Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche
"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier
"Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas
"Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex
“Lex’s Short Stories From the Sea and Not”
Good stuff.
Glad you liked ‘em, B2
With regard to Port Visits – Perth: Did any of you married men take the chaplain’s advice? You are a very fine writer and I’ve printed out and passed around some of your entries to friends with military experience, who enjoyed them as much as I do. But…some of your recollections combined with your guest-writer’s make rather depressing reading for women with husbands who deploy every so often.
Hiya Kristen. I think most of us can be proud of who were were most of the time. I think it’s fair to say that not everyone was always perfect, and I’m not sure that the service made that any worse than it otherwise might have been, and it’s been fairly pointed out that the opportunities at least to stray are greater for “those we left behind” than they are for those who spend most of their time at sea.
I don’t know how much better or worse it is compared to “normal” people who travel for the work, or go to conventions and trade shows and the like. I’d like to think not worse, but I really can’t say.
Fair enough. My husband was already a career military officer when I married him, and I knew that there would be some separations in our future. We had a rather whirlwind courtship, but I did stress how important fidelity is to me before I accepted his proposal. I love him and I trust him…but I guess after reading about sailors on liberty, I’m glad he’s in a different branch of the service.