Why a poem keeps them goin鈥� in the US Navy
It鈥檚 U.S. Navy tradition that the first entry of the new year in ship logbooks be written in verse.
Some sailors angle for the job as a chance to inject a bit of personality 鈥� even poetic depth聽鈥� into a format that otherwise discourages it; others try to avoid such a mission.聽
To delight readers in rhyme is no easy task 鈥� particularly given that deck logs are also legal documents.聽By聽Defense Department mandate,聽they聽must convey less-than-lyrical details about聽things like聽commanders on duty and the status of ship systems.
Why We Wrote This
A story focused onPoetry aboard U.S. aircraft carriers has been derided as evidence of a 鈥渢oo woke鈥� Navy. Sailors disagree and keep up a New Year鈥檚 Day tradition by writing logbook entries in verse.
An聽additional hurdle: Warrior-produced poetry has recently acquired a few powerful detractors.聽When a Navy ship hosted a spoken-word event last year,聽some聽U.S. lawmakers decried the practice as too 鈥渨oke.鈥�
鈥淲e鈥檝e got people doing poems on aircraft carriers over the loudspeaker,鈥� Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama said on Fox News in September. 鈥淚t is absolutely insane the direction we鈥檙e headed in our military.鈥�
Yet poetry has a storied history in the armed forces, military leaders are quick to point out.聽Lawmakers worrying about poetry detracting from battle skills are perhaps 鈥渏ust ill-informed,鈥澛爏ays Samuel Cox, director of the Naval History and Heritage Command, which hosts an annual competition for the best New Year鈥檚 deck log poem.
U.S. forces remain 鈥渞eady to go to war if they have to. But the objective is to deter it.鈥� In the course of doing this, service members voluntarily endure 鈥渃onsiderable sacrifice in time away from home,鈥� Mr. Cox says. Poetry is one way 鈥渢o try and relieve the sadness, if you will, of separation.鈥澛�
It鈥檚 also a potential morale-builder, he adds. 鈥淭he more good people you retain because they like being on ships 鈥� they like being at sea despite the hardships 鈥� that鈥檚 what our nation needs.鈥�
And sometimes poetry has been a way to process tragic losses.聽鈥溾�� was written by a soldier to commemorate a battleground where a million comrades in arms were wounded and killed. Another World War I poet, Lt. Wilfred聽Owen, produced powerful verse while fighting on the front lines. Before he died in battle he considered:
The pity of war, the pity war distilled.
Now men will go content with what we spoiled.
鈥淭hey are incredibly moving and speak, in many cases, to the cost and sacrifice of war,鈥澛爏ays聽Mr. Cox, a retired rear admiral.
From mischievous to Odysseus聽
The winners of the Navy鈥檚 New Year鈥檚 deck log competition tend to summarize events of the year with a soup莽on of levity.
Alexis Van Pool, the history and heritage command鈥檚 deck log program coordinator, recalls a funny favorite from a 2021 submission: 鈥淭hey thought 2019 had been a crazy year, but 2020 said 鈥楬old my beer.鈥欌�澛�
Ms. Van Pool鈥檚 grandfathers both served as sailors in the Pacific during World War II, and reading their ships鈥� old deck logs gives her an 鈥渆normous鈥� feeling of connection to them, she says.聽
Such a sense of heritage is what Lt. Artem Sherbinin drew upon when he composed his New Year鈥檚 Day deck log for the U.S.S. Bunker Hill, the winner of last year鈥檚 contest.聽
There were no takers until Lieutenant Sherbinin, the ship鈥檚 navigator, jumped in. He aimed high. 鈥淭he story of Odysseus is one giant log of a long journey, you could argue,鈥� he says.
As he dug in,聽Lieutenant Sherbinin perused a bunch of old deck logs, including from ships in the Gulf of Tonkin during the Vietnam War.聽鈥淭hey talk about the surreal feeling of being in and around Vietnam while watching the great political turmoil of 1968 and domestic unrest鈥� unfold in America.
Lieutenant聽Sherbinin could identify with this, he says, having been at sea during the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020, when George Floyd was killed and protesters took to the streets.
As he dug into his own deck log poem, the 鈥渕assive changes鈥� then taking place in America were 鈥渟ort of top of the mind.鈥�
Lieutenant聽Sherbinin also drew on the legacy of his ship, which was soon to be decommissioned, to share it, he imagined, with future sailors:
In 鈥�91 she was still young
Tomahawks into Saddam鈥檚 Iraq she flung.
Then in 鈥�06 with years of salt coating her steel
Bunker Hill received new aegis upon her keel.
For the next ten years she was at sea.
The place a sailor ought to be
From San Diego to around the Horn
Her spy-1 radars tracked everything airborne.
Then in 鈥�20 she faced new enemies big and small
The Covid virus and not one port call.
Through 鈥�21 in Pacific water she remained
Keeping Chinese warships contained.
The history and heritage command particularly liked this poem 鈥渂ecause we got to know not just the voice of the sailor, but the whole history of the ship,鈥� Ms. Van Pool says.
After Lieutenant Sherbinin鈥檚 victory came notes of congratulation, including from navigators on the U.S.S. Bunker Hill in the 1980s as well as from Navy sailors from other ships back to the 1950s.
They bonded over shared experience. 鈥淚 could tell them, 鈥榊eah, I鈥檇 just gotten off watch and had to sit at my desk for three hours instead of catching those hours of sleep.鈥� And they can relate.鈥�
Navy tradition, he adds, 鈥渂uilds that connection across generations of mariners.鈥�
