Wednesday, March 28, 2007
1000 yard stare
It's 1830. 21 1/2 hours into my day. One and a half hours to go and I can go to bed. I want to make it till 8 so I don't wake up too early tomorrow morning. I'm fading fast, though. My capacity for rational, coherent thought is pretty much wiped out at this point. I have a few articles of mindless paperwork to keep me busy, but otherwise I just have to power through. Too late for caffeine. I'm on coast mode now. Any more caffeine will set up the mental jittery headache that has worked to keep me awake for all nighters in the past, but would not be good since I'm so close to finally going to bed. Tomorrow should be a good day. I'll provide more detail on that when I can. That's all for now. Good night.
I've been here before
De ja vu. Here it is, ten till 5 in the morning again. Except that it feels like ten till 5 in the afternoon to me. The only difference is, the ready room is quiet and it's dark outside! Normally, the ready room (particulary the ops corner back here where my computer is tucked) is bustling at 5pm, as the flight schedule is coming together for the next day, crews are briefing before or debriefing after a flight, meetings are being held. A crew is getting ready to brief, but it's still pretty quiet. I landed around 0330. I've been up since about 9pm last night. I've now gone from no circadian rhythm to one that is 12 hours offset from my normal schedule (if you can call it that). And over the next 36 hours, I'll likely shift back to a "normal" pattern. My goal is to just stay up straight through today until about 8pm, then sleep until I wake up to reset. It's amazing what the mind and body can endure when you push it hard enough.
We had a pretty uneventful flight. I had a chance to excercise some aircraft equipment we don't often use, including a Heads Up Display for my NVG's. Many people don't like using the HUD because it adds even more weight to the already heavy image intensifier tubes hanging off the front of the helmet. The HUD projects a customizable display of flight and engine instrumentation information into the NVG image, freeing the pilot from needing to scan inside the cockpit, under the googles, to see information like altitude or engine power (two things helicopter pilots are always watching closely). The 2 1/2 hour flight went by pretty quickly.
Now I'm back in the ready room, chivering under the VERY effective air conditioning, sipping a mug of Tazo Chai tea, waiting for breakfast to open in half an hour. I think today will be a caffeine management drill. I just have to figure out when to cut off my intake so that I can still fall asleep around 8 or 9 tonight. That sure feels like a long way off.
We had a pretty uneventful flight. I had a chance to excercise some aircraft equipment we don't often use, including a Heads Up Display for my NVG's. Many people don't like using the HUD because it adds even more weight to the already heavy image intensifier tubes hanging off the front of the helmet. The HUD projects a customizable display of flight and engine instrumentation information into the NVG image, freeing the pilot from needing to scan inside the cockpit, under the googles, to see information like altitude or engine power (two things helicopter pilots are always watching closely). The 2 1/2 hour flight went by pretty quickly.
Now I'm back in the ready room, chivering under the VERY effective air conditioning, sipping a mug of Tazo Chai tea, waiting for breakfast to open in half an hour. I think today will be a caffeine management drill. I just have to figure out when to cut off my intake so that I can still fall asleep around 8 or 9 tonight. That sure feels like a long way off.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
An early morning
It's ten til 5 in the morning. I've been up for about 4 hours already. It's official. I now have absolutely no circadian rhythm. I eat. I sleep (sort of). I fly (or stand alert). I sign papers. Such is life at sea for 60-some straight days. I'm currently sitting in the ready room, with flight gear donned in Alert 15 status. In the background, I'm listening to Blazing Saddles, being shown on the big screen up in front of the ready room. The campfire scene just played. Back here in the operations corner of the ready room, I can't see the screen, I can only hear the "sound effects".
I finally wrapped up the E-5 evals on Sunday night. The Division Officers and chiefs debriefed the guys yesterday. It's good to have that done. The flow of paperwork never ebbs, though. Now change of command Fitness Reports (performance evaluations for officers) are due in the next few days. I have to write the FITREPS for all of my DivO's in Maintenance (I have 8 who work for me). Plus I have to provide inputs for my own FITREP to the XO. Whenever a squadron has a change of command, the outgoing CO writes a final FITREP for all the Officers in the squadron. Plus, each year a "periodic" report is due (during a different month for each pay grade). O-4 periodic FITREPS are normally due in October. So, I get to write some bullets on all the things I've done since October. Our change of command is scheduled for some time in May, out here on the ship.
On a completely different note, here are some photos of that helicopter you could see sitting on the flight deck in my last entry... This is "Loosefoot 610", our CAG bird. Each squadron in the airwing is permitted to paint one aircraft with some squadron "flare" as a source of pride and espri de corps. I'm sure you've seen pictures of jets with the pilot's names painted below the canopy. We do the same thing, painting names below each door. Each squadron put's CAG's name and Deputy CAG's names on one of their aircraft (the "CAG" bird), and these are the aircraft that are painted with the non-tactical squadron colors. The paint job is typically constrained to the tail area, showing a portion of the squadron emblem. Perhaps I've written about this already, but I'm pretty sure I haven't posted any pictures yet. Here are a couple of good shots of 610...
I finally wrapped up the E-5 evals on Sunday night. The Division Officers and chiefs debriefed the guys yesterday. It's good to have that done. The flow of paperwork never ebbs, though. Now change of command Fitness Reports (performance evaluations for officers) are due in the next few days. I have to write the FITREPS for all of my DivO's in Maintenance (I have 8 who work for me). Plus I have to provide inputs for my own FITREP to the XO. Whenever a squadron has a change of command, the outgoing CO writes a final FITREP for all the Officers in the squadron. Plus, each year a "periodic" report is due (during a different month for each pay grade). O-4 periodic FITREPS are normally due in October. So, I get to write some bullets on all the things I've done since October. Our change of command is scheduled for some time in May, out here on the ship.
On a completely different note, here are some photos of that helicopter you could see sitting on the flight deck in my last entry... This is "Loosefoot 610", our CAG bird. Each squadron in the airwing is permitted to paint one aircraft with some squadron "flare" as a source of pride and espri de corps. I'm sure you've seen pictures of jets with the pilot's names painted below the canopy. We do the same thing, painting names below each door. Each squadron put's CAG's name and Deputy CAG's names on one of their aircraft (the "CAG" bird), and these are the aircraft that are painted with the non-tactical squadron colors. The paint job is typically constrained to the tail area, showing a portion of the squadron emblem. Perhaps I've written about this already, but I'm pretty sure I haven't posted any pictures yet. Here are a couple of good shots of 610...
This picture was taken from my aircraft during a training flight late last year. This was 610's first flight after getting it's new paint job.
I found this picture online at an Aviation Photography website. You can find a picture of "Black Knight 610" there as well, to compare our CAG bird with a "typical" CAG bird. Photos of the S-3 and EA-6B CAG birds are also there.
This is a photo of the first Hellfire missile being shot from the right side of a Navy H-60 (the orange parts are test-related instrumentation). When we return from this deployment we will immediately begin a transition to this new model of H-60, the MH-60S Armed Helo. We'll trade in our torpedoes for anti-ship and anti-armor weapons. I had the opportunity to fly the "Sierra" when I was in Patuxent River. I'm looking forward to the transition.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
"Carrier Task Force"
Once again, it's 2am and I need to get to sleep. Church starts in less than 8 hours! Not much to write about today. I spent most of the day working on evals. Almost done.
I thought I'd post a link to an explanation of the concept of a Carrier Task Force. This provides a little understanding of and historical perspective on the two capital ships currently deployed to this region. Some will find the article boring, some mildly interesting perhaps. Some may already know all this. Anyway, there it is. Good night.
I thought I'd post a link to an explanation of the concept of a Carrier Task Force. This provides a little understanding of and historical perspective on the two capital ships currently deployed to this region. Some will find the article boring, some mildly interesting perhaps. Some may already know all this. Anyway, there it is. Good night.
Friday, March 23, 2007
Circadian Arrhythmia
Not much exciting to write about today. I'm sure you've seen the news about the British sailors and marines who were seized by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy. Can't say much from this end beyond what you've seen in the news.
I flew some more folks to and from the CDG today. Another early brief. Ugh. My circadian rhythm is anything but rhythmic. I've made greater than 6 hours shifts several times in the past couple of weeks. Hence the boat-life mode of sleep, eat, fly, repeat. If you don't sleep when you can, you won't sleep. Sometimes I can get a little out of control... After I finished writing two nights ago, I finally got to bed around 3am. I set my alarm for 11am but neglected to slide the OTHER little switch to ON. So when the phone rang soon there after I was a little confused when the clock still read 3. After clearing the blur out of my eyes, I realized it was 3 PM! At this rate, cruise will only be 3 1/2 months long. The following morning I had a 0700 brief. Then this morning I had a 0600 brief. Now tomorrow night I'm briefing at 2030 and flying till midnight. Gotta love it. Semper Gumby. To their credit, Ops really does try to keep us on a somewhat consistent schedule. It just doesn't always work and I didn't help myself with my marathon nap. (obtw, I thought I was being cute and original with the title of this entry. Apparently, it's an actual medical term for exactly what I'm doing to myself! However, the defenition refers to: "a chronic steady pattern comprising one- to two-hour daily delays in sleep onset and wake times in an individual living in society"-- this doesn't apply to me as I definitely don't live in society!! I can certainly relate with the guinea pigs, err.. voluneers, mentioned here: "Researchers have placed volunteers in caves or special apartments for several weeks without clocks or other time cues. Without time cues, the volunteers tended to go to bed an hour later and to get up about an hour later each day. These experiments appeared to demonstrate that the "free-running" circadian rhythm in humans was about 25 hours long.")
The NCAA Regionals are in full swing and my long-shot Saluki's couldn't hold it together for me. It was a close game against the Jayhawks, but Lisa was right. Unfortunately, I had USI going to the Final Four, so that's going to sting a bit when the final points are tallied. Otherwise, day one went well for me. Memphis had me on the edge of my seat in the last couple minutes (the only part of the game that I actually watched) with a nail-biter ending including a mysterious missing second off the clock thanks to some creative refereeing. Oh well, TN would've thrown it away regarless. We'll see how Friday works out.
Yesterday, one of our first class Petty Officers re-enlisted in the Navy. For some under-manned rates, the navy offers a re-enlistment bonus, enticing highly skilled and well trained leaders to stick around for few more years. AT1 received a TAX-FREE bonus check for over $32K yesterday! Not bad. Many folks work their career timing so they can re-enlist during cruise when our pay is tax free in this "combat zone". Unfortunately, not all rates get bonuses for re-enlisting. Some jobs are already over-manned, such as mechanics. Typically, the higher the technological skill level in a job, the harder it is to hold on to people. Makes sense. It's nice to see our hard working sailors earn a little (or a lot) extra cash. Just wish we could offer it to everyone.
I flew some more folks to and from the CDG today. Another early brief. Ugh. My circadian rhythm is anything but rhythmic. I've made greater than 6 hours shifts several times in the past couple of weeks. Hence the boat-life mode of sleep, eat, fly, repeat. If you don't sleep when you can, you won't sleep. Sometimes I can get a little out of control... After I finished writing two nights ago, I finally got to bed around 3am. I set my alarm for 11am but neglected to slide the OTHER little switch to ON. So when the phone rang soon there after I was a little confused when the clock still read 3. After clearing the blur out of my eyes, I realized it was 3 PM! At this rate, cruise will only be 3 1/2 months long. The following morning I had a 0700 brief. Then this morning I had a 0600 brief. Now tomorrow night I'm briefing at 2030 and flying till midnight. Gotta love it. Semper Gumby. To their credit, Ops really does try to keep us on a somewhat consistent schedule. It just doesn't always work and I didn't help myself with my marathon nap. (obtw, I thought I was being cute and original with the title of this entry. Apparently, it's an actual medical term for exactly what I'm doing to myself! However, the defenition refers to: "a chronic steady pattern comprising one- to two-hour daily delays in sleep onset and wake times in an individual living in society"-- this doesn't apply to me as I definitely don't live in society!! I can certainly relate with the guinea pigs, err.. voluneers, mentioned here: "Researchers have placed volunteers in caves or special apartments for several weeks without clocks or other time cues. Without time cues, the volunteers tended to go to bed an hour later and to get up about an hour later each day. These experiments appeared to demonstrate that the "free-running" circadian rhythm in humans was about 25 hours long.")
The NCAA Regionals are in full swing and my long-shot Saluki's couldn't hold it together for me. It was a close game against the Jayhawks, but Lisa was right. Unfortunately, I had USI going to the Final Four, so that's going to sting a bit when the final points are tallied. Otherwise, day one went well for me. Memphis had me on the edge of my seat in the last couple minutes (the only part of the game that I actually watched) with a nail-biter ending including a mysterious missing second off the clock thanks to some creative refereeing. Oh well, TN would've thrown it away regarless. We'll see how Friday works out.
Yesterday, one of our first class Petty Officers re-enlisted in the Navy. For some under-manned rates, the navy offers a re-enlistment bonus, enticing highly skilled and well trained leaders to stick around for few more years. AT1 received a TAX-FREE bonus check for over $32K yesterday! Not bad. Many folks work their career timing so they can re-enlist during cruise when our pay is tax free in this "combat zone". Unfortunately, not all rates get bonuses for re-enlisting. Some jobs are already over-manned, such as mechanics. Typically, the higher the technological skill level in a job, the harder it is to hold on to people. Makes sense. It's nice to see our hard working sailors earn a little (or a lot) extra cash. Just wish we could offer it to everyone.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Gland seals?
Started out today with a CDO "fundamentals" lecture, given by one of the ship's engineers. The topic: "Engineering Fundamentals" of course. In the Navy, engineering refers to the parts of the ship that make it go. Power plants, reduction gears, auxiliary equipment, and, in the case of Nimitz class carriers, nuclear reactors. He talked about steam turbines and closed loop systems, and gland seals. It was a pretty heavy topic for first thing in the morning. This poor mustang LTjg SWO was standing in the front of the ready room, briefing 30 LCDR pilots and NFO's on a topic that is near and dear to his heart, but we really couldn't care less about. That's about as tough as jobs come. He did a good job of keeping it to the point and at about an hour long. Despite the coffee cups in just about everyone's hands, I don't think we all made it through fully conscious.
I spent the afternoon powering through the E-5 evals I've been putting off for the last couple weeks. They are all marked up. Now I need to update the files on the computer, reprint them, and have the divo's debrief the evals with their guys. All in the next two days. Ugh.
The evening was dominated by 7 hours of duty. Probably the most boring duty day since I started standing this watch back in June. I've always said that a boring watch is a good watch. Watches usually only get exciting when things are going wrong. However, a certain amount of stress and "problem management" can really help the time to go by faster. I think I checked my watch at least 50 times tonight. I even had time to "IM" a little with Janell again. I'm pretty sure she wasn't driving. At least I hope she wasn't driving. Her reply was delayed by several minutes, so perhaps she got my message on the phone and waited until she was done driving! I can only hope.
After my watch, I found that I was scheduled for a 0545 brief to go back to the CDG tomorrow. This was around 0100 in the morning. Mmmmm. Don't think so. The SDO helped to find someone to fill in. Now I have the day off to finish up those evals. Finally. On that note, it's time to head to bed. Perhaps a quick stop at 'rats, but I'm definitely not staying up too late. I'm trying to stay on this day-ish schedule.
I spent the afternoon powering through the E-5 evals I've been putting off for the last couple weeks. They are all marked up. Now I need to update the files on the computer, reprint them, and have the divo's debrief the evals with their guys. All in the next two days. Ugh.
The evening was dominated by 7 hours of duty. Probably the most boring duty day since I started standing this watch back in June. I've always said that a boring watch is a good watch. Watches usually only get exciting when things are going wrong. However, a certain amount of stress and "problem management" can really help the time to go by faster. I think I checked my watch at least 50 times tonight. I even had time to "IM" a little with Janell again. I'm pretty sure she wasn't driving. At least I hope she wasn't driving. Her reply was delayed by several minutes, so perhaps she got my message on the phone and waited until she was done driving! I can only hope.
After my watch, I found that I was scheduled for a 0545 brief to go back to the CDG tomorrow. This was around 0100 in the morning. Mmmmm. Don't think so. The SDO helped to find someone to fill in. Now I have the day off to finish up those evals. Finally. On that note, it's time to head to bed. Perhaps a quick stop at 'rats, but I'm definitely not staying up too late. I'm trying to stay on this day-ish schedule.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Bail Out!
It's been an eventful day. Amazing how much can happen in a day when you get up at 6am! I moved some passengers to and from a "Coalition" ship today. Here are some photos...
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In the last photo, note the guys lounging on the deck next to our helicopter. After they chained us to the deck, they just took a seat on the deck! That would be unheard of over here. Things were a little more relaxed over there. We traded patches with some of the deck crew. Their yellow shirts seemed to perform the same general function as our yellow shirts - directing aircraft on the deck. It was a quick stop just to drop off and pick up some passengers, and we kept the rotors turning on deck while we waited for about five minutes. We made it back "home" in time for an awesome lunch of made-to-order carne asada with pico de gallo. Polished that off with perfect chocolate dog mixed in with cookies and cream cake. Almost like Cold Stone. OK, not quite. But it was good!
The afternoon was a test of HS-8's mettle. We were called on to do what we train for but hope we never have to do. One of our airwing's F-18's had a mechanical problem when returning to the ship and the pilot was forced to eject. Within 15 minutes, he was once again airborne, courtesy of HS-8 after our SAR crew pulled him out of the water. The pilot is doing fine and the crew of the helo have enjoyed many kudos. They did a great job. I believe the term "text book rescue" was used several times. It's a blow to the airwing to have lost a jet today, but spirits are high within HS-8, having met the challenge and come through. Saving a life is always good for morale! This is why I became a helo pilot. Ironically, in 12 years of flying, this is the first rescue one of my squadrons has performed while I was there! That's a testament to the reliability of our jets and the skill of the guys who drive them. The initial press release can be found here.
Bible study is in about 15 minutes, so I'm going to wrap this up and head that direction. One final note... I offer these links for those who need some explanation of the term "March Madness" (which refers to the NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament).
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In the last photo, note the guys lounging on the deck next to our helicopter. After they chained us to the deck, they just took a seat on the deck! That would be unheard of over here. Things were a little more relaxed over there. We traded patches with some of the deck crew. Their yellow shirts seemed to perform the same general function as our yellow shirts - directing aircraft on the deck. It was a quick stop just to drop off and pick up some passengers, and we kept the rotors turning on deck while we waited for about five minutes. We made it back "home" in time for an awesome lunch of made-to-order carne asada with pico de gallo. Polished that off with perfect chocolate dog mixed in with cookies and cream cake. Almost like Cold Stone. OK, not quite. But it was good!
The afternoon was a test of HS-8's mettle. We were called on to do what we train for but hope we never have to do. One of our airwing's F-18's had a mechanical problem when returning to the ship and the pilot was forced to eject. Within 15 minutes, he was once again airborne, courtesy of HS-8 after our SAR crew pulled him out of the water. The pilot is doing fine and the crew of the helo have enjoyed many kudos. They did a great job. I believe the term "text book rescue" was used several times. It's a blow to the airwing to have lost a jet today, but spirits are high within HS-8, having met the challenge and come through. Saving a life is always good for morale! This is why I became a helo pilot. Ironically, in 12 years of flying, this is the first rescue one of my squadrons has performed while I was there! That's a testament to the reliability of our jets and the skill of the guys who drive them. The initial press release can be found here.
Bible study is in about 15 minutes, so I'm going to wrap this up and head that direction. One final note... I offer these links for those who need some explanation of the term "March Madness" (which refers to the NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament).
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
NHTSA poster children
Night alert once again. I have an early brief tomorrow morning, so I'm heading to bed. Should be an interesting flight over to a "coallition" ship. Perhaps I can provide more detail later. I had fun IM'ing with Janell today. I hadn't heard from her since she hit the mountains. The internet connection she was expecting at the campground didn't work out. So when I knew she would be on the road, I emailed a quick message to her cell phone to make sure everything was going OK. Isn't technology amazing! I'm on a ship on the other side of the world, and I can send a text message to my wife, who is on the highway somewhere in the back woods of North Carolina.
Now in retrospect, the fact that I distracted her from the task of driving a big truck full of kids and dogs pulling a very long trailer on an unfamiliar road is pretty disturbing. I get a below average for headwork. But shame on her for answering me back! So, we were not the model of safety on the road today. I won't bug her when I expect that she's driving any more. I confess, it was good to get a quick note, though. Looks like they're making good progress toward Raleigh tonight.
One final note. My pseudo-random March Madness bracket picks currently have me in first place for the squadron! I had a real strong second round, losing only three teams out of 16. Now my big worries next weekend: UCLA needs to beat Pitt, Southern Illinois needs to beat KU (a long shot, but I'm counting on those Salukis to pull through to the Final Four!). Memphis needs to beat the Aggies and the Tarheels need to come through against the Spartans (sorry, Kit). The rest of the games I'm not too worried about in the first part of the Regionals. We'll see how it goes.
OK, I'm going to head up forward to say my final goodby to Fish (he flies home tomorrow and is leaving the navy). Then I'm going to bed.
Now in retrospect, the fact that I distracted her from the task of driving a big truck full of kids and dogs pulling a very long trailer on an unfamiliar road is pretty disturbing. I get a below average for headwork. But shame on her for answering me back! So, we were not the model of safety on the road today. I won't bug her when I expect that she's driving any more. I confess, it was good to get a quick note, though. Looks like they're making good progress toward Raleigh tonight.
One final note. My pseudo-random March Madness bracket picks currently have me in first place for the squadron! I had a real strong second round, losing only three teams out of 16. Now my big worries next weekend: UCLA needs to beat Pitt, Southern Illinois needs to beat KU (a long shot, but I'm counting on those Salukis to pull through to the Final Four!). Memphis needs to beat the Aggies and the Tarheels need to come through against the Spartans (sorry, Kit). The rest of the games I'm not too worried about in the first part of the Regionals. We'll see how it goes.
OK, I'm going to head up forward to say my final goodby to Fish (he flies home tomorrow and is leaving the navy). Then I'm going to bed.
Monday, March 19, 2007
When it rains, it pours
It's only 2330, and I'm wrapping it up for the day. I'm going to try to shift my clock back to more of a day schedule. My way-too-late night last night resulted in me missing church this morning. I completely forgot what day it was and stayed up too late. I was bummed. Not only that, but I missed Fish's last day at church, as he is flying home day after tomorrow and getting out of the Navy. Plus there were two baptisms this morning! They were the first baptisms ever on this ship! They did them in a small pool on the fantail of the flight deck after the church service. Hopefully we will have others soon. In the mean time, I need to establish a little better personal discipline on what little I control I have over my daily routine.
My flight tonight was cancelled due to some severe weather, so it was another quiet day. We had an interesting brief from on of the flight surgeons this evening on endurance training and heart rate monitor usage. He's a marathoner and is pretty smart on cardiovascular development and training. He didn't cover much that I hadn't heard or read about before, but it was a good review. I've enjoyed using my new heart rate monitor while I've been out here. I look pretty funny when I get ready to work out. Heart rate monitor strapped around my chest. Bulky watch on my wrist. Ipod strapped to my bicept. Earphones on my head. The amazing thing is, you rarely see someone working out on the ship who isn't similarly wired (with an iPod, anyway). Many folks have HR monitors as well, but most are not quite that geeky. I've been pretty good about keeping up with my cardio training (maybe not as good as I should have been over the past couple weeks). I need to work more on strength training. We have a few folks in the squadron working on certification as physical trainers. Maybe I can bribe one of them into helping me develop a training plan. My roommate is getting some help. I know I could use it too. OK, off to go try to get some sleep.
My flight tonight was cancelled due to some severe weather, so it was another quiet day. We had an interesting brief from on of the flight surgeons this evening on endurance training and heart rate monitor usage. He's a marathoner and is pretty smart on cardiovascular development and training. He didn't cover much that I hadn't heard or read about before, but it was a good review. I've enjoyed using my new heart rate monitor while I've been out here. I look pretty funny when I get ready to work out. Heart rate monitor strapped around my chest. Bulky watch on my wrist. Ipod strapped to my bicept. Earphones on my head. The amazing thing is, you rarely see someone working out on the ship who isn't similarly wired (with an iPod, anyway). Many folks have HR monitors as well, but most are not quite that geeky. I've been pretty good about keeping up with my cardio training (maybe not as good as I should have been over the past couple weeks). I need to work more on strength training. We have a few folks in the squadron working on certification as physical trainers. Maybe I can bribe one of them into helping me develop a training plan. My roommate is getting some help. I know I could use it too. OK, off to go try to get some sleep.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Alert 30
Not much to write about tonight. I'm on the Alert 30 crew tonight. Pretty easy. We briefed a while (almost 11 hours ago, now!). OK, I really am up too late! We held 3 PC boards tonight, and qualified 2 of the candidates. The other guy was on his second board, so he's going to need some extra training to get him up to speed.
Out of the first round in the tournament, I picked up 25 points (7 teams lost that I thought would win out of 32). Not a bad start for one with no prior knowledge of the teams. We'll see how it goes through the rest of the weekend. As I write this, Round 2 games are in progress across the country.
OK, I'm heading to bed.
Out of the first round in the tournament, I picked up 25 points (7 teams lost that I thought would win out of 32). Not a bad start for one with no prior knowledge of the teams. We'll see how it goes through the rest of the weekend. As I write this, Round 2 games are in progress across the country.
OK, I'm heading to bed.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Ups and Downs and Ups
This was a day of ups and downs. It started with an up, as most days do, when I actually got UP out of bed. I'm finding this harder and harder to do, the later and later I stay up. Hmmm. If I have an event or meeting or anything scheduled in the morning, I have no problem getting to bed, and getting up when the alarm rings (ok, after several snoozes, but generally in time), to shower and make it to whatever I'm scheduled for. But when there's nothing on the schedule in the morning, it's very easy to let the morning slip away in a comatose haze. As I've said before, it's very difficult to get into a routine out here, if left to my own internal clock, I tend to stay up late and get up late. Case in point... it's now past 3am. Part of me feels guity for not working harder to stick to more of a day schedule, but this way I see both day and night shift folks, and I'm prepared to take the late night flights and watches when necessary. It works.
Lunch was so/so. A Chineese-type glazed chicken, rice, and lumpia (those were pretty good, actually). I had a 1500 brief for a day-into-night flight. Got a few evals chopped between lunch and brief time. The flight went well. Then more paperwork tonight. Around 2300, I managed to get onto a Sailor phone that worked. Unfortunately, the new card I got didn't work and I only had about 4 minutes left on my old card (you can't recharge these). So I had a very brief talk with Janell shortly after she left for her drive tonight. Then I read Auntie Mo's blog entry for today. Oh man, did she nail it. She knows our girls well. I loved it! But, it made my very short call all the more painful. I was glad to have talked briefly with Janell, but I sure miss my girls. I miss reading with them at night (we're in the middle of a Horse and His Boy and I owe them some DVD's with more chapters). I miss the awesome greeting I get (most of the time) when I get home from work. I miss Hailey playing up the crowd for giggles during dinner. I miss Beth's "touches" (I'm sure Janell would be glad to have me receive Beth's clingy-ness in her stead for a while). I miss Emily's contageous laugh. I miss the forts that Katelynn builds out of just about anything. Just as Melissa put it, they are awesome girls. I am so proud of how they are doing during this tough separation. I know it's very hard on them. Even during their busy trip.
So, after my 2 minute "conversation" with Janell, I went back to my room for a bit, then came up to the ready room. Flight ops were almost over and I was on the hook for ground turns tonight (still haven't happened). While I was hanging out in the ready room, I picked up the Rubik's Cube that I've left sitting out since it arrived a couple weeks ago. It's starting to look like it's a couple years old. It's seen some pretty heavy use! I still hadn't solved it. Every time I've gotten close, I was distracted and completely messed it up again. So I reattacked and finally solved it tonight! Granted, I used the hint sheet, but the sheet doesn't make it much easier. I actually managed to get a phone line again and called Janell to celebrate. This time I was able to talk to the girls briefly (the gist of those conversations was very similar to the way Mo puts it). It was so good to hear their voices. I could tell that Katelynn had a hard time. She didn't sound like her usual self and I know she's really struggled with my absence. We appreciate your prayers for her and for all the girls.
I managed to end the night (morning?) on a high note. Completed Rubik's Cube, and a good talk with the girls. Now it's almost 4, the morning FCF crew will be briefing soon, so I'm off the hook for ground turns. Time to head to bed. Unfortunately, I'm still not tired! Maybe I'll see if I can finish the cube a little faster this time.
Lunch was so/so. A Chineese-type glazed chicken, rice, and lumpia (those were pretty good, actually). I had a 1500 brief for a day-into-night flight. Got a few evals chopped between lunch and brief time. The flight went well. Then more paperwork tonight. Around 2300, I managed to get onto a Sailor phone that worked. Unfortunately, the new card I got didn't work and I only had about 4 minutes left on my old card (you can't recharge these). So I had a very brief talk with Janell shortly after she left for her drive tonight. Then I read Auntie Mo's blog entry for today. Oh man, did she nail it. She knows our girls well. I loved it! But, it made my very short call all the more painful. I was glad to have talked briefly with Janell, but I sure miss my girls. I miss reading with them at night (we're in the middle of a Horse and His Boy and I owe them some DVD's with more chapters). I miss the awesome greeting I get (most of the time) when I get home from work. I miss Hailey playing up the crowd for giggles during dinner. I miss Beth's "touches" (I'm sure Janell would be glad to have me receive Beth's clingy-ness in her stead for a while). I miss Emily's contageous laugh. I miss the forts that Katelynn builds out of just about anything. Just as Melissa put it, they are awesome girls. I am so proud of how they are doing during this tough separation. I know it's very hard on them. Even during their busy trip.
So, after my 2 minute "conversation" with Janell, I went back to my room for a bit, then came up to the ready room. Flight ops were almost over and I was on the hook for ground turns tonight (still haven't happened). While I was hanging out in the ready room, I picked up the Rubik's Cube that I've left sitting out since it arrived a couple weeks ago. It's starting to look like it's a couple years old. It's seen some pretty heavy use! I still hadn't solved it. Every time I've gotten close, I was distracted and completely messed it up again. So I reattacked and finally solved it tonight! Granted, I used the hint sheet, but the sheet doesn't make it much easier. I actually managed to get a phone line again and called Janell to celebrate. This time I was able to talk to the girls briefly (the gist of those conversations was very similar to the way Mo puts it). It was so good to hear their voices. I could tell that Katelynn had a hard time. She didn't sound like her usual self and I know she's really struggled with my absence. We appreciate your prayers for her and for all the girls.
I managed to end the night (morning?) on a high note. Completed Rubik's Cube, and a good talk with the girls. Now it's almost 4, the morning FCF crew will be briefing soon, so I'm off the hook for ground turns. Time to head to bed. Unfortunately, I'm still not tired! Maybe I'll see if I can finish the cube a little faster this time.
Friday, March 16, 2007
Beer Day (or not)
I know, I kind of left it hanging with the end of my last post. Then I wrote nothing yesterday. Between getting behind on some work and and a bit of "funk" that I was going through I just didn't feel much like writing. Sorry. Today's another day. I'll warn you now. This'll be a long one...
Yesterday was "Beer Day". When a US Navy ship is at sea for more than 45 continuous days with no port visit scheduled within the next 5 days, the CO is authorized to provide 2 beers to each member of the crew while still underway. Yesterday was day # 53 and I would likely have to take my shoes off to count the number of days we have left until a port visit, and I'd still run out of digits (or lose count). It's been too long since I've practiced counting that high with Beth.
At 0900, the flight deck was open for everyone to come up, claim their two beers, have a grilled burger or dog, and hang out in the sun for a few hours... a "Steel Beach Picnic". The MWR folks flew in a band from Bahrain, and they played from a stage on the fantail. It was a pretty festive time.
So I heard.
I was up pretty late the night before (as you could tell by the last blog post). I was actually up quite a bit past then (around 4, I think). So, I was fast asleep at 0900. and 1000. and 1100. I finally rolled out around noon, having inadvertently shut off my alarm. I was out of sorts and not real motivated to head up to the flight deck. After my shower, my roommate called from the ready room to warn me that I had about 15 minutes till they cut off the beer line at 1300. That's right... "beer day" ran from 0900 to 1300. Whatever.
I got down to the ready room around 1259. The way they were controlling the "issuing" of beer was through wrist bands. Each person was issued 2 wrist bands, which were put on at the time of issue. If it came off before you got to the "beer issue area" on the flight deck, no beer for you. The "Beer Issue Chief Petty Officer" would cut off your band and hand you a beer. They would let you take both beers at the same time if so desired. But that was it. Two per person. As I walked into the ready room, the ASDO handed me my wrist bands, warning me that I was almost out of time. I just couldn't get excited about standing in a crowd in the sun up on the flight deck drinking beer, especially when it felt like first thing in the morning to me. So, I passed. I did wander up and get to see the "BICPO" cut off the line, much to the consternation of many young guys who had not yet collected their second brew. I wandered around a bit and people watched. It's pretty funny the effect that two beers can have on people after abstaining for a while. Especially smaller people.
The band played an eclectic mix of covers, but they were pretty good. At one point there was a huge crowd moving together, doing what I could only assume was some version of the two step or electric slide or something like that. I obviously don't spend much time in dance clubs or country bars. Or discos. Or anywhere that doesn't welcome children under the age of 10.
I did find a group of Eightballers playing a game the CO brought out from days gone by. It was a bean bag toss game, like you might expect to find in the little kid section of a church carnival. Two boards set up like ramps, facing each other with about 30 feet in between. An 8 inch hole cut in the middle of each 4 by 6 ft board. Each board was painted white, with a big HS-8 logo painted below the hole. The squadron has affectionately named the game "Cornhole" and with a couple of beers in everyone and the fact that they were playing it like horseshoes (a perennial Navy picnic favorite), it turned out to be pretty popular. Those first grade skills keep paying off (throwing bean bags, not drinking beer).
And then at 1400, the music stopped. The grills shut down. People began to disperse and filter back down into the ship. All the poor restricted folks who had been below, missing out on the fun came up to clean up the mess and put everything away. What a cruddy time to be in trouble.
When I got down to the ready room, the fun was continuing. The JO's had set up their XBOX with the overhead projector and stereo system. They were playing Guitar Challenge 2. The inputs for this game are 2 almost-full size mock guitars. The guitars have a collection of buttons in place of frets. The game is played by two players side by side, following prompts to hit the buttons in order along with very loud music, as your character in the game plays his guitar on stage in a concert-like background. The guys had fun trying to be as outrageous as possible with their guitar playing, all the while getting the best score for accuracy on the button pressing. (I know, I know, this reads more like a user guide than a blog that's trying to be dryly humorous. oh well). It definitely entertaining to watch for a while, but the head banger music got to me after a few minutes.
The rest of the afternoon was quiet. No flying (for obvious reasons). A little bit of maintenance. Some paperwork. I never really did recover from my cruddy mood from early in the day. I still haven't figured out what my problem was.
Many people have been in the navy for years and have never seen a beer day. For some, a beer day is the stuff of legend and they don't really believe that they exist. This was my second beer day in as many deployments. And I have yet to drink a beer on a Navy ship.
I was up late again last night. This time, working on a stupid spreadsheet to track my March Madness Bracket points. I spent about 4 hours working with Excel to do what everyone else will do on a single sheet of paper with simple addition in their heads. Not me. If it has to do with numbers, bring on the spreadsheets, the analysis, the useless formulas. It turned out pretty nice. But for some reason, the award re-writes that the XO wanted me to get done were still sitting on the top of the stack when I went to bed around 4:30. The awards got written today. This will be my undoing.
Anyone who knows me will not at all be surprised to hear that I spent four hours fiddling with Excel. They might be surprised to hear that it had anything to do with the NCAA tournament. Have I watch a single regular season game? No. Could I have named a single team in the tournament before two days ago? No. Have I ever cared about NCAA sports (other than Navy)? No. Do I now? Yup. The MWR committee for the squadron is already starting to figure out how to raise money to offset the costs of our squadron Christmas party. (the last thing on my mind!) One of the fundraisers they're doing is a March Madness Bracket pool. Each bracket sheet is $5, and each win in the tournament that matches your bracket sheet gives you points. The later in the tournament, the more points per win. As I'm writing this, 6 of the 1st round games have wrapped up and Stanford is the only team that has disappointed me so far. Should be fun to keep track and see how I do. My picks for wins were almost completely in the dark. I looked at regional rankings only. Personal biases played in on a couple picks, simply based on where a school was located. Otherwise, if there was more than a 5 place difference in their regional ranking, I went with the top ranked team to win. If less than a 5 place difference, I mostly went with the underdog to win. I won't bore you with my picks here in the blog, but let me know and I can email you the sheet if you're curious.
OK, it's late again. I have paperwork that I'm not doing. I need to get to bed at a semi-reasonable hour so I can get up at a semi-reasonable hour and get some evals reviewed and done. Time's running out. OH! Chris & Ann sent me the "Axis & Allies" game and it arrived today! They did a great job of wrapping the game in multiple layers of bubble wrap, and ensconcing it in a sea of foam peanuts. Still, the global shipping industry found a way to jab a corner of the box somehow, and of course it's the corner of the box where the central corner of the game board was located. It's fine, but I'll always have a reminder of how and when I got the game! Thank you so much for sending it! I'm looking forward to the next time we have a break and I can get a game going.
Yesterday was "Beer Day". When a US Navy ship is at sea for more than 45 continuous days with no port visit scheduled within the next 5 days, the CO is authorized to provide 2 beers to each member of the crew while still underway. Yesterday was day # 53 and I would likely have to take my shoes off to count the number of days we have left until a port visit, and I'd still run out of digits (or lose count). It's been too long since I've practiced counting that high with Beth.
At 0900, the flight deck was open for everyone to come up, claim their two beers, have a grilled burger or dog, and hang out in the sun for a few hours... a "Steel Beach Picnic". The MWR folks flew in a band from Bahrain, and they played from a stage on the fantail. It was a pretty festive time.
So I heard.
I was up pretty late the night before (as you could tell by the last blog post). I was actually up quite a bit past then (around 4, I think). So, I was fast asleep at 0900. and 1000. and 1100. I finally rolled out around noon, having inadvertently shut off my alarm. I was out of sorts and not real motivated to head up to the flight deck. After my shower, my roommate called from the ready room to warn me that I had about 15 minutes till they cut off the beer line at 1300. That's right... "beer day" ran from 0900 to 1300. Whatever.
I got down to the ready room around 1259. The way they were controlling the "issuing" of beer was through wrist bands. Each person was issued 2 wrist bands, which were put on at the time of issue. If it came off before you got to the "beer issue area" on the flight deck, no beer for you. The "Beer Issue Chief Petty Officer" would cut off your band and hand you a beer. They would let you take both beers at the same time if so desired. But that was it. Two per person. As I walked into the ready room, the ASDO handed me my wrist bands, warning me that I was almost out of time. I just couldn't get excited about standing in a crowd in the sun up on the flight deck drinking beer, especially when it felt like first thing in the morning to me. So, I passed. I did wander up and get to see the "BICPO" cut off the line, much to the consternation of many young guys who had not yet collected their second brew. I wandered around a bit and people watched. It's pretty funny the effect that two beers can have on people after abstaining for a while. Especially smaller people.
The band played an eclectic mix of covers, but they were pretty good. At one point there was a huge crowd moving together, doing what I could only assume was some version of the two step or electric slide or something like that. I obviously don't spend much time in dance clubs or country bars. Or discos. Or anywhere that doesn't welcome children under the age of 10.
I did find a group of Eightballers playing a game the CO brought out from days gone by. It was a bean bag toss game, like you might expect to find in the little kid section of a church carnival. Two boards set up like ramps, facing each other with about 30 feet in between. An 8 inch hole cut in the middle of each 4 by 6 ft board. Each board was painted white, with a big HS-8 logo painted below the hole. The squadron has affectionately named the game "Cornhole" and with a couple of beers in everyone and the fact that they were playing it like horseshoes (a perennial Navy picnic favorite), it turned out to be pretty popular. Those first grade skills keep paying off (throwing bean bags, not drinking beer).
And then at 1400, the music stopped. The grills shut down. People began to disperse and filter back down into the ship. All the poor restricted folks who had been below, missing out on the fun came up to clean up the mess and put everything away. What a cruddy time to be in trouble.
When I got down to the ready room, the fun was continuing. The JO's had set up their XBOX with the overhead projector and stereo system. They were playing Guitar Challenge 2. The inputs for this game are 2 almost-full size mock guitars. The guitars have a collection of buttons in place of frets. The game is played by two players side by side, following prompts to hit the buttons in order along with very loud music, as your character in the game plays his guitar on stage in a concert-like background. The guys had fun trying to be as outrageous as possible with their guitar playing, all the while getting the best score for accuracy on the button pressing. (I know, I know, this reads more like a user guide than a blog that's trying to be dryly humorous. oh well). It definitely entertaining to watch for a while, but the head banger music got to me after a few minutes.
The rest of the afternoon was quiet. No flying (for obvious reasons). A little bit of maintenance. Some paperwork. I never really did recover from my cruddy mood from early in the day. I still haven't figured out what my problem was.
Many people have been in the navy for years and have never seen a beer day. For some, a beer day is the stuff of legend and they don't really believe that they exist. This was my second beer day in as many deployments. And I have yet to drink a beer on a Navy ship.
I was up late again last night. This time, working on a stupid spreadsheet to track my March Madness Bracket points. I spent about 4 hours working with Excel to do what everyone else will do on a single sheet of paper with simple addition in their heads. Not me. If it has to do with numbers, bring on the spreadsheets, the analysis, the useless formulas. It turned out pretty nice. But for some reason, the award re-writes that the XO wanted me to get done were still sitting on the top of the stack when I went to bed around 4:30. The awards got written today. This will be my undoing.
Anyone who knows me will not at all be surprised to hear that I spent four hours fiddling with Excel. They might be surprised to hear that it had anything to do with the NCAA tournament. Have I watch a single regular season game? No. Could I have named a single team in the tournament before two days ago? No. Have I ever cared about NCAA sports (other than Navy)? No. Do I now? Yup. The MWR committee for the squadron is already starting to figure out how to raise money to offset the costs of our squadron Christmas party. (the last thing on my mind!) One of the fundraisers they're doing is a March Madness Bracket pool. Each bracket sheet is $5, and each win in the tournament that matches your bracket sheet gives you points. The later in the tournament, the more points per win. As I'm writing this, 6 of the 1st round games have wrapped up and Stanford is the only team that has disappointed me so far. Should be fun to keep track and see how I do. My picks for wins were almost completely in the dark. I looked at regional rankings only. Personal biases played in on a couple picks, simply based on where a school was located. Otherwise, if there was more than a 5 place difference in their regional ranking, I went with the top ranked team to win. If less than a 5 place difference, I mostly went with the underdog to win. I won't bore you with my picks here in the blog, but let me know and I can email you the sheet if you're curious.
OK, it's late again. I have paperwork that I'm not doing. I need to get to bed at a semi-reasonable hour so I can get up at a semi-reasonable hour and get some evals reviewed and done. Time's running out. OH! Chris & Ann sent me the "Axis & Allies" game and it arrived today! They did a great job of wrapping the game in multiple layers of bubble wrap, and ensconcing it in a sea of foam peanuts. Still, the global shipping industry found a way to jab a corner of the box somehow, and of course it's the corner of the box where the central corner of the game board was located. It's fine, but I'll always have a reminder of how and when I got the game! Thank you so much for sending it! I'm looking forward to the next time we have a break and I can get a game going.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Scarred for life
Not much to write about today. Slow day of meetings and paperwork, boring 8 hour watch, now it's almost 2am and I'm going to go see if there's anything left at 'rats to snack on. I did get my Anthrax shot today--upper left arm close to the small pox shot site. Now I'm standing by for the knot that always grows at the shot site (this was my 6th Anthrax shot, but my first one in about 7 years). The knot will grow to the size of a "shooter" marble (yeah, that's the big one), and will stick around for a couple weeks then slowly goes away. Just when the pox scar was starting to blend in. Sheesh. I'm not sure that pox scar will ever quite go away. A permanent reminder of this cruise. Who needs tatoos?
Tomorrow should be interesting... definitely different.
Tomorrow should be interesting... definitely different.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Established in the "rut"
See if you can identify the pattern in this day...
Slept in
Ate lunch
Briefed and went flying
Had dinner
Paperwork
Write emails/blogs
Midrats
More paperwork or reading
Go to bed
That's about how today's shaping up. Had a short flight this afternoon with a passenger on board again. He was a petty officer from the bow catapult crew. I think he had a pretty good time. I'm slowing making my way through the stack of 30-some performance evaluations for my 2nd class petty officers. It's sitting on the desk in my room, much like a pack of monkeys sitting on my shoulders. I don't mind editing and writing evals, but a stack this big can get tedious. Ten more days till they're due to Admin. I guess I should be tracking about 4 a day.
The guy with the belly ache had his infected appendix removed today. He's doing well post-op, recovering down in medical for a couple days.
Tomorrow I have the late watch, so I'll stay on the late schedule tonight. It's about 2230 and I think I'll go for a run down in the hangar bay. Maybe some rowing after that. I guess that'll be a change to the routine. As much as one day is always different from the next, they sure start to all feel the same after a while. We are definitely entering the "rut" of cruise. Fortunately, we have a fun event coming up in a couple of days that I'll write more about later. Hopefully there's also a port visit not too far off in our future (it's been a LONG time since most folks on this ship have had their feet on solid ground). Again, more on that later.
Slept in
Ate lunch
Briefed and went flying
Had dinner
Paperwork
Write emails/blogs
Midrats
More paperwork or reading
Go to bed
That's about how today's shaping up. Had a short flight this afternoon with a passenger on board again. He was a petty officer from the bow catapult crew. I think he had a pretty good time. I'm slowing making my way through the stack of 30-some performance evaluations for my 2nd class petty officers. It's sitting on the desk in my room, much like a pack of monkeys sitting on my shoulders. I don't mind editing and writing evals, but a stack this big can get tedious. Ten more days till they're due to Admin. I guess I should be tracking about 4 a day.
The guy with the belly ache had his infected appendix removed today. He's doing well post-op, recovering down in medical for a couple days.
Tomorrow I have the late watch, so I'll stay on the late schedule tonight. It's about 2230 and I think I'll go for a run down in the hangar bay. Maybe some rowing after that. I guess that'll be a change to the routine. As much as one day is always different from the next, they sure start to all feel the same after a while. We are definitely entering the "rut" of cruise. Fortunately, we have a fun event coming up in a couple of days that I'll write more about later. Hopefully there's also a port visit not too far off in our future (it's been a LONG time since most folks on this ship have had their feet on solid ground). Again, more on that later.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Pictures from church
Today was almost a home-like Sunday. Slept in a bit after 7 or so hours of sleep, went to church at 10, enjoyed brunch, had a quick meeting at noon, then the rest of the afternoon was actually pretty relaxing. At dinner, about 12 of us sat around and cracked jokes for an hour and a half at the ridiculous "horror" movie that was showing on TV in Wardroom I/II. Granted, my Sundays are not usually highlighted by "horror" flicks, but we enjoyed making fun of the West Virginia aspect of the movie's backdrop. That's all I'm going to say about that.
Chaplain Callaham (my friend from school) took some pictures during church service this morning. I'll try and attach them to this email posting. Web is currently down. If it doesn't work, I'll post them in later. Pictures added 3/11 ~J
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Blog photo collection
UPDATE: For anyone who tried the link, but couldn't see the pictures, I think I figured out the problem. The photos should be in our Public album now. ~J 3/11/07
All of the pictures I have posted in this blog (and in Janell's blog) should be available here. It's not working from out here, but maybe Janell can get it working. Blogger supposedly has automatically created albums for each of these blogs on a google photo site and all of the photos should be available there for browsing, printing, emailing, or for "purchase". All proceeds go to some geek in the Bay area. Hopefully we'll get it working soon.
OK. Now I'm going to 'rats. :)
All of the pictures I have posted in this blog (and in Janell's blog) should be available here. It's not working from out here, but maybe Janell can get it working. Blogger supposedly has automatically created albums for each of these blogs on a google photo site and all of the photos should be available there for browsing, printing, emailing, or for "purchase". All proceeds go to some geek in the Bay area. Hopefully we'll get it working soon.
OK. Now I'm going to 'rats. :)
Appendicitis? (no, not me)
Another fine, Navy day at sea. Rolled out of bed with just enough time to shower, eat some lunch, and head down for my 1230 brief. We had a young cook from Wardroom III on board as a passenger today. Unfortunately, we had a minor problem with our Auxiliary Power Unit when we hot pumped into the aircraft this afternoon. We shut down for a little bit to troubleshoot, but couldn't fix the problem. I decided to take it flying because it wasn't going to be a big deal for us during the day time. I told the Air Boss to expect us to swap out aircraft before sunset. With a little more troubleshooting in the air and some discussion with a squadron rep over the radio, though, we figured out the problem, and during a quick deck hit after the next fixed wing launch and recovery, we got it fixed and were able to keep the aircraft flying the rest of the day. During our deck hit, we learned that there were some important packages that needed to get over to the cruiser. So while the mech's were up on top of the aircraft, we loaded up the packages to deliver them. It was a quick flight over there to drop off the boxes, then back to our plane guard mission. Somewhere in there we also found a cargo ship and got some pictures of it. It was a busy flight and our passenger seemed to enjoy the flight. He got lots of pictures of different ships, saw a little bit of the many things we do, and best of all, got off the ship for a couple hours. As I've learned many times, getting a new perspective is good for the soul.
This evening we learned that one of our young PC's had reported to medical with a pain in his belly. My first thought was the greasy pizza they had served for dinner. No, it looks like he may have appendicitis, but they won't know until they run some more tests in the morning to get a white blood cell count trend. If it is his appendix, they'll do the surgery right here on the ship! We have a surgeon, anesthesiologist, and a full OR on board. It's amazing, all the crazy cases they get down in medical every day. Two broken bones in the past two days. A case of trench foot a few weeks ago! All kinds of rashes, infections, cuts, burns, and things I can't even describe. I was thinking earlier, they could do a pretty interesting ER-type TV show featuring the medical department on a carrier (it would probably be more like "Scrubs"). Our Airman is in good hands. Hopefully it turns out to be something much less troublesome. He gets to spend the night on the ward, under observation. Please say a prayer for him.
I'm actually writing this before midnight for once! I'm going to hit midrats for a slice of pizza. Hopefully it will be better than dinner. For the last two weeks the Saturday night pizza has been thin and greasy--not nearly up to the standard that was set in the beginning of cruise. Still, its pizza and I can't pass it up. A slice of pizza, some chocolate milk, then off to bed. I'm doing the Scripture reading during the church service in the morning. 1 John 2:24-29. OK, off to 'rats. Goodnight from somewhere in the North Arabian Sea.
This evening we learned that one of our young PC's had reported to medical with a pain in his belly. My first thought was the greasy pizza they had served for dinner. No, it looks like he may have appendicitis, but they won't know until they run some more tests in the morning to get a white blood cell count trend. If it is his appendix, they'll do the surgery right here on the ship! We have a surgeon, anesthesiologist, and a full OR on board. It's amazing, all the crazy cases they get down in medical every day. Two broken bones in the past two days. A case of trench foot a few weeks ago! All kinds of rashes, infections, cuts, burns, and things I can't even describe. I was thinking earlier, they could do a pretty interesting ER-type TV show featuring the medical department on a carrier (it would probably be more like "Scrubs"). Our Airman is in good hands. Hopefully it turns out to be something much less troublesome. He gets to spend the night on the ward, under observation. Please say a prayer for him.
I'm actually writing this before midnight for once! I'm going to hit midrats for a slice of pizza. Hopefully it will be better than dinner. For the last two weeks the Saturday night pizza has been thin and greasy--not nearly up to the standard that was set in the beginning of cruise. Still, its pizza and I can't pass it up. A slice of pizza, some chocolate milk, then off to bed. I'm doing the Scripture reading during the church service in the morning. 1 John 2:24-29. OK, off to 'rats. Goodnight from somewhere in the North Arabian Sea.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Attention in the Pilot House. This is LCDR Stringer. I have the Conn.
It's been a while since I've had a chance to write. Between web access problems and a very busy schedule, the writing (on the blog, anyway) just didn't happen. My focus, instead, has been on awards and evals lately. My schedule has been about as boat-like as it can get. I flew till 2am on Wed night, then stayed up and wrote awards until about 5am. Somehow in the following 24 hours I got a little sleep and woke up at 5am this morning to head up to the Bridge on the O-9 level to conn the ship during a RAS. It was my first time on the Conn of the carrier. The command structure on the bridge of a ship is a unique arrangement, which on the surface looks as convoluted and wasteful as possible. Well, some of that may be true. Nevertheless, it is grounded in hundreds of years of naval tradition and procedure, and does have some value when it comes to combat efficiency. Here's how it works: At the top of the feeding chain of course is the Captain/Skipper/Commanding Officer (whatever he likes to be called). He spends the majority of his time on the bridge, but is not always there. During high risk evolutions like transits through restricted waters or replenishment alongside, he is much more likely to be there. In his absence (and even when he's there) another officer serves as the "Command Duty Officer (Underway)" who acts as the CO's direct representative for the safe and efficient operation and navigation of the ship. That's the qual I'm working on.
Next down the chain is the Officer of the Deck. The OOD is responsible for leadership of the rest of the navigation team on the bridge. He's primarily responsible for driving the ship, deciding when to turn, how fast to go, for not running into other ships or running aground, and for ensuring the ship is prepared for flight operations. It's a busy job that takes several months for junior officers to qualify in. Fortunately, only junior officers assigned to the ship stand this watch. Our squadron JO's have their own quals and watches to worry about (OOD of a ship is kind of the SWO equivalent to HAC of an aircraft). Working for the OOD is the Conning Officer and one or more Junior OOD's (who are in training). The Conning Officer is responsible for direction the specific actions of the Helmsman and Lee Helmsman (to be explained shortly). The OOD gives the Conning Officer a general (or perhaps very specific) idea of where to drive the ship, and the Conning Officer issues scripted verbal commands to direct the guys with their hands "on the wheel". Sort of. Next in line are the helmsman and lee helmsman. The helmsman literally holds a wheel in his hands. It's like a small steering wheel and he stands in front of a large digital display showing the ship's heading, winds, rudder deflection, engine settings, and many other pieces of information. The helmsman receives commands from the Conn, then turns the rudders appropriately to achieve the desired rudder deflection for an extended turn or to adjust to a new course to steer the ship. It goes something like this…
Let's say the ship is steaming north, on a course of 010. The conning officer might say "Right 5 degrees rudder. Steer Course 060." The helmsman will immediately reply "Right 5 degrees rudder, steer course 060, aye". Next he'll call "Sir, my rudder is right 5 degrees passing 020 degrees to the right." The Conning Officer will reply "Very well." The helmsman will continue to call out headings unless the Conn says "Belay your headings". Finally, as the ship steadies on the new desired course, the Helmsman will report "Sir, steady on course 060", which will again be acknowledged by "Very well." It's all very structured and precise.
The other person who receives orders from the Conn is the Lee Helmsman. The Lee Helmsman transmits engine orders from the Conn down to the Engineering Officer of the Watch in Central Control (where I visited last week). It's down in Central where the actual inputs to the steam turbines are made, which make the propeller shafts turn faster or slower to increase or decrease the speed of the ship. The Lee Helmsman inputs the command into a computer, the EOOW replies via the computer to acknowledge the command, then starts making the changes to whatever it is they do down there.
Let's review. The CO sets general guidance on what the ship is to accomplish. The CDO(U) oversees that guidance in the CO's absence. The OOD is responsible for enacting the guidance. The Conning Officer interprets the guidance into specific commands to drive the ship. The Helm and Lee Helm transmit those commands to the control surfaces of the ship, to direct it's course and speed. All to accomplish the same thing that a fisherman can do with his eye on the horizon and a single hand on the twist-grip throttle-tiller of an outboard motor in his Boston Whaler. This is no Boston Whaler.
Conning alongside was pretty simple, actually. The two ships were already steaming in close formation, with lines attached and tensioned, course and speed pretty much stable. My goal was to maintain the distance between the ships to within an error of +/- 10 feet and to keep fore and aft relative motion at an absolute minimum. The CO is looking over one shoulder and the Navigator or actual CDO are looking over the other shoulder, both whispering guidance on what to do next. They're not going to let an airwing bubba scratch the paint on these ships. Actually it was surprisingly relaxed up there. I did my 20 minutes on the conn, managed not to flub any commands or reports, and go the check in the block for the PQS. Once again, it was actually pretty interesting. I'm not saying I'd like to do it for a living, but it was worth the price of admission. I guess that's debatable.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Photos online
Yes, I'm still up. There are some great photos here showing many of the things on the flight deck that I have recently written about. Specifically, you can see the bow cat bubble, some final checkers giving thumbs up prior to launch, and some helo's doing VERTREP. Lots of good stuff. OK. Now I'm going to bed.
Fastest Cube on the High Seas
STOP. If you haven't read the post just previous to this one ("Fatigue Cubed"), go here to read it, then come back to here. Sorry for the inturruption...
You're not going to believe this. During the Rubiks cube wizardry demonstration in the ready room this afternoon, someone mentioned that Rubiks Cube was going to be a Captain's Cup event. The ship's MWR division is hosting an ongoing competition among the ship's departments and the airwing's squadrons. Events in this "Captains Cup" have included a dodge ball tournament (held in the hangar), a basketball tournament, a macaroni and cheese sculpting contest, a pie eating contest, a treadmill relay marathon, etc. OK, OK, the mac'n'cheese thing deserves some photos...
I didn't take these photos, and no I didn't compete (although I think I'm safe in saying that Ann and I could have kicked butt with some mashed potatoes, stuffing, yams, olives, pickles, and cranberry sauce), and they're about a month old, but this is one way sailors stay busy and motivated to fight terrorists. OK, back to the story. So someone in the ready room crowd mentioned that a Rubiks cube competition would be part of the Captains Cup. I filed that thought
away.
A bit later, I was on the computer and checked the list of Capt's Cup events--sure enough there was a Rubiks cube event. But no scheduled date. We have a petty officer in the maintenance department who has been very motivated to keep HS-8 competetive in these events. We are actually second overall right now, behind the ship's reactor department (yet another reason to make fun of the Nukes). Unfortunately they have a very comfortable lead. We still have a big lead on 3rd, and we're slowly eating away the distance to first (mac'n'cheese not withstanding)..
I quickly headed over to give her a heads up that we had a Rubiks cube wiz in the squadron and to recruit him for the event when it came up.
Once again, fast forward a few hours. I get back from dinner and the ASDO tells me that this petty officer has been looking for me urgently. When I tracked her down, she said she had called down to the Fun Boss (the guy who runs MWR) to ask when the Rubiks cube event would be. It was scheduled for tonight at 1930. She was telling me this around 1800! She had already spoken to the maintenance DivO to make sure he
could make it to the event. So a crowd of six or seven of us headed down to the aft messdecks to cheer on the HS-8 rep for the Rubik's cube race tonight. He was in the first heat. They had to complete the puzzle three times in the preliminary round. He finished it in 1:55, 1:33, and 1:45! They took the seven fastest cubers from the first two rounds and they advanced to the finals. His 1:33 and 1:45 were the two fastest scores from both preliminary rounds! In the final round, between seven people, they again had to solve the puzzle three times, and their total time would be their score. Our guy did it in 2:13, 1:38, and 2:11. Unforunately, those two slow times resulted in a very close second place finish overall. But, he had the two fastest times of anyone who competed! And, the guy who won doesn't work for Reactor, so we'll continue to close the gap. So what started as an impromptu out-of-nowhere demonstration of Rubiks Cube Geeky Brilliance resulted in the unofficial crowning of the Fastest Rubik's Cube Solver on the Ship! So much excitement for one day.
On a completely different note, one of the JO's from HS-8 joined the Bible Study tonight! It was great to have her there, to expand the HS-8 representation. We started on Philippians chapter 3 tonight. Small group due to the busy airplan, but it was still a good study. Now, it's almost 0230. I'm flying late tomorrow night, so I'm back on the night schedule again. It's about time for bed, but I'm not too tired yet. I think I'll go work a Sudoku in bed. Gotta love it.
You're not going to believe this. During the Rubiks cube wizardry demonstration in the ready room this afternoon, someone mentioned that Rubiks Cube was going to be a Captain's Cup event. The ship's MWR division is hosting an ongoing competition among the ship's departments and the airwing's squadrons. Events in this "Captains Cup" have included a dodge ball tournament (held in the hangar), a basketball tournament, a macaroni and cheese sculpting contest, a pie eating contest, a treadmill relay marathon, etc. OK, OK, the mac'n'cheese thing deserves some photos...
I didn't take these photos, and no I didn't compete (although I think I'm safe in saying that Ann and I could have kicked butt with some mashed potatoes, stuffing, yams, olives, pickles, and cranberry sauce), and they're about a month old, but this is one way sailors stay busy and motivated to fight terrorists. OK, back to the story. So someone in the ready room crowd mentioned that a Rubiks cube competition would be part of the Captains Cup. I filed that thoughtaway.
A bit later, I was on the computer and checked the list of Capt's Cup events--sure enough there was a Rubiks cube event. But no scheduled date. We have a petty officer in the maintenance department who has been very motivated to keep HS-8 competetive in these events. We are actually second overall right now, behind the ship's reactor department (yet another reason to make fun of the Nukes). Unfortunately they have a very comfortable lead. We still have a big lead on 3rd, and we're slowly eating away the distance to first (mac'n'cheese not withstanding)..
I quickly headed over to give her a heads up that we had a Rubiks cube wiz in the squadron and to recruit him for the event when it came up. Once again, fast forward a few hours. I get back from dinner and the ASDO tells me that this petty officer has been looking for me urgently. When I tracked her down, she said she had called down to the Fun Boss (the guy who runs MWR) to ask when the Rubiks cube event would be. It was scheduled for tonight at 1930. She was telling me this around 1800! She had already spoken to the maintenance DivO to make sure he
could make it to the event. So a crowd of six or seven of us headed down to the aft messdecks to cheer on the HS-8 rep for the Rubik's cube race tonight. He was in the first heat. They had to complete the puzzle three times in the preliminary round. He finished it in 1:55, 1:33, and 1:45! They took the seven fastest cubers from the first two rounds and they advanced to the finals. His 1:33 and 1:45 were the two fastest scores from both preliminary rounds! In the final round, between seven people, they again had to solve the puzzle three times, and their total time would be their score. Our guy did it in 2:13, 1:38, and 2:11. Unforunately, those two slow times resulted in a very close second place finish overall. But, he had the two fastest times of anyone who competed! And, the guy who won doesn't work for Reactor, so we'll continue to close the gap. So what started as an impromptu out-of-nowhere demonstration of Rubiks Cube Geeky Brilliance resulted in the unofficial crowning of the Fastest Rubik's Cube Solver on the Ship! So much excitement for one day.On a completely different note, one of the JO's from HS-8 joined the Bible Study tonight! It was great to have her there, to expand the HS-8 representation. We started on Philippians chapter 3 tonight. Small group due to the busy airplan, but it was still a good study. Now, it's almost 0230. I'm flying late tomorrow night, so I'm back on the night schedule again. It's about time for bed, but I'm not too tired yet. I think I'll go work a Sudoku in bed. Gotta love it.
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