Anyone else felt resistance from the term "Mustang"? I've met some O's that don't like it, obviously not priors. What's the impression from the fleet?
One word, Tradition. A quality that fades fast. When I was active duty, the non-mustang officers called a Mustang "One of those fellows that do not wash their hands after going to the head".
Mustang meant one thing - someone that came up through the ranks to become an LDO or WO (or CWO), not a snotty nosed Seaman deuce with a college degree that went off to OCS or w/o a degree and went off to USNA.
Now let me add, that in those days, there were very few of what is now referred to as "priors". New term, new Tradition. STA 21 et al did not exist. I quickly add the Navy is far better off with those programs and opportunities.
That Tradition seems to have changed and anyone that was former enlisted services calls themselves a "Mustang".
So I guess it means anything one wants it to mean and one calls one's self what ever pleases. Certainly above my paygrade to be offended one way or the other.
However, I would have loved to seen how Bo'sn Kraft (CWO-4) would have responded to some 22 yo ensign calling himself a "Mustang". Probably would have thrown the perp over the side - oh that is an old Navy term to mean "heaving somone over the railing into the water".
