UNIT 1

This was my first unit and it was the worst.

As soon as you complete A-school, you must contact the NOSC you are assigned to.  There, you complete some paperwork, like travel and pay worksheets with PSD.  And then you will be assigned an orientation date which occurs during a drill weekend.  Well, during this time the LPO, a PS2 of the unit I would be part of came down to meet me.  He gave me a really weird look but he was smiling so I figured he must be nice.

People seemed nice at first.  I was excited to start utilizing everything I learned in A-school but everyone was like it wasn't necessary.  I didn't need to do anything at all because the unit was getting disbanded and there was no point in training me to do things.

Well, I was assigned a mentor who gave me a tour of the place.  He showed me around and said hello to people who he said "used to be in our unit" and I asked him why they're not with us anymore and he said because they voluntarily transferred out.  It would be easy to see why later.

You also need to get a medical checkup which they call a PHA.  The doc was a commander.  He asked me about the TB thing and was outraged about getting that shot in bootcamp when I told him what happened.  He asked me how I joined the Reserves and was again outraged that I had a MS and got enlisted; I should have immediately been considered to be an officer, that I was completely wronged.  I got sent to another health care provider to speak about female issues and she said I needed to get a Pap done but I told her that was ridiculous because I've never been sexually active, why in the world should I be put through hell for that and she agreed; they shouldn't have given me one in boot camp!  So that would just be about the most satisfying moment I had at that time for educated people to finally agree with me!

This was the typical routine:
Show up at 0730 and muster up.  The CO, XO and LPO speaks.  Then they say "go do whatever you have to do" and members in the room spill out.  I don't know where they go or what they do.  But it seems like a lot of them just stand around and gossip.  A few run around looking important.  They are usually "the CO's pets".  This CO is very peculiar.  Just because she's the only female one at the NOSC, she thinks she deserves more respect than anyone else in the building.  She's the only CO that demands an "attention on deck" whenever she enters the room.  The other COs hate it when members do that for them because they feel it's embarrassing.  Anyway, she's Kingston.  Everyone talks about the Chain of Command, but she wants you to break it and go to her directly with any personal issues.  Personal being the key because she has no life.  TO become her "pet" requires you volunteering to get her things like cake.  Whenever there is an awards ceremony or some other function, there might be cake.  And for whatever reason, everyone else would have gotten themselves cake except her; she'd rather someone else brings her cake.  And she's always like "who's going to get me cake?  it will look good on your eval."  But isn't that bribery? 

Anyway, the PS2 was no longer the LPO because there was a PS1 around.  Well, the PS2 kept talking about how he'd show me all there was to know about being in the Reserves and he emailed me a few times asking me if I'd go to his place.  Not knowing any better, I went.  I thought it was routine for the higher ups to take you out and talk to you about life in the Reserves.  Well, he took me to the movies, then he wanted me to go to his place.  All I knew was that he was a PS2- do things without asking questions.  He had the TV on.  That movie Munich was playing and a very graphic scene was on.  I stood up saying I should go and he pushed me down, kissed me on the lips and tried to lick my ear...it was nasty nasty!!!  He tried to lift up my shirt but I had it tightly tucked in.  Well, finally I got out of there.  He said he wanted to walk me to my car and I was too shocked from fear to say no.  And at my car he demanded a hug and I said no.  But he grabbed me.  I was so shooken up.  And every night since then he keeps calling and I picked him thinking he'd apologize but he didn't.  He just kept saying what a great night that was and I was like I really don't feel the same way.  And he kept asking to have dinner every night.  He wouldn't take no for an answer.  I called the LPO and told him that he tried to make a move and since then wouldn't stop calling even though I stopped picking up...I was too embarrassed to tell all the details.  He said he'd speak to him but that he never got the chance because their schedules didn't match up; either one or the other was at work.  But he told the chief about it so it was going up the chain and I was taken care of.  I also demanded that either I or him get immediately transferred.  There is just no way I could face him again.  I got an excused absence from him the following weekend because I wanted to attend the Basic Motorcycle class which is required to ride one on base.  Well, following weekend the CO wanted to speak to me and she wanted to know what "all the nonsense" was about.  First of all, she said that the absence wasn't authorized because the LPO has no right to grant AAs.  And I asked her how I was supposed to get the BMR class done then.  And she said that was something I should have asked her, not the LPO, that she had no idea I was into motorcycles.  Well how was I supposed to know I was supposed to share what I was and was not into?  Besides, the BMR is required if you plan on riding motorcycles on base and I was seriously at the time thinking about purchasing one.  Then she asked about what was going on between me and PS2 and I told her.  There was a panel with the chief, the XO and her and well basically she didn't believe me.  And if she did, it wouldn't have mattered because the bottom line was there's no way they can give him disciplinary action because anything bad that happens outside of drill weekend is not the Navy's concern.  The CO was upset with me for not telling her directly.  But I was like I went through my Chain of Command and told the LPO, what the heck.  

I told this other female member what happened and she said that she knows he's been hitting on another female and that he has been nasty to her as well but she didn't want to report it otherwise it'd seem like us 3 girls are gaining up on him.  The crazy thing was I met another girl that was "floating" that said he was hitting on her too and wouldn't leave her alone.  So she demanded to be transferred out but there was no other billets available so she was without a unit but she was just glad not to see Kingston's face. 

Another thing was that there was a unit function to some boats.  The admin officer emailed everyone asking who was going and who wasn't.  Well, I email her back saying the CO said I couldn't go to avoid confrontation and the CO emails me saying that I wasn't allowed to mention that to people outside of that meeting (her, XO and chief).  That's just stupid.  The thing was that it was a drill weekend and the admin officer was giving me a hard time about missing the last drill weekend because of the motor cycle class, so I figured I'd tell her that this time I can't and that  it was the CO's idea.  What is her problem?  Why should I be limited to telling my problems to only 3 people?  3 people I'm not even that comfortable speaking to?  And whatever happened to the CoC???

She prob didn't want word going around that PS2 sexually harassed me because she has a crush on him.  I can tell.  Her eyes light up whenever he's in her presence and she laughs at all the stupid things he says.

Then, the master chief wanted to see me.  All the chiefs were in his office and I had to tell them everything that happened and what PS2 did to me.  I told them how nasty it was because he was so old- 40s, twice my age almost, and he had a daughter just a few years younger than me.  It was extremely uncomfortable and it looked like they all wanted to laugh to break the awkwardness.  Their solution was that they would transfer me to another unit in another city.

Well, that fell through because it turned out that PS2 wanted to transfer to that same city.  So they suggested another unit for me- NCTAMS.  When I gave Kingston my request chit she verbally denied the transfer.  She wouldn't look at my chit.  Instead, she told me to go seek a counselor.  During that meeting with her, the XO and chief, I told her about how I got tricked into the Reserves because I thought I was going to become an officer.  My recruiter told me that once I go through A school I would get transferred to OCS but no one knew what I was talking about when I asked.  That is why I'm not happy where I am.  So she said she would help me out by going to see a pscyh.  Well, there is no nearby Navy pscyh so I had to see the Air Force one.  They asked me if I was there due to a CO recommendation and I said yes but they asked me for the paperwork and there weren't any.  I tell them everything that's happened about how my recruiters tricked me, the sexual harassment and how the CO said she'd help me out.  The Doc said that that I was fine.  From his evaluation of me, he didn't see anything wrong with me so he wasn't going to discharge me based on my mental health and if he did, it wouldn't look good in my civilian life and I could have a hard time getting a job.

Word got around about me and the Command CO wanted to talk to me.  He was a really nice guy and he said he could relate, that somehow no matter how hard one tried, they keep getting into trouble and it's good to transfer somewhere else where I'd be better appreciated.  He said Kingston needed to deny the transfer request in writing and it is rare to deny transfers without a good reason.  Anyway, he ended up granting me the transfer.  I wanted to give him a letter of complaint about her but he said that would not be wise on my part because I was already in enough trouble with the Navy as it is and it shouldn't matter if I was getting transferred.