When I was in the Navy the officer quarters were maintained exclsuively by stewards mates, who were almost exclusively Filipinos. There was some sort of political thing going on that I never did fully understand, but it seemed that that service was a path to American citizenship. I do know advancement was slow.
Anyway, I was wondering if that had changed. Is there still a steward rating, and are most still Fiipinos? There did begin to be a couple non-Filipinos at the end of my enlistment in '68.
Much of the general construction-type labor and electrical work on US bases in Iraq are done by Filipinos. But they’re just pawns in big money DOD contracts with stateside companies. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Navy currently used third country nationals to clean ships as well.
But these guys aren’t in the military in any way. Hell, they’re not even DOD Contractors. They’re more like sub-contractees. Pitty. Many of them are exceptionally hard workers.
If I was going to get out my broad brush of observational reinforcement, I’d say that Filipinos are without a doubt the least lazy of all the TCN and LN laborers we use. Hell, in order from lazy slugs to ass-busting studs, I’d rate civilian workers something like this:
Pakistani, Iraqi, United States, Nepaleze, Ugandan, Filipino.
It’s interesting to learn that we used to do it similar in the past but allowed them to be actual military personnel. I’m now curious to learn if the Navy still does this. I’d bet it’s all fallen to DOD Contracts awarded to American Companies utilizing dirt cheap third country labor.
The Steward rating was the only option for Filipinos for many years. The Navy finally realized that this was tantamount to indentured servitude and that these guys were not being given the same choices as other Navy men. In the 70s, the option to change ratings was offered to Filipinos and there was a huge transition.
I remember a lot of them coming over to the Seabee (construction) ratings, which had the unfortunate result of closing down advancement opportunities for all of us, since there were now too many people in those ratings. This, along with the fact that most of these guys were not qualified to be electricians, carpenters, etc., resulted in a lot of anger towards our Filipino shipmates for many years. I remember my workload increasing dramatically, as I not only had to plan my own projects, but had to tutor a guy who was senior to me in how to plan HIS projects as well. That was the microscopic view. Fairness was the overview, but you can’t see that when your paycheck is being affected.
I was stationed on a forward-deployed big-deck amphib for the last 3 years in Japan. A sizable portion of our crew was Filipino (and probably still is – they like being stationed over there, and frequently re-tour in the same place or transfer closeby). They’re very much actual, contributing members of the US Navy (many have made it to E7 and higher), and while a large portion of them are CS rating (Culinary Specialists AKA Cooks, formerly MS or Mess Management Specialist, also in charge of maintenance and cleanliness of officer quarters like your former Stewards) and SK (Storekeepers AKA “Supply”), there are also quite a few branching out into the more technical fields (Electrician’s Mates, Machinist’s Mates, Electronics Technicians, Information Systems Technicians, Avionics, Fuels, etc). It was not uncommon to walk through the mess halls amongst the boistrous chattering of the Filipino language. As it was explained to me, it’s still a viable path to US citizenship for them.
New to me. I was on a LPD for three years.
This one appears to be a helo (+other VTOs) carrier with a well deck below for the smaller amphibs. Do they also carry a buncha Marines? Is it real gator, or more like a carrier?
I was on an LHD, WASP-class (LHD-2 USS Essex). It’s as gator as gator gets 
Plus lots more birds.
I was on a cruiser in the mid-90s. There were about ten Filipinos on our ship - about par for the course at that time. Plus you saw reminders of the heavy Filipino contribution in the Navy in other ways - when I was stationed in Sicily one of my best friends there was a woman who was half-Italian and half-Filipino. Her dad had been in the Navy a generation before I was stationed there and met her mom, an Italian national. When the marriage went south mom and the kids moved home.
i joined the navy in 1970 and was sucked in to the steward rating. I found out later it was because they needed Caucasians for the rating. When i got to San Diego for the A school the yeoman checking me in says" oh your gonna with the slope heads’ I said what dos that mean? He says the stewards are all Filipinos. It turns out to be the same school as the commissary men go through with some exceptions. I immediately tried to get my rate changed, figured it would be easy, same school, wrong… Do to manpower shortages they wouldn’t let me change rates. This theme would carry on for four years. When i got assigned to my ship there were three of us. One guy just refused to do the job, got captains mast, went to the deck force, where he wanted to be and was perfectly happy. I continued to request a change of rate and was always approved by my command, but bupers wasn’t having it. When i had two years in i volunteered to reenlist for 4yrs for a change or rate, no dice. I volunteered for every shit detail that came down the pipe to get out of what i was doing, drove my Filipino chief crazy. On my last cruise to the middle east i got trained for the ships landing party. I loved it , had found my niche, even got a letter of commendation. I got out in October 1974. Guess what shortly after that they combined the stewards with commissary men I would have shipped over for that!!
Gosh, that is a little difficult to read. All good stuff though.
sorry cicero for the rambling dissertation, but even though its40yrs ago it has always stuck in my craw. I loved the navy life but could never understand their mentality. I tried to go back in 1983 but found the mentality was still the same. I did do a year with Michigan National Guard, but the Army is a whole different animal
yeeds man george it has changed but not soon enough for me. i ended up the only white steward on my ship. I did the job but let them know every chance i got i wasnt happy. But i also got away with a lot of crap. I really learned about discrimination first hand. I wasnt allowed to eat with the crew, because my rations were part of the wardroom mess. There was no real place to ear except in the corner sitting on a garbage can, the galley was very small. I did learn how to cook and i did enjoy that part. I t was a life experience. I decided if i can do this job, i can do anything.
Egads - zombie stewards! But I can relate to these tales. As Chefguy and others have pointed out, the large contingent of Phillippinos in the navy is a result of a special agreement between the two countries, no doubt stemming from the days of American occupation. It was one of very few cases where foreign nationals were welcomed into the U.S. armed forces. (there was also a similar situation with Panama).
By the time I joined the Seabees - about 30 years ago - the limitations on duties had been lifted. Many of them who had stayed in had gone into the Seabees, most had made chief petty officer, and for some reason a large portion had drifted into recruit training…probably because of the generous opportunities to yell and strut.
I know it is wrong to engage in stereotyping and I try to avoid it, but it is impossible to avoid some generalities when discussing Phillippino CPO’s. They usually spoke with a heavy accent. Their first language was Spanish, spoken with an add Asiatic burr and their English could be well-nigh unintelligible, especially when spoken fast and at high volumn. Huh…wha? is not an appropriate response to a chief…better to say “yes chief” and take your best guess at what he was trying to say. If you got it wrong they’d be sure to let you know.
They were all about 5 feet tall and had volcanic tempers. You just haven’t lived until you’ve stood at attention in ranks at 6:00 a.m. and been subjected to a stream of high-pitched invective directed at your collar button from 2 inches away. When they really got in a high dudgeon they sounded like Donald Duck on steroids.
Only once did I ever see one of these strutting little martinets brought down, and it was an experience to treasure. In our unit was a big, goofy recruit from the hills of Tennessee…we called him Beetly Baily, as he was, in fact, a monumental goof-off. On the morning in question we were standing in ranks recieving a “courtesy inspection” from a particularly notorious “mini-chief”. It was the 5th week of basic training, we all had the “recruit crud” and the air was rife with sneezing hacking and other unpleasantness. “Beetle” was in the second rank, standing miserably at full attention and making a valiant effort to supress a sneeze. The chief stepped smartly in front of him, raking him fore and aft with his eagle eye and finding much to disapprove of, unleashed his scorn.
Beetle, who must have been hoarding that massive sneeze for the opportune moment let go. It was a mighty, pent-up wha-CHOO well-laced with spittle, phlegm and halitosis, discharged into the chief’s upturned face at point blank range. Beetle, quite properly remained rigidly at attention, eyes front, with not a trace of joy in his demeanor. He gave a single mighty snuffle and mumbled “sorry sir, ah’ve got a cold”. You can imagine how we all felt. Military discipline be damned, we all roared with laughter. I glanced over at the company commander, watching from the sidelines, and was relieved to see that he was laughing as hard as anyone. The unfortunate chief was rendered temporarily speechless…he tried to work up a good tantrum, but the words just wouldn’t come. He had completely lost face, not to mention recieving a full exposure to the dreaded “crud”. With any luck, he’d be too ill for the last few weeks 'til we graduated to initiate any revenge on the company.
SS