Training Update

Hello Everybody-

There hasn't been anything to crazy to write about relating to work, since orientation hasn't started. Last week were bused over to Norfolk Naval Base and sat through meetings about the meetings we'll be having this week and got our medical clearances. It was pretty dull, but needed to be done.


Next week we have New Employee Orientation at the naval base. It will pretty much consist of filling out mountains of paperwork involving 401ks, benefits, insurance, etc. Next Saturday we go up to Freehold and begin the fun stuff with helicopter fire fighting, arms training, chemical/radiological/biological defense training, and other stuff I can't remember. I'll walk away with a big stack of certificates saying I know stuff after about 5 weeks.

As you all know....Hurricane Irene hit VA beach, with the eye passing us about 30 miles offshore. Harry and I went out to Skybird on friday and fixed her up for Irene. Lashed the boom down, wrapped line around sail covers, took the dodge off, folded the bimani, and took off the canvas. I'm sure she made it through without a scratch, we did a good job.

I was pretty disappointed in Irene, it seemed like just a bad thunderstorm, which I guess is a good thing.  I've been primarily hanging out with 2 other people going throuhg training with me. Harry (frm Hawaii) and Jessica (frm California), who both went to Cal Maritime. We stocked up on booze (priorities!), food, water, and got some board games to party it up. And thats what we did. Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday we sat up in the room watching movies and making drinking games out of anything. Needles to say, the mornings were a wee bit on the rough side. Ironically, none of us touched our water supply, we are going back to Target to return it all.

We went out and walked the beach this morning. The ocean is absolute flat calm. Besides the boarded up windows and one building that had a little part of its roof blown off, you wouldn't be able to tell a hurricane was here, pretty impressive. 

So now its time for the post Hurricane party! Hahaha...just kidding...slightly. I feel pretty lucky to have made such quick friends out of Harry and Jessica. I'm the only Texas grad here and the only one who didn't know someone else. Its nice to have someone thats going through the same thing you are and can relate too. Esp when going to work for the same company and what not.

The other people here, which are all from Kingspoint and Mass Maritime for the most part are well...a bit off I suppose. We've tried to hang out and party with them a few times, but we just have a different mind set and it gets a little awkward. But what you going to do? It happens. We have been having an absolute blast hanging out in Virginia beach.

Thats about all I got right now. I'll do a post at the end of next week with the shenanigans and training stuff that happened. Thanks for reading! Hope y'all are enjoying.

Til Next Time,

Mike

I've Made It

Hello All-

This is the site I will be using to update everyone on my adventures and travels while working as a 3rd Mate in the Merchant Marine, presently with Military Sealift Command (MSC).


I pulled into Virginia Beach, Virginia on Saturday for new employee orientation (NEO). MSC has put us up here at the Double Tree hotel. There are around 35-40 people here for NEO. I'm not sure how many of us are licensed officer out of academies. About 20 of us had medical yesterday, where they pricked and prodded and all the good stuff to get us medically cleared to work. The other half had medical today.

Actual training starts on the 29th. We go through a week of paperwork and HR fun here in VA beach and then will go to Freehold, NJ. There we will have 7-9 more weeks of training in areas such as firefighting, small arms, radioactive/chemical/biological defense, etc. It's not the most exciting stuff, but just part of the process to get to a ship, which hopefully will happen by January.

Until training starts on the 29th, I'm just enjoying the town with a few fellow mates going through NEO as well. I'm the only Texan/TMA grad here. The two people I've been hanging out with the most are from Cal Maritime (CMA). Most of the others seem to be from the Merchant Marine Academy (Kingspoint) and Mass Maritime.

Thats about all I got for now....there really isn't anything too terribly exciting going on. We did get an earthquake earlier, as you've probably heard on the news. It was a 5.9 with the center about 60 miles north of us. I was in my hotel room and the whole building started rocking and swaying....it was a pretty weird feeling. 

Thats about all I got...hope y'all enjoy following the blog! Many thanks to Amy Trammell for setting this up and doing all the designs!

-Mike