The general rule is to keep any criticism of an organization inside that organization, kind of a "what happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas" kind of thing. Yes, I criticize sometimes, but I also think that I make good points and present solutions, or at least point things in the direction where I think the solution will lie.
Of course, there are a lot of people who can not stand the idea that and enlisted man is writing at all. We've discussed this before. Remember, if you wear blue, you're not supposed to think. You're supposed to obey and nothing else. Yeah, right, that'll happen.
Actually, for the most part, I've had positive feedback from both enlisted and officers who stumble across my modest corner of cyberspace. Occasionally a piece will generate a fair number of emails, all of which I answer. So far, I've not had enough that I couldn't.
The piece that has generated the most feedback was the one about intrusive leadership. I thought it was just me that was upset at the idea. I'm glad I was wrong for a change. One commander said he was in "violent agreement" with me. A powerful statement, indeed. A chief wrote me a two and a half page email telling me what he thought of intrusive leadership. And I thought I was angry.
Then there was the Lieutenant Commander who wrote me, and we actually had a pretty good discussion going via email until he found out that not only am I enlisted, I'm not even a chief. I never heard from him after that. I guess he thought that my opinions only counted as long as I was a "disgruntled lieutenant," as was his original assumption. He didn't bother to read the bio, apparently.
What I'm doing with this writing gig, besides having a lot of fun, both in the writing of the articles themselves (I'm a research junkie) and in the people with whom I've become acquainted because of them, is to provide a different viewpoint. Kind of like Proceedings Magazine, but with no oversight. I figure as long as I don't say anything that is just plain insubordinate or detrimental to the Navy, then I should be fine. Nobody has asked me to stop yet, so I must be doing something right.
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