Oh I know about tradition SCPO Morris Ramsey, I made Chief in Dec 1979 while I was stationed on the USS Enterprise CVN-65 and I went trough one hell of an old school traditional initiation... It was something I will never forget! From what I am hearing now that there is no real initiation as we knew it any more...!

PO3 Bob McCord - You are so right Bob.. I doubt you will find a cpo (note small letters) that went trough an old navy CPO Initiation. Or for that matter find an old navy Chief..! Crossing the equator is nothing but a log entry now.. All the clubs are gone except a very few... No CPO clubs at every port or base.. No Ace y-ducy clubs... no EM Clubs and almost zero officers clubs. And find a sailor in today's Navy that knows what the smoking lamp is..! "Swim call''' Nope! Never filtered those out that could not swim in Boot Camp! Does the Navy still have a CPO mess..? Is there still a 1st class mess? On my first ship USS Kearsarge CV-33, we had a second class mess..! ( I will ave to dig up my photo of my 2nd class coffee mug from Kearsage ) How sailors many know how to trice up a Rack? Or, What a ditty bag is?
Who has a liberty card these days? How many sailors know what extra duty is? From what I see of sailors on liberty, none know how to square a white hat.. Do sailors still request to come aboard? I could go on and on Bob, but you surely know where I am coming from?

PO3 Bob McCord - You are so right... But even though when I was a boot chief on Enterprise I took my troops to the club when they did good... I caught hell for it and did not give a F--K!

SCPO Morris Ramsey - Too bad you and I could not drag knuckles as ship mates..!

Especially now...

LTC John Mohor - I will second that!