Here's an officer's view
I love to hear whining officers. Officers had it so easy on the ship but I guess it's all relative. Officers lived in 2 person state rooms, we lived in a berthing area of 100 or so sailors. Officers ate in a wardroom where they got served nice meals, we at on a mess deck with 1500 people and a 20 minute wait in a chow line. Officers were the first off the ship on liberty while we waited in line sometimes 4 hrs if the liberty boats were small. But the story he tells really is interesting to me. I didnt realize that during GQ we were really playing out a full fledged war game. It's funny cause I remember all the people in this story. Being a personnelman, I got to work with EVERYONE's file at one time or another. It's really a good read, but it gets repeated half way so you gotta scroll down. Check it out, it's from an operations officer during operation Southern Watch.
USS Independence CV-62
Hey.. I found a website that had some history. Its fun to read about stuff I actually was a part of. Kinda cool eh? Here's my time frame (though they left out a bunch that I thought was more important)
INDEPENDENCE changed homeport again on September 11, l991-this time to Yokosuka Japan, embarking Carrier Air Wing FIVE and becoming the Navy's only forward deployed aircraft carrier and Flagship for Commander, Carrier Group Five.
The ship again deployed to the Arabian Gulf in mid-1992 and started the SOUTHERN WATCH operation, a multinational mission to monitor Iraqi compliance with the UN-Established "no-fly zone" below the 32nd parallel.
In March 1994, the team of INDEPENDENCE and Carrier Air Wing FIVE returned to Japan after successfully completing another deployment to the Arabian Gulf in support of OPERATION SOUTHERN WATCH.
Indy's next challenge took her to Hawaii for the exercise RIMPAC. She then entered drydock for her last scheduled Docking Ship's Restricted Availability period.
On June 30, l995, the 36-year-old INDEPENDENCE became the oldest commissioned ship in the Navy's active fleet. With that distinction, Indy, the first aircraft carrier to hold the honor, was entitled to fly the Revolution-era FIRST NAVY JACK, commonly called the “Don’t Tread On Me" flag from her bow.
In August 1995, INDEPENDENCE and Carrier Air Wing FIVE team deployed to the Arabian Gulf for a third time in support of Operation SOUTHERN WATCH.
Susanna at cut on the bias is such a busy bee. 9 posts already on her site for today, here I am satisfied with 3 or 4! Maybe she should join the blogathon and promise 3 blogs a half hour!
Homestudy part 2
Ok, last night I sat down and over 3 hrs came up with my life story. Its not a good idea truthfully. There are a lot of things that happen in your life that really arent that good, but shaped you. Of course going back and trying to rethink how things played out with my parents also didnt help much either. I'm putting my part about the Navy in today. I have a lot of stuff that gives away exactly who I am and what I do etc... Which I dont mind for all the 'nice' people, but I dont want some hyped up Palestinian coming in and gunning me and my wife down. Know what I mean? So if I cut a little out dont get offended, it's not the good people I'm paranoid of, it's that guy who never says a word and took offense to something I said 2 months ago when I was all political. Anyway... here's the first installment:
Naval Recruit Training, Orlando, FL was where I went to boot camp. I learned a lot at boot camp, like working as a team and paying attention to details. After boot camp it was off to Meridian, MS for my specialty training. This is where I got my permanent assignment to the USS Independence. The Independence was stationed in Yokosuka, Japan. Before I went overseas though I had to go to firefighting school which was in San Diego, CA. I was stationed on the USS Independence for three years. During that time we went to: Sydney, Australia; Perth, Australia; Dubai, UAE; AbuDhabi, UAE; Pattaya, Thailand; Hong Kong; Singapore; Pusan, North Korea; Pearl Harbor, HI; and of course Japan. I excelled in the Navy and reached E-5, which is the highest you can go in the amount of time I had. I really liked the Navy, but couldn’t stay in because I saw families torn apart by the six month deployments. I wanted to have a family myself, and knew if I didn’t get out after my first four years, that I too would find myself trapped and in that vicious cycle others were in. So, after four years of wild oat sowing, I left the Navy.
Homestudy
One of the things you have to do before adopting is a homestudy. Which is misleading because you think 'homestudy' means they come and study your home. Nope, it's not like that. There are 3 visits, 1 is in your home, 1 their location for wife, 1 their location with husband. So we're looking for a company that does these things and got our first package in the mail yesterday. I must admit, I dont know much about this adoption stuff, but am on a steep learning curve. Questions, questions, questions. There is about 10 pages of just questions. Also, there's the GBI(georgia bureau of investigation) background check... oh goodie... FINGERPRINTS. After all of that, they ask that you write an autobiography. Oh boy, we're doomed! Hint to homestudy people... take lots of mylanta before reading my autobiography. So... what I was thinking was... maybe I'll post the good parts here. Of course being so incredibly lazy and brainless, I'll wait till the last minute. But that probably wont fly with Mrs Doc, no, she already wrote her's last night! We assume that almost all of the agencies will require the same stuff in a homestudy since they are all priced the same. Fingerprinting always scares me because you never know when some other file has been put on your fingerprints by some lazy ass govt worker (not that all govt workers are lazy), but it seems to by my luck. I mean INS lost our paperwork 4 times afterall! So I can see Mr. GBI showing up on my doorstep trying to talk to me about some black church bombing back in 1954... but officer, I swear I wasnt born until 1971! I just hope my neighbor gets my beating on video tape (we'll just edit out all the crap I do to deserve the beating). awww crap something broke, gotta go fix it (real life sucks sometimes ;))
My site is down
I dont know why I'm updating this because right now noone can read it. I would go into my usual tirade about how blogspot sucks, but I notice that world net daily.com is down right now too and I'm pretty sure they are paying for their site, unlike me.
New link added!
If you look over at my links you can see I dont have that many. I dont link trade, but instead link to great blogs that I definately read daily, if not hourly. Yes, I realize that there are a ton out there that are worthy, but I do this ceremoniously so next is Susanna, cut on the bias. If you havnt cruised by her site lately, you should because she gives great updates. Also, Brent@The Ville has a cool new look that really rocks. Also new on his site are some great Gulf Shores Pics, where you can see the thousands he's invested in tattoos! ;-) Not to mention his "cool tunes" posts... check it out!
Stop killing children
Although Bush will end up giving over the money, I think this is a great program to kill. To everyone who doesnt know. I AM LOOKING FOR A BABY TO ADOPT! If you know someone who has gotten themselves pregnant, please tell them to save themselves years of agony and dont kill it. I am really serious when I say that we are looking to adopt. Yahoo! News - Bush Admin. Withholding U.N. Funds
I'm an Ebay Junkie
Every now and then you come across something so funny on Ebay that it has to be blogged. Two weeks ago I saw this one for a 20 yr old guy to shave his head and have a company tattoo their logo on it. He wanted a million dollars for only 1 year of exposure (he could let his hair grow after a year) in NYC. Now that is creative, definately no way someone would every shuck out the cash on it, but creative none the less. This link wont last too long after it's over, but it is Hilarious! eBay item 1752550570 (Ends Jul-25-02 19:00:14 PDT ) - BUY A DEMOCRATIC SENATOR'S VOTE!!!!
Alternative fuel cars
I talked about this before, but it bares repeating since I saw this on Nikita's weblog. I kinda wish the enviroment wacko's would get out of this equation and lets get some big oil company behind this technology. Truthfully, I think it could be mega billions over what they make on oil if amoco/bp could find a really safe and efficient way that doesnt leave behind something so complicated to get rid of (waste). I could see a merger with Toyota/Honda/BP. You have to get the 2 together because it doesnt matter how many Toyota builds, if there isnt a refueling station within 10 miles... it'll never fly. Check out this link and then swing by for some good Nikita blogging.Fuel Cell Today - Opening doors to fuel cells commercialisation
The big rock
Yesterday I took our youth group to Stone Mountain Park. It was about 40 minutes away and 20 minutes before we left a big thunderstorm brewed up. I love electrical storms, however, I do not fancy the idea of being on top of a big rock trying to be a lightning rod! I checked the forcast and it had said the thuderstorms were going to be scattered. I brought this big tarp so we could sit on it during the laser light show, but didnt need it because it didnt even rain there. I messed up and parked the van in the wrong parking lot so we asked the 'stoner looking' dude where the walkup trail was and he said it was over that way 1/2 mile. So we're thinking... hey 1/2 mile isnt bad (it was about that far just through the parking lot) so we decided to hoof it. It was really like 2 1/2 miles and by the time we made it to the hikeup trail, we were really ready to just forget about it.. but the van was really far now. Up the rock we went... Of course I had to play mother hen and stay with the slowest hikers (which actually made it worse). I dont know how long the hike was, but at some places it got hairy and pretty steep. We got to the top and decided to take the tram down because it would put us out right at the laser light grounds. The show was disappointing because it was the same one from 3 yrs ago! I liked it back then, but was thinking it was going to be really good and patriotic now with 9/11 and everything. We got back around 12 and by the time I played school bus and got everyone dropped of it was about 1:30 or so. I know I've said it before but I really love working with the youth group. It really gives me a satisfying feeling to help kids during the hard times of their life.
