Humor for my Navy and Marine friends

Whenever I need a humor puck-me-up I browse “Broadside” by Jeff Bacon. If you’ve worn a uniform on a staff, you’ve been in this meeting.
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Whenever I need a humor puck-me-up I browse “Broadside” by Jeff Bacon. If you’ve worn a uniform on a staff, you’ve been in this meeting.
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I have to counsel my iPhone. I know I typed “pick.” I saw it. We disagree all the time about spelling and intended word. Good thing it didn’t change it to something else. 🙄
 
Lets not even talk about "official" pen colors for various people within a command.
Shhhh..don't mention pen colors... every new Ensign should discover for themself. (I don't even recall what it was, but do recall our Squadron Admin Officer (0-4) , "explaining" to me (0-1) that only the Skipper used a red pen !
 
Shhhh..don't mention pen colors... every new Ensign should discover for themself. (I don't even recall what it was, but do recall our Squadron Admin Officer (0-4) , "explaining" to me (0-1) that only the Skipper used a red pen !
On my second ship there were 4 or 5 pen colors claimed. CO, XO, Ops, Nav (me) and at least one other, probably Deck
 
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Wait a minute... I thought it was mandatory that everyone in the military used the above pen - black ink only! God forbid someone uses blue.

 
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Wait a minute... I thought it was mandatory that everyone in the military used the above pen - black ink only! God forbid someone uses blue.

Very cool, that old school, Skilcraft pen. I used to take them apart and exchange the silver clicker end with the white clicker that was located inside the pen. That way I knew it was mine. Out of curiosity, is the white clicker still inside your Skilcraft? I have one or two somewhere.
 
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Wait a minute... I thought it was mandatory that everyone in the military used the above pen - black ink only! God forbid someone uses blue.

For official signatures, yes, black ink.

For staff work and comments on messages, etc it was (is?) common to see the CO make markups in Red Ink and everyone knew that the red comments were the from the Skipper. My skipper used a red ballpoint that the suppo got for him. A few others started to use non-ballpoint
colored sharpies in the same way. The XO used Blue and there were some others as well.

Again, these were for COMMENTS/MARKUPS, not official signatures.
 
During XO tours, I used green ink, and always had a big bowl of green M&M’s (with a scoop, was I COVID-prescient?) and a little stack of paper coffee filters for containers near my Outbox. The yeomen were always very good about clearing my Outbox.

I had one CO who used hot pink sticky notes, which he would place in the seat of your desk chair so you would notice his item first upon returning to your desk. As if the pink would not stand out. 🙄
 
A great example of the difference in the Naval services...

I just don't think you would have found M&M's, pink sticky notes, or colored pens in a USMC infantry unit.

:usa:
 
A great example of the difference in the Naval services...

I just don't think you would have found M&M's, pink sticky notes, or colored pens in a USMC infantry unit.

:usa:
Nope. Never.
Crayons, yes.
🖍🖍🖍🖍🖍

That CO was a submarine officer. May or may not have related to his eccentricities and quirks.
 
Shhhh..don't mention pen colors... every new Ensign should discover for themself. (I don't even recall what it was, but do recall our Squadron Admin Officer (0-4) , "explaining" to me (0-1) that only the Skipper used a red pen !
My first encounter with red ink was with the acronym “PSM” double underlined - Please See Me. I had to ask what it meant. I was a JG and the Amphib CO was a very salty F-4 RIO taskmaster. All I thought was uh-oh as the LTs painted a bad picture of the new CO.
He was known to cut his wrists - red everywhere - on all correspondence and messages. I would later appreciate his thoroughness and attention to detail as the squadron Admin Officer. Don't remember what color ink I used.
 
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