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| Arctic Ocean, Friday Sept. 12, 2008
Healy Expectations and Actualities ET3 Jonathan Combast - Communication Station Miami Temporally assigned to USCGC Healy There is something to say when a person decides to come to a boat on a temporary base. You don't know really what to expect, but all you know is the reason why you chose to come. Reasons don't make sense to some, others they just sound dumb and yet to others they sound very personal and well thought. With that being said here are my reasons as to why I came on board. First, I thought I would need more sea time to make first class in the future, but about four days after coming on board the requirements for first class changed and now I don't need any at all, so that reason is out the window. Second, I wanted to learn something I wasn't going to learn at my current station, I wanted to see how a boat's electronics worked, which coming out of "A" school and going straight to land didn't allow me to do. Finally, I wanted to see something new and get a medal out of it, while I was a non-rate I did a south patrol on the Polar Sea, which skewed my ideas about this boat, but I had already gotten the Antarctic Service award and I wanted the Arctic one to match. When I came on board and saw this boat for the first time up close it occurred to me right then and there that it wasn't going to be the traditional polar roller cruise I had experience before, rather a completely different cruise all together. I thought I would be able to navigate and find my way rather easy; needless to say I was wrong. I found this out our first day underway when I was scheduled to be on the fueling detail and asked to go to AMR 5, in my mind I was asking "what is AMR 5, rather more importantly where is this place?" After about a week I was getting the hang of navigating this boat while taking part in Damage Control College. Yet it wasn't till I started breaking in on the watch rotation that I realized that this boat is more complex than I thought, there are systems on here that before I came here I didn't know existed. My expectations in this trip as far as the beauty of the Arctic and Bearing Sea even Dutch Harbor, Alaska have been realized. As far as my expectations of being an engineer, and hating it, well those I can proudly say have changed, I love being an engineer. On any other vessel I wouldn't see the world I am seeing now, nor would I have to know what I do now either. I mean thinking about it the only thing I would be doing is just sitting around waiting for something to break or doing preventative work on equipment. Finally I would like to say thank you, to all the crew and personnel onboard USCGC Healy, I have had an extreme pleasant time, and I am proud to have said that I have sailed with you all. It is an honor to be able to say I have sailed on Healy. |
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