Hello from the Truxtun... at my new station this last underway on the Small Craft Attack Team. (This I did at least four times the first week, and then three or four more times during the last three weeks.) I became very familiar with the process... and was usually the first one on station. For the last event, I had to take the covers off myself, and I put them back on when we finished too. I think I resemble a turtle in my flak jacket and helmet.
The ship passed all its tests with flying colors, especially Sonar, which scored the highest out of the entire strike group during the exercises. Something to be proud of for sure! There were at least two weeks where we were under the microscope, with ship-riding inspectors (a retired Sonar Senior Chief and the Navy's only female Sonar Master Chief - still active duty). Because of this, we were very busy in Sonar all the time... keeping it clean, running environmental data, sitting at the stacks, being vigilant. Despite this, my watch-mate and I managed to take and pass our Work Center Supervisor and Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist written tests; significant achievements in our Naval careers. And we managed to start on our First Class walk-throughs in the last couple days. Our former LPO gave us an in-depth grilling on all our Sonar gear before he signed off on it.
While on SCAT, I managed to see my very first flying fish! Also saw a couple sea turtles right up next to the ship as we sailed by, and dozens of dolphins... and even a baby dolphin or two. And I didn't mind getting all the fresh air either! The most fun day though, was when we had strike group maneuvers in rough seas... at times the deck looked like it was at a 30-40 degree angle and felt like riding a stand-up roller coaster. I had the time of my life! Got soaked by a few waves crashing on the deck, but didn't mind much because I knew I'd be able to get warm and dry as soon as we were stood down.
Was it only two UNREPs? No, I think there were at least three. I was on the fo'c'sle line each time, usually ending up second in line for the brunt of the hauling of the line from the oiler. There's a really tall guy at the station who always takes the first spot. I loved the last UNREP we did though... it was after dark, so even though it might have been more dangerous, it went easier than any I had done before. Before I knew it the probe was connected and we were taking on fuel.
I think it was three Man Overboard drills as well; only one of them was "real". It was from another ship in the strike group and it turned out being a false alarm. It definitely wasn't part of the schedule though, as it was in the middle of the night. I've never seen people turn out of their racks so fast before!
Ages ago, at the beginning of the underway, I brought some home-made pumpkin pies for my division to indulge in before Thanksgiving. Another fun event, near the end, the First Classes had a "Caroling on the Mess Decks" event. I shocked myself by volunteering to sing into a microphone for a well populated crowd (that included the CO and XO), and further surprised myself by not faltering when singing O Holy Night as if I was at home with my family sitting around the Christmas tree. They tell me I did well too... it felt a bit like an out-of-body experience, I was so struck with fear.
What was good for me was my watch section. The three of us females had a good time together; we're all a bit experienced, so we knew what to do and we did it. We were the best watch section (in my totally unbiased opinion) always cleaning the space and diligently marking contacts in the log, just as we were directed. I also learned a bit about a couple types of messages we have to draft and send to either the strike group or the data center. There were a lot of messages to send this underway... every day.
Even besides our duties, my watch section was headed up by our newest Sonar Supervisor, and she encouraged us to work out with her nearly every day. I know I wouldn't have worked out half as much if it wasn't for her... and she was already someone to look up to... she's the lead tech and my sponsor when I checked onboard, a year and a half ago.
When we were finally ashore, it all suddenly seemed like a very long dream that we were waking from. It took me a good while to fall asleep, since it's so quiet at home.
