All About Water: Dome and SKID

Monday, I had yet another class. This was sort of last minute; when I was told about it the week before, I thought it was much less informal... but it turned out to be a three-day class on our ship's water cooling unit or SKID. Don't ask me what SKID stands for... I'm not sure myself. In fact, when I reported to the ship, everyone kept talking about "the daily" on "the Skid". Since not a word was said about this in school, I was completely flabbergasted and confused. I found out this week that every other Sonar Tech in my division thought that as well. A Lieutenant at the schoolhouse asked me if I had any training in A school, and I mentioned that the system was a total surprise when I reported on board. The Truxtun's FCs (fire-control techs) were also at the class, but they had had formal training at their A school.

The first thing we did when we got there was take a pre-test. Even with the tech manuals and MRCs in front of me, I got 7 out of 20 wrong. But that was a good learning experience... on Friday, we took the post-test and I only got 1 wrong for a 95%. We also had a lab after the test on Friday, to take apart the motor to change the mechanical seal and put it back together using the maintenance card. On Monday, part of the power-point lecture included two Navy films; one on this very process, and another on cleaning out the filter. Both looked like they had been filmed in 1989... but it was nice to note that the DANGER tags they hung looked the same as they do today. At least some things don't change.

Tuesday was pretty busy, getting ready for the dome water-to-air interchange the next day. First I had to represent our division by helping with the Industrial Hygiene survey on the mess decks. STG1 and a few of the 3rd classes and I worked on getting the water from the pier connected to the dome before the water-to-air brief with the Captain, XO, and department heads in the wardroom. I then got hazmat for S-3, a clean and inspect check on the hatch in the dome p-way, and did it while the others took care of S-1 (water valves) and S-2 (air valves) to make sure we had proper operation of all our valves before we started things the next day. I also hung tags after lunch, even though it was hard to find the sounding tube in the dome p-way... lots of going up and down ladders in the trunk. Besides all this, the four of us who were at the SKID class had a walk-through with the instructors of all our maintenance checks on our own equipment, and that lasted an hour or two. What was really silly, was after everything was done, it took a whole hour of us waiting around for the Okay before we were allowed to leave.

Wednesday was my duty day, and also the Big Day of the dome operation. I panicked when I woke up, because I had slept too long. We were starting the operation early, at 0600 (liberty normally expires at 0700), and I woke out of a hazy sleep at 0555. I was so tired the night before that I fell asleep before setting my alarm. My last thought before awaking was what time should I set it for... oh, dear! I made it to Sonar in record time, apologized, and went straight down the trunk to the dome p-way to help STG3 operate a couple valves IAW (in accordance with) the MRC (maint. req. card). This I did all morning until early chow for watch reliefs. I had the afternoon watch for the first time ever, and it was pretty exciting. Lots of stuff to pass over the announcing system, lots of phone calls to take, lots of regular deck log entries, and I managed to take up a lot of time by cleaning the little cubbie hole we have behind the shelter and podium of the Quarterdeck.

Now this evening and early morning were very peculiar. I forgot about the time for training after dinner as I was in Sonar control, getting quotes online for supplies we want to order. They passed the word for the duty section training right as it was supposed to start. Made it to the mess decks as everyone was signing the muster reports. Anti-terrorism was easy: we read the quarterly use-of-force/deadly force training and made sure everyone knew what everything meant. For DC, we went aft and rigged up a peri-jet pump and lowered it down the trunk to simulate what we'd do if there was flooding.

When we were done, our CDO (command duty officer) spoke to everyone about being on time. He called out a half-dozen of us who "trickled in after training had started" and made us muster with him the next morning very early. This was very embarrassing for me, and made me pretty mad, but I understand where he's coming from on principle. He was mostly displeased with how long it takes to get turnover started in the morning... and I agree with him 100% on that. The night was difficult for me already, as I had to babysit the dome, checking it every 4-6 hours (2100, 0100, 0500), and "burping" it, by opening a certain valve and letting excess air out. This didn't allow much time for rest, but I have my department head to thank for an extra day off that day since we've been very busy lately on the whole.