Navy Stories 7: After Boot Camp Before My Ship
March 27th, 2009 by Ben Moreno
’)The 2 Week C School
My job classification in the Navy was Seamen Apprentice. This job has a wide amount of responsibilities such as, mooring, towing, rigging, underway replenishment, driving small boats and even driving the ship. I went to school after boot camp to learn the basics of these jobs.
Because I only cared about being a Navy Seal, I did not pay much attention to what my job was going to be. I just thought it would be SEAL. I was naive of course and I regret not paying more attention.
Well nothing extremely exciting happened during that 2 week school except for the 1 foot of snow fall. That was the first time I had ever seen snow fall like that. Also, it was 10 degrees out and that was the first time I felt that temperature. I remember playing around in the snow and we built a giant snow man which I later tackled and took this picture of it.
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Jacksonville Naval Base
After graduating boot camp I was given about 1 week and 1/2 leave. I went home and partied for the time and then flew out to my new temporary command, Jacksonville, FL.
I had to report to Jacksonville Naval Base for a period of about 2 weeks to wait for my ship to come back from a cruise they had just went on months earlier. It made sense for me to wait instead of the government spending the resources to fly me out to the ship that was on it’s way back into port. For once the government was concerned about saving money lol.
The two weeks there were very memorable. I arrived there in the middle of December, so I ended up spending Christmas and New Years stuck in a boring Navy barracks with no money and nothing to do. It was horrible! That was the first time I had ever been away from my family on Christmas and New Years. Christmas is a very big holiday in my family. We always have a big family reunion and it is always really fun.
Music Association During Bad Times
So spending it all alone basically with no money and nothing to do was pretty depressing. At the time I was listening to the Deftones album Around The Fur. The album had just come out and I really liked it. Well, during that depressing time I was listening to the album a lot to help pass the time.
Over time my brain associated the album with the situation so now whenever I hear that album it reminds me of that deppressing time. That sucks because it is a really good album. So the next time you get in a bad situation you may want to pay more attention to the music you are listening to because you may just ruin a good album.
After it was over I was transferred to my new ship the USS O’ BANNON DD-987. Read all about it in the next episode.
Tags: around the fur, florida, jacksonville naval station, navy stories 7, seamen apprentice
