Sea Stories

armed with coffee, savvy, and “can-do”

Eric SaretskyLeave a comment

When I was in the military, my role -besides ALL the other roles that I was given, was to maintain electronic communication equipment.  Really, this was an ironic career choice.   I should have gone into the social sciences and language.  The irony is that,  for more than 30 years,  I have been very capable in problem-solving.  When I lack the specific skills I am not afraid to ask questions – usually over strong coffee.

for veteran success

In the military and in an industry, to be effective, a person has to be capable in the role they were hired to do; possess attitude and work ethic for team success, do more than what is necessary and to be creative in problem solving.  At times, it is knowing the proper department person to contact for a quick -turn shipment,  a service request,  or  who stocked a particular adhesive for a repair done outside of the production chain of command.   To advance personally and professionally, a veteran often stands out by mentoring new employees and providing a team manager a “go-to” person.  In the workplace today, there are so many social contracts, sensitive subjects,  and human factors which are at odds with the department production goals and veterans “can-do”, get-the-job-done expertise.  While almost every enterprise challenges workers to do more with less, a veteran generally wants a product that a military end-user would have perform flawlessly when needed.  It might take more veterans in each business unit to overcome some individuals who do not challenge plans, goals, and promises made by leadership,  and to challenge those peers who do only what is necessary to maintain their position.  b3882-10051720openhousecolor397

Problem-solving skills include experiences in a military career to develop civilians into capable specialists.   Raised in an environment that does not cater to individual wants,  does demand personal sacrifice,  and teaches attention to detail,   a veteran is unfazed by office politics,  used to changing priorities from managers and figures out what gets the job done.  Sometimes the response is a cheery dose of salty language.   Circumventing the labor to schedule, exchange email, and discuss tools and equipment needed is a skill many military veterans are well-versed.   The veteran has frequently used a barter program, the unofficial currency in the military, to accomplish a task.  At other times,  it means having the confidence to draw a stopping point and get more hands on deck to troubleshoot a complex set of issues.

working smarter

Once upon a time, I would work myself into burn-out.  I no longer set impossibly-challenging goals and am able to call in reinforcements without hesitation.     Being creative in solving issues, and not volunteering but being assigned, may get a  ‘hanger queens’ successfully leaving my test station.  I leave it to others to foul it up.

Thanks Pepsi, I’ll still drink Dr. Pepper

Eric Saretsky3 Comments
9c871-perfect-harmony
Coke: Nobody opposed singing  

One of the bloggers I follow posted on the recent Pepsi ad that features Jenner and scenes that bring up all the controversial issues in the USA today.  I appreciate reason and tolerance.   Some people are ‘offended’ by everything from colors to messages.  As a retired Navy Chief,  happily heterosexual man, a disciple of Jesus, and a California-born, social conservative, I probably offend some who have never met me.   Though educated by world -travel, technical and university scholarship, and nearly six decades of examining human behavior,  I lament the end to civility, tolerance, and nationalism.

The rub is to tolerate differing opinion – without shutting down the one who differs. That’s the real underlying message of the media and school programs which seek uniformity of thought along the guidelines they establish.  Pepsi and other companies, will test the wind and see that ‘inclusion’ is the marketing tool of today.

May I use pitbull dogs as a metaphor for the messages in that ad?   Some will hate that breed regardless of evidence.  If there are a million dogs that have some Staffordshire Terrier in whole or part, perhaps ten thousand have been exposed to dog-fighting abuse. Some people will examine each animal  individually, to see what they were exposed to and whether they can be placed with children or other pets.  Some want to exploit fear and doubt of the breed for power.   Some will see dogs abused to kill and maim as misunderstood.   Some will adopt pitties and then neglect them.   And if a community legally forces everyone to adapt by banning ‘pitbull’ ownership; by fining disobedience and by teaching that anyone who believes differently is maladjusted, can we still sing of “land of the free, and home of the brave”?

And so corporations – Pepsi, NCAA, NBA, and socialist governments- especially, the California legislature —  do not try to force my thinking or my life into your determination of ‘inclusion’.   While I will render to Caesar what is Caesars, I will not spend discretionary money on you.  I will follow Thoreau and Civil Disobedience.   I will join like-minded voters and oppose policies by the process we initiated in 1789 and worked well for 230 years.

40, 7 and 2: lucky numbers

Eric SaretskyLeave a comment

I moved my first attempt at blogging from Blogger to WordPress today.  My other blog  are observations of daily life mostly reflected in adventures and sometimes misadventures of my two dogs.   This blog,  Truths, Half-truths and Sea Stories,   I hope you will find entertaining and thought-provoking.    It is my second blog hosted on WordPress, and expresses more salty insight into daily events.

I retired in April 2010 ( 7 years ago),  after combined Active, Retired, and Inactive service of more than 32 years in the United States Navy.   I took my initial ASVAB aptitude test while the Vietnam War was all but ended ( 1975), entered bootcamp when Jimmy Carter was President (1977), and then re-enlisted into Active Duty after George H. W. Bush succeeded Ronald Reagan as President.  Since I retired as a Reservist,  I am eligible to claim a pension starting at age 60 ( 2 years from now).

 

 

You Cannot Feel a Pumice Stone via SnapChat

Eric SaretskyLeave a comment

After 57 years,  I have collected a lot of random stuff,  Over the years it has been easier not to go through the storage bins  in the garage.  My wife and I make Spring Cleaning “dates” when the settled dust is thick on lids.

It is probably easier to catalog my collection:

Childhood

  • program from my elementary school musical singing days
  • picture  – collared shirt, bowl haircut
  • blue “participation” ribbons (california!)
  • clay rabbit I made at  4 years old
  • a letter from my Grampa (“man”) to me before he died in 1966

High School

  • transcript copies:   two years in Cape Cod, MA ;  two years in Tucson, AZ
  • picture of me in a Revolutionary War uniform  (We got to carry and shoot black powder muskets!)
  • A few polished stones and pumice (rock collection)
  • Stamp collection of USA and foreign stamps
  • pocket knives

Navy (first time)

  • bootcamp yearbook
  • pictures of friends from the technical school at Great Lakes and Pensacola

1980s

  • college pictures with two groups of friends
  • sample of toilet paper, sugar, and wrapping paper from a college Soviet Union trip
  • ticket stub  from the Los Angeles PINK FLOYD concert (the Wall)
  • A scuba mask from scuba diving days

Navy (second time)

  • pictures in my cracker jacks re-enlisting at the new Navy Memorial (Plankowner)
  • certificates, several framed of ceremonies (Shellback, Golden Shellback, Panama Canal)
  • trinkets, cigarette lighters, jewelry and perfume bottles from Egypt, Japan, Greece, France and every point in between

Married life and family (2001 -)

  • youngest son’s baseball items from Little League All-Star selection
  • more random, but expensive,  trinkets – “ART”
  • travel mementos , mugs, coins, crafts

When the going gets tough, check for gas

Eric SaretskyLeave a comment

Gasoline. The word itself conjures up a range of emotions. ” it’s too dang expensive these days.  I remember when it cost….”  The gasoline engine is “outdated”;  electric “green” energy is the “wave of the future”.  But every kid and every adult who does not reside in the New York, Boston, Chicago megapolis, needs an automobile to get around.  California which prides itself today on guilting its residents’ emotions while bleeding its residents dry not least of which with fuel taxes, was the main reason for the expansion of the car and highway industry.

I use gasoline in my old Ford Ranger. Jf it were running today, my Honda Civic would use gasoline more efficiently,  A third car, a Kia is the needed transportation for my spouse. For neigbbors of ours, diesel may be a close second and for some friends, the popular Prius hybrid electric may be an interesting experiment, but gasoline is still the main fuel for getting about.   And thats why I’m obsessing today over gasoline.  Citgo, USA, ExxonMobil, Shell.  Any would do.  I ran low on gas coming home the other evening and the truck choked, harumphed and died in my driveway.  The center of my driveway – where it sat embarrassingly for a day.

First I thought it might be a clogged fuel line or filter.  Then last night I got the five gallon gas container and made a trip to the gas station at the 7-Eleven.  And dear reader, you guessed it, Sometimes the needle on the gauge lies.  Not an eighth of a tank…. EMPTY.  It started right up once the motor had sufficient gas to run!!!!

Do Not EXCLUDE, but INCLUDE! ( Part One)

Eric SaretskyLeave a comment

I propose that we send a message to the world.   EVERYONE in the world will be declared an American by President Obama’s power under Executive Order.  There will no longer be any reason to have a national debt — we are never going to pay the debt owed, to Americans — unless they are General Motors, Wall Street Executives or George Soaros.  Everyone else will be left overtaxed and undersatisfied.
Instead, let’s do what the rest of the world does.  Military service is mandatory  – either by conscripting children as in some insurgencies, or by a poorly paid and trained armed force.  Training and equipment are kept to private mercenaries and militias.  The remaining troops are to be used for political ends.
As far as criminal-justice, we adopt the progressive pattern of latin american, south asian, or african legal systems.  Prisoners are fed and cared for in the rat-hole prisons by their families who either pay or perform in prison-run brothels to feed their relatives.  If you want anything from the bureaucracy, you bribe the official sufficiently.  Violent criminals are executed or shipped off to Hezbollah, Afghan terror camps, or to France.  Sex crimes are a matter of opinion – or state-sanctioned means of cowing the population.  (End Part One)

Thankful for family, food, and good cigars

Eric SaretskyLeave a comment

Pleasant family memories at Thanksgiving gatherings in America are part of lore – native Americans sitting down with Pilgrims, settlers who first worked the world’s breadbasket, astronauts toasting America with freeze-dried turkey packets from orbit, and servicemen and women protecting freedom in dusty remote lands while enjoying turkey and cranberries. On the other end of the spectrum, some relatives can make some at a family Thanksgiving seek a corner, a couch, car keys. After fifty Thanksgivings, some family gatherings are part of my fondest memories, others I missed for military service and some I would rather forget, but none have been newsworthy nor subject for television.

This time had all the makings of a good time: food, drink and good cigars.Sports: NFL and a few contests of pool.Conflict: apparently the husband of one of my inebriated (and feisty) sister-in-law’s nieces had her in some headlock as an outcome of a drinking contest.Reunion: seeing everybody I’ve missed in the past year. Time spent reminiscing around the fire pit late at night.

Still, I would like to have had the younger members of always expected to have parents and children together at holidays. But I have come to expect this as the exception rather than the rule. I even rented a Ford the household accompany Sheri and me to the in-laws in Arizona this year. It’s Expedition to drive there – since I learned we would have my sister-in-law and kids along too. This was a far cry from the days driving to Arizona in a Jeep with the young boys constantly fighting right behind my ear – to the point I wanted to expel them into the desert. Now there are lessons to be had when driving for a length of time with family. Not even the cockpit luxury of riding in an Expedition can long suppress the expulsion urge I get with family – but I was very lighthearted this time in spite of some who chattered incessantly for 180 miles about her. There is not much lore that is made from the self-indulgent and self-absorbed. Lessons for next time: rent the Expedition again; bring a change of clothes, and perhaps a gag or more snacks to medicate the feisty chattering one – or myself.