Petty Officer Second Class Dex Gracia

Big, barrel chested, farm boy from Idaho. In his youth, he was a bull in a China shop, and was dubbed "EL Gracefull", by his grandfather. Dex Graduated High school a year early, which was a good thing, because he was an odd duck. All threw high school, he was one of the only people who understood monty python, He was ostricized and was not part of the cool kids, the jock's, the geeks, or the cow boys, with their fancy trucks and clothes and 600 dollar snake skill boots. His humor has always been closer to that then the rest of his high school, Red Dwarf, Doctor Who, were his staples. But when he used the phrase, " Bring out your dead... he's not dead, he's mostly dead..." and people look at me like he was weird. that and I will through out, "Be nice to him, he has been mostly dead all day..." people would just shake their heads and walk off... He was told he had a dark sence of humor. He was quiet and broody at times, other times he was jovial, and quite witty, always having a joke and some of the time his dark humor seemed a bit much.

After spending the first summer working farms and as a lumberjack. He had only saved up 500$. The first snowfall, he started looking at things not quite so cold, and when he saw an add for military service, he decided anything had to be better than freezing his but off in the snow. Now non corperate farmers don't get rich, they do work long hours, and he was looking for a bit different life than being a farmer in Idaho.

This Farm kid decided that poor farm kids could not afford rich hobbies, wives and kids, or anything other than occasional movie nights, without popcorn or candy bars. Having lots of stories from uncles and even older "Sea stories" from grandfathers, that seemed to have lots of action, wemon, and money in them, he decided to see the recruiter. At first, He sounded like a used car salesman. But the 25 thousand dollar re-enlistment bonus and guaranteed Rate and "A" and "C" schools, got him to thinking. After he took the Asvab test, which they use to determine where you fit into the military's system of boxes and charts and slots...The steady paycheck, and air-conditioning in the summer, sold him. So he jumped at the chance to have airconditioning in the sumer and heat in the winter and enlisted in the US Navy...

He spent his first 5 years in the navy after boot camp and FC A school on a destroyer, after several back to back cruises, he realized crap floats up and started trying to transfer to sub surface, were all the actions was.
it took him two years to get approval,. Then he had his orders for Grotton Connecticut. He was oh so happy to be off that ship.

Physical Appearance

6'2.5" tall, barrel-chested farm boy from Idaho, weights in at 225 lbs. Sandy Blond hair, crystal blue eyes

Personality

Bubbly, ADD/ADHD personality, eager to get the work done, was once called unbridled enthusiasm by a division officer.

History

Now first, about his heritage, half Greek and Latino, his grandmother pure undiluted Greek, and proud of it, named him OEX, the Americanized spelling was Dex, last name Gracia.

In his youth, he was a bull in a China shop, hence When he was dubbed "EL Gracefull", by his grandfather. His mother was pround of her heratice, saying he was the result of love. For only love could bring two hard headed cultures together. His earily years, consisted chores, then more chores, then once he was in his earily teens, working on the weekends and after shcool, working on the farm/ranch. He enjoyed school, it meant he didn't have to do work. Home work was easy, he did it on the bus ride home.

Dex Graduated High school a year early, which was a good thing, because he was an odd duck. All threw high school, he was one of the only people who understood monty python, He was ostricized and was not part of the cool kids, the jock's, the geeks, or the cow boys, with their fancy trucks and clothes and 600 dollar snake skill boots. His humor has always been closer to benny hill, then the rest of his high school. Red Dwarf, Doctor Who, were his staples. But when he used the phrase, " Bring out your dead... he's not dead, he's mostly dead..." and people look at him like he was weird. that and he will through out, "Be nice to him, he has been mostly dead all day..." people would just shake their heads and walk off... He was told he had a dark sence of humor. He was quiet and broody at times, other times he was jovial, and quite witty, always having a joke and some of the time his dark humor seemed a bit much.

After spending the first summer working farms and as a lumberjack. He had only saved up 500$. The first snowfall, he started looking at things not quite so cold, and when he saw an add for military service, he decided anything had to be better than freezing his but off in the snow. Now non coorperate farmers don't get rich, they do work long hours, and he was looking for a bit different life than being a farmer in Idaho.

This Farm kid decided that poor farm kids could not afford rich hobbies, wives and kids, or anything other than occasional movie nights, without popcorn or candy bars. Having lots of stories from uncles and even older "Sea stories" from grandfathers, that seemed to have lots of action, wemon, and money in them, he decided to see the recruiter. At first, He sounded like a used car salesman. But the 25 thousand dollar re-enlistment bonus and guaranteed Rate and "A" and "C" schools, got him to thinking. After he took the Asvab test, which they use to determine where you fit into the military's system of boxes and charts and slots...The steady paycheck, and air-conditioning in the summer, sold him. So he jumped at the chance to have airconditioning in the sumer and heat in the winter and enlisted in the US Navy...

To a farm boy, boot camp is a joke. Not only did he get to sleep until 0545, instead of up at 430 am to feed livestock before school. They gave this growing boy all he could eat in ten minuets. They lost out on that bet, never bet against a farm boy, when food is on the line. He sometimes got thirds. His RDC's said just dont come between him and his chow, his fingers and mouth. The Navy's PT was funny, they only ran for 45 minuets, at a slow pace, and singing... He started looking for buckets, they needed them desperatly. The other thing, about PT, the air was thick , and felt like he was almost swiming it, this RDC's said it was because he was from a high altitude. He hated that air, he could smell and taste it, both were bad.

After Lots and Lots of brute force memorization, up not so early and lots of mid-watches, he graduated boot camp as an E-3. Then on to the Navy's Basic Electricity and Electronics school. That was self-paced, and while he was missing a lot of the fundamentals, he was slower and was passed by a lot of people that started school when he did. The instructors told him don't worry about them, you're going at your own pace, and actually ahead of schedule. How they thought that he would never know. Once he caught up with the fundimentals, he sailed through the rest of the school, with his eyes closed. He found errors and kept turning in TIMDR reports(Technicial Manual error or defenciy), correcting the deficiencies of the Tech manuals. The instructors finally asked him to quit causing them more work...Finally, he was on to FC "A" school. It was a little harder, they had all kinds of things he would never get, like the Coriolis effect. He knew it had to do with the rotation of the earth, and that large objects would be more affected by the spinning of the earth at the equator, but in the simulations, the inertial or fictitious force, kept throwing off his equations, and he always got that part wrong. When he compained once, about the complicated equasions, he was shown an older ball-bearing computer that the Adams class destroyers had. They were no electronics, and could track a target doing 5000 knots. Not that they had anything that could shoot down something going that fast at that time. He never complained again. He graduated with 89%, which was not that bad, and was promoted to E-4. His first posting was on the USS Oscar Austin, DDG-79, a brand new Arleigh Burke-class Destroyer.

Brand new was a relative term, there was rust everywhere eating through the paint, and guess who got to remove it? Yep, when he went to Deck department and signed out the "Deck Crawler" They laughed at his brand new-looking Coveralls. 6 hours later they were no longer blue... a brownish looking grey and white, was the current condition. He turned in the Deck crawler, to the Deck department, ignored the humorous jokes, and went to his bearthing to change clothes before the knock-off muster...

The Chief wanted to know why the working space was still taped off, and not painted. Dex didn't say anything. He was too tired. His liberty was until 9 pm, but seeing the McDonalds, he left as soon as liberty call was anounced... He was hungry. Six months later after having completed his mess cook duties. Then he was assigned damage controll petty officer, Supply petty officer, 3M petty officer, and any other job that needed to be done. Some of it was easy, others... not so much. The quality of workers he had to work with was margional at best. When he had complained to his chief, his chief had said, "You have a good work ethic, they do not... You will go places, they will not." He had heard a lot about subs, they got the best. Food, cream of the crop when it came to sailors. More money for opperations, and better gear. There was also the saying the crap floats to the surface fleet. After looking around he could see what they were talking about.

After several years of meeting sub sailors at the Enlisted club, and at the beach, he started making friends, and friends talked. He heard about the 90 days in , and out. but even though they said 180 people with 90 racks, hot racking(waking up your relief, so you could go to sleep). Don't forget drills all the time, and lack of sleep. He still wanted to go there. It took him two years to make E-5. Then he had a year and a half to go, before his enlistment was up. He had asked the Department career counselor, if it was posible to cross train to another rate, the reply was "It had to be a criticial rating, and they had to be undermanned." after six months, his rating was manned at 102 percent, he put in a special request chit to cross train to FT, get an a school, get out of his rating., the first two were shot down, first by his department head, the second by the Executive Officer, both saying we have you in a criticial rating, and where short handed. Mean while, the first classes still sat in the First class mess, drinking coffee all day, and the E-4's get to spend all day doing the grunge work, and the E-5's were supervisors, caught between both sides.

He started branching out, doing as many rate training manuals as he could, after all when you have 5 hours on watch and ten off, you have a lot of time sitting there doing nothing but watching sc reens. He made friends with the Gunners Mates, they handeled the CIWIS, and the 5 inch 54 Caliber gun mounts. They were in the same boat as him, over worked and under appreaciated. After two back-to-back cruises, he first got qualified on the 5" .54 caliber weapons systems, and their operating system. They said he could not put it in his service record, because it was outside his rating, but the Division CPO said you ever want to switch divisions, I will back you. It was the same old same O, but at least their chiefs and first class's did spend all there time in the mess.


At the six months prior to his getting out, the Carrer councelor for the ship came looking for him to re-enlist, Dex replied, "Nope, i'll get out then re-enlist for sub school." This made the first class a little bit nerveous, becuase their ship and a 45 percent retention rate, and he realized his promotion might not be happening unless he turned it around.

Two months later, he put another special request chit in for sub school and FT "A" school, 30 days later he had his orders for Grotton Connecticut. He was oh so happy to be off the ship.

Service Record

Dex NMN Gracia (no middle name)
Graduated High school in June 2012
Entered the Delayed Enlistment program in September 2013,
Called to active duty 21 December 2014
Graduated boot camp, 23 March 2015
Graduated FC "A" school, February 22, 2016
Orders to USS Oscar Austin, DDG-79, Arleigh Burke-class Destroyer, March 21, 2016
Qualified Basic Firefighting, 04 July 2016
Temporary Aditional Duty, USS Buttercup, Dewatering School, 15 July 2016
Qualified AN/SPG-62 Fire-Control Radar, 12 December 2016
Qualified MK 46 Optical Sight system, 18 January 2017
Qualified MK 141 Harpoon system, 19 July 2017
Qualified Gass Free Engineer, 12 September 2017
Promoted to E-5, 17 January 2018
Qualified Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist(ESWS), 13 September 2022
Oral Board for ESWS, 28 September 2022
Re-enlisted for FT "A" school, 22 December 2022, reason, leaving-rating manned at 104% to go to a rating manned 89%, orders negotated for sub school and new rate.
Completed FT "A" school, 11 June 2024
Orders to report to USS Arizona, 24 June 2024