This evening, I took a few minutes to start jotting down ideas and statements for two things: my final SRF fitness report (FITREP) and my award. I'm not sure what it's like in the other Armed Forces, other Navies, or in ALL the other commands, but during my career, I have always written the draft of my fitrep, which I get at least once per year, for every commanding officer changeout, and for every time that I move, AND I've written the drafts of the awards that I've received. For a few of the awards, the draft has been mostly a bulletized list of everything that I've done that's worthy of being put on an award. Well, it's that time again. Time to get ready to transfer, and since part of transferring is getting another fitrep and (usually) getting an award, I have to spend some time putting my ideas down on paper.
I dislike doing it every time, too. I'm not good at boasting. I'm not good at flowery, fluffy writing. And that just tends to make me spend a LOT of time wording and rewording statements to make them sound better. I've done a ton at this command--from supporting a plethora of ship availabilities to supporting the ships and people after the bigearthquake to becoming a defacto radiological controls expert--so I have plenty to put in the drafts of my fitrep and award, but I dread spending the time to do it. Is it like this everywhere for everyone else? Wish me luck!
For the closeout of tonight's entry, here's a picture of RJ and Ryleigh "sharing" the iPad and snacks. They go in cycles all day long where they are best buddies one minute and can't stand each other the next -- ahhh, siblings!
-Jip
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