Watch and the CNO

Watch went well... pretty fast too. After a first class told me to put my book away (just before 0800), a couple of the people from a conference being held in the building were chatting about deployments they had back in the day... and interestingly about communications while on them. They talked about people getting in trouble for saying too much in emails to family about where they were or what they were doing... and about filters they use to catch stuff like that. Talked about 1 and a half month comms blackouts... with no warning or notion of their duration. !!! And about Facebook, and how there's no way to filter what's said there. It was one of the most interesting things I've heard ever while being on watch.

About fifty chiefs came through the lobby as there was some sort of meeting with a few Chief Selects. It's nice to see chiefs in good spirits. And I got relieved early... so I could go to the galley before getting a duty driver to the Hotel. And they had my favorite egg drop (or egg flower) soup.

Ravo drove me, and I got there just after everyone began eating. A waiter urged me to go ahead and have a meal! A wonderful salad with cranberries, a tasty bun, chicken breast, veggies & rice, and then cheesecake with berries. And then Admiral Roughead spoke. Didn't have much else to do, as the rest of the day was to be spent in the ballroom. We did listen to the Navy-only session with the admiral, and even one of our guys got up and asked him a question during Q&A. The admiral was impressed at his courage and as he walked back to his seat he got another round of applause. :)

We got back to base shortly afterwords... they didn't need us anymore. I had time to check mail (there wasn't any), get some cash out for my trip, and stop by TSC admin in response to the phone call I got yesterday about filling out a dream-sheet (don't know if it means anything... just to improve morale, or really influencing what happens?), but they said "come back tomorrow" in a rather unfriendly manner, without explanation. Why do they have to stomp all over you when you go in with a question? Wasn't even busy. And when I asked about uniforms to take home on HARP (tomorrow), they told me "take them all" as if I was an idiot to not think that already. Maybe I've been too long with professional and courteous officers. Maybe I'm tired, and need to go home.