Remember when you were young and junior to everyone? Remember how you used to get stuck with all the collateral duties, and how you wished you were more senior so someone else could do them?
Well, I have some bad news. Even Admirals have collateral duties. Because no matter who you are in the military or what rank you wear, there is always someone senior to you. Here is a note I got from Paul, a Naval Officer:
“I was attending a brief/working group when I was a LCDR working the High Speed Vessel (HSV 2 SWIFT) experimentation program. The working group was to discuss the port infrastructure required to support these vessels pier side (shore power, water, etc). It was chaired by Commander, Naval Installation Command (CNIC), who was a new Admiral.
“I was sitting in the row of seats around the center table. As usual, the Admiral came in last. After some quick intro’s, he told the table that he just found out that as CNIC, he was the [Morale, Welfare and Recreation] Officer for the Navy. I almost burst out laughing, because the first image that popped into my mind was him being late to an All Admirals meeting, walking into the room, and the CNO announcing [that]he had just been voted the MWR Officer, just like on board ship.”
(Thanks, Paul!)