Captain’s Blog, Stardate 2011.1024…
October isn’t over yet and already it’s been an eventful month on the USS Loma Prieta. We’ve added new members, seen many promotions amongst our crew, and conducted yet another successful away mission. We’ve also reached a significant milestone in our progress toward commissioning by voting in our chapter’s emblem. The winning design (above) was chosen after receiving 6 out of a total of 9 votes present at the time of our monthly meeting.
Throughout our shakedown cruise, the USS Loma Prieta has had an impressive record as an active chapter. Word of our activities has even reached the rest of the fleet, with the USS Loma Prieta’s July away mission to the USS Hornet being featured in the Starfleet Region 4 Fall Newsletter. We began the month with a well attended away mission to San Francisco’s Fleet Week 2011 celebrations.
October also held a poignant reminder that spoke directly to our chapter’s secondary mission: to render disaster relief to Federation worlds and our immediate community. On Thursday, October 20th, the Hayward fault produced a magnitude 4.0 earthquake in the East Bay that could be felt as far away as San Francisco. Later that night, a 3.8 magnitude aftershock hit while Lt. Hesser, Yeoman Bee and myself were undergoing a disaster training simulation with SFFD NERT, which reinforced our reasons for being there in the most heavy handed way imaginable. This coming Thursday, select crew members will conduct their final exercises, graduate from NERT training, and be assigned to their neighborhood NERT teams for further disaster preparedness and emergency response training. Any crew members who wish to volunteer as ‘victims’ for the October 27th training simulation, or who wish to enroll in the next series of NERT training classes, should contact the commanding officer.
November is gearing up to be even more active. We’ll be forgoing our standard general chapter meeting in lieu of not one, but four special events and away missions. First, Chief Helm Officer Lt. Jon Sung will be taking command of a Runabout to lead an away mission to investigate the mysterious transmissions we’ve been receiving from the Hayward sector. Rumor has it that these transmissions could lead to the discovery of the planet Sonic, whose fast food value menu was once thought to be a myth. Next, on November 15th, the San Francisco Amateur Astronomers organization will be hosting UCSF Professor of Psychiatry Nick Kanas for a free lecture on Psychological Issues affecting Astronauts in Space. The next day, the USS Loma Prieta will dispatch an away team to the California Academy of Science for the ‘Into Space’ NightLife event, featuring NASA’s GLAST Optical Robotic Telescope and a screening of JJ Abram’s Star Trek (2009) in the theater (Tickets are $12, buy now before they sell out). At the end of November, we are also anticipating a Star Trek Costume and Craft Night event, hosted by Lt(jg) Lippmann and our Quartermaster, Ensign Connell. More info on this event will be available when Ensign Connell returns from Switzerland Prime in the Europa Sector.
Until then, standby for a personnel report… Perkins, out.
~Cmdr. Zach Perkins
Commanding Officer
USS Loma Prieta
Starfleet, Region 4
