RUSH!

So there are a few months left to deployment and it's crunch time. I am having to do a lot of things right now very quickly in order to get PPV, which is military housing while we are in the yards. The major thing I have to work on is my ESWS pin, (Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist). ESWS is supposed to be a general understanding of the ship you are on. You go through nearly every department and get the general mission of what they do. Most things are very general, but others can be very specific. It also contains general Navy knowledge. I have to get signatures from people in all all the different departments and good training/notes from them. After I get the entire book signed off, I take a test then a board. A board is where you stand in front of a group of people and they ask you a barrage of questions. Once you pass that you get your pin.

While I'm getting my ESWS pin I have to get qualified in other things as well as keep up with what is going on in my shop. The good thing is that my supervisors are allowing me to go to as much training as possible.

FSA duty was really making me stress out, but I think I'm starting to find my rhythm. It's pretty much the same thing every single day. The thing that makes it rough is the leadership, which is quite poor. Things don't have to operate the way that they do in the galley. It could be so much easier, but they run that place like it's middle school.

I'm reading a pretty interesting book right now called "Miracles" by C.S. Lewis. It's extremely interesting and I encourage everyone to read it. He defines what a miracle is, why the aspect of "reason" makes it clear that something outside of our universe exists, and what is behind a miracle. It's really interesting.