trekz 7 Posted May 15, 2010 Just saw this rerun again last night. Below Decks gives us the chance to see some junior officers and a civilian crewman who worked in Ten Forward. The fact that the officers were able to interact with the civilian much more as a person than with the junior crew was very interesting. Also the way that Picard tested a junior officer was enlightening. The active speculation of the junior crew as to what was going on during a special ops also seemed typical based on my experience in the USN. Trivia - one of the Ensign actors is currently playing Kevin Buchanan on One Life to Live. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
VaBeachGuy 12 Posted May 15, 2010 Just saw this rerun again last night. Below Decks gives us the chance to see some junior officers and a civilian crewman who worked in Ten Forward. The fact that the officers were able to interact with the civilian much more as a person than with the junior crew was very interesting. Also the way that Picard tested a junior officer was enlightening. The active speculation of the junior crew as to what was going on during a special ops also seemed typical based on my experience in the USN. Trivia - one of the Ensign actors is currently playing Kevin Buchanan on One Life to Live. This was a very good episode, I always enjoy watching it. I too saw some of the speculation during my time in the Army. Back when the first Gulf War was about to break out I was one of the few people in my company to have a security clearence so I was one of the only people authorized to enter the S2 and HQ buildings due to all the secret and top secret communications/orders that were going on. On one hand it was really cool to be able to go in and see what was going on and then have all my friends ask me what's happening only to have me say "It's top secret, if I told you I'd have to kill you..." lol. I never did reveal anything that was secret or top secret, the penalties were too high if I did not to mention losing my clearence. On the other hand, being one of the few people that had a clearence meant that I was one of the few people that had the ability to pull CQ duty at the Battalion or even Brigade HQ. For those that don't know, CQ duty (Charge of Quarters) is an overnight duty where you have to stay away until the company reports for duty the next morning. Weekday CQ duty would start after you finished yoru normal daily job at about 1600 (4:00 pm) and last till the next morning at about 0800 (8:00 am). No sleep, just staying awake and answering the phones. If you have company level CQ then you have to do security checks on the barracks. Battalion or Brigade level CQ is mostly just answering the phones if they ring. It makes for a VERY long day being awake for more than 24 hours at a time. The good thing about that though was that you had the next 24 hours off. Since I'm on that subject, I had CQ Duty on the night that the US invaded Panama and again on the night that Iraq invaded Kuwait... after the Iraq invasion I turned to the girl that was pulling the duty with me and said "We're going to war in Kuwait... ". She didn't like me saying that lol. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mr.Picard 12 Posted May 16, 2010 The episode is actually called "Lower Decks". *nerdy nitpick mode* I've never liked it that much, actually. Mostly because I'm not really interested in seeing junior officers... but it does feature a favorite character of mine: Ben, the waiter. That would SO be my preferred job aboard the Enterprise. Hehe. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
He Who Shall Not Be Named 2 Posted May 16, 2010 Easy job too. Write down orders, go to replicator, come back with food. Only drawback is the tips suck since they don't use money. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mr.Picard 12 Posted May 16, 2010 Easy job too. Write down orders, go to replicator, come back with food. Only drawback is the tips suck since they don't use money. Well, one also would have to be prepared for the occasional bar fight whenever the ship's crew can't dream or Ambassador Sarek comes aboard... lol. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
VaBeachGuy 12 Posted May 16, 2010 The episode is actually called "Lower Decks". *nerdy nitpick mode* I had noticed that too, well I noticed that "Below Decks" didn't sount right anyway lol. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
He Who Shall Not Be Named 2 Posted May 16, 2010 On one hand it was really cool to be able to go in and see what was going on and then have all my friends ask me what's happening only to have me say "It's top secret, if I told you I'd have to kill you..." lol. I never did reveal anything that was secret or top secret, the penalties were too high if I did not to mention losing my clearence. Yeah, security clearances are cool. I had one when I was on a DMZ rotation. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
