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Re: Tom, Q's please ..about Waller's Hell Week Chapter

Posted by tom on 10/21/2005, 16:57:27, in reply to "Tom, Q's please ..about Waller's Hell Week Chapter"
He said it would probably have killed your Navy career if you hadn’t made it through Bud’s, do you agree with that statement?
Actually it killed my career anyway--which he also warned of--the Navy, regardless of what it says, really can't deal with diversity--so when I transitioned from EOD as a Senior Lieutenant, I was taking a huge risk career wise---I had fun, but that is why I did not make Commander.

If so why? Everyone in the 1140 community--EOD Diver, hated that I left to go to the Teams and would nothave welcomed me back.

Do you think you being the senior officer made you more concerned about the class than other trainees? I was certainly more concerned about the class than other trainees as that was part of the job of class leader--and I took it seriously.

What responsibilities came with that position? All I had to do was have accountability of where people were and make sure they knew what was expected of them. Though I frequently got "punished" along with people that screwed up, those were my only responsibilities that could actually count against me. I also considered it my responsibility to keep peoples head in the game as much as possible, but that was just me.

I’m wondering if you felt your rank was a hindrance, help, or non-factor with you surviving Hell Week? My rank was a hinderance throughout, particularly with the officer instructors whom I outranked. A lot of the Es wound up really liking me because of the way I led and the way I was not pushed around by them or the O instructors. The biggest factor that helped me through Hellweek was experience--I ABSOLUTELY knew that regardless of how it appearred, there was no way someone was going to be allowed to get hurt or die--too much paperwork.

Were any of your BUDS instructors under your command later on? SC McCarthy, the anti-christ, was my Platoon Chief at ST-4--great person, leader and example.

I don’t ever remember hearing about the hallucinations you guys experienced before or things like Greene ending up at mess hall without remembering how he got there. THat was more like pulling into your work and realizing you don't remeber the commute :)

So I was curious after hell week itself how much could you remember about it? Most of it, but the chapter was nice because youtend to forget the littlethings and you don't get to see everything that Doug did.
Were there things in this chapter that you either never remember or had forgotten? Yes, see above

I’m curious did you hide Motrin or give food to classes that went through after you? No, the upper classes never did that. THe people that were getting ready to class up, i.e. hadn't started yet, did all that stuff--it wouldn't be tolerated by the classes that had been through

You were operating with Team 4 then right? Yes. Did they ask if they could use your names, did you have any say? No.
Did it bother you to have Waller there observing BUDS? No, Doug was great and very respectful of what we were going through.

Cheers!


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