Mast, NJP, and The Trouble Troops Can Get In...

[Recovering LSO]

back to the "what kinda weird shit have you seen" theme:

I was the Line Divo in my first squadron. Had a young Airmen who owed money to just about everyone he had ever crossed paths with. After the problem comes to light I take him over to FFSC to sit down and work out a budget. Come up with a plan to pay back everyone he owes money to as well as actually put a little into a savings account. For several months I sat down with him and the Chief every Friday afternoon to look over his weekly expenditures and figure out what he had (if any) left over for the weekend. He finally gets to the point where he's just about in the black and he decides he's going to have a big weekend to celebrate. After what we figured had to have been a 36 hour bender he decided it would be a fantastic idea to get involved with married chick -involved in the biblical sense. Next morning she gets pulled over for speeding and arrested for having some meth on her - she was drunk at the time of the traffic stop as well. My enterprising and now smitten Airman decided it would be a good idea to go ahead and post bail for her release. Guess who didn't show up for court... Guess who was on the hook for TEN GRAND. That has been my only exposure to bail bondsmen - don't really care to have any more. Our hero was in the Navy for about another month before I ended up driving him and his seabag to the front gate.

 

[Van]

Not that I'm defending those that use their families to skate out on their duties, it actually pisses me off a lot, but I've known very few people that do that. I've seen more people weasel out of stuff for completely different reasons than family issues: "I gotta take my dog to the vet.", "I gotta go to the Navy college office.", etc. There are a million excuses that anyone (married or single) can come up with. A scammer is a scammer, regardless of marital status. I just haven't seen many people use their family as an excuse unless it was something serious like their kid's running a really high fever or busted their head open at daycare/school or something like that. Those cases are few and far between, and legitimate. I'm sure that's not the kind of thing people are talking about on here, but those are the instances I've seen the most.

Are there certain considerations given for service members with families? Sure. As long as people don't take advantage of it and use their family as a crutch, I don't have a problem with it. I'm sure if some of you get married and/or have kids, your outlook will change and for those that are divorced, were you complaining about this kind of thing when you were getting the "benefits"? Shoot, if it's so great why isn't everyone married w/kids?

I don't have any experience with the wives club, but it's just human nature to form closer bonds with people that are in a similar situation and understand where you're at. It's no different from the way it is for a lot of married guys in A-pool. Most of the SNA's here are single, fresh out of college with a lot more money than they're used to, and looking for a good time. Obviously, a married, prior-E with kids is not going to live the same kind of lifestyle and the younger guy isn't really going to relate to the prior-E w/a family. That doesn't mean they can't be friends or hang out sometimes, but it's harder to build a strong bond between them.

It's actually pretty disheartening to think that I'm going into a community that has the view that married people take advantage of their single peers by hiding behind their family.

 

[Clux4]

Leadership plays a big part of it. The CO's/XO's need to squash the zealous ideas of their wives from the onset. Their wives start living vicariously through their rank when they fail to stop it. I have seen both ends of the spectrum and I think the personality of the CO and his wife kinda set the tone on how things were run. The self serving ones usually have wives with the same character and agendas.

Just like someone said, for every good one, there are several bad ones to complain about.

 

[Pags]

Could you imagine? The horror....

A wives club is like a squadron; good one minute, crappy the next, etc.

 

[Gatordev]

A wives club is like a squadron; good one minute, crappy the next, etc.

I was referring to Naval Aviation operating like an HSL squadron. At least all our paperwork would be in order.

 

[Pags]

I was referring to Naval Aviation operating like an HSL squadron. At least all our paperwork would be in order.

Gotcha.

Either way, I just wanted to let everyone know that wives clubs aren't necessarily the unholy gatherings that MB/others make them out to be.

 

[webmaster]

We have our friends in the squadron/area, the wives club can go to hell as far as the shedevil and I are concerned.

Now I know which "forward leaning" JO to task next year.









God ppl, I am KIDDING!

 

[scoolbubba]

Would I be the first JO ever tasked via an airwarriors PM? what an awful honor.

 

[webmaster]

Would I be the first JO ever tasked via an airwarriors PM? what an awful honor.

No, I believe MB has that honor.

 

[MasterBates]

I've been tasked by a flag officer via AW..

DH tasking can easily be avoided.

 

[helolumpy]

Are there certain considerations given for service members with families? Sure. As long as people don't take advantage of it and use their family as a crutch, I don't have a problem with it. I'm sure if some of you get married and/or have kids, your outlook will change and for those that are divorced, were you complaining about this kind of thing when you were getting the "benefits"? Shoot, if it's so great why isn't everyone married w/kids?.

9 times out of 10 the JO stuck with Christmas day duty is single. The usual thought is since he/she doesn't have kids at home, he/she can come in to stand the duty!!

This rule also applies to 'off-load coordinator' when you return from deployment and someone has to stay behind and make sure all the squadrons gear gets onto the truck or 'senior person on the airlift' for the last flight home (which will mostly be made up of the single E-3 and below). Since they have no one to waiting for them at the terminal, they can get on the last flgiht home.

As the single guy who got all these 'sh!t duties', I agree that the married folks do get certain considerations when it comes to some duties.

I don't have any experience with the wives club, but it's just human nature to form closer bonds with people that are in a similar situation and understand where you're at. It's no different from the way it is for a lot of married guys in A-pool. Most of the SNA's here are single, fresh out of college with a lot more money than they're used to, and looking for a good time. Obviously, a married, prior-E with kids is not going to live the same kind of lifestyle and the younger guy isn't really going to relate to the prior-E w/a family. That doesn't mean they can't be friends or hang out sometimes, but it's harder to build a strong bond between them.

It's actually pretty disheartening to think that I'm going into a community that has the view that married people take advantage of their single peers by hiding behind their family.

Spouces club for the most part suck! You will have the wives who wear thier husband's rank on thier sleeves, the wives who will schedule 'mandatory fun' parties like Hail & Farewells based on thier personal schedules and not the schedules of people like those who are being Farewelled (Yes, I'm bitter... I missed my Farewell because I was househunting and the wives club decided it was better to have it a week earlier than originally scheduled, so they moved it while I was gone!!) and the wives who will attempt to advance thier husbands career by networking through the CO and XO's wives.

For every good wives club tale, there are hundreds of tales of 'knives club' gone crazy. The wives club is something to respect and fear at the same time...

 

[Flash]

9 times out of 10 the JO stuck with Christmas day duty is single. The usual thought is since he/she doesn't have kids at home, he/she can come in to stand the duty!!.....As the single guy who got all these 'sh!t duties', I agree that the married folks do get certain considerations when it comes to some duties.

My two fleet squadrons always took volunteers for the major holidays, and the volunteers usually got a good deal for doing it. There was no 'screw the single guys' attitude. I should know, I was one.

Spouces club for the most part suck! You will have.....the wives who will schedule 'mandatory fun' parties like Hail & Farewells based on thier personal schedules and not the schedules of people like those who are being Farewelled..... and the wives who will attempt to advance thier husbands career by networking through the CO and XO's wives.

For every good wives club tale, there are hundreds of tales of 'knives club' gone crazy. The wives club is something to respect and fear at the same time...

You guys had some really fucked up wives clubs, yet another reason not to go helos ......I keed......sort of

None of the things you all describe came even close to happening in my fleet squadrons (never dealt with the ones in TRACOM). I don't think the problem was with the wives clubs but with the wardrooms and the front offices who let themselves get run over roughshod by their wives. Who the fuck lets the spouses schedule a hail and farewell or any other squadron function anyways? They might have a little input but the sked for things like that was usually the front office deciding it, "Anyone got a problem with the last Friday this month for the hail and farewell? No? Good, show up." Same thing with other squadron functions, from dining ins and outs to cookouts. We even ignored the wives club in my first squadron when they wanted a dining out, due to a mini-disaster at one dining out we had three dining in's in a row. So yeah, your CO's and XO's needed to grow a sack.

I am not one to pretend there wasn't some drama that went on with the wives, but to paint all of them as scheming dens of witches who want to draw and quarter the childless among them then move on to the hapless bachelors, or God forbid.....bachelorettes, is a bit much. I ran into plenty of wives who thought they had their husband's rank, tried to cravenly advance their husband's career or blabbed about stupid crap that went on when their husbands were overseas, but they were in the definite minority. The wives club in my last squadron was warm and welcoming to my now-wife, then-girlfriend, giving her a nice introduction to the Navy and a good insight into what it was like to be a Navy wife. Something she still remembers fondly.

 

[Alpha_Echo_606]

On the enlisted side the single guy or guy without kids got left behind. It sucked when I was first married being the last guy off Det or the first to go, but after the manatee showed her true colors I was the first to volunteer. In retrospect, it sucked being married with no kids, always going or staying behind, single quite different.

In the civilian world it works much the same, the first 5 years of my current marriage I worked mid shift. Now I have enough seniority I work which ever shift I want. Next week we celebrate 17 years married and 18 together.

As for Mast or NJP, if you don’t want to be punished don’t do the crime! The CO or XO should treat married and single members the same.

 

[VetteMuscle427]

Do the wives clubs ever surf this forum? I, for one, welcome our female overlords...

And as a single guy... the past few years, I've volunteered to take Christmas Eve and Christmas duty. It is an easy few days with nothing going on and it means I can party on new years... besides, look out for a shipmate when they have a family, you'd want them to do it for you.

 

[MasterBates]

Caving to the wives club.. How sensitive of you Chuck..