And she is off!

[BackInTex]

After a month or so of back and forth Katie was finally been sworn in to the maritime operations branch of NOAA on Friday. I'm not sure what the swearing in was about but it was basically the same oath that the president gives. Anyway, she left today to Norfolk, VA for orientation. After a week there she will be sent to a ship for her relief duty. But as of now, she does not know what that ship may be. Apparently there are several vacancies so NOAA is allowing their senior technicians to reassign themselves to other ships if there are vacancies. Sort of a musical ships game. When the music stops Katie will go to one of the vacant positions until it it filled and then on to her next assignment.

We don't know if we'll see her next in a month or six months.

She is getting a 'surprise me vacation' for work. She was told to pack for any weather.

[Bob78164]

After a month or so of back and forth Katie was finally been sworn in to the maritime operations branch of NOAA on Friday. I'm not sure what the swearing in was about but it was basically the same oath that the president gives. Anyway, she left today to Norfolk, VA for orientation. After a week there she will be sent to a ship for her relief duty. But as of now, she does not know what that ship may be. Apparently there are several vacancies so NOAA is allowing their senior technicians to reassign themselves to other ships if there are vacancies. Sort of a musical ships game. When the music stops Katie will go to one of the vacant positions until it it filled and then on to her next assignment.

We don't know if we'll see her next in a month or six months.

She is getting a 'surprise me vacation' for work. She was told to pack for any weather.

Congratulations to her.

But I thought the oath given by the President is unique in American government. --Bob

[Vandal]

Go Katie!

[BackInTex]

After a month or so of back and forth Katie was finally been sworn in to the maritime operations branch of NOAA on Friday. I'm not sure what the swearing in was about but it was basically the same oath that the president gives. Anyway, she left today to Norfolk, VA for orientation. After a week there she will be sent to a ship for her relief duty. But as of now, she does not know what that ship may be. Apparently there are several vacancies so NOAA is allowing their senior technicians to reassign themselves to other ships if there are vacancies. Sort of a musical ships game. When the music stops Katie will go to one of the vacant positions until it it filled and then on to her next assignment.

We don't know if we'll see her next in a month or six months.

She is getting a 'surprise me vacation' for work. She was told to pack for any weather.

Congratulations to her.

But I thought the oath given by the President is unique in American government. --Bob

Here is what I found it the text:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

I sure they changed to the title/job but other than that, short and to the point.

[BackInTex]

Looks like its the Thomas Jefferson for her first assignment.

[Bob Juch]

Looks like its the Thomas Jefferson for her first assignment.

Well she'll be warm for now: http://www.moc.noaa.gov/tj/

[MarleysGh0st]

Good luck to Katie on her first assignment!

[tanstaafl2]

Is she a Federal Civil Servant or a member of the NOAA Commissioned Corps? Both in theory take an oath of office. Don't know that I have ever seen a civil servant do it but a Commissioned Officer in any of the seven Federal Uniformed Services would likely do so and usually in some sort of brief ceremony.

[BackInTex]

Is she a Federal Civil Servant or a member of the NOAA Commissioned Corps? Both in theory take an oath of office. Don't know that I have ever seen a civil servant do it but a Commissioned Officer in any of the seven Federal Uniformed Services would likely do so and usually in some sort of brief ceremony.

She is civilian.

Last week she was assigned to the Thomas Jefferson (TJ) out of Norfolk. However, it was supposed to sail on Tuesday (of last week) and she would not complete her basic training until Friday, so she was tentative on that assignment. The TJ kept getting delayed (I think due to a shortage of engineering staff), and on Friday she was told she would report Monday morning (today) to the Fairweather in Nome, Alaska (its home port is Ketchikan, Alaska). She was told Friday afternoon by her supervisor and NOAA travel that she would fly out Sunday morning and spend Sunday night in Nome. She received her travel documents via email at 7:00PM Friday night. She looked over the routes, flight times, layovers, etc. She would be leaving around 6:00 AM, changing planes in Chicago and Anchorage for the final leg into Nome. Saturday she arranged for a taxi to pick her up at 4:00AM Sunday morning to take her to the airport.

She got picked up at 4:00AM and got to the airport in plenty of time and went to check in and she was told "Um, your tickets are for yesterday." Her flights were scheduled for Saturday, not Sunday at she was told. Yes, the tickets had 7/25 on them but she was not thinking to check the dates. So she is at the airport at 6:00AM, panicking, no one is up yet at NOAA travel. The airline says they cannot get her to Nome until Monday afternoon....after the Fairweather is leaving port. She is stranded at the Norfolk airport for 4 hours while NOAA determines the plan (they have to wait until the Ship's captain wakes up in Alaska). They decide to go ahead and fly her to Anchorage and then decide today how and when to get her to the Fairweather. So she flies from Norfolk to Anchorage yesterday.

Today, they decide to put her on the Shimada, out of Newport, Oregon. This excites her a lot. It is a marine life survey ship vs. a mapping survey ship (her degrees are Marine Biology and Marine Fisheries). Plus, two of the people she went through orientation with two weeks ago are on that ship. So today, she is flying from Anchorage to Portland, then driving 2 1/2 hours to Newport, Oregon. They may put her back on the Fairweather in a couple of weeks when it gets back into a port.

She's been a real trooper.

[MarleysGh0st]

Wow! All this excitement and she hasn't even seen a ship, yet!

[Ritterskoop]

I took an oath to defend the Constitution on my next-to-last day as a summer intern at the Department of Education in 1985. I was there for five weeks, and took the oath on Day 24 of 25 (they said it should have been sooner but it is the government, after all).

I remember it being remarkably similiar to the President's words.

[BackInTex]

Wow! All this excitement and she hasn't even seen a ship, yet!

Technically she has. She stayed 7 days or so on the TJ while it was docked. She hasn't left a port yet, though.

And she's been to Alaska. I've never been close.

[MarleysGh0st]

And she's been to Alaska. I've never been close.

They weren't kidding when they warned her earlier to pack for all possible weather. Anything she chose for a cruise out of Norfolk wouldn't have been much good up in Nome!

[lilclyde54]

Congratulations to Katie. It sounds like she will be an expert traveler by the time she gets settled in.

[SpacemanSpiff]

Wow! All this excitement and she hasn't even seen a ship, yet!

My dad was in the Navy and said he never saw a ship.

Of course, he was only in for 5 months and 29 days (there's a reason for that) and was stuck in some engineering shack, away from the base. After that, he was on a ready reserve-type program for 25 years, never got called back -- not that he was complaining.

[BackInTex]

Katie finally left port on the Shimada Aug. 5th. She posted an update on FB after her first and second trawls of her first worked shift (she is working the 00:00 to 12:00 shift).

First trawl of my career and we end up catching 4 blue sharks (1:3). Although we were going for sardines.....

Update: Second trawl we caught 3 more blues (3:0) along with a multitude of sardines, jacks, pacific herring, and mackerel. The largest catch in over 2 years!

... the largest shark was about 180 cm long

Today she posted a couple of pictures of today's catch

One of the smaller Mola Molas

a 20lb. Albacore

She says she is enjoying it more than she expected. She is sleeping well, despite the shift and the food is "O.K.".

[Estonut]

What do the parenthesized numbers after the fish counts mean (e.g. "4 blue sharks (1:3)")?

That albacore looks tasty. I'm glad to hear she's enjoying it so far.

[SpacemanSpiff]

...albacore...

Baltimore!

[BackInTex]

What do the parenthesized numbers after the fish counts mean (e.g. "4 blue sharks (1:3)")?

That albacore looks tasty. I'm glad to hear she's enjoying it so far.

(male:female)

I had to ask that question, too.

[silvercamaro]

I am so proud of this girl and pleased that I once had the pleasure of meeting her! I knew she was a winner, without doubt, the moment she handed a box of Kleenex to BDM so he could deal with his sniffles. That was too funny and too wonderful for words.

She must have been around 12-ish (?) then. I would not have had the guts to do that when I was her age, but she was straight-forward and polite, doing a job that needed doing.

Now, what in the world happened to the decade-plus since then for the rest of us?

[BackInTex]

I am so proud of this girl and pleased that I once had the pleasure of meeting her! I knew she was a winner, without doubt, the moment she handed a box of Kleenex to BDM so he could deal with his sniffles. That was too funny and too wonderful for words.

She must have been around 12-ish (?) then. I would not have had the guts to do that when I was her age, but she was straight-forward and polite, doing a job that needed doing.

Now, what in the world happened to the decade-plus since then for the rest of us?

It took a while but he eventually mailed her a replacement box.

[MarleysGh0st]

Now, what in the world happened to the decade-plus since then for the rest of us?

I keep asking myself that a lot around here.

Bored young'uns keep insisting on growing up!

[Spock]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90sit8nsjVE

Sure, she sends pics of her "Working" but this is what really goes on on those ships.

Super cool what she is doing with her work hours tho.

[tanstaafl2]

Interesting. Smaller indeed given that some species can reach upwards of 10 feet or more in length and weigh a ton.

I guess they have got to start somewhere!