But, for those of you who were asking, Dubai was a-ma-zing. It was the BEST vacation we have taken and I wish it could have lasted forever! Dan promises to do a blog on this though for me, but I will probably throw in a few stories. But really, nothing else of note has been going on so we'll re-wind back a few weeks and get everyone all caught up. Below is something I typed up a few weeks ago, but it was while Dan was flying so I couldn't get it posted right away:
So Christmas was alright underway. It pretty much felt like every other day to me; complete with the sound of planes taking off and crashing over my head. Turns out all the troops on the ground in Afghanistan wanted for Christmas was some more Nimitz firepower so we spent another day flying, delivering close air support.
I did my usual routine, my usual work. I’m pretty busy right now because we have a bunch of awards that our ships have nominated themselves for, and our recommendations for them are due to the next in our chain of command by 01JAN so I’m trying to get everything done before we pull in, since I obviously do NOT intend to come back to the ship once I leave since Dan will be here. I didn’t really do anything outside of my usual routine. But that’s ok with me. It’s really just another day, the only the significant is that we’re now 3 months out til home exactly. We did have lots of Christmas music planning in the office, for the few of us that were working. I got to hear some of my favorite songs that I hadn’t heard in awhile.
The past few weeks there have been lots of decorations (mini-tree), stockings hung everywhere, lights, people have all decorated their doors with wrapping paper and cards, etc, etc. I wish that I hadn't had to fly out here, I would have gotten underway with a plethora of Christmas lights and other stuff for our office. Today I saw a jolly big santa walking around. There were like 10 different Christmas church services held yesterday and today. The big meal was this evening- it was of course over the top like everything else that the Nimitz does. They had multiple carving stations- prime rib, turkey, a pig (the head and all! Kinda creepy looking...), and a cow’s hip/thigh. I’m not 100% sure if that’s what it was, but it was huge, with a big bone thing sticking out from it. There was also lobster tails, shrimps cocktail, stuffing, mashed potatoes (not real though), vegetables, cakes, ice cream, and pies. It was all quite delicious. Not as good as at home, of course, but not bad. I stuffed myself silly. Now I am ridiculously thirsty because there were probably a lot of preservatives in it, so it was very sodium-laden. The stuffing was good though. I had seconds!
Then I went on watch, which was uneventful, as to be expected. Now I am just doing a little bit of work and typing this! 2 of the wives of guys on staff make us these cute little goodie bags for everyone that arrived today. They were like little Christmas goodie bags with a big plastic candy cane full of reese pieces, microwavable popcorn and goldfish. Yum. It was super cute of them.
So a little Nimitz holiday humor. Every day we have a cartoon in the air plan (the schedule that says who’s flying when, where and with what). It is like a political cartoon of the Nimitz, usually poking fun of someone or something; usually witty and always a little bit mildly inappropriate. Well of course, the past few days have been all about santa making a night trap (a “trap” is what it’s called when someone lands on the carrier- they are “trapped” using the catapaults) on the Nimitz. I swear, if I have to see another air plan cartoon of reindeer impersonating people on the air wing staff and talking about what they’re going to bring to Nimitz I’m going to scream. Although some of them were pretty funny. (“we hear that the Chief of Staff needs a new spine and something about a nice warm glass of ‘shut the @$#& up’ for the USS SAMPSON because they’re really starting to annoy everyone and maybe a new radar for the CHOSIN since they haven’t tracked an air contact in almost a week”)
Well, last night, on watch, right before taps (basically “bedtime” at 10pm), the TAO gets on the 1MC (our announcing system). He was like “onboard Nimitz, this is the TAO, we are seeing an unusual radar return bearing 150 degrees true, 1,000 feet at a high speed!!! Contact is not responding to international queries. Air contact does not look like a normal commercial air route. Recommend engaging with Nimitz’s missiles- Captain to Combat!”
And everyone was kinda like … “huh? What?” then, from somewhere else on the ship, the CO gets on the 1MC and was like “Oh calm down TAO, that’s not the enemy- that’s SANTA CLAUS! And I heard you all have been good this year, so I asked him to make an extra stop this year. Air Boss- keep the flight deck open. TAO- stand down the missiles!”
And the TAO said “This is the TAO, roger, out [sounding like a little kid who just got told he couldn’t have another cookie]. Good night, Nimitz, and Merrrrrry Christmas!”
It was cheesy, but pretty fun. The TAO comes running into the module (we’re a little annex right attached to Combat) with his santa hat on and was like “did you guys like that? Did you guys like that? I’ve been practicing all afternoon!” it was pretty cute. Thought you’d like our Nimitz Christmas humor. Attached are 2 pictures, one from when the COD brought a ton of Christmas care packages yesterday (that’s all the mail sitting to be sorted in the Hanger Bay) and one of one of the “Shooters”- the guys that do all of the calculations and mathematics to determine how much pressure of steam is needed on the catapults to launch the planes and give the signal to launch- dressed up like Santa on the flight line!
Well, nothing much to report other than that. Dan should be landing any minute now in Dubai! And only 2 ½ more days til I’m there too, yayayayay! Some of you may have seen this but President Obama made a few person phone calls to servicemembers (I think based on some sort of award nomination process) and one of the people picked was from one of the ships that is in our strike group. Navy.mil news media featured the story, and then CNN picked it up. Here is the story:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/12/25/obama-makes-christmas-call-to-sailor/
Also I am including some pictures of our celebration. I ran into Santa in the hallway! I swear my short hair (made even shorter by the fact that I got another TWO inches cut off this most recent trip to Dubai!) normally looks better but I had just woken up. There is also one of all of the presents that came in on Christmas Eve- SO.MUCH.MAIL. Santa was good to us! The big jolly Santa also hung out on the Bridge in the CO's chair and a skinnier Santa wandered out onto the flight deck to help run the operations up there.
I am so sorry that I haven't written much but I promise to catch you all up from Dubai and New Years and now here. Miss everyone a lot! I hope everyone had a great Holiday Season! Xoxo!
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