POV-015bPosted by Gil Raynor on October 30, 1997
Mr. Midi,
Interesting that everyone on board had so much time to help you. I qualified while standing port and starboard watches, 4 and 4, not even 6 and 6 so there was the possibility of feeling rested. I qualed and even ate once in a while.
I took the boat thru overhaul and refueling and then I qualed again, on the same damn boat. Oh, sometimes I could find someone to help me trace a system or find an unusually hard to find item, but not very damn often. Seems that once you qualed on the boat, you were busting your butt qualifying on another watch station. How many watch stations could you stand besides the one under the watchful eye of the conn.
It is exactly this type of assisted qualifying that is the BS we are discussing. Tell me, do you feel qualified to be secured in a compartment in an emergency and have everyone else s life depend on it? When I was on board, I did, with perhaps a few minor exceptions like areas of the missile compartment.
I for one don't think I would feel comfortable considering you qualified. I hope you did learn a lot and I hope that some day you earn the gold dolphins that you aspire to, but I damn well do not think you or any other midi except former enlisted deserve to wear the same silver dolphins that I do.
You had a fun summer working cruise, you got to do something different and apparently something you wanted. It sounds like you might be a nice guy and maybe even a decent officer if you get rid of your arrogance (which may only grow because you think you did what your "men" will be doing------however you did not.)
You probably did bust your butt in your mind, but it will never, I REPEAT NEVER in my mind qualify you to wear the enlisted men's Dolphins.
No matter what you believe, You did not do the same thing and as a student, you were not and will not be an enlisted man, although classified somewhere in no mans land for pay purposes only.