Thursday, September 17, 2009

A new breed of CPOs

Around the fleet this week, thousands of former first class petty officers have put away their crackerjacks and are wearing new sets of khakis.

Since I was in the Navy, the chief petty officer's initiation has been modified, the weeks of harassment replaced by a period of instruction. Chief-selectees study leadership, do bookwork and deliver reports.

It's a drastic change from what I went through. Frankly, though, I would have been better off if my CPO training had involved more study of leadership and less memorizing of dirty poems.

Six months after I put on my anchors, I couldn't convince a seaman to clean a urinal without getting into a shouting match, but I could recite all 16 verses of "Sandpaper Sal, the Signalman's Pal."

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