Warheads on Foreheads

10 hours confined to a chair during a missile scenario today….scarfed a meal, snack for another, potty breaks were limited, watch before, and after….BUT I love my team. We got strike team t-shirts and wore them for the scenario. We took pride in our 88 warheads on foreheads today! We get a long together and we performed well.  Many laughs were had, despite our sore butts and stretched bladders.

Trudging through deployment isn’t half as bad when the sun is shining…Happy Thursday!

NavySlang: Warheads on foreheads; a term we use when dropping bombs and missiles on the enemy.

Chest Candy

As part of being an enlisted sailor we have the opportunity to earn a warfare qualification. I am on a surface vessel so I have earned my Enlisted Surface Warfare Area qualification. I wear a special pin on my dress uniforms indication I have completed the necessary requirements. Essentially, you learn about every part of a surface ship. The weapons, the communications, supply services, damage control procedures, water production, plumbing, how the ship runs, among so many others. I earned mine last deployment and I couldn’t have been more thankful when it was over!!

As some of you know I talk a lot of about the helicopters we have onboard.  We have 2, a flight deck, and 2 hangers. We do a lot of flight operations and it is a large part of our daily activities. Because of this, it was decided that we would get an opportunity to earn our air warfare pin! This is pretty uncommon for destroyers so I jumped the change to earn some more ‘Chest Candy’. So far, I have actually found it more interesting than the surface material. They have given us a very tight schedule to complete, but the air department has been gracious with their dedication to teach us all about their world….totally asking for a ride!

Started a book! A novel about a plaque….shocker, I know. Also, creeping into my anatomy coloring book and flashcards. Establishing a routine with built in ‘me time’ is essential to survival on deployment. I need to keep my mind busy. I have made the mistake of not doing so and it is detrimental to my mental state onboard. Nothing will wear me down faster. Card games or board games with my work center are a new thing to this underway for me too.  Among our favorites are ‘Exploding kittens’ and Telestrations…

Look forward to posts with a brighter attitude. I am really working on not complaining and I think I have done a pretty good job. At least, better than I have in the past.

ZZZZZZZ

We have guests onboard! A group from the Naval Post Graduate School is doing a sleep study and chose the Chafee to conduct a portion of it. Our ship is on various rotations of watch schedules including 12 hour shifts, 3 and 9, 5 and 7, and a handful of others. (These watches are in addition to our normal work days, keep in mind). We are wearing wrist watches that measure level of activity. Somehow, it can tell when we are sleeping, moving about, and resting. They can even measure the quality of sleep. We are to keep a daily log of when we sleep, how often we are working out, what types of caffeinated drinks we consume and things of that nature. We will be studied for 2 weeks now, another 2 weeks mid deployment, and a final 2 weeks towards the end. With the data they collect they hope to construct a friendlier environment for staying vigilant and keeping rested.

I got to see the raw data from the watch after the initial 2 weeks and I felt that it was pretty accurate! Very interesting to put together how I feel I sleep and the science of how well I sleep. So far, so good. Let’s hope it stays that way for as long as possible!

In With a Bang

You’ll be happy to know the first blog post of deployment 2017 is on a positive note! And, packed with goodies. We’ve been very busy and have already done some pretty cool stuff.

I’ve recently started working more closely to our 20mm gatlin gun. Formally known as the closed in weapon system or CIWS pronounced ‘See-whiz’. She’s a beast and requires a lot of attention. I suppose I would too if I had the pressure of being the last line of defense for the ship against air threats. Of course firing at a rate of 3000 rounds a minute doesn’t help her high maintenance personality either. One successful PAC fire, or practice fire, under our belts and high accolades from the captain have brought us closer together.

In addition to the CIWS PAC fire, we’ve also shot our 5” gun successfully. It’s essentially a cannon hurdling a 5” round projectile at surface or air targets up to 9 miles away. If you’re anywhere in the forward part of the ship it will not go unnoticed.

Of course the drills continue. Man over board, firefighting, battle stations, helo crash, medical drills to name a few. I’ve managed to come full circle from ‘launching’ Tomahawks, starting IVs, firing .50 cals and dressing in full firefighting equipment. And will do it all again this week….

A taste of R&R was all we could afford in our 1^st port visit. We were in Manzanillo, Mexico for about 24 hours. The luckiest of the bunch got 6 hours of liberty (free time off ship). But a much appreciated 6 hours it was!

Doesn’t quite feel like deployment yet. Maybe because I’m well calloused at this point, maybe because I know what to expect, but mostly, I know, it’s because I have so much support. I have gotten an outpour of little messages and notes and what an encouragement they have been! My mental state couldn’t be better at this point. Zach is also doing well, but you should contact him yourself! He would appreciate it and is always up for visitors…just saying.

Stay tuned!