Eeek

It's been a while since I posted. I went on a trip to Southern California to visit my sister and some friends. I had a really good time. It was refreshing to hang out with people that knew me before I gave up my social life for a professional one. I'm working on getting the social life back, with some limited success.

I added a new blog to my roll...Obama Foodorama is all about food and our President. I *love* the post about the President celebrating his birthday with Ms Helen Thomas, who turned 89 today. So cool!

While at a Very Important Meeting (well, not really, but it was a bad combination of taking itself too seriously and demeaning itself like clowns...kinda weird), I gave myself a series of deadlines for getting my graduate school stuff done. I'm giving the folks that I'm asking to write letters of recommendations nearly 90 days to get them in. All the schools I'm applying to (narrowed to U of MD, UC Berkeley and GWU) have online applications, which my SME (Subject Matter Expert=Bro-in-Law) has assured me is far easier than the old paper copies. And I've got a date to take the GRE (again...for a third time). And I've got a due date for my Statement of Purpose. Expect to see at least one draft of that here. My deadline for myself is 11 Sep...plenty of time to revise it a million times.

A Better Week

I've been meaning to get to the computer and post about last week since, well, last week. Probably just as well that I never did. Last week was pretty bad. We found more holes in hard-to-get-to places on the ship, that translate into another week's extension in the drydock. We had an outboard motor stolen from where it was locked up outside the ship. And I sent a couple of pointedly antagonistic emails, fighting about various needs for money and funding.

The responses I got back from the emails were nicer than I expected. But I had to say my piece, and I feel better for having done so.

We've got a long-term plan in place for fixing some of the deteriorated metal above the waterline. Though I make no promises about not painting one of the patches just like what it is...a band-aid. At least for long enough to make my point.

And the shipyard has said they would pay for the outboard, since they're responsible for the security of everything while we're in their yard.

So...just as well I didn't post about anything last week. This week is shaping up to be fairly good so far. Except for that darn speeding ticket I got today. I can't even use the excuse that I was late...even with having to stop for the citation, I was on time for my meeting. I was just going fast for the sake of going fast. Too bad I didn't see the cop with the speed gun sitting on the side of the road. He didn't even have to chase me; he just flipped the lights on his motorcycle on, pointed at me, and I pulled over. No reason to blow him off, I knew I was busted. It's the priciest ticket I've had in a while. Aah, the cost of a little fun. And that Mini can go!!

Last Few Weeks

Here are some pictures from the last few weeks. This first one is from a hike that I took from Schofield to Waikane in the center of the island (Oahu). It was about 14 miles round trip. Yes, I was tired when I got done...and hungry when I got to this spot, which looks out over the windward side of the island.





Then last week I went to the Big Island for about six days. I stayed at a lovely little studio place just outside of Kapoho, called Lava Rock Hale. Eric and Diane have made a wonderfully inviting place out there, with this little round house, complete with four nice dogs and one old horse. I got a kick out of saying "Hi, horse" to him every morning. The last morning I was there, I shared a papaya with him, and laughed as he dribbled papaya juice down his chin.






But the main reason I went to the Big Island was to check out my property at Leilani Estates. I've had it for about four years, bought it when I was stationed out here before...and haven't really done much with it since. And, oddly enough, things grow fast and big here in the tropics when there's plenty of rain like there is in Leilani. So this is what I was facing...





I weed-eated (weed-ate?) for hours, for days. I was able to find the driveway.









And then some of the back of the property.

And lots of cut trees in the middle...

I got about half of the 1.29 acres cleared back. Some of it I kinda cheated on. The grass was mixed in with some sort of pea-like legume. I cut the tops of the grass and legume back to about mid-thigh level on me, and then crushed it by stepping on it. I'll have some great mulch/compost in a little bit.

But I enjoyed myself. There's something very gratifying about working hard, and being able to look back at the end of the day and seeing in such a graphic way what you got done.

One last photo from the trip. This is looking down one of the back roads near Kapoho. I love these old mango trees. The state of Hawaii has designated them Exceptional Trees...and I totally agree.

What the Future Holds

One of the great things about being in drydock, is that it gives me plenty of time to plan my next move professionally. The Coast Guard has already accepted me into their Advanced Education program for a Masters in Public Administration. Now it's up to me to decide what school, where, with what focus.

It should be of no surprise to *anyone* who knows me that I've already been through about three iterations of the plan (Anne :), thanks for being so patient with listening to me stew through them all). But I'm developing a new plan. Shocker, I know. I guess that's one way in which the Coast Guard and I really do get along...nothing is for certain in the Coast Guard until it actually happens, kinda like one of my plans.

Here's my thought process:
-Location, location, location: I am really tired of moving around. I've been in the CG for (one month shy of) 10 years. In that 10 years, I've had seven jobs, in six locations...but that doesn't count the two months of Basic Training in New Jersey, four months of Officer Candidate School in Connecticut, 10 weeks of Tactical Action Officer School in Rhode Island or the two months of Pre-Deployment Training in Virginia...or the five month drydock away from homeport. I need to be in one place for more than a year or two. Because of the program I've chosen, I have three choices for locations of my pay-back tour (the required follow-on job, since the CG will be nice enough to shell out tens of thousands of dollars for my degree): most likely is Washington, DC at CG Headquarters, and significantly less likely at either Alameda, CA or Portsmouth, VA.

In this decision process, and god knows it is a process, I've used that location issue as the basis for starting to look at schools. In those three areas are some good schools:
Washington, DC area (heavy emphasis on the "area" part) has American University, George Washington University and University of Maryland at College Park (Sis, I know your mouth is hanging agape at my suggestion that I'm considering College Park, but this is all still very early discussion stages yet).
Alameda, CA has University of California at Berkeley. And that's it for schools ranked 50 or below in the entire San Francisco area. I was really shocked. I mean Berkeley is ranked two or four depending on who you ask, but still. And I would have to do some fancy talking to get the CG to send me here...it's a longer program than the others and kind of a long-shot for the payback tour.
Portsmouth, VA area has Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA and Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA. Neither of these are ranked...bummer. The beauty of this location is that I could potentially spend the rest of my career here because there are numerous ships homeported here, and I still want my O4 XO/CO and O5 CO (hopefully) rides.

Next comes consideration of what focus I want my for my program. I had originally thought that an environmental policy would be just the thing. I could look into what it would take for the CG to move to more environmentally friendly fuels, like biodiesel, for their fleet of vessels. But then, as part of the application process, the schools want to know what my goals are, short and long term. What I really want to work with is local food systems, how to develop them, nuture them and sustain them. But...I can't quite figure out how to do that and make it relevant to my CG career. Not without getting into some heavy-duty logistical bean counting. And I'd much rather grow the beans and eat the beans, than count the beans.

I started looking at other options, and found that most schools offer a Leadership focus. They pretty up the name and make it sound a little more impressive, but it comes down to how to influence people. I think this may be a great fit. I can certainly draw on my previous experiences with useful anectedotes and scenarios for discussion. And I still have a lot to learn about organizational leadership and how people work best in different environments.

Am I on the right track here? Is my thought process sound? What haven't I considered?

Visuals from Drydock

Rather than sit here and whine about how icky drydock is, I decided to post some pictures, 'cause as you know, a picture is worth a thousand words.

This first one is where they've removed a supporting block to do metal work underneath it. They can't remove more than one of these at a time, or we'd risk structural damage to the ship from, well, almost like cracking the spine of a book.

The one on the right is the focs'le...with a lovely view of the Waianae coast. I particularly like the two toilets sitting on the gun grate :)

Oh, and this is the sound locker between aft berthing and the engine room...there's supposed to be a deck there.

A lot of these pictures are places where the hull has been cut away to remove bad metal, and you can see through what should be the skin of the ship to the outside...a very uncomfortable feeling. Usually when there's holes in the ship, it means you're taking on water. Not such a good thing.

This one in particular is back in aft berthing, where eight guys live and sleep underway. It's a little cockeyed; the bulkhead on the bottom left of the picture is the aft bulkhead in the space.

The next photo is the deck drain in the Chief's head (bathroom). The yard guys needlegunned around the drain to take away bad metal and rust, and ooops, well, let's just say, the water will drain more easily, but it won't be going to the gray water tank.

Next is the exterior view from the stern. Lots of stuff sitting around the ship.

And then there's the rest of the Chief's head...with a new "air conditioning vent" installed.

Here's some action photos: metal being cut out and bad metal being grinded (ground?) away.















Crap...that's not from the shipyards. I got my toes painted nice and pretty yesterday.













And then we've got the sewage tank, with all it's right repairs. I think they've got one or two more things to do in other spaces that interfere with putting the plating back on this spot.













I don't remember if they're coming or going with the plating here. And there's our scrap metal heep. Chief told me there's another, larger one that's chock full. We are gonna recycle it, and get some money for the ship's morale program.







So that's a tour of the shipyards. Aren't you glad you came for a visit?

Command Philosophy

As a Commanding Officer, I'm required to have a Command Philosophy. I'm not a very introspective person by nature, so this was a good, but challenging exercise in putting my perspective into words.

I've used it for a year so far, and didn't change it much for this command experience. One of the best compliments I received from a shipmate (thanks, J Hart!) was that he appreciated that I stuck to it and related a lot of what went on back to it.

Here it is...
My philosophy
…is that life is a journey, not a destination. I joined the Coast Guard to perform great and worthy, heroic and patriotic duties, for the sea stories I get to tell my family and friends, and to experience things that not many other people get to do. I plan to get the most out of even the little things, like sunrises and sunsets, a job well done and good food at the end of a long day (or night).
…is that a job worth doing is worth doing to the best of my ability. At the end of my tour, I intend to look back and be able to honestly tell myself that I faced every task and challenge to the best of my ability. This is the only way the sacrifices I have made will have been worthwhile.

Guidance and expectations
• Professionalism and the mission: Each of us volunteered for this assignment. We are here for one reason – the mission…to get it done as thoroughly and efficiently as possible. In completing the mission, we must remember that we serve our great nation as part of the finest sea-going service in the world. Your actions reflect back on our ship, our service and our country. Your individual ability to be a professional directly contributes to the ship’s ability to successfully accomplish the mission. I expect that you will always contribute in a positive manner, on and off duty.
• Safety and training: We work in an inherently hazardous environment. Constant training is fundamental to knowing the proper initial actions in any emergent situation. We will train the way we fight, with enthusiasm and dedication to the safety of our ship, our shipmates and ourselves. And always, always, speak up if you see a shipmate or the ship headed for “shoal water.”
• Respect and communication: Mutual respect for each other, as individuals and as professionals, is critical in our close and chaotic environment. We all have different experiences that allow us our own unique perspectives; none is wrong and each is valid. Respect each other enough to listen to one another. Effective communication consists of both speaking and listening, which is often harder than it sounds. Take the time to listen to what your shipmate has to say to you, rather than hearing what you think they should be telling you. You may find that most conflicts are resolved with less heartache when people simply listen to each other.

My commitment to you, my shipmates
• To do my best to keep you safe, through constant training and decision-making based on thorough and informed risk analysis
• To recognize and honor our collective mission accomplishments and your professionalism, technical expertise and personal achievements
• To communicate as openly as possible with you, while balancing mission restrictions and privacy interests
• To be fair and respect each shipmate as an individual with a unique perspective
• To openly accept feedback, positive or negative, in the spirit with which it was offered, incorporating workable suggestions into standard practices

I'm Back

It's been a while. I'm not in the desert anymore, but in Paradise instead. And I'm gonna change the format of the blog. It's not anonymous anymore, which will bring its own challenges, but will allow me to post about other aspects of my job.

So on 16 May 2009, I took command of USCGC KISKA (WPB 1336) at a lovely ceremony at the Coast Guard base on Sand Island in Honolulu, HI.
The ship is homeported in Hilo, HI, but is long-term temporarily on Oahu for drydock. Most CG drydocks are about two months...those two months were up about three weeks ago, and we've got about another two months to go. The ship had a lot of "delayed maintenance," so at least when I get it back afloat, it'll be in really good shape.

Now let me just say, I know that drydocks and extended maintenance periods are extremely necessary...things. Ships *need* the attention and care that they are afforded in drydocks. A lot of good work is done to keep them working, in this particular case, 10 years and more past their expected life cycle.

But I *hate* drydocks. This is my fifth drydock on the four ships on which I've been stationed. The ship gets torn all to pieces, holes cut in the hull, dirt and grime work themselves into places that are impossible to clean (stupid sand blasting grit gets EVERYWHERE), and nothing works quite smoothly when putting stuff all back together. While this drydock is not much fun, because there's nothing much fun about a five-month drydock, at least 1) I'm back in the beautiful United States, especially paradaisical Hawaii, and 2) I'm not living onboard, which I had to do for three weeks on one of my previous ships during an unscheduled drydock. So, there are definitely some things to be grateful for.

However, there are also trials and tribulations. And here's where the non-anonymous part of this newly refurbished blog gets tough; how to tell stories without calling out people unprofessionally? Here goes...

We had extensive damage to our sewage tank. Like holes and pitting and old clad welds where previous holes and pits had been patched. Well, we're supposed to be fixing things the right way with this drydock, so I expected the whole mess of bad metal to be cropped out and replaced. Unfortunately, we had started to run out of money for the project, so the subject matter experts started to look at alternative fixes. What they came up with was full of technical jargon and specifics (which I *almost* followed), and then they ended their recommendations with, "Coat with three coats of paint, instead of the specified two." Because that extra coat of paint is gonna make ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD.

Thankfully, we were able to ask for more money and get the tank fixed the right way, but really, an extra coat of paint????

And another thing about drydocks...you know that quote, "Ports rust ships and sailors"? Well, it's true. Sailors get edgy and bored when they're inport for too long. I recently took one of my good young men to mast for saying something stupid to one of my other sailors as a joke. Unfortunately, it wasn't even close to appropriate as a joke, so I had to make sure his inappropriate comment didn't infect the good order and discipline of the ship. I dismissed the charges, but gave the young man "extra military instruction" or EMI, which is designed usually as extra work to correct a particular deficiency. And while Captain's masts are usually very somber and serious affairs, I had to stop myself from laughing out loud when I assigned this particular bit of EMI. He has to tell me an (appropriate) joke a day for two weeks.

Today's joke: What do you call a chicken coop with four doors?

Wait for it...

A chicken sedan!

Get it...chicken coupe?

I laughed.

So, that's it. I'm back.