 After spending more than a year completing their PQS's, a written exam, a first class murder board, and a chief's board, Petty officers Brian Neal and Sean McDermott finally earned their enlisted surface warfare specialist. The East Swast badge means to me months of hard work, took a while to get to this point. Basically gives me the satisfaction of knowing my ship as a home. For the chief's board, all the ship's chiefs question the candidates in their respective fields of expertise. The chiefs board basically all the chiefs sit down and ask me questions for their subject matter areas. Most of the questions they ask were straight off of the PQS, but you know, they don't throw curveballs in there once in a while. Once the ship's chiefs feel the candidates are knowledgeable enough to do the job of a new sailor on the ship, the chief will recommend to the CEO that he has earned his East Swast pin, Stephen Cheros, USS Patriot.