Shore Patrol with foregin sailors

So while out the powers to be in large and charge of the battle group decided to pull into a US port. Then we pretend it was a foreign port. What port did they decided one, Ft. Lauder dale. Been there done that told the story of being there a few years back to some of the guys I was working with. Some of them believed them some of them didn't. That is the joy of telling a sea story.


We find out that instead of going pier side we will be moored out and have to ride liberty launches in. No biggie. The watch bill gets posted a few days before and I find out that during a five day day port visit I draw duty twice. First and last day, again no biggie and the only time I have watch is the first day which is at the casino in town. Yes, dear readers the same casino that a celebrity died in just a few months back. I have the last watch on that day which is awesome. Why? Mainly, because I get a chance to skate back out of work and head to the rack, so that I can grab some extra shut eye. So it goes that we pull up to the beach front of Ft. Lauderdale around 0800 in the morning and after helping to complete an inspection on one of the aircraft, I rolled on down to grab lunch and then grabbed some shut eye. Woke up just before I had to go and stand the watch. Assigned the 1900 to 0200 shore patrol, because we are moored out and it was about 45 minute ride out on the launch. So I have to be down to muster at 1700 in the Hangar bay in a my working whites. Go mustered up with the shore patrol team and then wait for the launch to arrive at the ship. Spend a few moments on the phone with the romantic interest and then with the folks, while on the launch heading off to the beach. We arrived at the cruise terminals in town and see that the a couple of our escorts were tied up pier side and one Her Majesty's Ships, the HMS Manchester.

After arriving where they set up fleet landing, walked over to where the shore patrol team HQ was. Got the brief from the shore patrol leader about what our responsibilities were. Same thing as always, keep our people safe and try and prevent problems. I was told that I was the senior man of the team and was supposed to be leading the team hanging out at the casino. Found out there was no bus and we were going to be dropped off in a rental van. The best part to date was given a map that had been photocopied way too many times and try and give directions to a F-18 fighter jock. We would have gotten there about 20minutes later if he had just listen to the navigator, but those single seat jockeys just can't listen to anyone giving them directions while sitting in the seat next to them. We arrive and find the earlier SP team standing out front. Sticking out like a sore thumb amongst the tourists in their skimpy clothes or really bad and loud Hawaiian shirts.
Everyone piled out of the van, we then proceed to do turn over with the on coming folks and begin our walk around. The funniest thing was that when we checked in with hotel and casino security staff we were told this, "Your who and why are you here?" The head honcho told us in a tone that made us feel real welcome.
All six of us on this shore patrol party were hungry. A couple of guys went off to try the buffet, myself and two others went off to check out some bar-b-que joint. It was funny, because we were wearing our whites and they seem to attract all sorts of stains, even if you are sitting in an all white room some how some way you get some sort of stain on it. Anyhow, we sat down grabbed a bite of eat. I polished off a plate of gator tails and deep fat fried frog legs. One of the guys with me was a brand new petty officer and still new to the Navy. He ordered a pulled pork sandwich. The first bite in just dripped meat and sauce all over him. We all got a good laugh about it and luckily for him the bar keep gave us some soda water to mop out the stain. It didn't come out completely and made for a good way to give the new guy some ribbing as we walked around.
At this hotel and casino there was an outdoor shopping center and party block. On the outside near the hotel was a few family friendly restaurants and shopping block, but further near the back and closer to the actual casino area was the club block. The club block was composed of about eight to nine different up scale clubs of all different themes. That is where we spent most of the night. Bouncing from club to club, watching people spend their money and making sure that what few sailors that showed up were not causing problems.
It was pretty good for the first couple of hours. I think I spent more time getting my picture shot with pretty girls that night. It also seemed as thought I couldn't buy a drink either, all of us had to refuse what most people wanted to do, which was buy us a shot or a glass of beer. We had to refuse, so it was ice water or a soda. Plenty of hand shakes and congrats, which made a few of us coming from military unfriendly towns feel that warm and fuzzy.
The best part of the night was that we ran into a roving shore patrol team from the Royal Navy ship about 2100 (or 9 pm for you military types). By roving they were authorized a vehicle and traveled where the major tourist spots were to make sure their lads were not getting in trouble. Once these guys found out that the place was filled with hot women who loved sailors in their uniforms. Well, their car "broke down" :). I spent the rest of the night walking around enjoying the sights and talking with this Brit. We talked about everything from how much is sucks being away from home to how awful a few of our officers were. It seems as though things are as common no matter what military you are in. That it sucks to be away from your home and family, some of the officers are good and some you wonder how they made it out of the womb, the ship sucks, and liberty is good in any port near the equator during the summer time. The most amazing thing though was how after watching a few of these Brits in action with regards to a few of their rowdy people, which wasn't many, all it took was the stare or a sharp word and the guy knocked it off. Most of the US sailors were a little harder to control, but even then there wasn't any incidents the first night from off the carrier. Only a guy off a US destroyer got in trouble because he couldn't handle his liquor and his tongue.

Overall a successful night and a good first night in town, even if it was the duty day.

Long days, longer nights, and magical drinks

So it has come to be that I am in the wonderful state of Nevada with my squadron and air wing doing our part to fully integrate ourselves into a successful team that nearly every carrier air wing becomes. Flying hard against nimble little F-5E's or F-16N's. Dropping live ordnance in near real world conditions against real targets. Practicing pumping electrons into the air to screw over the bad guys abilities. Dropping in SEAL teams to practice rescue of down aviators, then slipping back in to pick them up before the bad guys know what happened. What we are doing is very similar to the summer training camp of pro-football (or American football for my readers who live overseas). Everyone is pretty good at their part of the play book. Now it is time to bring together the offensive tackles, running backs, wide receivers, and quarterbacks and operate as a team. The only downside with what we are doing right now is the aircrew are flying hard and at least to a few of my people seem as though they are actively trying to break the jets. So after the last flight secures for the night it is work hard to get the downing discrepancies up again and get the jet ready for the next day. I am part of that team, working hard at night to get my jet the might EA-6B ready to fly again. So every day I show up at 1630 (or 4:30pm for you military types), get the debrief from the day checkers about what is going on and then either start to work or launch the night strikes. Why night strikes? Cause we own the night!
Anyhow, 10-12 hours later we secure. Head back to our BEQ rooms for either a shower, food and sleep. At least that is what I had planned one night after we were lucky to get out early (like midnight early, instead of the usual 0330-0400) on night checks weekend which is a Thursday night.
One of the wonderful things about being in Nevada is how nearly every town has a casino. Well right in Navy town, Nevada there are a few casinos but the tables close early. If you want the all day and all night experience you either need to head to Sin City or head to Casino Town. Sin City is about 18hrs away from Navy Town, so that is out. Casino Town on the flip side is only about an hour and half away (or less depending on how fast you drive on US 50).
So this one Thursday, things wrap up pretty early and most of us are amazed about what is going on and as part of the talk on the way back to our rooms. Some one gets the bright idea that since pay day is that Saturday, we don't need to be back until Sunday night, and there are a couple of vans ready for use a road trip is called for. The minute I heard that I just rolled my eyes and told myself that it isn't worth the effort, let alone trying to keep a few of these guys wrangled together. So as we walk down the hall way in the BEQ the plan becomes firmer and firmer, I walk into my room and don't pay attention to the rest of the talk. Bad move on Southern's part. Why? Well the plan hung up on this one fact, who could duty drive back to Navy Town from Casino Town. The first name to pop into most of their heads all with in about 30 nanoseconds of each other was Southern's. Meanwhile I am changing and getting ready for a hot shower and bed, when a knock at the door beckons. Who is that my mind wonders? None other then the ring leader of the Bachelor Pad. The Bachelor Pad is the name we have assigned a huge house in a nice neighborhood back home where the a number of guys are all splitting rent and crashing at. I have been invited over a couple of times and the most that I can say is this, the fridge is stock full of either Bud light or Coors and the only food to be found is Top Raman. Other then that, it is our version of Animal House.
"What do you want?" I asked in a semi-annoyed tone
"Will you drive us over the hill?"
"How many...No forget it. I am going to try and get some sleep early on tonight."
"Oh come on, we are only going to be there for a few hours, just long enough to get our gambling on and our drink on."
"No!"
"Southern, come on most of us have pre-flighted already and none of us can agree on who should drive and we will behave ourselves. You won't have to baby-sit."
I should of shut the door, but my devil got the better of me. So I agreed but only after I had a chance to get a quick shower. Which worked out since most of this crew were doing the same thing.
About 30minutes later I am sitting out in the lounge waiting for the crew, when they all come up. I am tossed the keys and we pile outside into a mini-van.
The only rule that I stipulated was that when 3/4's of us were ready to bounce, we were going. If you don't make it to the van on time, well it looks like you are walking back. Agreed on by all parties.
Negotiate the gate obstacles and we are out in the desert listening to some one's Ipod and cruising down the road. Through Navy Town to US 50 and to the west we go. It amazed how once we got up on highway 50 most of the people past out or kept to themselves as they tried to pick out various objects to look at. The only thing that caused a serious topic of discussion was when we past the Ranch just outside Casino Town. Some of the guys wanted to stop in and say hi to the girls there.. I put a quick stop to that one, we already had a plan and I didn't feel like deviating from it. Besides I told most of them, if they were really into it if they started to win big at the tables plenty of girls would hang on to them and they might be able to get it on for free.
Tempers calmed we came over the last hill crest and saw the big lights of Casino Town. Lights announcing that the Nugget has a players program and one could get a free lobster dinner if you joined, Harrahs had a new Keno room, so on and so forth. I quickly asked which casino was the choice and most everyone agreed to Harrahs. Simply because a couple of the guys belonged to the one from back home and we could get a discounted late night meal. So off of 50 and into down town Casino. Up a couple of streets and into the parking lot of the Harrahs. As the doors opened up, I held everyone up and asked for an agreed upon muster time. After yet another discussion/argument the group think came up with noon. I rolled my eyes and agreed to that one.
Walking into the casino, the first thing that I went to look for was the buffet room and see if I could grab a bite to eat. I was lucky in that I got in there just as they closed the doors to the last customers. So I was able to pay ten dollars for the left overs, some over done prime rib (which was still good) some decent steam veggies and a soda.
After enjoying a warm meal, I walked out and decided to try my hand at some gambling.
Now, I have been to casinos before and have found that I enjoy playing the table games such as black jack, poker, baccarat, and every so often craps more then I do the slots. So there it was that I walked up to a black jack table and cashed in a hundred dollars.
One of my tricks to not get caught up in gambling fever is to take out how much I am willing to risk and then put my ATM card in either my room or the car. That way if I need cash I have to walk out and calm down on the way to restock my funds.
So there I was sitting down with a hundred dollars worth of chips in front of me and started to play. It was about that time the magical drinks started. I had a waitress come by and ask me what I wanted. I told her that I was the D.D. and only wanted a soda. A couple of plays later, I am up by about 75 dollars and a small glass appears in front of me with a soda in it. I drink that down while in the process of losing 45 dollars. I polish off my drink and get up to plus hundred dollars. It was then that some how my drink changed from just soda to a liquor and soda. I remember just ordering soda. That is when my night started to go down hill. I don't remember after the first few whether my drink ever emptied. It seemed as though the glass was always topped off. I also don't remember paying for any of it. The only thing I do remember is realizing that I had a buzz on and it was something close to 0600. I remember sitting down at 0200 at the table and just having a soda. The only good thing was that I was up by 425 dollars when I walked away. Basically I had in my pocket 525 dollars scattered between bills and fifty cent pieces in my pocket.
Bathroom time and then my stomach told me that it was also food time. I walk out the casino and down the street. Find an all night diner, so I turned walked in. Sat down and then seem to fit the bill all the way around for me. Because they sold newspapers behind the counter and had a wonderful western omelette special for something like six dollars. While I am sitting there reading the paper and waiting on my meal, my mind all of a sudden comes free of the booze haze. It tells me that I am an old dog and can't hang like I use to with the young pups. Because it is also craving a warm, soft, bed to lay down in; along with the food that is supposed to be coming up. Scarf down the omelette and hash browns with a large glass of OJ. Decided that my best course of action is to hang out in the van and crash there. Walk back to the parking lot, get in lock the doors and turn my cellphone to vibrate and loud next to my neck.
Some how I am not disturbed for the next eight hours, because it wasn't noon rather about 1300 (or 1pm for you military types) that I get a phone call asking me where I am.
"In the van waiting."
"Right we are on the way."
Everyone piles in and most of them look just as bad as I do, except they are drunk and haven't slept a wink. The drive back was peaceful because the minute we hit the highway everyone passed out. I rocked out to the oldies station the whole way back and crossed the gate by 3pm and was crawling back into my bed when the romantic interest called my room, she was asking how the day went. "Uhhhh!" is all I was up to saying. What we talked about is for another story for another time dear readers.

I just relearned a lesson that I already knew, but forgot. What was that?
Trying to hang with the pro-am drinkers isn't good for me
Long work weeks means longer weekends to recover
Don't drink the casino drinks because they never seem to empty out.
Stick with water or soda at the table, helps you think clearly
Finally just say no to road trips with the know party animals.

COPS! Filmed on location on board USS Oldboat

So it always seems to come that in the life of an enlisted sailor they will be assigned to temporary duty away their primary job. This is also known as being TAD'd. So it came to be that while I was stationed on board USS Oldboat, was tasked to take up duty with the Master-At-Arms on board. I had just been promoted to a 3rd class and the CPO that I worked for told me that it would of been a great chance to learn how to me a leader was by going to the security shack.
So I show up to the security shack and proceed to get indoctrinated into the ways of being the police force on a modern US aircraft carrier. I start with learning and having to quote verbatim the US Military Lawyers version of reasonable cause and use of deadly force. I can still quote them now every so often, when I hear the right combinations of words. Anyhow, one of the funnier moments in all of this week long training we got about what we can do and can't do as a security team member. We were finally being issued the official uniform, which was (drum-roll please).....Battle Dress Utilities as they are expressed in official terminology. The woodland cammies that everyone that fights ashore wearing. Mind you I am on a large ship that is painted primarily in shades of black, grey, and white. So here I am dressed in a uniform that is composed of green, black, brown. I am not completely smart and the US Navy through testing considers me smart, but a uniform that was designed to help you blend into the woodland areas of Central Europe, South America, just about any place that has a rich green forest. Not a frigging ship out at sea. The whole thing reminded me of those t-shirts that one can buy at places like Spencer's Gifts or Target that is a camouflaged and says "You can't see me".
So after getting that uniform which would help me to blend into the ship. We are then told to start patrol the ship and do the "protect and serve" bit. Twelve hour shifts while in port and we would work 3 days on with 2 off and then alternate the other way 2 days on with 3 off. The even better part about this scheduling was that about once a month if you worked nights then you would shift to days. So with our scheduling set, the rest of the training could proceed. See those assigned to the security shack can't carry arms unless we have attended something like 40 hours worth of training on the weapons we are going to use. Some of this training is via sleeping aids called US Navy training films. If some of you fine readers haven't seen these then imagine some of those dry film strips or educational films from High school or middle school. The ones that don't really tell you much more then what you had learned from the instructors lectures. After surviving the training, we are taken to the range to show "weapons familiarization" and to get a "familiarization firing" in. Basically one needs to show that they can shoot the weapon with out hurting themselves or others and then that they are able to put at least some of the bullets on a paper target a couple of yards away. After all of that is done one is given their weapons card, or as we called it the 007 card.
After all of that training which amounted to about a month, I am finally walking around the ship with 9mm gun strapped to my hip with no ammunition loaded in it, a baton on the other and scattered around the rest of my utility belt a pair of handcuffs and 45 rounds of 9mm ammunition. To give you a time reference, I joined the security shack about 3 months before the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen. Before the Cole, the powers to be felt that Sailors couldn't be trusted with loaded firearms they were too afraid of people shooting themselves in the foot or shooting others. On top of that a couple of well known incidents at the time in the Hampton Roads area was a couple pier sentries were robbed of their weapons by unknown assailants just prior to my arrival. The sentries couldn't use their weapons in self-defense due to the rules of deadly force drawn up by some JAG lawyer on 2nd Fleet's staff. Would of had them making phone calls to request the use of their weapons, file forms in triplicate, and other typical lawyerese.
I digress, so I am supposed to walk around with a partner and make sure that our section of the ships stays safe and secure. Some of the sections were easier to walk. Such as the after 60 frames of the ship and all the decks from the 2nd deck up to the 0-3 level. Basically amounted to walking around a football field 3 times and then checking in with the dispatcher. The worst one was the center of the ship. We were supposed to check medical and their controlled meds cabinets (where all the good drugs were) and then all the way up to the bridge on the oh god level. Making this loop would be very similar to climbing up and down a 9 or 10 story building constantly for my shift. I will tell you this, I lost a bunch of weight when assigned this section but it was tiring after a while.
On top of the patrols we were assigned to stand watches on the brows of the ship with a 12-gauge shotgun (again unloaded) and defend these easy access points from hostile forces. These were typical 4 hour watches of just standing there trying to stay warm and decided if you really want to be a party of the Navy anymore.

Now that you all have a good idea of all that goes on to just become a security member. Let the show begin.
We have to deal with restricted personnel and most of these are people that run away from the Navy to deal with problems at home with then ran away from in the first place. See a cycle here? So we had a guy come back to us after being in an unauthorized absence (U/A) for about 90 days. After he came back on board we had to read him his rights and to get a breathalyzer on him and a urine sample. That way we can prove that when he gave his statement about being U/A he was stone cold sober. This joker didn't want to give either a breathalyzer nor give give a urine sample. So we told him to sit down and as soon as he was ready to abided by our rules we would let him go. Not even a minute after doing so, I turned by back to get something else ready when this guy bolted. Now we have a security alert, we don't know where he went nor what he might want to do. Make the announcements across the ships general announcing system. Closed the brows and actually closed the pier as well. No one could leave no one could come back on board. About 10 minutes later we find him in the ships smoke pit. A struggle which lead to the use of a baton on him to submit to being handcuffs and one of our guys getting a bruise. Back down in the security shack, again laid out that this loser could go on his happy way as long as he just gave us a breathalyzer and a urine sample, then sign some forms. A process that would take the most of his life about 10minutes. Again this joker decides to run with our handcuffs still on him. This time he decides to jump off the side of the ship and try and swim to the pier, only problem was that he jumped from where the aircraft elevator comes to the hanger deck. On USS Oldboat with the elevators up on the flight deck level there are stations up to keep people from falling over the side. Then a little further out there are some hooks which are to hook into the elevator and provide a strong point for the elevator to stay stable. Unfortunately for this U/A guy he jumped and got his hand cuffs caught on the fall with one of these hooks. This in turn pulled both his arms out of his sockets, very painful. Some one else walking along the hangar deck saw him jump and was about to call the man overboard when he heard the screaming. A short rescue session later and this guy was in custody, yet again this time handcuffed to the litter we used to carry him down to Medical. Where a corpsman popped both shoulders back in and then proceeded to draw both blood and with a warrant approved by the ship's JAG some urine to be tested. Long story short this guy was remanded to the Norfolk Naval Brig for the remainder of his career and to receive a bad conduct discharge. All of this was awarded at a special court martial.

Fast forward a few months and it is now post USS Cole and everyone is trying to figure out how in the world to protect the fleet while in port from terrorist attacks. So USS Oldboat is going to deploy soon, so some smart khaki in 2nd Fleet decides to use her to re-write the rulebook. For about 2 weeks straight we are going through security exercises left and right. Everything from riots on the pier, attempts to plant explosives on the ship, to IED attacks against the pier or friendly dining facilities (in Norfolk there is a McDonald's right across from the pier and they blew it up one night), to attempted kidnapping of senior officers. All sorts of fun and excitement. Last day of the exercise and the training team throws it all at us, and EOD team is going to plant explosives on the side of the ship while a suicide bomber will try and board the ship and blow up the hangar bay all the same while a small boat attack may occur. I was assigned as the brow sentry that morning, what wasn't told to me was that the brow sentries couldn't play. So in the early morning dawn I see some joker in civvies walk up to our pier sentries and pull a red man gun out and proceed to execute them and then make a full run down the pier. At the time I was calling away a security alert, another sentry on the side of the ship saw a diver and called away divers in the water. That started, the brows closed, everyone was supposed to freeze in place. I told the OOD to close the armored water tight hatch on my brow on both sides and then hide amongst the structure as I loaded my Mossburg model 500 shotgun. As this guy came up I took the butt of my shotgun and thrust it hard and fast into his stomach which caused him to stop, gasp for breath. I then stood over him kicked the gun away and cycled the pump. Standing over this man with a shotgun about an 6 inches from his face I pulled my best Dirty Harry and asked "Do you want open or closed casket?". He surrendered, I called away for a security team to come by and pick him up. A few hours later after I got off watch and was told to report to ready room 10 for a special debrief from the security training team. I show up, pissed off to hell because this is cutting into my sleep time and as I open the door there is the security division officer, the XO of the boat, and this guy that I butt stroked. Except this time he is in a pair of blues with Lieutenant Commander stripes on his shoulder boards. Oh god, I think Southern is going to jail for assaulting an officer. This LCDR is all hyped up and wants my head, going on about how I was supposed to know not to play. This guy was just all sorts of pissed off and still hunched over from the beat down. The XO who was a Captain told him to calm down and let me speak. So I told him that at quarters at the beginning of my shift 2000 the previous night all that was explained was that there was going to be one final security drill with only divers or a small boat attack coming at us. Not some mad man trying to come on the ship with a gun and or bombs strapped to him. I acted as I was supposed to which was put down the threat in justification with the deadly force ladder. Since he had not pointed the gun at me I couldn't just shoot him, so I dropped him and arrested. At this point my division officer spoke up and said that we were told by your people, as she pointed at this LCDR, was the drills were over and a debrief was supposed to go on today. My people acted with in accordance of ships, 2nd Fleet, Norfolk, and Navy policy. You were the one to screw up. The XO then asked me if I knew what was going on today. I just mentioned how I was supposed to stand this watch at the end of my shift and we had been told the exercises were over the day before. I then mentioned how it seemed silly at least to me to verbally challenge the guy when I had seen he had a gun, when it was better to close the hatch and then try to subdue him while he was attempting to gain access. From there I was dismissed and stumbled back to my rack for some well needed sleep. I was then woken up about half through my sleep by a Chief as told to report to the security shack. I threw on a pair of coveralls and went down to the shack. There was this same LCDR, my division officer, and the division CPO. I then got an apology from this LCDR during the earlier debrief and I was told I acted with in policy.

A month after cruise started I rotated out of the security shack and went back to my real job of fixing airplanes. I learned a few things while down there. I did what I was supposed to do, but I didn't enjoy being in the security shack for a minute.

Fun and Hi-jinks while Haze Gray chapter 1

There I was getting ready to experience my first underway as a member of the mythical "Fleet". I had already been in the Navy for about 9 months total from boot camp to completion of NAMTRAGRU. All I had heard from the various chiefs and senior PO's at all these billets was how the "Fleet" was different then training commands I was passing on through. Here it is late June in Norfolk, I am a brand new airman apprentice assigned to USS Oldship. I was proud to be part of her, be on her, and hopefully make history with her. Her name is one well associated with history of the Navy going back to the days of wooden ships and iron men. She made a name for own self as part of the ongoing challenges to the Soviet bloc through out the world. What were we getting underway for? I could of cared less, in reality this was going to be my first and last for about 9months. We were going out to sea to offload all the bombs, rockets, missiles, etc that they had in preparation to hit the yards for a post-deployment overhaul. It was only going to be a two week tour cruise up and down the Virginia Capes operating area. God how I was going to hate reading for the next 4yrs the short hand for that area, VACAPES, later on in my tour. Like I said today I didn't give a care. We also had a special detail on board, portions of the Naval Reserve CV augmentation unit from New York on board doing their 2 weeks of active duty for drill. Talking with them, most of these folks were in during Regan Era of the Cold war and big Navy. However, they decided after Desert Storm to walk away from the active side for whatever reason; yet they still like the Navy to stick around.
The fun and excitement of being underway for my first time last, oh about 36hours. Upon which I realized that when the pier and land disappear over the horizon and you end up haze gray you are up to your own resources to find something to do and not be in someones way. I spent part of that time learning my way around the ship, being thrust into various ship-wide training evolutions "Send Southern to the Mass Cass he is the new guy!", finally being assigned collateral duties.
One of those collateral duties was being a member of a repair locker. Now when a ship is haze grey and under way the only people that can be called on to fight a fire is the ships crew. They are all trained in basic DC (firefighting, shoring, water removal, first aid, etc) and then some lucky folks are assigned to join a repair locker which operates just like a neighbor firehouse. The repair locker is responsible for a specific area to fight damage that is caused to the ship. They are the first responders. On a carrier there are 7 major lockers spread through out the ship and some of those lockers are subdivided in to letter codes designated where they are assigned: Fox-forward, Bravo-Midships, Alpha-Aft. I was attached to 1-Fox and we were responsible for everything from the divisional doors on the Hangar bay forward to the anchor windlass and up to the 02 level.
Now as I mentioned we also had some reservists on board, most of them were pretty cool. One though was a total jerk and some other not nice words. She had been in the Navy for 12yrs active duty and 8yrs reserves as an avionics repair tech for the AWG-9 radar system which was held in the
F-14 Tomcat. She had never been to sea, some of that wasn't her fault when she came in the Navy wasn't letting women at sea in combat ships and after she switched to reserves she found a way to do most of her time over at Oceana. This time though, the unit instead of rolling to Oceana came to USS Oldship to give the reservists some sea time. She hated every minute of it. Every day all of us in the shop heard complaints about either the food, noise, racks, bored, or how seasick she was. I stayed out of her way though cause in my eyes she was a "salty" 2nd class PO.
We were arranged by our bosses over in production control to work a 12 on and 12 off scheduled and only one shift since we weren't getting anyone form the attached air wing or training wings to fly on board. That is we worked from 0700 in the morning to 1900 at night. When we got off shift we could do whatever we wanted, the most popular thing to do was sit around and play spades or hearts and watch one of the three movie channels on the TV. For reasons only known to God himself and the joker that was in charge of programming one of the movie channels the total two weeks we were out the movie "Titanic" was being shown at various times alternating through the three channels. Since those in charge of programming were lazy they never changed programming during a day you were able to pick it again around the same time just 12 hours later (ie if the movie started at 0800 you could catch it again at 2000 starting again).
So I was assigned to a repair locker and found out the first GQ went down on underway+3 just basically a refresher for the experienced guys and to start training the new folks (like me) into filling spots of guys that were leaving. It was an experience! Sweating in a fire-fighting ensemble with an oxygen breathing apparatus on my chest for two hours. I was a messenger between the Hose teams and the on-scene leader. Lots of running and jumping, a butt ton of weight loss.