Onward to Brazil

It’s been a while since I’ve written in here, but we have been busy since Martinique. Holiday routine again today. I had watch from 3-8 a.m., and decided to go back to bed after I got off. I was woken up an hour later to attend a meeting that nobody told me about, but I had to be there. It’s a big no-no to have meetings Sunday morning, but our new Captain doesn’t care much for crew morale, it seems. The meeting was about what we would do to conduct stationing drills tomorrow.
Ships sailing in station had their origins back in the age of sail, when big wooden ships had cannons on their sides and propelled themselves with wind power. Back then, ships would fight each other in close proximity, and tactics were largely based on how the ships were positioned. Ships would try to position themselves to have favorable winds, as well as exposing their cannons on their sides to shoot at the other ships. It required complex maneuvers to ensure success. The best admirals and captains in that time period could train their fleets and ships to execute formations by raising different flags on the Admiral’s ship (aptly called the “Flag Ship”—a term we still use today for ships where leadership is embarked). Back then, ships moving to station quickly was a life and death evolution, and something that navies practiced assiduously.
Nowadays, instead of raising flags, we pass code over radios, and we have to decode it to determine what the other ships want you to do. We still practice stationing to defend carriers in an attack situation—we position ourselves strategically around the carriers to protect them. It’s a fairly simple process once you understand it, especially how it will be tomorrow—with only 3 ships (instead of 15) and no carriers launching airplanes around you.
As Junior Officers, we’re accustomed to stationing ships and determining how to maneuver the ship to go where we want to go—we do it on a daily basis and are intimately familiar with how the ship moves, the same way you get to know how your car handles and responds after driving it for some time. For this new Captain, he doesn’t seem to understand the ease with which we conduct these drills. He even created a watch bill with every junior officer on it. We’ll each drive the ship for 18 minutes to “get practice.” Hopefully we end up doing something when I am driving the ship for those 18 minutes.
We pull into Salvador, Brazil later this week. I’ll try to make an update on the port when we pull in. We lost two more softballs today stupidly trying to play catch in the rough seas, and we’re out of baseballs and softballs. We're down to playing catch with apples, so if you have any baseballs, please send them our way.
Also, please e-mail me ( wrayj@ffg43.navy.mil ). I feel so out of the loop out here-it's hard to stay in touch with reality, the news, friends and family, so I like to hear from you!