Navy Schools and Orders

Hiding my shock at being assigned Company Master-at-Arms (MAA), it was necessary that I address the men while also having no idea what to say, so I paused — a long, pregnant pause risking the impression I froze — so I started boringly recapping how each of the previous MAAs had failed us as a unit. Then I identified my job as getting us ALL through the next 15 weeks smoothly and successfully. Then I explained how all my orders would come from my role as MAA, as required by duty, and never from me personally. My only role was to see us successful, not shout orders or demean fellow shipmates. I explained that I worked for them, but I also would never beg them to follow orders. I would give orders bluntly. Then I established a standard of fairness and drilled in the point that it’s beneficial to follow someone without ego invested in their rank. If anyone ever had a question about an order, I’d be happy to explain it in the evening before (barracks) “lights out.”

Then, after the Commander left, I privately let the gossip chain know that, to appease the Commander and reassure him I had a hold on the unit, I’d be “dressing down” men in front of him from time to time. (Dressing down: furiously and thoroughly bitching out a guy in the stereotypical military way. Also, something that never happened to me in my 4.5 years on board the ship.)

I role-played what I’d consider an ideal MAA, and it worked!

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Plenty of alcohol flowed at the on-base Shifting Sands enlisted club tucked into this side of the Atlantic seaboard’s dunes. It had a huge music-video screen, and it was all guys. It really tested my celibacy because my gaydar would easily ping on several guys a night, not to mention how obvious it had become to me which good-looking guys in our class of 40 were at least bi. We were all just out of boot camp, in top physical condition, and randy as hell. But you could never be certain who was actually part of our Naval Investigative Services (NIS). So I remained a very good boy.

The MAA takes the last top bunk in the barracks for surveillance purposes. I came back sloshed one night and was kicking back and throwing my blanket open over me when the urge demanded I sit up straight, and instead of getting down, I hurled into my blanket, and the waves of hurling began where I first folded my blanket in half, hurled, folded it into a quarter. And maybe a fold later, I dropped it and jumped down onto it. The squish was terrifying. But surprisingly, clean. I got my small box of detergent, rinsed the blanket in a laundry room sink, put it in the washer, and woke up to, “Hey, Shook, someone put a whole box of detergent in the laundry machine, and the guys are cleaning up the two feet of bubbles that came up from the floor drain.”

By then, I’d saved so many guys’ hides as MAA; they could plainly see I was missing a blanket, but they were already cleaning up my mess without orders, out of mutual respect.

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Orders

I maintained the highest score in our class, resulting in a 98.7% average. This mattered because the orders for your first ship depended on it.

Everyone filled out a dream sheet where you declared 2 billets (assignments/orders) you wanted. I declared either anything ported in Hong Kong or an Aegis Cruiser, of which there were only two at that time: CG-47, at sea, and CG-48, which I believe was in the shipyard, recently fully crewed and gearing up for sea trials before commissioning. Then we found out the orders for our two classes were being cut at the same time as the two classes ahead of us, bringing the total to 160 men. As it turned out, I still had the top score among the 160.

I was assigned to the USS Ticonderoga (CG-47), “First Aegis Cruiser” (AKA Tico), which later was important because whenever we were in a unit with even our future sister ships, we were the senior, most advanced unit in the Navy (and on the face of the Earth), which meant our roles in the Combat Information Center (CIC) rose to command over the entire regional force. So, for instance, of all the units linking data together, we were responsible for the data’s accuracy, coordination, and frequencies —the whole link, the “Big Picture.”

Before leaving OS “A” school, the command met with the three of us scoring highest and offered us “accelerated advancement”: for extending our enlistments by one year, we’d get guaranteed advancement to Third Class Petty Officer (E-4) on time. It was easy to say yes, given I’d just gotten the Tico, literally the most powerful weapon on the face of the Earth. And at 5 years, it would only be 6 months until I'd hit E-6, the fastest possible.

Recall, my goals were to score high, place well, and make rank as rapidly as possible. I’d just hit all three.

Next, I was off to Moorestown, New Jersey, for 5 weeks of Aegis training with officers and even a new division Senior Chief. I don't recall my score, but it was the top score, so I distinguished myself as a Seaman among several senior personnel I'd work with for years.