not universal and his name was withdrawn from the promotion list submitted by his successor as CNO.

I have a great deal of sympathy for CDR Lippold, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. If it was not for the terrorist's screwing up the first time, the USS The Sullivans would have been that was hit instead of the USS Cole. He came and spoke to my unit about a year ago and his description of the bombing and its aftermath was sobering and illuminating.

I really don't know if he should have been promoted or not, there are good arguments on both sides. But a US Senator, whether you like or not, does have the right to disagree and block a promotion. Not much you can do about it.

 

[Scoob]

I really don't know if he should have been promoted or not, there are good arguments on both sides. But a US Senator, whether you like or not, does have the right to disagree and block a promotion. Not much you can do about it.

It just looks to me like a case of micromanagement, and scapegoating a CO for failing to recognize a terrorist threat at a time when the Executive and Legislative Branch were just as equally unaware. I would venture that the Sen's pactions would've been much the same, had the CDR loosed a Bushmaster on a similar small boat while a couple "fishermen" waived at him - were that boat not fully laden w/ explosives. But he probably wouldn't have had to disagree w/ the CNO to do it.

 

[MIDNJAC]

I sure saw a lot of IPs and students in my primary squadron dipping... I was kind of surprised, because I assumed folks would take better care of themselves.

I'd say half the $hitcan in the sqdn ready room here is full of old bottles w/ dip juice in them. It's nice when folks don't cap them back off, and they fall out and splatter on your shoe. I guess that's why we wear brown shoes

 

[EM1toNFO]

Well, back to the topic at hand. Being in DC central during GQ and all underway drills, the DCA is posted in DC central for all casualties. The smoking sponson on the IKE was on the port side 0-3 level around frame 150 or so, the second deck around frame 100 port side, and the the last sponson was off the port side of the fantail on the grating. Our CO changed the sponsons several times and also shut them down, due to inability to "keep them clean enough".

As soon as I started reading the article, I almost automatically assumed that they were storing some bad juju in one of the shaft alleys, (citing the "chimney effect"). Anywho, it does suck that someone's inability to control their cravings until the appropriate time cost the Navy and 2 or more officers with good intentions their careers. Also, if you think the CO/XO can walk their spaces in a reasonable amount of time on a carrier, your dead wrong. There are just WAY TOO many to go to, and they simply don't have the time. I was assigned to the Cableway team while in overhaul, and it took a team of 6 of us to inspect 85% of the spaces over 10 months to complete (and we were only looking for one thing)!!

Thank you, that is all, rant over

OC

 

[Hozer]

Two observations on roles of senior officers during at-sea casualties:
Damage Control Training is second only to Flight Ops in importance on the carrier.
The XO is usually the senior member of DCTT, Damage Control Training Team. So, whenever there is a real fire/smoke/injury on the ship, the XO invariably shows up on-scene pronto and supervises/relays info directly via the brick to the Captain. DCA and CHENG stay in engineering, if the casualty is not engineering related, to keep the power/steam going where it needs to go.
The rest of the officers listen in on their bricks and disseminate information as required.
If the DC efforts are found to be lacking during a investigation of an at-sea incident, i.e. poor training, repair lockers not up to snuff, ect., the members of DCTT are responsible.
It's not headhunting or beancounting. I have the utmost respect for the men who were my Skipper and Big XO on Kennedy, even if I personally differed with them. Their jobs were/are the toughest I can imagine, period. And all of them genuinely gave a shit about people, even when most of the crew thought otherwise.

 

[BigIron]

Also, if you think the CO/XO can walk their spaces in a reasonable amount of time on a carrier, your dead wrong. There are just WAY TOO many to go to, and they simply don't have the time. ....

That's why they have HODs, DIVOs and CPOs for walking spaces.

We've caught sailors smoking in unauthorized spaces (ie anywhere but the smoking sponsons) before. The worst was during a darken ship drill and 2 guys were smoking on the bow safety catwalks. The helo on NVDs could see them from a mile away.

 

[Schnugg]

Speaking of illegal smoking spots...one evening, in port SD on the Stennis, I was CDO and was chatting with the CPO on the enlisted brow when I smelled pot smoke. We both looked up and could see it coming from a sponson above the quarterdeck and venting out a large opening.

Quietly and quickly we called out the MAAs and went to investigate. We bumped into a flustered sailor coming out of the area who reeked of pot. Stopped him and went in. There were roaches all over the ground. Seemed he liked this spot for his duty day smokes. He got busted pretty quick.



The dip bump is a good look...if you still have a jaw left after the cancer eats through it...

 

[feddoc]

In the 70s I was on my first watch during my first trip on the Forrestal to distant vacation spots. No flight ops, so I basically cruised around the flight deck passing time. Somewhere on the starboad side I smelled pot and came across 5 or 6 guys doing their thing. Hmmm, 1 v 5 in the Atlantic....odds not looking good, so I trotted off to the CDO shack. He was asleep. A-7 driver out of NAS Lemoore. I left him a note.