Z Grams

[besilarius]

After Vietnam, the navy had a lot of problems.  Elmo Zumwalt became CNO and he tried to ease the atmosphere and reduce the Mickey Mouse chit.  Sometimes he was right, and sometimes he was wrong.
He sent out navywide messages, that were nicknamed Z-Grams, and he visited a huge number of ships to talk to the crew.


Salty Sea Stories


Now shipmates, this ain't no shit...

Way back when I was with my squadron at NASB, Admiral Zumwalt was coming to call. As part of the activities, he was going to meet with selected petty officers for a question and answer session. Being such a squared away young sailor, I was tapped to be part of it.

Things were going pretty good, we were talking about the Z-Grams, eliminating chickenshit, and so forth, and finally I raised my hand. "What you got, son?" he asks. "Admiral. I have to ask," I said. "Are those eyebrows in regs?" The room echoed with snickers and the Admiral grinned. "How long you been in?" "Six years, Sir." "Well, then, you been in that long, I KNOW you know what RHIP means, right?" I nodded and the laughter was loud. Admiral pushes his way over to me and pumps my hand. "What's your name, son?" "Bradford, Sir." He laughed. "Well, Bradford, you got yourself a pair, I'll tell you!"

Skipper called me in next day to tell me the Admiral liked me and had some good shit to say about me...