In The Navy (On the Boat), Part 1

It’s a little hard to figure out where to begin here. I left school and had to move to a new barracks first. Then I reported to “Squadron” (headquarters) HQ. There was probably some time off in-between, not sure, not much if there was.

HQ is on “Lower Base”, a fenced in area that runs the length of the base near the river. There are a lot of buildings down there! Who knows what they do in most of them. I know some are maintenance (or “Tiger Team”) buildings where these guys who are really good at fixing things can come over to a ship and solve problems that the regular sailors can’t figure out. I have to say they kick ass, I have seen them at work.

I went to Squadron and must have been given a choice of commands (boats) to be assigned to. I picked the same one Dyke was already on. As I mentioned before, I will not give out the name of the boat, because of security concerns. I can mention the name of the Squadron though. It was Sub-Dev-Ron-12, or SUBDEVRON12. They have a web page. http://www.csg2.navy.mil/Squadron%2012.htm I see they only have 5 boats in the Squadron. I won’t say if my boat is on the list or not.

They don’t say much on the web about what they do, but the name gives that away. “Development”. They develop/test things that the Navy “might” use down the road. Many of our deployments were termed “Training Missions”. Ha ha! Of course I can’t go into what we were “training” on, for the most part. I will certainly hit the high spots along the way, but dates and locations will be omitted or be very vague, like “North of the equator in the Atlantic Ocean”.

My first day to the Boat was very awkward. I showed up and had to be escorted down to the Yeoman’s office and drop off my orders. Of course a few of the crew members realized I was new and tried to scare me with crap like, “Oh, a new girl?” I wasn’t amused or threatened and that was a plus, once the dummies realized they were wasting their time, they left me alone. One thing I noted (which kind of dates my arrival) was the use of some crappy computer that used big 8 inch Xerox floppy disks, in the office. I am sure it was “state of the art” for the navy, but I already knew the smaller 5-1/4” floppies were a standard and immediately realized how far behind the Navy was technologically (that would haunt me the whole time I was in the Navy, how far behind they were). I was sent off to meet my LPO (Leading Petty Officer.).

I have to explain the LPO here; most divisions on a Sub have a Chief. If for whatever reason (lack of retention?) there is no “Chief” for a division, the highest ranking Petty Officer is deemed the LPO. My LPO was JT, or John (I don’t want to use full names). He was a “Qualified” Second Class Petty Officer, shooting for First Class. He was fairly short on words and long on tales, in the right situation. He was a bit shorter than me and had a Southern drawl to his speech (Carolina’s). He was salty and to the point. It took me a while to figure out when he was kidding or not. I liked him for the most part.

I met him in the Control Room, which was a little aft and up a ladder from the Yeoman’s shack. He was there with Dyke and Dave, doing some kind of prep or maintenance on the equipment. Dyke just winked at me. Someone in the Control Room squawked on the 1MC (the Boat’s overall intercom) to post the maneuvering watch. I didn’t know what to do and was shooed down the aft Control Room ladder to the Mess Deck (where people eat food) and was told to grab a seat and stay put.