And we that it was bad in Yokosuka. After the NavyTimes story on Seventh Fleet’s liberty restrictions was published, I thought things would start changing in Japan. Surprisingly, they are. I can’t say anything yet, but trust me…changes are happening. Sasebo however, seems to be taking a few steps back. Stars & Stripes recently reported an incident in which a seaman was arrested for allegedly trespassing and the incredibly stupid result of that arrest. Apparently 22 year old Seaman Lamarco James was arguing in public with his girlfriend and someone called the police. Once the police showed up, he did what any honorable Sailor would do and ran. They arrested him later in the day when someone reported him for trespassing in their apartment building. Ok, so the running away from the police wasn’t a smart move, but in the end he was just somewhere he didn’t belong. There’s nothing in the story that even hints at the possibility of him stealing or vandalizing anything, he was just walking in an apartment building he didn’t live in. Sure, maybe the police had a hard-on to catch him because he ran from them earlier, but in the end he was charged with walking in an apartment building, not an apartment, that he didn’t live in. No big deal, right? Give the guy a hard time for running from the police, maybe some EMI and keep him on the boat for a while to think about what he did. How does the fine leadership in Sasebo decide to handle it? They restrict all E3 and below to the base INDEFINITELY!
What kind of reasoning do these people have to punish the entire E3 and below for the actions, which weren’t even that serious, of one misguided seaman?! Is anyone high up on the change still asking themselves why so many first term Sailors are deciding to get out, or why it’s like pulling teeth getting Sailors to take duty in Japan? If so, look at the handling of liberty incidents over the last few years, and you’ll find the answer. This incident is so minor, that no one outside of the Sailor’s chain of command, and maybe base security, should know it even occurred. Instead, the whole E-3 and below are being punished for the actions of one individual that weren’t even that bad. Is anyone in higher levels of leadership still asking themselves why first term Sailors are passing up reenlistments just to get out of the Navy? If so, the answer can be found right here. So much CYA (cover your ass) takes place up on high, and the first termers are the first ones to be screwed.
The one silver lining to this whole thing, is that I finally get to prove my old Chief, who by nature of being a Chief was never wrong, wrong. When I use to rant and rave about some stupid policy, he would just look at me and shake his head. “The Navy has been around longer than you and me, and you’re not going to be able to change it.” He was only half right. When a Sailor tries to implement change, he’s given a pat on the back and BZ for being forward leaning, but that’s where it stops. When one Sailors decides to mess up in town, he starts changing the Navy from E-1 up the day he’s hemmed up. So while being A-J squared away may help you keep your nose clean, it won’t do anything to impact the Navy. Fuck up however, and you’ve just turned everything upside down.
What this all boils down to is leadership needs to stop reacting to liberty incidents, and start preventing them from ever happening. That isn’t done by assuming all Sailors are going to fuck up and try and keep them behind the gates. E3s, or any other ranks, aren’t going to screw up, but some PEOPLE will. It’s time to start thinking of better ways to reduce the amount of assholes that come over here. Overseas screenings, for one, are a tool that isn’t being properly used. I’ve done an overseas screenings before, everything they were just a paper walk. No one talked to me or looked at my record, or had any idea who I even was. If we start really looking hard at a Sailor’s past, inside and out of the Navy, we might be able to weed out those individuals who haven’t yet adapted to living life as a Navy Sailor.
I could offer more suggestions, but honestly, I mean nothing in large scheme of things. The Navy will continue to have old leaders who are out of touch with the needs of today’s Sailors, and will still live in a world where they wait for incidents to happen before they try to change anything. “Mission First, Sailors Always” my ass.
UPDATE: From Stars & Stripes again, the base scheduled an all-hands call with the CO to remind Sailors to be on their best behavior. Something else that stuck out from the updated article is how the restrictions once again only applies to Sailors on ships, you know the ones that already have a tough time with having to work longer and hard than their shore-based counterparts? Why does it apply to just ship Sailors when the seaman was at TPU!?
Comments 15
Welcome to the 21st century American Navy…
Mass punishment… “intrusive” leadership… get ready for more.
When has “intrusive” ever been considered with a positive connotation?
Why don’t we have “mass reward”? One sailor does good, and we all get rewarded!
Say that Seaman Timmy gets a NAM for re-tiling the Flag P-way… DAY OFF FOR EVERYONE… duty section gets the next day off!
It’s not going to happen in this Orwellian Navy.
“Mission First, Sailors Maybe…”
But, Liberty Plans are a-changin’ around here… I don’t want to jinx things, but as of now, they have been altered to a point that actually makes sense to me. I am not claiming that they can prevent incidents, but they are only punishing those who deserve it, or are new and have something to look forward to.
I am pretty sure that you and the article had something to do with it.
Thank you, but I’m still skeptical about the future. The Navy’s future leaders are being trained by the examples set forth here…
Posted 23 Jan 2008 at 3:19 am ¶The sailor might have been at TPU, but my guess is that he was attached to a ship…thus your shipboard personell only punishment. =)
Posted 23 Jan 2008 at 5:52 pm ¶You make a good point w/ the Overseas Screenings. I’ve seen a few thousand of those suckers over the years, and very few people don’t actually screen. I’ve never perceived them as anything other than a routine piece of correspondence. I think it would be a dynamite idea to actually have the Chain of Command start really researching the info behind those… I think half of Sailors wouldn’t be able to meet the dept to income ratio requirement that is on those…
Posted 23 Jan 2008 at 6:44 pm ¶It looks like the Navy Times decided to make it up to you; you’ve been cited.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/01/navy_sasebolockdown_080124w/
Posted 24 Jan 2008 at 10:14 am ¶The E3 community should become a pain in the ass -
Here’s how.
Years ago, when I was on a ship in Norfolk, many unauthorized people were getting onto the pier, past the E3 and Below gate sentries. It was horrible duty - these kids would be out there for four hours in rain, snow, wind, etc.
The CO of this ship grew tired of all the unauthorized people coming down the pier - so he said “E7’s and above will now stand this watch.”
We bitched and moaned at first, but we ran the tightest watch on the pier. We’d send LTs back to the ship because they needed haircuts, wouldn’t let dept. heads drive on the pier - you name it. ANYTHING to inconvenience the assholes who put us there.
After about 2 weeks - the E3s were back on the pier.
Maybe the E3s on Sasebo can do something similary, like walk around citing uniform violations, photographing things that need fixing and sending to whomever.
Have some fun vs. getting pissed!!!
Posted 24 Jan 2008 at 11:43 am ¶Well, now that an E7 is being charged with molesting a 13 year old on a flight from Honolulu to Phoenix, perhaps Pearl Harbor should restrict the liberty of all E-1 through E-9. Of course, he’s a Chief, and he only molested a 13 year old girl rather than the more serious charge being a junior sailor who tresspassed in an apartment building in Japan.
Chiefs are always right. I’m sure Chief Cole is always right too.
Of course, the leadership at Pearl is probably not as stupid/paranoid/callous as that at Sasebo.
Posted 24 Jan 2008 at 1:40 pm ¶well have you seen Japanese young men abroad?
Posted 24 Jan 2008 at 3:48 pm ¶They act like idiots too.
Young people in general today.
All stupid restrictions like that do is just change the parameters of who gets in trouble. If you don’t let people out past midnight due to the incidents after that time then the incidents before that time increase. Don’t let people drink because of incidents involving alcohol then non-alcohol mishaps rise. You lock away all the junior guys then incidents with senior ones increases. Put rules in place like this still doesn’t change the fact the some people are just stupid and will still act stupid no matter how they manage it. They need to stop sending over the stupid people in the first place
Posted 24 Jan 2008 at 9:58 pm ¶Japan sucks balls! i’ve told all my friends from the states to stay away from Japan and do all that is necessary to keep them out of 7th fleet. STAY AWAY from JP…7th fleet is in its own little world…it’s not worth it. i’m a first term sailor and this will be my last…kiss my ass goodbye…the real navy doesn’t exists.
Posted 25 Jan 2008 at 1:49 am ¶Shipmates … I feel your pain having served in the canoe club for 24 years myself. The big picture is this - the Navy has sweat pumps on “port and starboard” fearing that the Japanese Government won’t allow the carrier George Washington to relieve the Kitty Hawk next summer. Any time a sailor makes the Japanese news, they will put the screws in on the junior sailors. Is it right? Look at it from the leadership perspective. What else can they do? They have to do something to prevent these types of incidents from happening again. Hand in there shipmates! The Navy has been around for a couple of hundred years and we’ll get through this challenge soon enough.
Posted 25 Jan 2008 at 2:08 am ¶I can tell you guys one thing…i know how it feels, i was stationed in japan for almost 4 years on the Kitty Hawk. And let me tell you, it was a lot worse when i got there back in 2002. And from then on it had got even more worse, then better. i don’t know how it is right now but it takes time for things like this to kinda get brushed away. so for all the E3 an below hang in there and stay strong.
Posted 26 Jan 2008 at 10:54 pm ¶It would interesting to know why this sailor was at TPU? Some are waiting to report to a ship or leave the area. There are some that are leaving for certain reasons. I hate all or nothing punishments. I frown on them as a leader and fight them every chance I get. We need leadership not managers afraid of the big boss.
Posted 27 Jan 2008 at 12:26 am ¶Thanks MCPO Retired! I love reading that kind of canned propaganda. True the local COC at CFAY/CNFJ are sweating the GW coming here. They don’t want any embarassing screwups. But frankly even they know that the likelyhood of the Gov of Japan denying a Nuc-carrier was already settled years ago. The US Gov/USN told the Japanese after they requested that we replace the KH with another non-nuc, that (that) was a a non starter. We now only have Nuc carriers. In addition they were told that the carrier was the center of of any surface fleet in the USN. Therefore, if they denied a Nuc-power carrier here in Japan, the USN mission in the pacific would change and force the 7th fleet to be transferred elsewhere. Remember that the Japanese are trying to cut costs now to balance their budget, so the notion of building up their own National Defense at this point would break their economy. The boom years (see 1980s) would have been the best time to do that since at the time they could have easily afforded a ready built fleet for cash. But thats a different story. They scaundered their chance by spending that money on golf courses around the world. So take heed my fellow Americans, we are in Japan for a few more years until Japan can build up to at least the British level of offensive ground and sea forces.
Posted 27 Jan 2008 at 3:42 am ¶This is just more of the same from the khaki wearing crowd. It seems like a race to the bottom on the part of our intrusive leaders, one trying to out do the next. CTF70 says “oh, you have fill out a piece of paper to get liberty”, so CTF76 says “well, I can do better than that, No liberty!” Maybe if we had deckplate leadership (and no you anchor wearers out there, you do no exercise deckplate leadership simply because gravity requires that your feet rest on deckplates) instead of intrusive leadership, perhaps if we had REAL leadership instead of paperwork exercises maybe if someone stood up and said “Enough!” we wouldn’t have all the problems we have. Thanks alot to our weak-willed weak-kneed “intrusive” leaders. BFZ.
Posted 27 Jan 2008 at 3:43 pm ¶I was in Yokosuka in 1970. We came in for repairs after blowing up a forward mount due to bad ammo passed to us by an AE. Back then you bought your bottles at a FLEET STORE and bought mixers at the bar after you placed your bottle. With it’s usual genius the Navy had our DD and the AE in port at the same time. After a night or two of fantastic bar brawls between our crews the AE left port. Cigarettes were 10 cents a pack, liquor was a dollar a bottle and sex was easy,with a hotsie bath and a back walk. Then, back to Vietnam. Back then, it wasn’t a job, it was an adventure. Now, with your Lady Admiral, I guess it’s go sea to become more sensitive. The ratio of assholes in the Navy and civilian life is roughly the same, but in civilian life assholes don’t make flag rank unless they are elected.
Posted 09 Feb 2008 at 5:41 pm ¶Post a Comment
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