I know this post is really, really long overdue, but I got a Skribit request that I write it, so I thought it was about time I got around to doing it.  I’ve mentioned Emory Rice day before, where I described the planned itinerary for the day and gave a brief description of what the day is.

First off, the marching competition.  First Company was, naturally, the first company to march.  I’d like to say that we did well, but I’d be lying.  We pretty much fell on our faces.  It didn’t help that there was a ship going through the canal while we were marching that happened to blow its whistle right as the company commander would give marching commands, but there are no asterisks in these competitions, so we weren’t given any leeway in scoring because of it.  We messed up a couple of times, but my personal favorite was when we were given the command “to the rear march” (everyone pivots 180 degrees at once, resulting in the entire platoon marching back the way they came) right at the ship blew its whistle, at which point the back half of the company turned and the front half kept marching because they hadn’t heard the command.  The entire thing was pretty classic.  We came in last for that part of the day.

During the day classes continued as usual, with one exception: dress-down tickets had been sold for the day, so the majority of cadets were in civilian clothes.  We usually have two or three dress-down days each semester, with the proceeds from the tickets going to a local charity.  I’m not sure where the money went for Emory Rice day, but I believe it was a charity.

That afternoon after classes we had a field day.  The school had rented a number of field activities, such as a rock climbing wall, a jousting table, a dunk tank, and a number of other things.  Various clubs and groups at school had their own activities as well.  The ROTC program set up an obstacle course on Cadet Beach, which I didn’t do but heard that it was pretty good (First Company won this event!).  In the mess deck, we had a cookout which was a nice change from the usual routine.  Unfortunately, it rained that afternoon or the cookout would have been outdoors.  That night they showed a movie in the gym, giving the cadets the choice of what movie to watch.  We chose Boondock Saints.

Emory Rice day was a lot of fun, and a great way to mark the end of the year.  I’m looking forward to it again next year, but hopefully it won’t rain again!

Only 24 hours until we’ll be leaving for the year!

Last night, the mess deck staff put on a Finals Breakfast from 2300 until 0100.  I guess they figured that most people would be up that late studying, so they’d give us an opportunity to take a break and grab something to eat.  It was pretty good: scrambled eggs, french toast sticks, bacon, sausage, tater tots, and the usual assortment of breakfast sandwiches and omelettes.

There was a very good turnout; just guessing, I’d say that over half the corps of cadets showed up.  I happened to be studying for my Coastal Navigation final today (I’m taking a study break this morning to write this), so it was nice to have an excuse to get out of the room and refresh.

Finals will be going on starting today through Tuesday.  I only have my Coastal Navigation final this week; all my other finals are on Monday, which is kind of a drag.  No big deal though, I’ll have all weekend to study so I should be fine.

Countdown until expected departure for the year: 6 days, 3 hours, 39 minutes!

This week is the last full week of classes for the semester, marking the beginning of the end. Starting on Wednesday next week, final exams will be given.  We’ll be having closed-door study hours on the freshman decks to allow us to study without disturbances, and prepare for finals more effectively.

We’re also making preparations to go home for the summer.  As part of the procedure for closing out the semester, we have to fully clean the company, as well as our rooms, to an Admiral’s-like level.  Once the company and all the rooms are cleared by the company officer on the last day, we are free to go.  Obviously this is a major priority with cadets!

Since the regular regimental routine for freshmen is all but over for us, I’ve been giving some thought to what we did this year, and what we’ll be doing next year.  We dealt with a lot of structure and commitment this year, most of it pretty frustrating (cleaning stations in the morning & evening, musters, study hours, etc.) and seemingly in the way.  However, as much as we may have complained about it, we all had that in common, which I’ve come to realize has really helped bond us as a company, and as shipmates.  That’s not to say that I enjoy those things any more - I don’t, especially cleaning stations - but simply that I can appreciate them for their effect on us.  Next year we’ll have almost no regimental obligations, short of inspections and morning formation.  We’ll basically be regular college sophomores with uniforms.  It’s going to be nice to have more freedom and responsibility, but at the same time it’s going to be weird not having somebody looking over our shoulder constantly.

Anyway, enough personal reflection.  Countdown to expected departure: 11 days, 15 hours, 12 minutes!

So usually I try to avoid writing these posts because I generally regard them as filler, but I thought it might be appropriate this week. We have some unique events going on over the next couple of days that I felt would be worthy of some introduction prior to my post-event write-ups that will follow (man, it’s just hyphen city back there, isn’t it?).

Tomorrow is Emory Rice day, which is our annual field day at the end of the year. The day starts off with a marching competition between the companies. Each freshman platoon in the regiment represents their competition, just as we did for Recognition back in September. This time is a little different however, because we will be marched by the upcoming company commander for our company, providing them with their first real experience in publicly leading the company as an officer. The afternoon is filled with activities aimed at providing us with some fun near the end of the year, such as an obstacle course done by ROTC and a rock wall. All activities are done by company, and are worth points towards Honor Company. I’ll explain Honor Company in a later post, so stay tuned for that.

Wednesday afternoon is Change of Command. Now that Coasties are over and we’re only weeks away from the end of the year, it’s time for this year’s graduating seniors to step down from their officer positions and hand the reigns over to the upcoming officers for next year. There’s a formal ceremony that will be held Wednesday afternoon on the Parade Field. Since I haven’t seen a Change of Command at MMA before, I’m not really sure the details of the ceremony. Since I’ll most likely have to be in formation for the duration of it I won’t be able to take pictures, but I’ll try to get some pictures to post from someone here at MMA (if there’s anybody reading this who’ll be here and would like to share their photos-maybe the Admissions office-I’d appreciate it, shoot me an e-mail).

Not much else to report from Taylor’s Point, except that the weather’s getting too nice for us to be indoors. I vote that classes start being held outside, who’s with me?

A few weeks ago I posted about TWIC, the new identification system for mariners from the TSA.  I picked up my TWIC card here at school today. The TSA has come to us to do enrollment and delivery, which has been very convenient as it keeps us from having to travel to get it. This week they’ve been back on campus delivering TWIC cards that have been created and ready for use.

My appointment was at 0945 this morning. I got there right on time, and was able to immediately walk in and sit down with the agent. he pulled out my card from a stack of them being delivered, stuck it in the chip reader, and started the process. He asked for my photo ID, had me enter the 6-8 digit PIN I had selected for my card, and then had me fill out a survey about the TWIC process while we waited for everything to be registered. By 1000 I was out the door and continuing on my way. All in all, my TWIC experience was pretty painless.

A number of other cadets have had experiences not nearly so positive this week, however. I’ve talked to some kids who were there for over an hour between waiting in line and actually working with the agent activating the card. Apparently the TSA’s database system is a tad on the slow, bogged-down side, which means that the transaction between the issuing point and the central database takes a long time. In fact, of the 15 minutes I was in the room, 10 of them were spent waiting for the computer to finish updating the system. One cadet was told that it’s better in the morning, but later in the day when the west coast issuing points start coming online it gets bogged down more. This makes me a little concerned, since this system is intended to be used 24/7 around the country once it’s fully up and running. Hopefully this slowness is being addressed, and will be resolved before the required registration date in April 2009.

On an interesting side note, I asked the agent about how this was going to work on the end-user side - when we come into port and have to present the card to the authorities. He told me that the person checking your TWIC will have a chip reader similar to the one he was using today. He’ll insert your card, which will pull up your profile (including your photo) from the database, so they can verify that your card is not counterfeit. You will then be required to enter the PIN you’ve chosen, and have your right index finger’s print read for identity verification. It certainly sounds like a pretty watertight security measure (excuse the pun). However, it also sounds like a potential source of long lines and big delays. We’ll have to wait and see how this plays out.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!

I wouldn’t be anywhere close to where I am today, and headed for such a bright future, if it hadn’t been for my mom. She’s the most loving, compassionate, and generally amazing person I know. I can only hope than anybody reading this has a mother as fantastic as mine is.

This week the 1st class cadets in license majors are taking their Coast Guard license exams. The exams last all week, and are given in the gym. Since four years of school and training has been leading up to these exams, it’s obviously a stressful time for these seniors.

This week is different for all cadets. We have “short mofo” in the morning, which means that instead of forming up across the entire parade field, we form up in a half circle around the patio by the mess deck. This makes morning formation much shorter, so that we don’t disturb testing. In the dorms, we’re supposed to be quiet to allow the kids taking tests to study. Freshmen have closed door study hours, so we keep our doors shut but have the deadbolt out so that the doors are propped open to allow squad leaders to come in. License seniors are also exempt from all classes this week. A few of my classes are with seniors, so there are a number of people missing.

The school makes efforts to help the license seniors prepare and perform better on the exams. The library has had longer, more accessible hours to allow better studying. There were massage therapists on campus this week to help testers relax, and reduce tension and stress from taking the exams.

1st Company is in a little bit of an awkward situation at the moment, in that we have Admiral’s Inspection next Wednesday. Usually Admiral’s is held on a Monday, but they’ve pushed it back a couple of days to let us prepare after Coasties are over. That said, it usually takes the week before Admiral’s to get ready, so we have to work on cleaning in off hours when testing is being done, so we don’t disturb the seniors who are studying.

I’ve found it pretty interesting to watch the Deck seniors as they’ve been getting ready for, and taking, the Coast Guard exams. Since I’ll be in that position in 3 years myself, I’ve been curious to see how they’re handling it. From what I’ve heard, the Deck tests have gone very well so far.

Good luck to all the seniors in testing right now. Hopefully you all pass with flying colors.

Mass Maritime has a multi-layer chain of command, due to the co-existence of cadet and staff officers and leaders. I’ve created an overview of the chain of command below.

Continue reading ‘MMA’s Chain of Command: From the President to the 4/C Cadet, and Everyone In Between’ »

Even though I’m a Deckie, I like to broaden my own field of knowledge by getting involved with things from other departments as well. Currently the International Maritime Business department is offering a 3 part series on how to build your own PC. Being interested in computers, and having built PCs before, I was curious to see what this was all about and what they were using to do it.

I unfortunately was unable to make the first part of the series, in which they covered more of the non-technical aspects of building a PC - where to get parts, the advantages and disadvantages of building it yourself, etc. Last night was the second session, which I luckily was able to attend.

In the second installment, they had gotten all the parts they were going to use, and did the actual assembly of the computer. They purchased parts that were the exact same specs of a Dell XPS (I’m not sure which model, I’ll try to get that information and post that here later on), which cost about $2,300 direct from Dell. Using online retailers, they were able to purchase all of the parts (including monitor, mouse and keyboard) for about $1,300. That’s a pretty big benefit of doing it yourself right there!

As they assembled it, they went through what each part does, why it’s important to the system, and how to install it. They had a webcam going through a projector so that we could all see the small precision work they were doing, which was definitely helpful. Once it was all assembled, they plugged in the monitor, keyboard, mouse, and the power cord, and pushed the button. The machine whirred to life, but didn’t get very far since Windows isn’t installed yet. That’s what next week’s session is for.

Next Tuesday is the final installment in the series.  We’ll be going over how to install Windows (this machine will be running Vista), as well as Linux.  I’ll be sure to get plenty of pictures!