Wedding Pictures!!!

Wedding Pictures!!!

Pumpkin Patch Kid

Extra Fixins

So ... we're in the yards.

What a completely different experience it is from the deployment and work up training cycle.

Google Photo Experiment

I'm trying out this new google photo tool and may soon be switching out my webshots subscription. Anyway check out this slideshow of pics from my recent deployment and link to my album.

Everybody Has Something To Offer

Wedding pics almost here

Chris sent out the dvd with all of our wedding pictures on it just the other day! So... we will have them posted up on webshots shortly.

Fishing can be dangerous

Make sure to play this with the volume turned all the way up. Notice Alisa talking very passionately about her work while I divulge my plan to the camera - very funny (at least I think).

What's been going on?

Well what has been going on? I'm actually back out to sea right now. The tempo is much more relaxed than when we were on deployment though (thank goodness). Qualifications are coming along well. I'm almost done the big milestones but still have to get my butt up to SWOS soon. The plan is to get up there (Newport, RI) before the wedding on the 15th. Wow, I've been deployed for 6th months back home for a month and away again for another month! Crazy for sure.

If you didn't know bachalor / bachalorette party is the 31st-2nd, so make sure you get there, it will be a blast.

Oh time for watch... more later.

~Mark

Check the photos :)

Yes yeah yup yup ... webshots # 2 has new photos posted.

Wedding planning and deployment photos are now posted.

Homecoming!!!

Well ... I made it. Home sweet home. Except it's home sweat home (our air conditioner is broken at the moment). Ha! I crack myself up. Yes, when we arrived seeing the family was everything it was cracked up to be and more. All of the business and stressful work days melted away with the first view of the wife lady.

… next big event … wedding ceremony in September!

I will update webshots with all of my deployment pictures as soon as I collect them all on my home computer … be patient. That’s it for now. Hope to see you soon, thanks for reading the deployment story.

~Mark

p.s. It is great to come home and see green grass :) I was starting to get sick of all of the sand over there.

On the Road Home

Well, it’s been a long trip so far but we’re almost home. I like these pictures from Rota, Spain. Rick and I were glad to have stopped for a short port break but obviously we wanted to keep sailing across the Atlantic and forget the port visit all together.
Home is that way, don’t tread on me.

I’m glad we did stop though because we had a good old time. We saw sunflower fields that spilled over the horizon.
\We saw bull fighting stadiums. We ate in cafes on cliff overhangs. We ate rabbit, drank sangria, ate pastries, and pizza. We shopped for gifts. We actually watched time go by slow (for once). We had a good time.
Pretty soon Harry, Tyler, and Don will be onboard and we’ll be showing them a good time. For those of you who don’t know, our ship is holding a tiger cruise in which family members have the opportunity to see exactly what their sailor has been doing for the past six months. Hopefully the weather will be fair, otherwise the trip may turn into a sea sick vacation they will not soon forget. No worries though, this big old girl doesn’t rock’n’roll very much even in rough seas.

<<>>
I tell you it is a great feeling to be coming home. This past six months seem to have taken for ever to pass - 178 weeks according to the deployment tracker. I have to tell you I am feeling for Steve as he continues on his tour of duty. He left for Iraq before I pulled out of Norfolk and he still has yet to come home. Good luck out there big guy and come home safe to us!
I promised more fun pictures of the OC spray day and so here they are:
Step one, get sprayed in the face.
Step two, beat up on some pads.
Step three, defend yourself.
Step four, wash like no tomorrow.
Step five, laugh about the experience.

Well. It’s bed time for me. Only a few short days away from the states. How sweet

Mark

Drills, Drills, and more Drills

“Happy Birthday” 23 June 2007

How would you like to wake up one morning with a big smile on your face because you’re turning 23, then a few minutes later remember that today is also the day you get mace in the FACE! Ouch you would say. Well that’s what happened to my shippie, Mike, this past Saturday. See, we all participated in a force protection class that teaches all about how to defend yourself and part of that defense includes the use of OC spray (similar to mace). In order to be allowed to use the spray ourselves in the future we were required to be exposed to the same spray … right in the eyes! I’ll have to get a few more of the action shots posted later (they’re on Mike’s camera right now) because they have all of the good stuff like snot coming out of people’s noses and scary faces as we punched the bags. Oh I guess I forgot to mention, after we were sprayed we had several hand to hand defense stations we had to work through which included knee strikes, punches, batan strikes, blocks, etc. It was an experience, that’s for sure. This all happened on the flight deck so after we were sprayed and fought our way through the business we splashed some water over our heads and let the wind sooth our faces … talk about burn-inating! Yikes!
Other than that things are pretty much winding down out here. We are still training … constantly training actually. I’m staying very busy finishing up end of the line paperwork and planning work for the leave stand down period. Qualifications are almost done for me. I will hopefully get to go to swo school in late August (nail-biter for planning wedding stuff around this Navy schedule of mine). Tiger cruise is almost here! If you don’t know what that is, don’t worry I’ll post pictures. Can’t wait to see you all! Miss you mucho.
Love Mark

The Way Home

Recent Port Visits

Hey all, here are some pictures from the latest port visit in Jordan. Enjoy and see you soon!

Satisfaction

Today my roommate convinced me to participate in a friendly physical challenge. The event was hosted by MWR, moral welfare and recreation, or something like that. The set up was teams of three people, who each participated in a timed physical challenge (6 mile run, 10 mile bike, and 75 pull-ups). I did the 75 pull-ups. It took 14 minutes, and the last few looked pretty ugly, BUT I’m pretty damn surprised that I was able to finish all 75 in the first place! Oh, did I mention that this morning I took the Navy biannual PT test (2 minute push-ups, sit-ups, and 1.5 mile run). The run was interesting on the flight deck. Winds were strong as hell when running towards the bow, Rick and I took turns drafting each other. Anyway, I am pretty satisfied with myself as it says in the title of this entry. Ha! I’m so full of it.

This morning was interesting to say the least … after the 0500 PT test we rolled into a main machinery space fire drill. I’m a rapid response repair locker officer for any damage control related stuff like that (basically the head of a small fire fighting station). Basically when the bells start ringing, I go running towards the scene, wherever it is onboard. My division are basically the professional firefighters onboard, and they do a good job at it. I’ve learned fighting fires takes a serious team effort. If we go to general quarters though, I’m actually assigned to a specific locker, not just the rapid response. There is a huge difference between the professional rapid response team and the repair locker that I am responsible for in general quarters. Sometimes it can really be a cluster.

Sorry not to many pictures lately. Here’s one of the pull-up hands of death. Ha!

Thanks for the packages. For those of you on the voice recording tape, thanks so much for making me laugh … it was great to hear all of your voices. I’ve been listening to it almost every night before bed. We’re almost home and everybody has started to get the fever … the only cure is more cowbell!!! Ha, anybody watch SNL? People actually have these elaborate excel spreadsheets that track exactly to the second how many days we have left, to include the number of burger days, pay days, holidays, Mondays, fun days, and whatever else days. Personally, I don’t like counting down very much … it makes the time seem to go by even slower.

Well, that’s it for now.

Mark

Some Pics for you, Mr. Mark

Hey all, here are some pics from the home front. Thanks for your support and love, everyone. It's always a challenge figuring out how to communicate with each other. Thank goodness for technology, at least. Hope you like the pics, Mark. Two months left big guy! --Alisa

"Lazy Sunday" Sunday, April 22, 2007

 

Today is one of those lazy Sundays.  Well, it’s as lazy as I could make it with our buy operational schedule.  I spoke with Alisa on the phone last night for a whole 40 minutes!  What a treat … so my soul was very satisfied today, but I am having a hard time concentrating on work with so many good stories I heard on the phone.  I do miss home, that’s for sure.

 

I hope this doesn’t disappoint anyone, but here it goes anyway … For planning purposes, I would like it if my new wife and I could spend the first few days after deployment alone together.  You are my family and very important to me, but I want to put our relationship first on the list and then make sure to visit everyone.  Is that okay with everyone?  Don’t worry, I still love you.

 

Spring time at home eh?  The season of baseball and track and field is in full swing.  I wonder what the weather is like (cold/warm/rainy).  You would be surprised but I don’t make it outside very often.  We have flight ops going on at an almost constant basis so the topside is secure quite often.  It is nice to have an occasional picnic (see pictures).  That’s what they call a flight deck picnic.  I like the picture of the burger flipping.  He

"Operation Alligator" Thursday, April 19, 2007

As you can see from the pictures we have a serious alligator problem onboard our ship.  Yes, I know what you’re thinking … don’t most ships usually just worry about rats climbing onto the ship via the mooring lines?  Well we apparently have to worry about reptiles too.  This particular gator was about 5’8” with blue eyes and talked real funny, danced around a lot, and believe it or not was very friendly.

 

The other pictures are of one of my guys cross rate training (training in another job).  Here he is standing burnerman watch and is in charge of lighting off the boiler when restarting the system.  Of course this dangerous operation makes for some pretty good pictures (although now that I think about it, I should have taken them from the opposite angle to get a shot of his face).  If you received my last email about what R-division (repair) does “what we do when we do,” you will clearly see that I am in engineering department.  From using lathes, to unclogging drains, to fighting fires, to welding repairs, and ballasting operations, we are a talented group.  I’ve seen a lot of great leadership among the ranks and I’ve seen a lot of poor leadership too.  It really is amazing what we are capable of doing out in the middle of the ocean on a floating piece of metal.

 

My first Easter away from home 4/9/2007

Traditions are pretty cool.  Family traditions are even better.  I have to admit that I have been very fortunate to experience some great ones over the years.  Take Easter for example … who ever thought getting the whole family together and spending the day telling stories or playing in the back yard was (like the Budweiser commercial) a REAL MAN OF GENIOUS!

 

We salute you … Mr. I’m gonna get the family together on Easter planner guy.

 

Seriously though, I have always enjoyed that tradition because we made a big deal of getting everyone together and making a day out of it.  We didn’t just brush thins off and not worry about not showing up.  Comparatively, my experience this Easter was a bit different.  The ship did have a few extra services available to us but I still didn’t have a normal day off.  Nothing really special happened, chich see or feel the opposite. 

 

Two no six, no wwelve bker’s doxen, I TOLD YOU THAT I’M CRAZY FOREEBUPCAKES COUSING.  H h qwxh

 

HA!  I wrote that last couple of sentences while I was about to fall asleep.  Have you ever heard someone talk that crazy talk before they hit the sack?  It’s usually pretty damn funny and makes no sense.  I know Harry and Tyler know what the line is from … SNL skit.

 

You would be surprised but we actually receive a bunch of new people on the ship while out here on deployment.  One of the new guys, who works closely with me, is a pretty cool addition.  He’s a bit older than me, thirty I think, and is really into mountain biking (which is cool with me) and his family (which is also very cool with me).  He’s pretty funny and has reminded me to bring out my humor and energy a bit more.  With all of this serious business we’re conducting out here I can get caught up in just a serious mindset – as some of you may already know.  Anyway, I was talking with him the other day in his room and as I looked at some pictures from home of his little baby daughter I found out that she was actually their sixth try at having a child.  Yes, that is a lot of miscarriages.  I don’t know all of the details but he did actually start to tear up a bit.  I thought the whole story was pretty amazing, he seems very deserving of such a great gift.  So, new people, new perspectives, not such a new blue color of water.  J

 

We recently held a M16 shoot from the port elevator.  We tied up targets and blasted away.  As you may have expected I of course shot an expert score (185) and  beat Rick who got a 184, no big deal.  Actually, we recently shot the nine mil and twelve gauge shot gun as well.  The XO is big on maintaining a tough warrior mentality here, so I think we can expect to qualify on every weapon onboard.  That’s pretty cool.  I really liked the shotgun.

 

On another subject, if you haven’t heard I had a minor infection.  Seemed to be an ingrown hair.  And had a very minor surgery.  It was a great experience.  I’m looking forward to return to the gym when it heals. …. Getting sleepy…

 

Okay bedtimes

Here are some pics from the past two weeks.

Port Visit Pics

Change of Command

“Back on the road again” 3/28/2007

Well folks, the peace and quite of feet on land (or sand) has ended. If you’ve ever been onboard a ship you know what I mean by quite. Basically no matter where you go, every space onboard has at least a loud air vent blowing. So for me to sit outside with a nice breeze and hear absolutely nothing was pretty nice – funny what you appreciate and don’t even know it.
Okay so, we’re one step closer to home now. We’ve reached the halfway point on our trip. With that our new #1 boss-man (CO) has started a 100 day countdown competition within the crew. 100 push-ups for 100 days left. Look out Tyler, I may beast you in the weight lifting competition we have going. I hope this message finds you with everything A-okay at home. Things onboard have been great since the change of command. What a difference a new/inspirational CO can have on the crew. One of his (new and refreshing to us) big ticket items are his five C’s. – seems silly but, it has made a big difference and shows his different style. Cooperation, Compassion, Confidence, Competence, and Cockiness are now our new philosophies onboard.
Alisa is making a lot of progress on our to do list for the wedding – I still think you could plan for one three months out by the way J. It is soccer season again and the team is as well keeping her busy. Apparently coaching is a bit more difficult when she doesn’t have such a strapping young lad such as me to help her along as a demonstrator.
Harry sprained his ankle the other day planning baseball. I guess he does take after his older brother (I think I’m up to 5 or 6 times on the right one now).
My division is making a lot of progress since I’ve been onboard. A lot of it can be credited to my chief of course, but I think we make a good leadership team. I am as always making progress myself too. I didn’t realize how much paperwork a divo is responsible for. I had to learn the hard way just receintly … This past week, because I delayed a few key pieces of paperwork, I almost screwed a sailor of mine out of his desired transfer date and end of tour award. Must keep the paper flying in and out of my to do box for sure! No worries in the end with a little work the paperwork got through the chain of command and he will be making it out of hear on time and with award in hand, so everybody’s happy now.
The "sand pit" as it's called was pretty damn fun, especially after being at sea for such a prolonged time. Pictures to follow this message ... okay have to run.
Mark, OUT!

Late entry

“Give it to me four times” 3/15/2007

So today I experienced my third Non-Judicial Punishment case (think captain’s court house). It’s a long process and (I can attest through experience from both being judged and judger) is very exhausting for everyone. For instance, the accused has to live with making a fool out of him/herself in front of their whole division and chain of command. As well, the chain of command must decide how to provide the proper lessons learned/punishment for the sailor while at the same time must avoid totally alienating the sailor from their shipmates – it’s definitely a rebuilding process. Yeah, it is a crappy experience in general. Today we and ultimately the captain had to judge on the truthfulness of a sailor (of mine) who was accused of steeling divisional shipmate’s ipod. As it turned out he/we couldn’t really prove she wasn’t 100% guilty. People throughout speculated in both directions, like I said we now face a rebuilding phase and I just hope that more problems will not stem from this.

Yes! Soon we will be hitting a port for another break in the action. Looks like we need it too … (too much studying)

“The long move north” 3/17/2007

What is big and grey … full of salty seme sailors … it scares pirates … and moves as slow as a whale? No, it’s not a really hungry whale that swallowed a small ship. Who would jump to that conclusion?! It’s the BATAAN moving north to carry out it’s next mission -- see you later east coast of Africa, hello Middle East. Okay, that was pretty ridiculous … I guess I’m just excited to be pulling into port again (that and the fact that it is now about 330 in the morning). Okay time for sleep.
~Mark

“Painting with the Fire Controlman” 3/14/2007

What? The Officer is getting his hands dirty? Yes, guys I do know how to work. I’m not always a paper pushing, sign it all, emailing bandit. Actually if you want to know how things really went down, I was auctioned to the enlisted crew members for four hours of hard labor at the most recent Navy Marine Corps Relief Society Fundraiser. NMCRS is a non-profit that takes care of sailors and marines when their luck is down. They will actually cover pretty substantial debts, help with childcare, and pretty much anything else that may come up. The way we were auctioned off was pretty fun. It was almost like the Mr. FHS contest for those of you who know what that was. My best bud Rick was the auctioneer. He was completely dressed out in suit and tie and played the part very well. “Can I get 50, 55, 60, oh a 65 … go for the gold, can I hear a 70!” He began by reading a card of our personal traits and if you are wondering, the answer is yes, I did do a flip when they were announcing my special talents/skills. Not surprised are you? I have to say, I did not expect to bring in such a large price, $ 215 was how much I went for. The most sought after victims went for 475 and 415! All in all we raised about $ 6500. If you can believe it, our goal for the command is something like 35,000 dollars – what!? Yes I couldn’t believe it either, sailors taking care of sailors is serious business.

Wonder who's the Captain of that Ship??

So this is what the beach looks like. They were taken from the attached LCAC unit’s cameraman just recently. Every time I look out into the water while on the bridge all I wish I could do is go onto the beach and play around in the surf. HA! Miss you guys!

Love,
Mark

More of the Beach

African Landing

Mail Call, Finally!

This picture is from the other day when we received the 28,000 lbs of mail! Since we are at the end of the supply line we had a stockpile of stuff waiting for us … 653 pallets of mail, food, supplies, and other items of goodness. Finally the ship's store was restocked with things other than redhots and slim jims J . Na, it wasn't really that bad. Notice that all of the aircraft are parked up on the bow or "forward bone" of the flight deck, this is because we needed to make room for the huge amount of stuff that we transferred by helicopter. The water is pretty blue eh? It's warm over here. The funny thing is, because of the heat, when I think of home I picture it being summertime. But from what I hear it's more like 30 degrees.

Training Never Ends

This looks like it was taken while we were maneuvering – maybe during JO ship handling training (Junior Officer). We do this on Sundays when there isn't too much going on. I'm getting my learn on, that's for sure. They've been keeping us busy so understand why the blog site isn't up to date. I hope all is well at home. I miss everyone bery much.

Love,
Mark

A Message from the Captain (no, the real Captain)!

Please see the following update from the Captain!!!

The Navy and Marine team aboard BATAAN have most definitely settled
into a routine off of the Horn of Africa. We are staying busy with a
full day of flight ops most days, and on our "no fly" days, we are
managing to schedule some recreational activities that have been a
hit with the crew. Last week we had our first "steel beach" picnic
on the flight deck with basketball, driving golf ball off of the bow,
a DJ, and some organized fun to go along with a full-blown picnic.
We followed that up with a showing of the Daytona 500 on the flight
deck that evening (a pretty late night for those who stuck it out to
the end!) In between these events, our Fun Boss is an endless source
of recreational activities; of note, we are well into our "Big 5
Idol" competition that draws a big crowd each week.

We got our first mail in almost two weeks on Friday the 23rd. One
down side of where we are operating is the long logistic chain
required to get parts, people, mail, and food to and from BATAAN.
Despite our best efforts, we are feeling the effects – we ran out of
soda this past week, and some other things are getting pretty low.
We are expecting a major re-supply this coming week, so we should get
caught up on what we need to keep the ship running and the crew happy.

Today we conducted a "Crossing the Line" ceremony to welcome over
2200 Sailors and Marines into the Order of the Trusty Shellbacks.
King Neptune and Davy Jones were on hand for the festivities that
kicked off at 0500 and wrapped up just after noon. Along the way,
the ship's Trusty Shellbacks applied plenty of salt water to properly
cleanse the legions of pollywogs, but we achieved a successful and
memorable observance of a long Navy tradition.

Our weather continues to be fairly good, considering our proximity
to the equator – daytime highs are still in the mid-80s and we have a
fairly steady breeze that keeps it comfortable. The good weather has
drawn steadily more crew members up to the flight deck to work out
when we are not at flight quarters, which will help everyone out once
the semi-annual physical fitness assessments come due in April.

Our future schedule continues to be fluid, but we are still
expecting to be home on time. Although our day-to-day and week-to-
week taskings may be unpredictable, I am confident our leadership
will only consider extending the BATAAN Strike Group in theater if
there is a pressing need for our presence beyond the planned "out-
chop" date.

That's all for now. We all enjoy hearing from home and appreciate
all you are doing to keep things running while we are gone!

CO

Sunset in the Ditch