3 months into deployment, and these are the things that I can still enjoy

1. Alice in Chains, they're always good, but for whatever reason I'm on a kick lately. Mostly the MTV Unplugged album. It would seem that the underlying themes of angst, depression and hopelessness are fitting on a navy ship at sea.
2. Youtube, without it I don't think I would make it through these quiet late night watches while maintaining any semblance of consciousness. Mostly we look up music. Some of the more memorable ones are Gordon Lightfoot's The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (It's a song about history), Polaris's Hey Sandy (the theme song to The Adventures of Pete and Pete) and some more that I can't think of.
3. The day after the midnight to 7 watch. This one is great because of the rotation we use. Once you get done with this watch, you don't have another one until 5PM the next day. And that, my internet friends means one thing: Sleep.
4. Sleep. Even though it occurs nearly exclusively in what could only be called an elongated crib mattress, it's something of a sanctuary. With just enough room to scoot and roll over, and all the creature comforts of a steamer trunk, it's gotta be one of my favorite places to be. You can... read a book, maybe listen to an iPod, or sleep! That is pretty much it.
5. Jeff. My self proclaimed "Best Bro Buddy." Makes watch interesting. Jeff also gets parts of his body waxed in the Philippines for fun and profit.
There's a lot more but my watch is nearly over. 'Till next time.

For the third time in my life, I visited Guam

Well to start off, its been a busy couple of days. Arrived in Guam early yesterday morning, don't ask the city because I honestly don't know. I just call the whole thing Guam and that works for me. Got off the boat at a reasonable hour, just after noon actually. Myself, Chase and a Mr. John Fittro made up the days liberty party. We had a plan and for the most part stuck to it. Well, it wasn't really a plan as much as a loose outline. But hey, whatever works. We managed to take a duty van the mile or 2 up a very desolate road to the NEX, got a few things, socks, new air fresheners (take that stinky people) and some other stuff. And also managed to grab a rental car. And since my good friend Chase doesn't have a non-expired drivers license yet, I got to drive. She was a mean machine, something like a 2006 Nissan Sentra, in burgundy. I guess a car rental place on a Navy base in Guam Can get away with stuff like this, but man that car was a pile. Over 50,000 miles, and it showed every single one of them, cigarette burns in the seats, and a smell we just couldn't place. It was cheaper than a cab, and since there were no buses, it was the way to go. So we made the 30 minute journey down to the main strip, I would elaborate, but in the 3 times I've been to Guam, I never bothered learning what anything was called.
After the traditional 7 wrong turns, and trying to find a legal parking spot, we made it to the beach. For those who have never been there, Guam has some of the clearest water in the world, not to mention some of the warmest. It's like a scene out of Finding Nemo on the seafloor. Fish and coral and all that. Well we were essentially alone on the beach aside from the standard Japanese tourist, and minding our own business swimming around, when what should appear but a gaggle of junior officers. Now if you aren't familiar with the naval architecture, a J.O. is anyone who went to college, and stayed sober enough to go to a NROTC program. Well, these guys, not too far off from the old college drinking days, have picked up where they left off. Needless to say shenanigans ensued. Not the least of which were a slap fight, watching them fail at picking up beach girls, and one of them thought it would be funny to pee himself. Our small sober group had more than a few laughs at their expense.
Later, after the drunkards left, we made our way back to the base to get some things, then back down to the strip for dinner. Trying to savor the last morsel of American dining, we went to TGI Fridays. It was a decent meal, and somehow we were the only people from the ship in there. After that it was a trip to a souvenir shop then back to the rental place.
We made it back around 1030, far in advance of our 1159 liberty expiration. As we walked by the NEX, the realization came to us that the duty van was no longer making stops there, and that we would have to walk. Not a fun prospect, in the still dripping humidity and heat. Well we made our trek, it was long, and we cursed the duty van for not stopping to pick us up (the drivers later would tell us they had been full). But aside from Chase's whining, it wasn't a bad walk. we made it back in about 40 minutes, plenty of time to watch the drunks roll in.
Overall a good port visit, albeit another short one. Kinda getting sick of these one day jobs. Oh well, the next few should be better.

So about 10 days have passed since my last post

I realize this, part of it is my fault, but much of the blame rest on google.

   So shortly after my last post we were pierside in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Just for a day, but being as it was my first time there, and my first chance to get off the boat I was fairly excited. Unfortunately, I had to wait about 4 hours for my friend Chase to get off work before we could go out. Not a big deal.
   We ended up renting a car, which was actually pretty reasonable. Only problem was that it was one of the ugliest colors I think I have ever seen. Something along the lines of a lighter split pea soup, but uglier.
   Well Chase and I ventured off in our rental focus.
   We headed out to the USS Missouri and USS Arizona Memorial/museum, only to find it had closed about an hour before. Damn you island time. Oh well. We will be there again sometime.
I then instructed Chase to shut off his phone/gps and drove off in whatever direction struck me. We ended up driving down the H-3, which is an amazing road. Flanked on either side by cliffs that are just consumed by plant life in more shades of green than I can recall seeing in recent memory. The road follows the terrain and goes up and down smaller hills, follows the edges of the larger ones and bridges and tunnels thrown in just for fun, and well probably to make sense, you know, driveability wise.
Got some pictures, going to try and upload them soon. Mostly shots from a moving car, but a few stationary as well. There's quite a few of us entering and leaving port also.

Since Hawaii, it's been business as usual. Wake up, eat, stand watch, fix stuff, get off watch, eat, play some bass, sleep; repeat until next port visit.



That port visit is coming up fairly soon, so more updates to come.

It's like youtube.. but with words

Everybody hates each other.

Yeah, you read that right. They all hate each other.

I'm kind of in shock about the whole thing, I mean, everyone knows it's going to happen. Usually after a few months, when its been a while since we've hit a port. But for God's sake we've been gone for 6 days! I haven't even done laundry yet! People fight like children. I would know, I have several. It's a shame that you can't just send them to time out, take away their favorite toy for a while and then they'll be friends again.

Oh well. We have a port visit coming up shortly and due to rules and such, I can't divulge exactly where that is but i can say that I haven't been there before and I am looking forward to it. Made some plans with friends, we'll see if it happens, since everyone has to do some random bullshit before they can leave.

In other news, the stinky guy who sleeps near me doesn't stink! Yet. Give it time, cigarettes and body odor have a way of building up after time, although he assured me that it won't happen again. Could be the massive air freshener I keep in my rack. Makes my area smell nice.

Also in other slightly more belated news, we did an unrep the other day, and I took some pictures. If you don't know what that is then google it. I'm gonna try to upload the pictures when we get to where we're going.

Fresh water wash down today, think of it as a ship-wash, but without soap. It's really just to wash the salt off, but its actually pretty entertaining. You get to run around spraying stuff with a fire hose while they play music over the loudspeakers. My division did a very touching rendition of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. I would take pictures of that, but we're using a fire hose and that wouldn't be very damn smart would it.

I as usual have been keeping upbeat and making fun of everyone and everything (myself included) to keep myself and others sane. I walked around the ship today and I could not believe the amount of people that were pissed off. We're a short time away from a port call, and the weather's awesome. I fully intend on enjoying this deployment for what it's worth. If not the "adventure" that the commercials promised me, then the experience of doing something outside of most peoples comfort zones. It's something that will (hopefully) give me some stories like the ones my Grandpa used to tell me. That's what it's all about i suppose. Well, that and the meager pittance the gov't sees fit to (maybe) pay me.

Today I learned I can cry and still look manly

Today sucks. There's no other way to put it. Waking up in the morning and knowing you won't see that bed, those people, hell.. even the dogs, is just awful. I will admit I held it together for a while. Until the boat started moving at least. Like a damn kid who just got his favorite toy taken from him... Then punched in the crotch... Then his dog got run over. Pretty much all of those things.
I don't think the gravity of the situation has set in yet.

Thoughts on a rapidly approaching deployment.

Well I've managed to be lucky for a long time... almost 5 years in the navy and only one deployment. Till now. Thanks to the USS Howard, I will be gone for the next 6 months. Leaving my girls, my dogs, and essentially my entire life on land, while I go out to "fight for freedom" or whatever group of buzzwords the navy is associating with their 6 month cruises of inconvenience these days.

My kids don't get it. They're used to daddy leaving for a while, but never this long. Ally was around in 2008 but that ended up being just over 3 months and she was little. It's gonna be rough on them.. and in turn it's gonna be rough on Jess.

I am fairly sure I've forgotten something. It's not just possible it's probable. For those who don't know, you have to pack enough everything for 6 months, you never know when or if you will see another store. That means 6 months of laundry detergent, shampoo, toothpaste, enough clothes to last 2 weeks or more without washing. It sucks. All that and pretty much as much storage space as.. oh lets say 3 large couch cushions, 2 lying flat and one on its end. It's not pretty. Then let's talk sleeping arrangements.  Imagine if you will for a moment, a crib mattress. Now, imagine that crib mattress is 6 and a half feet long. Ok, got the picture in your head? Well that's pretty much it. Now take that long crib mattress and put it in a cube.. one thats only about a foot and a half tall, just tall enough to roll over if you tuck your shoulders in. Also your bed is only one of 80 and some guys really don't like to shower. Seriously. Grown ass men, not showering. It smells bad. Probably worse than you're imagining.

I'm hoping to update this as I can, which should be  pretty regularly. I do have a decent camera and will be taking plenty of pictures along the way.