Flash's findings

Saturday, April 09, 2005

In a nutshell. or When's my early day?

Ever since I got to my new ship, it's been the same thing day in and day out. I got there hard charging, guns a roaring. I bust my as every single day. That make two of us, myself and GM3 Larkins. Oddly enough, I do less than I did on my last boat. The people in my division complain about having to do everything. Something as simple as sweeping a 20ft passageway that's only about 3ft wide. God forbid they have to do something that takes more than five or ten minutes. The point is they don't do shit, leaving Larkins and myself to take care of the entire workload. I have stayed an hour late after the rest of the division has been let go, to finish up on line items that had to be finished. Some times They might not even HAVE to be finished on that day, but could possibly get the guys out earlier on the next few days.

I am a Vertical Launch System technician. I work on the Mk41 launcher. We have the capability to launch a plethora of weapons like the TLAM,(Tomakawk Land Attack Missile) ASROCs, and SM-2 just to name a few. I have a critical job according to the navy. I've been onboard since February 18th of this year. I've worked on or in my launcher 4 or 5 times tops. I'm always do work else where to help out the division as a whole, because we also work with the 5" guys(Mk45 54caliber 5" Gun Mt[cannon])
They are the laziest bunch of Gunner's Mate's I have ever seen. They would die on my last boat. They are a disgrace to the title.

Last week, we have a change of command. Not six hours after our new Captain assumed command, he got that dreaded first call. Four of his crew had an incident out in town. Can you guess who three of those guys were? You might have guessed that they were from my division, if you did "You get a million gold stars". Well it seems that every time that it looks like we're going to get off early something pops up at the last minute. We had to go to training Thursdays morning at 0900 and we were told that we could go home after that. After training they said, "We can't go yet, the Captain wants the entire division at Captain's Mast." This is non-judicial punishment where Cpt. Is the judge and jury. (Evidence need not apply, accusation is good enough. De ja voeux. What about Salem Witch trials?)So anyway, we had to stay. Mast didn't start until 1300(1:00PM)and didn't end until 1445-1500(2:45-3:00). No early day that day. So I had to look forward to Friday, when the entire crew always gets off super early, like before noon. Don't get me wrong the division gets off early quite often, on the days that I have duty, in which case I have to stay on the boat and work and stand watches that are boring as hell until I get off of work the next day. So Friday rolls around and I though for sure that I would go home early. Main space fire drill, and training early in the morning, starting at 0600 ending at 0745. Woo hoo! I'm about to get off in a couple of hours right? WRONG! Divisional quarters at 1:30? What's this all about? So, 1:30 comes, the Chiefs and divisional Officers must inquire about what there people are doing on the weekend. Where they're going, who they're hanging out with, etc. The Cpt. decided that they would do this every Friday, because of the alcohol induced mishap out in town. I don't think that they realize that keeping the people on the boat longer will give them a stronger urge to go out and get a drink when at last, they finally do get out. Ah, Navy logic, you gotta love it. When do I get out early? Where is my break?

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