MOS at Sea

          Joyce and I were talking today and something was said that reminded me of a navy story from many years ago. I was on my first cruise on the Kitty Hawk. We were just days from leaving the coast of Vietnam to return home after a 9 month cruise when the shop chief came in and said I had orders to cross deck to our relief carrier the Constellation. I would have had to be there for a month or two up to an entire 9 month cruise. It turned out the reason I was being cross decked was because of my MOS (military occupational specialty) which had been mistakenly put into my service jacket. The specialty in my record was for a computer indicator repairman, which I was not. I got to go home with the ship when the chief had a message sent back to navy personnel in Washington. Fast forward when I was transferred from shore based instructor duty years later, I was sent to the Enterprise as a computer indicator repairman because the mistake was never changed in my service jacket. I reported aboard the Enterprise where the same chief was in charge of the shop. I walked in the shop and he said, “I remembered you and thought perhaps our replacement was someone else with the same name.” I ended up transferring to ship’s company to run the intermediate maintenance radio and navigation repair shop. That was fine for me because I had grown tired of working on planes and was anxious to be where the internal equipment maintenance was performed. 
          Is there a lesson to be learned here? If so, the lesson may be that bad shit can follow you even though you have nothing to do with the mistake that happened.