On a whim, I happened to look up Mass Maritime on Google Maps tonight, and discovered that they have recently updated their imagery of this area. You can now see the addition built on top of the 1st and 2nd company dorms, as well as the 81kW solar array on top of the addition. The windmill is also clearly visible, along with the new turf field.
As I’m sure most people are now aware, the Academy trustees have voted to rename the training ship to the USTS Kennedy, in honor of Ted Kennedy’s service as a U.S. Senator for Massachusetts. I was asked last week via Skribit that I write about cadet reactions to the name change.
There hasn’t been much discussion among cadets about the name change, to be honest. We heard a little bit about it at the beginning of the year, and were asked to express our opinions via e-mail about a possible name change. A few weeks later we were informed that the change was going to take place. Since the announcement, there have been some passing comments made, but nobody’s discussing it too much since the decision’s already been made.
As far as the comments that are being made: certainly there are jokes and such being made about naming a ship after a man who had an accident involving the water, and other jokes related to that. However, there have also been positive comments about the fact that it may help bring the school some more publicity.
I haven’t really tried to get involved in such discussions since I really don’t know much about Ted Kennedy. However, I do know that he’s been a public servant for many, many years and that, despite personal opinions of his mistakes or policies, his time in office is a reflection of patriotism in itself, so I don’t see any reason we shouldn’t honor that. Just my 2 cents.
What do you think of the name change? Please post your thoughts in the comments area below.
This week’s Photo of the Week comes from Flickr user OneEighteen, a Houston ship pilot. The photo is of a tanker in the Houston ship channel, the Sanko Blossom. I thought it was a cool picture because of the sheer massive size of the ship, and the way that’s really emphasized by the angle from which the shot was taken.
I haven’t gotten any new photos this year around campus. If you have any photos you’d like to submit for Photo of the Week, please e-mail me. Thanks!
As I’m sure regular readers know, I went to Coast Guard Basic Training this past summer, having enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve. Since coming back to MMA, I’ve had quite a few of my shipmates ask me about it, some of whom are interested in doing it themselves. In my Internet travels, I have discovered some resources, some new and some well-established, that may be of interest to those with questions about recruit training.
First off, there is a video series that the Coast Guard has put together called “It’s Just Eight Weeks” which highlights portions of recruit training, to give prospective enlistees an idea of what training is like. My understanding is that the videos will soon be obsolete, as they are overhauling the training program and a lot of things are going to change. That said, it’s still an interesting series. You can find it here:
It’s Just Eight Weeks
The next sites seem to have shown up in time for the Commandant’s announcement of expanding social media and Web 2.0 usage in the Coast Guard. First up the TRACEN Cape May’s own web site, which seems to still be under construction, but has useful information nonetheless. You can find that by going to www.uscgbootcamp.com.
The last site appears to be the newest of all. TRACEN Cape May now has a blog on Blogger, with the very first post dated 23SEP08, which is only a day or two after the Commandant’s announcement. The first “from recruit training” post on the blog shows a recruit company doing pugil stick training, so they’re obviously wasting no time in getting cool information out on the web. You can find the blog at uscgbootcamp.blogspot.com.
One thing I find really cool about the last two sites is that they say right up front that they will be posting submissions from recruits during their training. Some of you may be aware that while I was in boot camp, I posted on CGBlog.org via snail mail about my experiences. I think it’s awesome that the Coast Guard is now embracing this idea as official policy.
This year my classmates in license majors and I started the Merchant Mariner Documentation process. Merchant Mariner Documentation, or MMD, is the Coast Guard’s merchant marine identification and management system, keeping track of all registered merchant mariners in the United States. It is required to have MMD in order to ship on any commercial vessel in the U.S., so we start the process about 15 months prior to shipping commercially.
We started the process by filling out the initial application, which included the usual pedigree information, as well as questions about personal history (legal issues, etc.) so that the Coast Guard has a record of full disclosure. Each applicant undergoes a background check, so they want to make sure you’re honest and forthcoming about any issues they may discover in the process.
We’re waiting on the next step right now (I’m not sure when or what that is), but once we reach that I’ll make another post about it.
I received a suggestion last week (I know, I really need to post more often/faster) that I explain what chart work is. It took me a little bit to understand that this suggestion is valuable in a couple of ways. First off, I’m guessing that whoever suggested it is not the only reader of mine that doesn’t know what that term refers to, so it would behoove me to explain it. Second, it reminded me that I’m not writing this blog for an audience of maritime cadets, or licensed mariners, but for people who are either connected to Mass Maritime, or the maritime industry, without necessarily knowing any specifics about it. So, thank you to whoever posted that suggestion.
Anyway, what is chart work? Well, if you ask any freshman or sophomore deck cadet here at MMA, they’ll probably tell you it’s a frustrating pain in the @$!#. Chart work is short-hand for the homework assignments we receive in Coastal Navigation that involve plotting courses and other navigational evolutions on a chart. A chart, for those who may not know, is sort of like a map, but for the water. It shows the depth of a body of water at various points in the water, the shipping channels for that area, buoys, lights, and landmarks along the shore.
A typical chart work assignment can take anywhere from 1-3 hours (if you work steadily). It can end up taking much longer if you work in groups, as is often the case, because invariably conversation moves very far away from chart work, and stays there for a while. So, an assignment that is time-consuming on its own can become even more time-consuming, though it’s completely the fault of the people doing the chart work (I’ll be the first to admit that I have that problem).
Once you get the hang of whatever concept the assignment is teaching, chart work can be fun. I’d equate it to that feeling that some people - other than me - who enjoy math, get from solving a challenging problem. It’s time-consuming, but it’s satisfying once you understand it and finish it.
I received a suggestion this week that I explain the basis/history of my name, and why it has an unusual spelling.
The spelling of my name is Dutch, having two A’s at the end. When my parents were picking names, they considered naming me Christian, but decided it was too common (though I don’t even meet too many people with that spelling). My dad was reading a book one day which mentioned a Dutchman with the name Christiaan, and my parents decided it was unusual enough.
I used to be frustrated by my name sometimes, since it is very uncommon, but I’ve come to realize that it’s a gift to have such a unique name. When I bought the web domain for this blog, for example, I was sure that there were no other Christiaan Conovers who may have already bought it.
My name is so uncommon, in fact, that according to an online check I did a few months ago, I don’t even exist.
That’s the story of my name, and I’m stickin’ to it!
Holy smokes, he’s back! Yes, after being cut off from the real world for two months, I am finally finished with boot camp and starting my sophomore year at MMA. I’ve been back at Mass Maritime for two days now, having arrived at school yesterday morning. Already I’ve noticed differences in daily life between being a fourth class and being a third class.
First off, the most obvious differences: We no longer have cleaning stations and study hours. I no longer have to check the cleaning bill to see if I have to be up at 0545 to sweep the decks or scrub toilets, and do it again that night. I don’t have to keep my door open for two hours each night pretending to get work done while people file in and out of my room, keeping me from being able to focus. As third class cadets, we pretty much keep to ourselves, and are left alone most of the time, which I like.
We also have fewer inspections, and the ones we do have are at more convenient times. We only have three inspections a week (instead of six as freshmen), and they’re all on weekday mornings (instead of having one on Sunday night). As a result, I get to sleep in a little later on mornings that I don’t have inspection.
Unfortunately, my academic work load has increased somewhat. Mainly, I’ve noticed that I have a lot more reading to do than I did last year. While I don’t particularly mind reading itself, I have a nasty habit of falling asleep when I am reading from a book for more than about 15 pages, so I’ll have to find a way to overcome that.
I’ve been enjoying watching this year’s fourth class cadets around campus, watching them do the things that we had to do - running any time they’re outside, squaring corners when they’re in the dorms, etc. I’ve also been greeted as “sir” by at least a dozen fourth class in the past two days, even though I’m only a third class, so I’ve had to remind them that “blue-taggers” (my class has blue name tags) are not sir or ma’am, we’re not much different from them in fact. I actually find it pretty funny.
This year we get liberty on Wednesdays, starting after our last class of the day until we have to sign in between 2300 and 0000. While I’m really looking forward to having time to get off campus in the middle of the week, I’m not really sure what I’m going to do with the time, and foresee it providing a good opportunity to waste money. Still, it’s an opportunity to take a break mid-week, so I’ll take it.
Not much else seems to be going on around here that’s worth reporting on, although tomorrow morning we have a meeting to vote on our ports of call for Sea Term 2009, so once I find out the final decision on those I’ll post it.
I’m writing this at about 0130, mere hours before I will be hitting the road to go up to Boston and start my journey through boot camp and into the Coast Guard. I’m excited, and a little nervous, but I’m confident that I will be able to handle it.
I may or may not be posting through snail mail, having my mom add my posts for me. I will, however, be posting via snail mail over at AN UNOFFICIAL COAST GUARD BLOG, as I am the newest writer for that blog. I am excited and honored to join such a great publication, and such fine writers and bloggers. So keep an eye out for my posts over there (and probably here too!) over the next 8 weeks.
Also, if you feel like writing me a letter, whether it be just to say hi, or to ask me a question about something you’d like me to address in a blog post, here is the address:
SR Conover
USCG Training Center
1 Munro Avenue
Cape May, NJ 08204-5083
I’ll be going almost immediately from boot camp graduation in September up to MMA, so expect normal blogging to resume after boot camp is over.
Semper Paratus!
After a week of my blog being offline (you may have noticed the error page), it’s back on the Internets. I had a disagreement with my hosting company, but it’s all settled now, and I’m good to go. We’ll now return to our regularly scheduled programming.
