Always Remember
I would be remiss, before starting the tick tock of the days events, if I didn’t reflect on what happened 8 years ago today. I was working in the clubs back then and was never awake for anything that happened in the morning. This day was no different. Somebody close to me, came by my house around 11am to wake me up and tell me what had happened. Naturally I didn’t believe it, so I looked at my phone and saw numerous messages and voicemails. I walked out into the living room to watch the coverage on TV. Everything had already happened and it felt like I had been kicked in the stomach and head simultaneously. I sat down on the couch and didn’t move for the next month it seemed like. It’s so hard to describe that feeling, but it was like being in a dream that you knew was a dream and trying to wake yourself up. As unbelievably sad as I felt, it was amazing to be a witness to the way people came together in the spirit of patriotism over the next several months. It would be nice to have that again without having to go through that kind of experience. It’s kind of fitting that we are deploying very near this anniversary and going to participate in what many ships and sailors have gone through since the days of 9/11. This day is not why I joined the Navy, but it reminds me that I serve with people that have put their lives on the line to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
0857 - Well, after spending hours out on the forecastle (front of the boat) yesterday I was bound to get a little red and I did. I actually got a lot red and I am not a happy camper about it. Guess that’s another thing I need to pack. I hope that today I don’t have to be outside as much. Today I have duty and went to my first duty muster which was pretty lame. I was standing around waiting to be told what to do and I got nothing. I have no watch today which is cool but I do have lights which I hear is basically flipping a switch at sunset. The only thing that sucks about this duty day (other than not being able to leave) is I have duty with my LPO and he is kind of douchey. He reminds me of an LPO I had in Naples. He is always busy, but never seems to get anything accomplished. I really wish I had gotten stuck with someone who actually works, knows what he/she is doing and is willing to teach, so that I could learn something.
1125 – The ship is basically empty, there are a million things happening on base today including Pinning Ceremony for new chiefs, a couple of re-enlistments and of course deployment so people were quick to get out of here. I have been sitting around for a couple hours doing pretty much nothing. Going to chow to get some turkey.
1214 – The rest of the crew has been done for a while and they are chomping at the bit to leave. My LPO is holding them up for no particular reason. It’s been said by one of my shipmates that he lacks the cahoneys to stand up to anybody and this is the reason we end up working such long hours because sometimes he is too scared to ask if the shop can leave. Underway that won’t be a problem since we can’t leave but it will be when we come back next year. I have to stay in the shop with him for at least the next 6 hours. I am beginning to think this Turkey was not such a great idea.
1226 – I just pulled up my pay stub for this half of September and I am severely underpaid for some reason. I started getting BAH (housing allowance) last month but I have a feeling that I lost it this month plus some other things as well. For anyone who is in the military you know that the mid month stub only shows you an amount with no other details. You have to wait till the end of the month to find out what went where. I hope it’s something that can get remedied while I am underway.
1303 – Actually had a trouble call just now to fix a database problem. No real troubleshooting because there was a civilian tech up there who had been given a fix for me to do, but it was still good to get out of the shop and interact with some other people. ESPN is turned on in the shop which is surprising because my LPO supposedly only watches Fox News in the shop so you can make your own judgment based on that fact. That fact alone might cause us to bump heads more than anything on deployment.
1619 – Another fresh water wash down in the books and still not enjoying it. This time they sprayed from the bridge all the way down to the weather decks which was about 5x as much work with only the duty section which equals about 1/8th of the help we had yesterday. I never knew ships couldn’t get wet. My LPO is having dinner with the wife, so I am stuck in radio missing my dinner. I guess that’s the disadvantage of being the new guy and working with him. It might actually work out with me cause I may get to leave the ship and go to Mcdonalds.
1742 – Was able to grab some dinner at the mess and guess what they had? MORE NUGGETS!!! They also had Chicken Cordon Blue but it was not so amazing. I wonder how long we are planning on hanging out here in the shop tonight. I could use some decent sleep tonight so that I can get up and do clean up in the morning and then get the hell out of here and work on my apartment and get some last minute items for deployment.
1857 – Color and light detail done, I flipped the switch. Going to sleep because I have to be up in 5 hours to send a 5 minute report. Outstanding!
