Seeing the world from ships proves educational

<p><a href="http://www.newbernsj.com/news/dempsey_35710___article.html/allen_ship.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.newbernsj.com/news/dempsey_35710___article.html/allen_ship.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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Lauryn Dempsey and John “Mike” Allen, both midshipmen 1st class, are spending their summer much differently than their college classmates. They are on board the HMS Illustrious, a British aircraft carrier off the coast of North Carolina. </p>

<p>They are taking their midshipmen’s officer’s cruise, a required part of their naval training that will teach them about a ship’s operations from the perspective of an officer....

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<p>Sounds like those two are having a good time. My S (2C NROTC) just returned from his summer cruise and has not had much good to say about it.</p>

<p>Wow, a cruise is part of Navy's summer training. I knew I went to the wrong academy.</p>

<p>Sounds like they had a great time. Homer09, if you think that is something, check out the Sea Year at the USMMA. A USMMA midshipman will typically visit, on average, 18 countries. Now THAT is a cruise!</p>

<p>haha Homer09, cruise is a misleading word...civilians think we're talking about a Carnival Cruise and the enlisted scoff because "cruise" means 6 month deployment to them.</p>

<p>I was on the LHA4 Nassau out of Norfolk during most of July. There were 8 Academy mids (all girls!) on our cruise and 7 ROTC mids (mostly nursing majors, oddly enough). I was placed in Engineering, specifically A-Gang and Diesel shop.</p>

<p>We were onboard for 4 weeks and I adored it. As soon as I got home I was almost "homesick" for the ship and the crew. They were outstanding. They were so proud of their work and what they could do and yet they were really interested in hearing our opinions as "future officers" as well.</p>

<p>Most memorable experience? Well, there was the time that we hit the sea turtle as the mids were conning a man overboard drill. And there were the countless hours I spent in aft diesel on "diesel watch". But my mom will tell you that the most memorable thing was seeing the picture of me after a day of needlegunning (basically scraping paint and rust so we could repaint) and I'm so dirty that I "could pass for another race!" (in the words of my running mate).</p>

<p>I was so lucky to get the assignment I did and get to spend a month on such a great ship.</p>