Well time is getting close to the official start of our Selected Restricted Availability(SRA) period.  During an SRA period, ships either stay pier side or into a dry dock for months at a time for system upgrades, preservation, or a full overhaul of equipment on board.  This will be my second SRA period and unlike the first time, I will not be at school.  In fact, I have been given the task of overseeing our LAN upgrade for the ship.  I am not the only one who will be overseeing it, but I will be doing a lot of it by myself for at least 5 weeks of the SRA period.  As much as I feel honored with this task, I am still very young in my job and it will be completely overwhelming with my experience.

Though I can’t say that LAN upgrades happen all the time, which they probably don’t, those with more time in rate are better to cope with it because they can delegate work to those they know are capable of carrying out tasks.  With my lack of experience and senior personnel to aide with the upgrade, it is difficult to delegate to those under me to lighten the load.  All I can hope for is that when everything is done and our new LAN is up and running with minor issues, because nothing ever works perfectly the first time, that I can spend the rest of my time here relaxing until I check out and move on to my next command.

I didn’t ask for this, I just wanted to help lighten the load.  Now a lot of it is on me.

Obviously as we all know Barack Obama has been selected as the next President of the United States, and with that he will be my our new Commander-In-Chief.  Though there are mixed reviews about having him as our next President, no matter what I think or believe, I will carry out whatever he deems necessary and involves the military because I am an American serving in the Armed Forces, and I took the Oath of Enlistment stating “that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States.”

I do offer my congratulations on his achievement in becoming the next POTUS and the efforts put forth in order to gain the trust of the people of the United States to select him into office.  As a military member, I do not do my job based on race, religion, personal preference, but to complete the mission at hand, be it real or an exercise.  I do it because I don’t know when my Commander-In-Chief will call upon the Navy to carry out a real life mission, but at least I know I will be ready.

To those who refuse to accept Barack Obama as our new President, there is nothing you can do and will accept him like every President before him.  Those in the military who do not accept him, he is your new Commander-In-Chief and you will carry out his orders because you took the same Oath as I did.

Yes, I have my exact dates of arrival to not just to my next command, but to an intermediate stop in between for school.  I will be detaching this place and making a stop in Virginia for school for a good month.  As much as I dislike the east coast, I wont mind a month out there because I will at least get to see places like Washington DC.  Baseball season will also have already started so maybe a stop in Boston to see the Red Sox game.  At no point under my own free will would I ever go to Virginia, but since the Navy is making me go for a month, might as well make the best of it and go to places I would never want to make a living in.

I am going to another ship, but because I am coming from the FDNF, and only have a year of sea duty left for my rotation, I only will be at my command for a year.  Three months on board and I will already be up for orders and I will do my shore duty.  Still not sure what I plan on doing because I will only have a year left before my EAOS when I go to shore duty.  I plan on staying in California for shore, and if I do re-enlist, it would be for 3 years and only if they let me extend on shore for a year and do 4 years shore.  If that is a possibility, then when I complete my shore duty I will not go out to sea again and put in for separation.

We’ll see what the future has in store, but for now let the count down begin for when I leave this place!