I've got a question regarding my son's upcoming graduation and duty assignment. We heard from him the other day in a nice long phone call, his company received an on base liberty of which he spent burning up the 500 minute phone card he purchased prior to shipping out. It was great to hear his voice and receive the latest skinny on how things were going. He is going to be stationed on the new NSC USCGC Bertholf being built in Mississippi. My question is regarding electronic equipment, specifically cell phones. I found some information on a different unit's website specifically saying that DVD, MP3 players, game stations were acceptable to have on board given they are approved by someone in charge. I also remember Mike (Gezerdude) saying his son took his laptop computer with him, but are cell phones included in the list of approved devices during deployment? One reason I ask is because he is probably going to be living on board his ship and since that will be his primary residence how do they handle such personal items? Thanks for any insight.

Richard

Simple answer - yes.  Congrat's on the orders to the newest of the new.

All personal electronic devices, anything which will require ship's power to charge/recharge, will be inspected by the ship's electricians prior to being authorized. It's a simple check which takes all of a minute.  This is to ensure proper ground.

Background: The engineers check various grounds throughout the ship every hour. Ground faults have a tendency to cause increased corrosion of the hull. Thus we have the annual inspection of personal electronic devices prior to use.

Every now and again your son will see the engineers "chasing a fault" or "chasing a ground." They're actually chasing down the cause of a ground fault which appeared during one of these tests.