Been
a while since I left off with my Navy time experiences. So, to pick up where I
left off, I was driving back home to spend a little time with my family before
I had to report to Great Lakes for Gas Turbine school.
I,
for some reason, read my orders wrong and arrived a day early at Great Lakes.
It was pretty late at night, about 11:00, and after I was done checking in, I
was sent to what I thought was a holding company for a couple of days before I
was sent to Gas Turbine school. I was wrong, I was sent to Galley Company. We
were the runt labor for the Great Lakes Galley. Much like when we were in boot
camp.
I
did a mild protest and even showed my orders, which stated I was to be at Gas
Turbine school on Monday. I was told, everyone comes here first. Galley company
was no fun at all. Every morning up at 3 am to march over to the galley to eat.
After we ate, we went to our perspective jobs. I did luck out and got a job in
the bakeshop. We had to dish up deserts for people eating in the galley. It
really was a pretty easy job and most fo the tie we were finished around 7:30
at night.
We
also rotated days on and off. But, on our off days, we had to work around the
barracks we lived in. The building we lived in was called Snipes Castle, all of
the Engineering rates lived there. Slowly each different rating was having its
own barracks built, but for now, most rates shared the old worn down building.
This also happened to be where Galley Company was located as well.
My
three roommates and I did pretty much everything together at the time. One,
Howard was going to Gas Turbine school with me. The other two were going to
enginemen school. I have forgotten their names. I was in Galley company for 3
weeks before I started my Naval Engineering education. The first school we
attended as called Peewees, or Propulsion Engineering Basics. It was
straightforward.
My
one roommate and I never took notes. Just before the first test, our instructor
told both of us, you had better ace this, or you’re both in trouble. We both
not only aced that test but the other 3 in the course. At the time, we had the
highest average for that particular school, 100. That same guy did the same
thing when he went to Enginemen school. He was a relatively smart guy, and I
know he was going to do well in this Navy time.
On
weekends we still had to work around the barracks. On one weekend we had a long
list of things to get done. The Petty Officer in charge told us after handing
out the work, that should keep you busy until 1600 (4:00pm) It was maybe 8:00
when he gave us the assignments.
So,
50 guys all started working against one another. I stepped up and took over. I
broke the guys up into teams to do only one task. We had to move furniture into
individual rooms and clean the empty rooms. The teams handled only one type of
furniture or cleaned one specific thing. By doing this, we were finished by
noon, 4 hours early. It was similar to the road scene in Cool Hand Luke. We
were sent on Liberty early, I was a minor hero that day.
After
we finished up the peewees course, all of us went our own separate ways to our
individual schools. Howard and I went to building 837, the Gas Turbine BEQ
(Bachelors Enlisted Quarters). More on that building coming up.
Galley
company was a good deal of work, both on duty at the galley and off duty. We
also began to learn about different functions of the Navy and of standing
watches. I saw the last person from boot camp I recognized, several ladies from
my sister company. I spoke to them a few times. The first meeting we spoke the
longest. They wanted to know why I was just showing up at Great Lakes. They had
been there a month when I got there. I was asked out by two different ladies
from that group. I had to explain being married and couldn’t do that. They just
wanted to spend time with a guy, but I remember how that ended in AT Land, so I
turned them down.
No comments:
Post a Comment