May 5, 09
Marlin Spike went okay. The instructor said on a 1-10 scale we performed it at an 8.5. I thought I was going to explode though because there were 68 people on the deck of this pretend ship trying to do all the procedures correctly and safely in under 25 minutes. No one really fully knew what the hell we were doing and it was insane but we did it.
After that we arrived back at the compartment to find our racks “tossed.” All our clothes thrown about, petty officer said that everyone (the females) had nasty improper racks, seems they do this to us every time we have a DMI inspection coming up. DMI (Dynamic Materials Inspection) is on Wednesday. Tomorrow we have our 2nd mandatory PFA (Physical Fitness Assessment) at 4:45am. Yep, that means reveille at 0400. It sucks because the rest of my division went to bad at 2000 tonight to be sure to get 8 hours sleep. But, however, I have a J.O.O.D. watch (Junior Officer of the Deck), another part of being part of ship staff. I don’t have to stand watch in our compartment but I do have watches every other day or so outside the compartments at what is the front door of the ship. It is my job to greet/challenge all that come and go. Nerve wracking because I have to be on spot with recognizing Superior Officers and they just wait for you to screw up so they can chew your ass.
Anyway, so tonight I’ll be in the rack about 2200. I am supposed to put in 30 minutes per night ironing but I am so skipping it tonight. Last night my ironing time slot was from 0130-0200 and we tapped out (went to bed) at 2115. Gotta love getting woken up out of a dead sleep to iron in the dark by essentially a night lite.
Tomorrow’s PFA, 1 1/2 miles in 15 minutes, 25 push ups in 2 minutes and 50 sit ups in 26 minutes. I can do it. Also tomorrow’s our 2nd P.I. inspection (Personal Inspection) and weapons turn over inspection.
4-2 day. Getting through this super busy week. It should be smooth sailing till graduation. Stuff we have yet to do: Small Arms Simulation, Live Fire, Firefighting, Gas Chamber, 3rd/Final PFA, Tests 2 +3, Captain’s Cup, Battle stations (May 27th), Drill Inspection, Several Zone (compartment inspections), 24 more nights, 23 more reveille’s till graduation.
