[from the stabenow.com vaults, 2007] March 27 Box ops. I feel like I’m back on the Bering. Only warmer. We’re the cop on the beat today. I see PO Timothy Myers and SN Chris Susalis on the bridge often. They’re both bosun’s mates, working for Chief Guilmartin at navigation. Tim was previously on a 21…
[from the stabenow.com vaults, 2007] March 26 Holiday routine today, and after the last two days they needed it. Steel beach and fish call on the fan tail, comfort food on the menu, mac and cheese, wings and pizza, and I think a lot of people just stayed in their racks if they didn’t absolutely…
[from the stabenow.com vaults, 2007] March 25 We’re on strict water conservation, and so are restricted to sea showers. The first morning I heard this pipe I didn’t know what it was, so I filled the sink full of water, wet down my hair so I could get a comb through it, took a spit…
[from the stabenow.com vaults, 2007] March 24 I got a tour of the 76 this morning, conducted by GMC Chief Greg Colvin, the 76 being the big gun that went boom the other day. It can fire four different kinds of ammunition up to eighty rounds a minute. Each round is three feet long and…
[from the stabenow.com vaults, 2007] March 23 Some days I won’t be able to write directly about what we’re doing because of operational security. Today it’s not so much what as where. Keeping the bad guys in the dark is a good thing. Down side is that means keeping you in the dark, too, and…
[from the stabenow.com vaults, 2007] March 22 Last night I spent a couple hours in the galley with PO Nicole Steele, the night cook for Munro. She has invited me down to make rolls, so I present myself at 9:30pm and am put to work rolling out dough. She is at present trying to figure…
[from the stabenow.com vaults, 2007] March 21 Big gun go boom. That pretty much sums up the morning’s activities, a drill on the 76-millimeter gun mounted forward. To give you perspective, the casings from the ammunition are the size of umbrella stands. At ten hundred Chief Greg Colvin and PO Josh Hendl heave the Killer…
[from the stabenow.com vaults, 2007] March 20 Today a fishing vessel would not respond to our hail so we sent a boat over to talk to them. We see gear in the water and it’s smaller than your average mother ship, but it gives us a chance, the captain says, “to push the button.” The…
[from the stabenow.com vaults, 2007] March 19 XO Steve Rothchild says our forecast is 4 to 7 foot seas. That’s been our forecast ever since we left port. I look over the side and I’m no expert but I’m thinking those hardly deserve to be called waves, never mind four foot ones. Temps everywhere coming…
[from the stabenow.com vaults, 2007] March 18 In the back of the bridge is a stack of cardboard boxes. This morning the captain materialized in the middle of ENS Dan Schrader’s OOD (Officer of the Deck) training watch to toss one of the boxes over the side for a simulated man overboard drill. We go…