It’s just one of those days, and I think back to Plebe Summer…

Kierkegaard

Kierkegaard

5-Year Member
Joined
Jan 26, 2017
Messages
992
Rough week at work. Rough month more like. Long hours, not a ton of sleep, grumpy department heads, and tall stacks of paperwork everywhere. Boss wants an update on my quals progress this week. About to go into work and stand watch.

This is the life we chose, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Well, maybe I would if I could change it, but I can’t, so I’ll adapt.

I think back to Plebe Summer and think “Wow, to be a Plebe again and not have to make any decisions”. Actually, Plebe Summer was very good practice for this!

All there is to do is FITFO (Figure it the F*** out in case that’s not on the acronym list).

Have a great day everyone.
 
Kierkegaard said:
Rough week at work. Rough month more like. Long hours, not a ton of sleep, grumpy department heads, and tall stacks of paperwork everywhere. Boss wants an update on my quals progress this week. About to go into work and stand watch.

This is the life we chose, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Well, maybe I would if I could change it, but I can’t, so I’ll adapt.

I think back to Plebe Summer and think “Wow, to be a Plebe again and not have to make any decisions”. Actually, Plebe Summer was very good practice for this!

All there is to do is FITFO (Figure it the F*** out in case that’s not on the acronym list).

Have a great day everyone.
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Empathy for what you are managing. And also a great example of what is to come for those who are going to follow in your shoes and serve the DoD.

There are so many acronyms to describe the levels of effort that occur at the DoD level it is almost comical.

I am sure you will be successful. And appreciate you continuing to pay it forward.
 
Kierkegaard said:
Rough week at work. Rough month more like. Long hours, not a ton of sleep, grumpy department heads, and tall stacks of paperwork everywhere. Boss wants an update on my quals progress this week. About to go into work and stand watch.

This is the life we chose, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Well, maybe I would if I could change it, but I can’t, so I’ll adapt.

I think back to Plebe Summer and think “Wow, to be a Plebe again and not have to make any decisions”. Actually, Plebe Summer was very good practice for this!

All there is to do is FITFO (Figure it the F*** out in case that’s not on the acronym list).

Have a great day everyone.
Click to expand...
I have great faith in your FITFO abilities. One day you will look fondly back on your Ensign days and think of the relatively light workload and level of responsibility. The Navy stretches you a bit at a time with each new assignment, you grow into it, you get stretched again. Think of your progress from I-Day through each year at USNA to the cusp of LTJG-hood where you are now. See the stretch points?

Glad you come back to contribute.
 
🌟Hey, here is a bright spot: if you are C/O ‘22, you are on the cusp of your first big raise 💰 My ‘22 mentioned he will receive that while attending ‘24’s commissioning, as it’s a time served auto promotion. And he is pretty excited.

Everyone goes through the hard times. My DH recently celebrated 26 yrs at his same job. That’s pretty uncommon these days. He has it pretty good, now. But back in the day, it was rough. Pulling looooong hours. Cruddy assignments. Stress. A lot of yuck. My point, is that these early years are rough most places. DH had this exact discussion with our ensign (who has your almost exact post, but more). He has some legit ‘complaints’ imo. But so did DH back in the day. Just HANG IN THERE and get through today (sounds like a plebe summer challenge, doesn’t it??!?).

Y’all are well equipped from your training to get you through the darker days. That’s one thing this momma is thankful for, when the days aren’t shining!! The struggles and challenges that occurred through USANA have given tools to get through todays challenges.

Y’all are amazing people. Hero’s. NO WAY I could even imagine taking on even a small part of your lives. We had a recent tour on our son’s ship. I’m SHOCKED at the level of responsibility, knowledge, and management abilities he (you) has at the young age of 23, only 2 yrs removed from college. To see it explained, in action with my own eyes was literally jaw-dropping.

Be proud of yourselves. You are setting foundations for amazing futures, that are growing, now. Like captMJ said, someday you will look back on this with fond memories, no matter where you end up.
 
justdoit19 said:
I’m SHOCKED at the level of responsibility, knowledge, and management abilities he (you) has at the young age of 23, only 2 yrs removed from college. To see it explained, in action with my own eyes was literally jaw-dropping.
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+100 to this!

Like @justdoit19 DS, my DD is a '22 grad. On the verge of O-2 and a pay raise. I said to her recently, "Wow, you're about to be promoted. That's very cool." To which she said, "Dad, we all get promoted." Which brought to mind @Capt MJ description of the requirement for O-2 promotion: "Do they fog a mirror?" 😂

But to reiterate @justdoit19 point: DD has had a fairly long training run post-USNA. She was TDA at Plebe Summer, then off to TBS.Then a fairly long interlude before starting MOS school. So only recently did she take command of her first platoon. "About time," I teased her. Then she described it: A couple dozen Marines under her charge and in her care. A gunnery sergeant -- both her subordinate and her mentor -- nearly 20 years older than her. Responsibility for a key cog in the MEF's C&C infrastructure. Potentially heading abroad this summer for exercises with a foreign ally.

Wow...just wow! No way that I could've done something like this at her age. Not even close. To say that I'm impressed is a gross understatement. And that's not because it's DD. It applies to all the 0-1s out there. Wow! @Kierkegaard, stand proud!
 
Kierkegaard said:
Rough week at work. Rough month more like. Long hours, not a ton of sleep, grumpy department heads, and tall stacks of paperwork everywhere. Boss wants an update on my quals progress this week. About to go into work and stand watch.

This is the life we chose, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Well, maybe I would if I could change it, but I can’t, so I’ll adapt.

I think back to Plebe Summer and think “Wow, to be a Plebe again and not have to make any decisions”. Actually, Plebe Summer was very good practice for this!

All there is to do is FITFO (Figure it the F*** out in case that’s not on the acronym list).

Have a great day everyone.
Click to expand...
Ahh... to be a junior officer. You bring me back to the days of yesteryear where you got worked hard and got put away wet. Junior officers are the greatest bargain for the American taxpayer. So are the senior officers. You will look back one day and say “wow.” I’ll be thinking about you. I‘m heading out to the golf course and then later this evening will watch the Caitlin Clark show. Keep on FITFO-ing and keep those DH's happy!
 
MidCakePa said:
+100 to this!

Like @justdoit19 DS, my DD is a '22 grad. On the verge of O-2 and a pay raise. I said to her recently, "Wow, you're about to be promoted. That's very cool." To which she said, "Dad, we all get promoted." Which brought to mind @Capt MJ description of the requirement for O-2 promotion: "Do they fog a mirror?" 😂

But to reiterate @justdoit19 point: DD has had a fairly long training run post-USNA. She was TDA at Plebe Summer, then off to TBS.Then a fairly long interlude before starting MOS school. So only recently did she take command of her first platoon. "About time," I teased her. Then she described it: A couple dozen Marines under her charge and in her care. A gunnery sergeant -- both her subordinate and her mentor -- nearly 20 years older than her. Responsibility for a key cog in the MEF's C&C infrastructure. Potentially heading abroad this summer for exercises with a foreign ally.

Wow...just wow! No way that I could've done something like this at her age. Not even close. To say that I'm impressed is a gross understatement. And that's not because it's DD. It applies to all the 0-1s out there. Wow! @Kierkegaard, stand proud!
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Yep, I did indeed say “fog-a-mirror.” The military understands some are late bloomers. As long as O-1s and O-2s are serving honorably, developing professionally, performing their duties reasonably competently, meeting requirements, there is no reason the CO will not check the “promotion recommended” block on the performance report. It gets serious when the first O-4 promotion comes up, as that is a board process, and selection percentage drops steeply from the 90+% range of earlier years.

My first Navy job, age 20, DivO for 4 tugboat crews and small boat crews, 60+ people, at Naval Station Rota Port Services. God bless my 4 tugboat chief petty officer tug masters and my two CWO4 fellow DivOs and the 3 master chief harbor pilots and my LDO mustang department head who took this green OCS Ensign in hand and trained me properly. I learned to drive everything we had in the water and all the forklifts and trucks, worked all hours (Rota is a tidal port), was down in tug bilges and over in the repair yard in Cadiz, drafting and coordinating all the LOGREQ message responses, standing in front of my people at oh-dark-thirty quarters on big Fleet inport arrival and departure days - astonished at what I was learning to do, when I had time to think about it. None of my high school or college friends had anywhere near this responsibility. No regrets, best thing that ever happened to me, laid the foundation for everything else.

[In case people are wondering what career path that was, as a lead-up to women eventually being allowed into warfare communities and while waiting for legislation and policy to change, female line officers were sent to non-traditional jobs ashore - at Naval Stations, comm stations, computer commands, shore duty aviation training squadrons, and many other types of duty stations that had never had women assigned. Female line officers, in the past up into the early 1970s, had only come out of WOCS, and went to jobs such as Protocol Officer, Personnel Officer, social aide to the admiral’s wife, Admin Officer, etc. Some were in restricted line Intel and Crypto. The majority of female officers at that time were Nurse Corps. As the 70s progressed, female officers showed up in JAG, Med Corps, Supply Corps, restricted line and staff corps, in bigger and bigger numbers.]

Sorry, I looked into my sea story chest and fell in.

Tell your daughter to take lots of photos of herself doing interesting things. I wish I had taken more. And I wish I could find that photo of me driving my YTB, in my RayBans and garrison cap, and neatly parking it all by myself with no coaching in its assigned berth, and my tug crew clapping.
 
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WT Door said:
Ahh... to be a junior officer. You bring me back to the days of yesteryear where you got worked hard and got put away wet. Junior officers are the greatest bargain for the American taxpayer. So are the senior officers. You will look back one day and say “wow.” I’ll be thinking about you. I‘m heading out to the golf course and then later this evening will watch the Caitlin Clark show. Keep on FITFO-ing and keep those DH's happy!
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@Kierkegaard didn’t realize it’s like catnip to senior and retired officers to recall halcyon JO days.
 
Life doesn't get any easier .... but you build on past experiences and FITFO. I still remember sitting down for the Bar Exam, very nervous..but then thinking that it can't be any harder than Plebe Year or my first flight on Russian submarine, brand new TACCO with Skipper onboard and the computer bombing on takeoff. I've had the same thoughts many times through my career.

justdoit19 said:
Hey, here is a bright spot: if you are C/O ‘22, you are on the cusp of your first big raise
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Another big benefit of NAPS -- that first promotion was BIG ! I not only got O-2 pay, but also went over three years service at the same time. (The year enlisted at NAPS counts ). For me back in the day, the effect was essentially a 50% pay raise. Between that and per diem in P3's, was the first time that my young wife and I felt financially secure and not living paycheck to paycheck.
 
Old Navy BGO said:
Another big benefit of NAPS -- that first promotion was BIG ! I not only got O-2 pay, but also went over three years service at the same time. (The year enlisted at NAPS counts ). For me back in the day, the effect was essentially a 50% pay raise. Between that and per diem in P3's, was the first time that my young wife and I felt financially secure and not living paycheck to paycheck.
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I don't want to speak for Capt MJ here but we were in the same yeargroup and my initial base pay was $773 per month and BAS was $63 for a total of $836 per month which did not go very far. After a couple of months coaching at USNA, I went to a ship and at that time there was no housing allowance for single people assigned to ships so that was all that I got. I did have a spot aboard ship but habitability on an old destroyer was kind of spartan. . . much less luxurious than even Bancroft Hall.

Getting by on that was not easy and built some ability to persevere.
 
OldRetSWO said:
I don't want to speak for Capt MJ here but we were in the same yeargroup and my initial base pay was $773 per month and BAS was $63 for a total of $836 per month which did not go very far. After a couple of months coaching at USNA, I went to a ship and at that time there was no housing allowance for single people assigned to ships so that was all that I got. I did have a spot aboard ship but habitability on an old destroyer was kind of spartan. . . much less luxurious than even Bancroft Hall.

Getting by on that was not easy and built some ability to persevere.
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You had a much more Spartan initial path, money-wise, good shipmate. I was on shore duty, BOQ did not meet permanent party standards, so I got single BAH and overseas COLA. And the peseta was weak against the dollar. I rented a small guesthouse (casita) on one of the big sherry family estates. Traveled all over Spain, Portugal and Morocco by car.

Now you’re going to tell me you were on USS WHATSIS that made portcalls in Rota on their way in and out on Med cruise, and you remember hearing about the first female boarding officer anyone had ever seen.

Ok, I am putting the catnip down with apologies to @Kierkegaard .
 
Capt MJ said:
Now you’re going to tell me you were on USS WHATSIS that made portcalls in Rota on their way in and out on Med cruise, and you remember hearing about the first female boarding officer anyone had ever seen.
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Nope. First ship was a Reserve Destroyer for a few months homeported in Newport so the expenses were mostly liquid. . . and food in the not-so-cheap summer playground of the rich. After SWOS and other schools, a new construction ship that did not hit the Med while I was assigned. First saw Rota in 83 on my way home from Beirut. I don't think that I bumped into you at that point but after almost 6 months with just 1 port call, I was personally running on fumes.
 
Capt MJ said:
Yep, I did indeed say “fog-a-mirror.” The military understands some are late bloomers. As long as O-1s and O-2s are serving honorably, developing professionally, performing their duties reasonably competently, meeting requirements, there is no reason the CO will not check the “promotion recommended” block on the performance report. It gets serious when the first O-4 promotion comes up, as that is a board process, and selection percentage drops steeply from the 90+% range of earlier years.

My first Navy job, age 20, DivO for 4 tugboat crews and small boat crews, 60+ people, at Naval Station Rota Port Services. God bless my 4 tugboat chief petty officer tug masters and my two CWO4 fellow DivOs and the 3 master chief harbor pilots and my LDO mustang department head who took this green OCS Ensign in hand and trained me properly. I learned to drive everything we had in the water and all the forklifts and trucks, worked all hours (Rota is a tidal port), was down in tug bilges and over in the repair yard in Cadiz, drafting and coordinating all the LOGREQ message responses, standing in front of my people at oh-dark-thirty quarters on big Fleet inport arrival and departure days - astonished at what I was learning to do, when I had time to think about it. None of my high school or college friends had anywhere near this responsibility. No regrets, best thing that ever happened to me, laid the foundation for everything else.

[In case people are wondering what career path that was, as a lead-up to women eventually being allowed into warfare communities and while waiting for legislation and policy to change, female line officers were sent to non-traditional jobs ashore - at Naval Stations, comm stations, computer commands, shore duty aviation training squadrons, and many other types of duty stations that had never had women assigned. Female line officers, in the past up into the early 1970s, had only come out of WOCS, and went to jobs such as Protocol Officer, Personnel Officer, social aide to the admiral’s wife, Admin Officer, etc. Some were in restricted line Intel and Crypto. The majority of female officers at that time were Nurse Corps. As the 70s progressed, female officers showed up in JAG, Med Corps, Supply Corps, restricted line and staff corps, in bigger and bigger numbers.]

Sorry, I looked into my sea story chest and fell in.

Tell your daughter to take lots of photos of herself doing interesting things. I wish I had taken more. And I wish I could find that photo of me driving my YTB, in my RayBans and garrison cap, and neatly parking it all by myself with no coaching in its assigned berth, and my tug crew clapping.
Click to expand...
Pull out more from your "sea story chest" at any time! Very educational for all of us.
 
Enjoyed reading all your perspectives. I had a feeling I’d spark some good comments.

Mainly wanted to give the soon-to-be plebes on here a snapshot of what’s in their future if they stick it out. Even though I hated Plebe Summer at the time, looking back it really was a brilliant way for USNA to simulate the stress and adversity we’d go on to face.
 
Kierkegaard said:
Enjoyed reading all your perspectives. I had a feeling I’d spark some good comments.

Mainly wanted to give the soon-to-be plebes on here a snapshot of what’s in their future if they stick it out. Even though I hated Plebe Summer at the time, looking back it really was a brilliant way for USNA to simulate the stress and adversity we’d go on to face.
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Spot on!
 
Kierkegaard said:
Enjoyed reading all your perspectives. I had a feeling I’d spark some good comments.

Mainly wanted to give the soon-to-be plebes on here a snapshot of what’s in their future if they stick it out. Even though I hated Plebe Summer at the time, looking back it really was a brilliant way for USNA to simulate the stress and adversity we’d go on to face.
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Even though I attended a different academy, what I remember from my Plebe Summer is the mantra "take life one day at a time". And then, when a whole day seemed too much to take, I would take one step at a time, but always keep moving forward. I agree, Plebe Summer was indeed a brilliant way to simulate the stress and adversity we would go on to face later.
 
I remember dating a youngster just wishing he could stay out a little later than liberty expired and couldn't wait for graduation. Then married that young Ensign who could stay out all he wanted but didn't want to because he was studying for JO quals and could barely stay awake most Friday nights if he wasn't on duty. Couldn't wait for more seniority and better pay. More say in our own life and better control over working hours, like a Captain might have. Ha! the pay came, the say did not. Learned real quick seniority just meant longer hours, less options for orders, and still struggling to keep the eyes open on a Friday night. He got a cool parking spot out of the deal though... moral of the story: embrace the suck and know every phase has its pluses and minuses. This applies to raising kids too.
 
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