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

 

The Storm

Every night we see the same thing here in Guatemala. Columbia was the same way except a little bit cooler during the day and always a constant over-cast. These lighting storms go on for hours after sunset and continue for most of the night. They do sit off the coast enough that we can’t hear the lighting strike, but the way they light up the sky is something totally different from what we see in the US. Back home on the east coast right now it’s in the 70’s, and I’m sure in other parts of the US it’s just starting to finally cool down after another heat wave of a summer.

Here it’s in the 90’s with the heat index pushing it over 100 everyday. People are loosing weight by just being out there and drinking water for 8 hours.

Going from country to country like we are, we sit at anchor the entire time of the Humanitarian visit which is normally a ten day stop before moving on. In for ten days, out for two maybe three and then another ten day stop. Amazing budget we are racking up just for this. So far alone we’ve spent over 123 thousand with Guatemala still pending as we start rapping up in the next few days and that is just for the mission itself. Not including our cost of fuel or what it takes to keep us going. The number of health care services so far over 36.9 thousand people and growing. It’s like walking into the worst town in your city, and then taking away normal health care services that we are accustomed to, paved roads, fresh water and a house that keeps out the weather all year round. We are use to seeing people with no shoes on their feet, have never been to the dentist in their lives and only home remedies as doctors of the house. We even brought a team of Army Veterinary folks with us who have seen over 9,149 to make sure your normal farm animals are going to survive.

So much I want to add with all of the pictures that we’ve captured, guess I need to go for a photo bucket account and see how well that works. Or maybe Flickr?

The biggest thing now is our half way point that we hit yesterday. People are getting restless to get back home. After seeing the same thing day in/day out it begins to get old fast. Not much to do unless you’re working on the beach or tracking who is going where and how. So basically if you’re a Seabee, Doctor, or some part of our flight crew. If the calendar is right today marks 61 days away from Norfolk now. With a dead line of being home around November 17^th that gives us another two and half month stretch.

So what am I missing back home????  Birthdays.. Eli’s first steps, my Princess Phia’s first day of school. Lara’s Birthday.. So basically another whole year pretty much of missing everyone’s birthday again, and from the looks of things it’ll happen again next year too. Hard to plan stuff when I’m this far away. When all else fails though, I still have pictures of the kids being sent to me along with video’s of Eli walking from Lara  <3 xoxo.  =D  Hope all is well, and hope to hear from you soon.

So Tuesday the 7th was the first day of school for my princess Phia.

 

I got lucky and caught an outside line to talk to her for about five minutes before she got on the bus. One of those things that will happen over and over again for years to come that maybe I’ll have a chance to be there for.

I was starting to get use to getting home around 6, getting out of uniform, and being with the family. Then someone came along and volunteered us again. It’s like being locked in a minimum security prison with a pair of boots, longer working hours, and way more politics involved.

  I did find a good thing though. I can now update my blog from email. So lets see how this works out. I’m looking for positive results

 

just terrific

Subsenix – Staring At Infinity - Feat. Essence (Orginal Mix)

Grr…
Ever have a day where you feel like your banging your head against a wall and no matter which way you turn the wall is still there? Well that is about the day I’m having.
It feels like no matter which way I try to turn, it will still be there and I can’t see a way around it.
Like for instance, I’ve been wanting to work out for weeks, but by the time I get off of work it’s almost 9pm if not past that. Maybe it’s just me, but it’s over kill to have this long of a day almost every day of the week.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve worked some long days in the past 10years and even long weeks. I'm trying to figure out at what point that I tell my boss to give me a 24hr break
……

Hypercaine

You got something inside worth giving
Now look at the life I’m livin
I am hooked on that hypercaine feelin
I can’t put my finger on the vibe that’s wining

You got something inside worth giving
Now look at the life I’m livin
Cause it’s the only thing that keeps me movin
Now I can’t tire
I’m on the wire

You got something inside worth giving
Now look at the life I’m livin
I am hooked on that hypercaine feelin
I can’t put my finger on the vibe that’s wining

You got something inside worth giving
Now look at the life I’m livin
Cause it the only thing that keeps me movin
Now I can’t tire
I’m on the wire

I gotta keep movin’ onnnn
I gotta keep movin’ onnnn
I gotta keep movin’ onnnn
I gotta keep movin’ onnnn

ALL WE NEEEDDDDD

I gotta keep movin’ on
gotta keep movin’ on
gotta keep movin’ on
gotta keep movin’ on
gotta keep movin’ on
Movin’ on
Movin’ on
Movin’ on
Movin’ on

Gotta keep moving on

Last night I was up until 1130 finishing some notes for the qual I’m going after, and tonight was three hours of training on fundamentals. Which ever way it goes, I’ll have it before we get back from all of this madness, mayhem, confusion, and stepping stone short of a cluster. Interesting stuff that they are trying to plan out here to get these different doctors, active guard members, and NGO on shore. Too bad I want to post this and the server is down for reboots…..

Breakfast starts at 530am until 7. The hot coffee helps to get started. So if your actually up at those hours you can pick up your hot breakfast, ranging from eggs to order, omelets, hash browns, hard boiled eggs…. Sometimes you might get a pancake that actually tastes like pancakes. Haha sounds tasty don’t it??
Then the ever famous cleaning stations begins at 0745 until 0830, and people are out and about in the spaces they own through out the ship making sure things get a good wipe down. That is about a normal morning.

You know an interesting comment came up the other day, and for us Navy folks it’s all normal everyday living for us, but some of the things that our Non-Government Organization were talking about… Why am I not in an Officer Stateroom, and how do you expect me to sleep in this coffin rack? People who are getting a real taste of military life who have been use to their beds at home for many years are now getting a real taste for our day to day living. Although I’m sure the change for them was huge, but what you will learn to adapt to brings a new insight on things they will never forget about. I’ll have to go take a picture of a rack onboard and stuff some random Joe Smoe in it. >=) Lucky for them, they get to eat with the officers onboard and do their laundry upstairs where the a/c is and not down stairs where the us enlisted Joe’s do ours.. It’s a bit hotter down there.Our NGO’s are the civilian part of the mission from different volunteer organizations that do medical treatments and training. I mentioned most of them a few blogs ago.
On local news stations in Norfolk, Va; San Diego, Ca; Mayport, Fl and many other places you will see footage of family’s on the pier as they watch their loved one’s leave for the enduring and what seems to be the never ending Six Month deployment cycle to some random place over sea’s. With over 330k active duty personal, over 102k ready reserves there is currently almost 40k of those personal on deployment cycles right now on over 155 different ships around the globe.
And there is a certain amount of pride that will always go along with all of this. Both from the active duty members, their family, and friends. As silly or funny as it might sound… There is no place like home. I remember a video once done and I’m not sure by whom, but the music behind it is from 3 Doors Down – When I’m Gone. If I get to go ashore again, I’ll have to hook up the Wi-Fi and look for it on Youtube, but some really amazing footage from places covered in sand, to airports as they are welcomed back home, to the same pier they departed from.

From Afar

All the way from Columbia…. What a trip so far. Who would have thought more than 10 years ago that I’d be looking at the coast and helping people in Covenas, Colombia and still so many other country’s to go on our four month outing.
So there’s a lot of over cast here. We see rain every morning almost on shore, and then a brief shower in the evening. Barely any sunshine at all these past few days and from the way it looks it’ll stay that way. Still conducting flight ops everyday and moving people back and forth from shore, but no where near the amount we did for Haiti the first time from January to March. Most of the work is general medical training which goes a lot into physical health and how to avoid the most common diseases. We have teams of dental personal that are going out and doing filling, teeth cleanings and another team of veterinarians that are roaming the jungle to check the country’s animals and other wild life that are in country as well. Just in half a days work we have seen over 340 people at one of the medical sites we have set up. By the time we are done at this stop we will have seen over 5,000 patients including our dental, optical, and pharmacy clinics we have set up.
From some of the photo’s we have so far, and that I’ll try to upload here, you can see the vehicles going ashore from the boat, Vets taking care of the local animals from dogs to cows, and even officer promotions on the USMC side.
I've been trying to load this one page to put this post up for 20minutes.. refresh after refresh, what ever happen to Accellerate Your Life?

Now moving away from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (Gitmo). We were restricted of course to one side of the island, with a few rules that we had to obied by. No going out alone, be back on ship by midnight, no public intoxication of course, and the best of all NO PICTURES... Grrrr
It was nice to see another or part of another naval base. We all had time to go by the NEX and buy them out of everything that would could ask for while we are out here so that helped. I guess I could have gotten another thing or two of powered french vanilla creamer though. lol
I'm sure I'll find pictures of Gitmo somewhere if I look hard enough.... Maybe next post I can pull some off.
We did have some great or yet amazing work that was conducted on this trip. Our Embarked Seabee's redid some roofs for churches and schools, our medical and dental team to include an army medical team seen over 10,000 patients during the 10days we were at Port De Paix.

It's everything you see on TV and then some. Those who literally can not help themselves, no health care at all, no real potable water like we have, no sewer system, and really the whole nine.

With such organizations as:

Project Hope, RN Response Network, The Greitens Group Foundation, Give a Kid A Backpack, and the Baptist Health of South Florida are all contributors to our mission.

These people from all over the US join here aboard the Uss Iwo-Jima and spend long days to be on the shores to help people learn proper sanitation, general health, and many more topics on how to live longer. So many more things to come as our next stop is Covenas, Colombia and this time I'll have a camera to upload some personal shots of the area that surrounds us while we are out here and things we are doing to help some of those in need here on Continuing Promise 2010.

Must Be Something

We've been floating out here for 16 days now. Only a few more left for our Haiti portion of the mission ^_^. What a relief after being here for three months, but out here doing it again. Was out for the three and now here's four more. We do have some very interesting places to visit this time around though: Costa Rica, Colombia, Panama, Nicaragua, and a few others. Very interesting trip we have here. .. Still working on the camera part of it though. I Know... WHAT IN THE HELL WAS I THINKING.... a trip like this and no camera. No worries, I'm known to acquire what I need so I'll have some photo's soon.
This time around we are doing the yearly Continuing Promise for the better portion of South American and thanks to bandwidth I haven't had the chance to get all the different sites that are being used for this mission but I'll be sure to update with the next post.
It is defiantly a change of pace to keep moving around as much as I am with the command I'm with now. For instance we have two different groups of Air Force teams on board. We have a group from the Air Force band for all of the ceremony's, and then a group of Communications Specialist.... The weird part, they are all Guard members. So that is kind of new. We also have a group of army vet's (animal doctors) on board as well to help treat the animals.
Hopefully come Friday or Saturday i'll come back with an update once I get out there and put boots on ground.

The Long Way

this will one day be a book, but right now a good rain storm on your parade would fit this better.
your day starts at 6:45 here... catch a bit of breakfast and then upstairs to make coffee (such a good start to the morning). As you wait for the days list to come out you use your skills to help others. When you become really good at something, people tend to talk, and before long you are sought after for sometimes the same thing or different. No matter what it is, you get it first time around every time, and you always leave with the other person smiling and shaking your hand to thank you for a quick response, positive attitude and great work.
After you've gotten a few things done for others you sit back down at the computer and finally see your list of things to do for the day. By now it's between 9:30 and 10:45. After a few hours of waiting, off you go on a few hours worth of work to do.
It is not that I'm older than two of the people, because now a days... that's everywhere.
Maybe it's because the job I am doing here is for beginners and I am an expert. For pure boredom sake and the yearning to help people I'm drawn to do so whenever possible.
It becomes too easy to fall into routine and when it comes time to break out you sometimes hesitate to let your mind once again become a sponge.
This is what it takes to retire.. to become someone else's Yes man... just keep saying yes and you'll never be able to voice your opinion. No matter what the task is, just keep saying yes. Don't worry about what others need, because it will have to go through two other people before you can get an answer.
It's amazing what they can take away... your time to blog during the day, maybe have a chance to check facebook... micro management is the key here. Yes Yes Yes... lol it never fails, and before here I was golden. More golden than the key to the city. It was easy when it happened then. You got to help train people on how it worked, and got to fix shit in the same process. So if anyone knows of a civilian job that pays 65+ plus benefits let me know because that is where I need to be.
Atleast I was able to be home for three months with Lara and the kids. Even got to go home for a few days and see the family. Absolutly amazing time. Loved Water Country USA the day before we left, went to the movies, and out for date nights <3<3<3. Got to pick Phia up from day care everyday on the way home from work. How I miss my Phia and Eli. Not that I don't miss my sweetheart any less. Even got to watch Eli learn how to climb up the stairs, got to pick him up when he fell, and hold him when he cried. Got to play with them in the sprinkler out back and still find time with our busy schedule to cuddle on the couch with my sexy lady.
<>

Dj Pressure _ 20100601 DnbRadio.com - under the podcast section. Make sure to check out his site under my links tab. ^_^
"Look how we got you on the Soul Patrol... We came to free your mind ...Sooth your Soul. Let the music deep in your soul.. Inside of your mind.. Don't stop, don't pause while I go for mine"

LET THE MUSIC DEEP IN YOUR MIND

DEEP IN YOUR SOUL

DOWN INSIDE OF YOUR HEART

CLOSE AND DEEP AND PERSONAL

The Wave Continues

And so it continued on July 12th at 1115am. We pulled out from Norfolk, Va to put together a multi-country / multi-military operation to help those in the southern Caribbean. Such a long two days already and finally I am seeing a glimpse of my rack. Seeing a lot of water with these guys. We not only have a blog for this mission, but a facebook page as well: Continuing Promise 2010.
From Canadian's to French to Columbian. This has to be one of the biggest multi-national missions we do. I get to work hand in hand with an Air Force Major and on a communications scale a different group of Air Force personnel. A big eye opener for everyone. Even a group of Navy Seabee's to a team of marines.
We had three months at home before coming back out here.... Not enough time with the wife and kids, but I did have a chance to go home for a week and see the family. Words can not describe how much I don't like being away from any of them. Especially my princess Phia and my handsome Elias.

The Future

it's one thing to be home on a daily basis and have that regular schedule, but leave home for three months, and only have sporatic phone calls and emails to keep you tied with people you love....

And just think about what you might go through after that time is up......

Can you feel it??? Through your hands in the air... I can feel it, I can feel it, I can feel it... Can you feel it??? Through your hands in the air.... (phil colins =D)

And that's what it's really like.. A moment of OMG.... what the hell am I doing for the people I love, trust, admire, and want to have in my life...

What would you give up for your family??? seriously think about it... what would you really do??

I'd trade everything that was precious to me, that I owned to realize what I should be doing for them.

It's so nice to be back on dry land with friends and family. Hopefully pictures later to follow, if not, well..... I'm sure moments like this is something I will never forget...

The Last Leg

Yes Yes!!! Going all the way this time, moving on tomorrow and hitting the real road that the 800 or so of us have been looking forward to. Straight to home by saturday morning!!
So what to do while we wait for all of our marine counter-parts to disembark??? Well...
Alot of Sub Focus comes to mind, the DNBRADIO chat room!! Maybe another movie to watch?Maybe I'll do myself a favor and start packing early... Go downstairs and load up my seabags again and prep for Saturday???? And more of what do I really want to leave behind and just come back monday for so i'm not hauling everything at once.
And don't worry, just because I pull back in doesn't mean this will stop. I'll change the title up maybe and learn how to really change the format around if I have a chance.....

The Movement

It feels good to be moving again. The breeze that we have been missing for the past three months has finally returned and gives out a good moral boost. Let's us know that our relief mission was a success although we had a bit of an extended stay. Last minute qualifacation shoots on the 50 and 25cal guns while we make our trip back north. Still need to drop off our Marine brothers and sisters , and hit our last "B-Line" home. Finally a break for not only us, but the ships company who just returned from their deployment to turn around a month later and make another sacrifice to their family and friends, and come back for more.
So what else is there to do while you wait for the next day to happen??? You copy everyone else's movie selection to your personal computer that you brought with you or had a loved one send you. It's amazing how just 10 years ago we couldn't imagen what anyone would need with a gigabyte worth of data. Now we are moving into terabytes worth. The 350GB worth that I have with me now isn't even a quarter of the movies alone that I can get from other people onboard. And for us, sometimes movies and music is your only recreation other than the gym. Guess it's time for another upgrade. Note to Self - When you go to buy a new computer, anything less than 500GB is not worth the money any more.

The Word

Flight Deck Wash Down!!!! Happens anytime you leave a foreign area.

Oh the LCAC, well, he is taking all the marine gear ashore, then waiting for it to be washed down. This is what happens when we come back from a deployment cycle.

Alright, so it's been five days already, and just about a week left to go. Sitting just outside of Gitmo, Cuba waiting for all of the vehicles to get their washdown done, and then flightdeck washdown tomorrow.

Hope everyone is ok, i'm looking forward to a McDonalds breakfast when we pull in a week from now, and a couple glasses of crown and hottub that night. Funny huh, out of everything I didn't mention the wife or the kids. HELL NO, because they are always the very first and last thing I think about everyday. So I'll have all day to catch up on the last three months of what the kids have done, and all night to catch up what I missed with Lara.

I know it's been five days and I should have plenty to share, but right now I want to watch some more of The Lord of the Rings and get some sleep.

Way Ahead

So we finally took on the last bit of food and supplies today. A great sign for us. Now we can see the light at the end of the tunnel and know what to expect in the next two weeks. Still need to get rid of some supplies the ship has from their recent deployment, get all of our marine vehicles washed down, and then make our trip north to drop of the marine element that we have onboard.
I was going to upload a picture of the boy, but it keeps timing out for a 300kb file. Pretty bad eh?
Counting almost 10 days until I get to be home once again for a while. So completely happy that we can see the end of the road now. They have been talking about it for about the past month, but with nothing on paper it was never put out to us that they had an idea. The higher powers never wanted to give us an assume date to just turn around and say Sorry, we have to stay a bit longer. So I guess that worked out for the better. Hopefully if things go right, I'll be home right before Easter. =D Which of course I'm not a huge holiday person to begin with, but for Eli and Phia I want them to understand the holiday for what it is and let them enjoy it. With all the pictures that Lara has sent me since I left, I can really see how much Eli and Phia have been constantly growing. So far i've missed the first time Eli crawled, and he said his first word "momma". =) All the good things I miss.

From The Top

For the Above Photo's, The first one is me with a few of the folks at the Lifelines Mission in Grand Goave, Haiti. We went and distributed some supplies like shovels, flops, infant diapers, wheel barrels, and some other misc items. And the second is the group photo at the end of the day. About 45 of us all together for the day.

So what's the new word?? Fresh coffee again this morning was a huge plus (and the toilet paper, thanks Dad)!! I was able to go downstairs and download some music. Always a good thing. Amazing that the 179MB file took 45mins to download. Yea, amazing that I get those at the house in about 30secs. What a huge difference out here, but thanks to DeeJay Flapjack and Pressure. Absolutely wicked set you did on the 13th.

Got lucky last week on laundry day and now all of my whites are a very light baby blue =D GO SHIPS LAUNDRY!! I swear the things we have to live with. The white towel I don't care about, but the shirts will have to be replaced =( Hopefully I can spend ten dollars and get two four packs.

Was hoping to add some pictures of my experience on Friday going ashore in Haiti to help out. Seems our MC's are being a little picky of who they want to give the extra photo's to. =( Looks like I'll have to work around it and talk to someone I know. Unbelievable some people I swear.

In the next couple of weeks we will finally start making preparations to get out of here. Still have a few more things to do before we can head north. At the moment I'll see home around the first week of next month. I believe the total estimate is over $234 million and counting, with the 20,000 troops that were initially brought down to Haiti from the US, Canadian, French, Italian, South Korean and Japanese troops are also in Haiti, and European Union to help build temporary shelters. By now Haiti is the small talk of CNN and regular news channels back home. For the most part all of the Naval Ships that were down here have made it safely back home to Norfolk or carried on their duty's to other locations around the globe.

The Way

How many people does it take to make one decision?

I'm going to picnic, who wants to come with me?? (lmao Colin)

O, I'm going to be bringing some French Toast. What will you bring...... And before you know it, people are dumb drunk because they've spent all day trying to decide and thought drinking would be alot easier. These are the types of things I face about when I'll go home. Some one's assistant on the O-I'm High Ladder isn't getting their coffee made right. So what are the realistic idea's here??? You can fly back, you can fly to another ship if they can come down this way, you can hang out for two more weeks and do nothing but play cards and watch movies, O, and you would have to do two more replenishment at sea. Like today for instance, and easy 110 pallets worth of stuff, all done in about two and half hours. Not a hard day really, and the worst part is knowing someone else is doing your laundry for you with some re-vamped sea water.

All the pictures I post are taken from our (MC's), Mass Communication Specialist. The crazy part, lol, I'm posting up the Low-Resolution shots cause it takes too long to load the high-res shots. Good stuff eh? I thought so. Every so often they will get bored and go capture an evolution and put them (most of them) to the ships share drive. Like the one at the top of the post, better known as H-53E Super Stallion, and nicknamed from the squadron that runs them "IRONHORSE". If your in for a long ride, need to haul a couple of 1 ton trucks, maybe a bunch of cargo, or a few baseball teams, here's your cadillac. Monstrous when your standing in front of it, and I know a picture only does so much, but these things are just huge!

Now then, time to get the clothes down in ships laundry and pray for a miracle of dryness.

Have some crown for me! Cheers!!

Things That Change

The hundred man march worth of the working party's we have done for three weeks

You like to break things right, well there's plenty here to share, O BTW, you pick up what you break into smaller pieces.

Alright everyone, don't forget to take your malaria pills, make sure you have water on you at all times, and don't eat anything that isn't american made.. (EPIC FAIL)

Things that change... humm Yea, not our schedule that's for sure.

Music selection though... Sub Focus - Follow The Light YEA YEA!!!!! /JUMP!!

now that's good shit for the masses. Missing alot of DNBRADIO.COM out here is no bueno. Still not a big fan of that. Like right now for instance: Mayhem And Ruffride - United Junglist Union rocking the decks for two hours! Seriously!!! Now that's a mad set. Missing that is like missing breakfast and coffee in the morning.

Alot of the same stuff, NOTHING! haha absolutely nothing. Makes for a long boring day. Still doing alot of random VIP tours here, and I do mean ALOT. I think we've actually started a list somewhere that list every Admiral that has been on board Uss Bataan.. Hell, now for the president to come out and visit, unfortunately for us, we are tired of hearing the same spill every time. Get's kinda old, so instead we go workout for two hours at a time, and hold up the ships store line for an hour. Sounds like a decent thing to do.

Missing some good bandwidth is definitely high on my list.. Trying to upload pictures to the blog, and tune into DNBRADIO chat..... Yea, go drive to walmart, do your shopping list, pick up some Crown, and get back to me. STILL GOING! Grrr.. Ok, so maybe I over exaggerated that just a bit. It is pretty bad though. So I don't know what else to add now, alot of music still on a daily basis's.

let's hope for some better news on Tuesday.

I FEEL IT COMING CLOSER

I FEEL IT COMING CLOSER

I FEEL IT COMING CLOSER

I FEEL IT COMING CLOSER

I FEEL IT COMING CLOSER

I FEEL IT COMING CLOSER

I FEEL IT COMING CLOSER

FOLLOW THE

FOLLOW THE

FOLLOW THE LIGHT

Eli on the Floor

More Twiddling

Pictures say wonders. What you see above is what it's like for us to do a replinshment (take on food, ect) while out to sea. This time it's only to take on stores and not fuel at that same time.

Sunday we did a 210 pallet replenishment(above) of food and other misc. items that the ship needed. I know it might not seem like alot, but trust me, when you've got 12 pallets of soda and there are 50-70 cases per pallet, makes for a long day.

Anyway, it just happened that during this replinshment that not one of those 210 pallets went to Haiti. That pretty much sums up what we are currently up to. Now it's all about studying for exams and other qualifications.

So for the past two to three weeks the crew has been almost at a stand still. The first month was the most active and non-stop between doing medivacs, taking food, water, and tents to shore. For about the past two to three weeks we have seen a significant stop in everything. The only thing that has continued is the VIP/DV tours that we have played apart in. Even today we had the Secretary of the Navy come out to Bataan. Of course like every other DV the word still says: Great job on getting out here so fast, I'm so very proud of what you are doing here, and everyone appreciates what you continue to do. To go along with that, we are thankful to have hot showers again, three meals a day, and a place to sleep. Although we are all really wondering, what is really going on right now, what is stopping us from leaving, and if we are only doing minor flights during the day then what's the point of burning all this money to stay here? If any of you know a Marine, you know that the worst thing in the world is to have a bored Marine. It's one thing for a Navy guy to get bored, but mix that one Navy guy with about 22-2300 Marines and you have a full house waiting to rock.

... And so the twiddling continues

On the Way

So things are finally starting to look up after weeks and weeks of twiddling thumbs.
Bubba, looking forward to seeing the house. Don't know when I'll ever make it back home, but looking forward to it. Still looking for those pictures you are talking about.
MMMmm Crown. =D How I could do with about a glass.
Haha @ the monster.
I know it's been almost a week and I haven't blogged anything. Should be like a daily thing huh?? Guess I need to get to some serious work then. Well, it's 9pm now and just finished with my last "chore" for the night on the list of things that I have to do everyday. It's been a boring and head pounding of a week with the studying I've been doing. I'm up for the E-6 advancement on the 4th, so I'm defiantly looking forward to that so I can get my pay raise for all of my hard work.
Working on keeping the rumors going of when I'll be back in the VA area. Sad to say, yet glad to have something, we might actually make it back before the 20th of the month. Which is good because I'll get a bit of extra pay for being away from homeport/Virginia (225$). Good stuff huh? Applies to any married military person's who are away for 30 consecutive days. So doing the math if I'm still not home by the 14th it'll be 450$ extra that the military will have to give up.. Times that by the amount of Navy personnel that are here.. A LOT OF FREAKIN MMOONEY!

I've gotten all the packages that have been sent!! THANK YOU ALL!!!!! Rhonda - don't worry, lol, it was worth it. Next time though, the actual tracks instead of the links will be awesome =P I'll be sending your stick back on Monday when our post office opens again.

So like I said, another long week, and still at least two more to go. Just more of the same stuff. Lara has us looking at houses in North Carolina. Just the sheer size of the lots alone is worth it for the family (and the damn dog). It will add an extra 20minutes to the drive home, but in the long run it'll be good. Maybe a good idea for a new car that I know won't fail me at random. GO VW!

I'm missing all the good stuff with the kids =( Eli is starting to crawl now and drink from a sippy cup. Phia's hair has grown a good bit in the past month. =( Defiantly missing the family out here. At least this is just a surge for us and not a deployment. Thankfully that's not scheduled to happen until next May. I'll miss every one's birthday next year, even mine. Hopefully the pictures I just attached will upload with the post. Lara sends me a few every week =D

So.... Daily Motivation for me... And I'm so happy that I have this on Vinyl. THANK YOU HONEY!!!!! Talk about just a jamming tune.
High Contrast - Days Go By
Yes it's an old remix of a rock song I'm sure, but it's definitely motivating for me.

Anyway, another night of watching movies and hoping this will all end soon. Enough twiddling of the thumbs and get back to where all the real fun is.

Moments

So since the morning started i've been working out diagrams of all the area's on the ship that my command occupies while onboard. My whole task for the day has been to map each item in that space; couch, chairs, tv's, CAT5 drops for the internet, desk, ect.. So i've been taking my time with it since it's the only thing I really have to do.(not to bad for a days work huh?) There is only four total area's that I have to go and map out, so not too bad. I've accomplished getting all 4 area's mapped out for the most part, and I have been working on locating all the drops in each area. Now it's after dinner, and was hoping to call it an early night and watch a movie or something before 10... Well, needless to say, i still got my work-out in and had dinner.
Not too bad of a work out either. I run from the well deck area where they store the LCACS and other misc Hum-v's (basically bottom of the ship almost), up the first ramp to the very back of the hangerbay, then up the other ramp that takes you up to the flight deck, two laps around the flight deck, then all the way down again. Did that about four times. Good sweat that's for sure. I'll be under 185 before I know it. Then it's all back to muscle building.
Hope things are going good for everyone else. We have had internet back for a few days now so really happy about that. Can't get enough of textfromlastnight.com awesome stuff.

Daily Motivation

I try to use these for the motivation that I find here, but I want to answer some questions that have been in the comments first.
Food inport or out to sea is always the same as going to another country. It tears you up for a few days, and then you get use to it. As good as the bakery is here onboard I do try to not dive into the sweets a majority of the week. So we've been gone for over a month now, and I’m sure half of that time or close to it was chicken, tonight was meatloaf. Wednesday is a hamburger/corn-dog sort of day for lunch, and then between fri-sun they try to do a steak and crab leg meal for us.... what the ship wouldn't have for R&R???? hummm movies that we could rent for a day. lol Now for the most part there is always somebody that has a stack of movies in a dvd case or on an internal/external hard drive.... I've got a guy onboard that has over 1tb worth of movies on his external hard drives. Last night I got to sit in the shop and watch Crank 2-High Voltage for the first time (a bit lame that one). The best thing you can have while out here though is laughter and comedy. You just have to ask around to see who has what really.
Ok so daily motivation: Flapjack_20100130.
I go through a bit of music everyday, but it's what started my day... And through constant networking while I’m out here, I met another E-5 that has a pretty sweet job for this out-to-sea period. So he let me download two mixes that night at about 50kbs. lol REALLY FUCKIN SLOW!!! about 12 to 15 minutes for each download. At home I grab these at about 45secs a download.
Another day down and going pretty smooth now for about the past week or so. Just like an everyday routine for the most part. Getting a good hour work out in about five days out of the week and just about all of it is on cardio. I can always do with losing ten pounds, so I’m making my best effort of meeting that goal since we are going to be out for a bit. Besides, I can't just stay in this office all day. Hope all is well with all of you, thanks for reading, putting in comments and helping me stay entertained.

Daily Motivation

Normally when i'm on shore I can get up, get coffee made, and drive into work. And for the next 30-40 minutes driving to work i'm focused on the bass and the taste of fresh coffee that's helping me wake up to do another day. This one was an early morning starter for me today and I played it loud when i hit the gym earlier tonight. Just a big tune for getting motivated and making the day worth while!!! Out of everything I am a fein for, stuff like this is a big, big high for me.

Utah Jazz - Survival Of The Fittest
Might have to request on Vinyl if it's out. Good tune.

Ez DeTrend&Amy, to Ruffride, to the one known as Sunset
TTUUNNNEE! Keep the decks spining

*mostly everything I put up you can pull from www.youtube.com
**WARNING** I can almost promise it will be drum and bass. =D

Ready for the Weekend

So the start of the morning goes to a fresh cup of coffee. Thanks mom for the package, gotta love the fresh coffee!!!!
I stopped my iPod in just the perfect place last night to start a new day of motivation. www.dnbradio.com>podcast>Mayhem and Ruffride_101809 and then fast forward to 1:03:35. That’s right. 1hr, 3mins and 35secs into the mix with dubplate sound from the man Ruffride up in Canada. Awesome tune to start another Saturday out to sea off the coast of Haiti. Still waiting for another package from Rhonda that should have a ton of mixes on it..!! Can't say thanks enough for the love and support! Big love to the 12 followers of the blog! Thank you guys!!
Starting to see a big decrease of HA/DR(Haiti-Disaster Relief)pallets being taken to shore. Most of the work right now is to ensure that the NON-NGO(non-government)/non-profit folks can take care of things on their own with the help from the department of defense. And I’m talking about people from all over including Canada and France. Still no end date on when they will call this operation finished and I’m sure they will do some kind of Enduring Foreign Humanitarian Assistance.
Apologizes for not updating the blog the past couple of days. Really keeping myself busy with studying for my upcoming exam in March. Nothing like a promotion to make you feel better!! And besides, being told I can’t say certain things at my current pay grade even though someone should is stupid. So a lot of time during the day is spent trying to remember as much as possible from the past exams that I have taken.
So this entire time we've been out here i've been using one of the commands extra laptops to play music and yesterday someone I work for copied a few movies over for me. So big plus there. Still waiting for my netbook to get here. Then I can move everything over to it and put a fresh image on this stand alone notebook I’ve been using.
So not really anything big going on. I'll have to find some photo's of the LCAC operations that we have through-out the day and post a few pictures. Wasn't really thinking we would be out here this long so i didn't bother to bring my camera. Think it's time to invest in a nice Nikon.
As always, Enjoy some crown for me!! Cheers!

Boredom

Ok.. so if you could only use google and wikipedia what would you look up?

Shit Happens

Ok, so first I want to shout out to my boy Chris a.k.a. DeTrend. Mad respect to his Tears of An Angel mix and Break the Windows Out of your House. OFF THE CHART MAN!!! Hope you guys don't move before I get back.. that shit would be No F*in Bueno!
Due to not having Internet I can't check out the site but here you go: http://www.wix.com/detrend/detrendradio Big thanks to Jess for sending me the link, to bad I can't use it till I get home, when I get home, if I ever get home. =D
So we all know, or should know or heard by now, the military in any shape/form is one huge F*in drama hole. Indeed this is true.
So every time the military does a mission of whatever the case may be they like to do a "Lesson's Learned " report. And in these types of reports everyone who is involved would put in one or two comments about what could be improved for any future evolutions. WELL.... And I really want to say I learned this from an extremely awesome person in my life, that has always been my number one.. My mom =D <3 U MOM!!!!! (don't worry dad i love you just as much!! always have)
So in my report, being the person that I am, that my parents taught so well, I didn't put just two thoughts into my report. And since I was so bad at school I think I'm making up for the shit now. LOL. Anyway, I put five.. Yep.. Five. And they said to focus on the "mission" for the most part of what could be improved, well, i decided to put in a bit about everything i have been trying to adept to in the past three months that I have been here. Needless to say, I sent my report to my boss, who then took it and put it into the report, that went on the share drive, for EVERYONE to read. All the way up to my Commanding Officer..... and you know the weirdest thing, only two people have mentioned it to me all day long. =D!!!! FML
*** CAN YOU REMEMBER-ER-ER ***
Also... I encourage everyone to put up a comment on every post they feel like putting a comment on. Please help keep me entertained =D Thanks to everyone who is checking this out daily and keeping tabs on me. and I hope to see everyone's comments so i know what is going on with everyone else! Cheers! Have some crown for me.

Things To Come

With still no internet access, no source of the outside world other than email, any .edu or .navy.mil is the only thing we can do. It seems that somebody on the marine corps side said we were sucking down bandwidth which caused for a ship wide halt for everyone's internet access. Even for your most common bill paying sites. Completely unreal on the hoops you have to jump through for the smallest shit. And you know the weirdest thing, is that from the data that we are getting from our servers, we are only utilizing stuff like foxnews.com, navyfcu.org (bank), and stuff like USAA.. I mean seriously, whatever happened to the phrase shut up and grow a pair, and stand up and tell someone they need to shut their mouth and stop complaining. And it all started shortly after we left. Real amazing when people that are in the lead of things (in charge of many people below them) can't tell someone TOO FUCKING BAD!
But we are really doing good things out here, helping all of these people in the poorest country in the world. giving out tons of food, water, medical supplies and help. We even brought aboard a 90yr old women last night and a little kid. So.... we are giving alot of support. We still have sailors and marines ashore everyday to help build tents, and hand out stuff. Alot of word floating around on returning before the first of march, and then coming from the big dogs we will be out here until almost april. And it all comes down to what it will take to have the non-profit organizations able to do this on their own. There is little to no threat out here, and it's just about the same as being in some other poor part of the neighborhood. Except here, and as far as i've learned that this government hasn't put a stop/and or law to rape and beatings of women among many other things. These people are really bad off and are in need of a governement to standup and tell them what is right and wrong. Here is some positive coverage:
The Navy received positive coverage in Wired and Popular Mechanics on communications technology used in Haiti
US Navy received positive coverage online via MTV News reports on USS Carl Vinson and Univision/La Razon reports on USS Bataan
The first few weeks there was a ton of media coverage out here on just about everyship, and now they are pretty much completely gone. So hopefully in the next few weeks of floating in the same spot we will see an increase of the non-profit organizations and the Haiti government standing back up.

For the Day

So ever since we pulled out of Norfolk, which I believe was on the night of the 13th, I've been going from 6am until normally around .... well it's 11pm now, so yea. Makes for a really interesting day that's for sure. By the time it's time to call it quits; feet are sore, legs hurt from the ladder-wells (stairs) and the drink that you keep thinking about is out in the distance.
Today was a pretty normal day, a few calls to fix some minor issues, put a nice new copy(image) onto a few notebooks that we own, and even re-did my inventory for accuracy. Nothing like running back and forth a hundred yards a couple of times a day to help some one you work with. Most of the day was spent with a new guy that just checked in who recently returned from a 7 month tour in Iraq. With the rise (need) for more forces overseas there is an abundance of navy/marine corps stories. Very interesting stuff to me and sometimes even a bit traumatizing.
We had another vert-rep today, which just means we took on a lot of cargo (food/supplies/ect) via Helo. I think we did somewhere over 200 pallets worth or so that will be going ashore to Haiti. I believe the call on the ship for that working party was 150 personal that were E-5 and Below and 200 Marines as well. Out here we all share the work. We did get a slight schedule change now that might land us back in Norfolk around the very end of March to possibly mid-April. Kind of depressing for me, and really depressing for the crew of the USS Bataan and the 22 Meu as well. Both crews just returned 3 months ago from a seven month deployment. So being out here for another four after only a month off wasn't the best thing to happen. Still a good number of people down here with us though. A lot of non-profit organizations on shore trying to get things set up and stable, which I believe is the reason we are still here.
After a long day, it was ended by helping take down the laundry for our small crew of guys. If there was ever a place to sweat and loose weight, it will defiantly be in ships laundry if not in the engineering spaces. One bad thing is, you have to take down so much laundry (35lbs+) or they won't take it. The other is that for some reason, it's never completely nice and dry. O, you have to go up one flight of stairs walk about 75 to a 100 yards, then go down four flights of stairs. Now over the years I’ve gotten smart about when i put my dirty clothes into ships laundry. I learned very quickly that the best bet you have is to always add a full cap of liquid laundry detergent to some piece of clothing in that load. You figure when the ship is doing laundry, they also put in about 5 to 8 bags of other people’s clothes. =D So, about 2 hours later after dropping off the 3 bags of other peoples clothes I go back down to pick them up. Luckily for us it was only a few hours instead of at the end of the day. Now in the 30 minutes I was down there I could almost swear I dropped a good 2lbs in sweat. But, more than half of my whites still came out of the dryer a bit damp. I’d almost like to assume that when we get underway, those industrial size washers and dryers are turning most of the day. I also learned that most of the people in the Corps get a pretty penny when they re-enlist. Even the grunts can get up to 70k for their service. Now I’m sure after last year and the budget cut to the military that it has all changed, but still interesting to know those guys who really put their life in the field get paid a bit of money for it.
Not to bad for one day in the life of the Navy. Big ups to my man DeTrend and the Breaks!! Never a disappointment when you tune in. Ya’ll should check out the show he streams every Friday night: www.wix.com/detrend/detrendradio
FEELIN LIKE I’M SITTING ON TOP OF THE WORLD!!!!!! YEA YEA!!!

Daily Motivation

Now there comes a time during the day that I step back and say to myself, what am I doing this all for. Through all the bullshit, all the hassle, the walking back and forth a hundred yards to grab something, down 4 flights of stairs and back up again for something random.. Now the correct answer is of course, for my family, but what is it that really picks me up all day long to keep me going, happy, and satsified... Music of course. So here's today's:

J Majik & Wickaman ft Kathy Brown
( This track is one of the Best, Most Uplifting, Motivating tracks i've ever heard. Hopefully i can catch it on Vinyl )

mostly everything I put up you can pull out of www.youtube.com
**WARNING** I can almost promise it will be drum and bass. =D

Bit of Trust

So what does it take for an ignorant person to trust someone? Do they have to be blonde? Do they have to have high class glasses? Some people were just not to be a technican and for the past two weeks, i've narrowed down all the one's i'll avoid at all cost on a daily basis.

the wrong people

Now come to find out, there is an official order that states any of the 22meu and anyone attached to them will receive 225$ special pay no matter if they go ashore or not in support of Operation Unified Response. Why is it that the Navy is going to sit here and debate tiny details of that order after being told to leave at a moments notice of 36 hours?? Someone please tell me the greater good of packing your shit and leaving in 36 hours and not know when you'll be coming home. What the hell is there to debate over?? I'm sorry, but from the ships perspective, after coming back from a seven month deployment, having a month off, then leaving again and recalling people that are on leave to do this?? tonight I'll be thankful for a podcast I downloaded from Dnbradio.com for helping me keep my sanity over political shit!

Back to January 12th

While at home one night with the family back on 12 Jan. I receive a text message from someone at work and it said: We might be on the hook for the Haiti relief effort, be at work at 0700 for a brief. So, i look at my phone and think to myself: O this is just what I need after being on shore duty for three years, and instant underway period after I transfer. Well, the next day we go into work and we all sit around a table in the office. There was about five of us at this meeting, and it was basically told to us that, we will be leaving tomorrow on the USS Bataan to support the Relief mission in Haiti. Start packing up all of our gear, you have until 11am to get it to the flight deck to be craned down to the pier on a flat bed. Once everything is on the truck, we will have someone move it over to the Bataan. Well, they were right about one thing, everything was on the pier by 1pm. By the time things were said and done, we had our equipment on the other ship,and our people moving the 70lbs boxes to the right place on the ship. By around 8pm that night I was still at work finishing moving peoples .PST files to an external. Amazing how fast we can just pack up and move. Note to self: Always keep a sea bag with the essentials packed: bathroom supplies, your own linen's, and eight days worth of cloths.
The morning of the 13th was an all night event for me thanks to what time I got home. I was hoping to come home, spend time with the family, help my beautiful wife with getting the kids to bed, and lay around on the couch with her for an hour or two. Instead, I ended up going to walmart at 2 or 3 in the morning to buy stuff like extra razors, and some other misc. items. I believe I got two hours of sleep and woke up around 5am to leave the house. We were slated to leave around 11am, which then turned into 6pm, which then turned out to be like 11pm. Still plenty cold outside, we made our way down to the Carolina's to pick up the 22nd MEU the next morning. Slowly but surely eleven hours later, we made haste at about 21 knots along the coast line all the way down to Haiti. Thanks to being a computer guy, I've seen alot of the briefs that have gone out as well as a few video telephone conferences. For a third world country, and although it killed thousands of people, the worst part is the loss of lives, and medical care. And i know that might sound a bit off with the way I'm saying it, but these people really didn't live on much to begin with. Even the humanitarian rations are being sold along the roadside. Not to mention the people that are using these bottles of water to wash their cars with. Atleast that's from our people (Sailor Ashore Mission -SAM) have been saying. So who really knows how long we could be out. Maybe we will be lucky and leave mid-month, maybe we will depart around the first week of April.
And now here I am, three weeks later, had a three day venture with no showers, still have little to no internet and everyone knows we are down here. I mean, what else could a person ask for? I vote Crown

Missing my man

Alright honey. Its time to come home! We miss you! Your babies are getting bigger right before my eyes!

That Asshole

We just had a four-star admiral come onboard from norfolk. He told us: "I was the one who sent you out here". There had to be a yell from the 2500 or so people onboard: WHERE IS THAT BASTARD!!! You want to talk about wanting to throw someone over the side of the ship. There is a good possiblity that we might see a bit of home here at the end of the month. They pulled tons of people off of leave from the Christmas/New Years holiday both navy and marine. The sadest part is that both the Bataan and 22 MEU just came back from a seven month deployment overseas. Talk about giving people a good pat on the back eh?

To the Winds

Now this will be a bit easier if everyone follows my blogs. Of course there is the navy.mil site for everyone to take a peek at. You also have the half stories of CNN. I choose to tell you that the Haitian's are indeed back to there own way of life now. These people are literally taking the rations we give them and selling them in the market.