Can we agree that the Marines and the Navy both are groups designated with the responsibility of defending the United States in various manners? After all, you’re supposed to be fighting the other guys, not each other.
I wish I could’ve joined the Navy. Or the Marines. Or even the army or air farce! (Note which ones deserve to be capitalized ;)) Friggin’ snow skis and “Oh-we-don’t-want-people-with-damaged-knees” policy! :mad:
(Actually, if I’d been able to sign up, and had joined anything but the Navy, my dad – a “mustang” – would never have let me hear the end of it!)
I’ve been waiting for it, but nobody mentioned the reason Navy ships are painted haze grey. This color was determined to be optimum for blending into the always hazy horizon while at sea, and reducing superstructure shadows. This used to be critically important, before radar.
Coast Guard cutters are painted to enhance visibility – that diagonal stripe even provides an instant reference for direction of travel.
All of this is done to improve the mission of the various vessels, rather than strictly tradition. If some catastrophic atmospheric event occured tomorrow, causing the horizon to appear pink, you can bet the Navy would (eventually) decide to repaint the fleet.
Lastly, “Haze grey and underway” is universal U.S. Navy slang for “at sea”.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…Thanks, Dan, from whence the bottom of my heart. I was waiting for someone to actually answer the OP.
[Hijack] I always assumed the marines were the American navy. Now I find out they aren’t. So what exactly are they? [/hijack]
As to the OP, I have no idea.
Mousseduck, understandable, since “Marine” in other languages means “Navy”.
The United States Marine Corps are “one of a class of soldiers serving on shipboard or in close association with a naval force”. As part of the Department of the Navy, they are the naval landing force. They depend on the Navy for ships and landing craft, but they have their own helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft, armored vehicles, etc., and their rank structure is different from the Navy (i.e., 2nd LT, 1st LT, Captain, Major, instead of Ensign, LTJG (“Junior Grade”), LT, LT CDR and so on). They are famous for their amphibious assaults, the first of which was in the Bahamas in 1776. They have a very proud tradition of excellence, and consider themselves the elite force of the U.S. military. “Once a Marine, always a Marine.” Whoo-ah! 
For a brief history, check out Home
I still think they should bring back dazzle painting. But with lots of smiley faces. Or appropriate Navy slogans…
“Flaming explosives, delivered fresh!”
Yes, Haze Grey refers to the color of a skimmer. And Underway refers to the fact that the skimmer is at sea. But there’s another subtlety no one has yet brought up.
In my particular case, there was a period of nearly two and a half years between the time I reported for recruit training, and the day I stepped aboard my first sea duty ship. This time was spent in receiving the training that I contracted for under the terms of my enlistment (Nuclear Power program). Other enlistment programs available to new Navy recruits offered similar lengths of training. By contrast, some recruits (particularly those whose ASVABs did not qualify them for advanced training programs) were known to be at sea within two months of graduating from boot camp. Naturally, the training path that allows such a long period ashore before reporting for sea duty is not exactly an intellectual or physical walk in the park, and it was easy to drop out due to failure to meet training goals. “Haze Grey and Underway” was also the ominous fate that awaited the poor sucker who couldn’t pass “A” school, or Nuclear Power school, or the Nuclear Power Training Unit. See, flunking out didn’t void your enlistment contract, only the part where you got two years of shore duty and an enlistment bonus at the end of that.
Back to work.
Many things Navy are answered at this site, which has a hauntingly familiar name…
Kaylasdad, that brought back some memories. I went in to advanced avionics because nuclear, pardon me NOOK-YOO-LER, power and subs didn’t appeal to me. My training only took 18 months from the day I entered but I still remember the threats of being sent to the fleet if we failed a unit twice. It may seem ironic as the whole point of school was to go to the fleet but at least it wouldn’t be scrubbing shitters, cleaning bilges and scraping paint.
No one has told a good sea story yet and this is as good a place as any to do it. Whenever someone was in trouble and had to “stand tall before the man” at XOI or <shudder> captain’s mast, the standard word of encouragement was “you’ll be okay as long as you don’t take your dick out and shake it at him.” On my first cruise, working on top of an F-14, one of the electronics techs said “watch this.” He stood, unzipped and yelled out to one of our junior officers crossing the flight deck. “Hey, Lt. B*****. Hey, Lt. HEY!!!” When the officer turned I’ll be damned if he didn’t whip it out and shake it at the bastard. yagayagayaga. Any senior officer or a CPO would not have hesitated to climb up on the plane and given him a royal ass kicking but the Lt(Jg) just acted embarassed. He didn’t know if he should shit or go blind and eventually just walked away. I don’t know if he did it for a reason or just out of boredom but I have to admire a guy with the suntanned balls to do a stunt like that. The story is true and the officer’s name is in the credits to Top Gun
I had to stand at XOI once but my dingus stayed in its locker.
Two stories my late father told me:
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One day he was to call “stand by for sidearm inspection.” But it came out "stand to for short-arm inspection. The WAVES who were nearby started giggling. He thought he must’ve done something wrong… so he said it again!
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I don’t remember where in the world it was, but dad was an officer under a “by the book” captain. An admiral came to visit and had his daughter with him (uh-oh!). Dad was to entertain her for the day. He “borrowed” the captain’s gig and took her water skiing (dad was big into water skiing, once skiing from Long Beach to Catalina). She had a great time. Everything was fine until the admiral sent a note of thanks to the captain, singling out my father for showing his daughter such a wonderful time and thanking the captain for letting dad use the captain’s gig. “Lt. Woods! Report to the bridge!” The captain was aghast, sputtering something about sharks in the water, etc. But he let dad off because it wouldn’t look good if he’d disciplined him after being thanked by the admiral.
I’ve got such a woody from reading this thread…
padeye pretty well covered the OP.