H&SG

The Handling and Stowage Group section of a Sonar Tech's equipment has to do with the mechanics, hydraulics and electricity behind the handling and stowage of our acoustic array and tow cable on the back end of most of our ships.

We really got into things, starting Monday. Most of the day was taken up with the Operational Description lecture and power schematics. Tuesday we covered fault line flowcharts and schematics, even ones that they've deemed not necessary for us to know. Mr. Fontaine (a retired senior chief) thought we did though, so we went over a ton of information. Our heads were quite full by the time we were done. Today he took us though a lab in bldg 12, going over the finer points of the power set up and the mechanical workings of the winch and control console. We also got to use the deploy and retrieve functions on the winch for the first time, and my lab partners, Wagner and Fierro, thought I handled it best as we practiced arresting it on the pawl. Otherwise, we had a 29-question quiz on the same stuff that was rather time consuming for me.

PT on Monday was pretty regular... running on the treadmill and abs. Tuesday's Quarters was standard, and STG2 gave me an outstanding on my service uniform for the inspection. Witte and I cleaned the head after class... I only mention that because one of the guys in class was unhappy with my role as class leader. In a response to my message, he said I never clean enough and therefore don't lead by example. Phooey. I think he was mostly sore at me for mentioning at Quarters that he was wearing the wrong type of shoes for an inspection. He made some valid points though, and I'll be a little more conscious of the way I present myself to my peers in this role. This morning's PT was an arm workout with Witte and Hibbard. I'm sure to feel it tomorrow a lot. But because a bunch of the people in our class don't feel the need to stay for a good, solid workout, STG2 is going to make us do PT together starting tomorrow.