Standards of Conduct

When I was at OCS there was training that everyone in the military had to get. For example there was the mandated vehicle safety training. That consisted of the 30 of us in Mike Company watching the Ohio State Highway Patrol Safety films from the 1950s and '60s showing auto wrecks with dead mangled teenagers while Boatswain's Mate Master Chief Gross, a fine man who got my silver dollar when he gave me my first salute, laughed and the girls ran out of the room to get sick.

In addition there were two training lectures that all members of the Armed Services receive. The first was Code of Conduct on your responsibilities if you become a Prisoner of War. That was delivered by Captain Dick Stratton, who had been a guest in the Hanoi Hilton. He credited his survival to the Navy sending him to Stanford where he read Aristotle and learned that Civilization is what you carry inside you. When a savage is beating on you and you have nothing else you still have what is inside you. I still remember when he said "That whore Jane Fonda." Read the wiki article on him. He was a great gentleman.

The other required lecture was Standards of Conduct, regarding improper personal relations, abuse of authority, and what used to be called fraternization. In other words, sex in the workplace and our role as officers. For that training we were visited in our classroom by a Chief Warrant Officer who had been in the Navy over 40 years. He had been at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked. In the Navy unlike the Army a Chief Warrant Officer is close to God. They can talk directly to the Commanding Officer any time they need to, while Chief Petty Officers normally bring problems to the Executive Officer. Any junior officer who tries to pull rank on a CWO is headed for trouble. By the way the Air Force does not have warrants. The AF are barely military. For the training we all stood there while the old CWO came in and ran an eye over us. This is what he said.

"We had a saying on the farm in Arkansas. You don't work the breeding stock and you don't breed the working stock. Any questions?" We all nodded and said, "No questions wise old Chief Warrant Officer." He then smiled and said, "Good. Then you all go out there and have fun."

He was right. Nothing more needs to be said.