My friend Randy wrote me a postcard that was occasioned by an earlier discussion on Bush's obdurate "Stay the Course" mantra that has subsequently been adopted by his neocon minions.

Randy's submission follows: "I suspect that the Bush ensemble chose the phrase, Stay the Course, because maritime metaphors have a certain masculine flavor which is supposed to suggest strength of purpose. If they had delved a bit
further into the source of salty simile they would have discovered in seagoing rules of the road that the vessel with the right of way is obliged to maintain course unless staying the course will clearly place the vessel in danger. In that circumstance another rule, known as the prudential rule requires you to alter course regardless of who has the right of way in order to avoid collision or other mishap.

In 1953 I was the senior radarman on the mid watch, aboard a U.S. destroyer traversing from the Mediterranean to Norfolk. The watch consisted of four radarmen and a junior officer who was nominally in charge. I characterized his command as nominal because he was a very junior ensign only recently out of NROTC at the University of Pennsylvania and knew little if anything about the limitation of radar. About halfway through the watch we picked up a very large target at about 20 miles and began to track it. It appeared to be on a nearly constant bearing and closing the range at a great rate of speed. After tracking it for a few minutes it appeared to have a slight bearing drift, first one way and then the other. As the senior
radar rating I knew that these minor variations were largely due to the roll of the ship which caused the antenna on top of the mast to describe a large arc and also the fact that the radar beam itself was about 5 degrees wide and would not give us a precise return. Since the variations were first one way and then the other I determined that they were to be averaged out and we were presented with a situation simply described as closing range, constant bearing, in other words we were on a collision course with this as yet unidentified vessel.

While the ensign puzzled over the track I instructed the telephone talker to advise the bridge that we had a target on a collision course in order that the officer of the deck could take appropriate action. The new ensign said "Belay that, the target will pass 1000 yards abeam." I was amazed at his conclusion and when I looked at the track I saw that he had drawn a line between the last two fixes, ignoring the fact that the fixes had been shifting back and forth since we began tracking the ship. This was no time to defer to the ensign's rank since the damned fool was putting the ship in danger. I raised my voice and told him he was mistaken and that we were on a collision course but he overruled me and told the talker to send his evaluation
to the bridge. I told the watch to put on their life jackets, inflatable belts, stored under the plotting table and the ensign and I
engaged in a shouting match. At this point the door to the radar room flew open and there stood the captain, our yelling having wakened him in his sea cabin which was adjacent to the radar room. He yelled . "What the hell is going on ?" And before the ensign could respond I informed the captain that we had a ship closing on a collision course but the ensign disagreed with my assessment. The captain, whose confidence I had won on other occasions, looked at me and said "Which
way ?" I recommended turning to starboard and the captain bolted for the bridge with me following and pushed the helmsman to one side, spinning the wheel like he was dialing for the operator. I ran to the wing of the bridge in time to see the Andrea Doria, lights ablazing and horn bellowing, pass across our bow and disappear into the night.

After we settled on a new course, the captain stepped from the bridge and asked our ensign to step into the passageway. Through the closed door we heard Mr. University of Pennsylvania get the dressing down of his life, the captain commenting that the four enlisted men on watch had almost 15 years of experience whereas he had been aboard barely
six months.

After that blistering I'll bet that ensign was never again so eager "to stay the course" in the face of contrary information."

Pity that George W. Bush learned about staying the course from speech writers and not the Navy.

Publius