Hmmm..... I seem to remember the medics getting lots of sleep. It was always me as duty driver who never got a chance to sleep. Broke 100 hours on one operation before the medics ordered me to 48 hours bed rest. Slept 36 hours straight. I can attest that somewhere around 100 hours you really do start seeing things which aren't actually there. IIRC it had something to do with driving two corpsmen back from China Lake to Pendleton after being up for 100+/- hours that resulted in being ordered to bed. So much for standing the rest of my duty shift.:laughing:
Lots of sleep eh? Right.....:confused2:
I'm SUPPOSED to work a 12 hour daylight shift, but you can't plan everything....I have to be available to both day and night shifts...I keep clinic hours around the meal times and shift changes so anyone who needs me can find me easily...
For emergencies or sudden illnesses, my hootch is one door down from the clinic and the rules are, if they wake me up at 0300 they BETTER be choking, bleeding or on fire...and even then I don't have to be cordial...
It is amazing what people can do under the right (wrong?) circumstances....100 hours at your post is pretty darned impressive....a lot of the combat vets tell me similar stories of all sorts of visual and auditory hallucinations after 3 or 4 days of continuous ops....
"Backintheday" I spent 3 days in a decompression chamber continuously nursing an injured diver and have almost no recollection of the events...which according to my co-workers included a full resuscitation...
Despite all my hard work the fellow survived, so I guess I switched on the auto-pilot...
I have to laugh at how we used to limit the helmsman's wheel-watches to 3 hours...
Ahh. My Africa experience was Somalia and I always seem to equate that time to anyone over there. You must be about 3 hours behind Somalia. Still a reasonable hour where you're at.
SOMALIA....:shocked:
Woof....that little piece of heaven makes Liberia look like "Club Med"....I imagine Woodlinville seems pretty tame after that....
I'll have to keep a cold adult beverage and a chair open for you in the "Palaver Hut"....I promise to listen quietly and nod knowingly at all your favorite sea-stories....
