I know the navy slipped in standards from my time starting in 1994 to present. I never saw the draftee high on everything navy but I feel like we were kind of at a high when I joined and slipped ever since. The clinton drawdown malaise was something, lack of advancement opportunity mostly. I rode the reverse side of that wave, made E-6 in five years, actually put it on the last day at my first command. I was there working until 2300 and standing duty with a side of fire party that day. Called out during my ceremony no less. Division had screwed up so I worked with them. Hilarious day. Fast forward a year or so and I was at my shore command, no more walking at least five miles a day on the carrier. By my PT records I gained 25lbs in 6 months. Ow. My first eval as a brand new first class 6 months in a brand new command was of course not memorable. The second one, I walked on water, ranked above a lot of 15 year careerists, I think #2 in the command. The third eval I dropped a category with the opening line, "Would be ranked much higher if not a two time PFA failure." Yeah, at the time physical tests were a huge deal and I ate that for 5 board cycles. In fact, the first clean board I would have seen I got out in May before the board convened. Once in the reserves I actively worked to not make E-7, if I wanted to be full time navy, I would have stayed. The second PFA I failed was not really run according to the regs, 91 degrees in mid April, should have been a no PT day unless acclimated for 12 weeks. One degree shy of black flag or no PT conditions. But I gotta own it, I was in better shape but not good enough. Going back to a ship, back on fire parties and most importantly away from the roach coach helped a lot.
Now in the navy at large I see an unwillingness to enforce standards. Almost have to bargain with the young ones to show up on time. Any attempt to correct will usually fire up a racism complaint, maybe gender, maybe who knows. Everything wearing brown is concerned about getting their own career ahead, not will their people keep the ship above sea level when the shooting starts.
