2nd Cruise

I took some seasickness medicine (Dopamine) before the ship left port this time so no seasickness. The excitement started before we even left port. A seaman cut his hand open while compacting trash and had to be taken to the hospital. He didn't have to go on the cruise but I am not sure that kind of injury was worth it. My sales division was down a man so two guys had to do the work of three, that wasn't fun.

The whole point of the cruise was a live fire exercise with shells fired from the five inch gun. Every ship has to be periodically tested on their equipment and accuracy. We sailed out to an island with a couple other destroyers and took turns shelling it while several marine inspectors watched from a helicopter. First we had to get rid of a few Japanese trawlers, they left pretty quickly when they found out three destroyers were about to shell their position.

The Curtis Wilbur was the second ship up for the live fire. While we waited for the first destroyer to finish we practiced evasive maneuvering and I was able to watch the main gun being practice fired. When the inspectors were ready for our ship to start the exercise, I landed my first helicopter. The Captain was nice enough to point that out to them later.

My ship passed the firing exercise and that put everyone in a good mood on the way back. The Captain decided to let all the junior officers navigate the ship during practice man overboard drills. We dropped a flare in the water and then circled back to recover it using different maneuvers. The point was to put the ship along side the flare close enough for search and rescue teams to recover the flare (person).

After most of the officers had a chance to practice giving out directions, it was time for a more experienced officer to show off his skills. This time I was the man overboard. No, I didn't get thrown overboard, they hide me in a room just off the bridge and sounded the general alarm. When someone is suspected to be missing from the ship the first action is to muster everyone with their departments and take roll. It took my division about ten minutes to decide I was missing and another five to filter through the other people who hadn't reported in. Mental note, don't fall overboard; that much time in the water without a survival suit would have killed me.