While it’s not a photograph taken on the MMA campus or of a ship, it still has relevance to maritime activities.  My family has a summer place in Maine on the Sheepscot River, which is the body of water shown above at sunset.  In addition to the river being a large lobstering area, it also happens to be one of the heaviest concentrations of lighthouses in the United States - 4 or 5 all within a few miles of each other!

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!

One of the activities they had at Emory Rice day was the jousting platform.  My room mate (on the left) spent plenty of time on it, as he seemed to be the reigning champion.  In this round, he was battling our platoon leader, which made it even more entertaining!

This week’s Photo of the Week comes from a training lab I had this week.

Survival suits are an integral part of a survival plan after a maritime disaster. In conditions where an unprotected person might have mere minutes to survive, they can provide many hours of survival time, and even keep somebody alive indefinitely. Because they are so effective, we have extensive training in the proper donning and operating procedures associated with survival suits.

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?

This week’s photo of the week is of our return to Buzzards Bay after Sea Term 2008.  Some of the officers and 1/C cadets from the Deck department went up by the crow’s nest on the Enterprise to watch our transit through the Cape Cod Canal.

I certainly hope that I get to do this my senior year!

If you have a photograph that you’d like to submit for Photo of the Week, please contact me with either a link to the photo online, or let me know that you’d like to e-mail me one.  Thanks!

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.

Mass Maritime is hosting an open house tomorrow, for both prospective cadets and accepted students.  I’ll be working at the open house, so if you plan to attend please feel free to come find me and say hi.

Just thought I’d put that out there.

The Photo of the Week for this week was taken in Falmouth last Sunday.

Nobska Light in the Fog

Lighthouses are a significant part of the maritime industry, as well as the Coast Guard. Since this one is so close to MMA, it seemed like a logical one to pick.

Sidenote: you can find all the Photo of the Week entries as a set on Flickr.