“I Had it, You Got It”

   

Duty section  watchstanders logs

 Any nuke will tell you how we were trained to relieve a watch. For starters, like you learned in nuke school you let the oncoming watch stander know what is going on with the plant and what he will need to do during his watch before signing over the logs to your relief. Then there are watch section turnovers which occur once you arrive at the fleet. In my time, the simplest turnover I have heard included the six words, “I had it, you got it”. 

     I remember one instance during deployment when the watch stander scheduled to relieve me at 8:00 A.M. arrived in no condition to relieve the watch due to his clear inebriation. I am a firm believer of looking out for your buddies but, on the other hand, you are now day after duty and you would like some liberty.

     On another occasion I went aft to relive the SRO who. To my surprise, I came across a set of logs lying on the deck after I opened the watertight door giving me access to the engine room. Surely these were the shutdown rover logs. To my shock these were the SRO logs and I happened to be a long way from the maneuvering area.  I arrived at the horseshoe with trepidation as to what I would find; fortunately the plant seemed stable even though the pressurizer light happened to be on as if the pressurizer heater button needed for some attention. 

     I remember another instance where I had been summoned to relieve the watch. As I walked through berthing I noticed a set of signed logs lying on the lump of blankets under which some unidentified crew member slept peacefully. Was this person signed into the watch? I have learned during my time as a nuke on occasions you should not ask questions you do not want the answers to. In any case, I figured the guy on watch who I needed to relieve would want to get to the rack so I did not gave the question another thought.

     What are your stories?  - What are some of the most interesting “turnovers” you conducted in your time as a nuke?