Command Master Chief relieved
CBSenior sends us a link to a Navy Times article about the relief from duties of Command Master Chief (SW) Rick A. Helwick on the USS Shoup, a destroyer out of Everett, Washington;
Command Master Chief (SW) Rick A. Helwick was relieved of his duties Monday following a substantiated allegation that he grabbed a junior sailor by the uniform blouse because he was not wearing the proper uniform, according to a Navy statement.
A Navy official confirmed Helwick was found to have committed assault, which falls under Article 128 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
I hope there’s more to the story than that. Or I hope there’s a statute of limitations, because hardly a day went by that I didn’t grab some private by the shirt. For some reason, privates don’t understand English unless they’re being grabbed by the shirt. Or the throat.
Category: Navy
My Drill Sergeant hit me with a trash can many years ago.
I just sucked it up and moved on.
Damn… I’d be in Leavenworth, along with a bunch of other NCO’s I served under or with. WTF
Our Navy seems to be full of pussies & whiners anymore. They were bad enough when I was in. Now it’s worse!!
I personally don’t think he did anything wrong, but since it seems that the generation of whiners and losers that are coming up now (can’t say being raised because no one is raising them) is the cause of 99% of these problems.
Another instance of non-military types setting standards for our military. Goes right along with the messed up Rules of Engagement that our war fighters are dying under.
Now that I’m retired, I tease that I might not be suitable for civilian service because choking someone who deserves it is frowned upon.
Apparently, now the Navy doesn’t allow it either.
At Thor: I agree.
When I was an BT Fireman (E-3) I had pissed off a particulary large hairy and somewhat half retarded BT3 over something I had no idea what I was talking about. The beast gave me a beating while attempting to destroy my humanity. Well I complained and was quickly ushered through Chief’s Mast to XO’s Mast where the XO asked, “what the hell were you thinking?”. Then he quipped, “he could have killed you and he would be here right now … Get out of my office … And don’t come back … Ever!”. I never returned.
By the way all these CMC’s getting releved are very junior and never should have passed screening for CMC. But what do I know.
Next thing you know, we’ll be writing regulations for how close NCOs are allowed to get to subordinates for on-the-spot corrections, and we’ll also be acquitting recruits who punch DIs and DSes for knife handing and getting in faces.
Sigh.
Unless there’s way more to the story, IMO this certainly seems to be to be a gross overreaction by the Navy.
In my son’s company you are forbidden to lay a hand on anyone nor use corrective punishment.
sometimes a joe needs to have some up close and personal attention to get their heads out their ass. Whinney sorry ass boys n girls cry foul instead of realizing they usually brought it on themselves.
I thought the grabbing-for-corrective purposes was abandoned back in the 1970s. So it wasn’t? Or did it start up again?
I would like to know more about this, such as how, and what reason (beyond uniform regs) lies behind it.
On the other hand, I ran into a great many seniors POs who needed a thorough ass-whipping and some training in leadership, and that was in the 1960s.
I guess nothing much has changed.
I firmly believe there’s a difference between hazing or maltreatment and tough love leadership. Having been on both sides of the coin, I can’t see where grabbing someone by the uniform blouse would warrant being releived. If he “was found to have committed assault”, I can only guess some type of command investigation was done. Once something like that happens and becomes official, a CO has no choice but to take action. (most cases just to cover his own butt).
It is allowed and you may make uniform corrections on a Soldier’s/Sailor’s uniform. And it is not “corrective punishment” it’s “corrective training”. Happens every day, all week long, and twice on Sundays.
I remember going through Army basic during the VN era, and while on the rifle ranges, the drill sargeants would carry around metal paddles that looked like a mini stop sign on a broomstick. Troops who pointed a weapon anywhere but down range or up would routinely get hit on the steel helmet with the paddle hard enough to sound like a minor car crash. Some who had it happen said it made their ears ring for about half a day.
Nobody gave it a second thought; it was kind of funny in a sick sort of way.
I would’ve been in the brig as well. As a PO1 and an LPO, there were times when I wish I could’ve done more than what I was legally allowed, but I did have a lot of restraint I showed.
Hondo. There is more. This CMC was on the war path. He was not well liked. The Chief of the Sailor would have ended this if the Chief’s Mess had respect for the CMC. But, seemingly what is being reported by the Navy PAO is a simple assault of a uniform. What I say it was: a unqualified junior MCPO, who was not respected by the crew, got screwed for acting like an ass!
The last time I touched a Sailor in the performance of my duties as a MCPO was to load the lifeless body into a ambulance.
These days you can’t touch anyone. And even if you want to touch yourself … You better draw the blinds!
Sorry, but the school of thought I was raised under and led to believe is that if you have to put your hands on someone to make a point, you’ve failed as a leader and become a bully.
YMMV. No reason for the CMC to do this, even if the junior sailor was jacked up or said something disrespectful.
I got choked out by my ds. And yes I deserved it.
You fucked up on the range at benning you got your ass tackled. And the shit smoked out of you.
@20.
Roger that.
Nobody fires COs/senior enlisted like the Navy…CMC Helwick has lots of company. Attachment is from article above.
http://www.navytimes.com/article/99999999/CAREERS/302050309
Damn it takes an act of god to make e9 in the navy. I’d hit up that retirement packet.
This is the same generation that cried to the MCPON when they were yelled at the first week of chiefs’ induction (or 365 or whatever they want to call it). We stood training Down for 48 hours to “reexamine” our process….
We’ve gone from one extreme to the other. For the longest times, you could just about get away with anything regarding discipline in the ranks. Now, you can’t even raise your voice without someone bitching about “poor command climate”.
It’s the military, it’s supposed to be tough. SUCK IT UP, BUTTERCUP !
@20, DITTO at “Fort Lost-in-the-Woods”!
I wonder how much of this kinda thing is because of other crap the guy’s pulled.
I also wonder how much more of this kinda thing we’ll be seeing due to planned troop reductions.
This is a “war crime” according to liberals EO types now, but a gay guy grabbing you unwantedly in the shower is just a reason for your getting sensitivity training to be more accepting.
Nik, MCPO: I’d guess you’re each quite possibly correct. My personal guess would be that this isn’t the first time and that the guy has been told, quietly, to “tone things down” at least once before.
I could easily be wrong.
@28,
And how many times have you or anyone you know been grabbed unwantedly by “a gay guy in the shower”?
I’m sure the kid the got snatched up has probably had run ins with the CMC before, but as several other’s have pointed out the CMC has probably been warned to keep it in check. There’s more to this story, I think.
MCRD San Diego during August, 1986: I once saw a DI pick up a recruit under the chin, like Darth Vader, and raise him off the deck about 3 inches. Funniest thing I ever saw. The recruit being corrected was a street punk from some gang in Chicago, and the DI’s hated his ass.
No… he didn’t graduate with us. He went UA to “rejoin his gang” and we never saw him again. Those of us who saw the choking incident checked our own behavior, though (at least those of us who had any inkling of intelligence).
I, for one, spent A LOT of time on the quarterdeck.
@ 17: MCPO NYC USN (Ret.) In December of 1967 (I’m proud to say I was inducted on Pearl Harbor Day!), when I began my Basic Combat Training in Company D, 3d Battalion, 1st Brigade, at Fort Lewis, Washington, there had recently been publicized scandals of recruits dying at United States Marine Corps boot camps. Thus, we recruits were instructed that no drill sergeant could put his hands on us, and the only names they were allowed to insult us with were “meatball” and “maggot”. But, I still had a drill sergeant confront me privately and threaten to beat me up. Complain? Not me! I just did my best to survive that Basic Combat Training, and barely made it. It was a good thing the United States Marine Corps wouldn’t let me enlist. Their Boot Camp probably would have killed me, or maybe I’d have been sent home in disgrace, like in the Hollywood movie, “BABY BLUE MARINE”. In 1969, when I a Private First Class stationed at Spangdahlem Air Force Base, in Germany, with Team A-2, 11th Air Defense Signal Battalion, 32d Army Air Defense Command, my team leader, a Staff Sergeant, got mad and kicked me right in the butt. He IMMEDIATELY apologized, probably fearing charges and/or the end of his military career. But, I was just a dumb Private First Class, and didn’t realize the sergeant had done anything a sergeant wasn’t supposed to do. So, the work continued. ________________________________ Anyway, Chief, I’m now addressing YOU personally, recalling an earlier posting, which is WAAAAY off topic. The problem is I’ve never been able to figure out how this forum works. So, I apologize for being off topic at this time. Do you remember when we discussed the military deserters who were given sanctuary in Sweden? At the time that I learned all of this stuff, I was a Private First Class stationed at Spangdahlem Air Force Base, in Germany, with Team A-2, 11th Air Defense Signal Battalion, 32d Army Air Defense Command, and all I know is what the NCOs told me. Being a brand new ignorant… Read more »
@20 & 21 Same thing at Parris Island, Camp Geiger, and anywhere else for that matter. I catch myself (the not-so-salty LCPL I was) almost grabbing friends’ muzzles when they are about to flag me…hell, I even did it to my wife.
I got “corrected” many-a-time, I don’t see the big deal, but judging from the comments maybe MCPO was out of line.
Correction to my last statement: when life-threatening issues are involved, I can see an immediate physical “correction”, but uniform standards? Sorry, yeah, the guy might have been a dirtbag who needed some EMI or even a mast if he had mouthed off to the CMC, but not grabbing him. The pendulum has swung too far the other way, and his career wasn’t worth some dipshit E-2 (or whatever) fucked up aquaflage.
@34 – You’re correct, but I’m sure you’d agree there’s a difference between folks who need a stern speaking to and then those who just need a good ass-stomping.
At first glance, I’d say the CMC went overboard in this case, but then again -I wasn’t there.
I never laid a hand on any of the soldiers in my supply room… I was worse. I think the worst problem correction I did was when I caught a soldier with his hands in his pockets about five times in a single day… So, I used some of our velcro straps to fashion a pair of cuffs and connected a chock block to each one for him to wear the entirety of the next day.
The little piss-ant tried to go to the First Sergeant about it, and Top extended it to a week.
@32 – more likely some MOS’ were not needed in Vietnam. As an aexample – you have a Polish, German, or Czech linguist in one of several MOS – they could easily do an entire career in Germany. I heard of ONE Czech lingie in Vietnam when another linguist thought he might have intercepted a Czech transmission, but never heard verification or met the poor bastard concerned.
Re dispatching killers – you see how dead Manning or Snowden are? Tall tale…..
The Russian who was killed in the famous ‘umbrella’ killing was killed by the KGB, not CIA.
David: the man killed in the “umbrella murder” – Georgi Markov – was Bulgarian. Per published sources it’s generally thought to have been the Bulgarian CSS vice the KGB who killed him, though it’s also thought that the KGB provided assistance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgi_Markov
They would beat you over the helmet with a steel paddle if you screwed up on the range when I came in.
I got in hot water a few years ago for hurting an airman’s feelings. I am retiring next year before some fool hugs me.
I know Rick Helwick. I served with him on USS Abraham Lincoln and he was an outstanding supervisor and Sailor. He mentored me during my first tour and I learned a lot from him. I am positive that there is more to this story than we know.