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Praetorium Honoris

Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Battered and Bruised, But Still Afloat

German battle cruiser SMS Derfflinger
(Launched 1913)
View of combat damage, taken in June 1916, following the Battle of Jutland. Note 150mm guns
(one with muzzle shot off), 88mm anti-aircraft guns, and damaged torpedo nets.

(Source)

I do believe I've had more fun in my life. This trip ain't it.

Testing is up and down, too many people in the room, too many people trying to be in charge, chaos threatens to rule the day. Yet we press on.

The goal is to wrap this up within the next week or so.

We'll work right through until it's done.

I need a break.

Holidays are upcoming.

I'll be taking some time off. Man, do I need it.



34 comments:

  1. That three year old ship took a beating....keep an eye on those bubs causing the hubbub Sarge. Vacation time will be appreciated by the family, both the two and four-legged.

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  2. I hate meddling managers, no matter what uniform they wear or how good their intentions. Hang in there!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No uniform, the classic never-served, civilian d-bag. Worked LCS, which should tell you something.

      Delete
    2. Apparently he was a Marine. Surprised me, but yeah, LCS says it all.

      Delete
  3. Hire good people.
    Get them what they need.
    Get out of their way.
    Then the hard part of managing begins: protecting them from other management.

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  4. Take breaks as seems good. We trust you.

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  5. Attitude adjustment needed? They issue a ski mask for a reason... Just saying..... Rope? Aye! Keel? Aye! Blue Steam? Aye aye! Some assembly required...

    Dad told a story of a shiny LT that ordered night patrols at Fort Polk after they spent all day being Combat Engineers. Seems in the dark someone tied him to a tree and the rest of the patrol couldn't find him so they RTB and got some sleep... Not much was said about what happened. Much more to the story that I never heard, I'm sure.

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    Replies
    1. (Don McCollor)...Even better was in WW2 when American POW navy divers were being made to recover a huge amount of crates of Philippine silver coin dumped in Manila harbor. Things were going slow (deliberately) with just barely enough to satisfy the Japanese. The Japanese officer in charge got the idea he would dive to inspect things himself. He was halfway into a leaky old hard hat diving rig when he looked into the eyes of the POWs handling the hoses, lines, and hand pumps, and decided that things that things were going as well as could be expected...

      Delete
  6. "Too many people in charge" is always a poor time. Hang in there!

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  7. Hey Old AfSarge;

    Take your vacation when opportunity presents, we still will float around.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Bleh, sounds like you had a severe case of the Mondays. Bleh again.

    As to the LCS manager, any chance you could get someone to tie chains around his legs so he could do a physical inspection of the hull from outside?

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    Replies
    1. Three Mondays in a row?!?!!!

      Ugh!!

      Yet another reason why I don't do Mondays!! I have found that any crisis that happens on a weekend can wait until Monday, but not Tuesday...so I work Tuesday thru Friday. Four days of nonsense is plenty, no need to add Monday to it also.
      That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!

      Ya should have known this trip would be a crap show when Thursday was a disaster before ya even left. Plus, the last trip went reasonably smoothly as I remember... you were due for a Murphy sighting...

      Delete
    2. Yup, things went too well last time.

      We were due for a shit show. And we got one!

      Delete
  9. As htom said, 'take breaks, we trust you." I'll add that keeping cool in the face of adversity is something you have been doing all your life. Is it possible to find the "real boss" and tell the others to, well, you know.

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    Replies
    1. I focus on the guy who's actually running the show. He's got the right idea.

      Delete
  10. What exactly is a "derf" and how does one "fling" it? Is derf-flinging some inexplicable Teutonic backwoods passtime, like cow-tipping is for Americans? What an odd name for a ship.

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    Replies
    1. It's actually named for a Prussian field marshal from the 30 Years War, Georg von Derfflinger. One of those names which sound like something in English, but isn't.

      Delete
  11. There is nothing - Nothing - more frustrating than too many people trying to be in charge.

    Perhaps a long vacation, followed by a long and glorious retirement?

    ReplyDelete

Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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