"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