The only thing that comes to mind for me is that toocrazy2yoo may be referring to maintenance requirements that are not black and white, but may fall into a gray area.
For what it’s worth, all maintenance requirements (and procedures, for that matter) on the reactor components of a nuclear vessel are clearly black and white. In fact, any violation of the Reactor Plant Manual (RPM) must be reported to to Naval Reactors, no matter how trivial.
This reminds me of the old saying in the Navy (of which there are many variants):
A submariner can only do something if the procedures say he can.
A skimmer [surface warfare] can do anything unless the procedures say he can’t.
An aviator just thinks, "It’s easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission.
From my experience in the Canadian Forces, there is a time and place to offer advice. While orders are being given back at base, camp, etc. sure although you shouldn’t interrupt. But there is nothing wrong with saying “Sir, back in phase 2, what if we come under fire from the left? We’d be pretty exposed.” A good officer will take that into consideration and either amend the plan or explain why it needs to be the way it is. In the middle of a situation where rapid response is required (e.g. combat) is not the right time or place.
I want to qualify my reply a bit. A second-in-command (2IC) might offer an alternative, even if in a tense situation. So if the platoon leader order to go up street A, the 2IC might suggest “maybe we should take street B it has better cover?” But that’s part of the 2IC’s role. An officer can’t notice or consider everything. That second pairs of eyes and the second mind of somebody who is typically a senior NCO has a lot of experience, is invaluable.
