Just not usually over the side, while under way.

Chaffee is a relatively new ship, commissioned n 2003, and returned from deployment in September 2007. She probably had some yard work after that, and the shoes do tend to keep things looking proper.

On a tangent… does the USN still paint ship while underway?

BTW, my last sea tour was as 1st Lt on an UNREP ship and it was my first mixed gender crew. I was surprised that we lost at least 5 or 6 women in a straight jacket (figuratively or literally) for every one that we lost for pregnancy. We had huge problems with gay women ruling the berthing compartment (straight women were too afraid to “tell”) until we got a female MA-1 to replace the male MAC.

We also had 3 (out of 30 – 10 percent!) women who were single mothers and could never get underway with the ship. Every time we got underway for more than 24 hours, we sent them TAD to our squadron. They didn’t have anyone to leave the kids with for more than that length of time, out in the wilderness of NWS Earle, New Jersey.

What the hell are those boots? Why do they look terminally sketchy, and lacking in support – like the sort of thing that causes nasty joint problems, fifteen years from now? Or is that just camera angle, and so forth?

As for that PO3 – betting she runs six miles before breakfast. Kind of surprised, though, that a member of the Ninety Pounds Soaking Wet club would be on a line, regardless of gender.