Someone Worthy of Honor

He can't bring down the house with his voice, but he is truly worthy of honor: Chief Warrant Officer Christopher G Stern.

CWO4 Chris Stern on left, my former AUXO, ENS Russ Allen on right after  the retirement ceremony

Chris retired from the Navy on Friday after 28 years of honorably and faithful service to this nation.

First, let me explain how a good Engineering Department on a warship works. You have the Chief Engineer---I played that role in FARRAGUT. You have my senior enlisted member, a Senior Chief, my "Top Snipe."  Senior McKenzie and Senior Chief Fellin both played the role for me extremely well. Then you have the MPA---Main Propulsion Assistant.  MPA is usually a commissioned warrant officer or LDO. He's my right-hand man. If I'm providing a standard and a vision, and my Top Snipe is covering training and personnel issues, then MPA is the technical expert and glue that holds it all together.  I am a firm believer that an Engineering Department cannot be great, cannot excel without all three members in synergy.  There are 68 Sailors that are counting on our ability to lead them.

That high standard that I wanted, that project that I needed done, being the bad guy, discipline and order, enforcing my standard---that was Chris Stern. He was the  finest MPA I could have ever imagined or hoped to have with me.  He was my confidante---he could sense when I needed to vent. He could read my emotions.  He knew when the CO had irked me. When I was stuck in a meeting, he knew what my priorities were without asking and acted on them.  He knew when to shut up and let me blow and he was unafraid to rebuke me in private when I was wrong.  And when I had unpopular news for my Sailors---lighting off the plant on Sunday morning, bringing the guys in to work a weekend in preparation for an inspection, he backed me without flinching and ensured the department was onboard. In short, he was a true teammate, and even better friend.

Often my Chiefs and Sailors would complain to me about him. "CHENG, he's too anal with logs." "CHENG, he won't shut up about QA." "He wouldn't let me tag this out."  "MPA always tells me to get my feet off the console." "He's always yelling about the mess in the logroom or CCS."  My response? Always a big smile---He did all the little dirty work that made my job easier.  People don't always like being held to a high standard. It's always easier to be easy on yourself.  That wasn't Chris' way.  He lived by the highest standard.  He was a Chief Engineer's dream. His integrity was impeccable and his work ethic tireless.

Chris---I salute you for your service.  You're a hell of a great man.  I'm proud to always call you 'Shipmate'.  Try to enjoy retirement a little before you get right back to work.  Fair winds and Following Seas.

Your CHENG and Friend,
Dan

A long-standing Navy tradition-the retirement shadow box. It contains all his ranks rising from an enlisted fireman to the Chief's Mess, the picked up for commission rising to the Chief Warrant Officer 4. All his medals are displayed, too.


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What is Love?

Valentine's Day is a contrived commercial holiday. One cannot deny that fact. But whether it's Valentine's Day or just a Tuesday, I don't need an excuse to tell my wife how much I love her. Joy shouldn't have to be alone on Valentine's Day. I should be able to surprise her with flowers, a night out, maybe a nice dinner at home, a bottle of wine, treats. Ah, but that's not the way it works for us. Nothing says "I love you" like T-D-Y. TDY stands for Temporary Duty Assignment...oh, except maybe deployment...but that's NEXT Valentine's Day...So, I'm separated from my wife by one completely redundant, 3x over, engineering course and 1182 miles...when I want to be holding her, I'm sitting in a hotel room. This is our life. I'm thankful for Joy. Eternally thankful. She epitomizes what so many of our military wives do: she truly "keeps the home fires burning." Yes, I miss her. I miss the kids. But while I'm lonely, she is taking Aiden to karate, home-schooling Emma, consoling an ever-teething Madaline. Her life screams, "I love you." So I don't know if you can hear me 1182 miles away, but Joy, "I LOVE YOU MORE."

Lastly, if you haven't seen the previews, there is a bad-a movie coming out titled, "Act of Valor." It's a fictional movie of real Navy SEAL missions. The cool part: it's played by actual Navy SEALs. It looks like the best action/war movie ever. Check out this red carpet entrance for the Hollywood premiere last night in L.A. It's unreal. The entrance (jump) is performed by a member of the Navy SEALs' Parachute Demonstration Team, the Leap Frogs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ-VWJjVoZ8

Dan

Dinner with a real Mother-_____ tonight

To be clear, I'm not just being profane...one of my officers has the surname Jones.  Stevie "Wonder" Jones. After the recent movie, "Horrible Bosses" Mr. Jones received a new nickname in the Wardroom (group of officers on the ship). If you've seen the movie, you get it. If not, sorry. Nobody ever said we were known for our tame mouths in the Navy. With the promise of no more profanity, please keep reading. And yes, Stevie has graciously allowed me to tell on him and share his nickname with the world.

Ensign Stevie Jones stars as Mr. M.F. Jones in "Horrible Bosses"

One of my DIVOs (division officers) is up here in Newport, RI, finishing up several weeks of what we now call "Baby SWOS." We call it "Baby SWOS"  because it's only 3-4 weeks as opposed to the 6 month version me and most of my peers enjoyed after graduation and commissioning. I've run into this officer a few times during our overlapping visits. He drops by the engineering classroom like a good divo to check on his old boss. We've had a beer or two at the O'Club. And prior to his graduation on Friday, we planned to have a nice dinner.

I really enjoyed this dinner because it reminded me of one of the things I enjoy most about being a leader, an officer in charge of others. I like the mentorship part, the interaction with people. I always have. Whether it was as a salty (sarcasm) 2nd tour division officer training brand new 1st tour division officers during my divo days, or certainly as a Dept Head with 68 people working for me, I've enjoyed this aspect of the job immensely.

Stevie "Wonder" and I had a nice dinner. We discussed different career options, jobs, billets, different ship platforms, which I liked, why, and there was even time to tell a few sea stories about back when I was a silly reckless Ensign, too. There might even have been a mention of the Pacific Island Club and...climbing, my ANTIETAM shipmates. To the point, it reminded me how much I cherish the opportunity to have Officers that I call my own. Officers in whom I have a stake in how their careers shape up and turn out, and more importantly, their lives. I take great pride in whatever small role I can play in shaping their lives. I cherish the opportunity to serve them. The E6 standing watch next to me as Tactical Action Officer in the wee hours of the night out at sea, the young fireman with a new baby at home, the Sailor going through a divorce, the talks with my Engineers on duty days, the young officer trying to figure out his career and if this Navy thing is for him---I love the people part of the job. It has made some of the toughest days not just bearable but fun.

It's an honor and it's always refreshing.

Because I can

So turns out it is hard following your own advice, sound as it may be. As it turns out, the four of us wise, somewhat jaded Chief Engineers feed each others' sour feelings and malcontent. There's only so much you can listen to a know-it-all GSE1. No offense, Mike. But the day is over. I've worked out. I feel better every day. I'm losing tons of weight. And...I finally got that Harpoon IPA in my hand. Life is good.

Oh, and I'm writing this from a pub on my iPhone...because I can.

Somebody Has a Case of the Mondays...

That was my day, or at least my morning. Class was intolerably boring. I became supremely frustrated with having to be at  the same course for the third time, burdened with the pain of having to "play the game" and drill for ATG, frustrated with the utterly chaotic instruction during our trainer period. Frustrated by the instructor telling me my Engineering Operational Casualty Control book was the old one. Perturbed when I asked him, "May I have a new one?" that he replied they were out. I-----DID-----NOT-----WANT----to be there today.

I had a much better afternoon. I talked to Joy and vented a bit.. As only a Navy wife can, she listened, encouraged, and effortlessly made me feel better about things. After class I spent 4.5 miles on the treadmill and burned another 1000 plus calories. I'm looking forward to my next weigh-in on Friday. Right now I'm down almost 16 lbs since Joy started our family on a Paleo diet about 3 weeks ago. I've been able to continue very careful and mostly healthy meals up here. So, after a modest dinner, I decided maybe I would have a beer or two back in my hotel room. Long story, short, Package store on based closed, the NEX was closed, and I quickly gave up my efforts. I wanted to give myself a little treat, something to enjoy while I watched television tonight.

 I wanted this:

I settled for this: 

Ladies and gentlemen, Pepsi doesn't satisfy. It's just not as good as Coke. I just felt like I was betraying my Georgia roots.

Two morals today. Life is a test. It is temporary. It's not about me. Don't let things give you a case of the Mondays. This isn't the prize.

Lastly, if you're going to give yourself a treat with two-hundred empty calories, commit to it! A glass of wine or a frosty pint of Harpoon IPA cannot be replaced by soda, especially a Pepsi.

Smiling Eyes

I don't know what I'm going to do today. It's too cold to do anything outside. I'll probably go run at the gym. I have some laundry going. But what about the other 22 hours of the day? I don't know, but I do know how I started my day.

Joy woke me up (yes, Dear, I was still sleeping at 0930---there have to be some benefits to TDY travel, right?).  We went to "Facetime" on our I-phones and Madaline, my youngest, greeted me with the  biggest smile I could have imagined and proceeded to serenade me for 3-4 minutes with a thunderous, boisterous performance of "Da-Da!!! Da-da!! DA-DA!!!!"  Smiling from ear to hear the whole time. I was, too.

So I don't know what I'll do today. But I know it will be filled with the extra joy and love that little girl put in my heart this morning.

Thanks, Maddie pie. Daddy loves you, too.

Madaline this past winter at Fernandina Beach playground

They're just little babies...

My study chair

So I've finished my first week of Cruiser Prospective Engineer Officer School/Advanced Engineering. Here's what I can report: You still have to draw lots of system diagrams. Propeller blades still  move when the OD box receives an electric signal to the electro-hydraulic servo  valve, "control" oil is ported into the OD box fwd or aft of the aux servo piston, that actuates the valve rod assembly that runs the length of the shaft to the Hub assembly, the valve rod positions the reg valve pin, this positioning introduces "power" oil to the hub fwd or aft chamber to the Main Servo Piston, the main servo piston pushes the crosshead, crosshead moves the sliding block, sliding block moves the eccentric pin, and the eccentric pin moves the propeller blade...

I know, hold your excitement. I was excited to learn it, too...for the fourth time. So anyway, week 1 is in the  books. I'm studying a lot probably because I don't know how to just relax and not study...that being said, diagrams do come back easier, though they are slightly different from ship to ship, and for me, always are a wretched chore to get every little valve and system parameter correct.

This is a drawing of a Fuel-oil system. I have to produce about of 4 like this every week.

It's interesting...there are 4 of us CHENGs in this class. The other 8-9 students are all young...YOUNG officers...leaving their first division officer tour going to be 2nd tour engineering officers for other CHENGs. I've been in 10 years...they've been in ten minutes. They're just little babies...The four of us 2nd tour CHENGs sit in the back, swap CHENG stories from our first DH  tours, how tough our LOAs were, who did better at INSURV, who's CO was craziest, and generally ignore the curriculum.  We try to pull as much useful info out of the instructors as we can while these young officers fret over rpm and numbers for a GTM Start Sequence. In other words....yeah, yeah, yeah...cruiser, smart ship, new plant....whatever. For us, we want to know what material issues do they have? what evolutions do watchstanders cheat on? where does x or y leak? why is this a class-wide issue? I saw this on a DDG, have you seen this on a cruiser? What areas need greater attention in walk-arounds?  Tell me what REALLY matters. I guess that's the wisdom gleaned from 18 previous months learning, toiling, and figuring out how to succeed. I don't care about numbers, parameters, new systems... Of course any good officer, especially a CHENG, should be technically competent. At the end of the day, though, I want to know how to make my ship excel. Period. Standards. Leadership. A solid plan. Understanding your milestones during your tour. Learning a ship's rhythm. sticking with yours.  Sure, I love sitting and explaining to a young junior officer how I can reverse thrust with the Controllable Reversible Pitch Propeller system without changing the direction of shaft rotation. In the heat of it, for the success of my ship and my department, that doesn't mean jack. You have to lead. You have to motivate. You have to understand people and what the real issues are on a cruiser, or any ship or in your sailors' lives. You have to learn your Captain and communicate to him. Communicate clearly to your Sailors. No doubt I'm learning more and more, and polishing the things I learned the previous 3 times in this course. But I find myself anxious to get to a real ship, figure out what hand I'm dealt, and get going. Mission accomplishment. That's what I love about engineering...the more it changes, the more it stays the same.

Postscript: I've run into several classmates up here for Prospective Commanding Officer School---these are others who were also selected for Early Command (command smaller ships as an O3 or O4). Fortunately for them, they were slated to a Patrol Craft or Mine-Counter Measure Ship. Me----well, I obviously didn't get slated, hence the name "Cruiser Cheng" for this blog and not "PC Command" or the like. "Timing didn't work," as my detailer said. It's all big-navy timing, ship timing, and a myriad of other complicated personal factors well out of my lane and reach. This happens. 9 of us were screened for early command, and the 5-6 with the favorable timing got the billets. This isn't a major career milestone. O5, Commander-Command is the career milestone. I can't stop my career path waiting for a PC to open up. So I didn't get a PC ride. Those are the breaks. It's a little tough to see good friends and peers enjoying the thrill of getting command so early. Naturally, I was initially envious when I saw them around the building, but, I know that is what they're meant to do. On the flip side, I know in the end, this is the path God put me on. This is what I'm supposed to do. That makes me content. So I'll do it the best I can. I'll get to where I want to be one day. I believe that. And this is part of that journey. Until then, I'll be down below decks walking my plant. I'm a CHENG...and I love that.

 Newport Chalet. This is my home for 5 weeks. It's not bad except for the paper thin walls.

Gym 109. Here's what's fun about Newport: it's different, new roads, new buildings here and there, but it's always the same. This is my 4th time here either stationed or TDY...Gym 109 has been a fixture for me since I showed up as a newly-minted Ensign in June 2002...and it will probably still be standing strong the NEXT time I come here!