Maybe in the rest of the navy working hard was the way to make upper rate. Not on my boat or submarine tender. I have met a couple of good chiefs, but I am being very honest here, most of the people in khakis I worked for except for 3 chiefs, 1 captain, and many good JOs who eventually got out were terrible. Not just dheads, that too, but just terrible leaders with their heads so far up the rest of the chain of command's a$$ it was laughable, and sad. Yes this was my opinion and the opinion of almost every other blueshirt on the vessels, but they were so bad it was eerie. A buddy of mine, who was a great ET (I was an ELT and not a very good mechanic), ended up working for an admiral on the tender while he was convalescing for bone cancer. The admiral told him frankly, this organization is going downhill, get out now even though you only have 10 years until retirement. The only time I saw a large proportion of people that desered the rank they wore was when I met a few of the crew of the NR1 when I was in drydock with them. Those guys were worthy. Maybe I just got the wrong commands.....