More Surprise Recognition

Monday 4 August 2008
2200

I saw a saying posted on someone’s workstation the other day that said “Doing a good job around here is like wetting your pants in a dark suit – you get a warm feeling but nobody notices.” There are certainly times when it has felt like that, but I guess some people have noticed after all.

Today was the DPW Installation Planning Board (IPB), a biweekly session where we go stand in front of a facilities engineering board and make presentations to get construction projects approved. This will be the last session I attend, and I took my NCOIC to introduce him because he’ll be going from now on. Before we started discussing our proposed project, the Navy Captain (equivalent to an Army Colonel) in charge of the board got up and congratulated me on a job well done and presented me with a Seabee coin.

The Seabees are the Navy’s equivalent of the Army Corps of Engineers. “Seabee” comes from the initials “CB”, from the WWII Construction Battalions. (Think John Wayne and “The Fighting Seabees”)


Seabee Coin Obverse
Originally uploaded by hkp7fan.

Seabee Coin Reverse
Originally uploaded by hkp7fan.

This coin is particularly meaningful for me, because this Captain is the senior officer in charge of all facilities engineering in ASG Kuwait (Area Support Group Kuwait), so he knows what is going on with all the facilities in the AOR. He understands what we’ve accomplished and what it took to get here. In fact, he’s been involved in several of our projects and has chaired the IPB for several months. It can be a “murder board” if you go in unprepared, and they usually manage to surprise me with some considerations I haven’t thought of. I’ve learned a lot since he got here, and we’ve made some good improvements.

It’s always nice to be recognized, but it’s especially meaningful to be recognized by professional peers who really understand what you did and how you did it. The Seabees are a great organization and it’s been interesting to see how they and the Army Corps of Engineers work together in this Joint Operations environment.

Mood: Proud
Music: BAP – Verdamp lang her