Today is my 44th consecutive day at sea. Our last port visit in Greece seems like 44 years ago. And yes, even for a salty veteran, that's a good long stretch without dirt under your feet. The only dirt I've seen in quite a while is in the form of sandstorms that clog the demister pads (filters) for my gas turbine intakes. We have to wash them out every week during the carrier no-fly day and we fill the O4 level with mud, there's so much dirt in them. But 44 days is a while...long enough for Battle CHENG to grow an impressive Battle 'Stache. Even my mustache was beginning to become grumpy. It's time for a change.
(NOTE***I have not had access to blogger for the first few months of deployment...hence no entries since I arrived on HUE CITY in March or since I deployed in June.)
Rather than try to rehash the last few months, I'll just say we're here---here being 5th Fleet AOR, or for civilians, the Middle East. We've spent the last few weeks in the relatively cooler waters of the North Arabian Sea as our strike aircraft fly into Afghanistan to support ground troops. It's been nice. Inevitably we'll end up back in the Northern Arabian Gulf---counter-intuitively, it's hotter, much hotter and then there's that pesky Iranian problem. Yes, we see them all the time---every day is like a potential cover shot/story for cnn.com. We're always an episode away from the front page and doing our best to be on the right side of it all. It's exciting, fast-paced and mostly fun.
So what happens when you get over here? In two words, groundhog's day. Every day becomes the same---the watch routine, the food, the weather, the people, the grind. In my particular role, I'm the Force Tactical Action Officer for the Strike Group---in layman's terms, I'm in charge for a given 5 hour period, the CO's representative, to control the air space over here---Strike Group aircraft, coalition aircraft flying through the AOR---it's fun. You're constantly making calls, decisions---do I launch the alert aircraft off the carrier? is this or that aircraft Iranian/a threat? It's fun and different.
Then there's the Engineering thing...As Chief Engineer, this has been a challenging tour. New leadership challenges, people, older equipment, underfunding, no MPA, et cetera. It's been eventful, sometimes stressful, other times fun, and always keeps me on my toes. It's casualty central out here. If it's not an engine that won't start, it's a lube oil leak, or a fuel leak, or a fire, or a hole in a fuel tank or flooding...the passageway outside my stateroom flooded out just the other day. No kidding. 2-3 inches of sea water on the deck. My Engineers are working hard and I'm confident this department will head home from deployment a much better one than when it departed.
Always exciting.
Then there's home. 8000 miles away but always in the hearts and minds of 380 HUE CITY sailors. It's tough. Our deployment is very much in limbo as far as our end date...it could be as early as March 2013...or not. We just don't know. HUE CITY is caught up squarely in the vortex of a presidential election, federal budget funding for cruisers, and national policy in the Gulf---all have/can/and will continue to change our deployment return date. Until then, we humbly serve, and sweat for, this great Republic.
Well..i hope to be able to continue this effort if I can. We'll see if blogger cooperates in the future. It hasn't to date.
In the meanwhile it's a continual 24 hour cycle, not so much your conventional day, but rather blocks of time in between watches. Block of time to read, workout (TRX), run, do paperwork, eat prison-like food, maybe catch a bit of a show or movie, tour my spaces, oversee the plant, do more paperwork, attend a few meetings, sweat, work, hit the rack, repeat. Groundhog's Day.
Speaking of which...the rack is calling my name.
