I read an article in last quarter's Naval War College Review about history in the navy, or rather, the navy's lack of study of it and near disdain for it, and then a piece, completely unrelated, with that quote from Baldwin. I think that we in the navy don't really have a good inkling that we are history unfolding. We should, though.
The fact is, that simply by being in the navy, we make history every day. We've been in every major conflict in US history, most minor ones, and often were the only ones on the scene. We're already there when the army and air force are still figuring out how to get there. When I read stories about recent history and developments in the history books, magazines and journals, I can already say, "Yep, that was me doing that." My first ship is, I'm told, something of a museum piece We certainly thought so, even when it was in commission. At any rate, its bridge was cut out and placed on display at Norfolk's waterside. I'll have to go check that out someday, because that's history, and I was there.
We in the Navy, though, for the most part, don't see ourselves in a historical light. To us, this is just a job, sometimes a profession, and for a few, a way of life. But I don't think we see ourselves as a part of history. We often see ourselves as part of a greater whole: part of the Navy, part of the military, part of keeping ourselves and our country free. That's true, and it's as it should be, but even so, we don't see ourselves as part of history.
Maybe it's that we're barely taught any institutional history. For the enlisted, it's not even a single day in boot camp. Although things may have changed since 1988, I doubt it. It's only one 30 page chapter in the Basic Military Requirements course. It's a single one hour lesson, once a year, assuming that a given command even conducts GMT by the book. When we are taught history, it's usually in the context of somebody's mistake being used as an object lesson in what not to do. This is supposed to inspire pride in our heritage?
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