A Sailor's Sacred Right To Say "No"

When I was Navy Enlisted (early 1970s), I learned that Sailors love to be able to tell each other "no". What is that?

Sailors get tired of having to obey orders from their Chief Petty officers, Leading Petty Officers and the Petty Officers (senior to them) who direct work parties. Occasionally, Commissioned Officers would give sailors orders but not very often. The wise officer would give his orders to the Chiefs or Petty Officers and preserved their authority. (This was often not the case in the 1980s when I was a Junior Officer and had one department head who usually went around me to give orders to my sailors without telling me about these orders!)

If a Sailor was asked to help a shipmate, they loved the chance to finally be able to say "NO!".

If a Sailor wanted to do something, he (or she) had better be able to do "whatever" by himself because he was likely to hear:

• that sounds like a personal problem to me or
• not my problem

Now, the lucky sailor was one who had friends who might agree to help. Examples: I've got two sea bags and a box of books and I need help moving them to a different berthing area (barracks).  Helping a shipmate move sea bags is typical of what sailors are ordered to daily and resent having to do.

So much for good morale. This is a not a situation that needs to happen. I've talked to Marines who said it didn't happen in their units because their leadership provided leadership and gave the good examples. Often, the Officers and Chiefs stayed away from their division's berthing areas and thus were not there to encourage sailor to work together. (Not that they should be as sailors needed time away from their Sailors and Chiefs).

The Petty Officers, who should have stepped up and lead their sailors, generally were quiet and occasionally lead the movement to refuse to help each other. It was enough to make me despair!


Labels: right to say "no", Sailors sacred right to say "no"