we went underway yesterday for engineering training and sea and anchor was at 9am today, even though we don't pull in till about 12pm.

duty gm yesterday was a pain, there was just too much going on, like a m16 gun shoot, watch turnover (where i have to pass out the 9mm etc to the watchstanders), and having to take magazine temperature and ammunition reports this morning.
and after all that, now i've got to hunt down one of the people with the m60 guns, because today's duty gm didn't write down the correct serial number. also, i have to be the linegunner for sea and anchor. they've started linegunners during sea and anchor on our ship because of majoro, marshal islands, where the ship was to far to throw the heaving lines by hand, so now the gunner's have to shoot the lines to the peir. so while i'm up here twidling my thumbs, looking at my netflix movies, and typing this blog up, the other gunner's are cleaning all the m16 that were used for the gun shoot yesterday.

happy happy joy joy

but we're almost pulled into port. there's just been too many underways.

we've still been going underway alot, what's worse is that we have ATG (amphibous trainging group) onboard to see if the ship is worthy of going on this deployement in septemberish. well lets see, since i've been attached to this ship - how many times have i been deployement? how many boring westpacks and venturing to kawaiit, etc. how many of these dull trips have i had to endure? too many. so i think we're qualified. in fact ATG said that my ship had done good on training it's people. sure they have, because that's all we do on the ship. clean, training drills, clean, train, clean, train.

i need a vacation again. speaking of vacation, i'm starting to make plans for my 30th bday. i've decided that it might be nice to go to vagas for a couple days, being that i've never been there. should be fun.

haze grey and underway, that's where i've been

it seems that the next three months or so this ship is conducting a bunch of training operations. i guess the navy wants to see if we're really as smart and qualified as were supposed to be - key word supposed to. some of the on-line tests (damage control and medical) that they had us take almost killed my brain. i got about 55 to 60 on those test, and but i was supposed to get higher than 70 for a barely passing. i feel dumb now after taking those tests, thanks navy.

other than that, things here as a gunner's mate has been pretty good. the guys i work with are all crazy, and they keep the hours spent underway enjoyable. and like my friend said, no news is good news. and right now i'm duty gunner's mate, and on the radio there's no news.

i was pretty lucky i have friends that are PR's. this is me getting pinned by the captain.

i'm
on vacation right now, and i've been staying at my grandfather's house;
which mom and i will soon be moving into by the end of january or so.
at home right now grabbing a few things before we head back to his
house. this christmas vacation has started off both relaxing and busy.

great news
Current mood: cheerful

i've got some good news. i made the GUNNER'S MATE 3RD CLASS rate, so that means no more working for deck or the boatswain mates.

the past 2 and a half years i've been apart of the gun crew, shooting the 50 cal and 25mm. i've been doing this for so long that i decided to be a gunnie. especially since i couldn't become an aurographer's mate (weather guesser) and the quartermaster rate (navigator) is either closing or down sizing.

being back home and off the ship, that's what i'm always thankfull for.

well this year i've been overworked, and my back joint's aren't thanking me for that. soon i'll hopefully be seeing a physical therapist and maybe even a chiropractor for my back.

my dear grandma,
rest in peace,
i know you'll be looking down on us from time to time.
i love you.

good evening tigers

we're almost home and i can't wait for many reasons; i.e. to use a internet modum that's a lot faster that the ship's computers, to see mum, sisters, and relatives, to sleep in a actual bed (and the hotel's bed that i stayed in back in hawaii and majoro doesn't count).

we have about a week left of work. a week.

and then i have to take my E4 promotion exam for gunner's mate (GM), and i've finally stopped nuking the assignment questions to the gm manual guide. OVERWORKED. STRESSED. REALLY MISSING A HOME COOKED MEAL. or anything food that's really cooked. and just dying for some time off.

and now we have these "Tigers" onboard - ship's crewmember's family. we have almost 200 "Tigers" that have decided to join us in hawaii and travel with us to our home port - san dog. why they want to be stuck on this ship for almost a week, i don't know. the officers have planned almost anything for these civilians so that they won't be too bored; i.e. talent show, ice cream social (the cheif selects served the ice cream - the good kind - the kind we get only once a month), cinama at sea every night so far (where they show a movie on the bulkhead in the hangerbay), etc etc
bored bored bored
i wish i was home... almost a week to go...

it's haze gray underway right now, with not that much to see. i had a great time out in australia. there wasn't that much to do in darwin, but i did eat some crocodile, and kangaroo, and there fish. i was glad that i've been to townsville before because my friends and i were able to see the town in a less military like torrists. we rented bikes, so we all got a lot of miles on our legs. saw the qween's garden. went to the beach at Magnetic Island (great barrier reef) and at The Shore (townsville's beaches). strong only went swimming with me once, but the other 2 days i was still able to enjoy the water.

after we saw the qween's garden we hiked (and pushed our bikes) up Castle Hill Hynes Lookout. it took us about three hours to walk up the road, mostly because of me and my darn cold that i had at the time. the heat was no help either, so i was quite happy when a couple volunteered to drive us down the hill. after that we went to the shore so i could swim and the guys could attempt to play with the rugby ball that i bought. we also saw star wars 3 (i saw that for the third time), mr and mrs smith and the longest yard at the theatres while we were in australia.

at the shore they had a memorial for the australian soldiers. and they also had a memorial for the townsville olympic athletes. from there we took the australian's army onboard and showed them what it was like to be taxied around. they were all bored senseless, but enjoyed our company.

from there we went to malaysia, where we were only able to go to an easternized mall, and beach resort hotel. a lot of people got sunburn, and everyone (including me) got some movies - ie i now own all 6 star wars movies.
we taxied the malasian army around for a bit, whom i thought felt intimidated by us.

plus at this time i was temporarily assigned to messdecks assistant for 28 days (help the mess cooks). so i pretty much helped them make sure that the mess deck (eating area) was cleaned good. when my time was up the master chief cs and all the others didn't want to let me go because i was such a hard worker, and the mess deck's inspections and field day cleaning went through smoothly. but i'm back with my division, and i've also figured out what test i will be taking for my rating exam in september... gunner's mate. it was either that our master at arms (cop), but i have to get my licence asap for that. and i already know a bit about the gunner's mate rate job already being that i'm on the gun crew but still in undesignated.

so this is all that i've been up to. that and my birthday's coming up in a few days. not that many people on the ship knows that, and by choise. last time someone had a birthday, their friends sang them the bday song durngin lunch. needless to say that i'm hoping that won't happen to me.

oh and i'm currently reading the harry potter and the half blood prince right now. picked that up in malaysia. and it's by the bloomberg publishers - so it's got a different cover for those of us that aren't in the eurpopean area.

wog! what do you see?

one of my friends on a wog watch. he had to look out into the ocean with his "binoculers" and report ever 5 minutes or so what he saw. other people had to stand watch at the door and gong every shellback's entrance, and report shellback arriving. but there were quite a few wogs that weren't so dedicated to things like shining people's boats (i went to 3 shoe shine stations, and my boots look great right now). and this was all yesterday night.

(me getting my boots shined)

and today was the ceremony when we crossed the equator. i was given the opertunity to intitiate some polly wogs (people that haven't done the equator ceremony tradition) so that they can become shellbacks. now as for myself, i became a golden shellback (crossing both equator and internation date line) back in '03. i got a lot of wogs to resite the general orders, and the sailor'r creede. i also got some wogs to make me an angel on the dirty and wet non-skid deck. i got some shellbacks giving me their wogs, so that i may drill them on their knowledge as well as getting them to do the 2 step square dance (guy and guy), etc. just a lot of fun playing. a lot of people enjoyed it, and i stayed around almost till the last of the wogs were initiated. it was a good thing to because there was a few of our deck people that got left behind (one of them was no longer having a good time).

honerably trustry golden shellback masl reporting