USS Scott: First Duty Day

 

USS Scott DDG-995

Feb 1991-Jan 1992

 

First Duty Day

 

I will probably jump around a little with my stories, so forgive me. When I can, I will add dates to keep things in some order, if possible.

Scott had a crew of about 363 enlisted and officers. When in port, we were in a five-section duty rotation. Meaning every five days, you have to stay onboard the ship for watch standing. This meant at any one time, roughly 72 people were on board at any one time. During a typical weekday, the whole crew was onboard until knock-off ships' work was called about 4:00 pm. Then the duty section took over all of the care for the ship.

Being in engineering and a new guy, I was assigned to the very basics of watches, sounding, and security. Basically, we roamed the ship and ensured certain doors were locked, and there was no flooding happening. There was a checklist to fill out for some locations, and we just checked the doors. Some places we checked visually for water, others we used a sounding tape. A sounding tape is a long metal measuring tape with a brass weight attached to it. If we had the 4-8 am watch, we had to go onto the per and check the ship's draft.

It was pretty dull, but it was something that had to be done. If I wanted to increase my knowledge base of the ship, I had to get that qualification out of the way.

Watches were 4 hours at a time, and we rotated when we had them. They started at midnight and went around the clock. The midnight watch was called the midwatch, or balls to 4. Balls because of military time midnight was 0000, balls. The oncoming section made sure to arrive early so the off going could tell you what was happening around the ship.

Other things that would happen on a duty day were in port fire drills. These were far different from our big drills while at sea. They were mostly held for small fires in the paint locker or a broom closet. I will be candid. I was clueless when we had the first few drills and screwed up badly. But, that is the purpose, learn, and improve when it practice. Over time, my skills improved, as did my reactions.

On my first duty, I was under instruction with HT1 Boudin (sp). He was one hell of a nice guy. He taught me a good deal about Scott and also fire drills. The only issue I had on duty days was, I did not have a permanent rack or locker. So, I just had to make due with what there was. It could have been worse.

After a few duty days and being under instruction on the watch, I took the test to become the Sounding and Security watch on my own officially. It sure does not seem too impressive now, but then, it was a big thing. The first watch checked off, so many more to go.

I have plenty more to write down about my time on board, Scott. Forgive my picture; it is hard to find a decent one to depict life 30 years ago on a tin can.