Today was the UNREP of the century. For those of you not in the ‘know’, an UNREP is an Underway Replenishment. Makes sense now, doesn’t it? No? Ok, let me explain. The supply ship is moving along in the ocean. The receiving ship comes alongside and moves along the same course as the supply ship. Then one or the other ships sends lines over so that the receiving ship can pull the fuel lines over to hook up and start receiving fuel. This is the most common form of refueling while underway for the navy. In addition, an extra line may be sent over and tensioned to transfer loads from the supply ship to the receiving ship. These loads may contain anything; repair parts, food items, mail and even personnel can be transferred in this manner. This extra line makes this evolution a CONREP or Connected Replenishment. Last but not least, a helicopter may be used to shuttle loads from one flight deck to another flight deck. Using a helicopter in this manner makes the evolution a VERTREP, or Vertical Replenishment. Anyway, now that everyone is up to speed on the terminology used we can discuss the events of the day.
Today I experienced the largest replenishment evolution in all of my 13+ years in the navy. We started around 2pm this afternoon and finished up around 5pm this evening. All in total, we received ~60 pallets of stores, including mail. In addition, we received what seemed like 10+ pallets of Girl Scout cookies, from what I can only imagine were sent via their Operation: Thin Mint. I have never seen so many boxes of Girl Scout cookies in my life in one location. It was like we were at the distributor for the cookies. Unfortunately, there was no mail for me again this time. I really don’t think I’ll ever see the Moleskine notebooks my wife ordered for me as well as the pictures my daughter drew for me for Father’s Day. The best I can hope for now is that the box keeps missing me and eventually it will make it to me once I’m back in
