Sea Story Sunday: The Kool-Aid Man
The Kool-Aid Man Story This week's Sea Story Sunday is really more of a prank than a story, but it's a funny one. For those of you who've never been on a smallboy, a DDG only has one set of vending machines. Usually, this consists of one or two soda machines selling...
The History of the Goat Locker
The Goat Locker The "Goat Locker" is the traditional term for the senior enlisted mess aboard a ship. All sailors know and many fear the term, but few know how the goat locker came to be. Following the establishment of the rank of Chief Petty Officer in the days of...
The History of the Drunken Sailor
The History of the Drunken Sailor Let's be real: some stereotypes are true. One of the easiest to identify is the stereotype of the drunken sailor. Any shipmate who has ever been on a deployment knows that a sailor who doesn't imbibe in a liberty port is a rarity,...
The History of Gunner’s Mates in the US Navy
History of the Gunner's Mates Despite the tragic loss of their rate on September 29, 2016, the history of Gunner's Mates was long and storied. They were one of the first rates in the Navy, established in 1775 with the Continental Navy, along with Boatswain's Mates and...
It’s Finally Happened: The Death of US Navy Rates
Navy Rates are gone. The writing was on the wall for Navy Rates. When MCPON Stevens announced earlier this year that sweeping changes were coming to the Navy Rating system, we might have known. Most people assumed that the intention was to just remove the concept of...
3 Reasons a Shipboard Petty Officer is Secretly a Superhero
I'm Pretty Sure Petty Officers are Superheroes A Petty Officer is a strange creature. They're technical experts, junior leaders, and expert sailors. Most have been through the grinder a bit already. They've still got just enough spirit to cause trouble, with the...
Naval Air Stations: Paradise and Flightlines
Naval Air Stations: Love 'em or not, they're home. Every Naval Air Station has something amazing about it. They also always have something wrong with them. Your Flightline is your home. You can always take pride in the birds you put in the air regardless of where you...
The History of the US Navy Chief
If you're in the Navy, if you've ever done a Sailor of the Quarter Board in your life, you know the rank of Chief Petty Officer was established on April 1, 1893. This means that there's a nonzero possibility it was done as an April Fool's Prank. In 1958, the ranks of...
9/11: Fifteen Years Later in the United States
9/11: The Day of Infamy, Revisited Fifteen Years Later We all remember the events that took place that day. A day forever immortalized in the public's memory, the only day that every single American remembers specifically: 9/11. I remember almost nothing of 8th Grade,...
Navy Crow’s Sea Story Sunday: Sasebo, Japan Edition!
My only time spent in mainland Japan was in the lovely city of Sasebo. It was a lovely city, and it doesn't deserve what us drunken sailors do to it. This particular night was brought to you by an independent steaming deployment in 2010. We had already been to...
A Story of Chiefs (From a Bluejacket)
The Three Chiefs Let's get one thing out of the way: Chiefs are people. I'm not a Chief, just someone who's dealt with Chiefs, so if you disagree with anything that follows, no big deal. Still, if you're willing to take criticism onboard, this is one sailor's...
What It Means to be a First-class Petty Officer
What It Means to be a First-class Petty Officer Being a First-class Petty Officer means a lot of things to a lot of people. To your junior guys, it means you’re a subject matter expert. It means you’re the barrier between the command and them. They rely on your...