Back In Port

With the homecoming finished and a few days of relative rest, it was time to start prepping for the next underway in about two weeks. I had spent countless hours underway trying to figure out how to approach resupplying my store. The methods I had used prior to the last underway did not work. I was minus a chief with no prospects of a replacement for him any time soon. The other issue was the port visits, I needed to find and organize all the paperwork for various provisions, government vouchers, treasury checks and returns. I had gotten behind on a few reports.

My first priority was to the crew so I started emailing the Yokosuka NEX and Commissary to figure out the process for ordering special items from them. These would be items not carried by resupply vessels, meaning they are not considered essential stores. This process ended up being long but definitely paid off. I needed to go the the stores on base and look at each item I wanted to buy. My SH who was with me wrote down the UPC code (bar code) and the quantity I would be buying per box. After filling up close to a dozen pages with individual brands we turned in the paper work and waited patiently to see how this would work.

While I was waiting for my Commissary order to be finished, I went over to the uniform store on base to get additional items like undershirts, socks and various uniform items. This was a little different from the Commissary since I was only interested in buying what they had on hand in much smaller quantities. Most of the items I wanted were already in the store but a few would need to be delivered to the store from warehouses. That would only take a couple of days though.

One more important errand and then I was done. I needed a new supply of towels. The crew had been complaining about the quality of the towels I was currently stocking. When I resupplied from the Singapore NEX, I had bought a better brand of towels that the crew appreciated. They were willing to spend a little extra for better towels. I needed to go to a third store on base to buy those towels and I needed to pay for them then and there. That made three different procedures for ordering supplies not including my normal 1Q ordering system or emblematics. I was still planning on obtaining common items from the 1Q system. Ship ball caps were ordered from a company back in the United States.

After all the supplies and orders were accounted for, it was time for paperwork. There was paperwork spread over four divisions that I needed to collect so I could send in returns for a couple of months. The files for those couple of months were thick. I was not so much concerned about all the purchases adding up, it is easier to keep track of my funds, I needed forms from logistics and food service to complete my records. I ended up making a few mistakes and missing required paper work but got it all sorted out with a few headaches in about a week. At that point I was all caught up and that felt great!