- Thank you very much for watching this presentation.
I want to give a big shout out
to all the sailors that were behind the scene
and the sailors that dedicated their time
to present you naval history and naval heritage.
Here today with me we have two chief petty officers
from the USS Constitution Chief Mess,
BMC James Gainey and MCC Elliott Fabrizio,
and they gonna give you a little bit of their perspective
of what Navy Heritage Weeks is all about.
- Thank you, master chief.
My name is BMC James Gainey
and I'm the deck department head here at USS Constitution,
and what Heritage Weeks means to me
is that it's the thing that keeps me grounded
to continue to push forward.
Thinking back about the days of sail
and how much effort and fortitude that it took for us
to make things happen on board this ship
so that we could have the Navy that we currently have today.
When they fired those canons,
it wasn't like they just fired one cannon
and then they were done.
They would refire those cannons
sometimes 50 or 100 times during battle.
When we needed to go somewhere.
It would take hours to furl and unfurl sails
and change the direction of the ship
to get where we needed to go,
where nowadays all we have to do is push a button
and come up in speed on a throttle.
Everything is a lot simpler than it was back then.
So I really am able to appreciate everything that,
that we went through in the 1800s and what we have now.
(upbeat music)
- Hello, I'm Chief Petty Officer Elliott Fabrizio.
I'm the public affairs officer here aboard USS Constitution.
The series of videos that you watched
guide you through some of the major evolutions
and training stations that we run
as part of Chief Petty Officer Heritage Weeks here.
But what do you really design to get out of this?
Those stations should teach you a lot
about the history of this ship,
the history of our early Navy,
but that's not really what you get
out of Chief Petty Officer Heritage Weeks.
I went through
Chief Petty Officer Heritage Weeks here in 2016.
For me,
some of the most important things that you get out of this
were connecting with this ship
and the awe that it inspires by just being on its decks.
The chiefs that get to come out here for Heritage Weeks,
they live and these sleep on Old Ironsides,
they're sleeping on the deck of that ship,
and the sense of what it means to be a part of the Navy
and a part of something bigger than yourself
sinks in in those kinds of moments.
You realize that being a part of
something bigger than yourself
is not about being a part of a large organization
like the Navy.
It's about being part of a heritage,
a heritage that goes back in time and forward in time,
and this is where it began.
It's also about the connections that you make.
The heritage training we do with the pikes, the guns,
that's a context and a background.
But we bring 100 chief selects
and over 30 chiefs, senior chiefs,
and master chiefs out there to mentor
and have those one-on-one direct leadership conversations
that are unforgettable.
And there isn't a better background
or context for that to happen in the entire Navy
than Old Ironsides right here.
And that's what Chief Petty Officer Heritage Weeks
is able to do.
During my season I was also able to get
a small piece of USS Constitution wood
that I was able to put in my vessel,
and my entire mess got a little piece
and we shared it amongst ourselves.
And it is so meaningful to us,
even though it was just a piece of wood,
that we were able to keep that connection
to the start of our Navy.
And that is the real meaning
of what Heritage Weeks is all about.
The videos that you're watching are awesome.
Our sailors, they learned so much about the ship's history
and they're able to present that
and we hope you get a lot out of that.
But in the future,
if you have a chance to come out to Chief Heritage Weeks
or visit this ship,
whether you're coming as a sponsor
or you're encouraging
the chief selects in your future messes to come out,
there is so much more to Chief Petty Officer Heritage Weeks
here on Old Ironsides
then just those little bits of the history
that we're able to share with you in these videos.
It runs much deeper.
But we do encourage you to use these videos as a chance
to share those ongoing
and share them with future people that might be selected
to come to Heritage Weeks in the future
as a way for them to get exposed
to what they're gonna be doing out here
so that when the time comes
they can focus on that leadership and mentorship training
one-on-one within the chief's mess here on Old Ironsides.
I also encourage anyone watching these videos
to reach back out to the ship.
By virtue of what we've done through the coronavirus
and the way we've tried to pivot our outreach to be virtual,
we are very engaged.
So if you and your mess want to talk to us,
ask us questions, send us your reflections,
we highly encourage that.
We have a lot of social media properties,
we're very active, we will respond.
We have emails on those platforms.
So continue to be the keepers of our Navy's heritage.
And thank you so much for participating
in Heritage Weeks Online.
- Thank you, brothers.
Make no mistake.
We can never replicate your feelings
of being on board this ship on a live, every day situations.
But with this videos, with this presentation,
what we can do is lay the foundation.
So hopefully one day our goal is
to every single one of you,
whether you are a mentor
or whether you are visiting Boston, Massachusetts,
you can come on board and feel the same feelings
that we get when we do this Heritage Weeks.
Remember, heritage is what define us.
We are the best Navy in the world
because of ships like USS Constitution.
We are the best chief mess,
the best leaders in the world
because of leaders that served on board USS Constitution.
So this is what we are trying to give you,
this is what we're trying to represent
with this Heritage Weeks Online.
Brothers and sisters,
thank you so much again for watching.
Hopefully you get something from it,
and we cannot wait to hear your comments,
We cannot wait for you to contact us,
and hopefully we can give you the live experience one day.
Thank you very much.
Have a great season.
I'll see you around in the fleet.