Supply School Graduation

The last major event and celebration for any class at NSCS is the graduation ceremony. While certainly an important milestone in a Supply Officer's career, it is somewhat subdued when compared to the graduation from OCS. There are actually very few similarities between the two aside from the basic format and planning.

The lack of seriousness did not detract from the ceremony at all though. My class started playing all sorts of pranks on each other and the instructors. These were things I had not seen since high school or while I was a teacher. Tin foil and plastic wrap covered every inch of some unlucky individuals desks, balloons were found all over the offices and classrooms and certain coveted items came up missing from time to time. Items were "borrowed" from offices like mouse balls, pens, documents and cordless telephones. I was on the receiving end of one of the pranks but I would like to think I left my mark with a little stunt of my own.

My parents came into town for the graduation and ended up staying for about a week. It was nice to see them again, I had not seen them since starting supply school about six months back. I am unlikely to see them again for a good couple of years, unless they feel like visiting Japan. They are actually going to use my car while I am stationed in Japan since American vehicles are not allowed there.

Since this was a summer graduation, we wore the summer white uniform instead of dress blues. There were about sixty officers graduating from my class in addition to a reserve class. First a Supply Corps Admiral gave a fairly standard graduation speech, I had heard several speeches during previous graduations by this point. Then some special awards were given to the top performers in the class. After that it was time to hand out certificates of achievement. As our names and billets were announced we walked across the stage to shake hands with the Admiral, receive a certificate and have our picture taken with the Admiral and Commanding Officer of the base. The majority of Officers in my class received billets on ships and the majority of the reserves received shore billets.

After the graduation had concluded, I introduced my parents to some of the instructors. We had a bunch of paperwork to fill out including a power of attorney since I am going overseas. We were able to leave early so my parents and I went out to eat. Most of us will be staying at the Navy Supply Corps School for at least a few more weeks before reporting to our individual billets. We are currently referred to as "stashers." Stashers are basically just paper pushers, we perform various odd jobs around the base until leaving for our billet assignments. This proved to be fortuitous since I was able to leave early throughout the next week and spend more time with my parents.

I am happy to report that I have finally caught up with important events. The next couple of posts should be in present tense or at least soon after. I say that because I will not report on ship or fleet activities as they occur. I have a responsibility as an Officer to keep such information classified.