When I served in the Navy in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s, my life was in the hands of black, brown, red, yellow and white men and women. We were friends, we were loyal to each other, we were Shipmates and we had each other’s back when the hammer slammed the anvil. We trained, we sweated, and we bled together. We came together from all parts of the country; we came together from all religions. We were a society unto ourselves.
We worked as a team, a well-oiled machine. We fought for our brothers and sisters through thick and thin. We didn’t have ‘quotas’ or anything else, all we had was people who were willing and qualified to do our jobs. We protected each other, that was what we did. The only color we saw was Navy Blue.
Today, sadly, that isn’t happening… Hopefully, things will start swinging back to that ethos and away from the games that have gone on the last fifteen years.
I couldn’t agree more , there was no time for that BS . Too busy , especially at sea . You got to where a glance or a look was a conversation between shipmates , like f’n mental telepathy . A good group was a well oiled machine , knew the next move without talking .
Dirty ,tired, stinky, sweaty , the dark humor among military guys is/was a coping mechanism . Civilians don’t get it . When things are fucked up they’ve got to be unfucked , ain’t no time to bitch , the fucked up ain’t goin away by itself , pitch in and unfuck it .
New guys often fucked up the rhythm for a while . “On my last ship we used to”….often went away after a few “STFU ” dirty looks .
I know some don’t believe it , but we WERE colorblind , it served no cohesive purpose.
Well said, JL!
I was colorblind when looking at sailors and Marines, but I believe that–sadly–that is not the case today. The Marxists need to divide a people to control and manipulate them, and they’ve divided servicemembers by sex, believed gender, sexual orientation, race, and probably class, as well. This last one was not a factor when I served. My first roommate was a wealthy kid, whose dad was the–no shit–SecDef! We got along fine. I don’t believe that would be the case today.
My last tour was as an instructor at Great Mistakes teaching radar portion of MK 86 GFCS. My office cubicle was in the corner and not directly visible. One of my students came in to complain to Deron and Tony that I was treating him in a prejudicial manner because “I’m black” Deron looked at him and said “I have eaten at his house, partied with him, and crashed on his couch. FC1 doesn’t care if you’re black. He has a problem with you being too lazy to do the work!”
Way back when, I was called as a witness by the NY lawyer for a little NY shit whose military transgressions has slopped over into the civilian world. I, the first sergeant, was being questioned by little shit’s defense.
NY Lawyer: How many Blacks do you have in your unit?
Me: I have no idea.
NY Lawyer: Don’t you receive that data regularly?
Me: Yes, monthly.
NY Lawyer: Well, (accusatory tone) Why don’t you know how many Blacks are in your unit? You ARE the first sergeant, aren’t you?
Me: Yes, I am the first sergeant and it doesn’t make any difference to me how many Blacks are in the unit. First of all, I have no control over who comes into the unit. Second, race seems to make no difference to my people and it doesn’t make any difference to me.
Several seconds of silence.
BTW, the little shit was convicted and sent to the state penitentiary. I later had the pleasure of cosigning his dishonorable discharge in a small room at the penitentiary when he refused to sign.
I was told a couple of years later that he had received a somewhat non-sterile and most certainly not approved castration performed by a couple (or more) of his peers.
In my entire career I never once ran into a race issue. And don’t get me started about when a Black friend took me to an all-Black bar/Lounge in an off-limits area. Heh. Oh, what a night! 🙂
academia has an issue of the race war nutters
lots and lots of the kiddos are directed to take those academics seriously.
I kinda hate the duplicity of it all.
All- Thanks and I appreciate your confirming my thoughts. Bob- Agree completely.
I think it was the Vietnam War which brought a lot of different cultures together in hard times, who discovered though our skin and hair color and speech accents differ, inside we have a lot of things in common. Opened a lot of eyes and hearts.
jrg- True.
8 years of the Chocolate Jesus efforts to end racial harmony and widespread lasting effects. He managed to undo decades of social change in less than 8 years….
Dan- Hadn’t thought about it that way, but true…
Not military but 40+ years in cop work. I’m old enough that I was there for the introduction of body armor and women cops in the field. I learned that we came on one race: Blue; and one sex: Blue.
And if one was smart, he did not fish in the department pond as nothing disrupts a unit worse. If the relationship worked out the male officer got overprotective, and if it didn’t other officers were expected to choose sides.