What Was Your Best Experience With a Superior While Serving? Share and Be Entered to Win!

In the mid 70's, I was serving on the Samuel Gompers, a destroyer tender. A ship came in while we were in Yokokuska with many UHF transmitters that failed an inspection. I was assigned to get them running over the weekend. Sunday, while I had three open at the same time, a Lt, jg came through the ET spaces. He watched awhile and then asked many questions about what I was doing, how UHF worked and such. We spent maybe 20 minutes. But I felt he was truly interested in me and my personal story. About 30 minutes later a PO First Class and a PO second class ET came from off duty offer help. Well I needed it and told them how to help and we had all radios at full spec the next day. I don't know the lt.'s name, but he should have done well with the Navy and life in general. He showed he cared and helped me care also.

I have two stories, can’t decide which is better, so I’ll post them both. Oddly, both involve commanding officers.

I had some type of severe illness after hours. All I wanted to do was sleep I had no energy. Couldn’t even really talk. So, my wife calls the after hours medical line for me. Doctor is an asshole to her. Demanded to speak to me, and when I couldn’t talk, told my wife I was “either drunk, stoned, or ‘possibly’ something seriously wrong.” He authorized her to take me to civilian hospital, but ‘ordered’ her, a civilian, to have me report to sick call in the morning, and to have a toxicology report in hand from the hospital. At the end of an all nighter at the local hospital, who laughed at the ‘order’ for a toxicology report because I showed no signs of being drunk or stoned, sent me home to rest. Wife calls the military clinic because I had already missed sick call, and arranged for me to come in clinic later in the day since I had little to no rest in the hospital. That wasn’t good enough for the on-call doctor. One of my commanding officers, Ops commander of the squadron, was apparently golfing buddies with him. So, I get called into the squadron late morning after my clinic appointment, with my squadron commander and Ops commander wanting to know why I disobeyed a direct order. Told them the whole story and they were stunned. Especially the Ops Commander. Ops Commander calls the on-call doctor and chewed his butt. Gets off the phone, tells me I’m good to go, smirks and says “We’ll, I guess me and him aren’t golfing buddies anymore. I can’t believe he would do this to one of my best Desk Sergeants.”

Other story, I pulled over a GS-15 for running a red light that turned out to be the new Services commander. The guy in charge of the gym, chow hall, rec center, etc. and made sure I knew it. I was always the guy that didn’t give tickets unless they were lying or being a butthole, so this guy got a ticket. Reporting instructions for civilian employees were to report to their immediate supervisor within 24 hours or next duty day. He says “My supervisor is Col. (redacted) the Support Group Commander (as if I didn’t know who she was. Remember, I was a Desk Sergeant, so I regularly had to call the high ranking officers in the middle of the night to do notifications. I knew all of them, and they knew me.). I’ll be sure to let her know.” At this point I was tired of this idiot’s attitude, so I pointed at my name on the bottom of the ticket. Told him, “Good, make sure you tell her, Sgt. Buono gave you the ticket.” He replied “Oh, I sure will, and you’ll be sorry you gave me that ticket.” Yea, like I haven’t heard that one before. I was shaking in my boots. Ok, sure, buddy. “Have a good night, sir.” A few nights later, I encountered the Support Group Commander, she was doing post checks (one of the few senior officers that actually came out in the middle of the night). So we chatted for a bit and I asked if she had spoken to the GS15 I wrote a ticket for. Her reply “Yep, I sure did. I told him if Sgt. Buono wrote you a ticket for running a red light, maybe next time you shouldn’t run a red light.”

Last watch I ever stood I busted a 17-year old fresh out of RTC trying to sneak vodka onto a ship. Chief treated me like royalty for about three days.

Best experience with a superior? I got a couple. I'm lucky I only had 2 awful platoon sgts. I had a capt America as a company commander and a medal hunter as a platoon leader. The guys that taught me about being an infantryman, Sgt Heinrichs in Germany. We just got along really well. Sfc Williams. The grandad of plt sgts. Professional but with a kindness, its a not a weakness, i just learned a ton and he made it easy. SFC Harrell. Big guy...more the fatherly type. I was his loader/gunner at NTC which was a boon for me. I was the one who picked up mre for the field and we were getting test boxes. That was 92. When they were doing changes to our food. Even when he was frustrated or pissed at you, he'd give you this look and then carefully explain things. Such a good guy. I'm lucky i didn't have too many sgts that were complete assholes, we've all had them. I'm gonna leave out a ton.. From 2003 on, i lost 23 brothers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Auto one point, i couldn't pick up a newspaper without seeing someone i served with. Sgt Jordan, Sgt Williams, Sgt Olsen, and it goes on and on. Everyone left a mark on my 8 year career. Even the crappy ones. You learn from them how to not lead. Sorry if this kinda went sideways. I couldn't pin point one guy. I was blessed to serve with dozens of ncos and officers that were worth serving with for our country. When I came into service, there were higher ranked sgts that served in Vietnam so there was this experience that up until 2003 or so wasnt there. Sorry guys...i bumbled along. Haha

As a second class po I was found guilty of article 112a (wrongful use or possession of an illegal substance). For the other two of my shipmates on the submarine, that meant getting kicked out of the Navy. For me It meant that I got to serve for my original six years and then extended for an additional two and a half years. Nobody believes me at first, but I chose not to take the illegal substance. When my CO found this out he did not go light on me, but he let me stay in my rate. When I spoke to him after my punishment he told me that it was because of my good choices and that I made sure my shipmates made it home safely (because I was not under the influence). No one else that I talked to has EVER heard of a single other person to be kept onboard (and in the same rate). The power of honesty, integrity, and looking out for those who need to be brought home safely. I’ve lost too many to such naïveté. Not about to let my friends die in a peace-time drive home. Thank you for believing in me Captain!

My husband was deployed onboard a ship and I hadn't seen him for 6 months. I was stationed on a staff in Washington DC., and was additional duty to an Admiral. When the Admiral heard that my husband's ship was going to stop in Hawaii at the same time that a conference was to take place, he sent me instead of his regular staff member to represent him at the conference, even though I had no special knowledge or skills more than the other officer. To this day I would run in front of bullets for that Admiral.

Over in Afghanistan my platoon CO helped me while I dealt with the loss of my wife just before deploying.

As the first woman supervisor in the lab I worked in at Norton AFB, I had a hard time to getting respect from the men working under me, partly because out of 110 people, only 5 were women, and they didn't want a women giving orders to them.
My supervisor saw my struggle and took me under his wing. He taught me how to supervise others and gain both respect and confidence.
He would have me give someone a task and watched what happened. He intervened only at first, then took off my training wheels.
His help was a great part of me getting confident as a supervisor and adult.
The best thing? Having the men tell me I was the best supervisor they ever had.

66 in Quin Nhon I was working in supply for a senior warrant officer that had a required flight to Saigon for a conference and invited me to fly along with him. At the airport he left for the meeting ( taling his golf clubs I have no idea where they come from) I procedded to borrow a hi-lo (it was Sunday and the traffic was low) and load the Caribou with pallets sitting on the termac. When he got back I had the load manifested for his review. the flight back to Quin Nhon was kinda blurry and I don't remember much. I drank several of the Hamms beer (hot ... since sitting on the termac) and was as you say "drunk as a skunk!" We chilled the first several with the fire extinisher but that soon ran out and the rest was rather warm. Even today i can't stand the smell or taste of a Hamms. I woke up late that afternoon as the pallets of beer was unloaded back in Quin Nhon. Sorry no photos ... I left the names off to protect the innocent!

I had two immediate supervisors that had a real positive impact on my impressions of the Navy.ADC Cortum and AD1 Ferriera .I was a brand new Airman in VF-31 Tomcatters.I had been with the Squadron about a year and had made Plane Captain.But now fleet wide exam cycles for advancement were coming up and both men had motivated me to try out for Aviation Machinist Mate as my striking career choice.I tested for and made advancement with their help and assistance.They also helped with me to get a tough "C" school once we came back from cruise.