I was on a website recently where over-the-hill sailors regale each other with exaggerated sea stories, when I ran across a bubblehead (a slang term for a submariner), asking how people felt about operating at Test Depth. Which for the uninitiated is when a submarine deliberately goes deeper than it needs to be in order to “check” things out. How deep being a closely guarded secret, but suffice to say that it is roughly the equivalent of having a few dozen Uncle Bernie’s sitting on your chest…and deep enough should something catastrophic go wrong you would stand little chance. And while these drills were uncommon. They occurred frequently enough that any sailor “worth-his-salt” was likely to have experienced several during their career.
Thinking back, I recalled how deliberate and measured these maneuvers had been. And how my first impression was that this was serious business, being undertaken by serious men, with a few wide-eyed teenagers thrown in for good measure. Some of that was undoubtedly due to the times. In Submarine School, we learned that the United States had actually lost two nuclear submarines recently. (USS Thresher SSN 593 on April 10, 1963), (USS Scorpion SSN 589 on May 22, 1968). Throw in fifty-two more with 3,506 Souls onboard during WW II and one started to understand that Submarining could be weighty stuff.
So imagine my surprise when one of my fellow veterans’ opined that I was a big…ahh, let's say, ‘Sissy” for voicing my deference for operating hundreds of fathoms below the surface. (Which lead directly to the loss of the Thresher?) Nevertheless, this dude was relentless. A real keyboard cowboy tough guy that just kept hurling insults at any and all daring enough to question his “damn the torpedoes”…typing. Blathering on as though he might swim down with one hand tied behind his back, (taking some artistic liberties), to show us punks how it was done!
At first, I tried to take this with a grain of salt, because I am not who I used to be. Back then, before the internet, I had a much shorter fuse and this clown would have had to come out from behind his Apple II, to insult me face-to-face. Something I am confident he might have quickly regretted. Which got me thinking: Imagine if I did not have decades of self-assurance to fall back on. Imagine being an insecure adolescent or teenager for example. Today’s world is a new game and the old “stick up for yourself, fisticuffs” stuff I grew up on does not apply anymore. These hosers can just stay behind their monitors. Safe from the inhibitions that antiquated face-to-face communications required.
The information age has changed all that. Internet trolls and cyberbullies go practically unchallenged. Throw in a few old-school pompous bosses or teachers, some juvenile classmates or coworkers, and an occasional insecure jerk, and things can become pretty daunting, pretty quickly sometimes. Which brings me to my closing point. There will always be bullies of one flavor or another because humanity will always be less than ideal. But where the rubber meets the road. The ones who love you, those who truly Love you: Some because it’s the law…Your family and friends, and maybe even your pets? They could care less about what others think of you. Could care less, whether you closed the deal, or fixed the thing-a-ma-bob, or whatever it is? When we walk through their doors they love us just the way we are…sometimes even in spite of it. And the big picture, that is what really matters in life. As long as they do not consider us the village idiot, we’ redoing something right. So lighten up, breathe deep, treat others the way that you would like to be treated. And always, always, try to remember that you are no more defined by these trolls than my fellow veterans are by this nincompoop. But then again what do I know I’m just a schmuck.
I was on a website recently where over-the-hill sailors regale each other with exaggerated sea stories, when I ran across a bubblehead (slang term for a submariner), asking how people felt about operating at Test Depth. Which for the uninitiated is when a submarine deliberately goes deeper than it needs to be in order to “check” things out. How deep being a closely guarded secret, but suffice to say that it is roughly the equivalent of having a few dozen Uncle Bernie’s sitting on your chest…and deep enough should something catastrophic go wrong you would stand little chance. And while these drills were uncommon. They occurred frequently enough that any sailor “worth-his-salt” was likely to have experienced several during their career.
Thinking back, I recalled how deliberate and measured these maneuvers had been. And how my first impression was that this was serious business, being undertaken by serious men, with a few wide-eyed teenagers thrown in for good measure. Some of that was undoubtedly due to the times. In Submarine School, we learned that the United States had actually lost two nuclear submarines recently. (USS Thresher SSN 593 on April 10, 1963), (USS Scorpion SSN 589 on May 22, 1968). Throw in fifty-two more with 3,506 Souls onboard during WW II and one started to understand that Submarining could be weighty stuff.
So imagine my surprise when one of my fellow veterans’ opined that I was a big…ahh lets say, ‘Sissy” for voicing my deference for operating hundreds of fathoms below the surface. (Which lead directly to the loss of the Thresher?) Nevertheless, this dude was relentless. A real keyboard cowboy tough guy that just kept hurling insults at any and all daring enough to question his “damn the torpedoes”…typing. Blathering on as though he might swim down with one hand tied behind his back, (taking some artistic liberties), to show us punks how it was done!
At first I tried to take this with a grain of salt, because I am not who I used to be. Back then, before the internet, I had a much shorter fuse and this clown would have had to come out from behind his Apple II, to insult me face-to-face. Something I am confident he might have quickly regretted. Which got me thinking: Imagine if I did not have decades of self-assurance to fall back on. Imagine being an insecure adolescent or teenager for example. Today’s world is a new game and the old “stick up for yourself, fisticuffs” stuff I grew up on does not apply anymore. These hosers can just stay behind their monitors. Safe from the inhibitions that antiquated face-to-face communications required.
The information age has changed all that. Internet trolls and cyber bullies go practically unchallenged. Throw in a few old-school pompous bosses or teachers, some juvenile classmates or coworkers, and an occasional insecure jerk, and things can become pretty daunting, pretty quickly sometimes. Which brings me to my closing point. There will always be bullies of one flavor or another because humanity will always be less than ideal. But where the rubber meets the road. The ones who love you, those who truly Love you: Some because it’s the law…Your family and friends, and maybe even your pets? They could care less what others think of you. Could care less, whether you closed the deal, or fixed the thing-a-ma-bob, or whatever it is? When we walk through their doors they love us just the way we are…sometimes even in spite of it. And big picture, that is what really matters in life. As long as they do not consider us the village idiot, we’re doing something right. So lighten up, breath deep, treat others the way that you would like to be treated. And always, always, try to remember that you are no more defined by these trolls than my fellow veterans are by this nincompoop. But then again what do I know I’m just a schmuck.
