Best Laid Plans

The best laid plans of mice and XOs are disrupted with disturbing frequency.
We had a perfectly good plan for tomorrow. It got a lot done, moving us
closer to our specific goals for the patrol. But then circumstances beyond
our control changed, and now we have a new plan. It's not quite as nice as
the old plan, but it's a good plan, a safe plan, a plan that helps the
overall goal of the patrol.

There's another saying I'm reminded of tonight: "Wanna know how to make God
laugh? Make a plan."

You'd think after all the upheaval of plans I have experienced from being on
Coast Guard boats for so long, I'd have long ago given up on planning.
Somehow that's not what happens though. It makes me cling even harder to the
next plan. I always have to have a plan, even if it's totally tentative with
a bunch of different options. I feel a little untethered without a plan,
like anything can happen and usually the bad stuff will. Planning is a
containment spell for the gremlins and demons that can come from the cracks
and crevices in one's attention and wreak havoc on one's life.

Ok, maybe that's a little too far, but you get the idea. It's a habit that
will be very hard to break whenever I find myself not needing to plan so
much.

Well, on a positive note, we don't have to get up quite so early tomorrow
morning. And I was still awake when things changed and it was relatively
easy to get out a new POD (Plan of the Day) for tomorrow.

LCDR Charlotte Mundy
Executive Officer
USCGC DILIGENCE (WMEC 616)
**UNDERWAY**

Boat Ride!

I had forgotten how much fun small boat rides are! We met up with an FRC
this morning to pick up some migrants they interdicted last night. Their OPS
came over to DILI to brief us on some of their medical conditions, so I took
the opportunity for a quick ride over to their boat to say hi. I've
exchanged a few emails with their XO, and figured putting a face to a name
is always a good idea. 

A small boat moves differently than the cutter, which is really a statement
that is brutally obvious. Of course it moves differently. But when I was in
the small boat, my body moved differently too. I spent a decent amount of
time in the small boat when I was XO on WASHINGTON, back from 2002 to 2004,
but not much time in one since then. My body remembered that it needed to
just accept the movement, and not try to fight it, even more so than it does
on the cutter when it's rough. We didn't build up too much speed, and it was
definitely good conditions -- otherwise, I know boat rides can be not so
much fun. More like a series of car crashes about every 30 seconds if a boat
is speeding through six to eight foot seas, on a go-fast chase, say.

The waves were a little choppy, maybe about a foot of chop and a two foot
swell...relatively calm compared to some of the crap we've seen this patrol.
I got a good amount of spray on me, but thankfully no full dousing. It's
always a little dicey getting onto and off of the small boat, but the
coxswain did a nice job of keeping us steady alongside. Then it's just a
matter of timing the swell to step off the ladder on a trough, and step onto
the ladder at the crest of a swell. I managed with better than my usual
(lack of) grace.

My boat ride lasted maybe 7 minutes total there and back, but I had a big
grin on my face for the rest of the day. 

LCDR Charlotte Mundy
Executive Officer
USCGC DILIGENCE (WMEC 616)
**UNDERWAY**

The Idea of Mentoring

I'm still not used to the idea of being a mentor. Sure, I participate in an
online mentoring program that matches mentees with mentors, and I've got the
leadership pro dev series that we do onboard underway. But, it always takes
me a little by surprise, particularly when I'm talking to young
women/officers, that they will look up to me and value the lessons I've
learned from my experiences.

Then again, it also takes me a little by surprise to remember I have nearly
nine and a half years of sea time, have served on six ships, been CO of two,
and am about to put on CDR! Somehow in my mind, I just started this gig a
couple years ago, and am still learning what I'm supposed to be doing.

I forget that there just aren't that many senior women cuttermen. The ones
we have are great! and I'm definitely grateful to have them as my own role
models, but right now (and I know I risk getting these numbers wrong), I
think there are maybe six female LCDRs or senior serving as CO, XO or
Department Head on major/white hull cutters (I'm not including WLB-225s
here, simply because I don't know much about that community...shame on me)
-- out of a fleet of 37ish (?? -- I can't keep up with the WMSLs coming
on-line and the WHECs getting decom'ed...I'll need to start knowing that
soon enough!) WMSLs, WHECs, WMEC-270s and -210s. If my math is right (and I
make no promises), that's less than seven percent of senior cuttermen jobs
are currently held by women. And I'm one of them. Shit, that's sobering. 

This is not a post to bemoan the fact that there are so few women afloat --
that's a whole 'nother post. This is simply a recognition that I am in an
exceedingly select group, and I am still learning the importance and gravity
of that role. I had an encounter today that very strongly reinforced this
particular lesson, so this idea of mentoring is on my mind.

The "mentoring" I give is mostly storytelling, with a few nuggets or themes
of things that have worked for me or ways of looking at things that make
things make better sense. And most of the time, I just listen and tell them
that being on the vertical part of a learning curve always sucks and that
they're not alone...and that's usually exactly what they need to hear. 

I'll say it again -- what we do is hard. Not everyone can do what we do. But
(for now) I think it's worth it, especially if you can do it well.

One of these days, I'm going to start to compile those lessons learned and
sea stories into something. If nothing else than to just get them out of my
head.

LCDR Charlotte Mundy
Executive Officer
USCGC DILIGENCE (WMEC 616)
**UNDERWAY**

Moonlight

It is seductively gorgeous outside tonight. There's a full moon, with a few
scattered clouds in the sky. The seas are calm. A light breeze is dusting
across our decks. 

I went outside to see if I could get a cell signal to make a phone call (I
couldn't -- or at least not enough of one for the call to go through), and
could almost read by the light of the moon. One of these nights, I'm going
to work up the courage to sleep out on deck on a night like tonight. I'm not
sure why I haven't yet -- maybe the thought of sleeping on the 25 mm gun
mount grated deck is putting me off. That stuff hurts to even sit on for
more than five minutes. And after another busy day like today, with tomorrow
looking to be more of the same, I value the quality of my sleep.

But the moonlight is definitely tempting...

LCDR Charlotte Mundy
Executive Officer
USCGC DILIGENCE (WMEC 616)
**UNDERWAY**

Some Luck

Sometimes there's just nothing interesting to write about. Today was busy,
but at the end of it, I'm not sure what we did. I know we had a General
Quarters drill, where we practiced manning up for a combat situation, i.e.,
bad guys shooting back at us. It was pretty fun, actually. The geopolitical
scenario may have been a little far-fetched, but we trained on how to react
to a bunch of different casualties, including ones from battle damage like
machine gun fire ("RAT-A-TAT-TAT, RAT-A-TAT-TAT" over the 1MC) or an rocket
propelled grenade (RPG) hit ("KA-POW" over the 1MC -- I really need to
redownload my sound effects app). There was a bit of franticness on the
bridge when the first hit took out our helmsman, but the sound-powered phone
talker stepped in to steer the ship for a minute or two until the lookout
could come down from the fly bridge. Around the rest of the ship, Repair
Lockers combated flooding in the JP-5 pump room back aft and a fire that
started in OPS/SUPPORT berthing and spread forward into OPS/DECK head and
aft into YN1's office. Our gun crews destroyed and sank two of the bad guys'
vessels, and the last one ran away after they realized they were severely
out-gunned by us...all prompted by Training Team members of course.

There were the Training Team briefs and debriefs before and after the drill.
We're practicing for Command Assessment of Readiness for Training (CART) and
Tailored Ships Training Availability (TSTA, pronounced tiss-tah) which are
barreling down on us next month for CART, and May for TSTA. We've been doing
a pretty good job of working through all the CART checklists (over 1500 line
items in all, I think), and are making sure our Training Teams work
separately and can integrate together. I should write a post on the training
cycle -- but not tonight. That might be a multi-day project. 

We also sent a couple guys over to an FRC operating near us for a little
professional exchange...except they didn't send us anyone in return, so it's
not really an exchange. Hope they're having fun over there tonight. 

And all the usual evening round of meetings. Fish call was piped at about
1630; fish on was called over the radio just before sunset -- with tales of
the 5-1/2 foot marlin that got away bemoaned soon after. There was a baggie
full of fresh caught mahi on the fish cleaning table when I went back to the
fantail to check out sunset though...so at least the fishermen had some
luck.

LCDR Charlotte Mundy
Executive Officer
USCGC DILIGENCE (WMEC 616)
**UNDERWAY**

Beautiful Day

It was the definition of a beautiful day today. Bright blue sky, with a
scattering a clouds dancing their way across the sky; a light breeze that
kept the sun from burning too hot. The water was crystalline, so many colors
of blue and green and turquoise. 

1LT did a fantastic job of getting us underway from the pier, with the wind
directly down the pier and a slight ebb current once we got out into the
turning basin. He drove the ship almost exactly according to the plan he
talked about at the navigation brief, with one slight variation to counter
the ebb that shifted the stern a little more forcefully than we expected.
There were a ton of Sunday afternoon boaters enjoying the weather, and WEPS
contacted a couple of them to make sure we weren't going to collide with
anyone on the way out. There was a little uncertainty when 1LT misunderstood
that we were pretty far right of track, and we really should take that green
buoy down the starboard side, but he quickly adjusted, and away we went. We
caught an extra knot of speed from the falling ebb current until we were
well away from shore. 

And on the way to meet up with another ship, a rainbow glowed off the port
side, short and fat in the clouds. 

LCDR Charlotte Mundy
Executive Officer
USCGC DILIGENCE (WMEC 616)
**UNDERWAY**

Conversations

We have some interesting conversations on the ship. Last night, walking back
to the ship relatively early (before 2200) from an event put on by the
Chiefs' Mess, I commented to OPS how tough it was being an introvert in the
Coast Guard. He agreed. But neither one of us felt the slightest bit awkward
at going back to our respective rooms, shutting the door, and enjoying some
quiet time all by our onesies. I recognize that, as an introvert, I am
extremely lucky and privileged to have my own room on the ship. The guys who
live in shared berthing areas definitely don't have that luxury. They can
close their rack curtain and that's about it. 

And then this evening, walking back early from dinner out, OPS, MPA and I
talked about the elasticity of time underway. OPS said he had no sense of
time during the last stretch we were underway. He knew all of what we did,
but he could not put it in chronological order if he tried. Time is weird
underway. We'll have days and days that are slow, that drag like a flat
tire, and then the very next moment will fly by with a nitro injection.
We're over three-quarters of the way through this patrol -- sometimes I
think we just got underway, and sometimes it feels like we've been underway
for an eternity, and other times it feels just about right. I try to write
stuff down in my day planner as it happens, so I remember later how things
happened, somewhat for help in writing my OER input, and sometimes just so I
can recall the order of events. Things get jumbled otherwise. 

LCDR Charlotte Mundy
Executive Officer
USCGC DILIGENCE (WMEC 616)
**UNDERWAY**