Part 2: Reactor Starts Eating Their Own
Apr. 21st, 2005 04:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tspencer227Part of the problem with the way things are going now is that everybody is too busy watching their own asses and not getting in trouble to get anything done. The chiefs doll out blame without getting all the facts, and don't give a DAMN about the root cause of a problem. Case in point:
Last week we were doing a test of one of our diesal generators, making sure that it operates within normal parameters while carrying part of the load of the ship's systems. So for this test, we have somebody down in the diesal space watching the generator gauges, and we have a large portions of the ship's systems being carried only by the generator instead of the shore power system, which is more reliable. So one of the guys in my workcenter was down on watch as the operator at the diesal panel when the circuit breaker transferring power from the engine to the ship's buses suddenly decided to open, shutting off power to a good sized portion of the ship. We managed to recover quickly, but not before Dan was relieved on watch, and the entire division called to the hangar bay to get screamed at by our chiefs, then our division officers, then the Reactor Electrical Assistant, then the Reactor Officer.
Here's the kicker: since this past summer, we've had problems with circuit breakers tripping open spuriously due to Electromagnetic Interference from other electrical sources in the same switchboard. As soon as I heard about what happened, I called the plant and started getting my people ready to open up the circuit breaker and troubleshoot the problem, without waiting for our chiefs to start bungling their way through any problems. So to make a long story short, while my entire chain of command was calling my entire division a worthless sack of shit that doesn't deserve the money we earn, the uniforms we wear, or the respect usually due to us, I was working out in my mind what the problem could possibly be. While the RO was delivering an ass-chewing so hard that the toughest guy in the division was tearing up in rage, I was trying to ignore what was being said. And as they publicly humiliated one of the most promising new electricians I had working for me, I was praying I'd be able to keep my mouth shut long enough to avoid cursing them all out for being so hypocritical and two- faced.
Half an hour after we were finally dismissed, I walked into the office and turned to my new division officer.
"Ma'am, I've found it. The undervoltage coil burned out and failed shut."
She looked at me for a moment.
"Ah, so there was a problem in addition to what Vinci did? So I take it your work group blazed off their last maintenance check on that breaker?"
I had to take a long, deep breath to avoid taking a swing at her, or at least screaming in her face, "HOW CAN YOU BE SO STUPID, YOU DUMB BITCH!" in front of everybody that was in the office.
It was then that I realized what was going on. Nobody gave a damn about why it had happened. They just wanted to know who they could blame for it. That's not what I was taught would happen. One of the biggest things they emphasize with the program is the importance of maintaining our integrity. If you make a mistake, own up, accept responsibility, and you won't get in too much trouble.
Apparently I was wrong.
As of this morning, out of the 83 Electricians in Reactor Electrical Division:
-24 are seeing the ship's Psychiatrist on a regular (at least once weekly) basis
-18 are seeing one of the Chaplains on a regular basis
-7 have gone to Non-judicial punishment in the last month and are restricted to the ship
-6 are getting kicked out of the navy in the next month
-6 are losing their security clearances, meaning they will no longer be nukes
-27 have put in transfer paperwork to the Nimitz, Prototype, anywhere but the Reagan
-0 Enjoy what they do any more
There was a time when I was proud of what we did, of our record, and I liked my chain of command.
Those days are long gone.
Last week we were doing a test of one of our diesal generators, making sure that it operates within normal parameters while carrying part of the load of the ship's systems. So for this test, we have somebody down in the diesal space watching the generator gauges, and we have a large portions of the ship's systems being carried only by the generator instead of the shore power system, which is more reliable. So one of the guys in my workcenter was down on watch as the operator at the diesal panel when the circuit breaker transferring power from the engine to the ship's buses suddenly decided to open, shutting off power to a good sized portion of the ship. We managed to recover quickly, but not before Dan was relieved on watch, and the entire division called to the hangar bay to get screamed at by our chiefs, then our division officers, then the Reactor Electrical Assistant, then the Reactor Officer.
Here's the kicker: since this past summer, we've had problems with circuit breakers tripping open spuriously due to Electromagnetic Interference from other electrical sources in the same switchboard. As soon as I heard about what happened, I called the plant and started getting my people ready to open up the circuit breaker and troubleshoot the problem, without waiting for our chiefs to start bungling their way through any problems. So to make a long story short, while my entire chain of command was calling my entire division a worthless sack of shit that doesn't deserve the money we earn, the uniforms we wear, or the respect usually due to us, I was working out in my mind what the problem could possibly be. While the RO was delivering an ass-chewing so hard that the toughest guy in the division was tearing up in rage, I was trying to ignore what was being said. And as they publicly humiliated one of the most promising new electricians I had working for me, I was praying I'd be able to keep my mouth shut long enough to avoid cursing them all out for being so hypocritical and two- faced.
Half an hour after we were finally dismissed, I walked into the office and turned to my new division officer.
"Ma'am, I've found it. The undervoltage coil burned out and failed shut."
She looked at me for a moment.
"Ah, so there was a problem in addition to what Vinci did? So I take it your work group blazed off their last maintenance check on that breaker?"
I had to take a long, deep breath to avoid taking a swing at her, or at least screaming in her face, "HOW CAN YOU BE SO STUPID, YOU DUMB BITCH!" in front of everybody that was in the office.
It was then that I realized what was going on. Nobody gave a damn about why it had happened. They just wanted to know who they could blame for it. That's not what I was taught would happen. One of the biggest things they emphasize with the program is the importance of maintaining our integrity. If you make a mistake, own up, accept responsibility, and you won't get in too much trouble.
Apparently I was wrong.
As of this morning, out of the 83 Electricians in Reactor Electrical Division:
-24 are seeing the ship's Psychiatrist on a regular (at least once weekly) basis
-18 are seeing one of the Chaplains on a regular basis
-7 have gone to Non-judicial punishment in the last month and are restricted to the ship
-6 are getting kicked out of the navy in the next month
-6 are losing their security clearances, meaning they will no longer be nukes
-27 have put in transfer paperwork to the Nimitz, Prototype, anywhere but the Reagan
-0 Enjoy what they do any more
There was a time when I was proud of what we did, of our record, and I liked my chain of command.
Those days are long gone.
