Between having our two written final exams and our engineering system assessment called “flashlights,” training day 13 was a day that everyone dreaded, juniors and freshmen alike. Alpha company was the last company to have their final assessments, which some may have viewed as a luxury. As a member of Alpha company, I can assure you that it was most certainly not a luxury.

Though a source of dread for all of us, the reality was that everyone was very prepared for their flashlight exam. We spent countless hours tracing systems in the engine room, responding to the nuanced questions of our juniors on watch and helping our shipmates prepare by explaining regulating valves and showing them hidden bypass lines that even the juniors didn’t know about. So when it finally came time to meet the engineering professor we were assigned, clad in a noise-cancelling radio headset reminiscent of a Cessna pilot, we were ready.

The day began in the classrooms below deck at 0745 where everyone was on edge as a professor announced the names of each group of students being sent away to face their fate. The names of five students would be met with the hooting and hollering of the entire group as everyone tried their very best to hype up their buddies and quell their nerves. And so it continued: five would leave and one by one they would return, announce what system they had and if they wanted to, their grade. Great grades and bad grades would be celebrated alike. Bad grades especially were met with roaring applause, because, regardless of what happened, they were done.

With final exams done, everyone felt that the completion of “T13” ushered in the end of cruise. That night, my shipmates in the Alpha berthing began the daunting task of packing up to go home. It was probably a little preemptive with five more days of cruise left but it was amazing to see the change in attitude from the beginning of the day. With our impending arrival in Portland right around the corner and nothing to stress about any longer, the Alpha company freshmen could finally be excited again.

Post by: MIDN 4/C Cooper Parlee, MSE-5