At mail call today, there was an Amazon.com package for me. I was confused- the books I'd ordered had arrived on Monday, so this must be a surprise present from someone! Yay! Material Things=Love!

So I popped it open, and discovered six CDs and a book. I'd ordered them a good two months ago, but they'd been on backorder. So this was all stuff I bought and paid for. But hey, it was a surprise anyway, because my mind is getting fried from excessive stress and lack of sleep!

I unplugged Sgt R_'s iPod from the stereo and dropped in what I figured would be the two most "normal" CDs from the order. Reaction was poor. No one liked Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash by the Pogues, and then a near riot broke out from Prairie Home Invasion by Jello Biafra and Mojo Nixon. I can't complain I guess, because with Biafra and Nixon, riots are part of the charm.

Anyway, my part of the inspection is done. Other shops and programs are still under the microscope, but my program and my shop were done as of close of business yesterday. The shop took some hits, but I understand that we're good enough to stay in business, we just have to correct some things before the followup re-inspection in a couple of weeks.

The squadron as a whole might be in trouble, though. An inspector caught a new guy from flightline working with a toolbox that was not properly checked out. That will probably put the squadron's tool control program off-track, which will shut down all maintenance and flight until the inspectors are satisfied that we've corrected our collective case of idiocy.

The poor officer in charge of the tool control program has spent all day looking like someone shot his dog. There's not much he could have done to prevent that problem; the new guy had just arrived here, so his bad habits come from the schoolhouse, and correcting them was the responsibility of the flightline shop NCOs. But being an officer means being responsible for problems that you couldn't reasonably forsee. He's been joking that since he's about to get fired, he's got an interview lined up with with the Soylent Green Corporation Human Resources Department.

Posted by: Boviate at 04:58 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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I've been kind of quiet recently, because I'm working way too many hours. Last week we went through a Functional Area Inspection, in which our squadron is inspected to ensure that we are following procedures and programs that apply to all Marine Corps units. So there were uniform inspections, weigh-ins, checking our service record books, I got to do a gas mask inspection, all that kind of stuff. We worked crazy hours to make sure we passed.

Then we worked the weekend, getting ready for this week's fun, the Aviation Logistics Inspection. These inspectors are making sure that our aviation program is following all the directives, procedures, rules, and orders that we should be. So while last week was long and annoying, this week is hell. All of our paperwork is being combed through my a team of very senior Staff NCOs, the kind of guys that know exactly which closets tend to have skeletons.

I've been working so long because I personally run one of the programs being inspected. It's my first inspection, so I didn't know what to get right for it, so all I could do was put in stupid hours and try to make everything perfect.

Well, this afternoon the gunny inspecting my program finished. He said it was outstanding. No discrepencies of any kind found. And instead of just blandly putting "No discrepencies" in the report, he told me that he'd specifically mention my program as being outstandingly managed, and recommend me for an award.

Woo hoo! I am so happy, I'm almost not bitter anymore about giving up a week of leave for this!

Posted by: Boviate at 04:19 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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