Friday, October 10, 2008

RTS Santa Fe One week Down

10 October ….

This is the first entry I have been able to make in the logbook as things have been very intense the last few days, as the good Mr. Griggs is covering every aspect of our mission in needlessly minute detail. Seems as though his dreams have been about nothing besides the Veiled Planet for the last week; luckily, my dreams have been about the missus! Since someone of importance one day will probably be reading this log, I will not go into details about those dreams. We have studied the SET (South East Texas) Hut drawings at least fifty times and although I have built too many in my time in the service, we are still looking at the blueprints. The camp arrangement is another ordeal, as we have planned out at least thirty different camp arrangements and the guard towers have moved forty times in the last two days! I made the mistake yesterday of telling Mr. Griggs that the terrain will dictate the final camp layout and this has added much pain and never before have I looked forward to my daily pint of rationed ale as I do now.

I am extremely thankful that this vessel has a Chief’s Mess, so I am able to escape from Mr. Griggs, as neither officers nor junior enlisted are allowed in the 'Goat Locker.' Chief Boatswains' Mate O’Malley and I are old acquaintances from the RTS Goliad and we often talk of the days when our hair was thicker and of a darker shade. Then we talk of our troubles and laugh. There are nine senior enlisted on board. Two are Army, so we give them a hard time just because it is amusing to us and it helps pass the time.

My Army counterparts have trained every day doing physical training. Not to be undone, my NCOs, Sergeant Garcia and Corporal Cromwell, have been putting the boys through some hard training as well, because we are Republic Marines, and we must live up to our image and history. After all, nothing like Esprit de Corps to bring people together.

Well I must end this day's entries and join my mates for a daily pint in the mess.

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