*** Quoting PATRICK LONG from a message to Carol Shenkenberger ***

PL> Carol Shenkenberger wrote:
> Ditz learned a lesson then.

PL> Yup.  And the Chief made sure he knew it, too.  :)

(guffaw)

> I sat on a chair and big puffs of green 'ick' floated up all around me.

PL> [muffled laughter]

> I bet you've had Chiefs like that too.  Chiefs, not 'E7's.

PL> Yes - and they are to be treasured.  Unfortunately, I've also had a 
PL> couple of the E-7's, too.

So have we all had to suffer such.  Watched an E7 make E8 once.  Rare, but
that ¨happens at times.  To justify him though, he was a bit of a fish out
of water ¨in the job they had him in.  Development programmer suddenly for
the first time ¨in an actual ADP shop and in charge.  He wasnt very good
because he'd never ¨even been an LPO.

Left me a mess to clean up.  Dude checked out the day the E1-3 evals were
due ¨and he hadnt even gathered the input.  We had only that day for
turnover (he ¨left by 10am) and I was stuck with 25 evals to turn in,
*signed* by COB that ¨day on people I didnt know even the names of.  What a
freakin' mess that was.

Whats worse is 20 of them were transfer evals (fit forward and they left
within ¨90 days).  Divo had changed over only 2 days before that and was
understandably ¨freaking out.  First thing I did?  Fire the only PO1 in the
shop as LPO and put ¨the only decent PO2 they had in charge. My
conversation with the PO2 was short ¨and to the point.  'Do you know what
needs to be done today and can you make it ¨happen then keep it rolling?'
(Yes, most of it Chief.  I'll do all I can).  The ¨conversation with the
PO1 was shorter and need not be repeated.  He was checked ¨out to FMAT the
next day and retired 3 months later.

4 months after that, I checked out for my next command, given only 3 days
for ¨turnover for the next Chief.  I did good things for him though.  I set
him up ¨for success to the best of my ability.  See, we took a manning cut
in DP's and ¨RM's had just combined.  New construction so the RM's got
there first and were ¨replaced, but the DP's get in a bit later.  End
result is ADP took all the 24 ¨manning cuts.  Previous RMC was unwilling to
work with me.  New RMCM checked in ¨and i took him down to the mess and
showed him a graphical spreadsheet on just ¨what happened and that if we
didnt fix it, I was deploying with 1chief and 7 ¨whitehats for a CVM with
1,100 computers to support plus the LAN.  I told him I ¨didnt need his star
performers, but needed 1 *good* PO1 who was being blocked ¨from being able
to lead due to too many seniors (he had 9 PO1s),  a reasonable ¨PO2 who
showed ability to develop into a good leader, and 7 'smart kids, or
¨seeming smart who he hadnt invested so much time in training it would hurt
him ¨but i could develop into ADP guys'.

I got a PO1 who was killer good leader but not up for Chief yet, a PO2 who
¨wasnt good with radio stuff but was a natural writer and YN almost type
with ¨excellent admin skills, and 6 mixed bag E4 and below.  I then hit up
the CMC of ¨the airwing.  See, 9 of the billets were shifted to put a 'DP'
in each wing but ¨they didnt have the capacity to train them.  They were
all right out of "A" ¨school and PARS alone were impossible (they
existed then). Told that CMC my ¨problem and that while it would cost me
alot, I could train them and support ¨their needs fully, but wanted them
the whole deployment.  Grin, got all 9.  25 ¨people out of what would have
been 8.  Sure, almost all were E4 and below, but ¨it had the core needed.

Next battle fought was FSA.  The mess decks wanted 15 from me at once. 
Told'em ¨'sure' but we will not support *any* troublecalls for any supply
system as you ¨have my troublecall team.  Really pissed off a MSCM but once
he looked at it in ¨reality, he started laughing and we worked out a deal. 
The 9 TAD guys from the ¨airwing didnt count, and we rotated in 4 at a time
(painful but folks have to ¨be fed too).

I didnt make Senior Chief off any of that.  I made it because I'm just like
¨that.  I deal fair and explain myself well.  The hurdle is making Chief. 
Many ¨well worthy people just never do.  I will never see ITCM because I
have to put ¨in for retirement before the next set and last year (this one)
was only a 1% of ¨the rate opening.

It doenst stop me though.  I'm possibly the most important enlisted person
on ¨my ship next to the CMC right now.  I'm acting 'Traino' and we are
headed for ¨TRAV in a week.  1,200 people, 700 schools setup.  I'm knee
deep in everything ¨from food for box lunches for those who wont eat unless
someone thinks of that, ¨to bus transport for schools too far away to walk
to.  A gadzillion details and ¨i just hope i tagged them all!

PL> and 
> such as CMC's do) and one little comment was 'Oh, and one of those s
PL> up on 
> the mast is the XO.  Way to go XO!'.  (We couldnt hear it but we hea
> why some folks popped out of their hidy holes to peer at us working).

PL> Oh, that was great.

Grin, sure was!

> what' and told our guys if you are near it, fix it.  Overhaul time a
> the guys who knew what was needed.

PL> Yep.  Great when shipmates can work together that way.

Yes, takes a bit to get your own guys to understand that they are staying
late ¨to maintain something 'someone else owns' but if you do it right,
they really ¨do understand.  Used to really piss off my CMC too as I'd cut
the guys loose as ¨early as 10am on rainy days (hell, cant work on the
mast, got anything else we ¨need to do?  Ok, work on that til 10am then
talk to me with progress as I got ¨libertyitis too).  So like, 1 day in
every 2 weeks it would rain and I'd say ¨'screw it, lets go home early'. 
They stayed til sundown 2 days a week which ¨more than made up for it.

> BTW, our ship not only passed INSURV, we got major kudos for the bes
> mast set they had *ever* seen on *any* ship and they were not kidding.

PL>  From the description, y'all earned it.

Grin, my guys did it.  I didnt. 

> Little viginettes of real life eh?

PL> Yea...

PL> I even miss Uncle Louie's, y'know.

Uncle Louies?  Sorry, I'm forgetting something?
                                       xxcarol

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