As a practitioner of prose guilty of the occasional peppering of hyperbole and hypotheticals, I appreciate Mr. Green’s article even with his enhancements such as:
“I can recall vividly and with much emotion the day I boarded the USS
Gettysburg (CG-64) as the in-port training department head for Destroyer Squadron Eight in Mayport, Florida, saluted the ensign on the fantail, and turned to see the officer of the deck standing beside a display of the U.S. flag and the Confederate battle flag, awaiting my salute. For the first and only time in my career, I failed to render the proper salute, instead simply walking past without a word or gesture of any kind. I could not do it.” Did the confederate flag really cause him such distress that he failed to salute the OOD? Maybe, it’s his story but it wasn’t the flag he failed to salute.
Also, “If the Navy is serious about listening to minority sailors and officers, I hope it will consider the optics of the future USS
Doris Miller (do you recognize the name—look it up!) and the current
John C. Stennis steaming together or tied up in the same basin.” As a reader I didn’t appreciate the condescending tone. I bet readers of
Proceedings know very well who Dorie Miller was. If not, surely their intellectual curiosity would have them “look it up.”
He does though point out facts I didn’t know about. Facts that are difficult to read but being a child of the 60s and 70s in Alabama, have no trouble believing. He’s a strong advocate for equality and equity as we all should be. He writes about a CO who damaged his career and I noticed he retired as a lieutenant commander. I looked up his bio which I linked below and he is prior enlisted. He writes of the divisive comments attached to the issue of the services banning the confederate flag. I’ve seen them as well and while very disturbing, they are not surprising.
I agree in principle to striking the Stennis name from the ship but also agree with the comment by
@A6E Dad “As to the process of renaming a capital ship during in the middle of its active life (and in the service of the same navy), I have no idea how the superstitions and voodoo would have to work.” Besides the massive effort required for a name change which isn’t just cutting STENNIS from the stern, but oodles of other tasks, sailors are a superstitious bunch. I for one wouldn’t want to go to sea on a renamed ship regardless of who the new name is.
A candid memoir of the post-Vietnam War Navy
www.reubenkeithgreen.com