This underway has opened with more of the standard silliness to which I am accustomed. We brought the cremated remains of a Master Chief with us for a burial at sea. Upon hearing that we had a dead person on board, one of my compatriots actually wondered aloud whether we actually had a dead body stowed somewhere. We gently reminded him that if that were the case, everybody on the ship would know about it. I was personally treated to a slew of gruesome images during this morning's drill invitation. The sequence is designed to desensitize the viewer to the types of injuries sustained in war; surprisingly, I wasn't grossed out by them. Other than that, it's been much of the usual - watch, training, drills, screwed up sleep, a workload that never ends, a job where one's best is never good enough, and as much "rack to the future" as possible so as to fast forward to the date and time when we're once again moored.
(This entry was originally written 20 August 2008, 1446Q.)
