Thanksgiving/ Black Friday

So the Wednesday before thanksgiving, we had a safety standdown, which is just a meeting with our command going over how to be safe for the holidays, no drinking and driving, dont deep fry turkeys, etc. So afterwards they gave us a thanksgiving dinner. the officers wives cooked all of us enlisted personnel thanksgiving treats. were talking 6 turkeys, and cranberry sauce. all the food was sooooooo good. there was so much of it!! We sat outside at a nice table and just enjoyed our meals together. As we were leaving people were talking about a football game around 130pm. I was def. game, i always loved playing football around thanksgiving. So i went home, took a nap then headed over to the gym. We only had like 6 guys for the first half hour, then a bunch of marines came to challenge us, and we got some more people as well. it was some good ol fashion backyard football. basically the misfits vs the marines, since they were all in matching uniforms, etc. It looked like something from the movie the longest yard. I thought we were going to get crushed. i thought wrong. We ended up doing extremely good against them and won. I got 2 touchdowns and 2 intercpetions, it was awesomeee. Felt good to run around and jump. I was super sore for the next 3 days though lol. WE all felt like old men after, but it was well worth it. NExt day was thanksgiving. I would be going to Pierces house to have some dinner there. I head to walmart expecting to find some apple pie and apple cider. stupid. dno what i was thinking but i grabbed some apple juice and cookies to bring over, even some flowers too. So i went over ther around 2ish, and it was just pierce, A-ball, and botht thier wives. We played a little beer pong, and got dinner ready. Eventually a couple other kids from our squadron came over to eat too. the food was again, really really good. Oh yeah. forgot to mention this but earlier the day before i joined this group online on facebook about NAS lemoore buying/selling/trading. And a guy posted something about an N64 (old school) and the game Zelda: OCarina of time for sale for only 50 bucks. there was no way i was letting this offer down, so i replied to his post, ended up being the first one too! I just got my paycheck too, it this whole paycheck was christmas oriented.... to myself i guess? Then later that morning he posted a PSP for sale fully loaded with thousands of games for only 60 bucks. 110 bucks for both of those? i jumped on that quickly, and told him i was ready alls day and had the money. We ended up meeting at a fresh and easy, i bought the items, some starbucks, and was never happier. Meow i just needed a TV... So thanksgiving night passed, and i talked to clay, he said he wanted to do some black friday shopping for a laptop at the NEX on base. I said i would go with him around 4am the next mornign since it opened at 5. we got there at 4 and the line was already like 30 people deep. I got in line, and luckily starbucks(right nextdoor) was open. So he went in and grabbed some lattes, while i stayed in line. the line ended up more than doubing while he was in there. its always so nice to see a lot of people behind you. So excited. I decided i was going to treat myself to a TV since i needed one for my new room that i was going to get when i became petty officer, and i needed to start living here. So 5 o clock comes rolling around, and immediatly every runs to theelectronics department. its funny, everyones your best friend in line waiting outside, but once the door opens, everyone becomes your enemy. Oh well. We double timed to the electronics, everyone had carriages, but you cant be manuevering very quickly when you had one, not smart on their part. i was looking around for a TV that was on sale. The best deal i could find was a 32" for 227, samsgung too which was a very reliable brand, flat screen. So I grabbed an employee real quick and told him i wanted it. Luckily i grabbed him when i did, cuz ike 10 other people needed his help right after me, but he dealt with me first. so happy. he gave me a card, and told me to pay for it and pick it up out back. So clay was already in line, and i just joined him there, grabbed a HDMI cord for my tablet, and stood patiently for the line to move. People tried cutting us two times. It was amazing the spots they were trying to squeeze in. We asked if we could help them, then they claimed ignorance. All we could do was laugh and kick them to the back of the line. So we bought our items, i was very happy with my purchase. Meow i could play games and watch netflix on a bigger screen!! yay.. So i got back took a nap, and then rearranged my room a little bit, so i could see my own tv better. i like the set up a lot. No flying that weekend, but B-14, clay and i went shopping later that friday as well. I ended up getting a sit down massage, as well as clay, and a t shirt. it was nice. The next day we went to the movies to see catching fire. military discount came down to like 575 price ticket. so we had to get popcorn. It was an alright movie. Just really hate Peetah cuz he cant stick up for himself. Oh well, it was a fun time. Relaxed sunday, got ready for c school.

Two working days before Thanksgiving!!

So clay and i have been pushing for a PC board a lot, he's been stuck in limbo for like a month and a half, me only like a week and a half lol, but i felt bad. So we asked everyday for a PC board. Monday rolls around, and Im heading to C school in a week, I would like PC baord before i head out over there, and i even wanna get promoted too, but it was looking down. Then tuesday comes. Huge day in the books. We get to the line shak to find out that the results for the 3rd class petty officer came out, and everyone was excited and hoping they made it. I already knew i made 3rd class, but i had to wait till eeryone else knew in order to go through indoc with them, and get frocked with them. So the results were in. Clays job rating had a 84% passing rating-pretty good odds he got the promotion, but he was still scared. Ended up getting it. I think he was the only one on days the got it. I was so excited for him. All the crap we talked earlier about us being petty officers finally came through, and thats exactly what we'll be. Jumping way ahead of the game by putting on the crow. So a lot of people were angry or upset that day, but we still had the rest of the day to go, and Clay and i made sure to address each other as petty officer, which was a lot of fun. Rumor had it we were going to board that same day as well. The last chance before thanksgiving to get this. Petty officer indoctrination would be the next week Mon, Tues, Wed. and the frocking (putting on the crow) would be on Wednesday. We were just happy to hear that, since that effected our pay, well at least mine immediatly. Rumor going around was that there was a PC board at 1130am. WE were super excited, the closest we were gettting to going on the board, and we were getting like 5 days off after, so we were very happy no matter what. We shined our boots and reviewed what we needed to and got ready. 11 am comes around and we head up to an office area. We stood by and waited for everyone to show up. They do, everythigns looking great!! An officer talks to clay and tells him to come on in, and it was off to the races. I was just hoping he didnt take long so i got the chance to go in as well. I waited for what seemed like forever. But we knew our stuff to the T. As i waited though, there was a cheif down the hallway a little bit who kept going in and out of a door. It was far enough for him to say something, and i could hear it, but not that i would respond because i didnt want the board room to hear me say something. I was standing at parade rest, looking very professional. I guess when you stand like that, and are alone waiting to enter a room, people automatically think youre in trouble. This cheif ending up saying something along the lines of "uh oh, someones in trouble, whatd you do now?" But as he said that he went in to his room down the hall, again, i didnt want to say anything cuz i didnt want to be loud, so i just shrugged it off. So then he came out and said "dont worry, ive been to a review board a couple of times, and everything turned out fine, youll get over it, and it will all pass." i just nodded my head and smiled cuz there was honestly nothing to say at that point. Throughout this time waiting, i can hear some of the things the higher ups were saying, and i kept quizzing myself, but also second guessing myself. So i just cleared my mind and paced back and forth. Eventually clay came out and pretended he just hit a homerun saying it was very easy. He tried lending me a hand on some hard questions, but couldnt remember anything for the life of him. I said oh well, finally my turn. I get in there- 6 people, 3 enlisted, 3 officers. I had to introduce myself as if i were by the jet and talking to the pilots. Nailed it. Off to a great start. THen my leading petty officer of the line shak was ready to ask me questions. This was the do or die portion of the board. You get asked emergency procedures, and if you dont know them youre done, because whats the point of becoming a plane captian if you dont know what to do in an emergency? When we studied these EP's we always went over them in the same order, it was just fluent the way we said our answers, and it was like robotic. Just so happens he asked these questions in the same order we studied them. I nailed every single aspect of every single emergency procedure that was thrown at me. Verbatim from the book, and any questions they had about them, i had the answer. It was looking up, and i felt more confident than ever. After he got done asking me the questions, i knew i had won my board over. Just two more enlisted, and 3 more officers, and i can leave. I knew the two enlisted would be a lot harder than the last 3 officers, it was an uphill climb, but i could see the top. Next person was cheif. Asked a lot of questions about the boat, in which i just came from, and i answered most of his questions unknowlingly, and he was very impressed with the knowledge that i threw at him. Next was Quality assurance, or my old Leading petty officer. He was also a mechanic, so i thought it would be tough. But he saw how well i did with the first two, and was very impressed. It ended up going smoothly as well, and i answered questions to the best of my ability, which most of the time ended up being right, i knew my way to the answers. After that was done, i knew it was over. The officers just had some motherhood advice to give me, and that was about it. I left the room, came back and shook everyones hand. I had finally made PC. NO getting that smile off my face. Plane captain and Petty officer the same time as my best friend out here. We were unstoppable. Only way was up now.

Take offs and landings

So that weekend, i had flying lessons saturday and sunday. Granted i havent even reviewed anything about flying within the past like 3 weeks, being on the boat and all, i felt unprepared for this flight, so i got there a little early and read over some stuff on the traffic pattern and landing an airplane. I eventually went up and talked to my flight instructor, and i immediatly went to go preflight the plane since Matt had a full day ahead of himself, there wasnt much time for discussion. So i preflighted the plane, and low and behold my plane had too muchc fuel in it for us to take off in. If the plane weighs too much, then it is not good for flight, and we cant fly. Once we figured that out, it was said that we wouldnt have enough time to do the lesson what we wanted to do, so we just hung out and talked about the boat for a little bit, which was fun. But i told him i would get there a lot earlier on sunday to get us ready to go. Which i did. Sunday rolls around and we are in the plane quickly. We take off, and head over to an uncontrolled airport, one that does not have a control tower. We took off and landed like 5 times, and just practiced that the whole time. It was a little nerve racking, but by the end i think i was getting the hang of it. besides the next 2 lessons are working on landing still. Then my solo, is coming up fairly soon, exciting! I left the day with a little more confidence and wind beneath my wings LOL. So flying was going good. Ill get my private pilots license someday lol.

Cloud 9

Well well well. We meet again. Finally got time to sit down and do some writing since i have soooo much time off meow. AKA i had my first day at C school today. BUT lets not rush in to things, got a lot of catching up to do. BIG things to talk about here- we'll start with going flying last weekend, then how i became a Plane Captain, then third class petty officer of the navy, to Thanksgiving weekend, to black friday, to c school. But everything is coming out better than i hoped for. Everything has fallen into place, and I;m extremely happy with the outcome. So lets proceed. I went back to work after the 96 hour liberty, back on day check, boy has it felt good to be on dry land. Just had an easy 4 day week that week working, hanging out. Been spending a lot of time with clay lately, and weve actually become pretty close. Were basically the same age/rank, and we got to this command at the same time. and were both ready to become PC. So as we still were trainees hanging out in the cage, it didnt bother us at alls because we were having a lot of fun- seemed like too much fun at work for what it was worth. Oh well, whatever makes you happy, and as long as everything that needs to get done gets done, safely. Which, after a week of Plane Captain board hoaxes, we decided to both launch some jets, so we didnt forget how to do it, since we were in limbo at that time. Just so happened that our jets were right next to each other. So we got our jets ready, and had our PC's with us, watching over us, so we decided to make things interesting, and see who could launch their jet the fastest, taking all precautions and safety protocols first of course. So it was a friendly bet, i mean everyone is always trying to be the first one off the line, it just so happen that our jets were next to each other. his pilots got to his jet first, and mine came late behind, it was already looking somewhat dim to my advantage. Anyway, he start up his engines, then it was my turn like 2 minutes later. Went through the motions, except his needed to be serviced with hydraulic fluid, which could take anywhere from like 30 seconds to 3 minutes. I ended up pulling ahead at this point, and all up until the final checkers were looking over the jet, they noticed something a little off on the tail hook, so they just tightened it up a little bit, but it took a good (what i thought 5 minutes) but it was like a minute, making clay catch up to me. Luckily everything went smooth for me after that, and clays pilot barely looked at him the whole time. Then, after you know it, my chalks were out, and the jet pulled out of its parking spot. Right after mine pulled out, clays jet was ready to go. Solid win on my part. Not to mention, my hand movements were crisp, and everything i did was perfect. It was probably my best launch ever, everyhting went very well. And when i was talking to a higher up on the boat, something really clicked in my brain. The job of a PC is to ensure that everything on the ground is safe and clear so the pilots can do their job properly. I am the eyes and ears making this jet go do its mission it needs to do- so these officers(pilots) HAVE to listen to what i say, and if i think something is unsafe, they HAVE to listen to me, and it feels good to have that power. Even if i think the smallest thing is unsafe, i need to stop the process and have it checked out, that is my responsibility as a plane captain, and if the pilots complain, so be it, but worst comes to worst i could have saved someones life, or even theirs. By knowing i hold all this power, its like ihave full control of the jet and everyone around it, and people have to listen to me. Gives me more confidence, and able to do my job better when i know what im doing, and that i can wave off a launch at any point if i deem necessary. Next.