Quartermaster

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[vftb]

There's been a specific request for this board (and it wasn't by me  ); but I can spell Quartermaster   

[BM1339]

What's a Quartermaster?  

New Guard, sends

[Jack]

Now Hans, both you and Ron be nice to the young man when you respond to his question - he knoweth not the dangerous waters he is navigating.

[EX-CG-GM]

What's a Quartermaster?  

New Guard, sends

 

And the answer is......? Hans, would you care you field that question?     

[BuoyJumper]

Now Hans, both you and Ron be nice to the young man when you respond to his question - he knoweth not the dangerous waters he is navigating.

    What are you talking about Master Chief?     I was no BRIDGE PUSSY!  I was on the deck force with the BMs. 
Everybody knows that QMs were only BM wannabes, the REAL ship drivers were BMs. 

That's why the CG absorbed QM into the BM rating, all that was needed to replace them was a computer.      .........     

[EX-CG-GM]

Now Hans, both you and Ron be nice to the young man when you respond to his question - he knoweth not the dangerous waters he is navigating.

    What are you talking about Master Chief?     I was no BRIDGE PUSSY!  I was on the deck force with the BMs. 
Everybody knows that QMs were only BM wannabes, the REAL ship drivers were BMs. 

That's why the CG absorbed QM into the BM rating, all that was needed to replace them was a computer.      .........     

Uh-huh....it took a computer because ya' sure as hell couldn't find a BM that could send and receive flashing light, manage the signal flags AND use semaphore; much less figger out how to navigate from point A to point B.  Anything more sophisticated then a chipping hammer tends to confuse a BM....

 

[BuoyJumper]

Now Hans, both you and Ron be nice to the young man when you respond to his question - he knoweth not the dangerous waters he is navigating.

    What are you talking about Master Chief?     I was no BRIDGE PUSSY!  I was on the deck force with the BMs. 
Everybody knows that QMs were only BM wannabes, the REAL ship drivers were BMs. 

That's why the CG absorbed QM into the BM rating, all that was needed to replace them was a computer.      .........     

Uh-huh....it took a computer because ya' sure as hell couldn't find a BM that could send and receive flashing light, manage the signal flags AND use semaphore; much less figger out how to navigate from point A to point B.  Anything more sophisticated then a chipping hammer tends to confuse a BM....

 

The truth of the matter be told, you'll never replace a BM with a computer now will ya EX? That's cause everbody knows the BMs and the SNs do all the REAL work that needs to be done. ......     

[EX-CG-GM]

You are right.  I have yet to see a computer that could chip and scrape a buoy!  Or mebbe that just goes ta show computers are smarter then BM's!

Hey, my brother retired from the CG as a W4 Bos'n, so I have the right to make fun of them!   

I was contemplating changing my rate but then bought that friggin' motorcycle!  Ended up not changing my rate, ended up changing my career!  Dammit!   

[vftb]

I'll just sit back and watch  , you guys are doing a better job than I could 

But I do seem to remember some conventional wisdom that went something like "If you can't make rate, go Boatswain's Mate" 

[MastersMate]

What's a Quartermaster ???

As far as the Coast Guard is concerned?  When the Quartermaster rating and the Boatswains Mate rating were disestablished in 2003, and re-established as the new "deck rating " that adopted the  BM name, the QM was the only continuous "seamans branch" rating original to the CG and the Revenue Cutter service from at least the 1890s.

The CG use of the Boatswains Mate enlisted rating came about in 1920, five years after the CG was established. The CG and RCS "deck" rating was called Coxswain. The old CG BM was a lot of different specialties thrown together.

I'd guess you could kind of look at it like doing pedigree papers for a puppy. The Quartermaster
rating might read something like, Mother - Wheelman,  Father - Quartermaster.
 The BM might be along the line of: Mother - Coxswain , Father - Olympic class fence jumper.  

[Jack]

Buoy Jumper - color me mistaken - permit me to buy you several rounds, make that all your rounds at the club tonight - I must be suffering from a severe case of CRS today (must be seeing the snow fly by the window) - Hans why don't you join us too, Master Mate and EX-CG-GM you guys might as well come on over also-the night is on me     

[vftb]

You don't have to ask me twice   

[vftb]

Back to the matter at hand:  There was nothing I didn't enjoy about being a QM.  Strange for a Coastie, but I probably liked the signaling part of it the best; I made up my stubborn, German mind that I was going to be the hottest SM in the Guard, don't know if I ever succeeded  , but there weren't many squids that could burn me on the light (around Vietnamese waters, there were plenty to give it a shot).  There were few things more satisfying than laying out a DR course and getting to where you needed to be, or establishing an ETA four days ahead of time and arriving within an hour or two.  Although grinding through the math of interprelating (sp? )  Loran C signals was kind of tedious, laying down three signals and pinpointing yourself in mid-ocean was always a thrill.   What's not to like about being at the helm at Special Sea Detail or at GQ up some river  .  Little story I told a while back:  I couldn't paint worth ****, so when we had duty, in port, instead of letting me paint out in the hot sun, the chief made me update the Notice to Mariners in the relatively cool Chart Room  .

To me, all of the above is what a Quartermaster was 

[mike220]

Ah, QM, the rating I walked into the recruiters office wanting to be. Unfortunately, they got rid of it 7 months after I got out of Cape May.  I did manage to get in good with a QMCM (who went kicking and screaming to the exchange to get his BMCM crows) who taught me a lot of stuff, including cel nav, semaphore and lights but it just wasn't the same as doing it as a full time job. And I didn't want to go BM and take the chance spending my career in the Bosn Hole rather than on the bridge.

[kmkeyser]

You know, gents, I think the fact that I went to OCS to become an officer, rather than become a BM, kinda sums it up.  Not that I don't have an immense amount of respect for most of the BM's I have served with, but it just wasn't for me.

Turn's out the pay's quite a bit better over here in "O" country too.  (and the spinectomy and lobotomy didn't hurt a bit!)