Office Politics and Extra Training in the Navy.

One of my shortcomings is that I don't like to brag, so when I'm in a job interview I feel like I'm bragging. But special qualifications need to be reported here.

When I was in the Navy, there was a period before each deployment overseas where we train in the Caribbean, stopping occasionally in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico. It's very hot down there, but the sunrises are spectacular.

We were only there for a week when I received orders to fly from GTMO to Norfolk, VA, for a special training assignment. Everyone was pissed off that I got to fly out of there early. I felt some guilt.

Because I was the Deck Department Yeoman, my duties included maintaining 1st and 2nd Division's department safety training records, so now they designated me the Deck Department Safety Training Petty Officer. I was schooled in Navy Occupational Safety and Health (NAVOSH) with several other personnel from various departments.

We learned how to inspect spaces for safety violations, proper tag-out procedures for equipment, how to use Material Safety Data Sheets, and more I can't remember now because it was twenty eight years ago.

But, what really prepared me for the life after my military services was the EEOC training. We were instructed about discrimination in the workplace, including what constitutes a toxic work environment, sexual harassment, and racism.

You see, unlike a few people I know, I'm keenly aware of people's attempts to bait me into a situation where I might be accused of sexual harassment. All those lurid questions in an attempt to elicit a scandalous response, the loud, lurid conversations near me, in an attempt to draw me into frank, explicit discussions I might later regret, had I fell for it. Yeah, I know office politics.

This is where I was then designated the Deck Department Command Assessment Team member. You wouldn't know it from looking at my DD-214, but if they documented every little responsibility, every service member's record would be enormous.

I am an ally for the #MeToo movement, and and ally of the #LBGTQ. #BlackLivesMatter, Why? Because I'm a #Beta, #Incel.

Oh, did you just get a queasy feeling in your gut?

Big shoes I probably shouldn't try to fill

Saturday, May 19, 2018 at Illinois College, The Springfield Civil War Round Table and Shewe Library rededicated the P.B. Thomas Civil War Memorial Library collection.

Months went into planning for this and I was nervous about giving my own three minute speech in front of my family members, friends, and historians.

My grandfather had the honor of giving the commencement speech at my mother's school, Ferry Hall Prep. in Lake Forest, Illinois, in June of 1953. At last week's library re-dedication, my mother read from that speech. Everyone I spoke to agreed that those words still resonate to this day.

When I was in elementary school and middle school, years before there were such things as personal computers or cell pones, the rote method of learning names, events and dates, was so tedious it made my head hurt. Most of my teachers in District 186 were so close to retirement they were mostly mentally checked-out anyway. So, I developed an aversion to history education.

I never met my grandfather, Benjamin Thomas. Not until long after high school I finally learned the significance of Ben Thomas' impact on the history of Abraham Lincoln. I still haven't read his books.

Yet, here I am, writing pitiful blogs, blurbs, vlogs, tweets and memes. Nothing worth fawning over.