Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
Recently I answered another Quora question on religion. While the answer dredged up another hurtful memory, it also seemed to resonate with numerous Quora members. So, for the pleasure of my many readers I will report my answer here, with additional bonus commentary.
My answer relates how a Catholic Priest once compared being a prostitute to a Protestant, knowing I was attending his Mass and knowing I was a Lutheran.
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
I’ve been on a roll lately in answering Quora questions. Either I’ve accidentally worked out the format for writing attention-catching answers, or just gotten lucky. Because most of my answers seem to be getting lots of views, upvotes, and comments.
My latest best-read answer was comparing Navy Chiefs to the comparable senior non-commissioned officers of the Army and Air Force.
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
My last Navy sea tour, on the Aegis Cruiser USS Port Royal (CG 73), from February 1994 to April 1996, homeported in Hawaii, was a bittersweet time. On one hand, I was winding down my Navy career so things like evaluations and career development didn’t mean anything. On the other hand, I ran a division of eighteen people, each of whom were smart and creative. Each in their own way.
So, one of my challenges as the division was to encourage my people’s creativity while simultaneously preventing them from doing anything seriously stupid. At times, this proved to be very challenging.
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
While perusing my favorite social media – Quora – I stumbled upon a question that triggered an immediate flashback. The question was “Have you ever had a neighbor who believed they had free reign of your property?” The question brought back painful memories of a nasty feud with my first neighbors while living in Southern Mississippi.
That feud lasted five years. By the time it was over I had charged the neighbors with misdemeanor trespassing and made several calls to our local police. It was the ugliest neighbor conflict I’d ever had, up until then. But it turned out to be only a prequel to an even worse feud.
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
My Navy career was rather unusual as I served on both submarines and surface ships. These were considered “different navies,” with different traditions and duty requirements. In that era, very few sailors ever made a switch between surface and subs. For the most part, the only sub sailors who typically went to the surface fleet were those kicked off subs for disciplinary issues, and who also lost their “Qualified in Submarines” status.
I qualified submarines on USS Scamp, SSN 588. I maintained my submarine qualification status when, years later, I joined the Aegis Cruiser USS Port Royal , CG 73. This dual service gave me an interesting perspective on the different communities that make up our U.S. Navy.
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Another Quora question got me reminiscing about my introduction to free enterprise after retiring from Navy life. It was the first, and only time, one of my boss’s appeared at my front door. It was an unexpected visit after I had abruptly resigned for reasons relating to his fraudulent business practices.
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
So, I added to my ever-growing list of movie reviews by answering another Quora question. This one was on the most unrealistic movie scenes which annoy the hell out of me. Which led me into discussing the always-included Hollywood action-movie car chase scenes.
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Three of the best years of my life were spent in the Southern Italian city of Naples. I was still in the Navy and was lucky to get a NATO assignment there. During those three years I toured a lot of Italy and Southern Europe, and learned to love Southern Italian culture.
Learning the foods was a huge part of the culture. Among these foods was learning to love olives. I’d never really cared much for olives before moving to Italy. But that changed. I also learned how olives were prepared, a bit of trivia that has stayed with me.
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
I’ve had a long post-Navy career at this point, and moved around a lot in my jobs. Within the different companies I’ve worked for I’ve had the great fortune of moving around doing different things, learning new skills, and working with different people. Some of the things I’ve done and people I’ve worked for were good. Other things and other people – not good.
I’ve also made some bad decisions throughout my career, mostly on basis that my word was the same as my signature, and other people’s word was the same as their signature. So when I had a chance to answer a Quora question ” Did you accept counter offer from your current employer when you put in two weeks, how did it turn out?” I went with my most infuriating job-related incident of trusting someone to keep their word.
My Commentary on Loss of The Oceangate Submersible
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Unless you’re lucky enough to avoid news in general, you’re already aware of last month’s global-crisis-level unforced error, in which five people died on a rickety submersible that imploded while diving to visit the wreck of Titanic.
As a former submarine sailor this event strikes pretty close to home. This loss didn’t need to happen. It did happen as a result of unchecked arrogance on the part of the corporate owners and engineers who built the damn thing knowing full well it wasn’t safe. But they did it anyway, for reasons that had no relationship to sound engineering and concern for passenger safety.
Opinions & Commentary Quora Re-Posts
submarines