3rd Class Petty Officer to 2nd Class Petty Officer

When I returned to the Combat Information Center (CIC) from mess duty, I noticed that whenever the phone rang in CIC, everyone veered away, so I started answering every call and resolving each one to the caller's satisfaction. It didn't take long for me to become one of the go-to guys in CIC if you wanted to get things done. I also caught the attention of freshly minted Chief (E-7) Connell. He took me under his wing and trained me in everything not in the books.

First Class (E-6) Connell had become the man the ship sent out to coordinate with every unit possible on their interface with the Aegis System, effectively showboating the Ticonderoga's new technology. For instance, we offered NASA downrange telemetry on the space shuttle that they didn't have at the time. So while Connell had only just become a Chief, he held immense professional rank (unspoken rank in contrast to military rank) among the ship's highest officers, so much so that when the CO needed CIC's advice, he went to Connell, even though our 36-man division had a Senior Chief and Master Chief above him in military rank.

In short, Connell was a brilliant mentor to have and learn from. I consider that, in part, I was his brainchild. He seemed gruff but always relaxed, and his speech patterns were shaped by his time as an Air Intercept Controller (AIC), controlling aircraft. My patterns shifted similarly; as OSs, we'd been taught to speak a specific way over our military radio frequencies. But I patterned mine off of his because he had it right; using a deeper, crisp, metered voice asserted control more firmly. So I even changed my tone to mimic his effect.

My first accolade: I was picked for General Quarters (GQ) Surface Tracker. That's when you know you're considered the best among your peers at a CIC station. Then I moved over to the air side as an air tracker and, after a period, was assigned GQ there as well.

After a year, I made Petty Officer Second Class on time with another near-perfect score and was promoted to Identification Supervisor (IDS) on the air side. My chief responsibility there was identifying any baddies. (More on this next post.)

The division rapidly began losing the plankowners—OSs who had been with the ship in the drydock before it was even launched or had gone through its sea trials—and with them, their expertise. But this knowledge remained resident in me. Also as a result, I gradually picked up five collateral duties: Chart Petty Officer (PO); Naval Warfare Publications Library Custodian; Training PO; Supply PO; and CIC Cryptology Custodian, and I also managed our PC and peripherals. Honestly, I effectively lived in CIC even in port. Guys jokingly called it my living room.

I took over as Supply PO while still a 3rd Class PO (E-4), and I think they assigned it as a kind of poison pill, or I was just lucky as fuck! Because of a shortage of Storekeepers in the Navy, Supply POs from each division filled in for a 3-month stint running the front counter in the supply department, and I was up first.

During those 3 months, I served every division on the ship, sourcing items in short supply, expediting orders, and more. Even after my stint, I stayed in the shipwide supply network, and we traded information as much as goods. Plus I now had someone to vouch for me in every division, and I'd earned a great deal of favor.

You see, "snipes" worked below the waterline — engineers and electricians like my buddy Keith, with whom I did mess duty — and they weren't afraid to get dirty because they were men, serious men; whereas those of us working in the superstructure, above the waterline, were "twidgets", soft geeks, basically, who play with dials and knobs. But I had so many positive interactions with our snipes that they respected me more than they normally would a twidget.

This was especially true after the day they came up to CIC with the engineering report for the TAO and stood around waiting for his attention when one of them ran out of coffee in his huge, enclosed mug. One of our guys offered him our coffee, but he turned it down as almost certainly too weak, so they told them to use Shook's (my) strong pot on the top burner. The engineer sputtered upon drinking it! You see, I had five 5 5lb cans of espresso from Naples and would make a pot with a filter almost entirely filled with espresso. (I love bitter tastes). That got me further street cred.

Mind you, I only needed 5 hours of sleep back then, but watch rotation was 6 hours on, 6 hours off, endlessly while haze grey and underway, plus all my collateral duties. So, yes, I drank true mud!

Also, when we were in home port, all of CIC's equipment was down, and classified-everything was locked up tight, so shipmates asked us to give tours of CIC so their visiting loved ones would know why they were so proud and fortunate to be on board the Tico. Over time, I became the tour guide everyone wanted, including my co-workers, who nearly all hated giving tours. I had a pretty colorful routine down, and I knew all the answers to everyone's questions because I had elicited them 95% of the time through how I delivered.

I was also assigned a new in-port duty as ship's roving patrol. They liked to give OSs this duty because we were already cleared for high levels of classification, so we could enter any compartment, and the added background checks made us very trustworthy hands in which to put the ship's security. So every third day in port I'd strap on a .45 and tour the entire ship. Again, this got me around to all the other departments.

All I can say is it felt great to be tight with the whole crew, and it benefitted our division in complicated ways and made me into a bit of a "fixer."

I was known for fixing anything I took ownership of, and I took on everything I could; I became an ardent multitasker.