Two Days Without Stopping, Then an Abnormally Long Friday

This week was super busy for me... along with the rest of the ship. Since we pulled back in on a Monday, no one got a weekend after a very busy eight-day underway. Had Monday and Tuesday evening to unwind a little, but then it was back at it again on Wednesday for my duty day. Started off with the first watch, although the watchbill was very late getting posted... I found out as I got there that I had five minutes to get armed up and on watch (no time for breakfast). The watch itself was the most stressful thing about the two days... started out on the wrong foot, thinking I lost one of my ammo clips (which would be very bad)... turns out I had only slipped it into the wrong pocket on my belt without noticing. Thank God, the Petty Officer of the Watch I was relieving noticed it and all was back to normal.

Then there were a thousand phone calls to answer, most of them having questions for the Officer of the Deck. And I had to pass lots of things over the PA system... "secure the mess-line", "officer's call", "quarters. all hands to quarters for muster, instruction and inspection", "muster duty sections (time & place) for turnover"... and whatever else anyone needed to have passed. Like I had to blow the whistles for colors for the first time, because no duty admin person was on the bridge... and I didn't know my whistle didn't have a little ball in it... and it didn't sound very good. The XO even told me to go practice blowing a whistle. Then the CDO wanted department heads to muster at a certain time, and the first time I passed it, the mike broke in and out, so I had to "belay my last". Then my OOD told me the wrong thing to say... and the CDO came over and I had to "belay my last" again. I had to bong the CO ashore, and later on, returning on board; at least I managed to do that right. All the while the OOD was busy with checking in contractors... and the next day I ran into one at the NEX... he said, "Hey, I saw you on the Quarterdeck yesterday... you had to pass something three times!" What a reputation! Not only that, but the OOD wanted me re-write the deck log at the end of the watch because he forgot to have me write a line at one time, and I wrote the wrong word tense on another line... and apparently, although the Navy allows three errors on one deck log page before it has to be re-written, Truxtun's policy seems to be more strict. So twenty minutes later, I finally went and had lunch. I was so relieved to be relieved.

The rest of the day, back with my division, I spent working in Sonar 1. We were re-painting all the bulkheads and angle-irons bright white... they had long since yellowed and gotten very dingy-looking... so it was a pleasure to work on that... even if the lights were out in the corner I was working on (contractors were working on the lights) and I had to hold a flashlight in one hand and the roller in the other. This took us into the afternoon and it was soon time for dinner. Then there was sweepers, and parts on the pier that I had ordered for my division. I got them all inside and put away, and managed to put in another open purchase request which I finished just as the section was mustered for training. We talked about chemical protection gear for Damage Control, then did an exercise topside with a big hose for Force Protection. But that wasn't all! A passageway back aft near where Captain's Mast was held was found to be rather dirty, so we were tasked with cleaning it up... even though it belonged to other divisions to take care of. Were we overjoyed to do somebody else's work or what!

I had exactly four hours sleep before I had to get up for my second watch... we were short because of people busy with other things or being on leave... and I had the last watch as well as the first. Being in the wee hours of the morning, it was much more relaxed. I do enjoy watching the sun come up, but that's about the only thing. Had to pass a couple things for the beginning of the day, but very soon I was off to do the muster report, have a quick breakfast, and head up topside for quarters. Did the daily check right after that, then had to get to turnover before I had finished. Had an appointment that morning to go get a new ID card... because I am now an official Second Class Petty Officer (E-5)! When I got back, we still didn't have the paint we needed for the day, so a bunch of us were let go to have lunch together off base. But when we came back, all was ready and we fell to... touching up Sonar 1, then painting the passageway outside it (for the same reason) for the rest of the afternoon. I really love painting like this... taking care of our spaces to make them look really well kept. We kept getting compliments from the BMs and GMs who were going by as we worked.

Friday was a different story. Spent the morning touching up our work... I took care of a lot of edging in Sonar 1, and then we gathered up all the painting supplies and they got returned to the paint locker. What was put out at Quarters in the morning was there was to be a couple hours of cleaning, besides the top-side Fresh Water Wash Down. And liberty was going to be in the hands of the department heads. So we were done with our space by 1100 at the latest... but liberty was held up for another four hours because of bureaucratic whatever-that-was. Didn't eat lunch in anticipation of getting let go, and kept busy by shining brass in our newly-painted passageway... and then unexpectedly, had to write up a subordinate for being disrespectful to me (this wasn't the first time)... so that was a big learning experience. We were finally let go, three hours or so after that, and it seemed as if the entire ship exited at the same time.