Five Days Out

My 3rd anniversary (21SEP) of joining the Navy, and I had Saturday duty and double watches. The first watch and the last watch (the last one was all Sonar Techs!). 

Starting Monday, 23 September, we went back out to sea for a few INSERV demonstration rehearsals. S&A was set from 09-11, then I took the first watch (after lunch). I observed a MOB (man overboard) drill from CIC for an ESWS item, then had some DC training, then a CSTT (combat systems training team) drill, and finally worked out on the bike before bed.

24SEP started with a GQ drill during my first watch. My LPO had me find out the measurements for the tape markings on the torpedo countermeasures tow cable, and then I prepared for late watch scheduled maintenance checks with hazmat and tagout and the associated spot check. Had steak and lobster (and scallops) for dinner, and then an All Hands Call on the flight deck for awards (But you should have heard the rumors fly about the ship's schedule all day long in anticipation of it! Lots of people were talking about Syria.). That evening I observed another MOB drill, this time from the bridge.

25SEP started very early with the late watch, did the scheduled maintenance, so it went faster than normal. After breakfast, there was a connected underway replenishment (UNREP) and my station was on the forecastle for the first time in a long time. Managed a little rest before another MOB drill (this time requiring us to muster with our divisions). All of Sonar went to early chow because of our schedule... but when we got there, we were all surprised to learn that we were required to get a flu shot at the same time. Nothing like a hamburger and a shot in the arm! Not long afterwords they manned the stream team, and a few of us re-taped a bunch of the tow cable, until we ran out of tape. After dinner, I had a spot check with OPS (operations officer). Worked out again (proud of myself for doing it twice in one week underway!), then managed a short rest before the mid-watch, in which I trained our new guy on lots of things, including the dailies.

26SEP: There was a field day until lunch, and the new guy and I took care of two passageways and two spaces ourselves. That evening, CMC (command master chief) sent an email to the crew, calling out my division for being the "most impressive" and giving us a "BZ" or Bravo Zulu, which is Navy code for "Well Done".

"Clean decks, high dusting, sparkling hand wheel and all the corners and angle irons.  But most importantly, witnessing the TEAM effort with all paygrades pitching in, set a positive tone for me."

That night we had a quick and successful sonar scenario. I verified the frequency of the thing we tracked. It was fun to watch the drill go so well with equipment and personnel working so fluidly.

27SEP: Pulled in mid-morning, and I was able to observe Sea & Anchor from the forecastle for ESWS. As we were coming up the Elizabeth River, we passed a Frigate going out to sea, and rendered passing honors. Even though I wasn't on the watch-bill, I joined everyone in falling in at parade rest, and in saluting as the whistles blew as we passed. Since it was my duty day, I obviously stayed on board. I wrote a job and searched for a couple part numbers on our computer program for jobs. Conducted pier sweepers just before sunset (picking up lots of trash in the parking lot). Up in plenty of time for the last watch, and it went by quickly enough, I guess. LSC was my OOD, and he said he knew someone on the USNS Comfort (hospital ship) that is moored across from us on our new pier. Apparently, on that ship, an E-5 would have their own stateroom. What a shock it would be for somebody like that to come to a fighting ship and have to share a berthing with 50+ other people!

Turning over the duty on Saturday morning was very pleasant... I had two whole days to relax at home!

Less Could Be More

We were supposed to have lots to do this last week. First it was integrated scenarios, then Combat Systems Training Team (CSTT, pronounced "C-sit") drills, then an in-depth inspection of our spaces (called DITS... don't ask me what that stands for exactly).

We did indeed do our CSTT drills on Wednesday, but since the other warfare areas got behind in there scenarios, they didn't really play with us until Friday... when I had to duck out early for my first topside rover watch on board. I think it was Tuesday, the 23rd, where we all came in an hour and a half early, then sat in Sonar ALL DAY, waiting for them to incorporate us into the scenario. We did whatever we could to keep sane... lots of singing, talking, and swinging from the ceiling. Senior bought us four Pizza Hut pizzas, and that was very yummy. It wasn't long after that we were finally incorporated, but we never found anything to track with the inputs we received.

Wednesday was very busy though. Had to get stuff set up on the missile deck for a torpedo event, and that took the entire morning. I wasn't directly involved, but I spent a lot of time as a runner, getting this or that from Sonar or wherever. Also did a couple maintenance checks to get them out of the way. In the afternoon, we had our CSTT drills, and I was directly involved in that, and chosen for the first team that was evaluated. We had three drills to go through: one on the Dome, one on the Skid, and one an electrical fire in Sonar Control. I forgot to keep my hands on the CO2 bottle at all times, like they teach over and over again, but otherwise, we knocked it out of the park.

Thursday I bothered about printing more of the tech doc to our aux, and talked with Senior about the job we have in for it. We were on standby for scenarios, which didn't happen for us.

Friday, we started off doing our scenario and had a couple engagements before I had to leave for watch. Had topside rover for the first time on board... I had it once as an extra watch on the pier in Yorktown back in March. It was a lot nicer than POOW... got to walk around, observe everything, didn't have to answer the phone, and later on, I got to watch the divers come out of the water and pack up their equipment. Since it was the afternoon watch, I also got to see my division get let off (pretty late for a Friday) and I went to the quarterdeck to salute them ashore between my roves.

After a meager dinner, there was duty section training and a DC drill... just refrigerant leak, but this time I got to go down and see what is done for the first time. Then my counterpart and I had to take care of two maintenance checks, and then I took care of educting the sump again. While I was waiting for that, I finished sorting out the schematics I printed out for our auxiliary equipment, and traced some lines with the help of the troubleshooting guide. Have to dig into it more come Monday.

Part-Timer

Wednesday the 24th was my scheduled day off before getting underway this weekend. I left Tuesday night and Got Out of Dodge. Turns out with the submarine that pulled in that day (and docked next to us!), the Best Western I stayed at was nearly full (but not full enough!). That meant I did see some uniforms the next day, but I didn't see them long. Picked up my car rental and spent a wonderfully lazy day of doing whatever popped into my head. Some eating, shopping, reading and also swimming a 500 at the glorious, 7-lane, Olympic-sized, outdoor pool that's only open til 1300. That's the problem with NS Mayport... everything closes way too early for working Sailors. When I took a friend out to dinner, she told me about the schedule change, and about how the barge was taken away that morning. I hadn't got my bike off yet, so I was a little worried until I got back that night and found it safely parked in the port helo hanger with everyone else's. Whew!

Thursday morning was a wild one. As soon as breakfast was over (I spent about 5 minutes eating mine after quarters), I went right to cleaning the forward Chief's berthings. The male berthing took a while... I cleaned and set up the hand soap dispenser that was lying on the counter and had to wipe down practically every inch of the sinks and mirrors, besides the usual sweeping. The female berthing took about one minute... had to empty the trash.

When I got back to the galley, the cooks were yelling for me to set up the Chief's mess. A busy one too... Taco Thursday. Besides the usual line items that sit in the heating sinks, there were the taco fixings and lots of fruit to set out. Besides all this (and making sure everything was kept full during the meal), I took care of all the galley trash, taking a load of six bags out to the dumpster. I had about 10 minutes to eat my taco (while watching the stupidest zombie movie on AMC... of course), and besides that, I was on my feet all day. So by the time lunch was all cleaned up, I put myself on break. Lay down in the rack below mine (which is empty) with my pillow and fell asleep for almost an hour. Got up refreshed and ready to take on dinner and with the firm belief that the Navy should adopt siestas into the working day.

Due to the schedule change, I was told I had the rest of the day off when I got back to the mess decks. And just 15 minutes later, over the 1MC (announcing circuit), the XO said they were holding a mock PRT (physical readiness test) for command PT that day. I was excited, as this was the first one I had been able to participate in (due to my FSA schedule... we have to be ready with dinner when everyone is done) and with the upcoming PRT, I could check myself. Passed everything, and blew the curl-ups out of the water like normal. 96! ...an Outstanding without practicing for them! My push-ups were dismal, as normal; only 26 (but a Satisfactory is a mere 13 for my age group). I walked with a small group to the other on-base gym to see what my bike score would be. With 103 calories burned... that was a Satisfactory... which is really not, in my opinion. I need to burn 138 for an Excellent, which would be just fine by me. But we only did 12 minutes, whereas in the actual thing, it can take up to 14. So I think I was on a good track.

Silly weather... Hurricane Sandy popped onto the weather map and delayed our getting underway. And because Chief didn't want the other section to have to work a 3rd weekend in a row, she changed up the schedule, and now I'm working Saturday and Sunday, even though I worked last weekend.

Because of this, I was given half of Thursday off, and all of today off, although I had to be there for our "Fast Cruise" drills. I was under the impression that we'd actually be getting underway for the day, but all it meant was that we would be pretending to in order for everyone to know what to do (especially our new people). The first was Sea & Anchor, where I read my book out on the flight deck (where I'm assigned as a line-handler). The second was a General Quarters drill, and I remembered where I was supposed to be. This was the general purpose, and I did learn that I needed to have my flash gear (knitted hood and arm-length gloves for fire-fighting) with me; so it was a success. But what I really loved about the day was being able to sleep in and eat my own cereal for breakfast (on my own time) and not worry about any work. I ate lunch on the ship (took a break from watching a movie in Sonar 1) and felt very odd, just eating and letting everyone else do the work. It was very Deja Vu from before I was cranking.

Checking In

Yes, that's all I had to do today. FPCON (force protection condition) DELTA has been set today for training, meaning they have locked down the base. So class is cancelled and I'm stuck off base (darn?). :) I had to check in with STG1 Fletcher before 0715, so I sent him a text when I woke up at 0648. Feels so good to sleep in.

Yesterday, in anticipation of all this going down, we didn't have to come in until 0700. We were let go a few minutes after 1000, having accomplished nothing at all... beyond me reading a couple chapters in The Sand Pebbles. But it was hard to focus with all the chit-chatting going on. It would be impossible to remember all the topics of conversation.