I Cry FOUL!!!!!!

O.K....so here's the story on the status of our Captain's license..... We overnighted our applications to the U. S. Coast Guard in the same envelope on April 16th. There is a way you can go online to the National Maritime Center's website and check the status of your application. So...naturally...every day since April 16th I have been checking on both. They went through some processes early on to be checked for completeness, etc. and the last time they made any progress was on April 30th. Since then the status has been "awaiting assignment to a qualifications evaluator." A couple of days ago I checked and mine said..."awaiting information".... This means "what?" I am thinking. So when I clicked on what they were "awaiting" it said a passport size photo and my sea service forms (which, of course, I sent and were a mirror image of CTM's). Prior to submitting our applications I checked both with our Seaschool coordinator AND the U. S. Coast Guard to see if we did need to include a passport size photo and were told "no" by both since we now have TWIC cards (security clearances through the TSA)! That's another whole story..... We DIDN'T include passport size photos with our apps. The other "awaiting info" item is my sea service forms, which were of course submitted and a mirror image of CTM's. O.K....so you are wondering why I am referring to you know who as CTM???? When I checked his application status it said it has been "ISSUED"!!!!!! What??????????? How can this be???????? When I informed him of the FOUL that has just been committed he does the little Captain Dance (you've seen Caldwell do it many times) and said to me, "YOU MAY CALL ME CAPTAIN NOW!" Well, how do you think THAT went over?????? I e-mailed the NMC and pointed out the error of their ways but do you think I have heard from them??? NO! Now that we are back (and the Gulfstream crossing is ANOTHER story coming soon) I plan to give them a call on Monday and see what's up. Lori, my sailboat friend, said since it was the government it would be better to comply with their requests than to argue with them because my app would just get shoved to the bottom of the pile. If they have lost my sea service forms I don't have a problem resubmitting them but I will NOT send them a passport size photo since it is NOT required!!!! CTM says it is because I am a woman...but I am not even going to go there! I maintain we got two different "qualifications evaluators" and OBVIOUSLY mine is new and does NOT know his/her _ _ _ from a hole in the ground! Stay tuned for the continuing saga of "When Will ACJM Get To Do The Captain's Dance?"

ACJM (STILL)