Whew!!

Let's see. The last time I wrote was on... I can't remember the last time I wrote. I know I was sitting in the hotel waiting for Janell. Other than that, the last few weeks are a complete blur. I'm sure most have heard by now or read elsewhere that Janell and I were able to enjoy 5 days in Singapore together. We had a great time and spoiled our selves with tours, dinner on the 70th floor, and a spa treatment that left my skin WAY too soft. Nuff said about that. The visit ended far too quickly and I boarded the ship again and she flew home just as her brain had adjusted to the 9 hour time difference.

We had another stop in Hong Kong a few days later. I actually didn't do too much there. The day after Singapore, I finally became the Operations Officer for the squadron. My work load and "busy-ness" quadrupled on that day. Being OpsO on deployment--even at the end of deployment when things should be slowing down--is a challenging job. The puzzle of writing a safe and effective flight schedule and keeping all of the "stake-holders" in our mission areas aware of what we're planning and what we're doing is more than a full time job. As the MO, I had a very large department of extremely bright people who made everything happen. They made my job very easy. As OpsO, I have a hand full of JO's and about 25 enlisted aircrew, but most of the elements of running Ops and making decisions and communicating fall to me. Another element of the busy-ness was our preparation for a major exercise that was scheduled to follow Hong Kong: Valiant Shield.

I spent the first day of Hong Kong on the ship, writing rough flight schedules for the first week of Valiant Shield. It was going to be a very busy seven-day exercise and I knew I needed to get ahead. Leaving a day and a half early to fly into Singapore hadn't helped with that (not that I was complaining, believe me). I did get off the ship for the next four days. I had a custom suit made at Sam's Tailor Shop. I was measured on Tuesday around noon, fitted with a half-contructed suit at noon on Wed, and picked up a completed suite and two custom make shirts at 2pm on Thursday!! I couldn't believe it. Sam said they put all other orders on hold when carriers pull in because of the volume of orders they get. He wouldn't tell me how many orders he had taken while we were there. I imagine it was close to a hundred. Unbelievable. On the last day, I was able to have dinner with an American family who is living in Hong Kong. The ship set up a program called "Sailors in the Home" through which local families could host sailors for a home-cooked meal while we were in port. A group of 3 other officers and I visited our family and enjoyed their company and played with their two young sons for several hours. It was nice to be in the midst of a family again, but it obviously only made me miss my own even more. I really didn't do much else worth mentioning in Hong Kong, other than buying more gifts for the girls in Stanley Market. I went there twice with two different "liberty buddies".

After Hong Kong, we had a few days to finish our preparations for Valiant Shield. The exercise lasted for seven days and involved three carrier strike groups, several Air Force squadrons, and a ton of submarines. HS-8's primary objective during the exercise was to protect our carrier from getting attacked by submarines. Not only did we do that, but we "sunk" many of the "enemy" submarines who were lurking about. In six weeks, our squadron transitions to a new helicopter that is not equipped to do Anti-Submarine Warfare. This was our last push for ASW training and our last obligation to employ those skills. I am very proud of the squadron. At midrats tonight, CAG mentioned that we had earned "rock star" status for our ASW performance. It was a tiring week of flying twice a day, writing nearly impossible flight schedules, and running around tracking down details and coordinating changes when aircraft broke. About 3 hours ago, the exercise officially ended. Now just some wrap-up paperwork, and I'm done.

Life will finally slow down a little. I'll still be busy, but maybe I'll have time to run for the first time since we left the gulf!! Yes, it's been that long. Not that I couldn't, but finding both the time and energy has been a challenge. It's time to go home. One week to Hawaii, then one more week to home. The end is near. It's good to be back on the blog.