PORTHOLE STRATEGY explained
In the 1970’s we had a maverick Supply Officer (of the erstwhile S&S Branch) on our ship (which was non-AC).
Once I went to him asking for advice about a letter from headquarters asking for some details about which I was clueless.
“Is the letter classified?” he asked.
“No,” I said.
“Throw it out of the porthole!” he said, “if a reminder comes, throw that out of the porthole too. By then you will be out of the ship.”
“And, if the letter is classified, then file it and forget about it,” he elaborated.
So, that was the gist of how to handle inconvenient letters: “If it was unclassified, throw it out of the porthole; if it was classified, file and forget.”
Nowadays, ships are air-conditioned and there may be no portholes – so this “porthole strategy” has probably become obsolete.
Also, the S&S branch was abolished and merged into the Executive Branch, but when some ex-S&S officers reached high rank and threatened to take over as CNS and CinC (since they were “Executive Officers” now), they re-created the S&S Branch in its new avatar – the Logistics Branch.
In the 1970’s we had a maverick Supply Officer (of the erstwhile S&S Branch) on our ship (which was non-AC).
Once I went to him asking for advice about a letter from headquarters asking for some details about which I was clueless.
“Is the letter classified?” he asked.
“No,” I said.
“Throw it out of the porthole!” he said, “if a reminder comes, throw that out of the porthole too. By then you will be out of the ship.”
“And, if the letter is classified, then file it and forget about it,” he elaborated.
So, that was the gist of how to handle inconvenient letters: “If it was unclassified, throw it out of the porthole; if it was classified, file and forget.”
Nowadays, ships are air-conditioned and there may be no portholes – so this “porthole strategy” has probably become obsolete.
Also, the S&S branch was abolished and merged into the Executive Branch, but when some ex-S&S officers reached high rank and threatened to take over as CNS and CinC (since they were “Executive Officers” now), they re-created the S&S Branch in its new avatar – the Logistics Branch.
VIKRAM KARVE
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