Month: July 2009

Taking Over with a Vengance.

Posted by DriK – July 29, 2009

It appears that the new LPO in my division has some tendencies that I remember quite a bit from USS Last Ship.  Though I’ve been in a school for a few weeks, I really haven’t had much exposure to the fairly new IT1, but from what I hear throughout the division is an unanimous vote that no one likes the LPO.  To go a bit further, the ship is getting the same feeling as the ITs and I am certainly not happy with this.  Here are a few examples of some of the things that have gone on in the division since I’ve been out.

Scenario 1: Two of the ITSNs are giving training to the fresh new seaman who just arrived a few days ago.  Obviously they want him up to speed on what things he will need to know to be better at his job because like all motivated seamen, they just don’t want to sit to the side and play the “I don’t know” card.  IT1 strolls down and sees what is going on, but still asks what they were doing.  The seamen explain that they are showing the new IT how to properly terminate an ethernet cable.  Well, the IT1 didn’t like this because the new IT needed to attend the safety PO meeting.  From my understanding, safety PO is the job of an E-5 and usually one who has been at the command a while, not a 3 day old ITSN who has barely gotten his feet wet.  Well, the seamen can’t do anything but listen to what the IT1 says, so they ask if the IT1 can do the cable so that the seamen can carry on doing other tasks for the day.  Unfortunately, the IT1 didn’t have her wire manual available and couldn’t do it.  Maybe it was left in her paint coveralls?

Scenario 2: A shipmate from another division was having issues with his email and was unable to open up his outlook.  He dropped by the ADP office, being the closer location than the server room, and asked one of the ITs to see if they could assist.  The IT1 wasn’t happy about that because the ADP office isn’t the proper location for assistance with trouble calls.   It just so happened, though, that one of the leading ADP ITs was in the space and offered to assist with the issue.  The IT1 rejected that offer and repeated that all trouble calls must be dealt with in the server room then proceeded to kick the person out of the space.  I know where I won’t be if I don’t want to deal with trouble calls.

Scenario 3:  Apparently too many people are viewing non-DoD related websites.  I’ve definitely had my fair share of viewing non-DoD websites.  Well, the IT1 doesn’t like this and tasks the ITs with blocking just about every non-.mil website the world has to offer.  Okay, a bit of an exaggeration, but sites such as yahoo, msn were blocked.  Obviously, websites such as social networking and personal email sites must be blocked due to lack of security, but search engines and other websites that assist in bill pay?  Well, her understanding that these are DoD computers for DoD use only.  From where she came, which was shore duty, this is the norm.  Unfortunately, when it comes to underway time and this is still enforced, I really hope she doesn’t have a car or house payment because it’s going to do a lot of good to not being able to access those bill paying websites.

From everything I’ve heard with the new LPO, I’ve been missing out on a lot.  A lot of people are taking a disliking to her and I feel very sorry because when it comes time for us to back her up, I see very little eagerness from the ITs to help out.  It’s already getting to a point where the ITs know that it won’t be until after 1600 that they will leave for the day.  What I remember about that from the last ship was nothing got done until the last half of the day because we all knew when we were leaving and there was no real change in that.  It’s starting to happen here and I don’t want this to happen.  When I return from my school, I really hope she is understanding when I talk to her about this because I won’t be here for too much longer and when I come back, I don’t know what the shop will be like.  I have my ideas and they revert back to Japan and that is something I really don’t want to see.

Finally Arrived in San Diego

Posted by DriK – July 8, 2009

Well, I am aboard my new ship in San Diego. It certainly has been some time since I’ve written a post about myself and what I have been up to.  The last month has been pretty hectic being on my new ship, and the two months prior to that, not really much going on to write about.  When I left Japan, I mentioned that I would be on leave, then to GCCS school before I arrived.  Now that I am here, and been on board my new ship for a little over a month, I can elaborate on how things are here and how they compare to how it was in Japan.

First is the GCCS school, which I did in Virginia Beach, VA prior to arriving here.  The class wasn’t all that bad and I learned a whole lot that I took for granted when I was on my last ship.  Obviously without this school, it is a bit more difficult to comprehend what was going on, but I can say I could have done a bit more to learn the system while I was there and help out as much as I could before I rolled out.  It wasn’t a difficult class, and the system itself can run smooth, but from my memory in Japan, the main problem lied with the user more than the administrator, and that was confirmed when I took the class.  My ship doesn’t have the upgraded version for what I went to school for, but I already know that no matter how smooth the upgrade goes here, it is up to the users to be able to use the system properly and that a reboot isn’t always the answer, though in some cases it could possibly be.

So I’ve been in San Diego now for a month, and comparing ship to ship, where I am now is a whole lot better than where I was before, but as far as where I was at, Japan was the greatest place ever and I miss it like crazy.  I get along with my chain of command a whole lot better, and the op-tempo is a whole lot more relaxed, but I miss getting off of work, heading outside of the main gate and rolling into the Honch.  Here, you have to drive to get to where you want to go, or taxi, and unless you can walk to your residence, you have to cab it.  Like anywhere, DUIs are career killers, and unfortunately, are a lot more common in the states.

I did get to experience a very brief underway with the ship to Seal Beach, but I did demonstrate my tech control abilities and surprisingly enough was accepted amongst the crew.  My division lacks in experience when it comes to tech control, and since before I left Japan, I made sure I knew as much about tech control that I could take some of the load for the guys.  The first day I checked on board, everyone referred to me as the tech control guy; I guess it really was that bad.  Maybe because being of being out at sea so much, the ADP guys had more opportunities to learn the tech control side.  Too bad I can’t say the same for the tech control guys learning ADP while in port.  Also, with the exception of my Chief, no one had been stationed in the FDNF, so when we get off by 3, complaints of being let out late come up.  Oh, if they only knew.  My Chief and I just shake our heads and chuckle.

The biggest thing that I’ve honestly been missing is being out to sea.  My ship is currently in the yards and won’t get out to sea until towards the end of the year for sea trials.  I hate to admit this, but being out at sea at least gave me a purpose of doing my job, and just sitting in the yards doesn’t do much for me.  What worries me the most is my tech control knowledge, and how much of it I will remember when I go out to sea.  Some of the equipment in the shop I hadn’t had a chance to learn as far as tech control goes and I want to get my hands on them, but can’t while in dry dock.  Never thought I’d see myself saying how much I miss being out at sea.  Guess you just get used to it.

Well, I have bigger news for my  next blog, but didn’t want to reveal it just yet, but when I get close to finishing up paperwork for what I am doing next, I’ll be sure to give the full spill.

Hope people still read my blog since it’s been so long since I’ve written anything.