Bull Ensign certification...

______I was an Ensign at a Naval Command on Guam. I had been prior Enlisted for about 10 years and simply didn't "fit the mold". So, I inadvertently pissed off the Commanding Officer (Naval Captain Jesus Bernard Tupaz). Very reliable people told me that "Je-zus" (he called himself "Jessie" actually) got royally fucked over by his classmates at the Naval Academy; he was apparently the first "Mexican American" to attend the "Boat School". (He was born and raised in the part of Northern Baja Mexico called "Los Angeles".)
______I could do no right in his eyes even though I tried very hard.
______Anyway, in the fullness of time, I became the Senior Ensign and thus the "Bull Ensign".
______It was traditional in 1982 to have the Commanding Officer sign the "Bull Ensign Declaration" and to present this to said Bull Ensign. (Perhaps it didn't help that I'd laughed myself into hysterics at my predecessor's "initiation"; it was simply ludricious and horribly funny!)
______So, my beloved and precious CO waited until he was away from the Command and had his XO sign the form. Then, because the XO had probably gotten the "hint" that it wouldn't be a good idea to give this to me, he stated he had to "go to an important meeting" and had my Department Head, CDR Ronald Garcia, (a "white" man in spite of the name) "grant" me this "distinction".
______It was most uncomfortable because Garcia really didn't want to be issuing this "honor" and Tupax had (and not for the first time) succeeded it turning a "sacred Navy ritual" into dog shit for me...
______Tupaz had a bad habit of micromanaging everything, especially the "Joint Typhoon Warning Center". There were several instances when Tupaz forced the JTWC to issue Tropical Storm warnings for large thunderstorm clusters that simply died off. After a while, the JTWC became known as the "Joint Thunderstorm Warning Center"!
______Here is a thank you note, in one of the JTWC annual reports, writen about a decade before Political Correctness became popular. To be fair, I should give "the Devil his Due" (for "Devil" was much closer to the way he was seen than "Jesus"!). CAPT Tupaz does have a PhD in Tropical Forecasting. (God help anyone who made the mistake of calling him "Dr"!)

The staff of JTWC is indebted to Captain Jesus B. Tupaz, USN for his many valuable suggestions and insightful comments throughout the preparation of the 1981 Annual Tropical Cyclone Report.

______Tupax was a very dangerous enemy to have and an especially dangerous enemy in that he did not know how to write officer fitreps (Fitness Reports) that would allow an officer to get promoted. He hurt a lot of his officers...
______Words can not express how relieved I was when Tupax was transferred to another command.

______There is a belief that one's time as an Ensign is when one is allowed to screw up and to learn the trade of Naval Officer. Unfortunately, in 1982, the Navy had gone a long time since their last war. In that situation, with no external enemies, the United States Navy turns on it's own and an Ensign's Mistakes can't be survived. I didn't survive the errors of my first serveral months and I knew other officers who didn't either. If we'd been in a major, decades long war, I would have retired as a LCDR or CDR but I had the misfortune to be serving during a "time of Peace" (the 1980s)
______(This is a bit simplistic I must admit...)
A better view: