Second Week, Antietam

I was all ready to keep working where I left off when we arrived Monday morning. But instead, Seaman Sigala and the CCAT civilian (Corrosion Control... something, something) led me through the ship to the forward part, nearly under the bow. It was a fan room... storing the ship's air conditioning system. They said the entire floor needed the paint & rust chipped up, but as we started messing with a disconnected pipe, water dripped all over the floor and we put off starting until the pipe was taken care of. But just down the p-way was the AFFF storage room that needed a second coat of paint; so I did that until lunch. And after lunch, I went to the fantail and found work cleaning up chipped paint in one of the weapons storage spaces I worked in on Friday. But soon it was apparent it needed more needle-gunning, and I did that, finishing it this time.

Tuesday, Sigala told me to meet up in the fan room. We were all set with a pair of needle-guns, so we went to it. The CCAT guy suggested the "deck-crawler", which is a machine that takes paint off of large areas with rotating teeth; it's about 8 inches wide and 12 long. I worked along the bulkhead by the passageway and in places you'd see right away. Wednesday was more of the same, except in harder to reach places. Utilized a "knuckle-puncher" for getting under the conditioner itself (a tool with a long handle and 3 spikes that vibrated up & down). The Ensign in charge of our group came by when I was cleaning up and thanked me for coming every day and putting out. He called it "above and beyond", which was really nice.

Today we thought we'd be done right away, in fact, that we'd be painting. But the CCAT guy said it needed more chipping. Lots more chipping. And he was right. In the small space behind the conditioner, there was lots of rust along the bulkheads. Since we were an hour late getting picked up, I walked in on Sigala to receive this news. He was glad he didn't have to do it alone! :) Unfortunately, the civilian guy's company owns all the tools we've been using. And tomorrow he's working with a different ship. Whatever we were going to get done, we needed it done by 1330. Did a bunch more work... first working together, me holding the flashlight for Sigala. Then I took over and did some hard to reach stuff as the place was rather cramped. I only took 25 minutes for lunch, and kept at it. I looked like a badger again when I looked in the mirror back on base. Rust stains all around my eyes and cheeks with bare patches from my eyeglasses and mask. Tomorrow there are no more tools, so I assume we will, in fact, paint. Whew! I am tired of getting rusty. Every night I must scrub my face and wrists... the only exposed parts. And I wash my coveralls... they get so filthy.