LL said:
Sometimes I feel like a brown shoe in a tuxedo world.
I think when you see mids in action you'll notice the tuxedos aren't as elegant as they look. One USNA superintendent's message (for several years) was "Excellence without arrogance". Someday we'll get there.
Did you know that "brown shoe" is a term for naval aviators? They used to be the only ones allowed to wear that color with their khaki uniforms, and surface warriors had to wear black shoes (guess what SWOs were called).
Submariners are despised by both communities because at sea we wear sneakers.
Azanon said:
Ok i misunderstood and i'm sorry.
Thank you, apology accepted.
Azanon said:
Was writing those 7 lengthy paragraphs and taking back your opinions on me really necessary?
Yes, because apparently there's some confusion over why I did so. Anyone who's interested now has enough info in my post to go verify that I'm who I claim I am and that I did what I claim I did. Again, Az, this isn't about you or your opinions, it's about getting the facts out to clarify your earlier statements.
Azanon said:
I am damn bitter about my personal experience at the academy. That is fact, and i will never take that back. If you want to reconsider your opinion of me because of that, or because of one misunderstanding, then have at it!
Please cut me some slack. I took a lot of emotional damage from my experience there, so I'm probably not entirely rational when i talk about it.
Well, Az, I can understand your feelings but I can't condone your behavior toward other posters. I'm encouraged by your making up with TH but it's just as discouraging watching you attack other's statements instead of countering them with constructive facts of your own. Your reputation here is a product of your old posts just as much as your recent behavior, and it'll take quite a few of the latter to make up for the former.
I'm sorry you took so much hassle from USAFA, but IMO you've spent far too much of your life being bitter about it. You need to process that experience and deal with it, and I don't think that's accomplished by the apparent rage that you sometimes seem to direct at others. As Dr. Phil would say, that's not workin' for ya. I've talked with many people who've left service academies as you have, and in general they're better for the experience when they've dealt with it and used it as a basis to move forward to good things with their lives. Compared to them, again in my opinion, you don't seem to have done the same. If there was a support group for service academy attendees they'd have to hold their meetings in a stadium, and perhaps you'd benefit from finding someone to discuss it with.
Azanon said:
Anyway, I hope we're good Nords.
Cautiously optimistic. Again, I put this info out there for the other posters' consideration, not just yours.
Azanon said:
I will take no pleasure in him reflecting on things i said or "I told you so's" if his daughter calls him crying on the phone in August.
Oh, I'm pretty sure that's gonna happen more than once, and it won't wait until August. I did a bit of that myself but I got through the experience one freakin' day at a time.
Actually I quit the Academy over a thousand times while I was there, but I kept showing up the next morning instead of following through.
Azanon said:
(if I may change the subject, momentarily)
Nords, how can you be so accomplished, yet now be a proponent of Early Retirement? It just seems like overachieving would fly in the face of "bailing out early".
First off, "accomplished" happened because I showed up every day and stuck with it. Sometimes I even took the advice of the people who were trying to show me how to do things. What may be seen as "overachieving" is an embarrassing characterization of what I see as bullheaded persistence with an addiction to adrenaline and an extraordinarily high tolerance for pain. Once I grabbed hold of a challenge I was not going to let go of it. (Another way to put it would be "If those miserable SOBs appointed as my alleged 'squad leaders' could get through USNA, then I can too." I used that analogy for two more decades-- and a few COs-- during my career.) Naval leaders have failed miserably from those bullheaded characteristics and it took me years to learn that there's a difference between persistence & obstinacy. One day I may even get my other copy of my DNA, my daughter, to understand the concept. I think she's seeing that happen at tae kwon do, where you show up for every lesson unless you're too badly injured to benefit from it.
I hated something just about every day at USNA and I picked up a whole lifetime supply of psychological baggage from it, but it did bring me together with my wife and it did give me the tools to achieve ER. I think I set the baggage down a few years ago-- from my wife's behavior I know I have. So although USNA is a better place to be
from, not at, I owe it a lot. I would have turned out much worse had I attended a civilian school at that stage of my life, and the flames would have been spectacular.
Second, Az, from some of your earliest posts you've seemed to equate ER with "bailing out early". I think ER is a scary process of changing from chasing a paycheck to figuring out how to be responsible for your own entertainment, and I think it's more difficult than just showing up for work and having your priorities set by others. Now I can have my priorities set by my family and sometimes even by me.
I think that ER is just one more overachievement. I've done something which, as far as we can tell, very few other veterans even realize they can do-- let alone try to do. I wouldn't have set much of an example for the rest of my shipmates if I'd stayed until 30 (O-4s are generally required to retire at 20 anyway) and staying active was certainly a bad example for my spouse and our kid. IMO I didn't "bail early", I just advanced in a different direction.
When I attended Monterey they used to tell us "You all know how to operate in accordance with the warfare manuals. Now we're going to teach you how to develop the next set of manuals." I spent 24 years learning how to live my life in a fairly structured society. Everyone leaves the service eventually, dead or alive, and now I'm living my life according to the criteria that are important to me & my family instead of from Naval Regulations. I think ER is one of my better achievements to date, and a fine compliment to the skills that USNA equipped me with. Maybe one of these days I'll write my own manual.
If I try to tell any of my personal acquaintances that I'm lazy, they just laugh at me. They know how hard I work to make things appear effortless. I have a very restless mind and way too many interests and I actually have a hard time pulling back from something I'm involved in, but luckily those old skills of prioritization & time management keep me out of trouble. Well, OK, my spouse is pretty good at getting me back on track too.
The time I've spent on this board is just one facet of dealing with an experience that I've never attempted before, and my way of learning from the wisdom of those mineshaft canaries who are leading the way. I also really enjoy writing & teaching, and this board gives me the chance to do both. Besides, some of you haven't heard all of my sea stories yet...
BTW our daughter is eligible for a presidential appointment to USNA. My understanding of that is no competitions, no nominations, just meet the requirements & pass the physical. (But I could be wrong.) It'll be interesting to see what she decides to do with her birthright. I think she already "gets it" about the ER part.