Monday Morning Post

     Welcome back to The Arena and it is now officially Monday! I am currently sipping on some really deliciously hot coffee and listening to the Pandora. Pandora surely doesn't compete with B2kRadio, but it is good in a pinch. I have a pile of dishes behind me and a tornado has gone through the living room. I know that most of you are thinking, "Wickid, you are forever cleaning my man. How can you possibly always have something to clean everyday?" I have one simple answer for you. Children. Children, as fun as they are and the love they bring into a home, are messy as all get out. I wouldn't change my life for anything. There are aspects of my life that I would change, but I wold never change my life or the course it has taken. You may have noticed that the last couple posts have come from the confines of my kitchen. No, I'm not pregnant and I definitely have shoes on. Plus, I'm a dude and last I knew, dudes couldn't get pregnant. Although, I have seen it happen. It's just that I spend more time at home right now than my wife does, so I get the joys of doing her chores along with my chores. She spent time as a stay-at-home mom for a few years and she always had a clean house for me to come home to and dinner on the table and whatnot. I have yet to master everything like she has, but I feel like I am close enough that a few misses here and there are okay.
     First and foremost, I need the coffee to start working or I need a yellow Monster: Rehab. Either one will get me into a cleaning rage and I just start going nuts and get all focused and cleaning actually gets done. Most people drink coffee or energy drinks to stay awake. This guy right here, drinks them to get the cleaning juices flowing. It is pretty bad because I am always cleaning it seems like, but I do make time for myself on occasion. Like right now, I'm taking time out between tasks to type this out to you, the people. I don't know who actually reads this, I just know that people view the page and see the post and some of you +1 it or you just skim over it. Either way, I know that the issues are getting out there. You may tell your friends or you may not. Doesn't bother me either way. I do however, owe those of you that do read the issues a huge thank you for coming out to read what I have to say.
     In roughly 8 months time, this guy right here will be looking at submarines to return to. There are so many things that I have to consider when I start having to decide what to do with my career. Yeah, it is my career, but I also have my family to think about. It isn't just me moving to a new place. I also have to tow everyone to the new duty station. I have been contemplating going to a new class of submarine, the SSGN. Just like an SSBN, except that I get to do cooler fun stuff than what I think I do when I'm on a strategic deterrent patrol.There are so many debates within the submarine community as to who is the most important group of people on board. In all reality, EVERYONE is important. I'm a little biased since my job involves the safety of the entire crew once we are submerged, but I wouldn't be able to get there without the help of the rest of the crew. As my fellow brothers and sisters can attest to (women are on submarines now if you don't know), everyone is important and we all have very important jobs. It is probably one of the best career choices I could have ever made in my life. Not many people can say that they have pooped far beneath the surface of the ocean or watched movies from the calm environment of the depths. You don't need gills to breathe, but you do need some nerves of steel to hang out with the big kids. There is so much pressure to maintain the level of professionalism that is required to keep yourself and everyone around you safe.
     A lot of you will say, "Wickid, how hard could your job be? It's just like every other job on the planet." This is where I have to unfortunately tell you that you are wrong. Can you drive your car without your eyes? Can you tell when you need to turn to avoid hitting something? I know for a fact I can't, but I know that I can avoid things underwater without being able to see it by using only the sound it produces. There are so many aspects about my job that make it more difficult than a normal job. So much math and science that I still can't believe that I have to use it all of the time. Yeah, I'm on shore duty and I don't have to do it right now, but in a very short year and a half, I will have to retrain my mind and body to do it all over again. I talk about watching movies and the discharge of fecal matter from my awesome legend of a body, but that isn't the important part. The important part of my job is my ability to keep the rest of my crew mates safe from harm. How many other 28 year olds do you know that can do this without question and do it effectively? If you have friends or family in the community, then you might know a few, but other than that, you don't really know anything. There is so much random knowledge of things stuffed into my head that it is a surprise that I haven't cracked yet. I have to prove to my Captain that I can do my job and do it without endangering everyone on board. I keep mentioning that and you are probably wondering, "How dangerous could it be?" Look up submarine collisions on Google and tell me what you find. The San Francisco, the Greenville, the Hartford. Look at those ships and you will see how dangerous my life as a submariner can be. You want a butthole puckering job, come join me among the elite. Come to my realm of seawater trying to invade the people tank every second of everyday, enemy submarines trying to find you and shoot you. All of these dangers are very real. Safety is paramount and we take our job seriously. I am very passionate about my job if you can't tell and I enjoy every minute of it. There is nothing like falling asleep to the gentle rocking of the boat while it is at periscope depth, or the split second of weightlessness as the boat broaches the surface during an emergency blow, or that feeling you get when a fire breaks out and you have to respond to it. I'm not just a sonar technician. I'm a fire fighter, flood stopper, technician, mechanic, mathematician, strategist, and a pilot under the waves. I'm trained to do it all and I love it.
     Wow, that escalated quickly. What can I say? I love my job so it is with careful consideration that I take to make the best choice for the best of my family. Could I end up back in Georgia? It's possible. Could I stay up here in the Northwest? Very likely. What do I want to do? Whatever I can to better my career and keep my family happy and healthy. I have 8 months to make up my mind. * months to discuss what will be best with my wife. The only requirement that she has now is to go someplace that we can all live. The real question that I have for myself is, "What platform do I want to go to and how fun do I want my job to be?" My job is always fun to me, but I want to do something that is satisfying in the long run. Do I want to deal with all of the politics of an SSBN? Done it twice already and I can do it again. Do I want to make the attempt to better myself and go to an SSGN where the sonar is newer and there is stuff for me to learn and do? Never done it, but it does sound appealing. If I do go back to an SSBN, I can easily requalify everything that I was qualified before. I can go back to being a Sonar Supervisor, leading my watch team to success. If I go to an SSGN, I have to start all over again at the bottom and hopefully, quickly work my way back up to the top. It's not that I don't want to start over again, it's just that do I have the ability to learn what I need to learn and retain it to get back to the top. I have tasted the freedom that comes with being a supervisor and I like it. I want to keep it that way. I only like being an operator when there is something for me to track with my expertise. Sometimes I do miss being in front of the stack and operating it, but I can do that anytime I want to as the supervisor. I can have someone relieve me so I can refresh myself when I need to. I prefer to train others to be as good as me. Yeah, I'm tooting my own horn because I have earned the ability to do that. I rarely miss a torpedo shot and when I say rarely I mean that I have a 99% accuracy. Sometimes one slips, but I'm okay with that. I'm not perfect, but I definitely strive to be.
     This was definitely a lot more than what I intended to do today on this issue. See what happens when I start talking about my job? I get all excited and I just start rolling with it. It is with this passion that I am looking at writing a book, a submarine book, that is as factual as I can make it without revealing to much and with enough fiction to keep you hooked. I will definitely let you guys get sneak previews once I get it started and some of the pages typed. Excerpts will be coming to you from the source. For now though, it is time for me to take my leave of you and return to the task at hand. I must finish some stuff around the house before I get into trouble with the lady.

From The Arena,

This is SPARTA!!

Wickid