But you know, these mids today, they’ve got it easy. We used to dream of having food. In fact, this reminds me of a conversation I overheard at a recent reunion*…
- FIRST ALUMNI:
- We I was a mid we used to live in this tiny old wing in Bancroft Hall with great big holes in the roof.
- SECOND ALUMNI:
- Wing! You were lucky to live in a wing! We used to live in one room, our whole platoon, no furniture, ‘alf the floor was missing, and we were all ‘uddled together in one corner for fear of falling.
- THIRD ALUMNI:
- Eh, you were lucky to have a room! We used to have to live in t’ corridor!
- FOURTH ALUMNI:
- Oh, we used to dream of livin’ in a corridor! Would ha’ been a palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a Farragut Field. We got woke up every morning by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us! Wing? Hah.
- FIRST ALUMNI:
- Well, when I say ‘wing it was only a hole in the ground covered by a sheet of tarpaulin, but it was a wing to us.
- SECOND ALUMNI:
- We were evicted from our ‘ole in the ground; we ‘ad to go and live in the Severn River.
- THIRD ALUMNI
- You were lucky to have a river! There were a hundred and fifty of us living in t’ shoebox in t’ middle o’ road.
- FOURTH ALUMNI:
- Cardboard box?
- THIRD ALUMNI
- Aye.
- FOURTH ALUMNI
- You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to class at Maury Hall, fourteen hours a day, week-in week-out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home our company officer would thrash us to sleep wi’ his belt.
- SECOND ALUMNI
- Luxury. We used to have to get out of the river at six o’clock in the morning, clean the river, eat a handful of ‘ot gravel, work twenty hour day in Michelson Hall for tuppence a month, come home, and our battalion officer would thrash us to sleep with a broken bottle, if we were lucky!
- THIRD ALUMNI
- Well, of course, we had it tough. We used to ‘ave to get up out of shoebox at twelve o’clock at night and lick road clean wit’ tongue. We had two bits of cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at Chauvenet for sixpence at the end of the four years, and when we got home the Commandant of Midshipman would slice us in two wit’ bread knife.
- FOURTH ALUMNI
- Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o’clock at night half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down Rickover, pay the prof for permission to come to class, and when we got home, the Superintendent would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah.
- FIRST ALUMNI
- And you try and tell the midshipmen of today that ….. they won’t believe you.
- ALL:
- They won’t!
Poor babies, at least they don’t have to eat MRE’s
So stolen from the 4 Yorkshire Men.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo
“Stolen” is a harsh and unfriendly word, Blarg. I did link to the Monty Python sketch – check the asterisk after the word “reunion.”
I prefer to think I’m paying homage…
Ah, didn’t see that the little * was a link.
I’ll go with the homage thing. After reading the linked article, all I have to say to the midshipmen and their families is, quit your crying.
You signed up for military service, not Club Med. Things suck sometimes. You have to learn to “embrace the suck” and deal with it.
To be honest I can see their point, if they’re going to be required to eat there then facilities ought to be able to cope. If they cannot then someone overlooked a pretty basic bit of planning (ie. can we actually provide that capability).
Obviously many will say they functioned great on on one MRE a week while constantly engaged in combat operations but the fact is this isn’t combat, where logistic bottlenecks are taken in stride. Not a war either, but rather an Academy. Frankly if you’re going to require they eat there you may as well make sure the kitchen can make enough food.
Yeah, life sure sounds tough on the blue tile…
What? A college food service organization having trouble putting out good food? Say it ain’t so, Joe. I know people who went to a certain un-named school in my old home state (it’s initials are VT) that turned vegetarian after one semester of the food there.
OTOH, maybe this is some sort of team building exercise. One of the fundamental things that is drilled into your head in almost all military training is that you have to look out for your shipmates (or soldiers, airmen, marines, etc.) Perhaps this explains the Mid I saw at the local Giant yesterday, with a handful of microwavable chef-boy-ardee bowls. Those with the ability to get off campus are expected to provide for those who are stuck there.
It’s all such screaming BS I don’t even know where to start. This kind of garbage started when I was a 1/c and they basically told us that they refused to buy a proportionate amount of food for the size of the brigade until the midshipman leadership was able to step forward and guarantee 100% attendance at meals. Which is basically completely inside out if you think about it. At some point or another if the 1/c did manage to motivate the underclass to attend 100% of the meals, there would be days where there was not enough food for everyone, even though the mids had held up their end of the bargain because there would be a lag between the administration seeing good attendance and then offering full portions to each table. For some reason the food services there (while I was a mid at least) was more concerned with the fear of throwing away food at the end of a meal than the idea of students going without proper portions due to budgetary constrictions. Seems to me if you want mids to congregate and enjoy every meal together as a unit (mandatory or otherwise), you need to step up and provide them with a clean mess hall and healthy food supplied in ample portions. I realize that not everyone in the armed forces has a mess hall from which to eat or a limitless supply of freshly prepared meals, but as was said above, the academy is not a combat zone, it is a college where the students are expected to excel academically, morally, and athletically. Also, say what you will about the quality, but there is ALWAYS enough food available on ships at sea and aircraft carriers. This is not the Deployed Marine Fireteam Academy, it’s the Naval Academy, and the majority of the graduates will serve on ships where there will always be a steady supply of food available at mealtime. I have a hard time imagining a shortage of food on the enlisted mess decks of an aircraft carrier where yes, everyone is REQUIRED to eat their meals. Sure the food may suck but at least there is enough. Someone would lose their job if they dropped the ball on a deployed ship, I guess that standard doesn’t carry over to USNA.
~Ens Tim
Contingency planning does not seem to be the ne plus ultra at any level of this [mis]administration, be it at the white house, the cia, the state department, the justice department, the pentagon, etc., or USNA … I’ve heard there is something to be said for consistency, but I don’t think it was meant to approve what has become the cluster f*#k of the past six years eight months … insofar as the new supe and ‘dant are concerned, well, now we know -if there was ever any doubt- why they are referred to as “the dark side”.
Ens. Tim: you are absolutely correct … there is NO EXCUSE for this B.S.; maybe the supe and ‘dant simply consider chow -both quantity and quality- to be a distraction ! How long do you think the situation would be allowed to exist if it were the supe’s or ‘dants galley putting out this crap … or the O Club for that matter … one meal and heads would roll!
For some reason that escapes me now, I was keeping my friend watch as he had drawn the duty as Barracks Duty Officer down at Corry Field in Pensacola while we were attending EW school. My friend was a fleet wise EW2, to my pushbutton third.
During the course of the evening, the BDO remarked that he had sent a detail to police the parking lot, but that they hadn’t reported back…surely, he said, even another pushbutton like you would remember to report back in?
In all innocence, I asked him who he detailed: and the first two names of his reply are lost and gone forever. But the third name stuck in my brain as a poleaxe would.
David Fedderson. EW3 (pushbutton) Fedderson.
Trying to keep my tone light…I asked “Just what, exactly, did you detail Fedderson to do?”
I couldn’t help it when he told me. I frothed at the mouth, I screamed. I called for the Coast Guard a full decade before I learnt how useless THAT would be…and finally, I just sobbed “How could you?”
For Fedderson, you see, wasn’t an ordinary man. Nor even an ordinary sailor. Fedderson suffered from an acuteness of literalness not seemingly possible in humans. Let alone sailors, who seem to subvert literalism at every opportunity to raise a glass, or an obscenity, or just about anything else that doesn’t require an effort.
When you enquired of David, “What’s up?” he would reply in excruciating detail…naming each and every layer of any significance above him to the reaches of interstellar space.
He was NOT joking.
So, when my friend had the misfortune to draw the watch as BDO, we were suddenly confronted with the problem of explaining to the OOD WHY there were three men who had been on their knees for an hour and a half below his window overlooking
the parking lot.
While NL’s post started in jest, I’m afraid mine ends only in sober remembrance.
There is a plan for after, and thank the Great Master Chief in the Sky that it ain’t Fedderson’s!
“The Corps has…” (-*
Its all a conspiracy to increase revenues at the USNA’s equivelant of a cadet canteen.
Back in the day, at my beloved alma mater, you had a very large and surly woman telling you “We ain’t got no mo!” repeatedly. Which usually led to a decline in the quality of life for the knob who returned to the table with that news.
Funny, we never ran out grits at breakfast though.
Good officers eat after ensuring their troops are fed.
If the head honcho hizself showed up for chow call at the end of the line a couple of times the problem would be solved instantly.
FWIW, We have a babysitter who is 16 now, and an amazing athlete, and has attended many college-hosted sports camps (swimming and soccer) up and down the East Coast. She wants to attend a service academy, but has already ruled out the Naval Academy, because of how awful the food was while she was there for Swim Camp….Sad. She’s only 16. It’s not like she was looking for a four-course meal. She was only looking for good fuel for her body. And decided USNA doesn’t have any.
Back-in-the-Day..If it ever got that bad “Food Fight”
Guys that age (midshipmen) are still not yet fully grown, and need lots of good food.
EW1, that Fedderson guy reminds me of me, except for being even more so. I thought I was too autistic to be allowed to enlist. Maybe that’s not the case, or Fedderson’s recruiter cheated to run up his stats by one.
Lex, I liked the old blog software better. Why did you change it? I thought it was understood that USNA grads and auties both fear change, and want to keep on doing things the way we’ve always done them.
Skipper, could you please go back to the blue sky format?
My eyes are not rated for IFR blogs
Have to concur on that one, CPT J.
Why do people always seem to have the need to fix things that ain’t broken?
Never miss with perfection, I say…
Oooh, that preview print is awful tiny now. Doesn’t bother me with my youthful eyes , of course, but I imagine it might be a problem for some of them … old sea dogs LOL
Did somebody mention food fight?
And you don’t like the new look? I can soften the background a bit, but it feels so much cleaner to me…
FOOD FIGHT!
FOOD FIGHT!
FOOD FIGHT!
Oh yeah, soft is GOOD, VERY GOOD
I’m liking the new look, Lex, though I agree the preview print is a might tiny for these aging eyes of mine (*must get off aging kick*). Nice and clean.
You updated it as I was posting yesterday and for a minute I thought I had broken your site. Whew ~ glad I didn’t! I was afraid you wouldn’t let me come back to play …
[...] Lex can’t manage to find his chestnuts and get a non-military jet flying job, despite several offers, maybe he can consider one of these as a 2D substitute. Then, for the [...]
And you don’t like the new look? I can soften the background a bit, but it feels so much cleaner to me…
I like the new look, FWIW. As you said, Lex: cleaner. And easier for these ol’ eyes (I mean that literally) to read, too.
I cast a luddite vote for the old look
Lex, You apparently have way to much time on your hands…always fussing and fuming with the format for no decernable reason…strongly suggest you cease and desist in this practice immediately… it’s driving me bonkers… Best
Long weekend. Too much time on my hands. And that itch you can’t quite reach that never quite goes away…
Gomen
Sounds like they are acclimating the middies to becoming Marines.
Perhaps they should subcontract out food to the submarine service….
I admit that I thought life there was much rougher though – being able to order out pizza?
reminds me of the mess steward who once replied to a plebe (with pitcher in hand) , “i’m sorry, there is no more water in the Mess Hall…”
Transient quarters at NAS Miramar, Open Bay!!!!!!!!! Oh, the shame!!!!!!!!
Door knockers are belly achin’? Naw!!!!!!!
How about a 100 man berthing compartment on a good old CV, You know, Independence, Ranger, Kitty Hawk, etc.
Not to mention 12 on, 12 off ad infinitum……
The Old Retired Petty Officer says: Tango Sierra.
Intruders forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just for you Pinch.
If I get back to the San Joaquin with my rock train, I will be sure to stop by good old NAS Lemoore and pay a visit. I want to see the Argonauts and their new toys. And maybe a short stop at AIMD 500 Division. Charter member SeaOpDet 46964.
seems to me -back in the day- not counting Plebe Year … but that didn’t count because we never got to eat anyhow … that the chow wasn’t that bad; not that we didn’t take whatever opportunity presented itself to go off the Yard to chow down, but that was pure escapism [except Saturday Noon Meal cold cuts which had their own particularly descriptive nickname [... ;o} ...].
The only Food Fight I remember was 100th Night.
Contract out King Hall? I’m sure chaney would insure Halliburton would get the contract to feed the Mids and we all know what that means … poor food and worse service at exorbitant prices ! What the hell ever happened to Navy provided services, including chow, that was the envy of other services ??
As I wrote above, people of that age are still growing in mind and body, and should be well fed so that they can grow well.
The most likely way to have a prison riot, or a mutiny, is to have bad, or insufficient food.
Feed ‘em like lions and expect leonine behavior from them, dammit!