A hose up your nose for the mace in the face!

That's right, today we qualified to carry O.C. (pepper) spray. I've been sprayed twice now, and let me tell you this time was much easier than the other. Although our instructors didn't want to admit it, the stuff we're going to carry here, which is also what we qualified with, doesn't hold a candle to the raging wildfire that they shot us with in Texas. Don't get me wrong it still hurt; but well, it's like this...

Have your momma hit you in the head with a frying pan, it's gonna hurt. Then have Sammy Sosa hit you in the head with a angry red, fresh off the stove, so hot it's white in the middle, frying pan; and leave it there for ten minutes.

I think you get the picture now, both of em hurt, but one's just an entirely new level of pain.

Had an interesting night last night. I was able to secure a crime scene and observe an NCIS agent in action. The circumstances surrounding the whole situation were exceedingly unfortunate but are something I'm going to have to get used to.

What can I say, some days are good, some days are bad.
Life goes on and I'll be there to write the report when it's over.

My orders came in but they didn't include a dog...

This is a mixed blessing indeed. On the one hand I didn't want an MWD and having one would have added a lot of hours to my work day. On the other hand Bomb dogs save lives, and if I could have been a part of that I'd do it gladly. As things go my orders have been cut without a canine, however my department career councilor is looking into where the dog orders were dropped in the hopes of getting them back for me. Either way I'll be happy, but not having a dog will definitely free me up to develop professionally in other areas.

HOLY CRAP!
I was browsing the net while composing this post and came across this. It's a new film called "Sky Captain & the World Of Tomorrow" and it's being touted as the most stylistically original picture since 'Being John Malchevich'. Whether you like this sort of thing or not, do yourself a favor and go the above link then The Film/trailers to see a slice of it's CGI goodness. Apparently the actors for the film were shot on bluescreen and almost everything else in the movie was added on via CGI.

The bottom line:
If you like Errol Flynn, Buckling Swashes, Crimpson Skies, Metropolis (either one), The Old James Bond, The First Batman, The Words Stylized, Erstwhile, Intrepid, and Futuristic in the same sentence, or Angelina Jolie With An Eye Patch -harr harr harr, then there's only one thing to do... You've got to see this movie!

It's been a busy few days...
I took my advancement exam and think I bombed it horribly, I took a bit of time to start working with a dog handler from the kennels, and think I have secured a position in the MWD department, as their administrative aid. For the most part, work is pretty normal; a few fights, a few destructions, you get the picture. There was a death yesterday, but I can't really talk about it as it's still under investigation.

O yeah~ The Vikes won their season opener against Dallas! And lets be clear here, by win I mean they whipped 'em like a five dollar mule.

I was able to help save a life tonight...
It should be clear that the hero of this story is my friend who jumped into that polluted cesspool of a bay to save a sailor who was going under. Everybody involved in the evolution helped save his life, but if my boy hadn't dove in after him it would have been all over but the crying.

As I was working on a Christmas leave chit at HQ, a call came in for "man overboard". No it wasn't a drill, the man had fallen approximately sixty feet off the fantail of a carrier before he hit the water. We scrambled our units to the nearest point of land and I arrived in time to see my boy MA2, responding in a patrol boat. The victim was going under, so this dude straps on a life jacket and dives into the water after him. He secured the victim but the boat began drifting away from him. The bowhook riding with him, who was brand new to the position, didn't know how to coxswain (drive the boat), so I switched radio channels to her network and began to give her instructions on what levers to push and how to turn the wheel. With no experience in coxswaining it was too dangerous for her to get close to our people in the water, so she drove the boat over to the pier I was on and myself and an MA1 jumped down onto the craft. From that point, I was able to pilot it over for the rescue where she held it steady while the MA1 and I pulled first the victim then our patrolman out of the briny deep.

Warm woolen blankets and EMT's later MA2 was relieved to shower off the crap he'd been swimming in and the victim was rushed to the emergency room while I stayed behind with the bowhook to help tie up some loose ends.

Two years ago, people thought I was insane to leave the security of my old life and run off to be a cop in the Navy. Every once in a while I'll think the same thing myself and then something like this'll happen and it just makes me smile. Pulling that guy out of the water tonight; yeah, I know I made the right decision.

I'm studying for an exam tomorrow.
I've gone over a lot of the material, but there's just so much information they'll be testing us on. It's 11:57 pm here and the test is at 0730, but before you accuse me of cramming all night instead of sleeping you have to realize that I work nights so this is when I'm normally up and instead of wasting my last few hours doing something stupid I've chosen to go over a few chapters again, and again and again...

Also, I recieved confirmation today that I will be going to a C-School when I detach from this command in order to train as a dog handler for my next duty station. It's not really the career choice I would have made for myself, but sometimes things like this happen and you just have to roll with it.

At least now I'll get to have a dog.

Tonight at work we were trying to convince The Big Wheel to try out for the upcoming "Tough Enough". His first objection, "This is stupid. What would I be called." We thought about it for a moment, then a moment longer and finally decided that we'd spend the rest of our break creating his character and special moves.

Wrestling Name: "The Hurt Locker"
Wrestling Moves: The Captains Mast, NJP (Non-Judicial Punishment), The Court Martial, The 45-45, The Rear Admiral, The Keel Haul, The "BCD" (Bad Conduct Discharge), The Square Knot, The Bends, The Scuttlebutt, The Bulkhead, The Upper Deck, The Field Day, The Anchor Chain, The Salty Dog, The Needle Gun and The Deck Seaman.

Well, it's official. I'm going to Bahrain...
There is some confusion about my job though and I need to get it straightened out. Apparently the billet they slotted me to fill is as a dog handler and I neither have nor want the necessary training this would require. Don't get me wrong, dogs are fun pets, but Military Working Dogs are an entirely different animal. Also, once you're in that job community it's hard to break out of and there are a lot of things I want to do in the Navy that don't include a canine.

MAGNETIC POETRY! I LOVE THIS STUFF!!!
You can find it on the web here, but I will be adding it to my site as a permanent link sometime in the near future.