lessons learned
Rumor Rated
When a new lead petty officer gets a non-rate from another unit, he quickly dismisses her based on some gossip — and learns a lesson about making early assumptions.
Back in 2004, I was a new lead petty officer at the small Coast Guard Marine Safety Detachment in Coram, Long Island, N.Y. I was in charge of five other petty officers, with a lieutenant in overall command.
As a small independent unit, we also from time to time became the clearinghouse for other units’ undesirables. Typically, these people were waiting for an investigation to conclude and were sent to us so they would not “impact” their own crews.
One such time, we received a female non-rate, an E-2, from another unit. I had heard she had been in service 18 months already — a long time to still be an E-2 (at least for the Coast Guard) — and previously had an inappropriate relationship with her XO, a chief petty officer (an E-7). In the Coast Guard, we commonly call that an 8H violation.
I immediately dismissed this person from my mind. After all, she was of no use to me. She couldn’t do anything meaningful, I didn’t trust her alone, she’d already been in 18 months and was still an E-2, and she’d slept with a chief. Goodness!
I made several large assumptions about her life and job skills, based on my prior service knowledge, and didn’t even greet her when she came through the door. Why should I? She’ll be court-martialed and gone in a few weeks, I thought.
My second class petty officer (E-5), another woman, took her under her wing. Eventually my E-5 got the full story.
The true story was the XO took advantage of the young woman, new to the service, and on the pretense of “training,” proceeded to seduce her. He would not sign her performance factors in order to make E-3 or to perform her job. She was downright terrified to tell anyone.
Eventually the XO was masted and busted down to an E-6. He lost his dream billet — and his family. (He was married with kids.)
My second class discovered this E-2 was a bright, charming, and respectable hard worker. She turned this E-2’s career and life around single-handedly.
The E-2 quickly made E-3, and then went to A-School to become a gunner’s mate. In a few short years she made E-6.
She wants to be the first female master chief petty officer of the Coast Guard.
The lesson I learned — and hold true to every day — is don’t judge. If it weren’t for my second class, the Coast Guard would have lost a valuable servicemember — and I never would have made a good friend.
MO
— Jonathan Shipperley is a Coast Guard chief warrant officer who resides in Corpus Christi, Texas. For submission information, see page 6.
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72 MILITARY OFFICER DECEMBER 2012
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