A few weeks ago I posted about TWIC, the new identification system for mariners from the TSA. I picked up my TWIC card here at school today. The TSA has come to us to do enrollment and delivery, which has been very convenient as it keeps us from having to travel to get it. This week they’ve been back on campus delivering TWIC cards that have been created and ready for use.
The Photo of the Week for this week was taken in Falmouth last Sunday. Nobska Light in the Fog: Lighthouses are a significant part of the maritime industry, as well as the Coast Guard. Since this one is so close to MMA, it seemed like a logical one to pick.
This week the 1st class cadets in license majors are taking their Coast Guard license exams. The exams last all week, and are given in the gym. Since four years of school and training has been leading up to these exams, it’s obviously a stressful time for these seniors. This week is different for all cadets. We have “short mofo” in the morning, which means that instead of forming up across the entire parade field, we form up in a half circle around the patio by the mess deck.
This week’s Photo of the Week is a picture that I actually took - gasp - this week! It’s a photograph of an 87’ Coast Guard cutter passing the Mass Maritime campus as it heads east through the Cape Cod Canal. Since I’m planning on going into the Coast Guard, I get pretty excited when I see Coast Guard vessels and aircraft around campus, and this was no exception.
Peter Mello over at Sea-Fever found a service that translates whatever ye type into scurvy pirate shout. It gunna also message your scurvy pirate message directly to twittArrr, PirateSpace, or send an e-mail. I can see myself usin’ this a lot, fer no reason at all. Avast!
Mass Maritime has a multi-layer chain of command, due to the co-existence of cadet and staff officers and leaders. I’ve created an overview of the chain of command below. Staff Officers President of the Academy Vice Presidents Commandant of Cadets Vice Commandant of Cadets Company Officers Cadet Officers Regimental Commander Regimental Executive Officer Regimental Staff Company Commanders Company Executive Officers Company Staff Platoon Leaders Squad Leaders Petty Officers Fourth Class Cadets
Even though I’m a Deckie, I like to broaden my own field of knowledge by getting involved with things from other departments as well. Currently the International Maritime Business department is offering a 3 part series on how to build your own PC. Being interested in computers, and having built PCs before, I was curious to see what this was all about and what they were using to do it.
The Photo of the Week for this week was taken from my room last semester. This is a RoRo (Roll-On Roll-Off) vehicle carrier ship, passing the Mass Maritime campus transiting the Cape Cod Canal. Notice how, even from my elevated angle on the 04 deck, it towers over everything on campus, including the Bresnahan Building (the one with the glass front), with a height of more than 3 stories!
We had a helicopter land on the parade field today, and do some low altitude flying over the campus. It was doing surveying and research for a new experimental low-power RADAR system to integrate with the wind turbine. The system is intended to automatically control the aviation indicator lights on the top of the windmill, so that they can be turned on and off depending on whether aircraft are in the area.
Today I had my whaleboat qual (short for qualification). We’re tested on the boat and line handling procedures we’ve been learning for the past couple of weeks, on a points system for various stages of the operation. The procedure was the same as it’s been while we’ve been practicing - undocking, maneuvering outboard of the Enterprise, making an approach, and docking again. This time, however, we were making a starboard landing (starboard side of the boat against the dock) instead of a port landing, which was how we’d been practicing.
