My beloved Navy took another hit the other day, when results of an anonymous survey conducted by the sea service made its way to the pages of the Navy Times as well as the NY Post. In a nutshell, the crew aboard the Aegis class guided missile cruiser, which is keeping station off the Korean peninsula and monitoring North Korea, claims there's a serious morale problem aboard the ship.
In a series of three surveys that took place from June of 2015 through August of this year the crew let fly with all sorts of observations and complaints. During that time frame, the cruiser was under the command of a single captain, which is a common enough tour length for a Navy skipper these days. He also wasn't relieved or otherwise had his tour cut short for negative reasons.
“I just pray we never have to shoot down a missile from North Korea, because then our ineffectiveness will really show,” was a typical complaint made by the ship's crew. “It feels like a race to see which will break down first the ship or its crew," said another. The Shiloh is part of the Navy's 7th Fleet, which is the fleet that's suffered two disastrous collisions with merchant vessels along with the loss of many Sailors' lives this year.
As anyone who's served with the Navy knows, there's always an element of "bitchin' and moanin'" by many Navy personnel. There's even a saying that "A bitchin' Sailor is a happy Sailor," so some of what goes on in these surveys is of course a result of that mindset among Navy folks.
But some of the issues raised in the two linked articles seem to go way beyond that sort of "normal bitching" that all of us in the Navy community, as leaders, have heard at many points during our careers. So what's going on with our Navy these days?
‘I now hate my ship’: Surveys reveal disastrous morale on cruiser Shiloh
US Navy crew monitoring North Korea says ship is a ‘floating prison’ | New York Post
"Politics is just show business for ugly people."
In a series of three surveys that took place from June of 2015 through August of this year the crew let fly with all sorts of observations and complaints. During that time frame, the cruiser was under the command of a single captain, which is a common enough tour length for a Navy skipper these days. He also wasn't relieved or otherwise had his tour cut short for negative reasons.
“I just pray we never have to shoot down a missile from North Korea, because then our ineffectiveness will really show,” was a typical complaint made by the ship's crew. “It feels like a race to see which will break down first the ship or its crew," said another. The Shiloh is part of the Navy's 7th Fleet, which is the fleet that's suffered two disastrous collisions with merchant vessels along with the loss of many Sailors' lives this year.
As anyone who's served with the Navy knows, there's always an element of "bitchin' and moanin'" by many Navy personnel. There's even a saying that "A bitchin' Sailor is a happy Sailor," so some of what goes on in these surveys is of course a result of that mindset among Navy folks.
But some of the issues raised in the two linked articles seem to go way beyond that sort of "normal bitching" that all of us in the Navy community, as leaders, have heard at many points during our careers. So what's going on with our Navy these days?
‘I now hate my ship’: Surveys reveal disastrous morale on cruiser Shiloh
US Navy crew monitoring North Korea says ship is a ‘floating prison’ | New York Post
"Politics is just show business for ugly people."