A New Direction

Emma and Daddy inside a Gas Turbine Module

One typical day last year  I was driving home and called my mom because I needed someone to talk to. At the time, I was working 7 days a week from 5AM 'til 9PM getting ready for a big inspection called "INSURV"----Board of Inspection and Survey (This is one of those inspections where COs and XOs and CHENGs get fired when things don't go well. The INSURV Team makes a report to Congress and basically states that USS XXXXXXX either is or isn't fit for sea duty still. It's a big deal. For 4-5 months after I returned from deployment last August, one day after another felt like a miserable groundhog's day. My job was sucking the life out of me. As I dialed Mom I looked down the empty black highway, I was certain nobody in America appreciated what the Sailors of FARRAGUT did---were doing, FOR THEM. Nobody. Somewhere in the mix of that phone call my mom mentioned that my younger brother, Edward, asked, "What does Daniel do again.?" I should note that I had been commissioned 9 years at that point, and counting my Army ROTC and Naval Academy days, had been in the military 15 years. So maybe the Navy does a bad job of selling itself. This is my attempt to sell America on what we do, what I do. This blog is so my brother, Edward, never has to ask, "Mom, what does Daniel do again?" You can laugh at me. I do a lot of stupid things. You can cry with us. This job wears on me and the family at times. And you can curse the vile name of INSURV with me. Maybe you'll learn something new.

This blog is going to be about the life and times of a Chief Engineer, his beautiful wife, and their three children in Jacksonville, Florida. Inspired by my Army buddy, Kyle, I want to engage the American public about what the Navy does, specifically the Surface Navy, and what I do as a Chief Engineer...I hope you enjoy learning about my narrow slice of the Navy with plenty of personal vignettes mixed in, too.  I haven't removed a lot of old content that was family-centric, but from here on out it will be more my personal day to day life, not that I won't write plenty about my family---we're all in this together. Not much here right now---just wanted to re-focus the blog. There will be much more to follow in the coming days as I leave home tomorrow...I will be gone for most of the next 18 months. This is Navy life. This is the life of a SWO. This is a CHENG's life.  This is my life. Enjoy.