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So when I was down at MEPS this past Friday putting yet another guy in (involving even more jumping through hoops than usual- ah, the joys of Poaching), I ran into my good friend Kristina Facer, head of the Special Programs (Nuke) office, and my biggest supporter to get me moved in to work with her. The look on her face when I said hi told me that she had some news about the job opening, and sure enough, she proceeded to drop quite the Daisy Cutter on me.
Now, ever since I joined the Navy I've seen incompetance, sheer stupidity, and fucked- up politics be the general rule over common sense, but this one took the cake.
Yep, the job of the new Nuke Coordinator has in fact been filled- but not by Banks, or Carson, or certainly by yours truly. Nope, the Chief Recruiter and Assistant Chief Recruiter, in their infinite knowledge and vast experience with what makes a good Navy Nuke decided to pull somebody else from the field instead.
PS1 JeanPierre.
Now, for those of you now in the know about the Navy's rating system, a bit of an explanation is in order. Nukes, of course, come in 3 varieties- MM's, or Machinist's Mates, the knuckle- dragging, wrench- wielding monkeys who play with valves and pipes, grunt as a normal form of communication, and bang on anything that doesn't work with heavy objects; ET's, or Electronics Technicians, the computer- geek, Magic- playing, Anime- collecting whiz kids who operate the reactor itself and work on its various control and safety systems; and EM's, or Electrician's Mates- those of us not smart enough to be ET's, nor strong enough to be MM's, the ones that control the power distribution throughout the ship and fix whatever the MM's are too dumb to understand (or what they've already bashed beyond recognition), and whatever the ET's are too lazy too look at (especially if it involves them getting their hands dirty).
Now, a PS, or Personnel Specialist, just came into being last year when the Navy was on their whole kick about combining jobs to reduce manning in the fleet. They combined Disbursing Clerks (those who screw up our pay), and Personnelmen (those who lose our service records and send our chiefs nastygrams saying its our fault).
They decided to send a professional paper-pusher, one who's never even SET FOOT on a nuclear-powered vessel (and did I mention that those who score the lowest on the Navy's tests end up as PS's?), to work with kids who are going to be in the top 2% of all applicants of the enlisted armed forces, bar none.
To add insult to injury, the reason he was pulled out of the field was the language barrier. Yes, he' s a nice guy, and brighter than most, but he's from West Africa and speaks with a very thick accent. He was having a blast working in the field, but the decision was made to move him elsewhere because most people had great difficulty understanding what he was saying when he was making a sale- usually, somebody else in his office would have to come over and help finalize the deal.
I'm pretty sure that when I first found out about this job, shortly after I got my orders, that about 80% of the job, especially for the next couple of months, is going to various high school classes and doing presentations about what the Nuclear Power Program is all about.
So.....am I the only one who's completely bewildered by what the fuck the people who made this choice are trying to do???
I fucking hate this shit. If I could, I'd go back to the Reagan right now.
Now, ever since I joined the Navy I've seen incompetance, sheer stupidity, and fucked- up politics be the general rule over common sense, but this one took the cake.
Yep, the job of the new Nuke Coordinator has in fact been filled- but not by Banks, or Carson, or certainly by yours truly. Nope, the Chief Recruiter and Assistant Chief Recruiter, in their infinite knowledge and vast experience with what makes a good Navy Nuke decided to pull somebody else from the field instead.
PS1 JeanPierre.
Now, for those of you now in the know about the Navy's rating system, a bit of an explanation is in order. Nukes, of course, come in 3 varieties- MM's, or Machinist's Mates, the knuckle- dragging, wrench- wielding monkeys who play with valves and pipes, grunt as a normal form of communication, and bang on anything that doesn't work with heavy objects; ET's, or Electronics Technicians, the computer- geek, Magic- playing, Anime- collecting whiz kids who operate the reactor itself and work on its various control and safety systems; and EM's, or Electrician's Mates- those of us not smart enough to be ET's, nor strong enough to be MM's, the ones that control the power distribution throughout the ship and fix whatever the MM's are too dumb to understand (or what they've already bashed beyond recognition), and whatever the ET's are too lazy too look at (especially if it involves them getting their hands dirty).
Now, a PS, or Personnel Specialist, just came into being last year when the Navy was on their whole kick about combining jobs to reduce manning in the fleet. They combined Disbursing Clerks (those who screw up our pay), and Personnelmen (those who lose our service records and send our chiefs nastygrams saying its our fault).
They decided to send a professional paper-pusher, one who's never even SET FOOT on a nuclear-powered vessel (and did I mention that those who score the lowest on the Navy's tests end up as PS's?), to work with kids who are going to be in the top 2% of all applicants of the enlisted armed forces, bar none.
To add insult to injury, the reason he was pulled out of the field was the language barrier. Yes, he' s a nice guy, and brighter than most, but he's from West Africa and speaks with a very thick accent. He was having a blast working in the field, but the decision was made to move him elsewhere because most people had great difficulty understanding what he was saying when he was making a sale- usually, somebody else in his office would have to come over and help finalize the deal.
I'm pretty sure that when I first found out about this job, shortly after I got my orders, that about 80% of the job, especially for the next couple of months, is going to various high school classes and doing presentations about what the Nuclear Power Program is all about.
So.....am I the only one who's completely bewildered by what the fuck the people who made this choice are trying to do???
I fucking hate this shit. If I could, I'd go back to the Reagan right now.
