jparnold, no need to apologise! I have been in military and airline aviation for forty years and have always used 'port' and 'starboard' where possible. We are also 'pilots', and we 'navigate'.
Those of a certain age may remember the British Kegworth crash where a 737 crew shut down the wrong engine partially because cabin crew got left and right mixed up when reporting symptoms.
Port is always port. Starboard is always starboard. But left and right can depend which way you are facing.