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.
Back in the day, my LAN was upgraded. Many late nights got our network solid, so don’t assume it won’t work because it’s the first time. History has shown that sometimes, the first time DOES work. Love you, bro.