Navy Times has been digging around about the recent return to communism change in liberty rules on USS Kitty Hawk. Its not a pretty story. In a nutshell , the leadership thinks that treating Sailors like children is somehow a productive way to improve conduct ashore:
So you’ve got liberty in Japan? First, fill out this form. Then, get your chief’s OK. And if you want to drink, don’t forget your liberty buddy. And remember to phone in each day, even on your weekend off.
Those are just some of the rules for sailors stationed in Japan aboard the carrier Kitty Hawk, at least until the ship hands over its berth next summer to the George Washington before its eventual decommissioning.
Kitty Hawk sailors are living with some of the strictest liberty rules in the Navy, even when their ship is at its home port in Yokosuka with other forward-deployed Naval Forces commands.
Every Kitty Hawk sailor E-6 and below, and anyone planning to drink off base, must have an authorized liberty buddy and a detailed individual liberty plan that requires approval from his superior. Any change to that plan must be reported and approved by the first khaki in the command chain. The liberty restrictions — often tightened after a spate of off-duty and alcohol-related incidents involving sailors — don’t always end there, according to sailors and fleet spokeswomen.
An old mentor of mine had what he called “the quarters test” when it came to public pronouncements and giving awards. Namely could he stand up at quarters and give a guy an award or make an announcement with out having the 80% of the Sailors who do the right thing and want to do well for the Navy-not stand there and say under their breath ,”You have got to be shitting me!”
This does not pass that test. Or pass any other standard of common sense either.
The authors of this policy need to be beaten severely with one of these:
A friend of mine was at a party the other night and was talking to a victim person who was subject to this. His friend said that what it was doing is the exact opposite of what was intended. Its forcing people to lie and that is never a good thing. It is also snowing the CPO’s under with stupid unnecessary work.
It is never a good idea to come up with a policy that almost begs one to break it. And if you look at the so called liberty plan-its practically begging one to lie. Consider this one question:
Do you plan to be off ship between 0200 and o500? If so what will you be doing?
Well if you must know, I’ll be in Roppongi waiting for a train that does not run for at least 3 hours. Accordingly I will be trying my damndest to get this cute little Nihonjin to go with me to a love hotel so that I can be off the streets in accordance with command policy . (The truthful answer)
This is about one thing and one thing only. Covering a lot of senior officer asses if something does happen. They can say they were practicing “intrusive leadership”.
The author of that little word play should be lined up against a wall and shot. Good leadership does not have to be intrusive and good leaders know where the limits of their authority begins and ends. Trying to regulate every detail of a Sailors private life is a privilege that does not, and never did, exist. Its against the law, its against the rights of a Sailor and it is just not a good way to do business.
I’ve said it before and I will say it again. If you take the incident rate of an FDNF ship and stack it up against a comparable size ship in CONUS, the FDNF ship will come out better every time. They would never try this in San Diego or Norfolk. The ACLU would sue the Navy faster than you can say “report chit”. Everyone is afraid of a big incident like happened a couple of years ago when a Sailor murdered a 56 year old woman. A liberty plan would not have solved that problem and it won’t stop a similar one now. It also does the Japanese population a huge disservice.
Treat people like children-they will behave like children. Let ’em be adults-most will accept the challenge and relish it -not a peep will be heard. However with this policy it would appear that one’s reward for a job well done……….is more punishment.
“Its forcing people to lie and that is never a good thing. It is also snowing the CPO’s under with stupid unnecessary work.”
That’s why this is a problem, in a nutshell. This is comparable to a few problems I’ve been facing with AFROTC. Paperwork wise, we have always had to report any involvements with law enforcement, down to speeding tickets. I always thought it was kind of stupid, but whatever. Now they’ve lowered the bar to include parking tickets. Including the ones you get on campus. The parking police hand out tickets like candy here, both on and off campus. I’ve had three so far this semester, and that’s a really low number. Every time I’ve had to go in and fill out a form, which then gets fired up the chain to our Det/CC. I’ll never understand why we insist on making more work for ourselves.
As for the lying aspect, beyond the fact that one alcohol related incident is enough to get you kicked out, meaning that people under 21 do not talk about alcohol around any sort of authority figure, we have the fact that now an incident that is ostensibly non alcohol related (and thus not a problem) can be turned alcohol related if it comes out you had a drink at any point in the evening. We’ve had one kid who got a black eye from defending a friend during a fight they didn’t start. Even though there was no law enforcement involvement, it was investigated and it came out that he had partaken in a few drinks (not nearly enough to even be buzzed, much less intoxicated) earlier that evening. Alcohol related incident, and he had to go through a review process to see if he was going to get kicked out or not. He wasn’t, fortunately, but you can bet that the next time I have any sort of investigation or law enforcement involvement or whatever, I can already say with certainty that I did not consume any sort of alcoholic beverage that evening.
That’s not a good thing.
Give new meaning to the nickname Shitty Kitty.
I prefer the submarine version:
Morale will continue until the beatings improve.
Navy is becoming more like the Army. Soon you’ll start losing football games.
Okay, I have my drinking chit, my approved liberty buddy, my approved liberty plan, the ship’s number (do they have a special duty section department that handles liberty plan changes?), and my navy issue condoms. I signed the appropriate promise to stay out of prohibited areas, and only have sex in the command approved missionary position with the prostitutes that are pre-screened by the medical department. Is there anything else, Chief?
Covering a lot of senior officer asses if something does happen. They can say they were practicing “intrusive leadership”.
Yup thats the type of “leadership” exhibited in my training command which has a Zero Tolerance environment for mistakes and makes a example of people who screw up. Then listening to the senior officer go spout Honor, Courage, Commitment the next time he speaks… CAPT what ever happened to taking care of your people?
How in the *&^% is a straight guy gonna get what he needs with that kind of restriction?
I can tell you what I would be doing between 0200 and 0500. Postcoital sleep!
But not in today’s Navy!