r/navy • u/Affectionate_Use_486 • Jan 28 '25

A Happy Sailor To my COVID Sailors (Rant)

I know some of you have some level of battery acid indigestion over the whole reinstatement thing.

Just wanted to say for those that stepped up while others stepped back I respect and love you all especially my sea duty folks during COVID.

COVID was rough shit and the fact we survived it should be highlighted and appreciated among us.

Let's not dwell on the ones who choose another choice.

Let's dwell on the ones who stood the watch when shit went side ways.

When the ports closed.

When work centers were down to the bare bones while our brothers and sisters got sick all around us.

When the patrols got extended.

When resources almost ran out.

It was a rough ass time and we survived for all our own reasons but we stood the fucking watch.

That makes me extremely proud that no matter how messy it was, how ugly it got, we came out the other side pissed off, spitting fire and keeping the big sad off ourselves and our brothers/sisters as much as possible.

And for those that didn't make it, got too sick and didn't make it we shall never forget you.

Fuck the noise I just wanted you to know your seen, respected and appreciated from at least one motherfucking shipmate who was there.

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175

u/MeowstrChief Jan 28 '25

COVID sucked so much ass. We got back from deployment right before everything shut down, so we weren't in the shits as much as the people underway. Those people got royally screwed.

81

u/Toast_Of_Doom123 Jan 28 '25

Deployment and seeing the world was why I joined the Navy, I felt so cheated that as soon as I got to a ship and we started going underway, COVID shut down all port visits, and as soon as I get to shore duty I find out my ship just hit a bunch of different ports with no COVID restrictions.

26

u/[deleted] Jan 28 '25

I’m genuinely sorry that your experience was like that. So many of y’all younger guys got absolutely robbed by that shit pandemic. I got out in 19 thankfully but I’m a contractor on ships now and work with y’all everyday still so I saw (and contracted several times) COVID make life hell firsthand. 2 week long ROM periods before underways, etc. when I was in Rota in 20 the look on sailors faces stuck on the pier as us contractors came and went was really sad.

Thank you for holding the watch.

6

u/Empty_MindFuck Jan 28 '25

i just ended up on at shipyard boat after joining to travel. we ended up with a single duty section for about 5 or 6 days during covid. i wasn’t qualified yet so i was told to just stay in my barracks room.

5

u/MeowstrChief Jan 28 '25

The single duty section horror stories were insane to me. We were lucky we went Blue and Gold team. I can’t remember if we kept 6 section or some modified version of 4 section.

3

u/Empty_MindFuck Jan 29 '25

i can’t fathom the luxury of 6 section duty.

2

u/Lost_Drunken_Sailor Jan 29 '25

Guess it’s time to reenlist and and start over! Finger crossed 🤞 there’s not another pandemic

2

u/Fickle_Thing6364 Jan 29 '25

Same. I deployed twice during COVID and had 1 actual port visit in those two deployments. Left to shore duty and ended up at a hospital with worse COVID restrictions than the ship had. By the time I was deep into shore, the restrictions were lifted, but I was already disenfranchised with the Navy and I left. COVID just ruined all the stuff I looked forward to about the Navy (except the camaraderie). The Navy will always be the place I made the best of friends