Lets get some active duty servicemembers to post items of interest to us old soldiers, I for one am interested in what has changed since I retired in 1991.

Well, most of the active duty types, especially the younger ones probably want to talk about everything but 'shop.'

Keeping that in mind, how do you attract anyone, AD or otherwise, to a site?

I would say that we keep promoting the site and hope we can get their interest.

Hell, I just started this whole Navy thing, and I don't mind talkin' shop one bit.
What're you interested in what's changed? I think they changed the Core Values since '91- I believe in '95 or '96 they changed 'em to "Honor, Courage, and Commitment".

What were the Navy's core values pre-95 or 96?

You mean they changed their motto or something?

I do know that overall standards have risen since the mid 80s. I went in, in 88 and it was a one strike world and you were gone.

But we had a few hangers-on, guys who were barely at E6 and nearing their 20, just hanging on for dear life. A list of NJPs and mediocre fitness reports.

Yeah, they were Professionalism, Integrity, and Tradition- when they revised the Navy into a more 'accepting' one, they got rid of those because, apparently, they were being used as an excuse for bigotry and whatnot. So we stole the Marine's Core Values.
The bar's still raised, too. They got this program called ENCORE now (which is an acronym for something)... basically, it's a board that decides if any given E-1 - E-6 in their first term or two is eligable to reenlist. If you got mediocre or poor evals, or failed more than one fitness report, guess what? You're not reenlisting.

Things like that always sound good on paper, and I do believe fewer allowable strikes produces a better group of people, but some good ones inevitably fall through the cracks.

Nothing's perfect though.

I agree. Take ENCORE. If your DivO/Chief/LPO/etc gots it bad for you, they can basically guarantee you won't have a career by ensuring you get no better than 'Promotable' with maybe one 'Must Promote'. In combination with 'boosting' the evals of some other sailor planning on reenlisting, that'd make you ineligible for reenlistment.

But don't you guys still do a lot of actual testing for promotion as well? True, a couple of mediocre remarks from a single commander and that could spell serious trouble but if you also score high enough, that might offset the "mad" chief, or whomever.

My problem was sometimes butting heads with superiors whom I regarded as sub-par leaders. I was almost always right but I was, to turn a phrase, fighting and dieing on the wrong hills.

Proverbs says that discretion will preserve you. That'll go along way if applied correctly.

Yes, of course there's still the same testing for the promotion phase (which evals can help with, but you can get promoted even if you got a stack of NJPs if you score on the test high enough). The thing is, ENCORE doesn't account for your test scores on advancement exams- ENCORE's decision is formed completely from evals and input from your superiors.
And I can relate to your problem with sub-par leaders- I think that everyone runs into that problem within about a month of reporting to their first command, regardless of branch. The trick is to learn to ignore that bullsh--t and try to get to a position where you can't be screwed as bad by said superior.

You guys should make decals and shirts sorta like the PT shirts gray with black letters. And have raffles or an online shop for just promotional items. Eh just an idea. Also maybe throw in things for just verterans to win or just enlisted to win and so on. Maybe that would help? I just started coming here but I think this is an awesome site.

Have you talked to Tow Gunner about your idea?