How MUB Started: Two Friends, One Joke, and a Very Human Idea

The story of MUB begins with my first surface warfare assignment as the Main Propulsion Officer on the USS Lake Erie (CG-70) in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in 2001.

I was a fresh young Ensign, straight out of Surface Warfare Officers School after graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 2000, eager to “hit the deckplates running.” I had all the confidence in the world that I could make a difference for my sailors, but absolutely none of the knowledge of how the U.S. Navy actually worked.

I learned that quickly.

Within the first hour of reporting onboard, I met my Chief Engineer. Before I had even made it down to Engineering to meet my sailors, she gave me a high-priority task that I had no idea how to accomplish. I walked out of her stateroom already overwhelmed, trying not to look as lost as I felt.

Luckily, I met the Main Propulsion Assistant, Chief Warrant Officer Murray Schultz.

I recognized pretty quickly that Murray was someone I should probably know.

That day was a complete nightmare, but it also became the start of an unbreakable friendship; one that carried me through my naval career and, in many ways, through my life after the Navy as a high school teacher.

Murray and I were completely different in most ways. I was more laid back. He was not. He was by the book. I was more off the cuff. For two years on that ship, the two of us were basically a comedy show. We butted heads, challenged each other, drove each other crazy, and somehow always got the job done.

And we laughed. A lot.

Not polite laughter. Real laughter. The kind that makes your stomach hurt.

One day, early in our friendship, while we were steaming from Pearl Harbor to California in response to September 11, 2001, Murray called me a MUB.

I looked at him and said, “MUB? What the h$#l is a MUB?”

His response was priceless.

“My Useless Buddy.”

I can still hear the way he said it.

That moment stuck with me. It lives in that strange little Rolodex of memories we all carry around - the ones that stay clear no matter how much time passes. At the time, it was a funny joke between us. But years later, I realize it meant a lot more.

Because the truth is, I am 100% MUB.

And, honestly, I think we all are.

Life has taught me that none of us really have it all figured out. We are all awkward, ridiculous, loyal, flawed, funny, capable of good, and trying our best in our own strange ways. We mess up. We show up. We laugh at the wrong time. We help each other through things we do not fully understand.

We are all connected through friendship, family, shared experience, this one universe we know of, and the simple fact that we are all human under the same sun.

Murray has since passed, but his memory lives on through the people he touched while he was here. MUB is dedicated to my shipmate, LT Murray Schultz, who was and always will be my MUB.

Thank you for being human! - John Lunsford, Founder of MUB

Only Human. Under the Same Sun.