So true, so true. The only ones that do less than a chief, are the senior and master chiefs. Then you have the zeros, who do even less. My thoughts were throw the officers overboard and the ship would run much smoother. We had a Master Chief over the Combat Systems Division, and his thumb, index and middle fingers had a permanent brown-orange stain. I swear he smoked 3-4 packs a day. He was so damn grouchy he made you look like a pussycat, Denny. Amazing thing though, one day the XO pissed him off about the smoking area, and he quit cold turkey. I heard he died a couple of years later from brain cancer.

Rest In Peace, FCCM Booke.

The only skill you need to be an navy officer is the ability to say "Carry on chief, I'll be in the wardroom".

The reason the Chief monkey was so expensive was he was able to keep the other monkeys working until the job was done and able to keep the officer monkeys from bothering the working monkeys.

However, that's just the opinion of an old retired master chief.

Separately, Navy 42 - Army 23!!! Problem is this will just give us another group of zeros with over-inflated egos.

Both of my sons are IT's in the Navy. The oldest was pinned Chief in Sept. I sent him Navy jokes during the Chief Select Initations, everyone liked this one:
An old Chief says to a young Petty Officer, " I guess when I die and you get outa the Navy you'll be standing in line to piss on my grave"

" Oh not me Chief, when I get outa the Navy I'm never gonna stand in line again".

Little known secret: Master Chiefs run the Navy

Of course, he'll claim that he confiscated the comic book from a seaman :-)

An old chief and a young sailor were showering on a destroyer.
The old chief dropped his soap, and said, "sailor get my soap for me".
"No way" responded the sailor, " my dad was in the Navy, and he told me all about how you chiefs operate."
"Sailor," said the chief, "its been a long time since your dad was in. The Navy has changed a lot. We take care of our sailors now. Why take a look at that cruiser berthed over there, they've even put wheel on the side to make it easier to get them into drydock for you."
The sailor walked to the port hole, looked out, and said " I don't see any WHEEEEELS!"

Actually Denny, in my case the V was for my cigar and the book was SF (Heinlein, Laumer, or Norton)

Ken

I spent 10 years in Uncle Sam's Big Grey Canoe Club, and I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of Senior and Master Chiefs that I thought were worth a s--t.

The Command Master Chief at my last command loved to create rumors that would get the junior enlisted spun up. Like the time he said when we finished the boat det we were on, all E-5 and below were to stay on the ship in California while the rest of the squadron flew home to Washington. For the month and a half until the next boat det... Lots of married junior enlisted took offense at that...

I went to XO's Mast because the Division Senior Chief wanted to have me nailed for sabotage for accidentally erasing the last copy of the test programs for the *censored* on the boat while trying to make a second "working" copy, 'cause the original "working" copy disk had crashed. We had two new disks from AirPac before I went to Mast, and we were At Sea...

My shop chief at my last command wanted to write me up because I refused to become a QA inspector for the shop... I only spent 18 months in the command, NAVAIR says you can't become an inspector until you have been in your command for 6 months, and you can't become one if you have less than 6 months left in the command. When he wanted to write me up, I had less than 6 months left in the Navy... Would you want someone like that inspecting safety of flight items in the aircraft you're getting catapulted off the pointy end in?

I've been out for a decade, but don't try to tell me about how wonderful all Navy Chiefs, Senior Chiefs, and Master Chiefs are...

Some are excellent, and some I remember I would follow into Hell. Most aren't worth the gas needed to set them on fire.

The easiest way to get rid of anybody E-7 or above is to wash the coffee pot. Then they just hang out in the chiefs lounge.

Sorry about causing any panty bunching. My son is an E-3 Bottom Gun on a fast attack submarine. He loves his Chiefs, they seem to be the only decent superiors that he has. The others make the new guys paint in the rain. Imagine inviting 98 people that you really don't like to spend two months with you, or wiggle underneath your coffee table to read a book and snooze.

I did 2 "mess cooking" tours while aboard ship. Half of the first was in the wardroom and the other half in the Chief's Mess. They asked for me to come back to the Chief's Mess on my second tour. I actually liked almost all of the chiefs we had on the ship...didn't care for 1 or 2. Most of this is good-natured ribbing that those of us who served would understand. If you spend long enough at sea and can't learn to dish it out and take it, you'll go nuts. Same goes for inter-branch jokes as well.

For most of the chiefs you didn't need to throw any gas on them to light them on fire. If it wasn't the alcohol fumes, their own gas would have sufficed. The same could be said of most any sailor though. :)

Mike,
The FC community wasn't that big and although I only met him once FCCM Booke was alright. I had the misfortune to work for his polar opposite, FCCM John Soliday AKA Solidwaste. Best known for creating SOCAL's first drive-in 7-11. Pulled up to the counter in his 280ZX and scared the crap out of Hadji. I suspect he is long gone by now unless he got dryed out and stayed that way.
Rey

True story: my brother-in-law loved to drive his regular Navy Captain crazty.

He'd walk by the Captain and say things like, "I'm going downstairs to look out the little round window."

My BIL is deathly afraid of water and ended up on destroyers in the North Atlantic.

Rey - Master Chief Booke was a damn good man. I enjoyed working for him, he knew his shit and I learned a lot from him. He even gave me rides from Long Beach to San Diego after I totalled my car to make sure I got to see my wife at the time. There's much that I don't miss about being in the Navy, but I do miss the travel (when I was single) and I miss working with some of the people aboard the ship. The FC community is pretty small compared to some of the other rates, so I'm pretty sure we've run into many of the same people.

The title "Navy Chief" means something different to everyone who ever had the great privilage to know one. For sure not all of us who have been honored to hold the tilte of "Chief" has lived up to the ideals of Honor, Courage, Commitment. But the vast majority of us came to work every day and played the role of leader, boss, father, accountant, counselor, teacher, mentor, morale builder, and especially blame taker for our beloved men and women who for what ever reason didn't always live up to the chain of command's expectations. Just because you never saw the Chief get chewed out on your behalf doesn't mean he didn't. The crusty old Chief earned his reputation by being the jack of all trades and standard bearer for all. God speed fellow Chiefs!