Chapter 33

12:00 EDT Thursday, October 10^th, 1991

The Naval Science Institute

Pensacola, FL

BM2 Lenore Collins sighed. Absolutely nothing had been left to chance, she saw, and there had been someone to meet her at the airport, her and another PO2, this one a Hull Technician, whose airplane had apparently only come in a few minutes before Lenore. She'd been put in a van, and the driver had taken the two Petty Officers to the Naval Science Institute. Her single bag would be waiting for her at the Transient Quarters (the base hotel, Lenore figured out).

Lenore felt conspicuous, in her black Service Dress, and her white Bosun's lanyard on display. Technically speaking, it was a device only supposed to be worn with a dress uniform – Service Dress did not qualify – or while on guard duty, but Lenore had assured Chief Kostowe she'd wear it.

The Chief had flown back to Coronado yesterday, for this weekend, and was supposed to be laying on a Navy boat, something about the size of the Joy Redux and more suitable for conducting operations training without doing damage to the upper hull of the Joy Redux. He'd driven her to the airport this morning, since the Gunny had been told he had a staff meeting to attend, one taking place earlier than usual. She wondered what that was about, but the Gunny would tell her when she called tonight.

Lenore felt uneasy. Not, as she had earlier, like a fake in her uniform, but her unease was more uncertainty that she'd measure up against the other Enlisted enrolling in the Officer Candidate NROTC program. She'd gathered that the class being sworn in (the purpose of her visit) was made up of Enlisted intended to attend University starting in the winter semester, and that she was unusual in that she was already in school, and already in the NROTC Battalion at Berkeley. But while she knew she belonged in the uniform, she lacked all the experience and the familiarity with the Navy and its quaint cant that the others surely possessed, familiarity with such terms as "laying on".

Her fear was that might make her stand out as slow, stupid, or for some reason highly different than the others. Chief, I hope I soaked up enough from you.

"Welcome, Candidates. Allow me to be the first to introduce you to the Naval Science Institute. You get the short course, here, and congratulations. Your stay here will be, as they say, short. This is because you're Prior Enlisted, and because you weren't signed up for the long course, someone having deemed you know enough about the Navy to skip that. You will not be subjected to wearing bright chrome helmets, nor required to recite anything from the Bluejacket's Manual". (The Bluejacket's manual is the sailor's orientation manual of common phrases and situations, issued to each recruit at Basic Training, one more term Lenore was grateful to Kostowe for mentioning in passing). The speaker was a Lieutenant, also in Service Dress. Lenore clearly heard the capital letters he pronounced.

"We'll have classes this afternoon on the program you're in, your pay schedule, what's expected of you. Tomorrow after you run the PT test and swim test, we'll take you to Stores and get fitted for officer-type uniforms, where we'll give you a full kit of uniforms. Saturday morning, we'll swear you in, and then you're free to return to your lives until school starts."