It seems like every since I have come out to Iraq, things back home have gone to hell! It first started with the whole Brandon thing and now it turns out that my hometown was wiped off the face of the planet. Luckily I was so busy today that I didn't even have to think about the fact that I was "Dear John"ed.
Today I basically ran things by myself even though the chick I"m replacing was here. Which is fine by me because it helped me learn exactly what all I need to do without having someone holding my hand. The morning brief that I have to do every morning is pretty simple. It's just the current weather and my forecast for the day, and only the Comodore (my CO) and the CF2 (head Iraq officer) and his interpeter sit in on that one. When I'm done with that I have to go down to the dock and recieve ships that are coming in and that basically on a regular day takes up about 4 hours of my day (on fridays it's not so bad because it's our "off day", which I still have to work haha). When that is all said and done I go upstairs back to my office and type out the Plan of the Day and send it to the XO for him to sign (which he normally does at like 5 min before it's due lol), then it's time to prep my evening brief which normally takes about an hour or so. Finally it's time to go grab some lunch and then it's back to work finishing up my evening brief and recieving any last minute ships. Around 5pm I do the daily muster and make sure everyone is accounted for and then I email that off along with my slides for the evening brief. Promptly at 630 I have to be in OPS so I can brief the Comodore and the Ward Room (which consist of 5 LT Comanders, 3 LTs, 2 Ensigns and 2 Chiefs). Once that is done I then have to email out the POD to everyone and then make sure that there are no last min changes to anything. Basically I've inherited a shit ton of busy work because the chick I'm replacing wanted a nice bullet of her chiefs exam. There are about 20 people on this platform and I in one day do the job of about 10 people. I'm sorta pissed because I'm out to forecast the weather, not to be a secretary, and I was told by my OIC to let him know if this was the case. The only thing is I don't want to do it because I know it will get back to my CO and how do you tell a Captain (who when he's not out here is the CO for Destroyer Group 2) that this is a waste of your time? I'm thinking that I'm going to wait til when he turns over in mid May to inform my OIC that this is a complete waste of my time and that I could provide them the exact same support from my desk back in Bahrain.
It's honestly not because I hate it out here, because I really don't mind it. I mean not that many people can say that they served on an oil platform in the middle of hostile waters (yes they are considered hostile because Iranian ships will drive up the edege and stare at you, and that's only 25 miles away).
Needless to say I've seen and now know things that would blow the average persons mind. It's is absolutely insane with the amount of shit we put up with.
Today I basically ran things by myself even though the chick I"m replacing was here. Which is fine by me because it helped me learn exactly what all I need to do without having someone holding my hand. The morning brief that I have to do every morning is pretty simple. It's just the current weather and my forecast for the day, and only the Comodore (my CO) and the CF2 (head Iraq officer) and his interpeter sit in on that one. When I'm done with that I have to go down to the dock and recieve ships that are coming in and that basically on a regular day takes up about 4 hours of my day (on fridays it's not so bad because it's our "off day", which I still have to work haha). When that is all said and done I go upstairs back to my office and type out the Plan of the Day and send it to the XO for him to sign (which he normally does at like 5 min before it's due lol), then it's time to prep my evening brief which normally takes about an hour or so. Finally it's time to go grab some lunch and then it's back to work finishing up my evening brief and recieving any last minute ships. Around 5pm I do the daily muster and make sure everyone is accounted for and then I email that off along with my slides for the evening brief. Promptly at 630 I have to be in OPS so I can brief the Comodore and the Ward Room (which consist of 5 LT Comanders, 3 LTs, 2 Ensigns and 2 Chiefs). Once that is done I then have to email out the POD to everyone and then make sure that there are no last min changes to anything. Basically I've inherited a shit ton of busy work because the chick I'm replacing wanted a nice bullet of her chiefs exam. There are about 20 people on this platform and I in one day do the job of about 10 people. I'm sorta pissed because I'm out to forecast the weather, not to be a secretary, and I was told by my OIC to let him know if this was the case. The only thing is I don't want to do it because I know it will get back to my CO and how do you tell a Captain (who when he's not out here is the CO for Destroyer Group 2) that this is a waste of your time? I'm thinking that I'm going to wait til when he turns over in mid May to inform my OIC that this is a complete waste of my time and that I could provide them the exact same support from my desk back in Bahrain.
It's honestly not because I hate it out here, because I really don't mind it. I mean not that many people can say that they served on an oil platform in the middle of hostile waters (yes they are considered hostile because Iranian ships will drive up the edege and stare at you, and that's only 25 miles away).
Needless to say I've seen and now know things that would blow the average persons mind. It's is absolutely insane with the amount of shit we put up with.
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