10 JUNE 2012
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I've decided to lump SWO week together in one post and talk generally about the week. There were main events to highlight from each day, however the events of the days were somewhat similar to one another and a blog post on each day would seem repetitive...
All in all, I REALLY enjoyed the week! It was definitely something that wasn't for everyone (ask any of the Marine options and they'll tell you of their suicidal thoughts) but personally, I enjoyed it. Maybe it was the shenanigans we got into or the fact that I love being on a ship surrounded by nothing but the open ocean.. or maybe both :)
We got underway a little late, approximately 1530 last Monday. It takes about an hour, hour and a half to pull out of San Diego harbor and while I found the first 30 minutes of it exciting, I was rather excited to unpack my sea bag and get settled into my berthing. Colleen and I were in the female berthing 5, while the other 3 females were in berthing 6. There were 5 female and 20 male MIDN total assigned to the USS Stockdale. The males were spread around a couple male berthings in both the front and rear of the ship. Thankfully, berthing 5 was in the back where it wasn't as rocky as up front.
As for the seas and weather during the week, the first two days were crazy. The ship was INSANELY rocking and rolling. We were all given the pill to avoid sea sickness, which I definitely needed to survive those two days. The last three days weren't bad at all. And by Friday morning, the water was smooth as glass. Truly a beautiful sight.
We found fun with the horrible bouncing ship though. Tuesday night, myself and four friends wandered around the ship exploring anywhere and everywhere. We found ourselves in the most forward, lowest room possible, literally the point of the ship, which we nicknamed the roller coaster room. If you timed jumping into the air at the perfect second in time, you caught MAJOR AIR! Literally, you could FLOAT in the air for a long second before returning to the deck. It was so fun!
Meals were served at specific times and were the only times you could eat unless you had snacks. Breakfast was from 0500-0630, lunch from 1130-1230, and dinner from 1730-1830. Each morning Colleen and I were up at 0545 to grab some breakfast. We didn't have to muster until 0800, which made waking up for breakfast rather unfortunate, but since we couldn't get lunch until 1130, we didn't want to starve all morning. The food was quite tasty I must say! I really enjoyed the food at every single meal this past week. Definitely better than the galley on base, that's for sure...
After muster at 0800, we always had an activity. Tuesday was by far the best! We got to watch the CIWS (Close In Weapon System) shoot which was pretty cool. Then we got to fire both the .50 cal and M240! I was so happy that I had the chance to fire the mortars at Marine week because my sadness over missing the machine guns was eliminated! Those guns were mighty powerful, but shooting off 15 rounds off the side of the destroyer, aiming at the biggest waves was such an adrenaline rush! Unfortunately, the 5 inch wasn't working on Tuesday, so they decided to shoot it Friday morning at 0545. Majority of the MIDN's missed it, but a few woke up early to check it out. See pictures in an upcoming post of me shooting the machine guns! :)
Wednesday morning after muster we had DC Olympics. DC stands for Damage Control. We worked with the DC sailors who taught us how the firefighting/etc. works on board. Going into the evolution, we all thought we were going to get soaked, but we actually just shot the fire hose off the side of the ship.
Thursday morning, we had Conning exercises, where we had the chance to be the lee-helmsmen, the helmsmen, and the conning officer. The lee-helmsmen controls the speed of the ship, the helmsmen the steering, and the Conn-O is the officer giving the steering/speed directions. It was a good feeling to be in complete control as the Conn-O knowing you are responsible for a $2 billion+ ship and the lives of all the sailors.
We had PT twice, both Tuesday and Thursday. It wasn't mandatory, but I'd never turn down a PT session. Plus, with how much I'd been eating that week, I needed the PT! It seems like we lived everyday just waiting for the next meal... But PT was enjoyable. Since it was too windy on Tuesday, we PT'd inside the helicopter holder room. It was really awkward to workout in because the boat was so rocky. We were constantly falling over and one set of pushups would be ridiculously easy, while the next you felt like you weighed 1000 lbs. Thursday was much better since we got to work out on the flight deck since it was such a beautiful day outside. The first session we PT'd with the CMC and the second was with MA1 Stark. Both super cool sailors with a lot of experience and knowledge.
Continued in part 2...
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