As I talk about Diversity to people there are times when I like to share some of the stories and experiences, I have been a part of, have witnessed or retelling someone else’s story.
When I was active-duty Navy, we used to listen to stories told to us by other shipmates whether it was while at work, in the enlisted club or just lounging around the barracks. Sometimes these tales would be a bit towards science fiction but there was always a way to tell if what someone was telling you was true or not. We always knew if something started off with the phrase “This is a no shitter” that it was more than likely a true rendition and we listened a little closer.
This is a “no shitter”.
After I finished boot camp in San Diego, California and my “A” and “C” schools in Pensacola, Florida I received orders to my first duty station – Naval Security Group Activity Todendorf, German. This was a small activity in northern Germany sitting on the grounds of a German Army base. We were small, perhaps 200 – 210 people all told – including dependents.
There were not very many minorities on the command at this time. I recall only three at the time I was there. One young black male that was one of our comms persons and, one Hispanic gentleman who was our administrative type and, myself – operator/analyst. There were no enlisted women in our project at this time.
We were a 24-hour operation, so we stood rotating shifts to make sure operations were continuous. One day my supervisor, who was a senior enlisted E6 (First Class Petty Officer) came out on the watch floor at the end of our last watch and informed us that when we returned to watch in 3 days to report to a training room located in one of the other buildings. Of course, we all were curious as it was odd to pull the whole watch section off the floor for training, so we asked him what training we were all going to attend. With a disgruntled look on his face and in his voice, he told us “We are attending Watermelon U”.
Being the young, naive 19 year that I was I had no clue what he was talking about. Watermelon U? Our three-day break ended all too quick and it was time to get back to work and as ordered we all reported to the training room for our 2-day class. Watermelon U, as so politely put by my supervisor, turned out to be a diversity training class. At this time the focus was on race relations training that had been mandated by DoD only two years earlier and there was a big push to get the training out to even the smallest of stations.
It was my first experience diversity training and what an experience. Imagine a young lady trying to give her training to a class of white males, from various regions of the U.S. and most were senior enlisted. As I look back on the class now, I feel sorry for that young lady. She took it rough. You could see at times that she was almost to the point of walking out but one of the officers had gathered everyone together during a break and told them to cut out the heckling and giving her a hard time. She made it thru the second day free from the snide remarks and comments. I do remember some of the more senior enlisted trying to egg me on. The training was wrapped around the black/white issues and relationships. So, with a Hispanic last name they tired to coerce me into asking questions like “What about Mexicans” Although young and being intimidated by more senior enlisted I had the sense not to do that.
I ended up becoming great friends with a lot of the sailors there and things eventually go smoothed over. Yes, there were a couple of other race related incidents that occurred, but we will deliver those stories later.
I ended up doing twenty years in the Navy, a lot of good times and some bad but a definite learning experience when it came to diversity and inclusion. Meeting and speaking with people from around the U.S. and around the world provides one the insight of different cultures, languages, religions, and life.
Always learning, always seeing.
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