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This may apply to between zero and one of you, but just in case.. If you're a 3910 who has taken and passed your GPC assessment(s) (Fundamentals or IA-II) and don't have your hardcopy certificate or pin (not suitable for uniform wear) yet shoot me a PM or email gpc@nmic.navy.mil. I'll either mail them to your command (or personal address if you have deuced out since taking it) or we can make other arrangements. If you're a 3910 and none of that made sense check http://www.cool.navy.mil/usn/search/CERT_GPC6155.htm. The email address on that entry is garbo so send any questions to gpc@nmic.navy.mil instead.
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Feb 17, 2017 06:22
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| # ¿ May 1, 2024 06:28 |
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piL posted:What should I do in Pattaya for the full Navy experience? If you get overnight don't bring poo poo with you. Just buy everything ashore as your goal should be to look like a German tourist. If its your first time go experience the chaos and majesty that is Walking Street. Buy a couple of bottles of Mekong Whisky, a bottle of 7up/Sprite, and a backback (if you don't buy the backpack and just walk around with a bottle of Mekong the Thai people will loose their goddamn minds and your walk will turn into a parade). Unless you really need a shittily made redbull shirt, just leave everything behind when you depart. Before we pulled in there for the first time I had heard so much about Pattaya and of course I thought it was mostly bullshit. Our LPO had been talking the most poo poo and had the craziest stories so we decided to hang with him for the day (mistake). We also booked the same hotel as him (mistake). We get off the bus and start walking towards the Walking street area and my first impressions were that it was hot, the beach looked sketchy, the utility poles were a goddamn explosion waiting to happen, and that it wasn't as crazy as it was made out to be. I should also point out that since I was on the Blue Ridge, we weren't a huge crew, and of course we pulled in by ourselves so we were the only sailors in town. In Thailand, at least Pattaya, they have this bar set up where you will have one large roofed area with open sides that has tons of small bars dispersed through it (sometimes with a boxing ring). So as we get to the first one, and the first sailors foot crosses the threshold on the sidewalk that allowed them to spot us, all loving hell broke loose. These bar girls started banging bells, yelling, and just losing their goddamn minds. Chicks were up on bars flashing us and screaming out in detail what they would do it us. It was loving bonkers, and this was at like 2 in the afternoon on a weekday. Everything my LPO said was true. Every story, in all of its disgusting detail, was accurate and ultimately verified by the locals (who all knew him, like seriously everyone shady in Pattaya knew him). All of it. The hotel he booked us at did away with the sprites in the fridge and throw pillows and instead had dildos on the dresser and a sex swing above the bed. Site TV was the bar downstairs and you could order drinks and ladies to your room. But ultimately my favorite memories of Pattaya were finding a mamasan and letting her know that me and my buddies just wanted to drink and eat some good food and not be bothered by barfines. We would sit at the bar and make it look busy while we drank, smoked cigars, and ordered out for good food. We would try to pick one on the corner so we could people watch and enjoy the fresh air. Our other favorite thing to do was to book a drive/scuba trip with Mermaids (http://www.mermaidsdivecenter.com) and spend the day out on the water. They always took great care of us and would let everyone have a good safe time. The lunch they cooked for us was on point too. Seriously, just get the gently caress out of Pattaya and enjoy the country especially the food.
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Jun 5, 2017 21:47
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I think there are good Chiefs and notionally understand that there could be good chiefs messes but to me the biggest issue that culture brings is that it robs the Navy of the tech expertise the other branches have. I have only dealt with IS and CT types but it seems like having a technically proficient e7 or e8 is the exception rather than the rule. It really sucks for the IS’s because they usually shunt back and forth between NECs because billeting is broken so by the time they show up to their Imagery coded billet as a chief they haven’t actually touched an ELT since they were an e4 right out of “C” school. Then you also have to take into account all of the e6s who slide off the watchbills so they can take on 50 collaterals to look good for board. That then forces a few e5s to eat the technical supervisor roles the e6s bailed on. You end up leaving an increasingly smaller window for sailors to actually do what we trained them for. Some of the technical proficiency should come from our warrant community but that is uhhh uneven at best.
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Jan 17, 2018 05:10
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Get the orders written to staff not ships company. NGA had one of their recent enlisted ship riders pulled out of MSI and put in supplot because the ship needed an extra watchstander.
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Mar 4, 2018 13:36
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Anyone ever fly between Bahrain and Naples? I don't imagine that's a super common transition but my team can't be the first. I'm putting together a trip this spring out to 5th and 6th fleets and the transition from Bahrain to Naples is looking super fun. Expedia and Kayak default you to switching planes in either Istanbul, Baghdad, Damascus, or Moscow. As fun as some of those would be for SF-86s, I'm thinking maybe Frankfurt or Paris? I'm free from the shackles of DTS so I can book however I want as long as its cheap economy and utilizing US carriers whenever possible (not really possible here).
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Mar 8, 2018 23:27
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For some reason Damneck was always my favorite base to run on. Maybe its because I went from the furnace of China Lake before and the 8000% humidity of Japan after, but I liked early morning runs there.
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Mar 29, 2018 15:14
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Stultus Maximus posted:Heading to Japan on AT this summer. What's the best solution for cell phone? When I go over on business trips or the wife and kids go for the summer we just rent a pocket-wifi device and use our existing phones. Rather than cell calls we just do wifi calls over skype/facebook/line/etc. Last year we paid about $165 for 60 days (plus insurance) of use. You obviously don't get a phone number but we never needed one and the ability to connect a few phones/devices at once was nice.
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May 7, 2018 20:00
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Anyone been to Naples and have any suggestions for places to eat/stuff to do? Only there for a week and not really sure what our schedule will be like so I kind of want to skip learning on my own where the avoid at all costs touristy type stuff is. The week before we'll be in Bahrain (during Ramadan no less  ) so drinking will obviously be important.
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May 24, 2018 22:42
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Thanks everyone. We're going to end up flying in on a Friday and having the weekend off so we'll hit Rome on Saturday and then try for Capri or Sorrento on Sunday. Herculaneum seems relatively close so we'll try that on a week day if we get off early.
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May 25, 2018 03:34
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So as I wrap up my first trip to Bahrain all I can say is how much respect I have for any of you that have actually had to spend a year or more here. It is so much worse than I had ever imagined. I guess my biggest takeaway is that it basically seems like one huge retarded all star / celebrity softball game. Some folks are trying hard, others are just showing their face, a few are hanging with their buds, and the rest are Carrot Top. Because of the generally short term orders like 90% of every shop I dealt with was either in their CMS window or had a huge case of short timer syndrome.
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May 31, 2018 14:29
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Big thanks for the suggestions of things to do in Italy. I booked an eight hour small group tour (with lunch) of the Almalfi Coast on viator (100 bux per person) and it was probably one of the best tours I have ever done. We were picked up at our hotel so we didn’t have to mess with a train, taxi, or tour bus and then we hit a few cities along the coast. Really great experience so thanks again.
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Jun 7, 2018 20:08
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Ok Korea goons, good job but Kim said they're going to be good now so you might as well start packing to come back. The long tyranny of UFL/UFG is over.
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Jun 12, 2018 15:53
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CMD598 posted:In other news 7th fleet actually managed to pull into Manila, for once. Third times a charm I guess. One time when we pulled out of Manila we were somehow out of the sealane and hosed up like 5nm of folks fishing nets and other assorted aquaculture. We had a bunch of banka boats chasing us until the Marines got topside. #justblueridgethings
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Jun 28, 2018 16:55
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maffew buildings posted:Alternatively, it is fun to point at things on the Japanese menu with no pictures for an adventure eating surprise I did this in Yokohama one time with the old ticket machines that didn't have pictures. I thought it was a beef bowl type place but it was actually a fish eggs on rice type place. That was not as enjoyable as beef bowl.
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Jul 6, 2018 18:45
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I always feel bad for the kids sent directly from imagery “C” school to NGA headquarters in Springfield. The billion +++ dollar building with its massive foodcourt, ultra modern design, and systems and software that are a decade ahead of the fleet may not be preparing them well for their eventual follow on sea duty. They will have a baller resume though.
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Aug 16, 2018 01:07
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Nick Soapdish posted:Tell that to the Imagery dude that got sent cranking. I still feel bad that those ONI and Fallon Get guys got hosed since they checked into the ship and not the PHIBRON. Too bad I was the senior enlisted for N2 as a IS1 and the ship had a Senior Chief. It has been explained to NGA that going forward they should never let “their” sailors leave the building with orders to anything other than staff. As far as the FIDs go, I think NAVIFOR has kind of set the edge so ships know not to mess with those teams as much anymore. I do know of the occasional sailor that has been offered as sacrifice to crank since they were deemed useless by their teammates.
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Aug 16, 2018 12:06
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Where does he want liberty/to live? Florida (IWO) or Japan (CSG5)? Or to put it another way, 1st world (Japan) or 3rd world (Florida)? Also if he has access to websked tell him to just look at the (projected) deployment cycles for the Regan and Iwo Jima and see what that means for his situation.
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Nov 21, 2018 18:42
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DustyNuts posted:Always go overseas if there's an opportunity to do it. The experience changes your life and really broadens your perspective of civilization and what it means to be a citizen of the US and the world. And I'm serious about that! * unless it’s Chinae or Bahrain as a first term sailor
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Nov 22, 2018 01:58
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https://www.nga.mil/MediaRoom/PressReleases/Pages/Sharp-confirmed-as-next-NGA-director.aspxquote:SPRINGFIELD, Virginia – The Senate confirmed Navy Rear Adm. Robert Sharp for promotion to vice admiral and the Defense Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence selected him as the next director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Looks like the Navy is taking over the worst of the Combat Support Agencies. Go us!
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Dec 26, 2018 21:48
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Red Crown posted:I got to meet him once, he seemed like a pretty genuine person. Also, the fact that you don't hear grumblings about him is...good, there have been previous DNIs that "everyone knows about." He seems like a nice guy to me. I'm not a fan of him playing DJ once a week and talking for 15 minutes and then blasting a song over the intercom but at least he's trying to interact with the troops. I don't envy him the new position though.
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Dec 27, 2018 06:33
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I was there TAD last year and followed all the advice from the thread to my great benefit. The only thing I'd add is that the Alibus was so much easier for moving between the airport and central station (where our hotel was). It was like four or five euro and you can just buy your ticket on the bus. It has its own lanes so it was also way faster (and less sketch) than a taxi (and easier to show proof for on travel report). I also booked a semi-private van tour for the Almafi coast on Viator and it was just awesome. The van picked us up at our hotel and took us to a few cities along the coast and a spot for lunch. The lunch spot was so so but everything else was awesome and we had more than enough to see the sites. We didn't have to deal with catching a train and a public bus so we were able to really enjoy our time and not worry about trying to get back. The last thing I'd add is that on the last Sunday of every month the museums in Rome (maybe elsewhere too?) are free so it's pretty crazy. We still booked a walking audio tour which basically turned into front of the line privileges which ended up being worth it since 3098430926820968 people were in line for the Coliseum.
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Jan 30, 2019 19:57
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As a former FDNF sailor, I knew that things were rough out there, but wow that second Propublica article (https://features.propublica.org/navy-accidents/us-navy-crashes-japan-cause-mccain) really highlights how institutionally screwed the Navy is. Other than firing all of the old brass into the sun, what's the fix? Some new ships/capabilities are certainly needed, but it seems everything circles back to manpower. The article alluded to the U.S. based ships being "green/set" on manpower, but is that even true? On the IW side of the house, I'm kind of seeing a similar trend with leadership buying more equipment and rogering up for mission their troops can't possibly sustain. The Navy is wanting to get (deeper) into the ISR gunclub and is getting ready to field Triton and a few other programs but haven't really carved out any manpower to actually do the GEOINT screening and analysis. Since there isn't really a central location to do it they're going to end up with little pockets of K10As trying to read it out and getting smoked since they don't have the Air Force manpower numbers to actually rotate folks on and off every three hours. Instead some Chief at a ground site is going to tell his kids to suck it up and then melt them the gently caress down by having them watch the ocean for 12 hours straight.
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Feb 16, 2019 00:27
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| # ¿ May 1, 2024 06:28 |
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Given the facts that the Blue Ridge just came out of a two year plus maintenance period which ran well over 50 million and other than the Mount Whitney, there is literally no other ship left in the Navy that can fulfill that function (or seat so much staff) I highly doubt it. I was on there in 2004 and when BLR went into DSRA, they brought the Coronado over for 7th fleet to use. Now that the Coronado and LaSalle are reefs there aren't any backups either. I'm wondering if the geedunk rumor mills wires got crossed on the Wasp/America swap out.
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May 29, 2019 14:11
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