Baseball season is upon us. It’s a great sport because you can make a baseball metaphor out of just about anything. Take qualification boards. Qual boards are like tryouts. You think you’ve got the stuff to make it to the big leagues, and tryouts are where you get to prove it. Most people worry about their first qual board. I wasn’t. I had been standing watch for months, and had…how do I say…a lot of confidence in my abilities. I doubted they could ask me a question that I couldn’t answer or at least bluff my way through. Except maybe…

A good chewing out has two ingrediants – doing something wrong, and getting caught. A really good chewing out includes one more element – the mistaken belief that you’re actually going to get away with it. It is exponentially more painful to briefly taste the sweet exhiliaration of a successful caper, only to have it all come crashing down around you. The higher the mountain, the longer the fall. Like many of those in uniform, my really good chewing out was borne out of a liberty incident. Our long school had ended, and we were supposed to check in -…

Today’s topic for Broadside Moments…Seasickness Lesson learned: It’s important to know where you stand. 1976, aboard USS JOSEPH STRAUSS (DDG 16) in the South China Sea. I was living in deck berthing, a couple of decks below the main deck. It was my first time at sea, and I wasn’t feeling well. Anyone who has been on a DDG knows that the smell of oil seemed to be everywhere, and the temperature never seemed to be “just right” – add to that the cigarette smoke that permeated the space and some semi-rough seas, and you have all the ingredients for…