It's Your Ship

Abrashoff discusses the formalities of rank and seniority within the Navy. He takes issue with some of the ways this system of formality tends to create a class system within a ship and says that he set out to “chip away” at it (93). He asserts that in his view, only results matter, and he used this outlook to inform his interaction with his crew. One of the things he did was instead of eating away from his crew, he dined with them. He also waited at the back of the line to receive his food. This caught fellow officers and crew members off-guard. Eventually, the crew came to respect this and the ship’s formal rigidity was replaced by a more collegial environment. Abrashoff points out that his crew still respected his rank and did not usually act in any subordinate or disrespectful manner toward him. Eating with the crew signaled to those on the ship that Abrashoff valued the importance of teamwork and the idea that everyone on the ship, regardless of rank, had the same goal in mind: ultimate combat readiness. When the Benfold was visited by a commodore as part of a routine check-in, Abrashoff invited the man to dine with him, which meant that the commodore ate with the crew.