Well, it is official.  I am off my ship and now out of Japan.  I’ve been waiting for this day for quite a long time and now that it has come, well, I feel how I thought I would.  I do miss Japan, but a sense of relief is on me knowing that it will be a long time before I work for some of the people I did.

It has been almost a week since I detached, but surprisingly enough, I was put into an interesting situation when I did walk off the brow.  I got a ride from one of the ITs down to TPU to get checked in since I was no longer attached, and my flight wasn’t until the following week, so why waste those leave days doing nothing?  When I got there, the MM2 at the door told me that I could only stay there if the ship was underway, while having a big smirk on his face.  I guess he thought this was humorous.  Anyways, I stayed at another friends house for the day to find a way to get things settled so I had somewhere to stay.  We tried the BOQ which told us we could only get a room if TPU was full, which it never is.  They also told us that because I was detached that TPU should take me because I am not attached to any ships out here and I am PCSing.  We then went back to TPU to talk with the BOQ so they can get this whole policy straightened out.  This time, we had an SHSN at the desk who looked a lot more eager to help me out than the MM2.  He talked to a CS2, who happened to be the husband of a CS1 on my ship who just said, “fuck it,” and got me into TPU.  6 days with out being charged leave and not having to be on a ship.  With the exception of the weekend I got while I was there, I did have to clean for a few days, but ultimately it was a lot worth it getting out at 1500 everyday.

I am now home in California on leave finally.  Next thing officially scheduled is my trip to Dam Neck, Virginia for my GCCS school.  Though I miss Japan, it got the last laugh.  It might have been something I ate, but I had not felt that sick in a very long time, plane ride and all.

I was given my first Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal for my end of tour award aboard my ship. 3 Years of service on this thing and I got what I earned for busting my ass, not getting into trouble and keeping a somewhat positive attitude. I thought it was funny that when I got it, a lot of people were surprised to find out that I was leaving soon. The CMC looked baffled to find out that I was leaving and asked me to reassure him that I was indeed leaving the ship for good.  One of the Chief’s mentioned that my NAM sounded a lot better than the other 8 people who got awards.  I’m not going to lie,  I did do a lot while I was here.

I have less than a week left on board and my flight is situated and my check out sheet is in progress of getting filled out with the signatures of the appropriate people. The most important one though is that Commanding Officer signature, which I should have in the next few days. After that, on the 20th, I will be heading over to TPU so that I don’t get charged leave for the extra days I remain in Japan until I fly home. Things are falling into place the way I wanted and I will be off in no time.

If you are reading this, and don’t already know who I am, I will be out in the Honch Friday, March 20th partying it up with the crew.  Just ask for DriK and they will point you in my way.  I know I am not as popular as Jim for his website, but if you are still interested in knowing who I am, that is where I will be.

“I swear I can’t stand this place, and whats becoming of me the longer I have to stay, I want to think all unthinkable  things and say what I shouldn’t say, I need a change,” A Call To Arms by Bayside.

March 20^th will be my official detaching day onboard my ship, though I do not fly out until the 26^th via MAC flight. The same day I detach will also be my last hoorah out in the Honch. I still need to sort out the details with Admin to find out if they will put me in TPU because I don’t fly out until the next week, or have to stay at a friends’ house. I really didn’t want to leave until the 23^rd for reason that I can not say, but unfortunately if I did do that, I would have to stand my last duty day on the 20^th.

At most normal commands, you would think that your CoC would do something appreciative like give you your last duty day off in regards to all the hard work you’ve done for the last 3 years, but instead I got something like, “we don’t believe in a last duty day off.” The last IT who tried to request a last duty day off was eventually yelled at because he didn’t feel he should route it to the Captain because anything given to the Captain, according to the command, you are to utilize the CoC for anything routed, especially when it will require the CO’s approval. Because my CoC doesn’t believe in it, they will not route it, and instead requested that I route a leave chit for that day. That becomes pointless since I would have to route it for the whole weekend since it begins on a Friday and my leave would start that Monday anyways, so that makes no sense. I just said fuck it and will detach as normal.

This goes to show how much my command cares about the morale and quality of life of its crew.  I will live on the streets than have to take any extra days on this ship. Only a few weeks left; that’s all I have to say about that!

So I decided to wait a bit to write this to get the words right so I don’t piss off someone.  Well, there really isn’t any way to not piss someone in the higher ups, but I think this is something that I took seriously and my inspector did not.

The Navy conducts spotchecks to make sure that the maintenance man is performing the steps properly, in order and has all the tools, parts and any other items required to perform the check.  The inspectors are all E-7 and above because they are expected to guide and teach in the event a question comes up about a check that the person who did the maintenance didn’t quite comprehend or may not have noticed.

About two weeks ago, I was doing a spotcheck and unfortunately I did get an unsat.  At no point did I not perform the steps outlined in the MRC, but the fact that I made some really basic mistakes that I shouldn’t have.  I admit that I could have done a lot better being senior in the division, and experienced maintenance man, but the same goes to the inspector.  On the spotcheck form, it was annotated what I did wrong and I completely agreed.  It wasn’t until a few hours after the spotcheck that I was accused of another mistake that was not brought to my attention during the check.    Not only that, I was being made fun of and laughed at for my additional mistake.  At no point did I think what I did wrong was anything to laugh about.  Spotchecks are serious, and that goes for the inspector as well.  I felt pretty shitty about getting an unsat, but I was more pissed that they could just laugh about it.  The ship has a 3-M inspection in a few months, which I won’t be there for, and when it’s time to get even more serious about making sure people are doing their maintenance properly, they go down and laugh about a failure?

That is unsat on your part and what respect I had for you is definitely gone Chief!

I am officially on my last month here. I have my TIS completed, my itinerary in hand, and I am ready to roll. Unfortunately my CoC doesn’t realize that I am ready to get out of here. I am still getting the taskings that would be given to someone who will be around for a while. I am not saying that I should not be doing anything at all, but at least less big stuff and more mediocre, bull shit jobs like cleaning. I will clean everything for days until I leave, but it’s not going to fly.

I still have collateral’s that I haven’t turned over completely, mainly because we are underway and all the new people are on the mid-watch and all the senior people on days. When I say new, I’m not talking about seamen, I mean people who just checked in who will be here for a while.  Well, I can’t say that we don’t have one new person on the day watch, because we do have one new person, but I don’t believe that person is motivated enough to take in the information and move on with it.   The others, I would sit with them for hours to go over the things I know because I know they appear motivated to know their job.   Those who have been here for some time, well they already have enough work for themselves and giving those more to do will hurt more than do good.

I am currently on my last underway with this ship and my flight isn’t until after the ship gets underway again.  That means I will be staying at TPU for a few days and don’t have to worry about going to the ship every night.  Also, I get to miss out on 2 certifications that will go on just after I leave.  I did both of them when I first got here and they were a pain in the ass then, and they are already a pain in the ass now.

I am still very nervous about going to my new command.  I am excited that I am leaving this place, but to beat a dead horse, I really am going to miss the people that I’ve known that I won’t be able to hang out with anymore, unless they get orders to San Diego.  It will definitely feel weird walking through being the stranger of the ship.  I will once again be the new guy of the ship, but I think things will be a bit better coming in as an E-5 vice E-2 like I did when I first got here.  Plus, I got my pin, and I am going to another ship of the same class, so I won’t have to requal.

What awaits on the other side of the Pacific Ocean will be a major change for me, though I am from Southern California area.  It won’t take long for me to adapt, and I hope it comes quick.  The last thing I want to do is sulk because of the fact that I am gone.  Leaving Japan will take some time to get used to, but leaving this ship, not so much!