A Little Bit of Class and a Lot of Work

That was the week of May 6th through 10th, evenly divided.

Monday, Tuesday and half of Wednesday, the Truxtun's entire Sonar division was in class on base in Norfolk, getting a solid refresher on our various watch-standing duties. When they split Combat and Sonar, we operators had a few lessons on the marine environment and our basic segments that were very helpful; the instructors were knowledgeable, and answered all our questions.

The rest of the week we continued the learning on board with the instructors looking over our shoulders as we simulated real situations. It was the most Sonar I've done since joining the Navy... and although a little stressful, it was absolutely essential for getting to know the system and procedures for real.

I especially enjoyed having classroom time with the entire division. It's rare that we're all together in one room for so long... there's usually someone off doing something else. And it afforded us time to hang out a little too, especially at lunch time.

Thankfully, my duty day landed on Wednesday, which was a super-long day anyway. I had the afternoon quarterdeck watch with Chief, for the first time. She was very amiable, and the watch went by quick enough; I saluted my entire division ashore as they left around 1900. I was kept pretty busy the whole time with phone calls and what-not... there was only an hour and change left after evening colors went down.