Anchors Aweigh

It's been a while since I've posted anything here, and my views have somewhat radically changed since the last entry, so I figure that I'd go ahead and post some more updates on how life is out here.

First off, I've gotten another e-mail from another individual (not entirely sure if I spoke of this in my last entry, because it was, after all, so long ago) who, as it turns out, is my real replacement. I've decided to go ahead and uphold the virtues of the OPSEC program and all that good stuff, and to that end, I won't say exactly when he's getting here, but I will say this: because of that date, my stay here has been truncated by a significant amount. Why is that, you ask? Well, my friends, let me bring you up to speed.

I was outside, sitting in the guard shack for my weekly dose of guard duty (most of those in the building where I work stand maybe one or two nights per month... I stand about one or two nights per week of it), when all of a sudden a Master Chief walks by, does a double-take when he sees that it's a Navy guy in the window, and comes back to say a few words.

This Master Chief, as it turns out, is the Command Master Chief for the entire country, as it turns out. And I have the distinct pleasure to have him come by and decide to talk with me. This, for whatever reason, lifted my spirits significantly. As we're talking, he asks me where I'm from, where I'm going, and how much longer I have here. So I tell him, "Well, Master Chief, I've heard from a couple different sources that the Navy has a regulation out saying that two people can't occupy the same Noble Eagle number for more than fourteen days?"

To my ultimate satisfaction, he replies, "That's correct."

Furthermore, he goes and tells me that as the Command Master Chief for the entire country, he can work where he wants, when he wants, and doing generally whatever he wants. And that one of the benefits of this is that he can tell me exactly who my replacement is, when he's getting here, and when I can expect to leave.

"I already know who my replacement is," I told him, "And he sent me his itinerary of when he should be here, so... how do I go about getting the wheels turning to get out of here?"

So he refers me to a YN2 at the NAVCENT detachment down the road. Says to get in touch with her, and ask for the Warrior Transition package. So when I go inside for my two hours of roving guard duty, I write up a quick e-mail and send it her way.

The next day, I check my e-mail, and lo and behold, I have not just one, not just two, but five different e-mails from five different people! So I look through, and it turns out that forty-five days before you plan on getting underway from this place, you start the outprocessing... process.

Since that day, not a lot has happened, really. The birds outside of the building where I work are picking up in how loud and how long they go nuts with their chirping. And unfortunately, over the past few weeks, it seems to me that I've been a lot more susceptible to insanity from all that noise. Or growing a bit less patient with it. Or something.

Anyway, turns out the Navy was never my enemy. My views were just a bit too narrow and hateful to discern that. The Navy might not be perfect, but in relation to what the Army has going on, the Navy is perfection incarnate.

And now, back to the last two days of my four-day liberty.