Carrier Life

[MaverickMike 10]

Wow. Those are some awesome pics. Those ducks don't look terribly appetising however

[JediMaster 451]

That was some dreary weather.

 

Wasn't that orange car the one seen in MI-3?

[C2Aaircrew 3]

Charles, thank you for your posts and pictures. Brought back some memories. Served aboard her sister ship the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower CVN-69 from early 1982 to late 1985. All of the berthing, flightdeck, p-way, hangerdeck pics are all so familiar. All of the feelings you describe about the stressors of everyday shipboard life are spot on. Everybody has their own way of dealing with it. Like you said the hard part is trying to notice the breaking point in the sailors that work for you. If you miss it, you always question yourself, how did I fail this person? What could I have done differently? Your story about the two boneheads who got NJP, no sympathy for either of them. I have seen that expression on more than one C.O. at Captain's Mast (fortunately not at me). Anyway, be safe and keep a swivelhead on you.

 

Take care,

C2

[+Dave 2,322]

Dave

 

 

First off this past couple of weeks has been busy. I am in the process of getting out of one job in the squadron as the person in charge of maintenance tools and support equipment and getting ready to become a Quality Assurance maintenance rep. So I have been up to my ears in training my replacement, turning over and in general getting myself out of the mud with out any thing foul smelling sticking to myself.

 

 

On top of that just before my birthday near Halloween, I spent three days in a place called Manama, Bahrain. Just after that we transited back out to our box and then because of a maintenance emergency sent a plane to the beach in Oman. A rescue maintenance detachment had to go out, in turn I had to gap some short falls in the avionics shop. On top of all that like I said my birthday passed. So now I am 31 as of the 23rd of October. Along with my first wedding anniversary passed on the 8th of November. So it has been a fun couple of weeks.

 

 

One of the things that happened was visiting Bahrain. The city we visited was the capital of Bahrain, called Manama. It is also the home HQ of US 5th Fleet. This was the second time that I have visited Bahrain. It isn't a very big base. The biggest attraction is the NEX. Most people go there to pick up some last minute uniform items they have lost or forgot. Let alone getting some basic shopping done without hitting the economy. I didn't go out on the town this time primarily because I had to work late the first day and had duty the second day. Liberty was cut short on our third day because the powers to be in charge wanted everyone back onboard before midnight. This is normally termed Cinderella liberty. My last time here was back in 2004 and some things had changed versus then. Before we had to anchor out and ride tug boats in. Wasn't fun. This time we were pier side and rode buses to the base and then could leave to head out in town via taxis that operated outside the base. Like I said I was here in 04 and went in town then, it was in the midst of a building boom. We had gone over to the Gold Souk bought some 18K and 24K gold on cheap and then went over to a shopping mall to walk around hunting for other fun things to bring home. We left town after three days in and by the end the weekend we were back out in our zone in the eastern half of the Indian Ocean flying missions in support of the guys on the ground.

 

 

One of the weeks we had to send an airplane to a divert field ashore because it had gotten an unsafe indication from its gear. So they were sent ashore to an allied field on the Saudi Peninsula. The problem happened upon landing where the gear wasn't all the way down and locked. The aircrew and plane survived for the most part. We ended up eating part of a drop tank and the tip of a wing. It took a week to get the airplane back up on its landing gear. It was then flown back to the ship. Right now we have some specialists out assessing the damage and manufacturing some replacement parts and fixing some damage.

 

 

The wedding anniversary is the hardest thing to deal with. Being that it is the first anniversary. So it was trying to hunt online when the internet was up for gifts to mail out. Hoping they would arrive on time. On top of that I also tried to order some flowers for the wife and had them delivered to where she works. Over all I got the gifts that I needed ordered and shipped out. The last one arrived on her doorstep the Friday before the anniversary. While I was in Bahrain, I went through the NEX and ordered some flowers for her. I tried for tradition and ordered carnations for her. That was a pain in the ass because I wanted to have purple carnations sent. The FTD rep told me no problem. In the end the wife sent me pictures and it looks like they substituted roses and some other flowers. Oh well.

 

 

That is about it for out here. We are almost there towards the half way point. On top of that the wife's birthday and Christmas is coming down the pipeline. Along with Valentines day. I really can't wait till I am home.

 

 

That is about it for out here.

 

 

Charlie

 

 

 

 

[+Dave 2,322]

Dave,

 

 

It has been a while since I have written. For those that need a quick run down here is what has happened. First off was turkey day with CentCom himself, General Pretreaus serving us turkey and the trimmings. Just a few days after that we pulled into Dubai. Then the biggest thing for me was that I have transferred out of a support work center then transferred back to my primary work center of avionics. Okay that is the quick summary, now time for the details.

 

 

First off on Turkey day we had CentCom arrive on station. He was onboard for two days to see how we, the US Navy do our power projection thing. Plus as he explained later he wanted to come back out to a carrier since he did the same thing last year. He was impressed every time he came onboard a carrier. Now to set the scene for some of your readers. We sort of knew about this only a couple of days before hand that he was going to show up. Now when some one in leadership learns that a fleet commander, theater commander, or even National Command Authority decides to show up to a ship; the good idea fairy shows up as well deciding that the ship isn't clean enough. So what to do? Field day the ship. This isn't a problem either. Break out brooms, swabs, steaming hot water, cleaning compounds, etc. Scrub away, till it gets clean. Lets insert the good idea fairy again, they say to some one that if the wall is supposed to be white but isn't getting there with cleaning, well then repaint the sucker. Whole passageway can't be cleaned, paint it! Close it off and prevent transit until the painting is done or until it dries. This is all cool until you have to hump a heavy part from a letter frame on the ship way back to frame 200+ and then up to the ship. Well, now it becomes a pain in the arse and raises that little stress level. That being said CentCom showed up, took a flight in the backseat of a F-18F of VFA-41, served turkey and lobster to us, and then gave us the pep talk about what we are doing is important. Turkey Day menu onboard the USS Nimitz this year was Turkey, lobster tails, seasoned ham, sweet potatoes, baked potatoes, bread stuffing, cranberry sauce, turkey gravy, mixed veggies, green beans and various pies.

 

 

Only a couple of days after turkey day we pulled into Dubai. We weren't there very long so I didn't get a chance to head into town and see the changes. So I just hung around the USO Oasis, or sandbox as it is termed by most of us. I had to work late the first day and then duty the second day and our final day in port I just wasn't in the mood to do anything. So I went down made a phone call home to the wife and did my laundry at the on site laundro-mat. Beyond that was pick up a couple of souvenirs for the up coming Christmas holiday. I also decided to talk to a tailor shop they had on spot and got my self a couple of custom tailored fitted suits. I don’t know completely why I sent with the full suit, when all I really wanted was a nice blazer to head out in town with. After talking to the salesman, I decided to go for the full deal custom made shirt, pants, jacket, and vest. The only thing was they promised delivery same day by 2100. It wasn't until 2345 that the suit showed up from their factory in town, so I talked them into throwing in a pair of cuff links and a tie. Other then that it was the sandbox again, almost the same place as it was only a year ago.

 

 

Just this past week I transferred from being the Tool rep and support equipment rep over to back over to working in the avionics shop. The aircraft in this squadron have a few new systems that my previous squadron was just upgrading to before I left. So I need to relearn how to troubleshoot a few of my systems and how to call out a bad part. It is back to trying to do work and learning how to juggle the maintenance controllers. It will be interesting, primarily because all though things are the same they are different as well. How you sign off a maf, how to think ahead in troubleshooting a gripe, how to debrief an aircrew to get to the meat and potatoes of a gripe.

 

 

Well that is quick and fast but I also have to now start juggling two computers amongst sixteen people. The next few postcards will be shorter.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Charles

 

 

[+Dave 2,322]

Dave,

 

 

So it is now only five days until Christmas as I write this, we are getting a ton of mail delivered out to us via underway replenishment and via COD. I just got a couple of late birthday gifts from some relatives. I know they were shipped in October, but one of the joys of military mail is how long it takes things to arrive on station to us. It was still fresh and appreciated because right now they are offering some bitter freeze dried bricks of coffee from the mid-east. So to understand how it works I thought this little postcard could explain it away. There are some mistakes for those of you in the postal fields, but this is how it was explained to me by a postal clerk and I try to break it down even more Barney Dinosaur style to the readers.

 

 

Nearly all military mail for units uses an system called APO/FPO and unit numbers. The way the system is designed to work so that you don't know where the military person is located if the mail gets intercepted by the enemy. All they know is that LT Smuckatell and AT1 Southern Air are assigned to VAW-13 det 5 at unit 99999 FPO, ap. Remember that point in the last sentence about no one knowing where the person is, that is slightly important. Most of the mail now a days is shipped via commercial air to the closes us military base and from there it is then sorted into bags to delivered to units around them.

 

 

APO and FPO's are holdovers from world war 2 and they are short for Army Post Office and Fleet Post Office. These used to be primarily located in three distinct places in the nation. San Francisco, New York, and Norfolk. They were the big processing centers. Depending on where the unit was home based mail would leave your hands and head to one of these locations for routing to the military member. San Fran for most of the Pacific based units and those home ported on the West Coast. Norfolk for the East coast based units and up to the Mississippi river. New York was the clearing house for most of the European based units. So as that letter leaves your hands to me, it travels to the San Francisco post office. They then say to send it up to me in Seattle.

 

 

That letter arrives in Seattle and is shipped over to my base. At which point the base post office handles it and goes VAQXYZ is unit number ABC. Consulting a list they have about who is home and who is deployed, realizing that I am deployed the mail is dropped into a bag waiting to be shipped out to me and my unit. Once that bag is full, they then consult another list and mark it for shipment via airmail to the closes military base to where we are operating at the time that list came out. This list seems to be typically about two to three weeks behind. So even though I have been gone from Singapore for about a month. All the mail is routed there initially because the supply system hasn't caught on that I have moved to another operating area.

 

 

So they hold on to it until the new mailing list arrives and then ship it to the new operating area. Once it arrives on station, such as the 5th fleet operating area, they store it in a giant warehouse waiting for further sorting and shipment. The COD's have to adjust for fuel loads, passengers, and pony. Strange as it may seem, VIP's trump mail; ditto for parts to fix things on the ships and planes. So the letter that left your hand at the beginning of November is still sitting in some bag at the bottom of a pile awaiting sorting to be thrown on a cod that can be sent out to us. When it finally gets on the COD, it comes out to us it is then sorted by the onboard clerks to delivered out to our commands. The commands then sort it even further to work shops for deliver. What is even funnier is sometimes the supply system will try for a massed burp of mail via an unrep, so they will try and hold one of our supply ships. Throw a whole bunch of large boxes called tri-walls and fill them to the top with mail. It all finally arrives to us sometimes about a month late or even months later.

 

 

Remember how I mentioned you needed to remember why no one knows where people are? Well for some units people are moving so fast to arrive on station, that no one knows where the mail is supposed to go. Or the unit numbers on the mailing lists are mangled so unit 99999 is actually in Naples, but the mailing list says they are in Al Asad. So it goes there sitting forever until someone wonders why it hasn't been picked up. They then ship it back to the states, via the same sort of route it comes out to us. No kidding I had gotten Christmas gifts that were mailed out in first week of November, show up to me in June when I was back home. The Christmas cookies were stale and the gifts were written off as lost.

 

 

Military mail system is one of the reasons that a large number of internet companies won't ship high prices electronics out to us and it isn't recommend to ship anything perishable out to us. Don't send even chocolate bars cause there is a chance they will melt before it gets there and just turn into a mess. So it is usually recommended that you do hard candies and imperishable foods It gets even worst around the holiday times, that the US Postal Service will actually state that if you want a package to arrive to your military member before Christmas it should be postmarked no later then sometime in November. The best part two is letter mail can be days and months late, so you get a weekly new magazine that is about three or more months old and you already know how the story has turned out. It is just one of those things to shrug your shoulders at.

 

 

Hope all of you all enjoy your times with the families this week and remember that there will only be 364 days until Christmas on the 26th of December.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Charles

 

 

[+Dave 2,322]

Some stuff Charles sent me about his current deployment. Good reading. He sorry for the lack of updates, he has been busy.

 

Nimitz Prowlers Contribute in Afghanistan <http://links.govdelivery.com:80/track?type=click&enid=bWFpbGluZ2lkPTY3OTU4NSZtZXNzYWdlaWQ9UFJELUJVTC02Nzk1ODUmZGF0YWJhc2VpZD0xMDAxJnNlcmlhbD0xMjE1NjQyNjEzJmVtYWlsaWQ9Y2hhcmxlcy5iZXJsZW1hbm5AbmF2eS5taWwmdXNlcmlkPWNoYXJsZXMuYmVybGVtYW5uQG5hdnkubWlsJmV4dHJhPSYmJg==&&&100&&&http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=57353>

 

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:31:00 -0600

 

 

 

Nimitz Prowlers Contribute in Afghanistan

 

 

 

American Forces Press Service

 

 

ABOARD USS NIMITZ IN THE NORTH ARABIAN SEA, Jan. 5, 2010 - Employing force that doesn't use explosions or projectiles -- known in military circles as "nonkinetic force" -- Carrier Air Wing 11 supports troops on the ground in Afghanistan while minimizing the potential for civilian casualties.

 

 

Click photo for screen-resolution image <http://links.govdelivery.com:80/track?type=click&enid=bWFpbGluZ2lkPTY3OTU4NSZtZXNzYWdlaWQ9UFJELUJVTC02Nzk1ODUmZGF0YWJhc2VpZD0xMDAxJnNlcmlhbD0xMjE1NjQyNjEzJmVtYWlsaWQ9Y2hhcmxlcy5iZXJsZW1hbm5AbmF2eS5taWwmdXNlcmlkPWNoYXJsZXMuYmVybGVtYW5uQG5hdnkubWlsJmV4dHJhPSYmJg==&&&101&&&http://www.defense.gov/DODCMSShare/NewsStoryPhoto/2010-01/scr_091129-N-3038W-130.jpg>

 

An EA-6B Prowler assigned to the "Black Ravens" of Tactical Electronic Attack Squadron 135 launches from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz. The Nimitz Carrier Strike Group is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class John Phillip Wagner Jr.

 

(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image <http://links.govdelivery.com:80/track?type=click&enid=bWFpbGluZ2lkPTY3OTU4NSZtZXNzYWdlaWQ9UFJELUJVTC02Nzk1ODUmZGF0YWJhc2VpZD0xMDAxJnNlcmlhbD0xMjE1NjQyNjEzJmVtYWlsaWQ9Y2hhcmxlcy5iZXJsZW1hbm5AbmF2eS5taWwmdXNlcmlkPWNoYXJsZXMuYmVybGVtYW5uQG5hdnkubWlsJmV4dHJhPSYmJg==&&&102&&&http://www.defense.gov/DODCMSShare/NewsStoryPhoto/2010-01/hrs_091129-N-3038W-130.jpg> available.

 

EA-6B Prowlers assigned to Electronic Attack Squadron 135 deploy daily from the Nimitz flight deck, jamming electronic signals in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

 

 

"Our main focus of effort is to dominate the electromagnetic spectrum," explained Navy Lt. Cmdr. Blake Tornga, Electronic Attack Squadron 135 maintenance officer. "That means we preserve it for coalition forces and we deny its use to Afghan insurgents. If we can successfully do that many times, the ground commander may not need a bomb."

 

 

Prowler missions directly support the July 2009 tactical directive issued by Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, commander of U.S. and international forces in

 

Afghanistan. The directive limits the use of force that could result in civilian casualties.

 

 

"The enemy command and control network in Afghanistan is fairly dispersed and flexible," Tornga said. "We have to constantly adapt our tactics, based on new technology in the hands of the enemy, to interdict parts of that network."

 

 

When the Navy received its first Prowlers in January 1971 and deployed them to Vietnam in 1972, their primary mission was focused on jamming enemy radar. They supported strike aircraft, ships and ground troops by degrading the enemy's early warning capability and electronic weapons systems. The EA-6B of yesterday, outfitted with today's technology, has adapted its platform to support Operation Enduring Freedom in a way no other airframe can, Tornga said.

 

 

"There are very few electronic attack platforms out there," he noted. "We are the only tactical electronic attack platform. Mountain valleys, small turns, staying tight with a convoy -- that mission right now can only be done with the EA-6B."

 

 

Prowlers have been performing missions for years that fall in line with McChrystal's directive, Tornga said.

 

 

"There will certainly remain a need for kinetics in support of the ground forces, but being able to turn a kinetic situation into a nonkinetic one is pretty rewarding," he said. "Some of the real-time feedback we get from the ground troops after a successful mission makes me realize why we need to be here, and it makes this deployment very, very meaningful."

 

 

Since entering the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations Sept. 18, Nimitz aircraft have flown more than 2,058 sorties, providing 30 percent of the close-air support to the coalition forces in Afghanistan.

 

 

(From a USS Nimitz public affairs office news release.)

 

 

 

 

Related Sites:

 

USS Nimitz <http://links.govdelivery.com:80/track?type=click&enid=bWFpbGluZ2lkPTY3OTU4NSZtZXNzYWdlaWQ9UFJELUJVTC02Nzk1ODUmZGF0YWJhc2VpZD0xMDAxJnNlcmlhbD0xMjE1NjQyNjEzJmVtYWlsaWQ9Y2hhcmxlcy5iZXJsZW1hbm5AbmF2eS5taWwmdXNlcmlkPWNoYXJsZXMuYmVybGVtYW5uQG5hdnkubWlsJmV4dHJhPSYmJg==&&&103&&&http://www.nimitz.navy.mil/>

 

U.S. 5th Fleet/U.S. Naval Forces Central <http://links.govdelivery.com:80/track?type=click&enid=bWFpbGluZ2lkPTY3OTU4NSZtZXNzYWdlaWQ9UFJELUJVTC02Nzk1ODUmZGF0YWJhc2VpZD0xMDAxJnNlcmlhbD0xMjE1NjQyNjEzJmVtYWlsaWQ9Y2hhcmxlcy5iZXJsZW1hbm5AbmF2eS5taWwmdXNlcmlkPWNoYXJsZXMuYmVybGVtYW5uQG5hdnkubWlsJmV4dHJhPSYmJg==&&&104&&&http://www.cusnc.navy.mil/>

 

EA-6B Prowler <http://links.govdelivery.com:80/track?type=click&enid=bWFpbGluZ2lkPTY3OTU4NSZtZXNzYWdlaWQ9UFJELUJVTC02Nzk1ODUmZGF0YWJhc2VpZD0xMDAxJnNlcmlhbD0xMjE1NjQyNjEzJmVtYWlsaWQ9Y2hhcmxlcy5iZXJsZW1hbm5AbmF2eS5taWwmdXNlcmlkPWNoYXJsZXMuYmVybGVtYW5uQG5hdnkubWlsJmV4dHJhPSYmJg==&&&105&&&http://www.navy.mil/navydata/fact_display.asp?cid=1100&tid=900&ct=1>

 

 

[+Dave 2,322]

Dave,

 

 

So we are still out here flying in support of the folks on the ground. Dropping bombs or pumping electrons into the air. One of the things I am sure a few of the folks want to know is how we keep entertained out here. To start with we have access to Satellite TV in all of that joys. We don't have Direct TV style, no we are too good for that. Anyone remember the original Satellite TV? You know where a large tree blows in front of the dish and you loose the signal for the rest of the day? Yep that is our quality TV for off station. What do we get from off station, a wonderful military only cable network called Armed Forces Network. They operated a movie channel, a standard TV show station, a news network, and sports. The News cycles through an hour of the big three's nightly news and morning news stations along with nearly all the top ten (ratings wise) of the cable blow-hards op-ed shows. The standard TV runs through the top 25 in shows rating wise across the big three stations and a couple of the syndications, the downside with these is that they are usually about a season or two behind the power curve. Finally the sporting station will show whatever is the big game of the week, to catch a football or baseball game live over here you would have to get up at midnight thirty, which can hurt you if you work days. The final issue most of us have with AFN is the commercials, or more rightly the lack of commercials. We get commercials except they are for things like the history of the USAF uniform, why a ship is named a certain way, or knowing why a lease is important. I have no idea what the latest movie is coming out, what the new car commercial from Fordodgechevy is, or even if the Bud Frogs are still saying "Wass up!". The reason AFN does the not do commercial commercials is that as part of a deal with Hollywood and the broadcast companies to get their shows free of charge they aren't allowed to show any advertising with it unless it is professional.

 

 

If you don't want to watch AFN then we have three other channels dedicated strictly to movies. Two of these are any movie. I have seen everything from the Wall-E up to Basic Instinct 2 . The other movie channel is the professional training movies. You know which ones I am talking about right Dave? The ones from like a decade ago. The topics have ranged (and I kid you not) how to properly down flight deck safety equipment, how to survive being blown overboard, and the dangers of liquid oxygen. Reality is the third movie channel is the training channel, but every so often they will so real movies on it. Most of those are of the spiritual or cutesy types (think care bears or some Disney movie). All these movie channels will repeat their movies every twelve hours, so for example if they were showing "Red Dawn" at 0700 then at 1900 the movie would be on again. The only time that a movie doesn't run is when a FOD walk down goes, the CO speaks, or the Chaplain speaks.

 

 

To finally round out our TV viewing abilities they have the PLAT or more commonly called "Roger, Ball!" show. The PLAT or pilots landing aid television is composed of a series of black and white cameras designed to film everything going on the flight deck during launches and recoveries. Why use black and white? Strangely enough black and white on a standard television gives you higher definition compared to color. During flight ops we watch this almost constantly to know where not to walk or what ladders to not come up on the deck from.

 

 

So we really have less then the 13 channels that I remember growing up with years ago. It isn't that bad just a little repetitive after a while. I can tell you that in the last decade there are more then 100 various modern movies that I have only seen snippets of. Simply because I have seen them in passing on the various TVs around the ship. One of the other things we use the TVs for is presenting ship specific news programs, bingo parties (you think church ladies get all hyped, bunch of sailors can be just as bad with regards to bingo), and for other things like port briefings.

 

 

After TV, we have a small library onboard the ship. Most of us get by with reading books or magazines. Just things to distract us from the daily going ons out here. Even better is just how quickly various books will be snapped up by folks. In my berthing alone there are a group of guys trying to work their way through the Harry Potter series and another group through the whole Jack Ryan series. Downside is they each brought a different book or set of books so one day I passed by and looked at a community book with five different book marks in it. As to magazines, well see my commentary about the postal service out here. There are a few magazine types which just don't make it out here; Maxim, sporting mags, and Hef's magazines. So the recommendation for most of those is to have a friend back at the beach box up a few to ship your way.

 

 

Other then that most everyone has some sort of game box. So more then a few of us escape that way. If not that then there are card games. Popular games are spades, Hearts, Rummy, Gin. In my shop right now there are about five different decks of Uno floating around so Uno has become the popular game. A few of the guys have tried to get a backgammon or acey ducey game going on.

 

 

So that is about it for here. Just been busy trying to get other things done and some where the light at the end of the tunnel is the sunlight and not another on coming train. With the temptation of home they are stressing even more for us to pay attention. Accident just days or even weeks before hitting home seem to increase amongst deployed folks since most people are thinking about the first they will do with their free time and not about the job on hand.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Charles

 

 

[+Dave 2,322]

Another great postcard from Charles on his carrier deployment.

 

Okay to start with I am currently in Malaysia, but last week I had a chance to visit the island of Phuket (pronounced Foo-Ket) in the Indian Ocean side of Thailand. An interesting place historically. It is one of the few mainland Asian countries to have ever not been colonized by any of the western nations. It also was one of the few nations to be "allied" with the Japan during world war 2, though to be completely fair they did put up a very organized resistance only to realize that sometimes yielding like a reed to the wind is better then being bowled over like a giant oak tree. So they become "allied" with Japan and allowed the Japanese army march over land from French Indo-China territories to attack the British lands. While that was happening though the Thai's had a very active resistance movement. Since they the Thailand nation has been very close allies to the US in the South China Sea region. They are ruled by a constitutional monarchy and are very much a Buddhist country.

 

 

That was it for the history lesson of Thailand. There is more I am sure and things I have glossed over, but need to keep this short. First off Phuket, is an interesting place. We were visiting there at the height of their winter, which compared to the US east coast of 32 inches of snow, the temps were in the high 80s. There was just as much if not more so humidity. This primary sell of this place is the beaches. They make the beaches of Florida, Va Beach, and probably Hawaii feel and look like sandboxes. This is one of the islands that was decimated by the 2004 tsunami. Though as I traveled around, you couldn't see the scars. Though you could run across a few memorials here and there. There are a large number of resorts. Everything from the upscale multi-dollar a night sort of resort on down to one that just a step above a flop house.

 

 

Things to do here vary. Everything from shop for that genuine Koach bag to the Ed Hardly clothing line. If you don't want to do that then there are snorkeling and scuba diving to be down. If not that then getting on an elephant ride at one end of the island and riding over to what a traditional Thai village. If that still does rock your boat then how about just chilling on the beach with an ice cold beer in your hands working on your tan. The final thing to do is experience the local night life.

 

 

The local night life is interesting to put it mildly. After the sun goes down all sorts of sex for sell comes out. The party town is called Patong. There is one bar street that also doubles as the red light district of the island. There are various bars down this street. You sit down and am immediately joined by a bar girl, buy a few drinks maybe play a few games. One of the popular games to play is a nail driving game into a log. Your given a nail and a rock hammer or a chipping hammer and try to drive the nail into the log before your opponent. Another game they had was a variations of the classic Five Aces games. You know the one, roll five aces (or ones) and you buy your party a round of cheer. Most of these games lead to more and more drinking. In turn a few of these bar girls turn into your best friend of the night (at least for a price). On the other side of that you can go into some go-go bars and see the origin of the term "ping-pong show". This place makes Vegas or even New Orleans during the height of Mardi Grasis look like a day in Mayberry.

 

 

After we left Thailand, we were out for a few days flying here and there. It is starting to become monsoon season out here. So during flight ops you can see some of the rain clouds out there just dumping rain. The best day though was about two days ago, we had "twister" clouds as one of the guys I worked with described them. Basically it was warm, humid, and all the clouds were puffy at the top, but strictly flat on the bottom near the ground. Perfect clouds to produce tornados. So we were constantly moving the flight schedule all around. Flights scrubbed for weather, setting of t-storm condition 1. then an hour later re-manning of the event, from there we run around like chickens trying to get planes ready to go. Only to head into another storm, and scrub everything again. After about eight hours, the planners just threw their hands up and only got those that needed traps to get currency up and right back down via the bolter pattern.

 

 

So after a few days of getting flights in we have now pulled into Malaysia. I will write more about this place when I get a chance. I also have a deep thought that maybe Skippy-san could wax about, since he is probably more of a SME about the region then me. That is this: Seeing all of this and the way it was all compacted the way it was. Made me think about all the various stories I had heard of Olongopo from my family and some of the other CPO's when I first came in that had visited the PI in its height. I seriously wonder if this is all places like the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, etc that are third world Asian countries know how to make a buck. Is by having the women pimp themselves out while the men either sling beers or counterfeit clothing. I contrast a lot of I have seen with just Singapore, Japan, and even to an extent some of the under developed places in Europe that I have been too. Is it a failing on the west's part because we didn't do enough to bring a country like Thailand up or is it the countries own internal faults that prevent them from becoming a decent competitor to the Singapore, Japan, Taiwan's of the world by having a good enough economy? Just a deep thought that crossed my mind.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Charles

 

 

[+Dave 2,322]

Hello Dave

 

 

We just finished up visiting Kula Lumpar, in Malaysia. It is an interesting place as well, when compared to Thailand. It is almost a pure Muslim country and society is a complete mirror difference to what was seen in Thailand. To start with, Malaysia was first a Dutch, then an English colony. You can see in certain spots around the vesigates of that colonial influence in the language (a mix of Dutch, English, Chinese, and Malay) and some of the buildings. Malaysia is where about 85% of the world's natural rubber comes from. Most of it is collected via the same way that natural syrup is collected in places like Maine. Just tap a tree and put a bucket out, come back a few hours later. One of the other things that Malaysia is famous for is oil as well. Sharing access to some of the south china sea oil beds with its neighbor Indonesia. With that oil comes money wealth and that seem to be the biggest thing to see around here.

 

 

Kula Lumpar is also home to two of the tallest towers in the world. Officially referred to as the PETRONAS Towers, they are something like a full mile up in the sky from the ground. These towers were made famous a few years back with the movie "entrapment" staring Catharine zeta-Jones and Sean Connery. I guess the strangest thing though is for all the banks and malls with upscale stores on one side of the street. On the other side of the street there was some older shopping centers that when you walk in sort of have the look and feel of a flea market/farmer's market. All sorts of vendors selling all sorts of things, lights that don't seem to be working, and in general a feeling that your walking down a street looking for something that you shouldn't. This place feels as if it wants to be like Singapore, but rather in a flashy made the money too fast sort of way.

 

 

I really didn't get a chance to explore the city like I wanted to. Mainly from the security threats, being that this is a strong Muslim country; there are some very large radical elements further south. So they were really telling us to stick to about six different spots. One was the international boulevard, named cause all of the embassies are along this road, lots of little shops and tailors. Chinatown, a region very similar to the one's I have seen in Singapore and San Francisco. Close streets, some interesting food to try, and more vendors then you can shake a stick at, selling all sorts of things. The final four spots were blocks around the major shopping malls. Nearly all of these were with in a ten minute walk of each other.

 

 

The malls weren't bad. Just a number of upscale stores. What was really interesting, at least to me, was how each floor in some of the malls seem to be dedicated to a gender. So for example everything on the second floor would be all the men's clothing from the full ensemble clothing down to some shoe stores at the end of the floor. Ditto was true for the Women's clothing. Like I said most of these were upscale stores, so you could see a Burberry store, Hugo Boss, Gucci, Armani, Chanel, Tag Hauer, etc all through a number of these places. Even some of the children's clothing was upscale like Armani for kids and Gap Baby. Like I said most of these seemed like they wanted to flash the money around, but couldn't decided how to be discrete with it. In the end the Kula Lumpar seems to give off a vibe of wanting to be like Singapore, but just can't seem to finish it off like Singapore did. One of the biggest things that really stuck out in my mind was how just like in Singapore there was very much a mixing of cultures. Considering that there are British ex-pats here, native Malay's, Chinese backgrounds, Indo-Pakistani background peoples through out the city. For the most part they seem to mix, but I got the sense from talking to a couple of locals that the neighborhoods are segregated and that they sort of enjoy it that way. Again a completely different culture then what I am use to, but if it works for them then who am I to comment on.

 

 

We left Kula Lumpar about two days ago and am in the process of heading back into the deep blue pacific. As part of that we need to cross the equator, and doing so we have a big celebration. This is celebration is called a "Crossing the Line" ceremony. It is where all the pollywogs from the slimy earth are purged of their slime and initiative through a series of team-building stunts and exercises to becoming shellbacks. One thing to know is that we did cross the line going over to the combat zone, however to save on time and effort of outlaying for the ceremony, they now wait until the trip home. Which makes sense. The day before (12FEB10) was the start of the ceremony with the washing aboard of the royal scribe Davy Jones, which they did in the fo'scale. He came aboard and told the CO of the ship that they were approaching the domain of his royal highness King Neptunus Rex. After which all the loyal, krusty, and trusty Shellbacks were ordered to report for their own training at various times to the fo'scale on how the next day's ceremonies were going to go down. The word put out to us wogs, was that you had a choice of either participating or not. If you didn't want to participate then you had to muster in the ship's library or fo'scale for training. The day started at 0630 with some singing and recognizing all the shellbacks that came into our living space. After doing some stunts for the senior shellbacks in our squadron, such as trying to row the boat away from the shore and singing "row, row, the boat". We went down to the hangar bay to try and clean up the slime they put down there (which was salt water and green dye). We did this mainly by rolling around in our wog uniforms. The uniforms were mainly a white t-shirt decorated with the word "WOG" on the front and back. Most us added things, I decorated my self as the "electric wog". After cleaning the hangar bay and getting drenched in hangar bay three by shellbacks throwing salt water on us we got up on an aircraft elevator to travel up to the flight deck. On the way up they sprayed us down with a fog spray of salt water. Which was great cause it was in the 90's out here today. So it cooled us down. After arriving at the top we had to go to various stations. One of the stations was flight deck sweepers where we had to try and blow out these things called pad eyes, basically divets in the deck that have a cross welded in them were we attach chains to tie airplanes down to, with the water. The problem was that the they had five us around in a circle and while spraying us down to clean out the pad eyes. Kind of hard to keep it clear of water. After that we had to roll like a wheel all over the place to another station with fire hoses and wash each other down while singing "I'm a slimy wog", finally followed up by facing the Royal court of King of all the Sea Domains Neptunus Rex. A quick court case about being a slimy wog and defiling his domain with our slime we got dunked by swimming through some large engine storage cans. The catch to this final act was that if we come out the other side and don't say that we are a shell back, then we start again from the beginning. It was fun. After all of that we had a steel beach picnic. It was an awesome day.

 

 

Well that is it for this week. We are getting closer to heading home cause they are talking more and more about home coming and leave periods.

 

 

 

Charlie

 

 

 

[+Dave 2,322]

Dave,

 

 

So I am in one of my father's favorite ports and a few of the old WestPac sailors favorite ports as well. Hong Kong. Home of fast action films, mainland Asian banking, and an every changing landscape. To start with quick history lesson. Hong Kong has been one of the major ports along the Chinese coast since the time of Neolithic man. It became a British Colony 1840's and US cargo vessels along with US Navy warships have been regularly arriving in the city since the 1850's. Hong Kong was the major embarking station for a US Sailor coming to serve out time on the Yangtze Patrol. After the war Hong Kong was one of those ports that a WestPac sailor savored to visit. Being that one the main streets it have a very modern and western feel to it, but with the right navigation and gumption you could find your way down an alley way and go back about forty years (or more) and arrive in the China that was describe in Pearl S. Buck novels and pulp novel stories they grew up on. Even today you can find some of that as well. In 1997 the British turned over to the People's Republic of China the city. As part of the deal Hong Kong was treated as a special case territory where it could still live its capitalist dream but report everything it did to the Beijing Government. Since the city was officially found as well it has been constantly under construction. Whether that is filling in portions of the harbor to create more land for people to tearing down classic sections of the city to rebuild it with more modern buildings, it is very much a city in constant change.

 

 

The first thing to be said is that when we pulled in the weather in the region turned to snot. We experienced fog, low clouds, drizzle and temps that didn't seem to want to break the low 50's in the day time. I guess the karma of me crowing about the nice weather at the last couple of ports has come back to bite me in the arse. Thank god, I was smart enough to purchase a coat while I was in Thailand. It had only cost me about 5 dollar US for it, but it was wonderful to get on the liberty launch for the ride out and not be one of the shivering masses on the launch. A couple of the guys I was with on the first day we made a bee line for the closes shopping center and they bought a couple of thermal liners or fleece pull overs to tide them through. After that the first popular destination we visited was the Wan Chai district. This is one of the three primary nightlife districts in the city. It has a number of restaurants ranging from traditional Chinese city fare next to upscale steak house like Ruth Christ's franchise. Also dotted through out are various bars were business folks, ex-pats, and sailors are able to pour themselves into for a good time. Also dotted through out the region are various dance clubs, though after walking into a couple I know them by their more popular European term "Buy-me-drinkee" bars. Basically a pretty Asian girl will be your friend for as long as your able to feed her overprice drinks. Had to rescue a couple of more younger guys in my squadron out on their own liberty from walking in as rich sailors and walking out as poor sailors. At the end of the night we were sitting in some bar called the Doghouse singing along with a couple of UK bankers to bad drinking songs, trading jabs over who is better an American or UK; and in general fostering great relations.

 

 

The second day in town, I left with a few guys early in the day and we spent it trying to find our way to some of the upscale shopping on Hong Kong Island. We mainly found our ways over in what is called the Central District. What is really cool about this area is that it is the upscale shopping and low scale at the same time. Walk along a few of the main streets and you run across Hugo Boss, Tag Hauer, Armani, H&M stores and then you look down some of the alley ways between these you run across street peddlers that have set up stalls selling everything themed a certain way. For example we ran across an alley way that was selling costumes and costume gear. Which a couple of the guys were slapping themselves because pirates seem to be the popular theme in these street peddlers wares. The guys that were slapping themselves were shellbacks and wish they could have had some of this gear to make up their costumes. After doing some window shopping, we found our way over to Lang Kwai Fong district. This is the other popular nightlife spot. Most of these are more upscale then what you might find in Wan Chai and to top it off there are no girlie clubs. So it is another popular destination for the Western Tourist, mainly cause these are nicer places. We found a nice and quiet Irish bar to spend the night. Listening to a house guitarist play some nice ballads like "Patriot Game", "Long Way to Tippernary", "The Girl I left Behind", and some straight guitar instrumental stuff. It was great, drank some Strongbox or Bulmers cider and played darts until we decided it was time to go home. After which it was a quick and cheap 20HK dollar taxi ride back to fleet landing.

 

 

The third day I woke up much later then I wanted to, I think it was cause of the cider I drank the night before. Most of the guys I normally would have gone out with had left for the day. So I just hung out on Fenwick Pier at the Servicemen's Guide Association Club. The SGA is a private group that produce nice little booklets that welcome sailors to the Hong Kong. This place is a combination rec center and shopping center. They have a three store building at the foot of the pier. In there one can make a phone call home. Turn over their personal laundry to a trusty laundry service in town, mail some of their larger exotic goods home. There is a tailor shop were you can get yourself a "number 1 100% silk suit" or any tailoring you need done in 24 hours. There are a few outposts for some decent jewelry shops represented there, and finally a small book store and convenience store so you load up on bottle water and a few magazines for the boat ride back. The other cool thing about this place is they have a decent restaurant on premise and a bar/pub on the premises as well. It was interesting to walk around it and check out all the different gear that one could shop for. After getting a late lunch/dinner, got back on the launch to head back to the ship.

 

 

The only downside about Hong Kong is the use of these liberty launches. The harbor's waters are very choppy and these are flat bottomed service boats that roll and pitch like a drunken sailor. So it makes for a fun ride in even when your sober and a worse ride when your drunk. That is why the biggest suggestion to everyone was come back early and sober up at the pier before getting on these launches. Most of them were smaller then what I have been use to while visiting some Atlantic or Mediterranean fleet ports, but there were more of them so you could expect a boat just about every ten to fifteen minutes. The downside is that when there is a decent chop, which seems to be every time a major cargo hauler goes in our out past the common anchorage point for the carrier, the Bosun delays the arrival of the launches until the chop dies down a little bit.

 

 

Overall, I think Hong Kong is on my short list of ports that I have visited in the last twelve years and six deployments that I really would spend the money on coming back to visit on my terms. It really seems to have just that flair which would make it a fun place to visit with the wife.

 

 

 

[+Dave 2,322]

Dave,

 

 

So we are out here in the waters somewhere off the Ryukyu island chain. Trying to conduct flight ops. The last couple of days it has been fun. Between the deck dancing around, our E-2C squadron swapped out their shiny jet planes for older planes, and a couple of healthy storms. There has also been a resurgence of the cruise 'stasche. So where to start. Lets start with the returning to home classes they have been offering. As it has been since the US Navy notice an increased rise accidents with sailors and cars, they have been bring highway patrol out to the ships to talk about safety. Then as various other things have crept to the fore front of the safety thing more and more things have crept in to these returning home briefings, until it happened. One day they decided to stretch the time out over a period of a week, using trained facilitators to give lectures on everything from how to spend/save money wisely, buying car strategies, how to re-integrate as a family/couple, how to be a new dad, etc. Most of these are pretty informative and very useful. Leadership is hoping that some of these lessons will sit in people's minds and keep bad things from happening. It will take some time and see what will happen come the end of this deployment

 

 

Our E-2C outfit traded out their aircraft over the last few days with the forward deployed guys. VAW-117 was instructed to trade their E-2C Hawkeye 2K's for VAW-115's E-2C group II aircraft. This was an adventures for our brethren in the Hawkeye command. To start with they had to downgrade their shiny new planes with most of the quirks figured out for older birds that have lived the forward deployed life that have new quirks to figure out. I have never done a swap of aircraft mid-cruise, the worst that I have done was picked up an old Prowler that needed to head to the depot for a repair. So we fixed it enough to fly safely off the ship and to the depot. What is really bad about getting a new bird is trying to figure out the quirks of the plane. The way that some of the different systems have gremlins in them and then trying to beat them out. Or retraining aircrew that the older systems installed don’t have all the bells and whistles of the newer systems. The last couple of weeks for our VAW friends have been challenging, on top the fact that we have had a couple of nasty days out here which suspended flight ops, they finally got all the aircraft transferred around.

 

 

The storms that we sailed through for the last couple of days were interesting. Really reminded me of being up north into the Irish or Norwegian seas in the middle of a winter storm. A whole bunch of cold and an rain at times. Winds that were exceeding 60 knots across the flight deck. Saltines and soda water out on the mess decks. Dramine and other anti-motion sickness pills going like hot cakes in medical. Finally a whole bunch of rolling and shaking going on. It was challenging and difficult to say the least. Not anything that I haven't experienced before, but still an adventure. The adventure came from all the brand new to the Navy folks or brand new to sea duty folks who haven't experienced rocking and rolling like we were doing. We had pulled a few of our escorts close by and there were a few times I saw sonar domes start to breach the surface and rudder tops come up as they went into the trough of the waves. The dramine ran started to run low pretty quick for a few guys, the suggest then from the docs was to eat saltines and clear soda (like sprite or 7-up). If all else failed they have a few other tricks up their sleeves for the chronic motion sick folks.

 

 

I don't know if it was popular when you were sea going, but every cruise or deployment I have been on so far, there has been the rise of the cruise mustache. It always seems as if the guys who get away from home (and their wives control) start to try and get their personalities back. That primarily seems to be in the form of growing a mustache. I have seen everything from a bad Magnum P.I mustache down to the pencil-thin mustache. It is all cool through most of the ports the guys sport some variation of these mustaches. However the closer you get to home the sooner the mustache becomes a memory. Yet for some reason in the last couple of days after leaving Hong Kong, the cruise 'stache has come back into vogue with a few of the guys. So it has been kind of funny watching the mustaches come back into vogue for a while and wondering as we get closer to home what will happen to these last attempts to define their personalities for this deployment. As for myself. I don't have the capability to grow a mustache. The best that I have done after a month of no shaving during a transfer leave was facial hair that sort of resembled some beatnik beard like Maynard Krebs or Shaggy.

 

 

The final thing that can best be viewed as one last prank is an almost constant rumor that we are going out again for three months just after the 234th anniversary signing of the Declaration of Independence. I mean we are just finishing up an eight month deployment and they wouldn't treat us to a basically a port visit to home and then send up back out again for three months to play in some exercises would they? I really don't know, but I hope that if it is true we will only be out for a little bit like under two months. It will be a challenge if true, cause basically if you look at this cruise has now been extended into an eleven month deployment. Even if you figure in the time at home, this will be a time will basically be washing our clothes. Getting repacked, compressing time to get some aircraft inspections doing, compressing some major maintenance actions, and finally starting the preparations to go back out to the ship again. In my heart of hearts, I feel as if this isn't a joke and seriously wonder if anyone above my pay grade is paying attention to wearing out our people and aircraft. Though there might really be chance to completely decompress as we begin transition to the Electric Rhinos.

 

 

I decided to cast my fate to transition. I decided on this after many hours with the wife via email. The decision broke down to what would be easier to deal with the devil I know in this squadron then the devil I didn't know. For everyone that isn't going to make the transition will be given a choice of where to go while having a phone call with their detailers. This goes for both Officers, Chiefs, and Sailors alike. It will be interesting to see how that goes and how the transition itself goes. Receiving brand new airplanes with the brand new airplane smells. Trying to figure out what can be fixed on the fly and what will be a science project to work on. I know that my schooling will be seven months of fun. I will spend it either in Lemoore or over in Oceana (my preferred choice). After which I come back home for an additional two months of schooling at Whidbey. After that it will be to the RAG to being working on my qualifications and actually working on the jets, all the while the aircrew are learning how to fly the new jets. The other difference will be the change up in our manning levels. A reduction of flying officers, the potential of getting a few new ground maintenance officers (such as a gunner), and some additions to size of shops. On top of that they are telling us to get use to five jets instead of the four that we have worked on before. There are all sorts of madness being planned for and hopefully some one with the right amount of insanity in their minds will be able to keep it all running right.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Charles