Quiet Time

Well dear readers, I am leaving on a jet airliner and heading on out to a ship out to sea for some training exercise. This is supposed to only be for 30 days. So I will be out of communication for that long. When I get back I hope to have some new adventures or notes to post. You all just settle back and check out some of the summer re-runs via the archives links further on down the page.

I warned you all that this would get worse

Watching the news this morning I saw this report talking about how 8 people were killed and 350 were injured in various degrees when the insurgents detonated 2 separate bombs attached to Chlorine tanks. Which in turn released chlorine gas that harmed women and children along with some Iraqi Police forces.

I have warned you about this before and it only needs to be reemphasized about this dangerous escalation in combat.

To date no one has been able to answer me nor has anyone in the United States of America mainstream media seems to be paying attention more then announcing it as another insurgent attack.
Again my questions are this:

1. How should the United States respond if some of our troops are injured or killed by a chemical weapon?
2. Should the US escalate themselves and use lethal chemical weapons on insurgents because of this escalation?
3. What is the US doing to prevent this from escalating from more then just Chlorine gas to something like the Mustard Gas or a nerve agent such as Sarin or GB?
4.What would we do if the insurgents escalate to lacing their IED with nuclear materials?
5. Why isn't the mainstream media in the US paying attention to this?

I am afraid for this war in Iraq if we have completely given up on paying attention to the changes in the warfare that the insurgents are doing. Let alone the media asking what some of the possible responses would be if they manage to kill our troops with such things as chemical weapons or God forbid a nuclear weapon in any degree.

Walter Reed fallout and who should blame

So people have been talking all over the place about the issues with Walter Reed Military Hospital. It has gotten so bad that the Congress is doing investigations, and at a variety of places were there is a major military hospital various main stream media have begun to report at problems of Vets and active duty in trying to get help at the hospitals.
I have paid some attention to the fiasco at Walter Reed and though the General in charge of the Hospital is to blame for the problems that have occurred. The people that I really think should stand up and say that they are at fault is the Staff Sergeants and above. These are the people that form the back bone of the enlisted leadership in the US Army. These are the people who should have been tactfully complaining to the officers in their chain of command about these issues. Heck these are the people that should of known about these problems long before it came to the light of the Washington Post.
To give you civilians who read this post an idea of the power of these people. They are similar to Tony Soprano or a union shop steward. These are the representatives to management about how the workers are doing. They are also the ones that are to put the discipline in the junior folks and offer wise sage like advise to junior officers. Basically, they what is actually holds up most military forces.
So how is it that senior non-commissioned folks let things like this happen? I don't know. I am not talking about the patients, rather I am talking about the staff members. These are the people that should of been reporting, correcting, and in general kicking butt to get things in order. How or why this didn't happen I don't know.
I am a second class petty officer in the United States Navy, pay grade is E-5 and comparable to being Sargent in the rest of the military. I was taught from day one of being an NCO that my job from day one was to take care of junior people around me. If I couldn't do it right then I would find out ways to help my people. I would try and stand up for them and find for them the answers to some of thier problems are the people to start the road of help. I was taught to read the rules, instructions, notices, etc and then go take the people that go "it is not my job" to task for not doing thier job as outlined by those written words.
Yet, that did not happen here. I believe that there was too much "its not my job" going on at Walter Reed and a number of the VA hospitals in the US. That drives me nuts and very angry. I just can't contain my angry about this and I am so angry that I can't even express myself very well. I will sit and read the papers and keep my ear to the grapevine to see what will happen with the further fall out from this.

Been down for a few days

To all you readers the reason that I have not been posting recently is because I have been laid out with a batch of the flu that is running around where I have been. This has been a bad case for me. I was sick in quarter for the past three days and after coming back to work not being able to do much more then sit in the office with my peacoat on a scarf and do paperwork. All while sucking on a soup in a thermos.
On top of that I am getting ready to head back out to sea for a month sometime near the end this month. We are going back out for a training exercises and some carrier quals. I have been pretty busy this past week.
I hope to get caught up this weekend with a few wild and crazy thoughts that I have in my mind.

A day out sea.

Recently I have gotten a few emails from people asking what it is really like to live and work on board a modern US Aircraft carrier as an Enlisted man. It is interesting and not anything like what is shown by Hollywood on shows like "JAG" or in movies like "Top Gun". So here it is a typical day for myself out to sea while I was on a 6 month cruise.
To begin with the only thing that you could really claim as your own space is where you sleep, but even that it at a premium. This shot here shows some elementary kids in a berthing compartment on board the USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63). As one can see, all you have is the bed and if you are lucky and have a locker underneath the bed. Like what the Asian girl on the right side of the picture is looking out of. Then someplace else in this compartment, which can range in about 200-500 square feet in space, is another pair of lockers not much bigger then the ones most people have at their local gyms. That really isn't that much place to store things. So most of us only pack our uniforms, about 2-3 days worth of civilian clothes. Entertainment wise, a few people will stick a CD player and a small CD case in their locker or a portable game system. A few more people will bring their laptops with themselves. Just to keep yourself entertained. Myself, I usually brought a Game boy and a few large books to read while on cruise. Now I am 5ft 9in (or about 1.75 meters for you readers that use metric measurements) tall and I have to sleep sort of crunched up to fit myself in one of these beds or racks as we call them. There is just a pair of blue curtains to block yourself off from the rest of the world and a small reading light to use. At the foot of this little rack attached to the bulkhead someplace is a compartment for a rescue breathing device so if there is a fire you can escape from the space and either get to the flight deck or to the hangar bay. This is where I will begin my day. I am a heavy sleep so I have two alarm clocks to wake me up. One is an old fashioned windup the other is a battery powered electric one.
One I wake up, it is usually a fight to either get out without stepping on someone else or with out being stepped on. Then trying to get dressed. Most people on a carrier will work a typical 12-hour day, either 0700 in the morning or 1900 at night will be the start of their shift. If you are lucky then you will be the only one in your little cubical getting up. If not then either you are fighting with 5 other people or at the most one other person.

Some people will stagger off to what we call a head or the bathroom and do the three "S's". The three S's are shower, shave, and sh*t. The hope is that by doing this you will have given a few other people a chance to have gotten dress and out of your way. After getting dressed then it is a decision based on what the time is. Do I forgo breakfast and head to work or stand in line forever and try to put something in my stomach. The really hard part about making this decision is how close you actually are to needing to be at work. Most supervisors like everyone to show up between 45-30 minutes prior to the shift starting. If you want to grab breakfast then it is stumble either forward or aft from where you live and down (or up ) a few decks to the end of the line for the mess decks.

When you get down to the start of the Mess decks, you are served cafeteria style. That is pick up a tray and go down the line picking what you want for food. In the morning if there are fresh eggs on board then you can get eggs made to order, if not then you have a choice of omelettes or scrambled eggs. The omelette really isn't that complex when they make it up; either a cheese, ham, or a Denver style. From there you have the choice of either pancakes or waffles, sausage or bacon, grits or home fried potatoes, topped off with either white bread or a donut.

Once you have gotten all of your food then you need to look for a place to sit. Some carriers that I have been on have fixed tables in selected spots and then you have long tables with small attached stools that can be fold up out of the way to go and eat on. Eat real fast and then head off to work.

Once at work it is 12 hours of fun either working on the flight deck or down below in a shop. All spaces usually have a TV. Most of us in a squadron will have the great TV show called "Roger Ball. ". "Roger Ball" is the PLAT broadcast being played on one of the screens, this is especially important to us maintainers because we can know which catapults are operating, when our aircraft are coming in, heck a smart salty sailor can even use it to figure out the weather on the flight deck. Some of the administration spaces will have one of the movie channels running or one of the other channels from satellite TV.

Sometime in the middle of the day is lunch when one can repeat the experience from breakfast, except this time will be some sort of meat, veggies, starch product. Again shovel the food into you in 30mins. Head back to work and keep working until shift change comes around. Oh and repeat again heading to the mess deck either before shift change or after shift change.

From there it is head back to your rack and either change out to some gym clothes and head to one of the gyms to exercise. Or head off to one of the stores on the ship and do some basic restocking of your shower kit. Other people will stay up and play cards or watch cruise movies on the TV in one of the crews lounges spread through out the ship. From there then go grab a shower and head off to bed. Repeat again for 190 days.

The only variations in this schedule will either be a drill day, when the powers to be decided to have a GQ drill or man over board drill. Then there is the need to extend your day because you have to head off to medical or dental for a check up or head some admin space and fill out paperwork for something or other. Laundry return day is another fun variation when everyone will pass out the clothes in your berthing compartment or you can need to head down to self service laundry to clean your civilian clothes. Self-Service is another fun line to stand in forever. There have been times that I have gotten done with work at 1900, skipped dinner and headed back to grab my laundry bag went down with a my CD player and a book, waited in line for ever, got a washer, compete for a dryer, and then back up top after it is all said and done only to look at my watch and realize that it is 0100 in the morning.

The whole thing really turns into groundhog day until the end of cruise. It seems the only days when things are brightened up is when you get regular postal mail from family. It is amazing how you come in to work one day and find out that mail call went down that day. Then here is a letter or care package from someone that cares about you.

That it my opinions about a typical day out to sea. The good thing about being out to sea is knowing that your day is going to be similar day in and day out. It really isn't that stressful, because you don't need try and get off early that day to go grocery store or pick up the dry-cleaning. If you do it right as well and set up your bills for autopay, then that is even less stress. All you need to do is worry about whether the food on the mess decks is worth eating, if you mailed off the latest letter to your family and whether the shower is going to be Arctic Ocean cold or hot springs scalding hot.

Someone you should know

This past week I attended a lunch function with my local Navy League and they were talking about diversity in the US Navy. One of the people that they brought during this lunch was an Ensign named Jesse L. Brown.
Jesse L. Brown was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi in 1926. He went to Ohio State University and joined the US Naval Reserve as an enlisted man in 1946. In 1947, his enlistment was terminated and the US Navy accepted him as Midshipman, upon graduation from Aviation Officer Candidate School in 1948, Midshipman Brown was accepted to VF-32, "The Swordsmen" on board the USS Leyte (CV-32). On the 15th of April, 1949, Brown was promoted to Ensign and had complete flight training in the F4U-4 Corsair with the Swordsmen.

From my understanding although Ens. Brown did face trouble from some officers in the Navy. Inside his squadron once he proved himself as a capable pilot, he disappeared to become another Ensign in the ship.

In June of 1950, North Korea went south of the 38th Parallel. In October of 1950, the USS Leyte joined Carrier Task Force 77 off the coast of North Korea. Ensign Brown rose to be a section leader, was awarded an Air Medal during their first line period. On December 4th 1950, while flying in support of the Tenth Corps fight in and around the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. Ensign Brown's plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire. His aircraft crashed landed behind enemy lines up near the reservoir. His wingman, then Ltg J.G. Thomas J. Hudner observed that Ensign Brown's plane crashed and that Ensign Brown was still alive. Lt. J.G. Hudner crash landed his own plane in an attempt to get Ens. Brown out of his plane. In a period of a few hours Lt. JG Hudner tried in vain to get Ensign Brown out of his plane. the cockpit had collapsed around Ens. Brown's lower body and trapped him inside. Hudner tried to radio for salvage equipment by the helicopter at the time couldn't lift both the heavy equipment up the altitude that the planes had crashed at. Nor was there enough daylight left for the helicopter to make the trip out to its ship, get the equipment and return before night time set in. Ens. Brown told Hudner to get out on the helicopter and thanked him for attempting to save him. Hudner got out and the next day when VF-32 aircraft over flew Brown's position the plane was still there, but there was no movement from Brown nor was there an answer on the radio.

At the end of the day the first Black Naval Aviator died, but not for the lack of his fellow shipmates to save him. Ensign Brown was awarded the DFC for his actions up to his crash. Lt. JG Hudner was awarded the Medal of Honor for his attempt as rescue of Brown.

A ship was later named in honor of Jesse L. Brown. FF-1089, a Knox class frigate.

To go succeed you will be tested

To advance as an enlisted man in the US Navy there are two hoops you have to go through. The first is a performance evaluation by your supervisors. The next step and the favorite of everyone in the Navy is the a 200 question multiple guess test. At all levels from those trying to advance to E-4 (3rd Class Petty Officer) all the way up to the Chief Petty Officer Level (E-7), a test is taken.
What usually happens on test day is similar to taking the SAT's when one was in High school. The test starts promptly at 0700 in the morning and you are given 3 hours to complete the test. When you show up the only thing allowed for use is either a calculator. Then set up on the test table is usually two #2 pencils, two sheets of scratch paper, and usually the advancement worksheet. The advancement worksheet has all of your personal and professional information on it. Such information as how many awards you have, the average score of your performance evals, and time in pay grade and time in active service. Nothing else is allowed on the table or in the testing room.
From there at 0700 you begin the test and for the next three hours you rack your brain and try to data dump everything you should have study or had study the previous 5 months from when the bibliography of books that the test will be based on was published. The really interesting thing about the test is how they will use unusually complex words and sentences to ask a simple thing. For example the test writers might think of a simple question such as "Who tall is a tree in the forest?". So to ask a question like that they will write it similar to this, "While standing next to a tree in a forest and you see the sun is going near its highest peak and your shadow is cast to your starboard side for a total distance of 8ft. What is the total height of the tree?"
There are 200 different questions about about half of them will be written like those above. At the end of it all following the data dump from ones mind you feel incredibly stupid. There have been a few times that I have finished and had to look at my uniform to remember what my name was.
After the test is turned in, you have 3 months to wait for the results and there is the typical results following the grading of a test. Either plenty of teeth gnashing because one passed the test but didn't do it well enough to advance or the jumping for joy happiness because one passes the test and gets the promotion with the more money and more responsibilities.
If you don't make it then you in turn start to go begin studying again and hope that the dice roll right for you.

Advancement Test Day

Today was Advancement Test Taking day. I don't really know how I did, but I do feel stupider after taking the damn thing. After I have recovered my intelligence. I will post more about this joy of that comes to an enlisted sailor every 6 months.