I did almost 22 & 1/2 years in the Navy but I never considered my self a lifer. I was a career Sailor. My definition of a lifer was one of those guys who didn't know Shet from shinola but was on your *** all the time about all sort of petty crap. Lets hear what you sailors and others think. Westpac Willie

It's the guy who hates his wife, so he hangs around the ship hassling the duty section on the day you return from deployment.

Back in the early 70's, the expression "lifer" was used by the "I hate the Navy" crowd to label a career sailor.

Mike the term was used the same way in the sixties.

A lifer is the guy that never left the ship, or so it seems. He showed up on quiet midwatches to check the skeds but the real reason was to shoot the bull.

He never got mail and never wrote letters but loved to hear about the last one you got.

The ship was his home and he ate, drank, and slept Navy. The crew were his kids and the Navy was his wife. He was always there and was there when I left. He's still there, watching his kids. They call him Chief.

L azy
I nefficient
F ark-off
E xpecting
R etirement

D ependant
O n
G overnment
S ubsistence

I think that covers it.

quote:

Mike the term was used the same way in the sixties/Fifties.

A lifer is the guy that never left the ship, or so it seems. He showed up on quiet midwatches to check the skeds but the real reason was to shoot the bull.

He never got mail and never wrote letters but loved to hear about the last one you got.

The ship was his home and he ate, drank, and slept Navy. The crew were his kids and the Navy was his wife. He was always there and was there when I left. He's still there, watching his kids. They call him Chief.

ALL
In the day, a Lifer was about as described above. I knew a lot of them.
Taylor, Roberts, Wellman, Mello, Newlee, Vaughn, Hudson, Horten, all Chiefs and a host of others my mind does not remember. They were the ones that were first to GQ stations and the last to shut the shop doors. The Term "Lifer" was indeed a derogatory name in the 70s as the USN was also going into a down time.
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Let me clarify a bit on my post.

The acronym was used when I first went in in the early 80s. And it described the kind of person to a tee. Kind of like the differences between an E-7 (Lifer Dogs) and a Chief (career Sailors). One has a problem, the other finds a solution. One sees an obstacle the other sees a challenge. One says "It can't be done.", the other says "It might be hard, but I'll try my best." One delivers excuses, the other results.

I hope this cleared up any misconception theat might have come from my previous post.

We had a Senior Chief in one of my commands who had been in the Blue Angels. After that EVERY Navy airplane was Navy blue and said "Blue Angels." He would come into the hangar at 0600 and stay until 2000 every week day and expected all the rest of to do the same.
I was a by the book maintenance sailor, but this guy was nerve racking!
He also had his favorites in the squadron and heaven help you if you weren't one of them and you ran afoul of this guy!
He tried his best on one cruise to prove to the higher ups that I wasn't fit to run my shop. When we came back off the cruise the ONLY shop to pass the Post Cruise Corrosion Inspection was MINE!
He was a Lifer!!!!

Only definition I heard was that a lifer was any Sailor on a second or subsequent enlistment.

I think that back in the early 70's a first term sailor with no intentions of making the Navy a carrer would be called a "lifer" by the "I hate the Navy crowd" if that sailor took his job and the military seriously. I had no intentions of staying for 20, but I liked my job and liked the military and was called "lifer" on a regular basis just given the fact that I didn't hate serving and respected the service.

I joined in 1974 and to me the term "lifer" was a carer sailor who intended to stay in for retirement, and who was dedicated to the NAVY. Also he/she did not washout their coffee cup, liked their coffee straight and thought "shore duty" was for people who didn't like to go to sea and thought "sea duty' was just another name for the NAVY. I liked my job also in the Navy and was called "lifer" but didn't stay in the first time. I enlisteda second time years later and now am retired and had referred to myself as a "LIFER" and PROUD of it.

quote:

Originally posted by gsta:
I think that back in the early 70's a first term sailor with no intentions of making the Navy a carrer would be called a "lifer" by the "I hate the Navy crowd" if that sailor took his job and the military seriously. I had no intentions of staying for 20, but I liked my job and liked the military and was called "lifer" on a regular basis just given the fact that I didn't hate serving and respected the service.

I agree. Looks like you were leaving Rota when I arrived at NCS in 1974 (RM2).

Got to NSGD Rota in January 73 and left in July 74. Since I worked tech control at "bullring" I had a lot of contact with the RM tech controllers. One of my best friends was RM1 Dean Farley who worked tech control at NCS. Did you happen to know him??

I arrived in Rota in August of 74.He left before I transferred into Tech Control. I was in the Fleet Center and Receiver Site prior to that...I remember the O/W with the Bullring.

quote:

the term "lifer" was a carer sailor who intended to stay in for retirement, and who was dedicated to the NAVY. Also he/she did not washout their coffee cup, liked their coffee straight and thought "shore duty" was for people who didn't like to go to sea and thought "sea duty' was just another name for the NAVY.

Now the comment re not washing out the coffee cup hit a chord. My time with Lifers, in the 60s, reminds me of one CPO, who to the best of my memory never washed his cup. This cup was a Guam Memorial type, china, and had a Palm Tree emblem. But the memory was that if one touched his cup, got anywhere near it with water, or any beverage other than coffee, one was sure to get a frown, and a comment!!
This CPO was a Lifer. He had the original set of WW2 Khakis and the cup to match. A great leader, but definetly fit the profiles mentioned in the above posts. We all loved and hated this guy, and probably all remember him. A Viet Vet, smoked cigars, made a ton of dough from the Saigon street era after Dien Bien Phu.
Lost track of him after his tour on the island, but the memory of the cup, his cigar and his khakis still stir occasionally.
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