What not to say...

Sometimes, I get carried away. You may have noticed a post I made here shortly after I arrived on OLYMPIA got deleted. I did that...it's the first blog post I've ever deleted.

Here's why...there were some, um, things mentioned that were not so good to mention. Nothing classified (I'm a bit more careful than that), but some things that are better left unsaid.

That being said, it actually made for some humor. We were in shiftwork for some testing back aft, and the Engineer came to me (while I'm on phones watching a gauge) saying that he needed to speak to me about something important. I think the look on my face (the "oh my God, did someone die" look) freaked him out, since the next thing he and the Chief said was "no, no, it's nothing bad!"

I was asked about something to do with the content of said post, which at the time I frankly didn't remember (I do a lot of posting, and didn't know which place or what post they were referring to). I got home later that night and did a little searching, and found (and deleted) the post in question.

Of course, I still had to speak to the COB and XO the next day. It had all come up when someone left a printed copy of said post in the XO's mailbox at his house. Odd... It was not really a big deal, in fact he pointed out that it was a good lead in to reminding guys to be careful what they say online. The COB told me much the same thing before I went up to the XO (this after being aboard for about 2 weeks...way to make a splash, eh?). Guess the whole "low to the radar" thing just ain't in my cards.

In the end, it wasn't a bad scene. The COB was actually chuckling a bit about it when I came out of the XO's stateroom (he's since visited here, and apparently even found an old shipmate via Ultraquiet).

But the lesson (a valuable one)...watch what you say. Not all things unclass are fair game.

That being said, part of the post that I should have kept was the part about my impressions of the boat. Oly is a good boat...great crew, pretty good morale, good working environment, and Engineering really seems to have it's act together (I've been in some bad situations, it's nice to walk into a good situation for a change). The boat is old...but in pretty good shape. We're low on "gas", but aside from that could go out and mix it up with the best of 'em.

Interestingly, the Master Chief I worked for on Limited Duty is coming in a few weeks to be my EDMC (Engineering Department Master Chief, formerly called the EDEA, and commonly called the "Bull Nuke" or "Bull"). I have a "reception" planned for him, too...without getting political, let's just say that he and I are on opposite ends of the left-right spectrum, and I plan to leave him some good campaign material in his new rack (we used to go head-to-head arguing over the '04 election...his guy won the election, I still maintain I won the debates, but you know how it goes between an E6 and an E9, right...).

At any rate, let it be a lesson...it doesn't have to be classified to be something that should stay quiet.

posted by Robert Schumacher @ 10:37 PM