Watching "The Last Ship"

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2402207



There are several Navy terminologies I don't understand.

*4 weeks, port and starboard, 6x6
(the punishment for a Lt. who broke her oath to the ship and her shipmates and possibly put everyone onboard at risk).

*Condition Circle William.

Just finish watching Episode 5.

5 more episodes to go.

If they have more terminologies I don't understand, I will be back.

Thanks.

Port and standard usually refers to watch sections, meaning two sections sharing the same watches. Exhaustion builds fast in port and standard duty. 6 and 6's refers to the rotation as well- 6 hours on watch, 6 hours off before your next watch- usually filled with maintenance, training, drills, repairs, quals, and maybe a quick bite to eat. Also, that's pretty light punishment, especially for an O-3; most of the officers in Reactor/ Engineering had busier schedules than that. Only the prima donnas in the air wing and supply got off easy underway. Condition Circle William deals with material condition, how a ship has compartments, hatches, valves, and ventilation aligned in preparation for taking damage. Circle William fittings in particular deal with seachests, seawater intakes and discharges, and other systems that pull from the sea. Hope this helps...

I didn't watch the show, but if I'm interpreting your post correctly... port and starboard refers to standing a watch rotation of 1 watch on, then 1 watch off, repeated over and over. The 6x6 would seem to indicate that they are on 6 hour long watch periods. So that would be 6 on, then 6 off, then 6 on followed by 6 off for 4 straight weeks.

That is pretty weak sauce as far as punishments go. Port and starboard watches are not that uncommon. We saw plenty of it in the nuclear navy (in the submarine force, anyways), and it was a considerable incentive to get more people qualified to stand the watch station. (Keep in mind that during those two periods of 6 hours off per day, you had to do maintenance, qualifications, eat and maybe manage to get some sleep...). Then of course, there are the ship wide drills to interrupt your sleep, etc.

Condition Circle William, is one of the material conditions that the 'surface pukes' use.
Here's an explanation:
http://www.usshancockcv19.com/navalmaterialconditions.htm

Edit: Ha! Ninja'd by NN.

CyBerkut is right- that's not even a slap on the wrist, and every member of the crew would know it.

Thank you NavyNuke99 and CyBerkut.

I guess the writers of the show assumed that most of the viewers will be current and former Navy personnel.

I had a good friend who was a Navy veteran and he passed away 4 years ago.

I would had asked him.

His obituary is still online:

http://www.totzkefuneralhome.com/obits/obituary.php?id=111092

He mostly just told me he was in the Navy and he served in both the Korean war and Vietnam war but he never really went into details on what he did there or in the Navy.

I didn't know he received all those medals and commendations and flew all those missions and that he retired a Commander until after he passed away and I read his obituary at his funeral.

He was a good man!

It looks like Commander Yaeger had an interesting career. This will be a good weekend to remember him.

We were busy doing other things. Like, oh, flight ops? My shift on a typical day was 16-18 hours, seven days a week underway. In our work center we only had 12 men for a 12 aircraft squadron.

16-18 hours? OUCH!

I guess labor laws do not apply in the Navy and the U.S. Armed forces.

Ghost, I was talking about officers- in particular, aviators, who are guaranteed 8 hours rest between flights.

Ah gotcha.

Longest "shift" was three days only breaks were to eat a "gag bag" piss, or #%&*$#.

My cousin works in the art department on that show. If you notice the portrait of Admiral Nathan James that is hanging in one of the sets, ( not sure where, havent seen the show ) that is actually a photo shopped picture of my uncle that passed away a couple of years ago.

So why would 4 weeks, port and starboard, 6x6 be a slap on the wrist?

That sounds harsh to me.

Of course I am a civilian and I have never served in the military, any military.

What would be considered a real punishment in the U.S. Navy?

Confined to quarter arrest?

Clean the restroom floors or ship's deck with a toothbrush?

Do they still do something like that as punishment in the Armed Forces? Make you clean the restroom floor with your toothbrush? Or is that something that was just shown for dramatic effect in the war movies?

How do you get any sleep on an aircraft carrier, anyway, with the catapult going off all the time?

Just the exhaustion from those long work hours? Can you ever get used to the noise?

We say that because many of us pulled that sort of watch standing rotation as a normal matter of course... as in, not being punished.



Confined to quarters would be pretty mild, and probably just an interim thing pending a proceeding to determine a final ruling/punishment. Loss of pay, reduction in rank, confinement in the brig, on up to things like prison sentences and dishourable discharges... those are real punishments.



I didn't see that stuff during my 6 years, but I wouldn't venture to say it didn't happen elsewhere. That sort of thing sounds more like something a senior NCO would mete out to one of his crew for some offense/screwup that didn't rise to the level of warranting the commanding officer's attention. Basically, a kick in the a$$ to straighten up and fly right, before getting bad enough to get real punishment on an official basis.

...flogging around the fleet, cat-o'-nine-tails, keel-hauling (especially effective on an aircraft carrier), hanging at the hardarm...

Onboard ships restriction did not confine one to your specific quarters, that may possibly happen if you were under some form of milder pretrial arrest. True shipboard restriction was just that, you stayed onboard and had to muster with the duty master at arms at specific times during the course of the day, including right after reveille and just before taps. Also a person put on such restriction was also often sentenced to extra duty as well, more so for a lower ranked man.

I'd almost forgotten about that show. It made good progress in season 1, looking forward to it coming back. Looks like late June for the return.

June 21st I think.

Wow! From reading all the responses, it doesn't sound like serving in the Navy was as fun as they make it look like in the TV commercials.

I wanted to join the Air Force and fly fighter jets but then my eyes went bad when I was in Middle School.