Over the last week, Adam Weinstein has been thinking back on his early days in the military.

So, Adam, you were in the Navy for how long?

Just four years, but I've been either working in or covering the military establishment since then.

Adam's the national security editor at the New Republic now.

You talked about this poem that guys in the Navy learn.

Can you tell me about it?

So when you go to the Naval Academy, you go in for your first day.

It's called Induction day, I Day,

they take you in, they issue you uniforms, they shave your head, they put you in your room

and teach you how to make your bed and fold your clothes, and then they give you this small

book called Reef Points, which is called the Plebe Bible.

And you have to memorize all of this information in this Bible. And this is a process that all the service academies have, but at Navy, they have this one particular poem

that you're also required to memorize, called the Laws of the Navy. The Laws of the Navy is a poem that's're also required to memorize called the Laws of the Navy.

The Laws of the Navy is a poem that's all about teamwork and obedience.

It's got this one stanza about taking on your chain of command.

It concludes, tis well with thy seniors to fight.

They prosper who burn in the morning the letters they wrote overnight.

I think it's remarkable that at the same time that, you know, they're teaching prospective naval officers to tell port from starboard, you know, the rules of the road when you're actually

underway in a ship, they're also telling you, hey, be careful what you put in writing.

This lesson, it's been top of mind for Adam this week, as an angry letter from the captain of a U.S. warship caused Navy Brass to publicly implode.

That captain, a guy named Brett Crozier, was desperately trying to get his sailors off the USS Roosevelt as the coronavirus spread

on board. But releasing a letter, it just isn't the way the Navy does things.

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