Navy Story #24
How Not To Treat Your Captain
It's time to tell a story about something I didn't do right. Even now, thinking back on it, I don't know for sure why I did what I did. But I did it, and learned a lot
from it.
I don't remember what year it was or where we were or anything like that, but I recall that it was a very busy day on the bridge, as we were underway. There was something going
on, like maybe an underway replenishment, or something like that, which required a great deal of interaction among the Captain and his bridge watch, including me as the Junior Officer of the Deck (JOOD). As he gave orders
for various course changes and speed changes and such, I had to also be walking back and forth across the whole width of the bridge, from wingwalk to wingwalk. (The wingwalks are extensions of the bridge, which stick out
over the water, and allow one to see backwards along the length of the ship.) The distance from port wingwalk to starboard wingwalk is about 50 feet on this ship, so it was a significant amount of walking back and forth.
The more I think about it, we must have indeed had an underway replenishment happening, because I seem to recall having the supply ship running alongside on the port side, and some other shipping (commercial freighters and
tankers) on the starboard side that we had to pay attention to. Anyway, the point is that I had to walk back and forth a lot to see what was going on, on both sides of the ship. Meanwhile, the Captain was giving various
orders.
I got rattled by the amount of attention I had to split between the ship itself and the Captain, and I wound up not answering the Captain very well. He would give an order, and I would
continue my walking, probably passing his orders on to the helmsman and the engineering folks (the engineers run the boilers and screws) -- otherwise we wouldn't have been going in the right direction or speed, but I definitely
did not answer the Captain correctly. Have you noticed on Star Trek how (usually) the crew respond to the Captain's orders with something like, "Aye, aye sir" or "Reducing speed to warp 1, sir"? That's
the way it's supposed to be done. I was so flustered and rattled by the amount of activity, that I wasn't responding to the Captain like I was supposed to. I think I wasn't responding at all. I was passing on
the orders, but not responding directly to the Captain.
Well, he had had enough of that from one of his junior officers (I was still an Ensign, I think). He called me over to his chair with a loud and gruff "Mr. Link, come over here!"
Of course I went over there, and he proceeded to chew me out royally. I totally deserved it. He reminded me in very clear Navy terms (not printable in a family document) that I was expected first and foremost to let him
know that I had heard his orders. I told him I would do it from now on, and we proceeded to have a successful replenishment. We also didn't hit any of the ships on the starboard side, and from that time forward I always
clearly and distinctly responded to the Captain's orders. But that surely was an embarrassing afternoon! (Keep in mind that the bridge was full of officers and crew, handling a complex operation.) I was a better officer
(and man) for it, though.