I was waiting for my shuttle bus at SEATAC last night when a young man in dress blues wanders out to the waiting area. Let's see... wings and crossed anchors, Aviation BM. 2 green stripes, Seaman Apprentice. Uniform obviously new. Seabags in tow. Started talking to him and find out (as I suspected) he's coming off boot camp leave and reporting to his first assignment, CVN-68. He wasn't clear if he was being assigned to the ship, or would be assigned to a squadron so I volunteered to take a look at his orders. He was definitely ships company. He then took the opportunity to ask as many questions about shipboard life as he could. We chatted about cranking (not what you might be thinking), liberty ports, living on board, deck ops, how he would probably end up in whichever division had a Chief on duty that night, or if there were more than one, whichever chief got to the quarter deck first. As he was heading off to his bus I reiterated having a healthy respect for deck ops, being safe, working hard, and having fun.
I haven't been this jealous of someone in a long time.
![Mr. Green :mrgreen:](./images/smilies/icon_mrgreen.gif)