Times Roll On

The first shot is showing the group of Air Force Reserve, Joint Communication Support Element. A team of just eight personnel that I had the privledge of working with everyday since we left Norfolk. This group of specialist would start at 5am, get their transport from the ship to thier sites and some times even remain over night. In order from Left to Right: SRA Lee, TSgt Gregory, CMSgt Ware (Officer In Charge), TSgt Metzdorf, TSgt Raymonvil, TSgt Moses, SSgt Christian, and MSgt Johns.

Amphious Squadron Six Staff

This is a shot of half of our staff that came out for our Contining Promise Mission this year.

It’s been almost 4 months now and 7 for the entire year that I have been away from home... It’s 11:14am, we are finally moving north to head home and I’m still working on the cup of coffee from this morning. For the most of the year now, we’ve seen nothing but black flag day weather, and a lot of people who can’t get glasses in an hour or any other medical care. So far in one year we’ve been to Mayport & Miami, Fl; Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; Covenas, Columbia; Limon, Costa Rica; Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica; Puerto Santo Thomas De Castilla, Guatemala; Bluefields, Nicaragua; Chiriqui Grande, Panama; Cartagena, Colombia; Georgetown, Guyana and Paramaribo, Suriname. Nine is the magic number here. We’ve seen liberty in 3 of all of these places, and the money we used paid their salaries for an entire year…… If I had to make a decision on the best, I’d say Cartagena, Colombia. It was more established than any of the others and as long as you had someone to translate the Spanish you did good. If you look up Continuing Promise 2010 on Google, I’m sure you’ll find links to everything we’ve accomplished out here.

It’s lunch time here onboard the Uss Iwo-Jima, I’m still sipping on coffee, and the best thing I have to look forward to is working out with a buddy of mine in a few hours. Always a happy point to relieve stress, anxiety, and the anticipated wait for the next few days to come. Another out to sea period is almost done.

Time Moves On

Here’s to another long day.. An easy day, with not a whole lot to do, and sitting off the coast of Georgetown, Guyana. While literally counting days like a count down to Christmas around here, for the first time in months, I can open my calendar in Outlook and see the day when I’ll be home. Very Excited!!!

These past couple of years it’s been an extremely high OP tempo for us. People are staying gone for six to nine months at a time to preserve the way we live, the laws we have, and how we are toward each other. I promise you, there is always a worst place than where you are. Normal everyday here in Georgetown…. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With all the good we are doing here, I can’t wait to be back home… Cheers!

Time Goes By

Omg it’s almost 2:00am, for some reason I’m still drinking this coke, music blaring in my ears and the only thing I can think of….  I haven’t had enough me time. Is that bad? Cartagena, Columbia  peeps, that’s where we are sitting for the moment. Almost to our month count down finally after departing Norfolk on June 12^th for this mission. I just hit my ten year mark…. Man a lot has happened in 10years, and I have to do another 10?? Normally my answer would be “ Not it “. But for some reason I think it’ll work out.

 

Today is gonna be the day
That they're gonna throw it back to you
By now you should've somehow
Realized what you gotta do

 

Late One

What does it take to go away for four months? What do you find to hold on to to make it through….. Is it the beautiful person you married, or maybe your kids… maybe the area you live in, or something as simple as your own home made coffee? Have you started seeing visions of the person you love when you close your eyes? What drives you to start the day, to actually get out of bed in the morning even though it really feels like you just went to sleep? How about next year when you have to leave for longer thanks to politics you don’t believe in???  =|  How do you keep your sanity in all this?

In nine more days, it’ll be ten solid years of employment that has taken you around the world a couple of times. You’ve seen more foreign country than a rich man has seen of his own backyard. You’ve had to pack your clothes so many times; it’s pointless to create a list any more. What makes up for the time that you’ve had to leave? ….. sending flowers to let that special person know you haven’t forgotten them, emails ….surprise gifts in the mail.

Alright I get it.. you hate being away, your in absolute love with your family and can’t wait to get back to them, but all of this is a major part of your job….If that’s the case, is there a government job that won’t deploy my ass and let me continue to work in the same career field?      I miss you guys tons.. Everyone one of you. There is not a day that goes by that all of you are not in my thoughts. I got to see my Aunt Judy, Uncle Shawn, and my cousin Dustin last time.. AWESOME!!! My mom and sister, my niece Bre!!! My brother and his family. Unbelievable on how much can change and at the same time it’s still the same place. Lara and I went and saw Nickelback LIVE …  Now that was fucking awesome!!!! And then the day before I left this time around we got to take Phia to Water Country USA…. Couldn’t trade a day of any of that for anything.

Is all this really worth it though? To do miss all of these things. I never want to be away this much to help others when there are so many in our own area that need the same help and would line up for hours to receive it. After the last three months I was begging to go home and be with the one’s I had to leave behind. Along with a glass of crown of course to settle the nerves a bit and missing birthdays is defiantly not something I want to miss…. For my family or my immediate family.. My brother and sister, mom, and dad… Aunts, uncles..  At first it was a lot of fun… Stationed in Florida for two years.. HA.. I was 20 then. That was a blast. Doing this is like a split deployment of 6 or 7 months with some of the most horrible planners/logistics I have ever seen. There is a saying that goes around that says if you do nothing but complain all day, you will never be happy, but honestly…  I smile and say another Sunday has pasted instead and it doesn’t help a damn bit lol. Maybe that’s the politics of it though. Just do the job, don’t complain, and let me watch you fail a few times which I’ll yell at you about, but you’re trying really hard so I’ll let you continue to do the same job…. Common Sense maybe???  (laughs) there’s a phrase around here that we hear pretty often “If it makes sense, we are going to do the opposite instead because the other option is easier and maybe more cost effective”. You have a team of people that you send out to look at the same 10 to 20 things 10 days prior to you arriving there, and when you finally get there it’s still messed up one way or the other. I’m sure there is some major things that are right, but the things that are wrong aren’t exactly small things either. Is it because some things are just that way or that maybe you knew about what was going to be needed to be done and two months ago when you found out about it, nobody thought the research could have started then… You have masses of people at your control to move as you need to…

This is normally one of those times that you look at the person and say.. Damn, chill the hell out already… But how many yes people are there. If you have future notice and a different group of people have done the same thing before… common sense says maybe your last lessons learned needs to be re-evaluated and taken into heavy consideration. It’s like telling your cable guy to make a house call when you won’t be there, why try if nothing is going to get fixed. No common sense what so ever. So many different things to look for in 10days time and still it’s a failure. How many times will it take to turn on the light bulb?

 I’m no politician, but whoever’s idea this was needs to be beat again with dumb stick in 105 degree heat. This way when he’s sore from the beating and tired from the heat he’ll have a small insight of what this is really all about.

The Beatings Will Continue Until Moral Improves

The Beatings