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Uh-huh it's a long road to paradise and, oh, I feel the pain oh oh oh
they tell me things are different now but I still hurt the same
mm-hmm haze gray and underway a world away from you
and miles and miles of blue
When I was a young boy I wanted to sail around the world
that's the life for me...
Hands out of your pocket there, Ghost Rider.
Livin' on the sea spirit of a sailor...
What's wrong with your uniform there, shipmate?
Circumnavigates the globe..
You got a lot of people hanging out over here.
Cleaning stations! Let's get busy!
In a leaky boat lucky just to keep afloat...
Life on deployment? Oh, my!
The movies...Top Gun does not explain how the Navy is.
Not even close.
It's not that great.
Monotonous.
It's tedious, it's exhausting, it creates a lot of hypertension.
Very, very stressful. I can't stress that enough.
It's the same routine day in and day out.
You're working 12 hours on, 12 hours off, every single day,
seven says a week.
I love deployments. They give you the opportunity to see
places and see things that you probably will never see in your
entire life.
Life on deployment is what you make of it.
It's hard for some people. It's easy for some people.
For some people, this is the life for them, for some people it's not.
Some people wait their time to get out, do their 4 years and go.
Some people go crazy and try to get kicked out, just so they
don't got to stay in no more.
What's going on?
I got nobody who wants to talk to me today!
I see you're on cleaning stations.
What you doing, shipmate?
I was working on getting a mop, but... Yeah, working on getting
a mop and sitting there shooting the breeze.
Are they giving you... I wasn't shooting the breeze, master chief.
Ok, I'm blind then.
I'm blind.
Are you cleaning?
No, not at the moment.
And what are your names so I could check to see if they got
you on the white card, blue card, or whatever.
Williams.
What'd they give you a white card, blue card or what?
A white card, master chief.
Maybe if you started doing what you need to do and take a
little bit more initiative, you can upgrade it, OK?
Yes, master chief.
The sailors that's coming in the Navy these days don't
have a lot of discipline and then when they get here to the
military, it's part of the first line of discipline that
they've ever had in their life and that makes it hard on me
because now you're startin'
from ground zero trying to build not only a sailor but
just trying to build a citizen.
We have what we have and we have to make sure that we groom
the sailors that we have to complete the mission.
Because the mission itself may depend on whether that person
is disciplined enough to put that bomb on that jet.
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of all who threaten it.
You got it in? You gotta wait till it gets all the way in, yeah.
They go to boot camp, they go to school, they come to us.
So drop it in now, go ahead and tighten it.
There you go.
Within the first 6 months it's just like my phrase is
like a dry sponge. Ok?
Real small and they need to absorb all the knowledge that they can.
I'm a mentor. I look out for their daily needs.
I keep them from getting into trouble.
I make sure that they get trained well, and they meet all
their qualifications.
I look at 'em as if they're my own kids.
They're my responsibility and I want to make sure that they get home safe.
First mentor was AC1 Jaqueline Williams and, um, and
she, I don't know where I would be if I didn't have her.
Jackie Jackson is actually my mentor.
You'll be all right.
She cares. She's very good at listening. She cares about what
you have going on and she's very willing to help you.
McCollum, you ready to do a practice?
I watched Jackie grow.
When I first got here, she was the type of person that was
looking for guidance.
All right, go ahead, try it.
Initiate training.
And, uh, seeking out the right way to go.
Can I just keep pushing it?
And now the Navy's put her in positions where she's the
supervisor. She's now providing guidance for everyone else.
Hey, press one.
There we go.
There're so many things that you can do.
A lot of people focus on the negative.
"I can't stand it," this, this and this.
"I don't work for the Navy,"
I tell people all the time.
"The Navy works for me."
I'm gonna take what I can from it and give it exactly what it wants.
It wants my time, it wants me to do this job that I
specialize in. I'm gonna take my schooling, I'm gonna take my degree.
That how you have to... Circle it up.
I need a smoke so bad.
I'm gonna, oooh, I'm gonna die out there.
Remember my first time launching?
It sucked.
My name is Joan Lamoreaux.
I'm an airman.
I launch and recover planes.
I hope to become plane Captain, where basically they're saying
that you know everything, you don't need anyone up there to
watch you, you're done with training basically.
That's my goal for this cruise.
What I need you to do is to make sure that everything's
moving and that the stabs aren't, that they're moving at
the same rate.
I love my job, I do.
I've been a lot better.
Like I know actually my sequence now.
I'm not nervous.
Progressing a lot, really fast, I think, anyways.
There's people in my shop that took about a year to get plane
Captain.
I'm almost done. I've been here for about two and a half months.
I'm doing really well. I'm on schedule.
I'm from Reading, Pennsylvania, not too many jobs, drugs and
teenage pregnancy.
My biological father had committed suicide.
I was about 7, and my mother lost it.
So we ended up being put in foster care.
I'm 22 now.
I think I've spent 8 years total living with my mother.
The rest was in foster care.
There was a lot of drugs going on in the family: Heroin, cocaine.
My brother just got out of jail not too long ago.
To be honest with you, I have no idea why I chose a different path.
I really don't, but I'm glad I did it.
Stand by for a word from commanding officer.
Good evening, Nimitz and airwing 11.
This is the Captain.
We've gotten some clarification on our schedule now.
I think it's good news.
We're gonna start heading East.
We're going to Guam.
So we'll stay about 4 days in Guam and then on into the Gulf.
So Pusan is off the table, we're not going up there now.
My impression leaving Hong Kong was that we were headed to
Korea and that we would in fact go into port there.
As it turns out, I suspect strongly, after further
discussions, the determination was made that was perhaps
more of a signal than was desired or intended for the
carrier to actually go into port in South Korea at this time.
The flexibility afforded by this asset and this strike
group was there.
You know, we were out, we're in the neighborhood, we're
available if required...
Not knowing where we're going can be discouraging at times
You know like, "oh, yeah, Korea on the 15th. " Then we find
out, you know, we're actually going to go to Guam.
It can be frustrating.
I'm like the bottom of the totem pole.
We're told to do certain things. We're just told to do it.
We're not explained the reason because, you know, you just do it.
It would be nice to know. Then maybe you'd feel like you're
doing a little bit of something.
We don't have the luxury of having the sailor have the
inclination or the mindset that says, "well, I don't understand
"that. Why do I need to do that?"
That's not a luxury we can afford.
We have to have the environment that when issued a direct order
to do something now, we can have the confidence that it's gonna
get done.
This is the Captain. It's another great day out here.
Beautiful weather.
We've got a lot to do today.
Do it like you always do, professionally and well.
Stay focused.
We have a whole cruise ahead of us and we want to continue
doing great work.
Just standing around waiting for something to happen.
That's all we do.
You get watch a lot of cool... Though.
My grade is in ABH... Mostly with the handler, blue
shirts, what we do is chalk the bird, put the little orange
thing in the wheel, put chains down, tie it down.
And then when we need to move it, hook up a tow bar to it,
hook it up to a tractor, and move it along, wherever it has to go.
That's basically what we do.
Flight ops is from like, 10:45 to like 2:00 in the morning, or
whatever.
And we've got enough blue shirts to where we can be up
for 2 hours and take a break for 2 hours.
Basically, with the 2 on 2 off, you got it way easy.
We have our little blue hole.
If we're not on the flight deck, uh, that's the place we're at.
Fly 2 is like a little compartment or like area where
we chill there, watch TV, go on the computer, movies.
"Rocky," we watch "Rocky" every damn day.
Do whatever bull... What's up your ass?
This girl's calling him Jakey Bear in this email.
I'm gonna start calling him Jakey Bear.
Hey, you guys drink plenty of water today. It's supposed to
get to 116. Just with the weather alone, so... 12, 14 guys in fly 2.
And, uh, we all get along pretty well, for the most part.
Why should you be in the air conditioning, man?
Get your ass up there!
Every now and then we start getting on each others throats,
but it's usually for dumb stuff.
You're the one that came up with that [Beep].
Somebody go up for me for 20 minutes.
I'm not gonna do 2 hours and 30 minutes up there!
You got Ace. He's a Filipino. He's pretty cool.
He's always straight up and everything. He's a pretty hard worker.
You signed up for that....
You got a couple of Mexicans in there... Ledezma. They're all cool.
Then you got airman Fields;
He's the one we call "Blackie."
He's cool with it. That's his nickname.
Most of us are just white guys that are just kind of there, I
guess, I don't know.
All right, what are you about to do?
I'm about to [Beep] do something really stupid.
Robert Allen, let me tell you about him. That guy is the coolest!
I love that guy.
Robert, he's a class act.
He's one of a kind, I think.
Allen is a funny guy. He kept the fly going. He made the fly laugh.
Do it again.
The first time I ever did it and he didn't get it on camera,
I landed on the laptop and... About busted my head open.
Without the cranial.
Yeah, and then I put the cranial on after that.
My name's Robert Allen, and I'm an abh airman.
I'm from, uh, Oklahoma, a little town out in the sticks.
They all call me redneck, and they always give me hell.
I'll go back down real quick and get me a damn pop.
Canadians say pop.
It's not soda, it's pop.
You guys call it a refrigerator.
I call it an icebox.
A refrigerator.
It's an icebox.
Like I'm gonna pop it out of the icebox.
It's an icebox.
I'm gonna pop you.
I want a Coke damn it, now.
Universal word for it, call it what it is.
I got married in high school, and everything was
going good and everything and about nine months down the road
she starts going to college and I was on a job on the road,
like gone all week.
And then, I don't know, stuff happened and we got a divorce.
I got depressed and I started, I was an alcoholic. I became an
alcoholic for like four months, quit my job, quit everything.
My town's like tiny. There's one stoplight. My mom is like "You need to do
something with your life. You need to get out of here, change
or something, get a hold of yourself," 'cause I was going
down the wrong hill, so I joined the Navy.
Damn it, I want to talk.
It ain't what I thought it would be.
When I thought of the military, like my brother was in it, my
sisters in it, they're all marines and I thought of guns
and killing people, not flying birds off a flight deck all day.
Like in the marines, you got to depend on that other guy for
survival.
He could get you killed if he makes a mistake.
And the Navy's not really like that.
It's like no respect.
Nobody cares, nobody gives a...
If I could switch, I would do it in a heartbeat.
'Cause this is just bull... The Navy.
The way I see it, that's true. This ain't the military.
I don't think so.
This is what I'd like to know, bro?
How do you like the Navy?
How do I like the Navy?
How do you like the Navy, bro? It sucks.
It's all right.
I guess it's alright.
It's all right?
So you're staying in another six years aren't you?
Another six years of all this crap.
As a member of the Navy, you complain.
That's your job. It's one of the things you do.
It's time for me to check the CMC suggestion box.
All comments and suggestions are welcome.
Let me see what the sailors are complaining about today.
This carrier displaces 90 thousand tons. You are allowed
about 15 square feet.
And if someone lives next to you that stinks, it makes life
rather hard.
The things that hold this ship together are the junior personnel.
If there weren't people to take out the trash and keep the ship
clean, we'd be living in filth.
You know, it's like a train hitting the wall every fifteen
seconds over here.
You got 20, 30 females on one side and you have, like, the
same amount on the other.
And you have 3 showers.
Oh, food on the ship.
They tell you when to eat, when to sleep.
Lines are nice, I love lines.
Dealing with the people.
People get on your nerves.
People come from all different, uh, walks of life
when they come in the military, and they expect us to work in
perfect cohesion no matter... They throw us all together, and
it doesn't work out like that.
Even if you go to the mess deck, you see certain groups
sitting together, like different races. Sometimes
people just choose to be with their own.
Filipinos look out for Filipinos, blacks look out for
blacks, whites look out for whites, and so on.
I don't think there's a lot of segregation.
I think the ethnic groups here get treated fairly by the
command as a whole.
Every ethnic group on this ship always has their own
celebration: You know, African American month, Asian-Pacific
heritage month, which would include the Filipinos. You have
Native American month, you have Hispanic month. Everything but
Caucasian month, but I guess Caucasian month is every month.
Racism is everywhere. It doesn't matter if it's in the
military or out on the street corner, in a restaurant.
It's everywhere.
Robert Allen.
People have certain views, people have certain prejudices.
Especially in the military because they accept everyone,
you're gonna have people that think differently.
I have a case of racial slurs charged against me.
I just got in trouble in March for racism.
And this is 3 months later I'm doing the same thing again.
They all kind of knew my background, and probably my
reputation of what I was gonna be like.
Then I started popping these racist things.
That's been happening a lot, and I don't know, it's just
been getting worse.
Basically it happened when, ah, me, Allen, Ledezma,
everybody was just chillin' in the fly hole, minding our own
business, listening to music or whatever.
And it was country or rock, I'm not sure exactly
what it was at the time.
And he had it up kind of loud and one of the yellow
shirts, second class petty officer came in.
He's a black guy. He never really liked country or rock or
anything like that. He always pretty much liked rap.
I don't really care what kind of music it is, but if
it's turned up too loud, we get complaints from the other work
centers and people higher than me, officers, and I really
don't feel like hearing their mouth. I come in here, it's
blasting, "turn it down.
"Turn it down."
You're not listening, boom, I turn it off.
It's not the first time that something like that had ever happened.
So boom, Allen snapped and was like, "turn, turn my [Beep]
down? Hell, no!"
"I don't say nothing while you guys are playing that black "[beep]."
I'm like, "what do you mean you "guys playing that black [Beep]?"
So I told him, "watch your way with your words. You already
"got in trouble."
You know, I'm always trying help these guys, these junior
personnel and he said, "I don't give a [Beep]. I'm racist.
Everybody already knows it. I "don't care if I get kicked out."
So I said, "OK, I'll help you find your way out."
And here I'm in the wrong place is what I told, I told
officers when I had to talk to them. I was like, "I joined the
wrong thing."
There's too many different kinds of people here and I
don't get along, like I don't feel right.
So I have no choice. I've gotta make it.
Keep my mouth shut, I guess.
He's cool with me, so what am I gonna do?
I've gotta work with this kid.
In V-1 some of the airman in there are black, and he
definitely did not hate that person or those people.
You know, he got along with them. We even hung out, uh, in
ports together.
In fact there was a guy named Fields. Everybody joked on
him. They call him "Blackie"
and he calls everybody else "whitey" and all this kind of stuff.
They got along great.
I already knew the way he was when I came to the fly, so I
was like, "it's cool. " I don't mess with him, he don't really
mess with me.
I don't care what the hell he thinks, just as long as he
don't bring it to me.
We get along all right now. It was just when he first got here.
It got it taken care of, just between us.
We was at a hotel party one night and I called him a spic.
I got my ass whooped, but... You live and learn, that's the
way I see it.
Sometimes he jokes around with it, but...
Uh, you can only take so much.
It's the way I was raised.
Everything in my mind, been put in my mind my whole life, by my
brothers... My mom told me a bunch of stuff.
My sister dated a black guy in High School and the whole
family like, threw a fit.
I mean, God, it was bad.
I couldn't even watch black television growing up.
My mom's like, "turn that black crap off!"
And I was just, "OK, sure!"
I didn't think nothing of it.
I mean, if I got kicked out for this, it wouldn't bother me.
I wouldn't care.
It's just... I don't know.
It's all weird, like I have all of these thoughts going through
my head all the time about all this getting kicked out or
staying in, the racism or whatever, how I'm gonna change and just
all sorts of stuff all the time. I don't know, I just,
whatever happens, happens, the way I see it.
If I go to CMC's office, he's gonna have a heyday with me.
He's not gonna realize.
He's the CMC! He's black!
There's zero tolerance for racism.
War has zero tolerance for racism.
The taxpayers back at home, they don't care whose out here
manning these ships.
Did somebody say, "whoa!
"I hope they're all white!"
Or "I hope they're all black!"
Or "I hope they're all... "
No. They say, "I hope they're all what? Qualified to complete
the mission."
And so you have to take that part of you and just leave it
back there in the civilian because you're here to do
a bigger job. You're here to defend your country and everyone in it.
We're all human beings and that's just the bottom line.
And that's the biggest difference in the military.
Because we're thrown together in unique situations where we
have to depend on each other, we learn to get rid of our own
individual biases and prejudices.
The camaraderie's and the bonds that you build with
people is unmatched.
It's almost impossible to get to know somebody the way you
know somebody when you're living on a ship for six,
seven, eight months.
Teamwork.
If there wasn't a team atmosphere here, you know, it
would be anarchy all over the boat.
We're gonna try to train you all as one team because you're
gonna be one team in the Gulf standing them watches.
People would be doing what they wanted all day long.
I don't think real work would get done.
Everybody understand that?
Yes, sir.
Now what do you guys have?
Anybody have any feedback for me?
Everybody's more or less equal.
Except for the rank.
Let me jump in here real quick.
Oh, I'm sorry. No problem.
What's going on?
I have this pain in my tooth that I've had for like two
weeks and I keep trying to come down here but I haven't been
able to till today.
So I think I might have a cavity.
Or my filling's jacked up or something.
Can I help you, sir?
I'm here to have my annual flight physical.
What's your last four? 9331.
Captain Jakubowski.
How are you?
Great. How about yourself?
Good.
Officers get to go in front of us.
I signed up and he came in after me.
And we both sat down at the same time and he got seen before me.
Twice already he's been seen and I've been waiting here
longer than he has.
I've been sitting here for almost an hour now.
I mean, I understand that you're an officer and you have
your privileges and everything like that.
But why he came here was just for some routine stuff.
Why I came here is because my tooth has been hurting for two
weeks and this is the only opportunity I've gotten to come to dental.
I'm probably gonna have to have a filling or something else
like that. All he needs is to get his teeth cleaned.
Being on the ship and being an officer, that probably got to
be the [Beep] because they don't do nothing.
They get a bad rap a lot of times from the mess decks.
And most of the people are talking about the officers, oh
they've got it so easy, whatever, but I think that
they've got it probably just as hard as us. It's just we don't
recognize it.
How is it different from officers enlisted under the surface?
It's responsibility, it's accountability.
They take pretty good care of us, make sure we don't get
in trouble. They put their necks out for us, keep us out of trouble.
The officers on this boat, I think, get a lot more stuff than we do.
There's about 30, 35 of us females, Navy and marines.
I get my own sink.
I get a desk.
Everything you have fits inside these four compartments.
Oops, sorry, five.
Yeah, you've just got to kind of slide in there.
You've just got to kind of slide in like this
'cause that's all you're getting.
You just push this little button and it folds right out.
They're waiting in a bunch of lines that are very long.
They get to eat in the ward rooms which, the food there is
of better quality as opposed to where I work in the aft galley,
where you've got to cook for 3,500 people, so
get the meal out in two hours.
If you're getting any gab from the troops about the food
you're eating, then that's wrong. We are eating the same
food as the folks in the mess decks.
We cook the same foods, but because we prepare less
of it, the food tastes better.
I pay $250 for it every month. I'm gonna freaking eat it.
Definitely a double standard.
Officers and enlisted people are definitely separated, and
the officers say one thing but then they do another thing and
then we get in trouble for doing what they say.
Everyone's there to tell you what to do, and so you've just
kind of got to back down and let 'em tell you what to do,
until you raise in rank and then you can tell other people
what to do.
Somebody's got to be the boss.
Orders come from the hierarchy.
You know, that's what the world's built on, 'cause if we
all was the same, nothing would get done.
"Why don't you do it?"
"You're the same as I am."
Then that's when, when you take the hierarchy come in and say,
"I tell you what, both of you"
knuckleheads go do it 'cause "I'm senior to the both of you."
And then somebody come tell you, "well, I'll tell you what, all"
three of you go do it 'cause I'm "senior."
And it just continue on.
That's how we do cleaning stations.
When you come into the Navy, most people come in as e-3 and
bellow, which is airman, seaman, fireman.
I'm just an e-3.
I'm an airman, you know.
I'm not poppin' no collars!
Nothing is on my collar.
Nothing, I have no collar device!
And when you get that rank of petty officer, you have more
responsibility.
E-4 will have one chevron.
E-4, I'm a third-class petty officer.
Two chevrons, e-5.
Second-class petty officer.
E-6 will have 3.
First-class petty officer.
He's a second-class petty officer. He's a third-class petty officer.
Sometimes.
Yeah, sometimes you get discriminated because you're higher up.
You're higher up, your rank, you know.
You could be one day really cool with somebody as an
airman, but the next day you're a third class, and then all of
a sudden you're trying to... You don't kick it with the
Airmens no more.
Yeah, you can't.
You're trying to just boss them around now 'cause you're a
third class.
For me, making rank and going so fast, surpassing some of the people
that I used to work with, and you know, it was OK at first,
but now it's, you know, it's not OK. It's, "you think you're
better" or you know.
I'm the same person I was I just, I'm making a little bit more money.
Which I should be, I'm doing a bigger job.
I get paid more money.
Definitely, doing less.
We both, he's too, I don't know.
That's just the way it goes, the higher you go in rank, the
less you do, and the more you get to yell at people.
Hey, Costa?
On this here, we have to redo the surface and get the edges.
Yeah, that's what I was just working on.
He's a second class.
He's not horrible. I just like, he does frustrate me a lot.
I can't explain it.
He's just irritating, you know.
Oh, no, no.
Do it straight up and down.
Here, put this back on there.
'Cause the thing's off.
That's the way I had it.
My way is a good way.
He'll get you in trouble for things that are OK for him
just because he's a second class or 'cause he's a supervisor.
And even if you ask him, you're like, "hey, well, you did the
same thing. How is it OK for "you and not for me?"
He'll be like, "'cause I'm Decker.
I'm the watch Captain.
I'm second class.
"I can do that."
You know?
You know, the cleaning doesn't take long. It's just a
matter of getting it done.
Nobody likes to do it, so unfortunately we've got to kind
of be harsh when we tell people to do it.
First of all, they tell you, this is how you do your work,
then they tell the person above you to watch how you do your
work and make sure you do it right.
Then that third class has somebody on his back, telling
him how to do his job.
Then that first class has another person on top of him, telling him.
And it just goes down hill.
All right, so let's get all of this cleaned up.
This hatch here needs to be scrubbed down.
And we're gonna quit talking to you guys about cleaning this.
Both sides still ain't done. I shouldn't have to explain that
to you because you're a second class.
What the hell's going on here?
We need to fix this.
This is not, this is unsat... We can't be living like this.
Look at this. Would you sit on that?
I wouldn't want to piss over there.
So I guess I'm gonna have to do my supervising again and make
sure you guys clean the way you're supposed to be cleaning.
Because if I leave it to you guys, it's gonna end up looking
like a [Beep] hole.
That's what it's gonna look like.
You got to get your game plan today and you better start
working on it.
I'm gonna re-inspect later on sometime this week before we pull in.
If it's not up to speed when we get to Guam, don't expect no
liberty until we get it up to speed.
'Cause we're not gonna live like this at all.
We are a floating dictatorship defending a democracy.
All right, guys, let's go, cleaning stations.
An order to do something is not up for debate, even if you
think personally that the reasons behind it are
ludicrous. That's part of the discipline that goes along with
being in the military and working in the military and
doing what you're ordered to do.
In a world that's set in stone I'm set in something
just let it go, just let it go... I got yanked off the
flight deck to go T.A.D.
T.A.D. stands for Temporary Assigned Duty, which is something that
everyone e-3 or below has to do, one time in their life at least.
They'll like take you out of your division or shop that
you're in and you basically work for supply department.
I clean female chief berthings and female chiefs bathrooms,
and then female officer bathrooms.
So it's just like having cleaning stations for 12 hours a day.
I got yanked right when I was so close to making a very big
qual that I need to get.
So basically I went from launching a jet to swabbing a deck.
Ever since I've gone T.A.D.
I've become more laid back, like I don't want to... after I'm
done work, I don't want to go up to the line shack to study
again or nothing like that 'cause I'm too tired from
working all day and, I don't know, I just feel like going
T.A.D. set me back a lot.
I guarantee you if everyone was to let out their emotions
here, everyone would go to mast.
Someone would say something to somebody superior to them that
that superior doesn't like, someone may do something, you know?
Everyone here is suppressing emotions.
You have to have, you know, an avenue to vent your frustrations.
I can lay down a beat.
The fun stuff on this ship, eating.
I have masqueraded aboard this ship as a pirate.
I write poetry.
I've hijacked the bridge.
Checking the emails, see if somebody wrote me.
Run on the admiral's treadmill for a workout.
What else do we do for fun?
Sleeping.
And other miscellaneous scalawag type things.
Christian Garzone here for naval confessions.
I'm down here in the print shop.
We actually busted a kind of a, as soon as the camera came in
they scattered away.
Have you ever seen me lose to him?
Will you not break dance or whatever and you go
get in the proper uniform.
We like to drink Nyquil.
It makes us, uh, go to bed faster.
There's always something going on in berthing.
We always do thing to keep us alive, basically sane.
We always do stupid bets.
We bet on what time they're gonna call reveille, and you
know what time. That's the same time every day.
That's how we entertain ourselves.
Hitting each other in the nuts.
Mail call.
Getting things from home, care packages and letters.
Ohhhhh!
It's from my girlfriend Sadie, back home.
Second one I've got from her.
It's the only mail I've got.
It keeps you going.
I've read it like 3 times already in like the past 2 hours.
Workout.
When I'm on the treadmill, I'm not on the ship.
You got to do it.
You get to relieve all your anger in the gym.
Being in the military you're only limited to say so many
things so, this relieves a lot of it.
Been tryin' and tryin'
and tryin' and tryin'
and tryin' to get by... there's only so much you can
do or get away with here on the boat.
The gym only takes you so far before your stress level goes,
goes out the window.
The only thing keeping you sane is that you have those port calls.
The port calls is when you let loose.
Just like everybody else... Guam, I think you'll like it.
Lots of water sports, lots to do there.
We'll start down the pass of what we need to do to get
everybody ready to go in and have some good liberty in Guam.
I'm gonna shotgun this beer.
Are you ready then I'm gonna go get my hat.
You guys are drunk.
Whenever I get drunk, you guys tell me, and I'll be all right.
You're drunk, Allen.
We're part of the Guam separatist movement.
You better run for your life boy!
Fire at me as I come charging towards you! Boom, boom!
I got the whole sack of shoes.
I got the whole sack of shoes, a whole sack of beers, and all
you got was a pair of lousy shoes.
Take this with you cause that's dirty.
Hey, locals, you want some beer?
Because I'm gonna wash it with me.
You can only do so much to help a shipmate out.
Wade, I want you to take a picture with this local.
Come on man, get in here man.
No, get in here.
Get in here, all of you.
All right!
Ready.
Mr. Bass is coming to solve the situation.
Where's the beer at, please?
You're the only one that has any control around here.
And you're all making asses out of yourself right now.
Well, then give me another beer.
Let me talk to you.
All right. I'm good.
Let's talk.
Let me tell you something about myself before you get to know me.
Go ahead.
I'm getting kicked out of the Navy for racism.
Are you?
I have two accounts against black guys.
Ok.
But I mean, I still like you guys and I respect you and I'm
talking to you right now.
Are you guilty of it?
That's the way I was raised, man.
Let me ask you, are you guilty of it?
Yes, I am.
So, let me ask you this.
You're talking to a racist right now.
I mean we're shaking hands, we're holding arms.
Oh, of course, of course.
Yeah. It ain't my fault.
All right.
I joined the Navy. That was the wrong decision.
No, it wasn't. No, it wasn't.
I'm gonna tell you why it wasn't.
I've been in one year and now getting discharged, man.
No, no, listen to me.
It wasn't the wrong decision. Let me tell you like this.
The Navy is a melting pot.
When you join the Navy, you join like different nationalities,
different cultures, different everything.
Say for example the fifth deck gets flooded.
I happen to be there and you're drowning.
I'm not gonna sit there and let you die because you're a racist.
You're my shipmate.
And I hope you'd do the same for me not because I'm black.
I'd do the same, I'd do the same for anybody.
Exactly.
To save your life.
Exactly.
Let me ask you a question, would you call me a nigger
after this conversation?
No. I'd be cool with you.
Right.
You know what? Let me tell, let me tell you like this.
It ain't about nigger, it ain't about cracker, it ain't about
spic. It's about none of that.
I know I shouldn't judge people by their color.
But... It's just the way.
You were raised.
Yes.
But even in that, there's no excuse. You know what's right
from what's wrong, right?
If you adapt yourself to be around different cultures, if
you learn about different people and what they experience
in their life, than that will change you overall.
Think about it, come on.
If I can get through to one person, I've made a difference.
If you can teach your children not to be the same way
you were raised, then we can make a difference.
I want to congratulate the crew on your outstanding
performance in Guam.
We trust you guys to be adults and act responsibly and about
99 and a half percent of everybody did exactly that.
We did have a small number of folks who couldn't quite
measure up to that standard.
I'll talk to them this afternoon in Captain's mast.
And they've got me on 6 charges.
Now they're charging me with disrespecting a senior chief,
resisting arrest, drunk and disorderly, assaulting a petty
officer, a threat towards a petty officer, and then I got
racial slurs from the other deal.
That's all on one Captain's mast.
I'm in a lot of trouble.
I've been screwing up.
I screwed up in port, got in a little bit of trouble.
Went out and got drunk.
That's a lot of charges dude... 6 charges.
I'm probably gonna do brig time.
That's what you want, though, right?
I don't really necessarily want brig, but I want out of the Navy.
I don't like this place. I can't adapt.
I never had this problem before I came in here.
Being in trouble like this, saying this [Beep].
I'm getting all butterflies and in my stomach.
We'll figure it out.
Maybe I'm just hungry.
The officer of the day, he's like, "if you stay in, you're
gonna keep doing this, aren't "you?"
I was like, "yeah. It's probably "gonna get worse."
I was like, "it's getting worse and worse every time. Next time
I'll be like dropping the "n-bomb on some dude."
What if they don't discharge me? You know how pissed off I'm
gonna be?
And we were drinking all night and we got into a fight
well, I feel so broke up Lord, I wanna go home
so hoist up the John B's sail see how the main sail sets
call for the Captain ashore let me go home Lord, I wanna go home
I got 30 days restriction.
That's it?
Nothing about the racist stuff.
Oh, great.
That's another.
So what'd you go to mast today for?
For getting arrested the other night and all that [Beep].
Probably yours, isn't it?
Your shoes, your belt, your cover.
Thanks.
Man, why didn't they do the racist stuff?
They dropped everything, man.
Who did?
The C.O.?
Because they can't hold that against you.
Remember when you got in trouble for racism the first time?
It didn't go up to mast, so it didn't count.
What about this time?
I don't know. Damn.
Man.
I don't know.
The legal said... 'Cause I was talking to legal right after I
got back, and they gave me my papers and I was like, "what
"about the other deal?"
And he was like, "well, we'll "take care of it later."
You still have to go?
I better.
It's the whole reason I wanted to go.
Man, I didn't want 30 days.
It sucks.
Hopefully, next time I'll get the big dog.
Go on home.
That's what I was wanting.
You only got 30 days, though? I got 30 days extra duty, too.
Hey, what does that "r" mean for you, Allen?
It means racist.
Now everybody knows.
Another day that pulled you under come on come on
is there really any wonder?
Come on come on 'cause you feel alive I'm in over my head
feeling so low under your thumb I'm in over my head
is the world caving in under your skin?
Another day assured... Just because I don't have a
chevron don't mean I cannot speak freely.
It's all bull, OK?
We're already at each other's throats after like... what was
the last port? Was it like a week a?
Guam.
Guam was like a week ago and everyone's already at each
other's throats again, you know?
It's been like a week.
Hey, what's going on?
You're not supposed to be out of your rack, man.
Man. Hell!
You're on restriction. You've got rules to follow.
Third class, you need to step down.
You never act like this. Shut up. Go to sleep.
It doesn't say in the rules I have to go to bed at 10:00.
It says be in my rack at 10:00.
What are you gonna do in there?
This is my rack. I'm in it.
Turn the lights out and go to sleep. That's all you got to do.
What if some serious [Beep]
went down and I'm in here round with you?
Man, I'm gonna tell you this one more time and I'll call security.
This is real life, guys.
Good morning, Nimitz and air wing 11.
CAG and I coming back to you for the Kuala Lumpur Captain's call.
For now and for the next several months any opportunities
we have for liberty will be in the Muslim environment and the
rules are very different.
The Western Pacific will be behind us. We'll go through the
straits of Malacca tonight and from that time on we'll be over
in the Indian Ocean side and in the Arabian Gulf in the
Muslim countries and in their countries, we play by their rules.
We're entering an area that's, uh, frankly full of terrorists.
We are entering an area where people are dedicated to killing you.
And they're willing to die to do that.
Ok, we're about 2 hours from the Singapore straights.
We'll be going through the straits of Malacca all night tonight.
It's a navigation choke point.
Anytime we go through a constricted choke point like
that, especially in today's environment, we never really
know if a boat's gonna come alongside you and blow up,
like the "Cole."
We want to protect ourselves from any type of terrorist
attack by small boats or low slow aircraft.
What we want to do is not only protect ourselves, but we also
want to show that we can go through this strait with no
hesitation, just like we're gonna do when we go through the
strait of Hormuz going into the Gulf.
Our main job is to keep you safe.
And with your personal protective measures in place,
we'll be able to do that.
Right now, our threat in Kuala Lumpur, we're looking at
significant. Ok?
So we have layered defenses.
You see the sentries, you see the vehicle inspection
checkpoints, you see the barricades, the spike strips, whatever.
It's a layered defense.
We want them to go through as many obstacles as possible
before they can attack or penetrate the ship.
They get to the ship, it's over.
Kuala Lumpur is really strict. It's a really strict country.
The females don't get treated the same way as the United States.
The females dress up like Muslims from head to toe.
It's disrespectful to point.
You can't tap a civilian on the shoulder.
They find that offensive.
You'll go to jail for that, actually.
Vehicle bombs.
They can blow 10-12 of you guys up and they're making an impact.
You've got to be thinking that everybody's out to get you.
Don't think you're safe because you're not.
When we get complacent and we stop thinking that something's
gonna happen to us, that's when it's gonna happen.
Just wrapping up here.
Enjoy Klang and Kuala Lumpur.
Enjoy the liberty and make good choices.
That is all.
Good morning.
We're about to go on a tour and leisure expedition in Kuala Lumpur.
I'm quite beside myself.
I can't wait to get on the bus and I'm just pumped with energy
this morning, so uh, Phil, are you ready?
Yeah, I'm ready.
We're going out to the pedaling Jaya orphanage for Comrel.
Comrel is, uh, community relations.
It's really open to almost any kind of application.
From planting to painting to cleaning.
It's something that we can do as Americans in a foreign
community to help someone.
Ok. All right. You look nice.
I said I was scared and I still am scared.
I'm scared of what could happen, but at the same time I'm
enjoying myself out here.
You get to know a lot of things, you know, learn a lot
more about this, their culture.
And it's pretty cool.
Went to Captain's mast yesterday.
He told me my charges and asked me if I'm aware of them,
and I told him, "yes, sir."
He asked me if I admit to being racist.
I told him, "yes, sir."
He said, "Are you racist against Asians or Hispanics or
Jews or blacks?"
And I just told him, "Black people, pretty much."
And he asked me why.
And I told him that was just the way back home I was raised
around and it's the way I grew up, it's just what I feel right now.
He said, "well"... we talked a little bit more, he's like,
the Navy's a team, and you're
"no longer on the team anymore."
He paused and he's like, "this is off the record."
The Captain's mast was pretty much over, but I just stood
there and kept talking to him like a conversation.
And he said, "Well, I'm gonna send you home. You're gonna be
a civilian."
He said, "maybe when you get home, you'll change.
Maybe one of these days you'll grow up and change and see
people like they should be seen"
or whatever.
And I was like, "well, maybe, sir.
I don't really know yet, but "this is how I feel right now."
I'm not playing the spook song.
I'm gonna get so drunk on the airplane.
Play "Scotty doesn't know."
Can you play "Scotty doesn't know"?
Scotty doesn't know that Robert's going home,
getting out of the [Beep] Navy.
Going to get stoned.
I got an administrative separation with other than
honorable mentions.
That's a, that's a good discharge, I guess, 'cause like
I don't know, I could still get a job and I'm eligible for a
lot of stuff still.
I just don't get my G.I. Bill
but I don't really give a... about that anyways.
I don't plan on going to college.
After two years or something, it goes away, doesn't it?
What do you mean, if you have to like apply to a job
you don't have to say nothing?
I don't know.
Remember this?
What the [Beep]?
What was I doing talking to this guy?
That was in Guam.
What's he doing huggin' me?
What the [Beep], dude?
What's this guy doing?
What are you really thinking in that picture?
I was drunker than [Beep].
I don't have any idea.
You don't remember this at all?
You remember her?
I was wasted, dude.
I don't remember even taking these pictures.
Guam's the last place I drank beer.
That's where I got [Beep] up, got in trouble.
It was fun, though. It was worth it.
If I get stoned and sing all night long it's a family tradition
you whooped my ass.
I was so drunk, I couldn't even... You passed out.
I had sand all over my face and in my mouth.
That was a... Oh, yeah, I remember that.
There he's dancing like Michael Jackson.
He ran outside like he was gonna do it.
I was like damn.
I got some whites from him.
Got some dress whites and dress blues for 40 bucks.
Did you buy them?
Yeah.
Allen!
Hey, there's Allen.
Allen.
He took off running.
Who beat the [Beep] out of him? You did?
Allen, tell us about the time you and him fought.
What time was that?
Damn, you guys fight more than once?
Oh, at the hotel?
Yeah.
That was crazy.
That's the night I drank that shampoo and [Beep].
Thought it was [Beep] Alcohol.
Those little shampoos at the hotel?
Drank all that [Beep].
Gonna buy that [Beep]?
Got your money?
Yeah.
Go get it.
Don't forget the whites.
Hey, is it gonna fit?
No, it don't fit.
Man, come on!
You ain't gonna buy it?
I can't even wear it.
You wore it before!
Those were your pants.
Sell you the pants for 20.
Man, ask milk. He can fit 'em.
I got to go to personnel because I might be leaving tomorrow.
Tomorrow?
Yeah, tomorrow, tomorrow.
Hey, man, take care of yourself, man.
Yeah, I will.
Hey, shoot me an email, man.
All right? Yeah, I'll see.
Nimitz style, man. Yeah.
A'ight? A'ight, man.
A'ight. Take it easy.
He's the one that calls me petty officer.
Or magic chief of hatred.
Kid gets kicked out for racism but he has black friends.
He don't have black friends.
I made black friends.
No, he don't have black friends, that racist bitch.
They still like him.
No, I hate his ass.
I don't know what that's about.
See if I can fit this bitch in there.
Yeah, I'm just ready to go home.
I have no doubt, no regrets.
I'll miss you, man. Yeah.
Take it easy.
See you, man.
Yeah, see you, Derik.
Airman Allen might think he won by gaming the system,
but an other than honorable discharge has real consequences.
It's equivalent to being fired from the Navy.
It will limit his G.I. Bill and job preference opportunities
for the rest of his life.
Allen's behavior on board and in port was unacceptable.
And you know, it's really a shame he didn't listen to his
peers and his chain of command as they tried to straighten him out.
You back at the shack?
You walk around a ship and you see people making jokes,
and you see people swearing at each other, and yelling at each
other, and fighting each other, and doing just general dumb stuff.
But when they call man overboard or when they call
general quarters or when they call any kind of drill that
requires response, everyone may be in mid joke, but they
snap to and they go.
And I think you have to have faith in that.
In the next couple of days we'll pass through the straits
of Hormuz and enter the Arabian Gulf.
We've worked hard and come a long way to be here and we're
ready to support the guys on the ground in Iraq.
If today was not a crooked highway if tonight was not a crooked trail
if tomorrow wasn't such a long time and lonesome would mean
nothing to you at all I can't see my reflection in the water
I can't speak the sounds to show no pain I can't hear the echo
of my footsteps or remember the sounds of my own name
yes, and only if my own true love's waitin'
I could only hear her heart softly pounding
yes, and if only she was lying by me and I'm lying in my bed
once again.
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