Rusty
It’s a never ending battle out here against the rust. In just 2 weeks of being at sea we are already covered in rust on the outdoor spaces that our shop is in charge of. On Saturdays we have a pretty standard routine out here. We do a TSSE (General Quarters Drill simulating an attack on the ship) and then we have a 4 hour session of Topside Preservation which generally entails needle gunning all the rust and painting over it. I slept horrible last night and during our 2 hour GQ drill I was wishing and hoping it would rain and lo and behold when the time came it was raining!
Naturally the rain didn’t stop the XO from letting us head on out there and work. There is something surreal about standing on the weather decks sweeping water off the ship as it’s continuing to pour down. Nevertheless there I was with a broom in one hand and a green SOS pad in the other. I was ready! The rain eventually let up a little bit and it was actually nice being outside even if I was soaking in it. I scrubbed rust till my hands looked like the SOS pad and of course it didn’t make a bit of difference but this was mostly just busy work anyway, just a show for the brass. I spent the rest of the day down in radio doing this and that but feeling completely useless as usual. I actually did get a really good training session with Senior, now if I could just get some work (non busy) to apply it too.
I am getting to the point with my LPO that I can’t even look at him when he is talking to me. He is getting fired (demoted) for gross incompetence and it’s just too hard to take him seriously. For once in my navy career, a person is actually getting what they deserve instead of being promoted for being a horrible leader. Just goes to show what a kick ass senior chief we have.
Towards the end of our 17 hour day yesterday we were all pretty pissed and talking about ways to improve morale and one of the new IT1’s suggested we do something like Craigslist for the crew. I thought this was a great idea because of how segmented every one on board is. If people use it, it could be a great resource for finding games, movies, selling old stuff you don’t want, and most importantly for me finding a liberty buddy. So I took the idea and ran with it and quickly setup an interface and got it up and running. We showed it to senior chief and he said we needed some basic guidelines about appropriate behavior and moderation of the postings and so we did all that and he liked it and now he is going to take it to the CO for final approval. I hope he likes it and promotes it because I think it could be a really great asset to have on deployment.
Working on Sunday day here is like watching paint dry. There is like 8 people sitting in here and nothing is going on, but instead of giving people some time off we are just sitting here staring into space. At least I have my iPod. There is another steel beach picnic if the weather holds out. I heard we are having pulled pork and burgers! Speaking of the weather, it’s been pretty nice to this point but the last couple days things have been heading south and word is that we are headed in the general direction of a Typhoon near the Philippines. Even the saltiest of sailors on this boat say they don’t want any part of that; 30 feet seas, walking on the walls, throwing up into bags tied to your belt. Such a glamorous life!
