With 21 days to go until my retirement from the Coast Guard, todays 20 Years a Coastie post is about finding the fun, even when you and the rest of your Shipmates are having your butts kicked by the job. In Miami, sometime midway through my 4 year tour between 2005-2009, we went from 9 helicopters down to 5. They were distributed to other units around the Coast Guard as part of a restructuring program over the course of a year or so, and we found ourselves with less helos and less people, but the same mission and same (or almost the same) flight schedule. And when you go from 9 to 5 helos with no flight load reduction, you can burn your people out pretty quick. Part of that is that at a big unit like Miami where you have helos on the road all the time, you end up with a shop full of people and not enough work to go around. So many of them get Farmed Out to other jobs. Some will go to the Fuel Farm, others to Supply, and more to the AET Shop, the Metal Shop, and the like. And that works pretty good when you have those 9 helos. But when they start reducing the number of aircraft, and the number of people along with that as they transfer out and you dont get replacement bodies, having those 2 guys in the Fuel Farm or 3 guys in Supply can make the Shop seem a bit like a ghost town. And although the power that be did their best to move people around where they belong, unless the Flight Schedule reduces, the work just doesnt stop. And that isnt something that can just stop on a dime. Eventually, it did slow down, but it took a while, and for a time there, the guys in the Helo Shop with me felt like a one legged man in an ass kicking contest. Maintenance wise, it was actually preferred (for a time) to deploy with one helo and 2 or 3 guys than to be back at the station, where you may be the only Mech assigned to do a 30 day inspection or swap out an engine. Which is why, as a big believer in take your enjoyment where you can, I would espouse the joy of Alternate Work-sites. And I am not talking about avoiding work , slacking, or hiding. I would step up and stay late or work through lunch whenever it was needed to get the Helos on the line. I am talking about legitimate Air Station business that has to be done, just away from the Helo Shop or Hanger Deck. Be it a trip to the Dunker in Pensacola, Wet Drills training at the pool or the beach, a Habitat for Humanity build, or a Air Station 5K, any chance to have a day of work out of the shop had the potential for fun. These pics are a few of those good times where we were able to work on jobs other that the helo. Although I am not sure Antony felt his ride in the SWET Chair was much fun at the time. One time that I remember as an awesome break from the madness was on a quiet duty night, Ian Powell and I set up a projector and the Wii in the hanger, and played Wii Tennis on the 40 foot Hanger Doors with 20 foot guys running around. Eventually, things slowed down to where you would expect a 5 helo unit should be, but that time of too many flights, too much maintenance, and too few people will always stand out as the busiest year or two of my career.
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 02:41:29 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015