Most of you know me as someone who doesn’t like to spend her off-duty time telling sea stories or flaunting my naval service (really, it’s just a job). Indeed, whenever conversation veers into the “war story” category, my eyes inevitably glaze over and a Homer Simpson-style thought bubble appears over my head that contains some wind-up mechanical animal that adequately entertains me until the story is over.  But I digress.

I got the long-awaited news yesterday that a previous commanding officer was relieved for “cruelty and maltreatment” while in command of her second combatant. This news, while not surprising, came far too late and at the expense of many good sailors who showed the Navy the door after seeing the south end of what life can be like under the “Captain is king” credo. I see lots of chatter this morning on the Internet that overwhelmingly applauds the result of this long-awaited Admiral’s Mast. 

While I never mind working hard on the job, I cannot tolerate working in a caustic environment where my immediate boss is contemplating suicide and the khaki leadership is fired left and right- flown off to the aircraft carrier- while we are on deployment and at war. Unfortunately those were the conditions of our little slice of afloat life during and after the surge for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Add to that my realization that the person responsible for creating such an atmosphere also does not understand basic rules of engagement and shiphandling….and you’ve got one extra vigilant watchstander who is really on the lookout for small boat attacks during the mid-watch. Was that a sea story? I just started to space out there for a second…

I don’t believe that my complaining about a vindictive superior qualifies me as a “whining junior officer”, as one anonymous blogger painted those of us who are celebrating karma’s mystical properties this week. There are assholes everywhere in the world, and there will be plenty more to come my way in the future. I do recognize that “command” is an incredibly difficult job (why do you think I left the Surface Community?), and it takes extraordinary amounts of mental and physical grit to serve in such a desirable position. Still, these aspects of the job do not morally exculpate a person’s denigrating actions just because they were done in the name of “mission accomplishment”.

I’ll never be a shrewd military tactician or brilliant intelligence fusion specialist-  and I am more than okay with that. I’m also no academic, thus I feel unqualified to get into any sort of philosophical discussion on what I think leadership means or necessitates. I will say this: I do love my job, and this is a result of the seniors and subordinates who help to make me a better person, and vice-versa. The only way that I would consider my years of naval service a complete failure would be if my sailors looked back on my years with them and they described me like people have described CAPT Graf. 

I guess you can still learn a lot from lousy leaders. I only hope that someone will hit me with a frying pan if I ever get to be that way.