even I can check the hate from time to time. Since Friday, we've been pushing hard to put check marks in the last few boxes so we can get out of the shipyard. As a result, we've been unnecessarily deprived of liberty a few more times. The command can bluster until it's blue in the face about how it had to be done this way. But I really think that letting everyone go and calling everyone with today's muster time would have worked; they didn't need to hold us for those extra two hours (extending the workday from twelve hours to fourteen). Today we've got a command barbecue; somebody from Memphis (the city, not the vessel) sent us a whole mess of Corky's food products, which are supposed to be really good. I'm not a fan of barbecue anything (well, except hamburgers and chicken), but since we all have to be there, I'll probably at least try it.
The reason why we've been raped so hard over the last four days is we had a major inspection, the last one that really determines whether or not we're ready to put to sea. We passed; there were some hits, as there always are, but it proved again that as painful and asinine as the modus operandi is on Memphis, it generally works. This is in stark contrast to the routine on the cruiser Chosin and the destroyer Stout, both of which failed INSURV inspections last month (TSSBP) (Navy Times). These two ships are now precluded from getting underway. It's a simple rule of the Navy - and of life in general - that if you don't take care of the little things, they will come back to bite you in the ass. Whether it's simple neglect (as seems to be the case here), or intentional deceit (such as that discovered onboard Hampton six months ago), an operational ship locked down in homeport is an asset wasted.
Another source of the "man, at least it's not that bad here" line of thought is FEWL.net, a blog written by a Sailor on USS Shiloh, forward deployed in Japan. A Sailor piece of shit slimeball is believed to have killed a sixty-one year old Japanese taxi driver, and what happened at Yokosuka? The entire base got locked down, among other things. I'm very thankful that at the time I was detailed to the Fleet, Japan was not an option. However, with the Navy set to decommission USS Kitty Hawk and move USS George Washington to the Pacific Rim, nukes are now at risk of being subjected to such douchebaggery. Personally, I think we shouldn't have any ships or other forces stationed over there. The Japanese public seems to oppose our presence, and with the Cold War nearly two decades behind us, there's no reason for us to be subsidizing the defense of the second-richest nation in the world.
complacent