So close now!

On June 9 we had a Battle of Midway Commemoration ceremony onboard. Why did we wait until June 9 instead of doing it on June 5 like most of the rest of the Navy? Because on June 9 we were actually near the Midway Atoll where the battle took place. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to be in those waters so close to the 70th anniversary of the battle. It was spooky to think that at any moment we might be passing over a sunken carrier or the wreckage of an airplane that had been at the bottom of the ocean for 70 years.

On June 10we crossed the International Date Line going east, which meant we had to relive June 10. We referred to the two days as 10-A and 10-B. It was represented a major milestone, though, since we were now reckoning dates the same as everyone back home. 10-B turned out to be a busy day for me. In addition to work, a Hail & Farewell event, and the Bingo game, I also got sick. (I’m just now getting over it.)

I spent several days in bed taking medications. I was still feeling awful on June 13, but I forced myself to get up and enjoy that day, because that was the day that we finally made it back to the United States after 7 months overseas. We pulled into Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and it was a beautiful sight. We had less than 24 hours in Pearl Harbor before we had to pull out again, so we made the most of it.

The best thing about our time in Hawaii was I got to see my dad for the first time in 7 months. On the way back from long deployments like this, Navy ships sometimes do what’s called a “Tiger Cruise” where friends and families of the sailors, called “Tigers”, can come onboard the ship and sail back to the ship’s homeport while learning about the ship and the Navy. For this cruise, my dad is my Tiger, even though I warned him that a week of sleeping in a Navy rack would probably be uncomfortable. I met my dad in the afternoon and we hung out that night in Waikiki: drinking mai tais at the Hale Koa barefoot bar, eating pork at the Hilton’s Starlight Luau, kicking back at Duke’s, and singing karaoke at the Shore Bird. We followed Navy tradition of racing back to the ship to get there just in time for curfew. The next morning we got underway, and the last leg of this long journey began.

In this week underway, my dad and I have got to spend a lot of time together, which is nice since we hardly ever see each other most of the time. The ship has had lots of demonstrations so that the civilian visitors can see the cool parts of what we do here. We got to see the inside of a Marine Corps tank, we got to see the helicopters launch rockets, and stuff like that. I volunteered that if the civilians wanted to follow me around and see my cool military job they could, but no one has taken me up on it yet. Their loss – where else are they going to get a chance to watch someone go to meetings, write emails, and make PowerPoint slides?

Yesterday did our final time change of this voyage – we are now on West Coast time. We’re running out of milestones to pass. We are so close now, I might be able to make it if I swim. I am so excited to get back. I haven’t seen Angelina, or Gabby, or my house in over 7 months. Also, my dad is going to stay in town for the weekend so we’ve got a fun weekend of activities planned, including a trip to the Fair. Being surrounded by family back in the United States, it sounds like a great dream about to come true.

Getting down in Hong Kong

Last week we stopped for a whirlwind visit to Hong Kong, and it was a blast!

On my first day off the ship, a group of us went to Hong Kong Disneyland, which is the newest and the smallest of the five Disneyland-style parks worldwide. Basically, it’s a lot like the original Disneyland, but more Chinese.

We went on a Saturday but there was hardly anyone there. And we saw something you hardly ever see at the Disneyland in California:

Yes, that’s right: SpaceMountain had a stand-by wait time of just 5 minutes! The most I ever saw it get up to all day was 15 minutes. That’s unheard of!

Because the park is so small, they didn’t have some of my Disney favorites such as the HauntedMansion or Pirates of the Caribbean. But they did have an incredible Jungle River Cruise that kicks the butt of the one in California. We had a huge lunch (what better place to eat Chinese food than in China?) and then went on the Mad Tea Party. That was a mistake. By the end of it we were sweating, wobbling, and trying not to puke. Small World is much the same as in the States except it has a part specifically depicting Hong Kong:

One thing they have at Hong Kong Disneyland that they don’t have in either California or in Florida is Toy Story Land! The only other Toy Story Land is in Disneyland Paris. It’s a very small land – just three rides, a snack cart, and a place to meet characters. But the decoration and the detail on everything is really incredible, and two of the rides take you up really high and give you incredible views of the whole park.

And of course, while I was there, I was able to get my requisite Duffy picture, this time in front of a display window at the Main Street Emporium:

And I was able to gather more evidence for my growing suspicion that caramel popcorn is the norm in the Asia-Pacific region.

On my second day off the ship, we went to an adopt-a-Sailor event where American ex-pats living in Hong Kong show visiting service-members around the city. One of my liberty buddies for this excursion was the only other lawyer on the ship, a Marine who graduated from Notre DameLawSchool eight years before I did. Well it turns out that one of our hosts was also a lawyer who went to Notre Dame, so that made three of us! We marveled at the coincidence and took a picture to send to the alumni newsletter.

Our hosts took us to a racetrack where their club had a private box. It was a really nice way to spend an afternoon. I have been to the races plenty of times, but I had never been up to the boxes before. Let me tell you, it’s quite nice up there. There was food and wine and a great view of the whole track. And we got to meet some very interesting Americans and Britons who had ended up in Hong Kong for one reason or another. I gambled away 700 Hong Kong Dollars, which is 100 U.S. Dollars. I hit a couple winners, but not enough to come out ahead.

After the races, we went to a reception at The American Club Hong Kong. This was also a very nice event with interesting ex-pats, delicious food, and ample drink in a beautiful venue with an impressive view of the city.

When the reception was over, I somehow ended up going out drinking with a group of Marines. Though there was potential for many bad things to happen, none of them did. We went to Lan Kwai Fong, a densely-packed entertainment district with over 100 bars and restaurants. Pretty much everyone from the ship was there. At the end of the night, I made it back to the ship on time, in one piece, and having committed no illegal or immoral acts under the influence.

Of all the places I’ve visited on this deployment, Hong Kong is the only one I really want to go back to some day. It was a good, good time.

See the great apes of Borneo!

Last week our ship pulled into SepangarBay in Malaysia on the island of Borneo, and we were able to have our first liberty port visit since December. For many years, the curriculum at the U.S. Naval War College has included a project where the students have to plan a hypothetical invasion of Borneo in order to liberate the island from a hypothetical aggressor. Having already taken this class as part of the masters degree I’m working on, I was amused to see some of the roads, mountains, forests, villages, and cities whose place on the map I had learned so well in the course of that project.

A big group of us stayed at a luxury resort hotel on the beach at the outskirts of the city of Kota Kinabalu. The first day off the ship we relaxed at the hotel’s fabulous pool before heading back into the heart of town for a Chinese steamboat dinner buffet (think fondue but with broth instead of oil). I ate some jellyfish, which tasted exactly like squid. I think I also ate some undercooked chicken, but I won’t dwell on that here. After dinner, we went back to the resort and did a mini pub crawl of the bars at the resort. I was able to get reacquainted with that Asian favorite, Tiger Beer, which gives you Tiger Strength (you know…for punching people). Finally, luxury of luxuries, I got to sleep in a real bed for the first time in the year 2012. My lower back didn’t know what to do with itself! There is no comparison between the agony of sleeping in a Navy rack and the feeling of having a real mattress/box-spring combo underneath you. It was glorious.

My second day off the ship was Sunday so we took a taxi to the Sunday Market in downtown Kota Kinabalu. It was a long line of tiny booths set up in a street that was closed to traffic. The people in the booths were all selling pretty much the same mix of food, clothes, knickknacks, and the occasional puppy. After the market, we took a bus to our hotel’s sister resort where they have a small nature preserve that seeks to rehabilitate orangutans. For sixty Malaysian ringgit (about twenty U.S. dollars), we got to watch an orangutan feeding. We got really close to the apes and a couple times I had to stand back to avoid being pooped on. After the orangutan tour, we went to a little bar on the beach, which is called the Sampan Bar because the bar itself is shaped like a little boat. We had a couple drinks and played a game called pétanque that involves throwing balls into a sandpit (think bocce). The bartender, a friendly guy named “Macgayver”, told us about a nightclub in Kota Kinabalu that he said would be fun to check out. I lunched on a Malaysian noodle soup called laksa before getting on the bus that took us back to our hotel just in time to go to the Sunset Bar and feast on the dazzling sight of the sun setting over the South China Sea. We had dinner at an Italian restaurant at our resort and then took a taxi to the waterfront area of Kota Kinabalu to find the nightclub Macgayver had recommended to us. It was a pretty low-key night of drinking Tiger Beer and watching a local band play covers of American songs. And of course the night ended with another glorious stretch of sleep on a real bed.

The next day, we relaxed on the hotel grounds until it was time to check out. Then we went downtown and ate lunch at a different hotel. I had a Cantonese egg-noodle soup that was supposed to have eggs, chicken, shrimp, and squid in it. I found everything except the chicken, but maybe that was for the best. After lunch we went to a mall to play video games in an Asian-style arcade and to see Tim Burton’s new movie “Dark Shadows”. The movie was entertaining, but I was disappointed to discover that this theater sold only caramel popcorn. I wonder if all theaters in this part of the world do that or if this theater just happened to be out of butter. Who knows? Anyway, after the movie we went back to the ship, which got underway the next morning.

The day after we got underway, the command ordered its annual ship-wide urinalysis sweep – everybody onboard had to pee in a cup to be tested for drugs. I can see the logic behind doing a command sweep on a bunch of Sailors and Marines who have just had their first liberty port call in five months. I’m just glad I didn’t have to arrange the logistics of the drug test. I have no idea how they handled that many cups full of pee. We must have bathtubs’ worth of the stuff onboard now.

Lastly, here’s a picture of me and Duffy, chillin’ at the resort:

Frivolity at sea

One way you can tell this ship is pointed away from war and toward home is that day-to-day life onboard has started to oh-so-slightly resemble life onboard a cruise ship. Last Friday we had a Bingo night and we got to drink cold O’Doul’s, otherwise known as “near-beer”. The next day we had a movie night and more O’Doul’s. With that much near-beer flowing, I was having near-fun.

Also, our Sundays are back to being Sundays. One day out of every week we have a “holiday routine” during which reveille is one-hour later than usual and we try to shorten the schedule to the maximum extent possible, holding over what work that can wait until the next week. That’s also the day we have church services and a bigger “brunch” meal in place of lunch. Back when we were in the Middle East, we had our holiday routine on Saturdays in order to conform with the workweek of the higher headquarters ashore in Bahrain because the weekend in Bahrain (and much of the Middle East) is Friday and Saturday – Sunday is a normal workday. So Sunday has been my Monday for the last five months. But now that we’re out of the Middle East, our holiday routine and church are back to Sunday. That’s just one more way of feeling like we’re moving away from deployment and closer to the real world.

Two days ago was also a very special and frivolous day as we dipped down to zero-degrees latitude. There is an old ceremony called “Crossing the Line” that the U.S. Navy borrowed from the British Royal Navy hundreds of years ago. It’s a kind-of Saturnalia at sea that’s held whenever a naval ship crosses the Equator. During the ceremony the Captain relinquishes command of the ship to King Neptune, and the sailors onboard who have never crossed the line before – Slimy Pollywogs – are subjected to a cleansing ritual at the hands of the sailors who have, the Trusty Shellbacks. Once the cleansing is complete, the former Wogs rejoice in their new status as Shellbacks and all hands lay belowdecks for a taco lunch. (I’m not sure if that last bit is part of the ceremony in every ship, but it should be. That taco hit the spot after a long morning of vigorous cleansing.) I won’t say much about the ceremony itself, but I will say that one of my favorite parts of the day was seeing how creative some of the Shellbacks got with their costumes. Prior to the ceremony, we Wogs awaiting judgment had been encouraged to decorate T-shirts to augment the Pollywog Uniform. On the front of my shirt I wrote “Judge Wog” and drew the scales of justice. On the back of my shirt, in a reference to both my job as a legal advisor and my penchant for bawdy humor, I wrote “Now THAT’S Crossing the Line!” The ceremony was a blast and I’m glad I got to do it. Becoming a Shellback had been on my “bucket list” for years.

Yesterday we had another farewell ceremony, this time for two department heads who will be transferring soon. Once again I served as M.C. Instead of a stand-up-comedy format, this one was more of a game-show format where we divided the group in to two teams to play a modified version of “Apples to Apples” using prompts I wrote to make the teams guess things about the people who are departing. It was a lot of fun because everyone got to participate and the jokes came spontaneously from the gameplay itself instead of from a rehearsed routine.

These days, the conversation on everybody’s lips is what we’re going to do during our upcoming port calls. People are making plans, booking hotel rooms, and signing up for tours. Unlike the working ports visits we had in the Middle East, the primary agenda-item in these ports will be to go out in town and have as much fun as we can without destroying the place or assaulting any host-nation citizens. I can’t wait.

Eastbound and down!

Last week, after five months in the Middle East, we crossed out of the Fifth Fleet Area of Responsibility. We’re currently eastbound, on our slow voyage home. Now that we’re no longer in Fifth Fleet, there are not as many restrictions on what I’m allowed to write home about. I still can’t tell you a lot about what we did out there, but I can fill you in on some of the day-to-day details.

A toast at the farewell for the old boss.

In February we had a change of command – my boss went on to his next assignment and we got a new boss. It’s a naval tradition to have a somewhat informal gathering of the officers to say “goodbye” before the formal ceremony, so we decided to do a roast of our outgoing boss. I got to use my hidden comedic talents and serve as M.C. for the roast, which went very well if I do say so myself. There was a delicious cake on the day of the formal ceremony. It happened to be my birthday, so I just pretended the cake was for me.

There used to be lots of drinking on naval ships. The crew drank rum every day and the officers had wine. But those days are long gone, sort of. The last vestige of the drinking-while-sailing tradition in the U.S. Navy is “beer day.” After 45 days underway, under certain circumstances, all the 21-and-over sailors onboard are allowed to drink two cans of beer. We hit the 45-day mark in February, and that beer was cold and good.

After about 70-some days underway, we went to Manama, Bahrain for a 10-day port visit. There weren’t a ton of sights to see, but it was a very relaxing time. I got to sleep in, eat good food, enjoy the occasional beverage, and even see a movie in a real movie theater. I also got to haggle with Arabs over jewelry and scarves, which was an interesting experience.

In March, I had an article on the law of armed conflict and military ethics published in Armed Forces Journal. Also in March, we reached the four-month mark of deployment, which is when people’s patience starts wearing thin.

In April, the highlight was a sunrise Easter service in the hangar deck. It was the second Easter in a row that I have spent working for the Navy away from my family. That was rough, but the ship had an Easter feast that was amazing! We’re talking ham, prime rib, lobster, mashed potatoes, and cake.

On top of a dune at Wadi Rum Protected Area in Jordan.

Not long after that, we pulled in to Aqaba, Jordan for a 4-day port visit. We were very limited in what we were allowed to do. Most people just sat on the pier and drank warm beer. But I was able to go on one of the few tours that was offered, to Wadi Rum Protected Area, which is kind of like the Jordanian equivalent of a National Park. It looked like a National Park you would see in Arizona: a sandy desert with fabulous rock formations jutting out of an otherwise flat plain. We got to go on an off-road tour, as well as some hiking and climbing over the dunes and rocks. It was okay, but I was happy to get back underway.

For Cinco de Mayo, we had another amazing holiday meal onboard – it was the mother of all taco days. Speaking of mothers, I also got to add Mothers Day to the list of holidays I’ve missed on this deployment.

And that about brings you up to speed. I’ve been doing gratifying work out here, and my shipmates are a great group of people. I miss everyone back home, of course, but this was exactly the experience I was hoping to have when I joined the Navy.

Throughout it all, Angelina has been sending me great care packages and nice emails, which has helped me get through it all and keep up to date on what’s going on with her and the baby back home.

Before I left, I told Gabby that I would bring the Duffy teddy bear with me on my port calls. In the Navy we like to “capture the data” by putting every little thing that happens in a PowerPoint slide, so I made a Duffy slide for Gabby, showing me with Duffy at Trader Vic’s tiki bar in Bahrain and at Wadi Rum in Jordan. Here’s that:

Capturing the data about Duffy’s exploits in the Middle East.

Tonight I sleep alone so that you can sleep safely

I see this quote every now and then, and today, it feels more true than others. The news is a-flutter with 10.5 month deployments and unrest in all the places where my love is headed. But tonight, he’ll be sleeping in a bed in Hawai’i and (hopefully) getting some well-deserved rest. And I miss him terribly.

Lean on Me

This weekend was the first bright moment I’ve had so far.

It started yesterday, when my girlfriend Dee called me up to drag me out of my bed and out for coffee. Coffee became the mall, the mall became dinner with the girls (and Gabby!), and I had a fabulous time. I needed to get out of the house. I was going crazy.

This morning started off a little rough, but picked up soon after we got to church.

Diversions

This weekend is the Queen Bee Market. I was planning on setting up a table at the holiday market, but I just didn’t get around to it. As in, life got in the way. But tomorrow, I plan on dragging Gabby down to the Del Mar Hilton to check out the wares and see if it’s a worthwhile market to sell at. I have high hopes; my favorite letterpress/jewelry maker is hot on Queen Bee: Noon Designs.

Princess Belle sneaks up on me as I cuddle Princess Aurora

Tonight was supposed to be a “Parents’ Night Out” at the Child Development Center. I was all set to go, when Gabby looked me in the eyes and asked if she could stay home with me instead. I relented, and cried all the way home. Not because I didn’t want to spend time with my daughter, but because I need to spend some time with myself.

Thanksgiving Potluck

Tonight, I am in trypto-coma, because we had a potluck at work. It was awesome. I didn’t photograph the dessert table, but I photographed everything else. Yum.

Chili, Meatballs, Sandwiches, and Casseroles

Three different roasted turkeys

Lechon Pig, complete with apple-in-the-mouth

Pancit, Lumpia, Salted Chicken, and Rice

No one can tell you how hard this is

Sure, folks will tell you that it’s hard, miserable, tough, draining, isolating, fearful, and all those other “bad feelings”. But they don’t tell you what really hurts. Because they can’t. You have to experience it to understand.