22Dec09

With Christmas fast approaching, Tango company is all a flutter with excitement. The promise of “Operation Fireside” is the only opportunity many recruits see for something we gave away when we raised our hands: personal time. Most recruits feel very strongly about the coast guard. They are deathly committed to getting through boot camp at any cost because they really want to be out there in the fleet. Giving up our personal time is something we will all, if we have not already, have to get used to.

Anytime someone is on the verge of tears, one of there shipmates pats them on the back and says “just wait, just think about Friday”. It is very comforting. We keep roller coaster riding. Some days, all time objectives are met, we march beautifully, we do incentive training only once, and Petty Officer Vanover’s prying into our required knowledge is all answered perfectly. Then other days, we wake up to “fire, fire, fire”, spend all day running up and down ladder wells, cleaning wrecked bathrooms, getting screamed at, and getting incentively trained for every little thing. Maybe the training is meant to put you on your heels in that way. To cause you to lean and rely on your shipmates, because that is the only place you can turn. Recruits begin telling each other intimate details about their lives because the stress brings all your qualms to the forefront, and you need someone, anyone to care about your personal matters.

Today, Petty Officer Garza and Giaccone were sorely disappointed with us. It was apparent every moment. Petty officer Garza gets angry. He yells about how much we are embarrassing ourselves, which today was very true. We could not march at all; it was like everyone took loopy pills for breakfast. Petty officer Giaccone is the silent, yet disappointed type. He hangs his head and shakes it quietly when he is furious and embarrassed by us.

There are no recruits left who do not care. Those are either gone or have changed their minds. Still, we have yet to truly make our company commanders proud of us. It seems as if the only thing they want from us is to march correctly, handle our pieces correctly, and be quick and loud. Hopefully the break at Christmas will not set us back too far. Though, it is more than likely to cause next weekend to be painful, due to loss of self-discipline. We shall see. At the end of the weekend we’ll be week 04.

26Dec09

“Operation Fireside” was a rousting success. Apparently all of us were wound up really tightly for some reason. As we left the base with our adoptive families, every recruit’s nose was glued to the car windows. All of us just realized that we had never seen any of Cape May before. We arrived at night and if you keep your eyes in the boat like you should, you’ve never really seen anything but the nape of the neck of your shipmate that you cover down on.

So after a relaxed morning of starching, shoe shining, spitting and rubbing, Tango company lined up on the quarterdeck at 1130 for inspection. We all passed, marched down to the chapel, and proceed to get auctioned off to families in a manner that could be described as a livestock auction. The families were all terribly good to us. We had cookies and chocolate, watched movies, played video games, shaved, showered, napped, built snowmen, and talked to people we loved and missed on the phone all day long. The voices of encouragement of our loved ones placed a burning incentive and desire in the hearts of many recruits to jump back into the fray full force. One of the interesting parts of the day proved to be the composure of the recruits in the home of everyday folk. “Make yourselves at home”, was responded to with “aye, aye sir and ma’am” and recruits sat at the or stoop around at the position of attention. You would notice a shipmate doing it, point it out, and he would say,” hey you are doing the same thing”. Sure enough, your feet were perfect 45 degrees and your back was straight as an arrow. Thankfully, Operation Fireside did not ruin our company. No one came back sobbing, only jazzed to get done. Five weeks from last night we will all be graduates of Cape May.

This week we spent an enormous amount of time in classes. Week 03 you spend all your time learning Coast Guard knowledge, and to learn the most valuable thing in the fleet, seamanship. On Thursday Petty Officer Garza marched the company down to the bay side of the base. We passed our commanding officers quarters, a beautiful two-story jersey shore house, literally right across the street from an enormous medium endurance cutter. Petty officer Garza told us a little bit about the ship, and then marched us off to seamanship.

Our instructor, BM3 Stoltz, is an amazing teacher. He is able to relay nautical terms, culture, bearing, and practicality in a way that even the greatest landlubber amongst us can understand. He encourages participation and questions and will always give you more than just the facts. He is not a softy by any means. He is very strict and well it is just hard to disrespect someone you respect.

Today we learned all about lines. Those are ropes. Of course line is like rope in many ways. The Coast Guard uses lines for many things. Tying tools to yourself while up in the rigging with marlin, saving lives with the yellow or orange polypropylene, or mooring the ship with a 5 inch polyester. We spent today learning knots with line. Our 5 knots are the square knot, the bowline, the clove hitch, the slip clove hitch, and the round turn and two half hitches. Petty officer Stoltz deftly taught the class until some recruits were racing each other to see if you could tie all 5 knots in 30 sec. We did it.

The practicality of this class allows us to see the reasons for all the seemingly random things we had been doing. The traffic pattern in Munro hall mimics the traffic pattern on a cutter. The nomenclature of the building (ie…calling the floor a deck and a wall a bulkhead) makes it easier once you are on a cutter to name things. The way you respond to your company commanders “Petty Officer Garza, seaman Recruit Gooblatz, blah blah blah. Aye aye Petty Officer Garza”, is the way you speak while at the helm. Finally, with reason shoved in our faces maybe we will all do it.

Confidence is still Tango’s problem. Confidence and clear headedness under pressure. We need to fix this very soon.