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6 more hours, and I've reached the end of the Internets...

Trainwreck

Got a little captain in ya?
Part of being a Naval Aviator (at least sometimes), or being in the Service in general, is watchstanding. I find myself at 0400 on this wonderful Thursday morning cruising the internet, well, the five sites that NETC will let me cruise, for the umpteenth time. I'm not used to the freedom of internet and tv during watch, coming from a fast-attack submarine engineroom and whatnot.

Focus: What are some of the weird/random things you've done on watch to pass the time? Names can be changed to protect the innocent if need be.

I guess the oddest thing I did on my last deployment was to "borrow" a shipmate's coffee cup. Said shipmate had left the coffee cup right where it belonged...on the R114 unit. So, as punishment for his stupidity, I did what any enterprising young watchstander would do...I made a cool looking duct tape submarine out of it, complete with periscopes, tower, and tail fins.
 

usmarinemike

Solidly part of the 42%.
pilot
Contributor
Not too crazy, but I watched the entire Rocky saga in one night. I know, lame, but as a junior Marine I always used duty to do MCI's which is even more lame. Somebody made me iron the Colors one time, too. :icon_rage
 

a2b2c3

Mmmm Poundcake
pilot
Contributor
VT-27 had a deck of cards and chips in the SDO desk. I used to play blackjack against myself to get practice in for Vegas. Even that got boring fast. Some IPs were impressed with the speed I was going at though.
 

LOSLOAR

don't bring your coffee to FOD walk
we had an instructor that left an islamic alarm clock in the ceiling above the duty and it went off in the middle of the night playing that prayer song they listen too, and the duty freaked out and called the security guards saying he thought terrorists were in the building
 

nittany03

Recovering NFO. Herder of Programmers.
pilot
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
LOSLOAR, your signature is wrong on so many levels.
 

ea6bflyr

Working Class Bum
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
Okay...okay, you dragged it out of me.

During WESTPAC 2000, I was standing Squadron Duty Officer and the NIPR net (UNCLAS side) was up and down.....down more than up. So the IT department was saying the email server was down until they got some widget, ETA 30 days.....this made most of us upset....so, one of JO's taught all of us how to use NET SEND. So we would send other JO's pop-ups using NET SEND. Basic tomfoolery.

I was bored on watch and decided to use NET SEND followed by an asterisk (*) which sent a pop-up to EVERYONE on the ship who was logged on. The message was "The internet is down for the rest of the deployment, away the morale suppression team."

The IT department quickly identified the user, me, and promptly notified the Chain of Command. I faced the wrath of the XO and was assigned another day of SDO, and I had to formally apologize to the entire ready room....as my punishment.

Fast forward several months: XO, now Skipper, and I are talking over a cold beverage and he disclosed that the gag was the funniest thing he had seen in quite a while, but because the higher ups were mildly upset, he had to admonish me.

I'd do it again if I were in the same position. BTW, yes, I am a computer nerd.

-ea6bflyr ;)
 

Flash

SEVAL/ECMO
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
......So the IT department was saying the email server was down until they got some widget, ETA 30 days.....The IT department quickly identified the user, me, and promptly notified the Chain of Command.

-ea6bflyr ;)

The lesson out of this, they could not fix the internets but they could hunt down and identify who sent a smart ass message post haste. Nice, gotta love IT guys.....

At least you did not send a message out to the world where the WX line of an EP-3 post-mission report that said on Christmas; Frightful. The crew got in a little hot water for that one.....
 

usmarinemike

Solidly part of the 42%.
pilot
Contributor
I once read the NATOPS cover-to-cover. Took me about 14 hours. The retention was amazing.

Reminds me that my squadron traded duty with the LAAD battery in Okinawa so that everybody could attend their unit's ball. I had to pull duty at their unit and there was a manual for the Avenger in the desk drawer. If the Avenger is actually capable of shooting down an aircraft, I am still confident to this day that I would be able to do it. The retention is, in fact, amazing.
 

Scoob

If you gotta problem, yo, I'll be part of it.
pilot
Contributor
While I was a stash at prototype, one of the instructors told me that while on watch on the boat he had decided to read the Radiological Controls Manual for kicks. He came across the section that specified that all engine room watchstanders are required to wear a TLD and steel toed safety shoes. He decided to employ a strict interpretation of these guidlines (though he did slack a bit by adding some duct tape, in order to secure the required TLD to his "person".)

TLD - for those outside of the prior-Nuke Mafia.
 
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