Six hours on, six hours off, there is always watching to do, around the clock. I’m an electrician third class, and there is plenty for me to do on a ship this size. But not so much that I don’t also do a lot of watching. I wanted communications. That is what I should be doing, is communications. There is so much communications that happens in the Navy, it is a wonder we have any time left over to be blowing things up. On the Boston alone, there are scores of guys spending all day seated in front of these big blinking disks of screens, electronic and computerized systems that build up a picture of what is going on in the sea and on land all around us. The screens look like portholes, and they sort of are, in that they give a peek at what’s outside. But unlike old-fashioned portholes, these are insanely tricky to learn and to operate. Truth is, at this stage I wouldn’t be up to the job, and we’d probably bump right into every other ship or sink our own boats if they gave me a shot at it.
What do You think about I Pledge Allegiance (2011)?
