013 - The Life of Paperwork
I don't know who in the devil's name made the Naval Writing Guide (or, more importantly, who enforces it), but it is enough pedantry to drive Mr. Rogers himself into a murderous rage. That, coupled with the incessant needle-dicking of anyone wearing a bronze oak leaf on their chest, really just makes you wonder how any message ever leaves the boat.
I've literally re-wrote the same message 6 times only to be told the original draft was fine. And, of course, the CO never cares about the minutia of this stuff. Does it say the thing it needs to say? Yes? Slam the blue ink on and send that bad-boy off to whatever binder it needs to be filed away in to. If only everyone had that same casual confidence COs often do.
Then again, no one is going to yell at the CO over a formatting issue.