Seven days and counting ...

... until Wendy comes to visit! YAY!

Got my new phone from Sprint ... waaaaayyyy cool. Of course it doesn't have a SIM card so I couldn't dump all my old numbers in it. I'm adding them slowly by hand, or as people call me. It does store a LOT more information per contact ... it's a trimmed down version of outlook afterall. So you all should send me an e-mail (which I can now read on my phone) with your B-day's so I don't ever have an excuse again. ;P

Went blues dancing on Monday, mainly for the class, it was really good. I now have some idea of what I'm doing instead of just faking it. Live band too "Insomniacs", lessons were at Alberto's in Mt. View usually known for their Salsa.

Heading out Friday night to Mt. View for Vivian (coworker) B-day happy hour. Saturday is apparently "boys night out" (sweet). Saturday day I'll be packing, because Sunday I start moving "home" to my condo. It'll be good. I'll have to start making my own dinner though.

J

Upgrades ...

I ordered a new phone from Sprint. I was able to get on their SERO employee discount plan, $30 a month for 500 min. with unlimited text and data. Seeing as data is included I figured it would be a good time to get an internet capable phone. I didn't like the Treo's or BlackBerries with the face mounted keyboards, to bulky when using as a phone and too narrow when using the keyboard. That's just me though plenty of folks rave about them.

I'm getting more involved with the project I'm on at work. Previously they had me working on the documentation (which I had the most previous experience with out of anyone on the team), but now I'm getting more involved with the testing and data analysis. Our project lead has a 'deal' with us, if we don't mind doing more of the 'hard work' he'll go to all the meeting for us. I like this plan a lot. Most of friends in the department complain about the sheer number of meetings that take place and how they stay late just to get the actual work done. Aside from that it strikes me as the way things should be done. One person is in charge and is knowledgeable about all the aspects of the project, because he is the one to attend the meetings and delegates the sundry action items to the rest of the team. He knows who is responsible for what and he is responsible for reporting the information to the other groups who may need it; thus he also knows what has been communicated and by whom. All in all I think it cuts down on the "well wasn't so-and-so supposed to be doing that" and the "didn't so-and-so get in touch with you about how to proceed". Of course it leaves essentially zero time for the project lead to be an engineer, which I think is why most project leads don't go down this path ... they want to still be engineers.

J

Drill weekend ...

So last weekend was my first drill weekend. Since I was new to the command it consisted of 'Indoc', getting all the newcomer paperwork type stuff out of the way. Of course it coincided with the annual Readiness Review for two of the units at the reserve center. The Readiness Review is to make sure all paperwork, medical / dental info, service record, bank information, etc. is up to date with the Navy so there will be no problems when you are called up to deploy. So instead of just our 'indoc' group there were a hundred plus people all trying to get shots, dental checkups, x-rays, record updates, etc. It was waaaaaay less organized than I imagined it would be. Of course the "military bearing" is significantly relaxed in the reserves (well at this command anyways), it was a bit of 'culture shock' seeing gaggles of officers leaning against the walls. There was an ONR (Office of Naval Research) unit going through the annual review, which was decidedly officer heavy.

So the first day I spent ALL day going through the medical stuff ... and still had nothing to show for it at the end of the day (no sign off on the checklist). Thankfully, the second day had the units under review running a PFA (Physical Fitness Assessment) so the 'indoc's didn't have to wait to see any of the other staff.

Next month will be indoc with my specific unit. I'm currently attached to a carrier support unit. So our annual 2 weeks a year training will be aboard one of the carriers. I have no idea how I'm going to be able to find my way around a carrier in just 2 weeks. During weekend drill we work on shipboard drills (firefighting, damage control, etc.), and in rate training (advancement preparation, General Military Training, etc.), and of course the obligatory PT (Physical Training) session. Next month is also a change of command ceremony as we are getting a new commanding officer of the unit.

The command did make a point to highlight that mobilization is a "when" not an "if" these days. With that said, you are only up for deployment once every 3 years (unless you volunteer). Of course being on an aircraft carrier (in a non-flight deck rate) is probably one of the safest places to be.

J

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnddd we're back ...

... I'm home. YAY! The last month or so was very hectic what with me being section leader and all. There was always a fire to put out, always something screwing up what should be 'the routine'. Never enough sleep.

I still managed to get the DMG (Distinguished Military Graduate) award. Which put me at the 'front of the line' for the small graduation ceremony (my parents came out to visit and pictures will be forthcoming).

I'm in a kind of daze now. I flew in Sunday night and spent Monday just vegetating (after checking in at the Reserve center in San Jose only to find the person I need to speak with is out of the office). It feels so strange not to have a fire to put out, or someone coming to me with a problem, somewhere I HAVE to be or something I HAVE to do (not to be confused with things I SHOULD be doing).

I'm at my parents place for the rest of this month, and I'll be going back to work next week or so (need to meet with the Navy Reserve folks first to figure out exactly is going on).

That's all for now. I'll probably post again about reflections on the whole experience, but that will have to wait until I can wrap my brain around them all.

J

... and it hits the fan

So Saturday was the first Duty Day with me in charge. I have to make sure everyone get's to their watches on time, in the proper uniform, and that they are standing their watch properly (the big three that our SDCs worry about, being on time, doing your job, and being 'half-assed' squared away).

Unfortunately with a lot of our duty section moving to the 'nights' building, and the resulting data base crash (they reverted to a week old backup) in the office our alpha roster (list of people who are here and their status; if they are qualified for certain watches, if they have medical orders not to stand certain watches, etc.) is in shambles, we have people listed as being in the ship who have since moved out, people listed in our duty section who have since been moved to non-duty status (usually people who live 'ashore' in town with their family), and we're missing some of the people who recently moved in from bootcamp (not a big deal since they are exempt from their first duty day), lastly since it's a holiday weekend people have been hustling for any (legitimate) way to get out of duty (duty swaps, duty day off, special liberty, etc.) mostly at the last possible minute (and since the staff just changed WE weren't the ones to sign off on them so they come as a surprise). All this adds up to the best efforts of my Watch Bill Coordinator (the person who arranges the schedule of watches and makes sure someone is assigned to each one), still resulting in people not available (since their gone), or lots of double watches (two 4 hour shifts, or more) for the people that are around.

All of that rearranging and cajoling people into standing extra watches wasn't so bad. Those types of problems are common enough on duty days (people wanting to trade watches etc.) and both the rest of the staff and the people in the duty section were able to cope VERY well. I only had to ask, I never had to tell.

Then the proverbial feces hit the oscillating air mover. Another ship on base sprung a gas leak so the Commanding Officer of the base wanted them all (147 of them; minus those who were gone for the weekend) to move into our ship. On paper not much of a problem since we have the room what with people moving out to the 'night' schedule ship. The big problem was 35 or so are female, and we only had 11 empty racks on our female deck. The CO also authorized integrating decks as long as a physical barrier was there between males and females. So we could have mixed decks but not mixed rooms. This meant we had to post EXTRA watches, specifically 2 people on each deck to make sure no one was using the fire escape ladderwells to get to a deck they weren't supposed to be on (we had alarmed the ones on the 2nd deck when we knew in advance that females were moving in, but didn't have the equipment to do it for other decks on short notice), and one more person on the uppermost mixed deck to ensure that females didn't go any higher than that deck. Luckily the student staff (who were on duty) from the other ship were willing to work with us to staff those extra watches, but it still meant 2 and 3 watches for many people from both duty sections. Note: the ships SDC staff came in to plan the move but they were open to ideas from the student staff, once the plan was in place they left again to have us carry it out.

So at 6pm we started getting people from the other ship, they brought a hastily packed seabag and we had to do check ins and room assignments for them in waves. We also had to move some of our people around on some of our decks to make empty rooms for females; if we had a room with only 1 male in it (and 3 empty racks) we'd move him to another room to make a female room. The people from the other ship came in waves since most of them were on liberty, we had a two big waves when Phase I liberty expired (be back on ship by 9:30pm, and have a mandatory 9:45pm muster; which we had to run and track for both ships), and Phase II liberty expried (be back on ship by midnight, no mandatory muster); and a smaller wave when Phase III folks (don't have to back at any certain time on weekends) who were coming back for the night arrived. Phase IIIs were the most interesting though since most of them had been drinking. We had no problems with underage people being caught drunk, or with people being too drunk to get back on base (or with police escort); but people who had been drinking and away from the ship all day were surprised to find females on their previously all male decks. We had a few shouting matches but most situations were resolved without needing to escalate it to a higher level (the roving SDC, a chief, had me on speed dial and was making more frequent and through visits to our ship).

The roving Chief was pleased with how well we responded and was very accommodating about the 'little' things (the visiting OOD was taking a cat nap in uniform around 1 am, but she was on an 8 hour shift and we had our OOD on shift at the same time; the Chief was more concerned that she was someone without a room, which she wasn't), some of the folks standing the extra watches (27 extra watches total, three 4 hours shifts of 9 people) were in coveralls instead of utilities (mostly from me or the visiting section leader saying "get there now I don't care what you're wearing").

I went to bed around 3am, with instruction to have someone call or come pound on my door BEFORE anyone was being yelled at to come get me (ie. before someone is yelling, "get me whoever is in charge NOW!"). At 6:30am it was time to make sure sweepers (cleaning the ship) was happening and get ready for the 7am muster and handover to the next duty section. The oncoming dayshift SDC (not one of the regular ship SDC staff), was VERY critical about our (mine and the visiting section leader) choices from the number of extra watches to how they were sitting instead of roving. Being criticized first thing in the morning for being (debatabley) over cautious is not fun, but "aye, aye Petty Officer" was pretty much the range of available responses. I gave a detailed handover to the oncoming section leader and chuckled internally at her and her watchbill coordinator's mouth hanging open. Of course, an hour after the new section took over the other ship was declared safe and all the visitors were off the ship by the time I had showered, cleaned the room and was on the way out for liberty.

I bumped into the section leader and his assistant on the way out. "It's been a pleasure working with you," I said, "Now get the hell of my ship!" A laugh and a handshake later, I took my own advice.

I was amazed at how well the duty section responded. They did a phenomenal job, I was worried I would have to be yelling and threatening to get them to do all the extra work but they just stepped up. The visiting duty section also understood. The only real problems were with slightly drunk guys being silly around females. It hit me when people from my section were telling me to get some sleep, and trying to think ahead for me, that I might actually be doing a good job. When the people who work for you are concerned about you that's a good sign.

That's all for now, I'll probably have to give a rundown to FC1 (our ships Leading Petty Officer) when everyone is back on Tuesday) but it should be mostly positive.

That's all for now, time for a nap.

J

Holeeeee shiiiiiit ...

So I'm not moving to night's (or the other ship). Since half our duty section, and most of our duty section student staff, IS moving ... I'm now the Section Leader for our duty section.

Wow, half the time, half the people, same stuff to get done.

Time to get to work.

J

=(

So I'm on the list of people to move to night class schedule. Currently they're planning on moving us to a different (although immediately close) ship as well. So I need to pack tonight. I think there may have been a mistake with my name getting on the list though. I'm no longer on the 'Radar' lessons, and there's a rumor that the communication systems labs (the ones I'll be needing) won't be staffed during the night classes. I need to verify all these details tomorrow at the schoolhouse. Needless to say I'm annoyed (although I should mention that both of my roomates and most of the duty section is being moved) but "welcome to life in the Navy".

Time to pack.

J

Holding ...

Today I spent a day on "hold". Basically instead of going to class I helped clean the ship (barracks, dorm, etc.) for 6 hours, but at least I got to skip heritage (and do laundry ... weeeeeee). I also took the FC comp. test ... 94%, true to form I missed one question from each of the three topics covered. On Tuesday I start ET A school, which will be the communication equipment not covered in FC A school.

Went out with Wendy to celebrate finishing FC A school, went to a great Moroccan restaurant ... mmmmmm ... lamb. Yes, still steamed we got fourth in the competition the week prior.

Things I will never complain about again: having to clean my room / bathroom / kitchen (hey, I'm going to be the only one 'inspecting' it), meetings, an 8 hour work day (ONLY 8 ... not 12?!??!).

Things I will complain about a lot more: people not doing what they are supposed to be doing, especially at 'critical' times (yes that includes me).

The ship had 7 (seven) ARIs over the weekend. Most involved underage drinking (see above). The SDCs are not pleased, but so far seem more interested in cracking down on the 'basics' (clean rooms, proper watchstanding, proper military bearing, etc.) rather than willy nilly mass punishment (ie. putting the entire ship on duty 7 days a week for a month).

It's strange what you think about in public restrooms. Nowhere in Chicago public restrooms are there the little paper seat covers for the toilets. First I thought it was limited to the base, seeing as us low ranking personnel clean them on a regular basis (once an hour today while on hold). I have yet to see a public restroom in Chicago with them. This isn't terribly offputting or anything it just makes me wonder ... what good are they? Does SF have a lower rate of than Chicago? It would be interesting to look up ... not that I have the time or the inclination to do so now.

And now that I've weirded you all out, it's time to fold my laundry.

J