Logistics Specialists

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This is mostly just so I can post some photos of me and my guys on the ship, but there is a story behind the photos. I will talk a little about that. For you non-military types, well, a ship is broken down into department that work (hopefully) like a well-oiled machine. There is Operations, Deck, Air, Engineering, Navigation, a few others... and then there is Supply. I seriously think they took everything else they couldn't find a normal department to run and made it supply. Food, mail, repair parts, consumable materials, ship's store, laundry. You name it, Supply takes care of it. If you need to find mocha starbucks coffee for the Admiral while you're steaming in the North Arabian Gulf, or maybe Diet Dr. Pepper is his/her fave drink, a Supply team can get it there somehow. It's like magic.

Supply consists of postal workers, cooks/stewards, ship's servicemen (barbers/launderers), and storekeepers. On my ship, I only have storekeepers, historically in charge of "store keeping". Makes sense, right? Well, they also take care of the financial side of acquiring and distributing those stores too. Not to bore anyone, but with the downsizing of the Navy, everyone is trying to come up with ways to align groups of enlisted ratings to go towards a more occupationally-diverse and streamlined group. The latest merge was taking the postal workers and store keepers and making them into a group called Logistics Specialists (or LS). Sure, I agree that Supply is all about logistics, but there is always so much discord when a group loses their rating. It's like saying I'm a military officer and not a Naval officer. While true, there seems to be so much more meaning to the latter for me.

I think the big whigs finally got something right though, they started a whole new rate, instead of now calling the postal workers store keepers too. That helped ease the sting a little, though I know the postal guys aren't very happy, they have a lot of catching up to do with the education required of a LS.

At any rate, we celebrated the occasion on board with a cake and some photos. Here are my guys... and yes, I can say that. I've always been and will continue to be the only female military member on board during my tenure. It doesn't bother me, I like being able to say "my guys" and mean it.

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Photos

The Cake
Though spelled wrong, Chief Steward rocked the cake out.