A number of years ago, I saw commercial on TV.  I only saw it once.  Maybe they received some flack over it.  On the other hand, maybe someone realized how ridiculous it was.

A retired admiral said that he knew what it was like to be in the military and spend long periods of separation from families.  (sorry, I don’t recall the exact words.  I’m sure you get the idea.)

At any rate, it is one of the biggest mistakes a leader can make.  When I went in the Marine Corps, I went in as a private.  I did not get my first stripe for months.  When that Admiral went in the Navy, my best guess is that he went in as an ensign.  If he was a pilot, he likely never stepped aboard a ship before getting his first promotion.

Guess what?  It is not the same.  Disregarding the difference in service, an O-1s and O-2s are officers.  Officers, regardless of service they never undergo the true riggers of us who went in as E-1s.  I would expect that it is even more true in the Navy.  I would expect that that admiral never knew what it was like to live like an enlisted man on a destroyer… or a sub.  My guess is that his first assignment was on an aircraft carrier, though I don’t know.  It just is that most admirals get their start as pilots.  Few pilots get orders to destroyers or cruisers.

For him to say he knew what it was like for the enlisted men is a bold-faced lie and is very inconsiderate especially if he was unaware of his error.  He owes us all an apology, or at least the enlisted men in the Navy.

What’s more, I know he just lost the respect of most enlisted in all services.  I have heard others make such speeches.  When I hear them, it is rare I believe them, especially an officer.

When I went over to Vietnam, I was assigned an 8 by 8 foot space to live in and, compared to those in the infantry, I had it good.  If that admiral ever went to Vietnam, I wonder just how rough he had it.

Oh, and by the way, I wonder just how many ports of call he had while he was on duty in Nam.  There are a few Navy officers that fought on land during the Vietnam war, but even they had it better than the enlisted that they commanded.

I get it.  It is a fact of military life.  R.H.I.P.  (Rank Has Its Privileges.)  However, don’t ever try to tell me you had it as bad as I did.  Don’t tell me you had to serve on mess duty.  Don’t tell me you had to walk a post in the rain after little or no sleep.  That sort of thing just doesn’t happen to officers.  It is the sort of thing I would expect a dummycrat to say.