Up the Chain of Command

[oldavt]

Now this story begins "a long time ago" but it isn't a fairy tale. (In other words, this is no sh*t.)

A long time ago, I was a young Petty Officer working in the exam section of a clinic at a major Naval Air Station. The Commanding Officer of this clinic was an accomplished Flight Surgeon, a Commander in rank, while the Flight Surgeon in charge of the exam section was a Captain, happily nearing retirement. He was a gregarious, easy going guy, who treated everyone, and I mean everyone, like they were regular people. This irritated the Commander to no end, but he couldn't do much about it. One day, the Captain gets a call from an Admiral from a near by Naval Station. It was time for his annual physical, and he wanted to do it quietly. "Sure pard'ner, come on over tomorrow and we'll get ya through quick. I got good people working for me." (Yeah, he actually talked to the Admiral that way. He talked to me that way too.) The Captain never mentioned this to the Commander, and we obliviously set up to perform the physical the next day. The next day, the Admiral arrives, and one of our Corpsmen is detailed to escort him to every station and insure a quick and thorough physical. Off he he and the Admiral go, and the Master Chief comes into the section and pulls me into the hallway. He tells me to report to the Commanders office and off I go. The Commander inquires about the appearance of the Admiral in his clinic without his knowledge, and then in absolute exasperation and not a little fear orders me to run across the compound to the Headquarters building and make the Admiral aware that he has another flag officer on his base. (Protocol, they don't teach young enlisted about flag officer protocol) Off I run, rehearsing the greeting I am supposed to present. Into the outer office where a PO2 Yeoman sits, I approach the desk and explain that I am here to tell the admiral that there is another flag officer on board his station, and could I please see him quickly. The Yeoman gets the Chief, and I repeat my story, the Chief gets the Lieutenant, and I repeat my story, the Lieutenant gets the Lieutenant Commander, and I begin my presentation in the formal lanquage of the day.

"Commander Lestage extends his greetings to the Admiral, and wishes to inform the Admiral that Admiral so-and-so from Atlantic Fleet is onboard the station for his annual physical."

The LtCdr's eyes get big, and he ushers me into the office of the Captain, and I repeat my formal address. The Captain thanked me, led me into the office of the Admiral, where I once again make my speech (very formally), and with his words of appreciation, I am dismissed to run back to the clinic and inform the Commander that the Admiral of the Air Station will be arriving shortly.

Shortly it was, but it wasn't just the Admiral of the Air Station who showed up, there were 3 Admirals who walked through the door in about 25 minutes, with their senior staff, who all joined the Commander and rushed back into the exam section and accompanied the poor fleet admiral through his entire physical until the Captain performed the final personal exam behind his closed door.

I couldn't believe so much gold braid would get themselves in such an uproar over a simple physical. The Navy is funny that way.

[Da-Chief]

I havea phrase I use that a "CAPT" taught me oh so long ago about people like this..(Mind you not the CAPT nor the ADM getting the PE). Everyone else..--

"BUTT-SNORKLERS"

If the ADM was to Fart during the process, everyone else's TM"s would rupture due to the Air Pressure change of having thier noses so far up the ADM's behind..

:shock:



Semper Fi!


Da-Chief

[popsie]

I got a kick out that No Sh#tt*r. I had a much not so granduer incident. It happened while I was a Air National Guardsman on my two summer camp at Nellis AFB. Now to say the Air force and the Navy are like apples and oranges is a understatement. I'm Navy trained and made no secrete of that while serving withthe Air National Guard. Any way back to the story at hand. I was assigned to the E.R. at the Base Hospital. When the word was Passed a VIP is coming to the E.R. So beingformer navy . I didn't get to excited and kept an eye out for a VIP and entorage. In other words shrugged my shoulders went back to work.Showed a depentent wife to a treatment room and did the usual stuffV.S. a preassessment for the MD. The Md. did his thing then I followed his orders . Gave the prescribed treatment of Acing the the ankle gave crutch walking instructions and care instructions for sprains and strains and a appointment date to follow with the ortho clinic. Assisted the patient to her car with family members . Helped her get in the car and off she went. Then went on to the next duties at hand. Then all of a sudden a group of Colonels and a general with their entorage visit the a somewhat busy E.R. My first instinct was to find a place to hide and look busy if found. However, Fate was not kind to me. For some reason all eyes and attention were in my direction . Then finger pointing and then "Sargent Bruce should be able to help you General." I hear my name so in my best military bearing answer the call. The general and parade and myself meet half way. I inquire how I might help the general. He inquires " how our patient is doing?" " which patient would that be I ask" Then mood of the general and his staff didn't seem so friendly , but more of concern. 'Well we were informed that a Sargent Bruce is in charge of the care of our VIP are you that Sargent Bruce" . In my best military bearing again answered. "I believe I'm the only Sargent Bruce assigned to the E.R. and I don't recall any VIP's in my charge" Now the mood is really changing. I'm still very confused about the questioning. Then out of nowhere a came a master sargent who claimed he will look into the matter and explained to the general I was a reservist doing my two weeks . At this point being prior Navy Corpsman chimed in. " Excuse me are you looking for anybody in particular. Yes I am a reservist performing my obligatory 2 weeks and why am I the center of attention. " the master sargent informs me I was assigned the VIP and I'm to give a full report" "oh " was all I could say immediately then countered. "Does the VIP have name?" With that a name was given . I immediately remembered the name and replied . "You just missed her." I helped her to her Grand daughters car and they just left. " 'Don't you know who she is?" i was asked . I answered " not personally, but she's a retired General's wife. She was a very pleasant lady. A pleasure to be around and to take care of" With that the general and parade left and the master sargent went to the NCOIC of the er in private. I to this day couldn't understand why all the commotion over a retiree's wife. Sorry Chief my experience in the active side was the Navy corpsman were not known for thier great military bearing. We had it and used it appropriately ,but weren't really revered for it. My last 363 days left in the Navy I wore my uniform proudly 4 times. The rest of the time I was in shorts or scrubs. I never did get used to the Air Force, believe it or not they they were to loose military wise for me. Ecept when it came to VIP's anyway.

[hm1park]

I've dealt with VIP's before, nothing out of the ordinary unlike these two incredibly good sea stories, but I had an experience recently that wasreally down to earth, emphasizing the old phrase, "They put their pants on just like you and me"

We had just finished with a medical emergency and I begun my postbrief with one of the nurses. As we spoke, a man stepped closer to us and joined the conversation. It was somewhat of an emotional moment for me at least and he was comforting, almost like a chaplain. The three of us spoke for 5-10 minutes and during the course of the conversation, I looked at his uniform to see two stars. It made no difference to me and we continued talking with no differences in my demeanor to him. I appreciated the both of them taking that time with me.

Two stars or two stripes, makes no difference to me. Protocal, traditions,and courtesyare important, but brown-nosing won't get you an extra stripe.

[popsie]

In all my years in EMS. I' ve found the higher you go the food chain the nicer they are in general, it's the ones trying to get there that are the pills. Another thing I found out is . The nicer you are the nicer they are. Simple courtesy ,respect and common sense is the easiest.

[MAWDoc]

popsie wrote: In all my years in EMS. I' ve found the higher you go the food chain the nicer they are in general, it's the ones trying to get there that are the pills. Another thing I found out is . The nicer you are the nicer they are. Simple courtesy ,respect and common sense is the easiest.

Well stated....add to that, people trying to get there who step on everyone else along the way, usually don't. I've found that the tolerance (at least in the Marine Corps) for this type of officerhas grown exceedingly thin. Toelaboarte in this with an example:

I was expected by the XO of a squadron in my groupto discuss evaluations of his 2 corpsmen, and when I presented to his office, found him speaking with a 1st Lt. Now,appropriate or not,the LtCol motioned for me toenter andsit down, apparently believing that he was about through with his discussion. Far from it.The gist of the story is that theLieutenant had been tryingin every way toconvince the XO to take a Sgt (5.0/4.8 sh!t hot Marine, I learned while sitting there) to office hours (NJP) for being 8 minutes late to work that morning. The XOtalked about whatmight be going on with this Marine, was this a single incident in a great guy, leader of troops andNCO of thequarter, what events caused his tardiness,what did his SNCOIC have to say in the matter, etc. Apparently, the youngLt hadn't considered any of these things, andthought that he had come prepared, andlaid his cards on the table after a few more attempts to persuade the XO to take the Sergeant to Mast.His "cards" was a copy ofthe UCMJ web-page printout for Article 86, which was presented almost an arrogant air of "I'mright, you're wrong, now you have to do something." The XO quickly recalled two instances where this same Lieutenanthad been very leniently disciplined for minor discrepancies while deployed and in garrison - by him. And further added thatboth of theseoffenseshad a few UCMJ articles that applied then, similar to this Sergeant, but had the presence of mind of a senior officer to use judgment in applying discipline. The Lt seemed to take no notice of this, andrequested to speak to theCO about the matter, as he was not getting the action he needed from his chain of command. The XO quickly locked him in a rigid position of attention and in R. Lee Ermey-Full Metal Jacket style, was in his face andin the short (but VERY effective tirade aboutthe prospect of officer promotions, leadership (dis)abilities, a lack of understanding in the ways of leading troops/working with people, and concerns of competence as a Marine in general) made this Lt somewhat ashamed and very confused as to why he might be in the XO'soffice to begin with. Hedeparted with a humble but convincingassurance thathe would utilize his SNCOs to determinewhat mightbe going on with this until now,stellarSergeant and handle it within his department appropriately. In the half-a-second after the Lt'sdismissal, the XO became the patient, calm and cool man that I had known (at that point forover a year), and offered me a cup of coffee and sat on the couch next to me to discuss his corpsmen's evals. Before we started this, his final comment on the scene that had just played out was "Sorry, Chief...f*&^ingLieutenants...ya know?" Classic!

[IT3_to_HM3]

LOL. Great stuff.

[psencik1950]

Yeah, in the civilian world I work in, it would always amaze nurses I was working with that I called ER MDs by their first name. I always explained that if I called a ER doctor "Doctor", it generally meant they were either incompetent or an a**hole, or both.

[dvldocjoe]

While onboard the USS Jarrett as an HN, I had a patient who slid down one of the food loading ramps into a scuttle. He had to use the head and while helping him into the stall, my CO and XO walked in with an Admiral.

I stood at attention just long enough to salute and say "good morning sir."

I was told promptly to carry on and continued to help my patient into the stall.