WINTER-NESS
Whew it's been way too long since I posted!
To summarize life since the ship got out of the yards in Seattle - we trained...
and trained...
and trained some more...
Long and short - our old (Captain's) set of priorities was not to deal w/ anything until the very last minute/until it was about to bite us in the ass. We had a couple of assessment type trials in the fall that basically opened the Command's eyes to the fact that we were WAY behind where we needed to be to get ready for a deployment next year. As a result, all of us have been working our asses off trying to fix it. Thankfully our new Captain is amazing - has the ability to motivate the crew and realizes that problems need to be solved from the top down (i.e. it's us officers and chiefs who get screwed working weekends not the crew) - in spite of the craziness, we DO have an AMAZING crew, so things are looking up. We've turned heads with the speed in which we've transitioned from way-behind to right-where-we-need to be. Very soon I'll be able to post here that we are officially a "deployment ready" ship!
In the meantime, I've finally completed my first major qualification at the ship - I am now a bonifide Combat Information Center Watch Officer (say CICWO = "sick-woe"). Which means I can now get myself owned on the watchbill where they have me standing THAT watch 12 hours every day underway in ADDITION to my involvement in our Sea & Anchor evolutions and my position driving the ship on the bridge whenever we do a Battle Stations/General Quarters drill...still though it's fun and I'm happy to be making progress, just two big quals to finish and I can get my Surface Warfare qual and roll to power school early next year...
Drills are also (surprisingly) a lot of fun. My job is to drive the ship - give orders to the helm on the bridge. But the bridge is also the brain for the whole ship so things can get very crazy when we simulate all kinds of engineering casualties that affect our steering and propulsion, fires and floods breaking out all over the ship, people getting injured (including those who work on the bridge with me), etc and so forth. Very challenging, and stressful but after a year plus doing it I don't think I'm bragging to say I'm getting good at it;-) Add the scenarios to our underway times when we actually have to make sure we don't hit any real-world stuff at the SAME TIME and you see what I'm getting at!
My PRT went great before Thanksgiving - even though I gained back all the weight I lost this summer, I'm getting stronger so my body fat was actually LOWER, and I finally broke 10 minutes on my 500yd swim! w00t! Somehow, I've lost 5+ lbs since Thanksgiving, don't ask me how THAT happened;-)
Another "fun" thing the ship decided to stick me with was designating me as the coordinator for our Holiday Party this year - going to take place this Thursday. Since anything worth doing is worth doing RIGHT, I'm making sure it's going to be awesome. Lots of work involved on top of everything else I've been doing but when all is said and done it should be worth the work I've put in. AND I get to wear my killer black velvet dress!
Aside from that, I've found that most weekends I'm so tired I tend to sleep in most days and not be terribly sociable. Lots of (much needed) R&R. But the countdown is on because by 9am (EST) Saturday morning I will be home in NH again - hard to believe it's been a year but I can hardly wait!
Lastly, here's my quizzage for the day:
Your Personality Profile
You are elegant, withdrawn, and brilliant.
Your mind is a weapon, able to solve any puzzle.
You are also great at poking holes in arguments and common beliefs.
For you, comfort and calm are very important.
You tend to thrive on your own and shrug off most affection.
You prefer to protect your emotions and stay strong.
The World's Shortest Personality Test
To summarize life since the ship got out of the yards in Seattle - we trained...
and trained...
and trained some more...
Long and short - our old (Captain's) set of priorities was not to deal w/ anything until the very last minute/until it was about to bite us in the ass. We had a couple of assessment type trials in the fall that basically opened the Command's eyes to the fact that we were WAY behind where we needed to be to get ready for a deployment next year. As a result, all of us have been working our asses off trying to fix it. Thankfully our new Captain is amazing - has the ability to motivate the crew and realizes that problems need to be solved from the top down (i.e. it's us officers and chiefs who get screwed working weekends not the crew) - in spite of the craziness, we DO have an AMAZING crew, so things are looking up. We've turned heads with the speed in which we've transitioned from way-behind to right-where-we-need to be. Very soon I'll be able to post here that we are officially a "deployment ready" ship!
In the meantime, I've finally completed my first major qualification at the ship - I am now a bonifide Combat Information Center Watch Officer (say CICWO = "sick-woe"). Which means I can now get myself owned on the watchbill where they have me standing THAT watch 12 hours every day underway in ADDITION to my involvement in our Sea & Anchor evolutions and my position driving the ship on the bridge whenever we do a Battle Stations/General Quarters drill...still though it's fun and I'm happy to be making progress, just two big quals to finish and I can get my Surface Warfare qual and roll to power school early next year...
Drills are also (surprisingly) a lot of fun. My job is to drive the ship - give orders to the helm on the bridge. But the bridge is also the brain for the whole ship so things can get very crazy when we simulate all kinds of engineering casualties that affect our steering and propulsion, fires and floods breaking out all over the ship, people getting injured (including those who work on the bridge with me), etc and so forth. Very challenging, and stressful but after a year plus doing it I don't think I'm bragging to say I'm getting good at it;-) Add the scenarios to our underway times when we actually have to make sure we don't hit any real-world stuff at the SAME TIME and you see what I'm getting at!
My PRT went great before Thanksgiving - even though I gained back all the weight I lost this summer, I'm getting stronger so my body fat was actually LOWER, and I finally broke 10 minutes on my 500yd swim! w00t! Somehow, I've lost 5+ lbs since Thanksgiving, don't ask me how THAT happened;-)
Another "fun" thing the ship decided to stick me with was designating me as the coordinator for our Holiday Party this year - going to take place this Thursday. Since anything worth doing is worth doing RIGHT, I'm making sure it's going to be awesome. Lots of work involved on top of everything else I've been doing but when all is said and done it should be worth the work I've put in. AND I get to wear my killer black velvet dress!
Aside from that, I've found that most weekends I'm so tired I tend to sleep in most days and not be terribly sociable. Lots of (much needed) R&R. But the countdown is on because by 9am (EST) Saturday morning I will be home in NH again - hard to believe it's been a year but I can hardly wait!
Lastly, here's my quizzage for the day:
Your Personality Profile
You are elegant, withdrawn, and brilliant.
Your mind is a weapon, able to solve any puzzle.
You are also great at poking holes in arguments and common beliefs.
For you, comfort and calm are very important.
You tend to thrive on your own and shrug off most affection.
You prefer to protect your emotions and stay strong.
The World's Shortest Personality Test