Sorry for my lame/intermittent emails. It’s definitely taken me a few days to get back into the swing of being underway. I feel like so much has been going on but I’m not really sure where to begin & unfortunately I can’t tell in great detail most of what we’ve been doing.
A few things. I have begun standing my first real watch as Officer of the Deck on the bridge. What does that mean exactly? Well, basically I am in charge of running the bridge watch team (the people that drive the ship) and am in charge of the safe navigation and operation of the ship. Everyone onboard, save for the CO/XO/TAO (tactical action officer) works directly for me while I “have the deck” and I am charged with the crew’s & ship’s safety. It’s a pretty big responsibility to be in charge of a billion dollar warship but it is a very satisfying (albeit stressful) job. It’s a qualification that I’ve been working over a year for.
My first watch was SO boring- 5 hour watch from 2am to 7am during which we made NO course or speed changes and there were no contacts within 50 nm. Anytime you don’t run aground, hit something or get yelled at is generally considered a good watch.
The weather out here is absolutely TERRIBLE- apparently the area in the Pacific around Panama is smack dab in the middle of rainy season which means that it is ALWAYS pouring down rain and visibility is reduced anywhere from 4nm to about 500 yards, as it was this morning (to put it in perspective, on a clear day you can see the horizon about 13-16 nm away).
Basically what we do is remain covert (no navigational lighting whatsoever) while trying to find and catch vessels that are about 30 feet in length traveling about 30-45 knots, in the rain, at night, with no visibility, while trying to launch our helo and lower our small boat into the water with a Coast Guard boarding team (side note: the US Navy is not actually allowed to “hunt drugs” as we are not a policing agency. The Coast Guard, however, does have that jurisdiction and thus they take tactical control of our ship before we conduct a boarding- in fact, we even haul down the US Navy flag & put up the Coast Guard flag to signify that we are a Coast Guard ship) . As you can imagine, that is very challenging and there are a lot of pieces working together, from Combat Information Center (CIC) getting updated intell on where we should go and engineering making sure we have the machinery online necessary to maneuver tactically, to the air detachment getting up in the air & helping us find vessels.
The chases are very fast moving and high stress, and as OOD you are in charge of overseeing all of these different evolutions. The CO & XO are always on the bridge and usually helping to drive the ship.
Other than that, I have just been studying for my SWO board which is coming up pretty quickly. Basically I have a board with the CO/XO and all of the department heads where they quiz me on everything Surface Warfare related. Topics include, but are not limited to:
Carrier Strike Group make-up: all ships & their capabilities & limitations
Carrier Air Wing: what planes we use, what they carry, their caps/lims
Expeditionary Strike Group make-up: ships, amphibious operations
Marine Air Squadron make up & caps/limes
AEGIS weapons systems
Tomahawks & Strike Warfare
Anti-Air Warfare
Joint Operations
Chain of Command (operational/administrative), the different fleets/theaters & their commanders.
Engineering
Weapons
Anti-Submarine Warfare tactics
Admin
Supply
just to name a few. It’s like the biggest final I have ever take in my life times 1,000. I have been studying my butt off for probably 8 hours a day when I am not on watch or sleeping (and there is very little of the latter)
My “murder board” is on Sunday and my actual board is Friday. A murder board is where you get grilled by all of the people who sit on your board (except the CO) to see what you know & what you don’t know. You usually leave feeling like a POS because you suddenly feel like you know nothing. The purpose is to teach you what you don’t know that you need to learn and basically beat you down so you do better on your actual board with the CO. If all goes according to plan, I will be sporting a shiny gold pin this time next week. So until then, I probably won’t write too much, but encouraging thoughts are much appreciated!
I am looking forward to our upcoming port visit back in Panama City. Attached are two pictures from a gunex (gunnery exercise) we had during which my guys shot our 25MM gun. The first is of my Chief shooting & the 2nd is of two of my guys reloading. Enjoy!
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