RE: -For those who've served in the military
July 6, 2014 at 12:10 pm
(This post was last modified: July 6, 2014 at 12:15 pm by SteelCurtain.)
I was a surface warfare officer in the US Navy. A glorified ship driver.
The defining moment for me in my active service (I have way more 'defining' moments as a midshipman at the Naval Academy) was when I was 'tossed the keys' to this ship for the first time:
![[Image: USS_Greenbay.jpg]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=www.public.navy.mil%2Fsurfor%2Flpd20%2FPhotos%2FUSS_Greenbay.jpg)
The USS Green Bay. 25,000 tons, 690ft long, amphibious transport dock. I am 23 years old, it's 9 pm, and all of a sudden I am the Officer in Charge of an $800 million ship in the Boxer amphibious ready group. Literally my responsibility. The USS Boxer is 4000 ft off my beam. It was a moment, to be sure.
The second moment, which was way more nerve racking, was during an underway replenishment. This was my last cruise with the Green Bay. An UNREP, as we call it, is when the ship is taking on fuel, cargo, food, and ammunition while on the move. A tanker will pull up alongside you. The two massive ships are about 80 ft apart. There are wires and lines between the two ships that will snap back and kill people if you move too far away from the tanker. There is a massive suction force trying to draw the ships together. You have to drive the ship in a perfectly straight line and hope the tanker does too. There are 600-800 people on the ship whose lives are in your hands. The ships characteristics are changing as you are taking on hundreds of thousands of pounds of fuel and cargo. It is serious business. My watch as Officer of the Deck happened to fall during the UNREP. And the admiral was on the bridge. Spotlight...
I would absolutely recommend the military to anyone. It is true it is not for everyone, but for me, I received a world class education (that I am not using), I got to play division 1 football, I got to see the world, I got to learn about responsibility and integrity in a tough environment. I got to affect people's lives as a leader and a subordinate. I would not trade those opportunities for anything.
The defining moment for me in my active service (I have way more 'defining' moments as a midshipman at the Naval Academy) was when I was 'tossed the keys' to this ship for the first time:
The USS Green Bay. 25,000 tons, 690ft long, amphibious transport dock. I am 23 years old, it's 9 pm, and all of a sudden I am the Officer in Charge of an $800 million ship in the Boxer amphibious ready group. Literally my responsibility. The USS Boxer is 4000 ft off my beam. It was a moment, to be sure.
The second moment, which was way more nerve racking, was during an underway replenishment. This was my last cruise with the Green Bay. An UNREP, as we call it, is when the ship is taking on fuel, cargo, food, and ammunition while on the move. A tanker will pull up alongside you. The two massive ships are about 80 ft apart. There are wires and lines between the two ships that will snap back and kill people if you move too far away from the tanker. There is a massive suction force trying to draw the ships together. You have to drive the ship in a perfectly straight line and hope the tanker does too. There are 600-800 people on the ship whose lives are in your hands. The ships characteristics are changing as you are taking on hundreds of thousands of pounds of fuel and cargo. It is serious business. My watch as Officer of the Deck happened to fall during the UNREP. And the admiral was on the bridge. Spotlight...
![[Image: SHIP_T-AKE-11_UNREP_CG-52_USN_lg.jpg]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=media.defenceindustrydaily.com%2Fimages%2FSHIP_T-AKE-11_UNREP_CG-52_USN_lg.jpg)
I would absolutely recommend the military to anyone. It is true it is not for everyone, but for me, I received a world class education (that I am not using), I got to play division 1 football, I got to see the world, I got to learn about responsibility and integrity in a tough environment. I got to affect people's lives as a leader and a subordinate. I would not trade those opportunities for anything.
"There remain four irreducible objections to religious faith: that it wholly misrepresents the origins of man and the cosmos, that because of this original error it manages to combine the maximum servility with the maximum of solipsism, that it is both the result and the cause of dangerous sexual repression, and that it is ultimately grounded on wish-thinking." ~Christopher Hitchens, god is not Great
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