Time for a break

I guess it's time to break the silence from the StringerZoo. I know it's been a while since Janell or I wrote anything. It's been a busy couple of weeks for both of us. Lemme see if I can quickly recap the last week...

You might have noticed that I relaxed the security on my site a couple weeks ago for a few days, then tightened it back up again. Stennis started showing up in the news again, with lots of speculation in the media about the ships proposed schedule. Rather than some snoopy journalist finding my blog (or worse), I once again closed it down to invite's only.

On Thursday, we had a cleansing of the ship. We were infested with 2,600 slimy Polywogs. We woke up at 0530 and gathered up all the 'Wogs for a rite of passage which included some fun and games in the ready room, then crawling them through the hangar bay, up Elevator 3 to the flight deck, then through a maze of tasks and silliness--all the while under a constant rain of salt water from a dozen fire fighting hoses, culminating with a blessing from King Neptune, establishing them all as Trusty Shellbacks. The ironic part of the whole thing was that it was completed about 10 degrees north of the equator. The ceremony technically should be performed south of the equator, as we actually "cross the line". Oh well. I don't make the ship's schedule. Our pseudo-Shellbacks had to wait a couple days to complete their metamorphosis.

On Saturday, I had the opportunity to be on the only flight of this deployment to take off from the ship in the southern hemisphere. For just a couple hours, the ship bumped south of the equator, then turned northeast bound again. We spent much of the flight, bouncing north and south of the equator. Kind of a weird place to be flying. It didn't look any different, but just the thought of flying right along the line was pretty cool. I'm still trying to figure out how that big black line stays in one place on top of the water.

Last Sunday, one of our enlisted aircrewmen was baptised after church. That was awesome to see and be a part of. As I am just about ready to take over Operations, he'll be one of the up and coming young leaders working in my department. We have a great group of Aircrewmen and I'm excited about my new job.

That afternoon, I completed my turn-over of the Maintenance Department (well, almost). The new guy will take care of all new business and is picking most of the pieces I left in the air. The only thing I still need to take care of are a big stack of awards recognizing people for their great work during the deployment. They're waiting for me when I get back on the ship.

That's right! I'm not on the ship. I'm sitting in my room at the Ritz-Carlton in a soon-to-be-disclosed South East Asian city. In a little less than an hour, Clemmence will arrive at the lobby to drive me to the airport to pick up Janell. Her flight arrives around 1am. The ship isn't even here yet. They pull in tomorrow morning. I had the fortune of being selected to fly in early on the COD to help with the logistics of setting up stuff for the Officer's "Admin". That's the rooms that the officers will stay in while we're in port. They are staying at the hotel next door to Janell and I. I intentionally picked a different hotel from the rest of the guys. We needed a little space. The nice thing is, you have to have a room key to use the elevator here, so we won't get any surprise visits. Not that anyone would do that, but it's hard to predict the actions of inebriated aviators.

So that's been my life in a nutshell for the past week. Lots of paperwork, flying, and job discussions. This break is going to be great! I'm sure Janell and I will post occasionally about our adventures here. The girls are staying with Nana, so I know they'll have a great time while Mommy is away. That's all for tonight. Almost time to go...

Six short blasts of the ships whistle...

Last night, just before I was about to go to bed, just after midnight, the ship called away a man overboard. Two of the lookouts saw a strobe in the water. When a man overboard is called, everyone on the ship must get up and quickly go to their workspace to "muster" or be accounted for. After about 20 minutes, everyone was found to be on board, thankfully. Part of the response for a man overboard, of course, is to be ready to rescue the survivor. That's why we have an Alert 30 crew ready to go around the clock. So our A30 crew was manning the helicopter during the muster, and actually launched to go look for the strobe. They never found anything. Who knows what it was.

After the excitement was over, I finally got to bed around 2am. Then tossed and turned until sometime between 5 and 6. Hopefully the rocking of the ship will help me sleep a little better tonight. The seas have definitely picked up and many of the younger guys are looking a little green. It's so nice to be out in the open ocean again, heading in the right direction.

Lots of paperwork tonight. More tomorrow. In the morning all of the Academy grads on board will take a picture together and send it in to Shipmate, our Alumni magazine. That will be the earliest I've gotten up in a long time! And the picture isn't until 9:30.

And there was much rejoicing

About ten minutes ago, I did something that I've been waiting four and a half months to do. I changed the time on my watch. To be completely honest, I've changed the time on my watch several times during that time period. Plus one hour, minus one hour, plus one hour, minus one hour... The north Arabian Sea and the Arabian Gulf are in different time zones, so as we've moved back and forth, we've swapped time zones several times. But tonight, I added an hour to my watch and I don't have to take it back. In a few days, I'll add another hour to my watch. And another. And another. We're finally moving in the right direction.

I'm almost done turning over the Maintenance Officer job to my relief. Tomorrow I start to learn and take over as the Operations Officer for the squadron. The daily flight schedule and all the enlisted aircrew will be my responsibility. A much smaller group to lead, but a more focused role on my shoulders, with a lot of decision making every day. It'll be a good change, but the learning curve will be steep over the next couple weeks, I'm sure.

This morning I was a little late, but I finally made it down to the church service. We had the first communion service of deployment! Sounds weird in a way, but I guess it's hard to address so many people's differing traditions and expectations when it comes to such a fundamental expression of the Christian faith. The Chaplains did a great job of talking about the reasons for communion and administering the elements in a way that spoke to everyone on equal ground. I'm sure there were little parts that were uncomfortable for everyone because they were different than the way Pastor Brown does it back home in First Baptist Church of Podunk, Kansas. But it was awesome to have us all there together commemorating Christ's sacrifice together, letting go of our minor differences and focusing on what really mattered: Christ created a New Covenant in His blood, by which he has cleansed us and forgiven us of our failures in living up to God's standard. Next week, they will have another Baptism service. And one of our aircrewmen will be baptised!! I'm very excited about that!

A tough evening

Today was a tough day. I had a few meetings and didn't fly. This evening we received an AMCROSS messaage for one of our young petty officers. Her brother is about to die from cancer. She is heading home tomorrow on emergency leave. I only hope she can get there in time. At the same time, I had the misfortune of firing another petty officer. His enlistment is up and we elected to not allow him to re-enlist. His performance had been far below what we expect of a petty officer of his years in the Navy. He's a bright guy and a talented technician, when he showed up for work. It was a tough decision, but he'll be seeking work somewhere else this summer. I'm still baffled at how someone can be late for work on the ship--almost every day.

On the bright side, I was able to make hotel reservations for Janell and I at our next port. Looks to be a good time. And it's not too far in the future. The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter.

Independence Day

Happy 4th of July. Today was just another day out here. Getting things done and landing safely back on the boat. That was around 2am for me. No fire works. No sparklers. I wish I could say that the picture above was me or that I took the picture, or that I even saw something like that today. It's just a cool picture I found courtesy of Google. This evening before I briefed, I did catch a glimpse of a couple jets shooting out some flares on a flyby. So that was our Independence Day celebration. That's the way it should be. We are here to support our troops on the ground who are working very hard in a dangerous place to establish and maintain stability in this chaotic part of the world. Our guys are overhead, helping to keep them safe. They don't get today off from the roadside bombs or the insurgent raids. So we don't get today off. But... the end is in sight. Not too much longer before we'll start moving toward home.

Yesterday marked 55 days till we get home. 75% complete. We're finally in the last quarter of cruise. In two weeks I get to see Janell at our next port visit. I just have to make sure we don't stay at the same hotel as the rest of the wardroom. I'd like some peace and quiet for a change!

Here's a picture of a group of us from a recent flight into Udairi Army Airfield, Kuwait. When we landed there, it felt like a blow drier was constantly blowing in our faces. At 1800, it was about 115 degrees. But the dinner was good and we got to visit the exchange. They also had phones from which I could call Janell and the girls. After the brief rest, we climbed back in and continued the mission.