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Good Morning troops!! Good Morning everyone! Sorry I didn't post this when I got back from the drill yesterday, but I'm having computer troubles. I'm using my mom's computer right now.

Sea Cadet Drill Report:

Yesterday was not a mandatory drill, but most of us showed up anyway. We started out doing some basic fire and GQ drills to get our 3 new cadets up to speed. More new cadets will be at our December drill, but these 3 showed up at this one.

Then we took a break for a basic, basic introduction to underwater navigation. Then we talked about our sub quals and what we would need to do for those. We also spent some time going through and exploring the sub to see where all the hatches lead to. Then we learned how to do flooding and fuel spill drills. We did some combination Man Down/Flooding/Fuel Spill drills, but it kinda crashed and burned.

After lunch, we begged and begged the XO and he let us do Security Alert drills. We did them for the entire afternoon. Our XO was the "terrorist" along with one or two cadets. They would turn their covers backwards so we could identify them as "terrorists", and then they would hide on the sub. The rest of us had to find them and "kill" them. The drills got increasingly complicated, with the additions of more "terrorists" and several "bombs". The officers were going to add some trip-wires, but they couldn't find anything to make thm out of.

I was a "terrorist" once, but they didn't find me. I was hiding in this storage locker in Aft Torpedo. It was so funny. I heard them enter, and a senior cadet goes "Ok, we gotta find XXXXX (my name)." And then they all walked right past me, into Manuevering.

Then there was one time when we had 5 "terrorists". Two hid in real obvious spots, and me, the XO, and our Petty Officer were all "terrorists" hiding down a hatch in the Aft Engine room. Then when the other cadets didn't find us, the XO decided to help them along with several loud farting noises. They still didn't find us. Then he decided to come up out of the hatch and hide behind the engine and have me out in view as a "hostage". They still didn't find us. So he had me lay right in the middle of the room as "dead" so they would know he was in the room. When they still didn't find him, he called off the drill.

Then there was the time he was hiding down a hatch in the Forward Engine room. we knew he was there because he had already "smoked" two cadets. So we got tricky and went down the other hatch that lead to that space. Me and a Seaman were down there, trying to decide what to do when he saw this styrofoam ball wrapped up in tape that was just sitting there. He, forgeting where he was, goes, "Here, use this as a grenade" and hands it to me. The XO heard him and "smoked" him. Mean while, I move behind some machinery and hand it up to our Petty Officer and say, "here's a grenade". She thought I was handing her a live grenade so she hands it to someone else. Meanwhile, the XO heard me and is trying to get to where he can get me, too. So I haul ass out of that hatch while another Seaman takes the "grenade", pulls open the hatch by the XO and shouts out, "Grenade, *****!" and throws the "grenade" down there. Then the XO starts climbing out of the hatch, laughing so hard we thought he was gonna fall.

Then, during a different drill, the three Seaman and the XO are the "terrorists". The rest of us are divided into two teams. My team started in Aft Torpedo and we were working our way forward. We are in the Crews Barracks and right below us is the Aft Battery. So I open up the hatch, and there is a piece of fake food from the mess Deck down there. The Seaman later told us all how he was hiding down there in the dark, and the hatch opens up and he hears my voice, full of surprise, going, "There's a meatbone down there". He won't stop teasing me about that. Then, we look with our flashlights, but we don't see the Seaman. We are about to go down there when we hear the XO, over the 1MC, in this hilarious fake Arabic accent, going, "I take over ship now! Me new Captain. I wish to negotiate with your leader. You call him now or I kill Petty Officer, yes!" We all rush into the Control Room, where the XO is holding our Petty Officer at gunpoint. I at least tried to rescue her, though I died doing it. Then another senior cadet tried to get the XO by crawling around a table, but he died too. The others just laughed, hiding behind some machinery. She was shouting at them to rescue her, and the XO was talking over the 1MC in the accent again, and we were all laughing by now.

The second to last drill we did, I was in one of the Engine rooms (don't remember which) and I looked through a hatch. I didn't see the XO down there, so I went down. And "died". The others, seeing this, snuck away. They thought they were being sneaky, because we had all taken off our shoes so the "terrorists" wouldn't hear us. Once I was down there, I realized that you could still hear us. Worth a shot, though. Anyway, about 3 minutes later, I'm just lying there, right next to the hatch. All of a sudden, I hear someone shout, really really loud, "Grenade!!". And something lands about an inch away from my head. Scared the beejeevus out of me! And they kept throughing stuff down, it all landing a couple inches away from me. Apparently, they had taken the fake apples from the Mess Deck and everything else they could find, and were using it all as grenades. They had even thrown down some kid's cell phone, which I don't think he will be using again.

On our last drill, the XO decided to lead the Security Alert team, instead of being a "terrorist". He told us how to do it right, instead of the way we were doing it. It was awesome. I think we actually killed all the "terrorists" this time. Next drill, though, we'll do it right, even without the XO's help.