Another day down, another day closer to home. Just a couple short flights today. Most of the airwing had the day off. "No fly days" are rarely truly no-fly days for us. There's always something for the helo guys to do. Move people around the strike group, cover plane guard for a COD launch, deliver mail, you name it.
When we were in Hong Kong, my roommate (the previous Ops O) flew to Hawaii to be a liaison to the Air Force for our airwing. From there he flew home to meet his two-month old son. So for a few days, I had the room to myself. On the first day of Valiant Shield, as I was getting ready for bed I noticed that there was a duffel bag stuffed in the corner of my room. After a moment of confusion, I realized that the curtains on the bottom rack were shut. Out of no-where I had a new roommate! It was four days before I actually met the guy. Turned out, he was a reservist submariner, here doing his one-week summer vacation, working for the destroyer squadron as a sub liaison. He was on the midnight to noon watch, which explained why I never saw him. By the time I went to bed around 0100 or 0200, he was up and on watch. Then I was up by 9 or 10 and in the ready room or flying before he went to bed in the mid afternoon. Even after I met him, we never really had more than a minute or two that were in the room at the same time. Now he's gone and I have the room to myself again. Until Tiger Cruise, I'm sure.
We have over 1000 people joining us in Hawaii to ride the ship back to San Diego. Among those thousand plus people will be my mom (aka Nana) and Katelynn. Just under a week before I meet them in Waikiki. We'll have one night out in town, about 36 hours to explore Honolulu, and then they get to experience Navy life first hand for a whole week! I know they're both excited about the trip. I can't wait, either.
One of the Officers in Charge of the SH-60B detachments on the cruiser in our strike group is visiting the carrier today, so we spent some time walking around. I tried to explain a little about how we operate over here, in contrast to their much smaller world on the "Small Boy". Tomorrow he leaves and the other OIC from a different ship will visit for a day. I'm not sure why everyone wants to come visit, but I don't mind playing tour guide.
I have the day alert tomorrow, so I actually need to get to bed at a decent hour for the first time in a couple weeks. That brief will come way too early.
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3 comments:
I'm packing!!!! Flip Flops first.
I'm sure Nana and Katelynn are beside themselves waiting to meet you in HI. What a GREAT experience. Make sure to get a BUNCH of pictures.
I'm sure you have seen it, but I have a GREAT picture of your exercise armada. I will send it to you via e-mail in case you don't have it.
Submariner on summer vacation... that's funny. That is what I did for Sublant. I went on a couple of Comptuex and JTFX vacations. We manned the plot in the ASW Module, trying to prevent eager aviators from blowing up the wrong submerged contact. I have to admit, it was a rush to be aboard the largest target in the BG.
J
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