Never Mind What You Were Told Yesterday

And it was just yesterday afternoon that I commented to STG1 Harvell (when I met him in the NMT office while getting a leave chit signed) that my duty on Holds is something that I can anticipate from day to day. Heh!

Although IC1 assured us females, that were pulled out of regular working parties for TAD (temp. assigned duty) to the USS Antietam, that we wouldn't have to go because it was an all-male ship... well, never mind.

They told us at muster today that the watchbill had changed... so after I got a late breakfast at the Taco Mobile (was very tired from staying up til 1am for my 2-hour, barracks rover watch last night), I checked it, thinking I'd be at the BPO as always. But there I was assigned to the Antietam. There were two groups going, and it took everyone a while to figure out which was TAD and which (it was mine) was only a working party that would be picked up and dropped off here on base every day. Only 8 of the 13 of the working party ended up going, and we didn't get to the ship until about 0930.

I don't mind the assignment at all. It helps that I have nothing planned in July, as for people visiting... but it's good to be doing the Navy some good. The ship's Captain, XO and CMC spoke to us in the galley before everything got going. They're in the middle of preparing for the ship's scheduled In-Service (mandated by Congress for every US ship every 5 years or so). It's such a big deal... apparently the inspection is conducted for a solid week by Captains and Admirals, ready to be critical. The ship prepares for it for months, and if it doesn't pass, the Captain can be relieved and the ship decommissioned. Gosh! And they need this ship to replace an older ship out serving right now! The Great Inspection occurs in a bit over a month, I think.

So they weren't exactly ready for us to do our assigned jobs before lunch. So we were shown over the ship, and especially in the SONAR spaces... by Sonar Techs! The Ensign a few of us were assigned to (for chipping rust & painting the weather decks) was very cool. He did a little of the tour himself. He knows what to do for the job, and he listens to his Seamen.

We had lunch in the galley... hamburgers (and I think it was coconut pie that I had as well). The Women's World Cup was on TV, and we had a bit of time to kill before the 1230 muster back on the fantail. Everyone on the ship was nice to us... very helpful about showing us where to go. There was one female head for officers that we could use. Had to wander around in Officer Country to use it though. And we had two officer's berths for changing from NWU's to coveralls. Thankfully that was near the galley. It's very difficult to keep your bearings right away as to where you are on board; cruisers are pretty big.

We did end up working pretty hard today. Our first job was to wipe up the sea salt that had crystallized on the smooth edges of a weather deck. This took quite a while... and then we broke out some sand paper and started heaving to against the rust spots on the same smooth areas. Tomorrow we're going to break out the sanders... because the Captain didn't like us doing it by hand (I think I agree). He came upon us once in his coveralls while we were sanding and asked us how we were doing, where were we from, etc. Very nice guy! :)

And we didn't have to wait long for the duty van to take us back, either. The van was out when we were supposed to be done, but the driver that took us stayed with us until it got there. That was a big difference between this and the Benfold. Due to the sunburn from that last ship duty, I brought along sunscreen this time, and it helped a lot! Got back to base around 1630, and almost fell asleep in the van by the time we did.