While I agree it would be nice to see some single women in the O Club, I am not sure that their presence alone would fix the club....
I'll also take that a step further and say that I'm not sure I would WANT single women to be the answer to the club's problems.
I go to the club to drink heavily and socialize with folks that I will eventually work with, to get advice, and to act like a fool around people that share a similar lifestyle.
I do NOT go to the club to meet women, and I'm not sure I would enjoy an O Club environment in which that was the case. I feel like busing in loads of females might turn the O Club into a classier version of Seville Quarter.
More to the point I don't think the Officer Clubs have one single problem. I think there are several... all of which have been in some way addressed in previous posts...
- Lack of single ladies
- Demonization of Alcohol, officers aversion to drinking on base
- Young officers not wanting to mix work and play
The last on the list I think is the bigger issue. I know half a dozen or more of my close friends that have no desire to frequent the clubs because they see the Navy as a job, and they dont want to hang out at work at the end of the day/week...
I think this is the bigger issue. The lack of women, and the drinking on base are definitely contributing factors, but I think the biggest problem this Navy faces is a lack of interest by young officers who don't want to drink with their DH / CO / Commodore ... I may be wrong, as I have only seen a little sliver of the aviation world as a whole, but my efforts to bring people to the club have been hampered more by the lack of interest than the lack of ladies.
Good post. It is true that an abundance of single women alone are not going to fix the club, but it sure as hell would help. Unfortunately, a lot of us (including myself) are still in tune to the college type bars that feature skimpily dressed sorority girls getting drunk and us chasing them. MBOC doesn't quite offer that, which is why when trying to figure out what to do on a Friday night, most of the times the O-Club isn't even considered. Sometimes when I used to go more often when I first came down here, I felt like a lot the studs I invited to come out felt obligated to be there, like it was something they should do, not necessarily to go because they enjoy it. I don't know, that was just the vibe I got. It seemed like my fellow student naval aviators just got bored easily and were just waiting it out until the next bar.
Maybe it's sad, but it's definitely true, within my group of friends down here, we choose bars to go to where we think there will be plentiful single ladies. As of right now, that's just how our minds think. We can't help it that we were born as straight men with one thing on our minds
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But you're right on about younger JO's not wanting to mix work and play. I know a lot of guys are fed up with A-Pool shenanigans, API, the frustrations of dealing with flight management, voluntold events, and what not, that most of us try to stay away from base, especially on Friday nights that are meant for us to enjoy. Some people try to only be affiliated with the Navy from Monday morning until about 1600 or so on Friday.
I've heard so many awesome stories about the O-Club in the past from older generations before me and it is obvious that times have changed. I would love to revert back to the old days, but how exactly do you make it happen nowadays?
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Loved it!
A dollar steam table for food, and drinks were cheap.