As a C-5 crewmember I frequent a naval base in Europe and I find it’s about 75% with Navy SNCOs responding positively when addressed or responding at all.
I consulted with a Navy petty officer before making this strip to ensure it was the same thing, and considering this is an Air Force comic, I chose to use terminology better known to my primary audience.
@ Farva – he didn’t did you because he was a Chief, he dissed you because you’re in the AF.
@ King – as a retired Navy PO1, I can absolutely tell you that Navy Petty Officers are NCOs.That’s been established by the DoD. Besides, if we weren’t, we wouldn’t be able to get into NCO Clubs. ;~)
I wasn’t implying POs aren’t NCOs – my point was that “Petty Officer” is what the Navy calls its Non-Coms. After working alongside the Navy for most of the past decade, I can tell you they NEVER refer to themselves as an “NCO”.
Based on my experience in a joint assignment, I’ll take Navy over Army ANY rotation. Though the CWO and PO1 I worked with were so awesome I would work with them over most AF too. And their officers were generally better behaved than Army officers. And yes, POs ARE NCOs!
Most of the Navy NCO corps here at Al UDeid are pretty nice and friendly to everyone at or around “The Bra”. Have been stuck here in the Deid for almost 2 weeks now and haven’t had nay run-ins with the SNCO’s at all. For the most part they don’t give a Rats Ass!
AAAHHH, Djibouti; I know you well. Did two deployments there for ComCam — summer 2007 & summer 2009. CLUville beats the hell out of the ass-funk tent I was in in ’07.
Its not only Navy NCO’s that are bad, cause pretty much if your not an NCO any lower raking Navy enlisted sailor wont give you so much as a look in your direction, let alone a salute to an officer. I am stationed on NAS Pensacola and we had a lower rank Navy member completely ignore our squadron commander. That was a fun little event.
Spot on Farva! I was shocked to learn the Navy doesn’t consider any enlisted to be an “NCO” until they hit E7! That explains why they keep treating out TSgts as if they’re fresh out of basic training!
I work with the Navy everyday and have since 1998. Navy E-4s and above are considered NCOs. But their SNCOs are considered gods. Most officers won’t mess with a Chief. Ask a Chief about “Chiefs Initiation”. It’s an interesting topic.
When I was TDY on-board the USS Blue Ridge, and having no interaction with the Navy besides talking with my uncle, I realized that the Navy is weird. We got in late and I wanted something to drink. So I went to the chowhall that we inprocessed through. My O-6 said that it was good. So while I was filling up my water bottle a Navy Officer came up to me and started yelling at me. I guess I was in the officers mess. So I go back to my O-6 and let him know what is going on. A Navy SNCO heard me and when the O-6 left came up to me and “kindly” informed me that I should have known that before coming on board and that I should look up navy traditions and learn them. I wa a SrA at the time, and thak God I was under the affects of the sea-sickness meds, or I might have said somethings.
Hmmm….
My one great experience with the Navy, the rest were shite, I was sent aboard a “rowboat” named after a president. Had to work on some comm equipment (loaned to the navy for seals?). I was asked for by name (never mind the fact I was the only one available to do it lol ), I had some old guy showing me around, I only had 2 stripes at the time and was instantly motion sick the moment my feet touched the deck. He was really kind and did as much as he could to help me feel better and help me with the work. Hell, he even held the trash can when I barfed at the work bench. After about 24 hours I felt better and he took me to the first available dining hall for some food, I only realized it was full of officers when the junior pilot started to yell at me, he was IN NO WAY as loud as that “old man”. The pilot actually started to back away from the man, that only made him angrier.
When we left with my dry toast,bacon and collossal glass of OJ (all I could handle) I heard a lot of laughter behind me. I looked at the “old man” with a little confusion when I heard “don’t eff with the Chief’s pet zoomie”.
I was later told when I got back to “Airfarce land” that he was a Master Chief, had been on that ship “forever” and was likely the reason that junior pilot was doing all the “shite duties till the day I left”.
I just thought he was a really nice senior NCO from the shop I was helping.
Yeah but your SLBMs don’t carry 10 or 3 warheads per missle and can’t reach anywhere in the world in about thirty minutes from the middle of the US. Not to mention our Nuclear ALCM launched from B-52s.
I am an enlisted flyer at Macdill. Try walking around the BX during lunch. So many double takes. I get saluted to sometimes. I just salute back and say thanks. It makes my day.
A.) I’m not referring to a specific instance – I’ve been here now for five weeks and it’s 97% of my interactions with them, and it’s not just my own experiences. This is a running joke within my circle of Air Force, and some Army, peers.
B.) The first time I got my ass bitten off for calling one sir I asked what the hell I should call them, and was told anyone with an anchor can be safely called “chief”. And that was from a chief. That said, I do know the differences between a chief, senior chief and master chief, and if I can see the rank in time I use the proper term. That is, I used to, but I got so sick of the shitty attitude I stopped greeting them altogether.
I think the real question is why isn’t he overweight like 90% of the fat kid Navy? Never met a service so obsessed with rank as the Navy… watch how the O-2′s treat the O-1′s and so on. Maybe the reason so many of them go gay, is that their world is one big cock measuring contest.
My dad retired as a master chief and this is spot on. The first time my dad met any of my fellow airmen, he was extremely arrogant toward them. The airmen made some smart ass remarks and my dad didn’t seem to think they were very funny. I still get taunted about it, and that was 10 years ago.
This is an interesting topic, and I thought I’d throw in my two cents worth…
I had a 22 year Air Force career, entering as a brand new wet behind the ears “butter bar” 2LT in 1968 and retiring as a LtCol out of the Pentagon in 1990. Along the way I had a 4 year Joint tour working in the JCMPO (Tomahawk Program Office) where my endorsing official was a Navy RADM. My co-workers and I had some interesting dialog over those years concerning the differences among the services.
The Navy seemed to have a very rigid caste system, evolving over centuries from the realities of life aboard warships at sea. Naval Officers were few in number onboard any given ship, and were VERY rank conscious, including relative line numbers among “equals”, due to the need to have the proper subordinate assume command when necessary in combat due to a superior’s death or incapacitation.
The Chief Petty Officers were the “buffer” between the handfull of officers onboard a warship and the bulk of the crew. Going back to the days of sail, the Chiefs were responsible for maintaining order and disclipline among the seamen so that the Officers could “fight the ship”. They were allowed to converse with the “gods”, while controlling the masses below decks. Thus the “attitude”…
My Navy counterparts were always mystified at the very different interaction and respect between Air Force officers and the enlisted force. They wondered why we seemed to take great interest and expend great effort to ensure the well being of our enlisted force of airmen and NCOs. One day around the coffee pot I explained it this way:
OK, I wake up at Korat one morning and I’m on the flight schedule to head North. I get breakfast and go to Life Support where the enlisted guys/gals have packed and tested my parachute, checked my oxygen mask, and fitted out my survival vest. I go to the armory where the enlisted guys/gals have cleaned and tested my Combat 38 and added extra ammo into my go kit. I go to Base Ops where an enlisted person pulls the latest weather info for me and another double checks my flight plan. Over to the Intel shop for a threat briefing from an NCO telling me where the bad guys are waiting in ambush this morning.
An enlisted person then drives me to my jet in a step van where my enlisted crew chief has just spent two hours servicing and inspecting my battlebird. He/she straps me in and hooks me up to my survival gear and gives me the fueling report summarizing how other enlisted folk have quality tested my fuel and topped off my tanks.
Did i mention that I’m sitting on an ejection seat rigged and armed by the enlisted folks?
The NCO’s in the tower give me taxi instructions, the enlisted folks in the hot pit check my weapons and pull the pins, and the enlisted folks in the RAPCON give me vectors to the handoff point where the enlisted folks on the EC-121s (pre-AWACS) follow me in and out from my target and provide VERY useful Mig warnings.
Coming back in the shitty weather the enlisted controllers in the MPN-19 GCA van talk me down to a zero-zero safe touchdown while the enlisted folks in the P-12 crash trucks stand by to rescue me from a blazing hell in case I screw up the landing.
As I wind up my day, the Intel NCOs pick my brain so they can work through the night to prep my comrads for tomorrow’s battle.
OK, Squid…any further questions as to why we Air Force guys treat our enlisted fortce so much better than you do?
The Navy/Marine Corps run things more in a military mindset while the Air Force has a more corporate mind set. The main reason the Navy/Marine Corps tears their junior enlisted like crap is because they need people that have immediate obedience to orders, and acting they way they do works. Im sorry, but in combat I don’t want need my junior guys asking why we need to clear that hut or asking why he needs to go right. I’ve notice that if you don’t tell an airman exactly why he needs do do what he was told, he will ask a Why, why, why. That doesnt happen so much with the Navy/Marine Corps junior guys. It’s not right or wrong. It’s just what it’s necessary to accomplish the mission assigned to the respected service.
The Airforce is actually taught to question, we are needed to be somewhat more independant in mindset. I’m not dissing the army/marines, god knows I’ve had my bacon saved by devil dogs a couple of times, and the army has pulled me out of some unpleasent places. But in the Airforce we have been told to “find a better way”, “find a faster way” and “find a safer way”. This causes the habit of questioning the orders or process by which things are done, not good in a combat situation I know, but it’s done so much and expected so often that it becomes a second nature thing, a habit, and it takes 23 days of repeated actions to create OR break a habit. Or one good boom right behind you when the gunny drags your ass out of the way. Worked for me.
I’m a Security Forces SrA in the Guard, and a Navy contractor full time at Port Hueneme. All the Seabee chiefs I’ve ever met were great folks to have a BBQ and smoke with. All their troops love them to death and they seem to treat them well.
As to the rest of the Navy..
Too much dick waving, it’s pointless. Whenever I go to Pt Mugu, the nearby air station, all the aviation Navy folks are kind of douchebags to anybody outside their little circle. SeaBees are alright though, sand sailors are far superior to the legit ones, but that might be because they are the red-headed stepchild of the Navy, as SF is to the Air Force.
At least it’s not an Army E-9. One of them yelled at me when I said “Good Morning”.
Let me guess… NAS Sigonella?
Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, though I did transition through Sigonella.
So… how big are the rats there?
I immediately remembered that scene in We were soldiers…
Good morning, Sergeant Major!
-How do you know what kind of god-damn day it is?
Beautiful morning, Sergeant Major.
-What are you, a fuckin’ weatherman now?
Any of you sons-of-bitches calls me Grandpa… I’ll kill you.
I work with Navy on a daily basis. On a daily basis, I’m ready to slap a Senior Chief.
Farva, perhaps you should check out the video “Like a Chief” on youtube. I guess I should say there’s a bit of language in it, so careful!
As a C-5 crewmember I frequent a naval base in Europe and I find it’s about 75% with Navy SNCOs responding positively when addressed or responding at all.
Hate to nitpick, because otherwise this one is spot on, but the Navy doesn’t have NCOs – they’re POs (Petty Officers).
I consulted with a Navy petty officer before making this strip to ensure it was the same thing, and considering this is an Air Force comic, I chose to use terminology better known to my primary audience.
so by PO…. P—-ed Off?
@ Farva – he didn’t did you because he was a Chief, he dissed you because you’re in the AF.
@ King – as a retired Navy PO1, I can absolutely tell you that Navy Petty Officers are NCOs.That’s been established by the DoD. Besides, if we weren’t, we wouldn’t be able to get into NCO Clubs. ;~)
It takes a lot more than one person one time to get a comic made – try multiple people, multiple times, to everyone I know, every day we’ve been here.
I wasn’t implying POs aren’t NCOs – my point was that “Petty Officer” is what the Navy calls its Non-Coms. After working alongside the Navy for most of the past decade, I can tell you they NEVER refer to themselves as an “NCO”.
Based on my experience in a joint assignment, I’ll take Navy over Army ANY rotation. Though the CWO and PO1 I worked with were so awesome I would work with them over most AF too. And their officers were generally better behaved than Army officers. And yes, POs ARE NCOs!
the Navy’s been pissed ever since the Great Billy Mitchell sunk a navy battleship.
Truer words have never been spoken, but it’s still best to avoid rubbing it in, STS.
@RAAFie: that is great. I’ll have to use that one on the Lt Commander that I work for
@Farva You nailed that one. They are only polite to me because I’m a SNCO too.
Most of the Navy NCO corps here at Al UDeid are pretty nice and friendly to everyone at or around “The Bra”. Have been stuck here in the Deid for almost 2 weeks now and haven’t had nay run-ins with the SNCO’s at all. For the most part they don’t give a Rats Ass!
AAAHHH, Djibouti; I know you well. Did two deployments there for ComCam — summer 2007 & summer 2009. CLUville beats the hell out of the ass-funk tent I was in in ’07.
Its not only Navy NCO’s that are bad, cause pretty much if your not an NCO any lower raking Navy enlisted sailor wont give you so much as a look in your direction, let alone a salute to an officer. I am stationed on NAS Pensacola and we had a lower rank Navy member completely ignore our squadron commander. That was a fun little event.
BWAHAHAHA! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q_WDX2Ilhc
Spot on Farva! I was shocked to learn the Navy doesn’t consider any enlisted to be an “NCO” until they hit E7! That explains why they keep treating out TSgts as if they’re fresh out of basic training!
I work with the Navy everyday and have since 1998. Navy E-4s and above are considered NCOs. But their SNCOs are considered gods. Most officers won’t mess with a Chief. Ask a Chief about “Chiefs Initiation”. It’s an interesting topic.
When I was TDY on-board the USS Blue Ridge, and having no interaction with the Navy besides talking with my uncle, I realized that the Navy is weird. We got in late and I wanted something to drink. So I went to the chowhall that we inprocessed through. My O-6 said that it was good. So while I was filling up my water bottle a Navy Officer came up to me and started yelling at me. I guess I was in the officers mess. So I go back to my O-6 and let him know what is going on. A Navy SNCO heard me and when the O-6 left came up to me and “kindly” informed me that I should have known that before coming on board and that I should look up navy traditions and learn them. I wa a SrA at the time, and thak God I was under the affects of the sea-sickness meds, or I might have said somethings.
You stay out of the officers mess unless invited by the CO or XO member that or you swim with the fishes
Hmmm….
), I had some old guy showing me around, I only had 2 stripes at the time and was instantly motion sick the moment my feet touched the deck. He was really kind and did as much as he could to help me feel better and help me with the work. Hell, he even held the trash can when I barfed at the work bench. After about 24 hours I felt better and he took me to the first available dining hall for some food, I only realized it was full of officers when the junior pilot started to yell at me, he was IN NO WAY as loud as that “old man”. The pilot actually started to back away from the man, that only made him angrier.
My one great experience with the Navy, the rest were shite, I was sent aboard a “rowboat” named after a president. Had to work on some comm equipment (loaned to the navy for seals?). I was asked for by name (never mind the fact I was the only one available to do it lol
When we left with my dry toast,bacon and collossal glass of OJ (all I could handle) I heard a lot of laughter behind me. I looked at the “old man” with a little confusion when I heard “don’t eff with the Chief’s pet zoomie”.
I was later told when I got back to “Airfarce land” that he was a Master Chief, had been on that ship “forever” and was likely the reason that junior pilot was doing all the “shite duties till the day I left”.
I just thought he was a really nice senior NCO from the shop I was helping.
This is spot on. I work with the Navy and when I first came to this assignment, I was really put off by how the chiefs treated the junior enlisted.
The Navy has bigger guns remember that boys
Remember: It’s not the size of the warhead, it’s the depth of armor it can penetrate.
we have nuclear bombers and ICBMs.
we got SLBMs
Yeah but your SLBMs don’t carry 10 or 3 warheads per missle and can’t reach anywhere in the world in about thirty minutes from the middle of the US. Not to mention our Nuclear ALCM launched from B-52s.
actually they can… you should do your homework flyboy
Been around the Navy for most of my career. That guy is too skinny to be a Navy Chief.
I am an enlisted flyer at Macdill. Try walking around the BX during lunch. So many double takes. I get saluted to sometimes. I just salute back and say thanks. It makes my day.
We have a lot of Navy here at Tinker. Most of them seem decent enough. They definitely keep to themselves though.
Are you sure you addressed him by the proper rank vice just Chief? They get pretty butt hurt about that, so to speak…
A.) I’m not referring to a specific instance – I’ve been here now for five weeks and it’s 97% of my interactions with them, and it’s not just my own experiences. This is a running joke within my circle of Air Force, and some Army, peers.
B.) The first time I got my ass bitten off for calling one sir I asked what the hell I should call them, and was told anyone with an anchor can be safely called “chief”. And that was from a chief. That said, I do know the differences between a chief, senior chief and master chief, and if I can see the rank in time I use the proper term. That is, I used to, but I got so sick of the shitty attitude I stopped greeting them altogether.
What are you, some kinda F***ing weather man?!
Where’s his coffee cup? No self respecting “ahem” Chief would be caught dead without one.
I think the real question is why isn’t he overweight like 90% of the fat kid Navy? Never met a service so obsessed with rank as the Navy… watch how the O-2′s treat the O-1′s and so on. Maybe the reason so many of them go gay, is that their world is one big cock measuring contest.
My dad retired as a master chief and this is spot on. The first time my dad met any of my fellow airmen, he was extremely arrogant toward them. The airmen made some smart ass remarks and my dad didn’t seem to think they were very funny. I still get taunted about it, and that was 10 years ago.
My father who was an Senior Chief says that shows navy SNCOs are Proud Leaders!
This is an interesting topic, and I thought I’d throw in my two cents worth…
I had a 22 year Air Force career, entering as a brand new wet behind the ears “butter bar” 2LT in 1968 and retiring as a LtCol out of the Pentagon in 1990. Along the way I had a 4 year Joint tour working in the JCMPO (Tomahawk Program Office) where my endorsing official was a Navy RADM. My co-workers and I had some interesting dialog over those years concerning the differences among the services.
The Navy seemed to have a very rigid caste system, evolving over centuries from the realities of life aboard warships at sea. Naval Officers were few in number onboard any given ship, and were VERY rank conscious, including relative line numbers among “equals”, due to the need to have the proper subordinate assume command when necessary in combat due to a superior’s death or incapacitation.
The Chief Petty Officers were the “buffer” between the handfull of officers onboard a warship and the bulk of the crew. Going back to the days of sail, the Chiefs were responsible for maintaining order and disclipline among the seamen so that the Officers could “fight the ship”. They were allowed to converse with the “gods”, while controlling the masses below decks. Thus the “attitude”…
My Navy counterparts were always mystified at the very different interaction and respect between Air Force officers and the enlisted force. They wondered why we seemed to take great interest and expend great effort to ensure the well being of our enlisted force of airmen and NCOs. One day around the coffee pot I explained it this way:
OK, I wake up at Korat one morning and I’m on the flight schedule to head North. I get breakfast and go to Life Support where the enlisted guys/gals have packed and tested my parachute, checked my oxygen mask, and fitted out my survival vest. I go to the armory where the enlisted guys/gals have cleaned and tested my Combat 38 and added extra ammo into my go kit. I go to Base Ops where an enlisted person pulls the latest weather info for me and another double checks my flight plan. Over to the Intel shop for a threat briefing from an NCO telling me where the bad guys are waiting in ambush this morning.
An enlisted person then drives me to my jet in a step van where my enlisted crew chief has just spent two hours servicing and inspecting my battlebird. He/she straps me in and hooks me up to my survival gear and gives me the fueling report summarizing how other enlisted folk have quality tested my fuel and topped off my tanks.
Did i mention that I’m sitting on an ejection seat rigged and armed by the enlisted folks?
The NCO’s in the tower give me taxi instructions, the enlisted folks in the hot pit check my weapons and pull the pins, and the enlisted folks in the RAPCON give me vectors to the handoff point where the enlisted folks on the EC-121s (pre-AWACS) follow me in and out from my target and provide VERY useful Mig warnings.
Coming back in the shitty weather the enlisted controllers in the MPN-19 GCA van talk me down to a zero-zero safe touchdown while the enlisted folks in the P-12 crash trucks stand by to rescue me from a blazing hell in case I screw up the landing.
As I wind up my day, the Intel NCOs pick my brain so they can work through the night to prep my comrads for tomorrow’s battle.
OK, Squid…any further questions as to why we Air Force guys treat our enlisted fortce so much better than you do?
Hear Hear
The Navy/Marine Corps run things more in a military mindset while the Air Force has a more corporate mind set. The main reason the Navy/Marine Corps tears their junior enlisted like crap is because they need people that have immediate obedience to orders, and acting they way they do works. Im sorry, but in combat I don’t want need my junior guys asking why we need to clear that hut or asking why he needs to go right. I’ve notice that if you don’t tell an airman exactly why he needs do do what he was told, he will ask a Why, why, why. That doesnt happen so much with the Navy/Marine Corps junior guys. It’s not right or wrong. It’s just what it’s necessary to accomplish the mission assigned to the respected service.
The Airforce is actually taught to question, we are needed to be somewhat more independant in mindset. I’m not dissing the army/marines, god knows I’ve had my bacon saved by devil dogs a couple of times, and the army has pulled me out of some unpleasent places. But in the Airforce we have been told to “find a better way”, “find a faster way” and “find a safer way”. This causes the habit of questioning the orders or process by which things are done, not good in a combat situation I know, but it’s done so much and expected so often that it becomes a second nature thing, a habit, and it takes 23 days of repeated actions to create OR break a habit. Or one good boom right behind you when the gunny drags your ass out of the way. Worked for me.
I’m a Security Forces SrA in the Guard, and a Navy contractor full time at Port Hueneme. All the Seabee chiefs I’ve ever met were great folks to have a BBQ and smoke with. All their troops love them to death and they seem to treat them well.
As to the rest of the Navy..
Too much dick waving, it’s pointless. Whenever I go to Pt Mugu, the nearby air station, all the aviation Navy folks are kind of douchebags to anybody outside their little circle. SeaBees are alright though, sand sailors are far superior to the legit ones, but that might be because they are the red-headed stepchild of the Navy, as SF is to the Air Force.
I’ve never considered the SF’ers to be redheaded step children, maybe annoying little neighbor kids….but only on the flight line. lol
Yeah, but when people are doing their own bullshit and need extra bodies, who do they call? Us. Because we always look like we have nothing to do.
I will neither confirm nor deny that we do in fact, have nothing to do.