Jack, while in the process of educating that most astute bird RB, one must not totally revise the history of One, CNO Elmo Zumwalt. I was fortunate at the time of issuing Z-57 to have been the Senior Enlisted Advisor and the Shore Patrol Operations Officer for the Bremerton, Kitsap County including Keyport and Bangor. This Z Gram certainly did cause the hair on the back of ones neck to stand up and quiver. One must remember and give credit or blame on the lessening of grooming standards to the previous CNO Admiral Thomas Moore. I remember vividly accompanying Captain Bill Whitman (Captain Whitman was an outstanding Skipper, he was bringing a brand new Fleet Boat down the St Laurence Seaway ready to go to war when the war ended) on all his Personal inspections to those assigned to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard (PSNS). I remember he would encourage the various crews to not get to excited about the new regulations that the relaxed standards as many of us saw it were really not a major problem. When the Captain was done he always left the crew being inspected to me and would say Senior Chief Tucker the SEA will have a few words and dismiss you when he has completed his remarks. The Captain would leave so I felt very free to say exactly what I thought on the subject. My comments would be something along the following, The Captain is a fine Officer but we all know these new regulations are to be mostly ignored and that we must maintain the high standards that have historically made the Navy so great. I must have had a lapse of memory because I had completely forgot about the Pigtails, Beards, Sideburns and earrings that were part of the historical dress.

I also clearly, to be used as a synonym, of Vividly but hate to repeat myself, will RB understand this? Well anyway when I addressed the Shore Patrol Force individually by duty section, we had up to 70 men TAD for 90 days, the working uniform being worn to and from duty stations was the biggest concern. I told them to not get to excited, to let the dust settle for a while and every thing would shake out ok in the end. As you will note in Z-57 only clean neat uniforms were allowed to be worn back and forth to work. An over reaction to these new regulations was to be guarded against with great zeal.

The following is my understanding as to why there was so much consternation concerning CNO Elmo Zumwalt and Z-57. Senior Officers and Chief Petty Officers considered that the CNO was usurping much of the power that had historically been wielded by these groups and harbored great resentment towards the new CNO due to this usurpation, is RB still with us? This resentment caused the senior people previously mentioned to throw their arms up in disgust and to not enforce any control on grooming standards and the conditions of work uniforms being worn to and from work. We the Shore Patrol, had a serious problem with this and it was very clear to me that the commands were aggravating the situation by not enforcing any of the regulations. This abrogation of command responsibility caused serious problems, which caused some of the regs concerning the wearing of working uniforms to and from work to be modified somewhat. I believe that the identifying and elimination of these Chicken Shit Regulations were way overdue but again I can not overstate the problem command irresponsibility caused. Jack please read line by line of course with old RB of course and let me know what you specifically disagree with. One must also keep in mind that Elmo had a head to head with the Father of the Nuclear Navy you remember the short skinny fellow that got away with a set of my work kakhais one time. CDR I think at the time came out second best with the admiral with the three-legged stool and the propensity of asking the question, did you ever fuck your mother? Sorry RB I hope this does not cause your head to turn red. Well anyway the future CNO was turned down by the Father, so if you have any complaints about Zumwalt blame Rickover. I expect Rickover made many mistakes one most close to home on the 635 was one exceptional Officer LT Bill Clautice Both Zumwalt and Clautice went on to bigger and better things due to the Father and his stupid stool. When I reported aboard the Halibut I was amazed at the lack of grooming standards and respect to the senior officers and petty officers the slovenly appearance caused me to write an Engineering Dept Directive to shape up or ship out or some such tripe. Well I think I pissed off everyone from the Captain down to the most junior person not only in the engineering department but the entire Boat, keep in mind that A Division is still in Engineering even though they were not Nukes. This was very hard for A gang to understand. I have found a copy of this directive in the lower level vault and will enclose for RB perusal. I also found a copy of Z-gram 70, which further explains original intent of Z-57.

Jack I expect that RB is quick to learn but I would strongly suggest he not be exposed to this complete report all at one visit as he may be overcome with the great number of bits and bytes that need to be digested. Your Shippy, setting history of the subject straight for old RB. The old Snore, Gary