Keeping with the watch theme for the week, Fire watch, yes this is an actual watch. While in boot camp, Galley Company, and A-school we actually stood fire watch. This consisted of walking around the barracks at night and making sure there were no fires. Or sitting by the fire exit and making sure nobody used to sneak out of the barracks at night.

The later watch was full of fun. The Gas Turbine building at Great Lakes had a major problem, the fire alarm kept going off for no reason. So the fire doors did not work correctly and because of this people had to stand fire watch. At first we had a table and a chair so we could study for class, but this soon passed. One watch stander was sleeping while on watch. This was during Desert Storm and technically he could have been sentenced to death for this act.

But of course cooler heads prevailed and he had to give us a speech on a very late Friday afternoon. So everyone was punished for his failure. Fire watch is used to teach a Navy person something basic, attention to detail the small things in life actually matter.