Changes At Work.

.....The former Big Boss retired officially and formally last Friday in a ceremony held by the Shipyard Operations Officer. I was told that there were many in attendance. I was asked by many if I was planning on being there to see it happen. Some thought I might have something profound to say. Some thought I would have wanted to witness it just to establish the fact that it was 'real'. Some thought I should have been there for it to show that I was some sort of enlightened manager.

.....Nah! That person was the face, the voice and the attitude of almost four of the most excruciatingly toughest years I ever had in the work force. I've worked some bad jobs in my day, in tight places and dirty tanks. I've worked in horribly rotten weather and jobs that were physically demanding. But none of them even came close to those days when I had to enter that office and be told basically how stupid a person I was and how I needed to work harder to catch up to my fellow planning managers who had all those college years in their portfolio.

.....I don't wish him ill. I hope the rest of his life is filled with peace and tranquility. But if I never, ever, see or hear from him again, I shall be the happier for it.

.....He's not alone though. The exodus is still continuing, with a lot of the old management structure with their mindset and attitudes leaving quickly. There are positives and negatives in that. A lot of experience in how to get things done is going away. Those of us who are left will have to relearn how to do some things. But I see this as a way to possibly learn how to do some things better than has been done in the past. The old autocratic style of management can go away and maybe get replaced by more of a Teamwork approach. At least that's my dream.

.....Wish I could predict where I'll be in a year or two from now. So many things up in the air that I can't even make a good prediction. At least three different codes want to incorporate the work I do into their group. Maybe I'll surprise them all and go Carrier. :-)

.....Some of the proposed changes to the infrastructure here are kind of exciting as well. Just don't know how they are going to find the funding to change from a pre-World War II style approach to a twenty-first century approach. One where boats don't just stay in a dry-dock. They actually get pulled and put on an assembly line. A massive construct. But it is an interesting concept that the Boat travels to the work force rather than them traveling to the dry-dock.

.....Watched an amazing video yesterday of the next generation of aircraft carrier catapult. I used to work on carriers. First on steam valves. Then as a planner I would order material for the aircraft launch and recovery systems. Miles and miles of cables and steam piping. Serious tonnage of arresting gear. But the video showed the launch of an aircraft from the deck of a mock carrier using electromagnetics rather than a catapult. It's going to revolutionize how carriers are laid out and constructed. Thousands of square feet of space will open up for other things and hundreds fewer sailors will be needed to maintain this equipment. It was amazing.

.....It was just one of the new things being developed for the upcoming USS GERALD FORD. I'm starting to feel like a relic from the past! :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.