Facing trust issues in a post-newspaper age

The on-going slow-motion death spiral of newspapers has concerned me for quite some time. Normally I wouldn’t want to artificially prop up a business sector that can’t find a way to make itself profitable, but the loss of newspapers also means a serious diminishment of independent journalism.

That’s something I don’t want to see.

Sure, cable news networks will still be available to cover big events, with local TV news divisions filling in the blanks closer to home. But as we saw with the many of the Midwest tornadoes this past summer, cable news closes up shop in the late afternoon. While TV stations close to the action covered the devastation, folks like me — way off in the Pacific Northwest — scrambled to find out what happened through the Internet and social media sites.

And what about sports?

An unfinished date: cold, dark and quiet in the South Atlantic

In 20 years of Navy service as an enlisted Sailor and commissioned officer, I held many different jobs. By far my favorite was writing the operational schedule for up to five logistics ships — oilers and ammunition and provisions haulers ­­­— while assigned to the staff of Task Force 63 in Naples, Italy.

The three most important tools needed for that job were a naval chart of the Mediterranean Sea and vicinity, 11×17 cardboard schedule forms — like a crossword puzzle, pencil use only — and the telephone.

The chart was under a large piece of glass on my desk and the schedule cards were usually in use during working hours, but when I went home for the day they were always placed in the center of my desk so the duty officer could find them. The trick with using the chart was taught to me by my predecessor in the job, as I’m sure he was taught by the one who preceded him. By spreading apart the fingers and thumb of my hand, I could use the distance between the tip of my thumb and little finger as about one days steaming time.

Where you sit is where you stand

Clichés abound when talking about perceptions coloring someone’s view, but the one I’ve always liked (and used too often) is: Where you sit is where you stand.

Since retiring from active duty, I’ve gotten more and more sensitive to the way the U.S. military is viewed, in the media and by people I’ve met.

During my 20 years of active duty, I saw public opinion reverse course completely from a post-Vietnam hangover of indifference to parades and cheering after Desert Storm.

These days the pendulum of public opinion has swung to the other side from when I enlisted, and mention of my military service is likely to earn a word of gratitude from complete strangers — something I am very uncomfortable with.

Previous readers of this blog can see this is going to be a different type of post. For that I apologize in advance, if you continue on.  What follows are some short snippets that come to my mind when I think about how the military is viewed.

Sea Story: Unexpected Passengers in the Med

Deployment is the high point in the operational cycle of a U.S. Navy ship. All of the training, inspections, exercises, load-outs and maintenance periods are over. Deployment, with port visits to exotic foreign cities, is the reward for all that hard work and preparation.

Even so, the daily routine for most Sailors is no different on deployment. The same watches must be stood and the same jobs accomplished whether in engine rooms, Combat Information Center, bridge or galley.

But everyone is aware that the ship is now taking part in what the Navy likes to call “real world” operations, and could be called into action in support of national policy.

Sea Story: The Sinking of the ex-USCGC Evergreen

With the late-November pre-deployment fleet exercise completed, the ships of the carrier battle group scattered to enjoy a round of port visits at various sites around the Caribbean.

Most of the ships, that is.

Instead of heading to San Juan, Puerto Rico, as planned, USS Arleigh Burke (DDG 51) was given a new assignment: to sink the target hulk which had stubbornly refused to go down despite being repeatedly bombed by the carrier’s air wing and hit by 5-inch shells from several surface ships.

One promotion, one advancement

I was not at the Las Vegas Hilton from Sept. 5-7, 1991, and after signing a form attesting to that fact in the presence of a witness who also signed the form, I was promoted to Lieutenant, Supply Corps, U.S. Navy in 1993.

There was quite a delay between signature and promotion, however, because my name and the form had to be forwarded first to the Navy’s personnel section and then — along with the name and form of every other officer selected for promotion in that cycle — to Congress.

Congress wasn’t too happy with the Navy around that time, and the extra scrutiny of officers selected for promotion reflected this fact. Requiring me to swear I wasn’t at the Vegas Hilton wasn’t an arbitrary move, either.

Soapbox time!

Looks like I’m thinking about something, doesn’t it?  Once again, I’m dusting off the soapbox. In a surprise move though, this has very little to do with auto racing.

Excerpt from a Sportswriting 101 lecture

Okay, class. Let’s look at a case study from the Spring of 2010.

Tacoma News Tribune sportswriter Larry LaRue wrote a story about two conversations he had with unnamed Seattle Mariners players who told him legend Ken Griffy Jr. was asleep in the clubhouse and missed a chance to pinch-hit in the late innings of a close game.

Finding fault with the truth

“To find fault is easy; to do better may be difficult.” — Plutarch

I came from a home where no problem was settled before blame was assigned. Regardless of how big or small, when things went wrong someone was at fault and identifying that person was a key part of the process.

Perhaps that’s why I fit into the Navy so well.

The Navy I served in was, in many ways, built on a foundation of finding fault. Long gone were the days when Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz — the Navy’s first five-star admiral and the man who led us to victory in the Pacific in World War II — could survive a court-martial after grounding the ship he commanded.

My 9/11

Last Sunday I cleaned out my gutters and sprayed my rooftop with an environmentally safe liquid to kill the moss build-up common in the rainy Pacific Northwest.

I didn’t know it at the time but while I was on my roof several members of the U.S. Navy’s elite Seal Team 6 were killing Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

What follows is a description of what I experienced during the 9/11 terrorist attack. At that time I was a Lieutenant Commander assigned to the Naval Station in Everett, Wash.

A note about the photo: This American flag was flown over the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2002. It was presented to me by the Commanding Officer of Naval Station Everett upon my retirement from the Navy.

A Sailor looks back over twenty years

Shortly after advancing to Petty Officer Third Class, I enjoyed a beer at a beachfront bar on an island in the Caribbean. Sitting next to another Sailor from USS Donald B. Beary (FF 1085) — a ship that now sails under the flag of Turkey — we ate greasy hamburgers and fries that were pretty good, and mostly talked about the Navy.

He was a Seaman in Deck Division, one paygrade below the one I had just moved up to, but had been in the service more than twice as long. His lack of advancement had nothing to do with his abilities, however.

He simply didn’t want to.