John Donovan has the tale of a Navy O-4 helping Iraqi farmers, you know: Farm.
(Because) of my sins (ed. succeeding) I have been given a second “hat” as the Multinational Forces West Civil Affairs Office Agriculture representative. That’s right, they asked me stay on the General’s staff to do farming. The good news is that I’ve managed to extend myself past sheep and now have visited poultry and fish farms. Its up to the big leagues once I get to see the dairy cows.
To help, the Marines gave me a Gunnery Sergeant. A good man typical of the breed. We met and he said “Sir I don’t know why I have this job, I wanted to run convoys but they said since I grew up on a farm in Michigan I had to do agriculture. I didn’t learn anything as a kid, I just did heavy labor, and spent most of time trying to get out of that!”
I just smiled and said “Gunny, you and me are going to get along just fine.” We have a great officer/NCO relationship. I think big strategic thoughts and he stands on people’s necks until it happens.
Between the two of them, the gunny seems more qualified for his task. As for myself, I never did take any agriculture courses at the Boat School. Must’ve been an elective.
Sounds to me more like USAID’s bailiwick rather than the USMC’s…. even if gunnies can do just about anything imaginable.
Au contraire, mon capitaine: you may not have learned such things at the Academy, but you have spent most of your career in bird farms…
Lex, you are just the man for a farming job BECAUSE you never took any agriculture courses at Canoe U. This is the Navy, after all. I was a Marine Engineering major. You know, steam engines and stuff. Accordingly, I never served in an engineering job. All Ops and Weps, with the twidget majors. Now if I was a Poli Sci major like my roomie, I would have been a snipe for sure!
It’s true- they pick history majors to become snipes. I got the degrees and job to prove it!
Our young “aggie” LCDR does indeed have some rural experience recounted in an earlier post over at the Castle. Apparently his personal knowledge of sheep (no, not THAT kind…I don’t think) allowed him to star in an unexpected opportunity, followed by a need to fling bovine excrement about his accomplishments for some visiting big wig. Being a good sailor, he excelled, and has been rewarded with further challenges. I am sure the selection board will take note of what hes has been doing on his shore duty….
It takes all kinds of strategy and tactics to win this asymetrical warfare stuff.
Navig8r,
I was at an SH-60B Fleet Replacement Squadron (FRS) a few years back when we had one of the Fleet Replacement Pilots (FRP, or nugget) come through with a degree in Music.
This befuddled us for a little while since we couldn’t figure out why he was flying helicopters. Then one of the smarter among our number determined that hey, these were ASW aircraft. ASW deals with SONAR, SONAR uses sound, music deals with/uses sound, so it works.
Then we had a gentleman materialize some months later (same FRS) with a degree in Forestry and Natural Resource Management.
That one we could not figure out.
Now if I was a Poli Sci major like my roomie, I would have been a snipe for sure!
Verily, there is truth in Navig8r’s observation…
- SJS
Last fleet VAW CO I had was a Psych Major. He shoulda turned it around and used on himself. Changed his nametag to “God” when underway and expected to addressed as such.
Heckuva CICO though…
I kept waiting for State to send in one thousand farmers to plant a million fruit and nut trees in Afghanistan to offset the poppy crop. Alas, it never happened.
If it HAD HAPPENED in 2002, the trees would be bearing fruit today.
Maybe the Marines should have done it…
Babs,
It’s worse than that. Major John and I did a little research together–there hasn’t even been a hydrologic survey done in decades.
Hank Kimball lives….