# Ahoy Navy Personnel, Accuracy of "In The Navy" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 20, 2017, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ahoy-navy-personnel-accuracy-of-in-the-navy/777661 "2017-01-20T20:11:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2017, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ahoy-navy-personnel-accuracy-of-in-the-navy/777661/41 "2017-01-22T21:39:33Z")
ETA to **SCAdian** Ah. Hard to get privacy in a boat. What do the heads work like, as to privacy and layout? ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2017, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ahoy-navy-personnel-accuracy-of-in-the-navy/777661/42 "2017-01-24T23:00:16Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Hard to get privacy in a boat. What do the heads work like, as to privacy and layout? CO and XO share a head: shower and toilet, and possibly a urinal. The other officers share a head: shower, toilet, and urinal. The JOs bunking in the nine-man bunkroom have to walk maybe 25-30 feet to get to the head. The goat locker (chiefs’ quarters) has a head: shower, toilet, and two(?) sinks. There are usually around 14-15 chiefs on board; twelve sleep in the goat locker, and the others usually in forward berthing. The middle-level head has one urinal, two showers, three toilets, and four sinks. These are shared by the people in forward berthing (24 bunks), aft berthing (39), and nine-man (nine) – that’s 72 people, less wardroom and goat locker overflow, plus however many extra hot-rackers there are. It can get a little crowded in there… 😃 The lower-level head has a shower, a toilet, and two sinks, and is used by the occupants of the 21-man bunkroom and those unfortunate enough to have berths in the torpedo room. Six showers, seven toilets, and two or three urinals (and 117 bunks) to be shared by a crew of around 135… ---
**Author:** ![Annoying\_Buzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Annoying\_Buzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annoying_Buzz)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2017, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ahoy-navy-personnel-accuracy-of-in-the-navy/777661/43 "2017-01-25T05:51:15Z")
Our navy apparently has some nice dance numbers. All aboard the [Seaman Ship!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNdPPEwguDQ) And yes, that really is a recruitment ad for the Japan Self-Defense Force Navy. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2017, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ahoy-navy-personnel-accuracy-of-in-the-navy/777661/44 "2017-01-26T15:21:43Z")
Love this old SNL Navy recruiting-ad spoof: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhioeOeOHsA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhioeOeOHsA) > [@astorian](#): > > Yes, it’s a man’s life in the modern Navy. May I take this opportunity of emphasizing that there is no cannibalism in the Navy? Absolutely none, and when I say none, I mean there is a certain amount, more than we are prepared to admit, but all new ratings are warned that if they wake up in the morning and find any toothmarks at all anywhere on their bodies, they’re to tell me immediately so that I can immediately take every measure to hush the whole thing up. And, finally, necrophilia is right out. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2017, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ahoy-navy-personnel-accuracy-of-in-the-navy/777661/45 "2017-01-26T17:36:11Z")
> [@BeepKillBeep](#): > > According to the song “In the Navy” by the Village People there’s a lot of stuff you can or will do in the navy\*. > > - > - Focusing on the US Navy but if somebody has something really cool to add about their local navy that’s fine with me. You are aware, I take it, of Churchill’s riposte to some hidebound Admiral telling him that some wheeze of his wasn’t in accordance with the traditions of the Royal Navy? Churchill told him that, as far as we was aware, the tradition of the Navy was rum, sodomy and the lash. I suspect this may have been borrowed from some other source: George Melly later used as the title for his memoirs of life in the Navy the phrase _Rum, Bum and Concertina_. ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2017, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ahoy-navy-personnel-accuracy-of-in-the-navy/777661/46 "2017-01-26T18:26:23Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > Churchill told him that, as far as we was aware, the tradition of the Navy was rum, sodomy and the lash. I suspect this may have been borrowed from some other source: George Melly later used as the title for his memoirs of life in the Navy the phrase _Rum, Bum and Concertina_. I had never heard that before. Thanks for sharing it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2017, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ahoy-navy-personnel-accuracy-of-in-the-navy/777661/47 "2017-01-26T21:16:31Z")
> [@velomont](#): > > A good one, but not one that I’ve heard. A popular one in my day was about a Naval Cadet getting reamed out by the Capt on the bridge of a minesweeper. The Cadet then supposedly took his nav notebook and flipped it open like a Star Trek (TOS) communicator and said “Beam me up Scotty! No intelligent life down here.” Pretty sure his career would have ended before it ever got started. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2017, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ahoy-navy-personnel-accuracy-of-in-the-navy/777661/48 "2017-01-26T21:31:04Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > On the DVD for the “McHale’s Navy” tv Series, there is a discussion between several cast members. Ernest Borgnine says that Navy told him that McHale’s navy was the best recruiting tool they had. “Stripes” isn’t very different from “McHale’s Navy”, assuming Borgnine was accurate. My Dad said that the peacetime army, at least for senior Noncoms (of which he was one) was more like The Phil Silvers Show, aka You’ll Never Get Rich aka Sergeant Bilko. ---
**Author:** ![JHBoom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/13edae/32.png) [@JHBoom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JHBoom)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2017, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ahoy-navy-personnel-accuracy-of-in-the-navy/777661/49 "2017-01-26T22:03:30Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Reception wasn’t horrible. It was mostly confusing. And really really cold. But that’s what I get for joining in February. It’s only a few days long (can’t remember exactly how much). It was mostly getting a lot of logistical issue out of the way before you are turned over to your training platoon. Uniforms and gear are issued. Lots of paperwork. Shots maybe? It was almost thirty years ago. I remember the worst part was wanting to get it over with. I just wanted to get done with Basic and move on. Reception meant you weren’t there yet. The clock didn’t start ticking until Basic started. Reception was like purgatory. Receiving at MCRD Parris Island was very similar (I even went in February as well, on a Tuesday) in the early '90s. I actually found myself thinking on Thursday that it wasn’t so bad… then [Black Friday](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_PeamfAzeo) came. > [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Who gets, or gets to call top bunk? I can’t speak for the officers and gentlemen, but in the handful of times I was afloat in the Marines as E-5 and below, whoever got their seabag on a rack first owned that rack. If you were slow getting down to the berthing area when you first got aboard, for any reason, you found yourself in the bad locations… like right by the hatch to the berthing area, or the racks closest to the deck (on LHAs and LPHs, that meant everyone’s nasty feet and boots in your face). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ahoy-navy-personnel-accuracy-of-in-the-navy/777661.md?page=2)