confidentialmisanthropy

The closer I get to jetting out of here, the more it looks like it won't happen.

It amazes me, being on such a small ship, with such a small crew, how horribly communication flows. I recall, one of the selling points back when everyone was telling me I should do a small boy since I'd already done the carrier thing, was just that. Smaller chains of command. Smaller crew. Tight-knit community. "Ev'rybody knows ev'rybody..."

Yeah. Whatever.

I don't dislike being on a frigate, persay. I simply prefer a bigger ship. Much bigger. There's no real plus to speak of being on a frigate. Everything that would be considered a plus cancells itself out. For example: we pull in a hell of a sight more often than a carrier would. This doesn't amount to less time out at sea though. Quite the contrary. Our ship's battle flag reads "Homeports are for sissies". Cute, huh?

I can vouch for everybody knowing everybody. There's no secrets. Everyone's always in your business. The day I routed my request to move off base, I had half-a-dozen people ask me if I needed a roommate.

So yeah. Back to my point. Friday afternoon, I got what many G-Unit sailors call "got". Lumbergh style. Twice.

At about noon, I got informed that I'd be going to school again for two weeks starting Monday, which meant the last day of school landed squarely on the day I've been slated to go on leave, since like February mind you. (That's how long ago I requested it. And how long ago it was approved by the same said chain of command that created the scheduling conflict.) So. When I informed my DIVO (division officer) of the snag she tells me I need to print out my itinerary. Y'know. So she can see when my flight leaves. At this point I threw up the bullshit flag. I'm not about to bust my ass to get to Narita on account of last minute admin hijinks that I apparently ain't privy to. As per usual though, everything was twisted. Turns out I have to attend this school because they've already chalked up the orders and they've already spent massive amounts of Naval resources traning me in the last course and it'd all be for naught if I missed this one. (And yet, ScottP, who was on leave the duration of the first course is also attending the class with me.) This is the kind of bullshit they teach you at the Academy.

About 15:30, I got a message that our Disbursing clerk's computer crashed. I went down and took a look, 'cause usually when someone claims their computer crashed it involves unplugged monitors, no bullshit. Unfortunately, it was the real deal. Hard drive failure. So, I had a date with the new disbursing officer and his ailing computer... Saturday.

Nothing short of nuclear fucking winter is going to keep me from making my flight. I've earned that much.