Entry 89
Date: Thursday, June 22, 2000 Time: 9:31 AM EST
Email=
Name= Allan Marshall
Served= 1968-1970
Ship / Unit= Desron 14, USS Robert K. Huntington (DD-781)
Age= 53
City= Manassas
State= Virginia
Zip= 20110
Country= United States
Phone= 703-368-7626
A URL to share= No
How did you find this site?= From a Search Engine
Reasons for reading about the Vance= Vance/Naval history
Comments= In the summer 1968 I read Neil Sheehan's account of the antics of LCDR Marcus Arnheiter in the Sunday New York Times Magazine section and felt very uneasy. A few weeks later I would enter active duty as a naval reservist, requesting assignment to a destroyer but apprehensive that the C.O. would be another Marcus Arnheiter. Nothing could be further from the truth.
   My ship the R.K. Huntington (DD 781) was commanded by Cdr. L.J. Zavanovec, a decent, fair C.O. who respected his crew. My tour WesPac aboard this tin can was a wonderful experience, in large measure to the leadership of Capt. Z. I remember when Huntington was in Yokosuka, Japan the unwritten rule was that purchases that could be safely stowed aboard ship could be brought aboard Huntington. This was in sharp contrast to what shipmates from my second destroyer told me. According to them, and I intentionally omit the name of my second ship, the C.O. refused purchases to be brought aboard saying something ! to the effect that stereo components, TVs etc. would weigh the ship down!
   Gimme a break! In brief, C.O.s have one heck of authority on the men (nowadays women) under their command, but regretably I don't feel there's enough checks and balances proportional to that authority. The late Admiral Elmo Zumwalt made sweeping innovations to correct that situation when he served as CNO, but I suspect his innovations have been chewed away and eroded. Here's hoping men and women who serve aboard ship will never relive the abuses of an Arnheiter, have the good fortune to serve under a Zvanovec, and accept the pettiness of C.O.s who don't respect the crew they command.
.
sign the log
 
 
 
Sign Vance's Logbook ~ Bridge ~ Top of Page ~ Photos ~ Stories ~ Facts