I'M HOME!

Hi everyone! So sorry I haven't blogged in the past SEVEN days (eek, sorry :/ )

But I have a good excuse, I swear. These two lovely ladies who watched the launch cycle of F/A-18's from Primary Flight Control and who met just about every Sailor onboard the Nimitz and who were CHAMPION Tigers for the past 5 days just kept me totally, completely busy!

That, combined with the fact that I was restless, emotional, stressed, nervous, anxious and everything in between meant that I didn't have a lot of time for work-related stuff, especially blogging.

But, I am HOME sweet home in San Diego, California, U.S.A! I promise to update over the next week or so about Seattle (which you can read about here, thanks to my good friend Molly V. who much more expeditiously documented our Seattle adventures), Tiger Cruise, Homecoming and re-adjusting to life back at home.

Thank you for all of your love, emails, blog post comments, care packages, facebook wall posts, prayers, shout-outs, support and help over the past 6 months. I know I certainly couldn't have done it with out you.

Well, as for me, I'm up much earlier than Dan (back to life as usual, right?) and am enjoying this perplexing set of remotes, Netflix, DVR and cable boxes sitting in front of me :)

Non-Sequitur

[*Author's Note post-publishing: Eventually the internet did come back up and I was able to finish the blog ALMOST all by myself. Except I can't get the pictures to upload so luckily, since that is Dan's FAVORITE thing to do, you will have to wait to see the associated pictures after I send them to dan and he has a chance to upload them*]

For those of you who are not familiar with the word (as I previously was not until described by a good friend as one), non-sequitur is Latin for "it does not follow" as in, an argument in which its conclusion does not follow from its premises; an inference or conclusion that does not follow from the premises or evidence. Basically, in a nutshell- something that does not logically follow another.

For those of you that know me (and presumably, if you have committed this much time to reading this much nonsense for so many days/weeks/months/years, then you must know me. If not- who are you?) you would probably be inclined to agree with my good friend, Bridget Barry (aka Bridgee, author of this blog which I love to follow to get my sometimes daily, sometimes weekly, fill of random honesty. We can probably all admit that we probably need a little more random honesty in our lives too.) who once described me as a "non-sequitur". I think this is a pretty spot on description (after I learned the definition of the word). I wouldn't say I have ADD or anything like that but frequently I easily and deftly jump from one subject to another, skipping around stories and ideas and thoughts. (again, if you've been following my blog, you are probably already aware of this fact).

So it should only be fitting to warn you that this blog is going to be a non-sequitur because I came up with 4 stories today, none of which have anything to do with the other nor are they really all that important. Don't worry though, I won't even try to come up with grandiose conclusion at the end to tie them all together. I don’t have THAT much time on my hands!

First. Let's talk about some new changes to the blog. You might have noticed on the left hand side, half way down the page, the new section entitled "My Cheerleaders." This is the section previously known as "My Followers." Apparently, most of my family/friends/readers think "My Followers" is a creepy thing to call yourself (i think stalking is technically considered a misdemeanor in some states), or else only 6 people are actually reading my blog. If that's the case, then apparently I need to come up with some better stories to start drawing in the readers. I am pretty sure though, that I have more than 6 readers. And for arguments sake, we will discount my parents/dan's parents who I don't believe have gmail accounts and probably don't religiously "follow" blogs at the rate at which our generation does (that means you get a free pass for not being "official" followers, mom and dad. I am excited that after 3 deployments you both finally started posting comments. This means a lot to me :)

Anyways, back to the point (here we go again with this "it does not follow" theme again). I changed around some things about the blog to help better tell "my navy story." So then I thought, I will call the followers section "My Fan Club"- but then again, that sounded too creepy as well. I mean, I think fan clubs dissolved sometime back in the mid 90's, right around the time that New Kids On the Block dissolved (the first time around).

So then it hit me- who are all of the people that read my blog and comment on it and send me emails? They are really my own personal cheerleading squad. Yes, that's it! They are my cheerleaders who bring a smile to my face and keep me going with their funny stories and comments and knowing that my family & friends are actually reading this blog (other than Dan who I think is required by some antiquated marriage law to faithfully read his wife's blog posts, even if they are super lame) helps me feel connected to them and to home. And let's be honest, who DOESN'T want to be in a cheerleading squad? Let's just say that if YOU had a cheerleading squad, I like to think that I would be on your team, cheering you on from the sidelines. That was basically a long-winded and overly desperate attempt to convince my loyal readers, whoever they are, to join "My Cheerleading" Section of the blog. If not, that's cool too, you can cheer quietly from in your heart. And if you have a blog that I am unaware of, please send the link my way because I would loooove new blogs to follow!

Two. Tonight as I was getting ready to leave the watch floor, one of the Surface Trackers (I don't know who she was because she was a NIMITZ watchstander and I don't really know that many of them) said "Ma'am- do you know who you look like? You look JUST like Jennifer Love Hewitt!" I was like "whoa, no way, that's the SECOND person to tell me that this deployment" and she said that all of the other watchstanders have been talking about it for awhile. I thought that was the funniest thing ever! I didn't see it a month ago and I don't get it today either. So tonight, I googled "JLH" again and after finding MANY racy photos (apparently she's quite the babe these days!) of her, I found this one that I held up to myself in the mirror. Now, I know I've been gone a long time, as I looked at this picture and looking at myself in my rumpled, frumpy coveralls with no make-up on, I thought "there is no way that ANY amount of time away would give me such long and healthy looking hair and such a great tiny waist to large chest ratio, topped off with killer toned arms" (in fact, the longer we are away, the SHORTER my hair is getting!). Anyways, I thought that was funny because I feel completely opposite of this polished movie star right now. I don't even think I remember how to apply eyeliner. I should probably brush up on that over the next few weeks, lest I return home looking like a Halloween costumed-girl.

Three. I have beat the Navy internet system. Yes, the one that doesn’t allow Gmail or skype or anything else EVER. The one that limits our “open internet hours” (anything non-Navy or banking) to only 8 hours a day. Well, it turns out that google is always available (however, after you click on the link that you would like, then you get blocked out). But, because you can physically log onto Google, type in something and see at least the results, that means that you can always log onto blogger (since it is now supported and run by Google). What does this mean, you ask? Well, this means that even after midnight, I am able to read and write blog posts. SUCCESS! This also means that I am not QUITE as dependent on my husband to get out the good word. However, as I was proudly blogging all by my self (a very fulfilling thing to do after months and months of having to email off my posts for uploading), the internet cut out. Stupid, stupid Nimitz internet system. Totally predictable. UGH. Just when I had the system beat!

So now I am blogging with slightly less enthusiasm, knowing that I will have to wait until the internet comes back so that I can email it to Dan and have him post it for me like 15 hours from now when he gets back from work (no, Dan doesn’t work 15 hour days but we’re SEVENTEEN hours ahead of west coast time so he is just getting up and getting ready for work so he won’t get around to this until after he gets home. Apparently he is a very busy/important person at work and doesn’t do frivolous tasks like blogging at work. Weird, I know since that is the norm for me. However, Dan also doesn’t live at his office, or at least to my knowledge he doesn’t… I think/hope he still lives & pays rent at 1455 Kettner Blvd, since that’s what I’m counting on… and apparently they do let him go home at nights so he will get to it them shortly)

Four (finally, I know right? You’re wondering when this will end already!) I wanted to tell you about these awesome shoes I bought in Malaysia (and given that I have bought no fewer than SIX pairs of shoes this deployment… oops?... I have to delineate where I got them AND the story behind them).

These sandals are AWESOME. They are definitely different than anything that I would buy back in the States (my other 5 pairs of shoes were all flats. Right now as they’re reading this Dan/my father are thinking “FIVE other pairs of flats?! Molly, you can only wear one pair at a time!”). These sandals were procured at the Central Market in Kuala Lumpur. They were made by this little old lady and man out of “the official Malaysia wood” (which I promptly forgot what it was that made it so special/official). The old man (he is over SEVENTY and still making shoes EVERY DAY!) takes the wood from the trees and sands them down into this wedge/platform style. If I could best compare it to something back home, it would be like the shape of the sole of a Dansko clog. Some of them were higher than others, but I picked out a medium height wedge. After he sands them down, the old lady hand paints Malaysian flowers on the sole and the wedge part of the bottom of the shoe and stains/finishes the wood so that it is shiny. Then, they take this material known as “Batik” which is a very traditional and brightly printed cloth, with flowers, geometric designs, birds, etc etc. It runs a range of colors and styles, but it's basically a really pretty material that they use for skirts, sarongs, napkins, table clothes, whatever.

So after the painting of the wooden part, she takes a small piece of batik and drapes it over where you would logically place fabric to make a sandal. Then, she uses a big staple gun to staple the fabric to the shoe. Then she takes a hammer and nail and hammers the nails across the fabric to secure it to the shoe and then removes the unsightly staples.

This process was made much cooler by a few facts. One- these handmade right in front of you shoes will run you about $25. Which is more than I paid for some shoes this deployment, but I thought was pretty reasonable after watching the process of how they were made and how special they were. Two- the lady didn't have the 100% combination of what I wanted (the height of the sole, remember, I didn't want a really high one) with the brown/gold/tan printed batik cover. Also, your average women's foot is much wider than mind, so I could tell by trying on a few pairs that my foot was going to slide around and thus it would not be a good purchase. So, she lets me pick the exact size and height sole and the Batik print that I wanted and then fit the fabric directly to my foot. Three- she was about to use these brown-ish nails when I saw that some of the sandals had gold colored nails, which I thought matched this fabric more. So, since she was already going to go through the whole staple and nail process for me, I thought I'd ask if I could have the pretty nails instead. No, no, no, she explained to me, those nails make the shoes more expensive, this price does not include these nails. Remembering back to my childhood with my economist parents who I think at one point explained that in capitalism, everything can be had for a certain cost (or was it everything can be had at a certain price? shoot, i forget. that's why I'm in the Navy and not an economist...) Anyways. So I ask the lady "can I pay a few extra dollars (or ringits or dinars or dirans or bat or whatever ridiculous monopoly money currency were were in at this point in the deployment) for the gold nails?". She immediately picks up on this idea and says that yes, for $2, I can have pretty nails. Given that we're already spending the time and effort to make these specially for me, I figured an extra $2 for the prettier and less-unsightly nails was a good idea).

So here is the final product- my less than $30 hand picked, hand painted, hand made, made to order like a Sheetz sandwich batik covered flowered wooden Malaysian wooden clog/sandal. Ta-Da! And of course, what else to show off next to my shoes, but a can of Coke Light (I have NO idea why I took a picture of these shoes next to a Coke Light can, but in light of the blog from a few days ago, it is interesting to note that as you move into South East Asia, they have apparently figured out how to master the non-removeable soda can tab, as evidenced here).

And a side note, as she was hammering away at my shoes, I look across the market and see a girl in a similar pair of shoes and I asked the little old lady "are those your shoes too?" and she looks up at the shoes and after studying them for a minute says with enormous disgust "those are commerical, not hand-made, fake" and I immediately felt EVEN better about my purchase.

Whew. Ok. That is done. That's all I've got. Back to work for a little bit and then good night. I'm sure in another 24 hours I'll come with more logically unrelated things to say.

Rites of Passage

Hi friends! The much awaited crossing of the line post!

So the other day, we crossed the equator (yes, it is very hot there). For those of you non-nautically inclined folks, this might not be that exciting. But “the crossing of the line” is a time honored rite of passage in the Navy and all other sea-going professions.

Basically the bottom line is this- the seas are ruled by “King Neptunus Rex” and he is accompanied by his assistant “Davey Jones”. So whenever a ship nears the equator, Davey Jones visits the ship and warns all of the “slimy pollywogs” (a pollywog is a sailor that has not yet crossed the equator) that they will soon be cleansed of their slimy pollywog filth, demonstrate that they are worthy seafaring nautical Sailors, and ready to become Shellbacks (a shellback is a Sailor who has crossed the equator). It used to be a way to “initiate” Junior sailors who had not spent much time at sea to a life at sea for them to prove that they were capable of handling cruise.

So the idea is that the shellbacks are responsible for the “cleansing” of the “nasty slimy pollywogs” and then at the end, when they make it through the events, they are presented in front of “King Neptunus Rex’s” Royal Court: King Neptune, Davey Jones, the Royal Baby, and a few others. The shellbacks all wear funny costumes- mostly pirate themed outfits. There is the “Royal this” and the “Royal that”- depending on what your job is in the ceremonies. The wogs all wear either blue or khaki pants, depending on if they are an officer or enlisted, and a white shirt with “WOG” on it. I was, if you could guess, a “molly WOG”. Here is a picture of both the Royal Court, and our Deputy Commodore, who paired his O-6 Mess Dress blue jacket with sweat pants and a red bandana.

Now, way back in the day, when women and decorum were not as prevalent in the “Gentleman’s Navy”- the crossing of the line ceremonies used to be a bit different. All of the members of the Royal Court were men, many dressed in drag- the events were something probably resembling pledge scenes from Animal House, wogs were forced to eat a cherry out of the big greased up belly of the fattest man onboard (the Royal Baby) and other mildly homo-erotic inspired events; pretty much the most gruesome hazing things you can imagine. However, now that we are more PC and less hazing, the Crossing of the Line ceremonies have taken on a more mild tone, which frankly, is fine by me. it is however, very interesting to hear stories of some of our Chiefs and other senior enlisted, especially the ones who served on submarines, as they talk about their own crossing the line experiences.

On February 13th, USS NIMTIZ initiated 1,500 wogs to mighty honorable shellbacks. The morning was long and tiring (I never want to sing “Row Row Row Your Boat” or perform the chicken dance EVER again!!) but a lot of fun- certainly no hazing or anything degrading, it was all in good fun and was a great event overall. I certainly wouldn’t have participated in anything that was not in good taste. Afterwards, we celebrated by a big steel beach picnic.

I am going to include some pictures to this email and write a quick caption for each:

Here we are waiting to ride on the elevator. I was really excited to ride on the elevator that is used to bring jets up and down from the flight deck to the hangar bay. You can see me on the 2nd row from the bottom, all the way on the right, I have the “CDS 23 on my sleeve”

Also, here we are on the elevator, sitting and waiting to go up, this is where the fun started.

There were SOOOOOOOO many pictures on the sharedrive from the event- almost as many as from our wedding! I will pull out a few that included me, or are just plain funny!

Here we are after going through the dunk tank- you have to go in front of the Royal Court, where you are “put on trial” and have to prove that you are ready to be a trusty shellback. I am on the far right, doing the sit-up chain.

Here is an example of a shellback costume.This isn’t me (obviously) but this is the tank that you come out of, emerged as a shellback. I know the stuff looks like the green ‘goo from Nickelodeon- it had a very similar color but was just like water.

So, after 3 years in the Navy, 2 ½ deployments, many many days, weeks, months at sea, and a few hours of chanting “I’m a Slimy Wog”- I emerged a trusty, honorable shellback. I can’t wait to get my official certificate and card!!

I hope you all enjoy and stay tuned for some stories about our last port visit in Malaysia! Hopefully you all enjoyed your snow days and your Valentine’s Days! As for me, I’m just trying to keep the excitement from Wog Day and port visits up for the next few weeks. Just under a month til I see my mommy and my new mother-in-law for Tiger Cruise and then a little longer til I’m back HOME!!!!!!!

V-Day 2K10

Other than the fact that I don’t have a “boat boo” (which is NIMITZ lingo for a relationship with someone onboard), this cartoon could not be more spot-on. But thank goodness for brunch!

[Editor's note: The comment bubble reads "February 14, 2010....Valentines Day. I'm 14 billion miles away from home, we still have six weeks of deployment left, our next port call isn't for another three days, boat rlationships are going to get ugly when one way tickets to Dumpsville get handed out, and Patrick Swayze is still dead. Aside from brunch I can't think of any reason to get out of bed."]

NIMITZ at Anchor

Here we are at anchor in the Gulf of Thailand (I think that’s what it’s called). Such gorgeous sunsets here! (makes me excited to get back to watch San Diego sunsets from our apartment balcony!)

I have a new boss finally! The real N7 showed up so it is great to have a real department head! He comes to us from the ROOSEVELT, a Mayport ship. He is really knowledgeable and might be equally, if not more, organized and into trackers and spreadsheets as I am. This is obviously a great thing but I have been SUPER busy trying to scurry to get it all done. I love having a sense of ownership of my job and really understand where my little role or niche is here.

I did a little fashion show with all of my new tailored clothing today in my stateroom to take pictures, but looks like I’m going to have to pass on that one (it’s already 2am and molly is sleepy!)

I am on duty tomorrow so I promise to wrap up the Thailand tales before I check out Malaysia! Thanks for all of the comments and emails from family & friends- you all keep me going!

Love,

Molly

NIMITZ is coming home

From: http://www.news.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=50839

From USS Eisenhower and USS Nimitz Public Affairs
GULF OF OMAN (NNS) -- The Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group (CSG) relieved the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group as Commander, Task Force 50 Jan. 25.

"The Eisenhower Strike Group is ready to support any requirement for troops on the ground in Afghanistan and execute the U.S. Maritime Strategy in the region," said Rear Adm. Phil Davidson, commander, Eisenhower Strike Group. "The Eisenhower, Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 7, and all the ships in the strike group are committed and ready to continue the superb effort that Nimitz Strike Group carried out to increase security and stability throughout the region."

"The Nimitz has done an amazing job, and the Sailors aboard Ike are trained and ready to fill behind them," said Capt. Dee Mewbourne, commanding officer, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69). "Taking over from Nimitz, we will continue to improve the security and stability in this part of the world through the outstanding professionalism of our Sailors."

The Nimitz Carrier Strike Group has operated in the U.S. 5th Fleet Area of Operations since Sept. 18. with Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 11 aircraft flying more than 2,600 combat sorties and 15,296 cumulative flight hours in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF).

"I am very proud of the Strike Group's support to coalition forces in Afghanistan, our aircraft launched and executed with thoughtful precision, fused to the directives of the supported commander," said Rear Adm. John W. Miller, commander, Nimitz Strike Group. "I am equally proud of our contribution to counterpiracy operations off the Horn of Africa, protecting critical Iraqi infrastructure in the North Arabian Gulf and the wide range of support provided to ensure maritime security here."

Through our operations and training in 5th Fleet, we enhanced cooperative relationships with our regional partners who are key to the Maritime Strategy," said Miller.

Ships of the CSG endeavored to create a lawful maritime order by deterring piracy, protecting critical infrastructure and conducting Maritime Security Operations throughout the region."

Everyone in the Nimitz-CVW 11 team contributed during our time here on the line," said Capt. Paul O. Monger, Nimitz' commanding officer. "We generated a 99.62 percent sortie completion rate for OEF, our aircraft were there for coalition forces on the ground every day – that was due to the collective efforts of everyone on board. We saved lives and helped bring security and stability in the region."

Like Nimitz, Eisenhower will provide 30 percent of the close air support missions flown to protect coalition forces on the ground in Afghanistan.

Eisenhower CSG is comprised of Dwight D. Eisenhower, embarked Carrier Air Wing 7, embarked Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 28, and the Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Hue City (CG 66). Ships assigned to DESRON 28 include the destroyers USS Farragut (DDG 99), USS Carney (DDG 64)and USS McFaul (DDG 74). These ships will be assigned to tasks forces throughout the region aimed at improving regional and maritime security.

Squadrons from CVW 7 include the "Puking Dogs" of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 143, the "Jolly Rogers" of VFA 103, the "Rampagers" of VFA 83, the "Wildcats" of VFA 131, the "Night Dippers" of Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 5, the "Patriots" of Electronic Attack Squadron 140, the "Blue Tails" of Carrier Airborne Command and Control Squadron 121 and the "Rawhides" of Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 40.

Helicopter detachments include the "Proud Warriors" of Helicopter Anti-submarine Squadron Light (HSL) 42 and the "Swamp Foxes" of HSL 44.

The Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group is on a routine deployment to the region. Operations in the U.S. 5th Fleet Area of Operations are focused on reassuring regional partners of the United States' commitment to security, which promotes stability and global prosperity.

For more news from Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/Commander, U.S. 5th Fleet, visit www.navy.mil/local/cusnc/.

Taking PBS to a new level

I wasn’t really sure I could continue my pointless ramblings for yet another night, but alas, our current lack of internet has given me a little freed up time (basically 23 minutes that I would have spent catching up on the world). Speaking of internet, let me introduce you to a little thing we on the Nimitz like to call “Internet Hours.” Here on the Nimitz, we are not blessed with 24/7 3G (oh 3G, oh iPhone, how I miss you so!!!). We have a limited amount of bandwidth, much of which must be used for work-related and tactical information. So, from 0900-1300, internet is only available for Navy-websites (anything with a .mil) address. From 1300-1500 is what we call “High Tiered Access”, which means only O-5 and above have access to any websites that they want, pure, unfettered, quick internet (and by quick, I mean, not dial-up speed). This is what we call in the military “RHIP” or “rank has its privileges” (unfortunately for me, my rank does not provide for me good internet speed privleges J) From 1500-1700 are “banking hours” which means you can only access banking websites. Then, from 1700-midnight are “open hours” aka- everyone and their mother tries to access ESPN and facebook and amazon.com and whatever else suits their fancy. However, with all of my 5,000 BFF’s trying to use the internet, it is really only quick enough to do ANYTHING from about 10:30pm until midnight. Midnight to 0200 is for banking hours and then 0200-0300 they take down the internet for “maintenance and updates”, which really probably means the IT’s in the radio shack are streaming live football games from ESPN.com. Then from 0300-0900, the internet opens back up again for all hands all access. I’ve heard you can surf facebook and online shop at amazon at like 4AM. My friend steve who has a nocturnal schedule due to the fact that he stands watch until 2am, swears by the 4am internet surfing.


So, yeah, like I said, I only get about an hour a day of internet that is at all reliable. Which I suppose is a marked improvement from the SAMMY B, where I got zero hours of internet a day. I suppose I should be happy for what I do have, right?


So anyways, that leaves me with our great and mighty news source- AFN (aka- Armed Forces Network). AFN, for those of you who are not familiar, is the military’s TV channels. Here on the Nimitz, we get 3 AFN channels: “primetime TV”, “news”, and “sports”- all of which are a mix of random TV shows of that particular variety, shown at random times. This results in people having to watch the playoff football (or any other big) game in the middle of the night (and then the next 2 days is the same game, over and over and over again on replay. No matter how many times I watched the National Championship College Game, Texas was always going to lose b/c their QB was always going to get hurt. Even by the 5th time it aired. And by the way, that is WAY too much than I have EVER known about football, only b/c it was on for like 24 continuous hours). I actually watch the “Today” show every “morning” at 4pm after I shower while getting ready for dinner. I think you can also watch Jeopardy at like 5am. Awesome. The other “great” thing about AFN? No real commercials! However, you don’t know what repeating commercials are until you have watched AFN! Corporate/capitalist TV channels actually have a plethora of commercial varieties compared to AFN. I swear, if I have to see the commercial of the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff and his wife (I think her name might be Barbara?) standing in front of their pretty Christmas tree and politely and cheerfully reminding me to get my flu shot this year, I think I might just lose it! (for the record, I got my flu, regular AND H1N1, in November, so don’t worry about me, ADM Mullen!)


In addition to the “don’t forget to get your flu shot” commercials, here are a few examples of the other great AFN commercials:

• The difference between general and special power of attorney
• How marrying a person from overseas might not immediately make them a dependent and how it affects your tax returns
• Ensuring you check with your legal department before changing your state of residency
• How gambling can affect your career
• Don’t drink & drive
• How to help get your children excited about a PCS (“permanent change of station”- basically a move. To use in a sentence “Last August, Dan & I PCSed from Mayport to San Diego)
• That there really is life after deployment, but you’ll come back a different person
• “Voices from Home”- which are “interviews” of people from various cities across America saying “Thank you for serving”- I get a little weepy when they interview people at the Baltimore Inner Harbor J

Speaking of “Voices from Home”, some of the greatest are when they interview “pretend” war-heroes. You know those people that dress up & do the Civil War reenactment? Well, basically that, but also from the Vietnam War, and WWII and any other old war. They video these guys dressed up in old-fashioned war get-ups at their little camp sites and they say things like “from our battlefield to yours- hooyah- thanks for service!” oh, it’s so cheesy. I mean, there are no words for the cheesiness.


Getting to the main point of this post (actually, let’s be honest, this post has no main point J)- they often have commercials from some random, small town in America. Usually it is some teeny tiny town in Arkansas or Minnesota or Kentucky- some town that no one has ever heard of. And the commercials looks like one of those ones that a local business does themselves, with a faint sound of guitar or fiddle in the background. It’s usually the Mayor, walking around saying “welcome to smalltownville [insert name of town here], USA!” and takes the viewer on a little walking tour of their rinky-dink “downtown” and whatever else they’re known for (Cheese, mountains, hiking, etc). Then at the end they take the viewer to their town’s local veteran’s memorial and say something like “here in smalltownville, we’re really proud of our veterans. So thanks for what you do. And if you’re ever in Kentucky (or Wisconsin or Oklahoma, or whatever), come on down and see us!”


These commercials are like 3-4 minutes long and I see at least 5 a day (I keep the TV on all the time whenever I’m in the room, anything to help try and cut the sound of those damn airplanes). Well, the other night, around 2am, I was laying in bed reading and I hear “Greetings from Havre de Grace, Maryland!” and I was like “WHAT!?!” and draw the curtains of my rack open in surprise. After months (well, years really) of AFN commercials, I have never even HEARD of any of the towns featured, much less grown up like 15 minutes from one! I was so excited, it brought tears to my eyes- I literally cried! The Mayor of Havre de Grace took me on a tour of HDG, a small town on the Susquehanna River, not 15 miles from my house growing up! I got to see the lighthouse and the Tidings Park and of course, what HDG is known for- their Decoy Museum of DUCKS! In fact, in 7th grade, we did a whole lesson on HDG and how to “Save the Bay” and the different types of boats that sail on the river and all about the ducks that they make decoys of at the Decoy Museum. I smiled as I thought about the “slideshow” my group did in 7th grade, a “lesson” about Havre de Grace. This was back when to make a slideshow, you actually drew the little pictures on teeny tiny slides with permanent marker to project up onto the screen. And we spent WEEKS practicing and recording the audio that went along with it. (during which one of the main characters, Chloe, the stuck up “popular” girl looks with disdain at one of the girls who is giving a tour of Havre de Grace like a travel guide by saying “Thanks for the history lesson, Mrs. Travel Guide!” in one of those bratty voices that was only a 7th grade girl could properly emulate. Katie and Amberly- I sincerely hope you are reading this, because literally all of these memories flashed through my mind as I watched this commercial on AFN!)

Anyways, so that is AFN. One of the many things to help keep me less bored. We have also been fortunate for the first time since the earthquake hit Haiti, to see news of what else is happening in the world. After watching about 45 minutes of the news, here is what is going on in the world/the US according to AFN. I sincerely hope that there really is more going on than this, that there is much more that we AFN watchers are not privy to:

• A GOP candidate won the MA Senator seat belonging to Kennedy (I saw his acceptance speech no less than 20 times)
• It’s raining in SoCal
• The economy sucks

Will someone please tell me there is actually more in the world going on that this?

Speaking of Haiti, and all of the great work that the US military is doing there (sorry had to give my service a plug!), please keep the Sailors and their families in your thoughts as well with the people of Haiti- one of our ships was about to head through the Panama Canal from a 6 month deployment who was stopped and is currently serving tirelessly off the coast of Haiti now, providing worker-bees on the ground, corpsmen, water and medical supplies. They were supposed to return home in 4 days, now there are out there for an undetermined length of time. And please remember those Sailors on the Bataan who just returned home from a 7 month deployment last month who were recalled and sent down there with a 48 hour notice. The work they are able to provide from the ocean with their medical personnel and helicopters is incredibly important to the mission there and I know I am so very proud of all of them. The destroyer, USS HIGGINS that is there with no sign of returning from deployment is one of the Little Beaver’s own from DESRON 23. we are incredibly proud of her work and mission and while I know all of her Sailors and their families were anticipating a happy reunion, they should all be so proud of the good that they are doing for people who so desperately need it. I read today that a women and her newborn baby are now being treated on the USNS Comfort- she was airlifted from Haiti to a carrier, where she gave birth to her baby son on the USS CARL VINSON, an aircraft carrier. One of the parachute riggers (a rating called “PR”- they sew all of the rescue and survival gear into the flight suits and airplanes) took a yellow flight deck jersey and sewed for the baby his first newborn outfit from the yellow jersey. The woman announced that she named her baby “Vinson”, which brought tears to my eyes. I kinda wish that we could be there helping too, but I know that the people of Haiti are going to benefit immensely from the hard work of the military, and all of the aid that is down there in Haiti. It makes me very proud to be part of a service that can deliver so much (firepower, maritime security, airstrikes, close air support, supplies, humanitarian work and rescue medical services) all over the world with so little time to plan.


Well, on that note my friends, it is time that I return to my night routine of reading. Today I swung by the library and checked out my 2 allotted books (you can only check out 2 books at a time, for one month). I always get 1 “educational” (aka- non-fiction) and one for-fun book. I’m already bouncing back and forth in between one of the Kay Scarpetta series by Patricia Cornwell and Flags of our Fathers, an outstanding non-fiction book about the men who raised the flag on Iwo Jima during WWII. I think it’s a movie too, but so far, the book is outstanding.


I sincerely hope at least someone (other than Dan who posts this J) is back to followig, and I haven’t lost all of my loyal readers after my 3 week hiatus from blogging. My good friend Amanda just emailed me, saying that I seemed happier when I was regularly blogging and she glad I figured that out again. She’s right too- even when I am in a bummer mood, blogging is fun, as I write narratives of my day or random things about life on a carrier. As I write, I quietly chuckle to myself, thinking how funny or clever I sound. (I don’t think I will ever cease to crack myself up, something which is always well summarized by one of Dan’s favorite quotes: “Molly Harris is the funniest person in the world, according to Molly Harris” J Thanks Dan!)


Speaking of Molly Harris, it was brought to my attention just how long I have been gone, so long in fact, that apparently my own mother has forgotten that I got married & changed my name, as evidenced by the fact that when I received her registration form for Tiger Cruise, she listed me, “Molly Harris” as her sponsor. While I know my own mother did not REALLY forget my name, it is evidence to the fact that I have not spent but 3 days in the US as “Molly Laufer”, none of which were around any friends and family other than Dan, so I think no one is used to saying it. Haha, I REALLY need to come home.


Well, off to my only other friends, my books J I miss you all so very very much. I can’t promise a daily blog (besides, tomorrow I need to get caught up in my internet-ing, if it is working for once) but I will do my best to go off in search of something on that carrier that would be considered interesting and blog-worthy for my readers. Maybe I’ll even try and get a few pictures too. Til then, goodnight!

“I am aware of the fact that I am a terrible person”

… as evidenced by the fact that I have not blogged in well over 3 weeks. I’m sorry, I really am. But I have a good excuse. Well, maybe not, but I will pretend that I do.

No seriously, I’m really sorry that I haven’t blogged in awhile. First of all, there are only 3 unclassified computers (aka- computers that I can actually use to email any “normal” people in the outside world). So this makes it very difficult to even get on an unclass computer during the normal work day, much less spend time idling and writing a blog when people probably have to use the computer for work. The main reason though, is that work has been VERY VERY VERY monotonous. Like seriously, the exact same thing. Every single day. I will illustrate:

0900- Molly wakes up to the sound of the first launch cycle for the aircraft. No matter how much I try and grumble and push a pillow over of my head, the rumbling of the F/A-18 gearing up its engines to full power a mere 2 decks above my rack makes it difficult to cease back into a gently slumber.

1030- finally actually wake up and get out of bed, mainly because I have to pee so bad I must wake up, whilst still grumbling at the 2nd launch cycle rumbling over my head

1130- to go the office, check email, sort into piles of “should get back to, really need to take care of this, this can wait til later, and delete”

123o- eat Special K

1300- go back to the office and actually get started on the “really need to take care of this” email folder

1400- staff meeting

1500- gym/errands (yes, on an aircraft carrier you can actually run “errands”- the post office, the ship’s store, the library, the MWR office to check out movies)

1530-1600- sweat out 3.4 miles on the treadmill with my 34 other best friends on their treadmills all in a row of mine in a room built no bigger than for EXACTLY 35 treadmills. Imagine running through the amazon, which is like 120% humidity. Now imagine that the amazon smelled like big, sweaty, navy dudes. That’s what my workout is like in the “gerbil gym”

1600-1700- shower and clean up for dinner

1700-1730- dinner

1730-2200- watch

2200-2300- back to work to sort email into “should get back to, really need to take care of this, this can wait til later, and delete”- get started on getting back to some of those things that I “put off until later” and make phone calls back to people in SD that are in their happy little office jobs, as it is 11am SD time when I get off watch, so a perfect time to get in touch with people for work back at home.

2300- go to midrats (aka- midnight rations, which is only the best meal on the ship. I’m minorly disappointed that my 2 Tigers for Tiger Cruise will most likely unable to make it til 11pm every night to eat a delicious and amazing breakfast. This truly is their loss and I hope that I can somehow convince them that to become REAL Tigers, a midnight omelet is required of them. We’ll see what I can do). At midrats, debate between special K and grilled cheese. Usually remember my amazon-style run earlier in the day and go with the grilled cheese. Turn away when CS3 puts the melted butter on the grill (“If I don’t see him do it, it’s like it’s not really there!” right?)

Usually I spend about an hour at midrats, sinking my teeth into the most delicious grilled cheese on this planet (sorry mom, yours are good too, but much healthier J) and hanging out with those guys in the green suits, who actually are not as intimidating as I thought and I have since become good friends with many a pilots onboard (don’t worry Tigers, I have ulterior motives, I’m hoping to make friends so I have some sweet hook-ups in the Air Wing for Tiger Cruise so we can get cool personal tours of the Ready Rooms and the jets. I might hold out though and only arrange these tours if you promise to accompany me to midrats, at least once :). While sinking said teeth into said grilled cheese, silently curse the amazon-run I will have to do tomorrow. The grilled cheese are also awesome because (in addition to the butter) they are made on the same griddle that CS3 does all of his made-to-order breakfast orders. Any sort of breakfast egg scramble, omlet, or sandwich you could imagine, so the grilled cheese always has a faint taste of grilled onions for an omlet or bacon for a breakfast sandwich. It’s seriously amazing and pretty much the only good part of my day. That and emails from friends and family. If I could eat a grilled cheese while reading emails, well, I might just die happy. Oh, and at midrats- they have little bowls of anything you could put in an omlet- onions, tomatoes, olives, peppers, cheese, ham, turkey, ANYTHING!- and you scoop out whatever you want on your plate and give it to CS3 and he makes it to your exact specifications (he knows that whenever my plate is up there with morsels of onion and green pepper goodness my request is always “2 eggs scrambled with a LITTLE bit of cheese and the vegetables extra grilled”- at first I thought I was being picky but by day 2, he knew EXACTLY what I wanted. And not just me, but ANYONE who’s a regular at midrats!

Anyways, I digress. After midrats I go back down to the office to surf facebook for approximately 23 minutes, which is just as long as it takes me to catch-up on what’s going on in the real world and get utterly and totally depressed about all of the fun things that I’m missing (even 12” of snow on the east coast and major rain drainage problems in SoCal would be better than this!)

So I turn back to the work that simply must be accomplished before tomorrow and I wrap this up around 1 or 2am, usually interspersed with some laundry (as the middle of the night is the best time to do laundry since most people are sleeping). Then I go to bed and read until 2 or 3 in the morning (depending on how good the book is). Repeat again. EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. there is seriously NO differentiation day-to-day, other than that every other Friday we have the fancy brunch. Thank goodness for the fancy brunch or I wouldn’t know how to count my days.

Anyways, wow, that was a lot. Although, looking back on this post thus far, I realized I haven’t said much (I think I may have won “Talks the Most, Says the Least” for my High School superlative, now I’m starting to understand why….). I feel like I have a lot more to say too (it only took me 3 weeks to drum up something to say!)--- guess I’ll have to blog tomorrow too!

Speaking of blog, our wedding photographer, Sarah Cramer Shields was nominated for the 2010 “Bride’s Choice Award”, which is very very exciting for such a talented photographer. Her blog announcing her nomination featured a picture of none other than yours truly (and yours truly’s handsome hubby)—check her out at www.blog.cramerphoto.com! Congrats, Sarah and thank you for giving us such wonderful memories!!!

Well, I guess that’s all I have time for now. I’m really sorry I didn’t write, but as Dan will attest, the past 3 weeks (basically, since I’ve seen him :( ) I have been utterly miserable and homesick. Month 4 of deployment has hands down be the hardest. I felt like I did when I went away to summer camp when I was like 10. Complete with the crying myself to sleep at night. but somehow worse. I was hoping this would get easier, this being my 3rd deployment and all, but alas, I guess it never does. What is so hard about this deployment is that for the first time, I know that when I come home, I’ll never have to drive 5 ½ hours to see Dan or won’t ever have to plan my weekends out to see him, what hurts the most right now is for the first time in 5 ½ years (wow, that’s a lot!) I could be living with him right now and getting to do all of those things that I hear you get to do when you’re married- hang out and go for walks, watch TV, cook dinner, explore and grow together. I know Dan feels the same way (at least I’m pretty sure he does!) but he is doing a great job staying busy with work- his job at Mitchell is going exceptionally well (did you really think he would have it any other way? :) and I am so very proud of all of the good stuff that he has accomplished!

But so that’s why I haven’t really written b/c I’ve been too sad and blue to get in the spirit of writing. However, in the spirit of being less sad and less blue, I’ll wrap up with a few exciting things. In just a few days we’ll high-five our friends on the new carrier who is going to take over all of the roles and responsibilities that we’ve been filling for the past 5 months and start heading east! Soon we’ll be fast-forwarding our clocks an hour, gradually, until we cross the International Date Line and get back to the same day as San Diego. I am looking forward to the month of February- which brings port visits in Thailand, Malaysia and Hong Kong (February’s blogs are sure to be good, with a new port visit blog every single week- I swear!!!). I am looking forward to seeing my mom & Dan’s mom in two months from TODAY in Bremerton, Washington for Tiger Cruise. I can’t wait to have Miss. Molly V be one of the first people I see back in the good ol’ US of A. Dan and I are already planning our big post-deployment trip (aka- our “Third Honeymoon”!)- which involves San Francisco and a few days in the wine country of Sonoma and Napa Valley, which I cannot WAIT for and Dan has done an AWESOME job of planning so far! So, as I look back on 4 months and try and gear up for the next 2, I am looking ahead that all those next 2 months hold- hopefully some incredible new life adventures and places and experiences. I close with a quote from one of the books that I just finished reading (I LOVE reading, I read for like 2 hours a day, hence why I have to run errands to the ship’s library, because I have run out of books!). if you’ve never read The Alchemist, I suggest that you stop whatever you’re doing (ok, wait first til you finish reading this!) and go get it. It will change your life, I swear. Every single sentence is deeply profound and “meaning of life” kinda stuff, but not in the “greek philosopher, this is too hard to comprehend way).

“Don’t think about what you’ve left behind,” the alchemist said to the boy as they began to ride across the sands of the desert. “Everything is written in the Soul of the World, and there it will stay forever”

“Men dream more about coming home than about leaving,” the boy said. He was already reaccustomed to the desert’s silence.

“If what one finds is made of pure matter, it will never spoil. And one can always come back. If what you had found was only a moment of light, like the explosion of a star, you would find nothing on your return”.

As for me, as I continue on this journey nestled in between the waters of the same deserts where The Alchemist is set, I’m quite grateful to have so much pure matter to return to :)

Kisses & Hugs,

M

Christmas on the Nimitz

Hi everyone! Yes, yes, I am aware that I haven't written in over 2 weeks. But I have a pretty good excuse- seeing Dan in Dubai got my routine all out of whack and I got too excited about seeing him to write. I guess it's a good thing, because those 2 weeks that you didn't hear from me when by super duper fast. So, on that note, I will go back and rewind to around the 25th of December and talk about Christmas & Dubai and New Years and where we are now. Luckily, I have a few more weeks of nothing-ness out here on the ocean blue to get caught up on all of the excitement before we start making port visits again.


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!

Multicultural day

So, hello again everyone! I am sorry I haven’t written in almost a week. I wish I had some excuse like I am so terribly busy and getting only 4 hours of sleep a night, but alas, that is not true.

Since my last post about the steak, I am yet again in awe of the quality of life onboard the Nimitz and how different this is from any other kind of ship I have been on.

Last night, we celebrated “Multicultural Day”. Nimitz, being quite the multi-cultural city of 5,000+ it was sure to be a good time. It started with a Captain’s Call where the CO talked a little bit. He talked about how excited he was to see the multicultural show coming up after the All Hands Call and so he started talking about how he was down on the Mess Decks, kicking off the show when he started talking to people about what kinds of acts they would like to see in the show. He said he had gotten a few suggestions of people he should invite up on stage to perform some sort of semi-embarrassing act (like when General Petraeus was here) such as the Electric Slide. So he starts calling about 20 people up to the stage. We all had no idea what he was calling them all up there and we were hoping that the Talent Show wasn’t going to be kicked off with another round of the Electric Slide. After a few minutes, he said he was going to give these people a chance to show all of their shipmates their best talents. We of course were like “where is he going with this….?” So he tells them all to close their eyes and hold out their hands. As the 20 Sailors eyes were closed and hands out, some of the Chiefs went down the row and placed in their hands a uniform shirt (depending on what kind of uniform they wear) with their next-highest rank insignia sewed on. The CO said something like “by the power appointed to me, you are all here by authorized to wear the rank of the next highest and assume all rights and responsibilities of that rank and receive the pay for your next highest rank starting today” It was REALLY cool. This is what we call a “CAPing” ceremony in the Navy- Command Advancement Program. Usually, Sailors have two chances a year to advance, from the March and September advancement examinations. Last week, we received the results of the September examinations and advanced everyone who was advanced through the normal process. However, Commanding Officers have the power to “CAP” a Sailor- basically decide that they should be promoted, regardless of what the examinations board results say. Obviously this is not an easy way to get promoted, and it certainly isn’t a “free pass”, CO’s only have a limited number to give away a year (on the frigate I was on, I think it was like 2 a year, obviously here on the NIMITZ, he gets a few more). So anyways, 20 people got spot promoted to the next highest rank, which was awesome and really really cool to see. They were of course totally surprised and it was such a cool way to advance them in front of 5,000 people all cheering for them.

Then we went on to the Talent Show. This was a talent show to put all talent shows to shame. Some of my favorite and most memorable performances were a guy from the South that played “Turkey in the Straw” on his “fiddle”, a Sailor of Native American descent who played his Native American flute, a few rap groups, a rock band, a girl who played the violin, a guy who played the alto sax, the USS NIMITZ’s own Gospel Choir (who knew we had a gospel choir?!?!) and the battle of 2 beat-boxers who opened his act by saying “I love Diversity. That’s why we’re all here, right? Diversity. I love Diversity because to me, diversity means a Jewish white boy from Minnesota can be the best beat-boxer onboard” It was absolutely hilarious and he had the crowd screaming and laughing and hooting and hollering. It was so great!

The night ended with a performance by the NIMITZ Salsa Team. They had ordered their costumes on the internet and picked up some black dress shirts and purple ties in Dubai, and the group of 5 guys and 5 gals performed a salsa dance (choreographed by one of DESRON 23’s own Chiefs who leads the salsa classes) that rounded out the talent show and had everyone on their feet. It was really quite an amazing performance. Despite loosing a few work hours to stand up there and watch the full 2 ½ hour show, it was really quite spectacular and I had no idea how talented so many of our shipmates were!

I am also working on making more friends and while I wouldn’t say any of them are my BFFs, I certainly am trying to get out there and meet more people. Last night I was sitting with my friend on staff at Mid Rats (Midnight Rations) which is a meal served from 11pm-1am. On a small ship, Mid Rats are whatever is left over from dinner or worse, lunch. On a big ship, Mid Rats is just a big of a meal as any (because some people legitimately use it as a meal if they work the night shift) and for others, it is a social hour, a way to end the night and hang out and talk. From the ice cream, to the espresso machine to the cooked-to-order omelets, all the breakfast foods you could normally imagine and a “fast food line” of hot dogs, fries and chicken fingers, there’s pretty much nothing you can’t eat at Mid Rats. My favorite is the movie-theatre style popcorn machine. I love eating popcorn at midnight! Anyways, I guess my friend Steve & I looked less anti-social than usual, because a group of 4 pilots came and sat down with us.

They were all jet pilots from this one F/A-18 squadron, and while most fit all stereotypes about F/A-18 pilots, they had us rolling in laughter with stories of port visit in Guam, how guys get their call signs and stories of people accidentally ejecting from their airplanes. It was such a funny meal and great to meet new people. I was practically crying I was laughing so hard from their stories. One of the guys was BRAND new to the squadron (he had just arrived there the day before!) and he was an ’06 USNA grad. So he JUST now (3 ½ years after commissioning) got to his first real squadron, and NOW his 8 year ticker of obligated service is beginning. This made me feel a little bit better because this guy has almost 4 years in the Navy! By the time I’m at my 3 ½ year point, I’ll be almost out!

Also, I think I might have met some people to help make my dream of sitting in a real jet plane and have my picture taken come true! I have always wanted to scurry up the ladder into one of the jets to take a quick picture but now I think I have met people that will let me do that! I offered to let them come into the Zulu module where we stand watch and sit in my chair in front of a large screen to monitor chat and take a picture, but for some reason, that didn’t quite seem so appealing to them J

Anyways, things have been looking up around here which has been nice. I’m just trying to quickly get through the next NINE days and take care of everything that I have to take care of before I get to see DAN!!! I’ll write in a bit about how the holiday season has been on the Nimitz.

Hope everyone is enjoying their holiday spirit and gearing up for some good festivities. My fingers are crossed that everyone gets just enough snow to get in the spirit but not so much that your travel/holiday plans are messed up!

xoxo!

Molly

Great Steak Team Mission

So today onboard the NIMITZ, we had a cook-out. In the Navy, these are known as "steel beach picnics". Why you ask? Well, because it’s a picnic, we grill-out and eat outside and maybe play some music, toss around a ball, whatever. Just like you would on the beach. But alas, we have no sand onboard, so it is a "steel beach", since our ships are made out of steel. Got it? Ok, moving on.

So normally this is held on a Sunday, our "holiday" if you will. On a "small boy", such as the SAMMY B that I used to be on, we would have these cook-0uts once a week. Nothing crazy, but different people onboard would take turns cooking. The Chiefs one week, maybe the officers another, etc. Usually it involves flipping a few burgers, maybe grilling a few dogs.

Welll, that is some people's idea of a steel beach. Here on the NIMITZ, we like to do things a little over the top, take things one step farther. And here in the Middle East, the holy day is Friday; thus Friday's are our "no-fly" days.

It started back in about 2001 after we first went into Afghanistan. There was a man in Dallas, who was good friends with General Tommy Franks (you may remember him from the early wars). Well, this gentleman from Dallas also owned one of the best hamburger joints in the city. Consistently ranking the "Best Burger in Dallas", this guy is well known. Well, after the wars started after 9/11, the Dallas guy really wanted to do something for the troops. He kept calling "his friend"Tommy", asking if he could go to Afghanistan with him. Over and over again he asked. Finally, when he was about ready to give up, he said "well, what if I brought out 1,000 steaks with me for the troops?". It was an offer not to be refused. And thus, The Great Steak Mission was born. [www.steakteammission.org]

From their website:

Situation:
A. Friendly Forces:

1. Steak Team Mission: A group of Dallas-based restaurateurs and supporters capable of providing food and supplies for soldiers' benefit.

2. Steak Team Mission: A small team, some of whom are veterans, experienced and prepared to deploy to serve a home-cooked meal for soldiers anywhere any time....

B. Enemy Forces:

1. Bureaucrats: some folks may think this idea is unconventional, and they are right.

II. Mission:

Steak Team Mission deploys to prepare and serve up to 2,000 steak dinners with all complements to soldiers in harm's way to a remote, hazardous objective at a date and location determined by U S Army.

III. Concept of the Operation:

A. Commander's Intent: Do something kind for soldiers.

B. Scheme of Maneuver: Steak Team Mission will go anywhere by any means and would prefer to go where it is worst for soldiers.

C. Mission of Subordinate Elements: Food benefactors will supply Steak Team Mission with all Class I (food) for mission.

D. Coordinating Instructions: Steak Team Mission needs approval and transportation support to get from home to objective and back.

IV. Service & Supply:

A. Steak Team Mission can supply itself.

Since then, this guy has travelled all around the world, bringing with him a team from Texas and 1,000-2,000 steaks to troops serving all over the world. Well, about a year ago, he ran into Navy CAPT Monger in Djibouti. The steak guy told the CAPT his story, and the CAPT said "you know, I'm about to take command of an aircraft carrier in a year and we're about to go on deployment. How would you feel about bringing some steaks out to my NIMITZ Sailors?" The steak guy said "well how many steaks are we talking?" and the CAPT responded "oh, about 5,000 or so…" The steak guy was intrigued, but challenged, as he was used to serving for 1,000-2,000. [I heard this whole story because I ended up at a dinner table in the Wardroom with the steak guy]

Between this guy, and his corporate sponsors (American Airlines is one!), they figured out how to get 10,000 pounds of people, grills, supplies & 5,000 steaks from the great state of Texas all the way to the North Arabian Sea. 3 days ago, the advance team of grillers and equipment showed up, and the steaks came yesterday, in dry ice (like you would get Omaha Steaks) via the COD.

Today, we had a HUGE "steel beach picnic", complete with Grade-A steak filets, cooked any way you like them! We also enjoyed filet & bacon wrapped jalepenos (delicous!), cornbread, coleslaw and baked beans. It was a cook-out to put all cook-outs to shame.

It was also an epic day as I ventured up to the flight deck for the first time. I'd seen the flight deck from the Flag Bridge during our Strait of Hormuz transits, but it was at night and while no planes were flying. After almost a month of hearing planes crash over my head and only seeing sunlight during our port visit to Dubai, this was the first time that I had actually seen sunlight while underway and also seen the planes on the flight deck.

Overall, it was a great day. Other than that, it was business as usual- work, watch, studying, etc. It was pretty exciting though to have these people travel so far to do something so nice for us. And the steaks were DELICIOUS! (the only probably was eating them with a plastic knife!)

Here are some pictures from the day:

Here is the Admiral's plane that he flies sometimes. He is the one who is in charge of the ENTIRE strike group (remember, that's the NIMITZ, the air wing and ALL of the ships and air planes.

There are also some pictures of the F/A-18's, including me in front of one. Most of the other pictures are from the cook-out, pretty self explanatory. Enjoy! :)

The Great Steak Mission onboard the USS NIMITZ was as huge success and one that we are all very grateful for!

Pictures from Dubai

This is a picture of a typical gold souk in Dubai. All of the gold was 18 or 24K so it was a WAY more luminous (is that a word) shade of gold- very deep and ancient looking. Don't worry, Dan, I didn't buy anything….. I was waiting for you to come out ;)
These are the sand dunes that we went romping around in our Toyota Land Cruiser with the air out of the tires. I was mildly terrified- but what fun it was!

Here is me sandboarding. I only fell down once :) the sand was pretty thick, but the weather was soooo nice and warm! It wasn't too hot at all, but the sun was very strong

These were the springs that we went swimming in & the cliffs that we jumped off of. Brrrr the water was SOOO cold. I will have to bribe someone to hand over the evidence of me jumping off- I was definitely shrieking the whole way down!

If I am nice, dan will also post the pictures of me when I discovered that the Mall of the Emirates had YOGABERRY! And one of me with my new 'do :)

Other than that, I am just so so so so excited to see Dan in less than 3 weeks! I can hardly contain my excitement- what a treat mid deployment. We also received some information about the rest of our port visits (all different from what I earlier thought) and let's just say I am SO excited. It almost might make up for this 8-month deployment. I am glad that I "joined the Navy to see the world"

And just for fun, when we're not playing around in Dubai, here's what our actual mission is- launching planes to send over the beach to provide close air support to the troops on the ground in Afghanistan. Enjoy! Love, M

Random musings...

So last night, we were in the middle of a very important Straits transit. I spent the first half of the transit on the Flag Bridge, which is where our staff manned up a 2^nd watch team. We normally stand watch in a part of the ship’s combat direction center that we call our “module”. However, for the transit, we manned up a second watch team up on the Flag Bridge so we could more easily identify any possible incoming threats and maintain better visual on the situation and control the helicopters that we had working for us.

It was my first time anywhere farther up than the level that our module and our office and my stateroom are on (the O-3 level). The flag bridge is up on the O-8 level, right below the ship’s navigational bridge and the “Tower”- where all of the incoming and outgoing aircraft are managed from (pretty much like the air traffic control town that you see at any airport). The Flag bridge means that it is part of the Admiral’s staff- and it is complete with some plush-looking Captain’s Chairs for the Admiral and his COS (Chief of Staff). The Admiral’s chair also has a pull out keyboard and monitor so he can access both unclassified & classified internet from his chair. The bridge even has a treadmill and stationary bike so he can work out while watching the ship navigate through the water and stay up on the bridge for better situational awareness (he had an elliptical up there too, except the ceiling was too low for an elliptical and he hit his head; now the Admiral’s elliptical is right outside of our DESRON office)

For the transit, the CS’s (culinary specialists) made a HUGE bowl of popcorn and some homemade pizza- YUM! The Flag Bridge (normally empty during non-tactical situations), is apparently the perfect place to watch flight ops from, as it overlooks the forward part of the flight deck and usually no one is there (the Admiral can watch Flight Ops from the Tower). As part of the DESRON staff, we use the bridge as our 2^nd watch station when we need eyes on the situation (vice eyes on just a radar screen of the situation). I haven’t been up there yet during the daytime yet, but next time I hear the planes crashing over my head, I will mosey up there to check it out. So get excited, Tiger Lydia & Tiger Liora- you’ll have a perfect spot to watch flight ops from during Tiger Cruise :)

So there I was; it was nighttime and we were about to do a transit so no flight ops were going on. As I looked across the sprawling flight deck at the F/A-18’s and the EA-6B’s and the helicopters and various other aircraft, my eyes fell on a jet right below where I was standing. Aircraft traditionally have the names stenciled on the side of the pilot, any back-seaters, and the aircrewmen that flight in the plane. I saw that this particular F/A-18 had the name “LTJG Matt someone-or-other” stenciled on the side. Looking down at my own LTJG insignia and my SWO pin, I thought to myself “somewhere on this boat, there is a guy with the EXACT same rank as me… probably got his commission within a week or so of me… and here he is, flying JETS off of an AIRCRAFT CARRIER and dropping BOMBS on Afghanistan. And what do I do? I move boats. Sometimes, I navigate the boat myself. Sometimes, I tell other people how to navigate it. Right now, I spend most of my time with my face 6 inches from a computer screen, reading multi-colored excel spreadsheets that track various certifications and ships’ readiness. And this guy flies JET PLANES off of a floating flight deck. Where did I go wrong in my career?!” It’s not like I’m a young 18-year old Deck Seamen who feels like all they do is chip paint and clean things. No, me and this F/A-18 pilot have similar backgrounds, both matriculating up through some sort of commissioning program with the same amount of time of active commissioned service.

Anyways. I’ve never met this guy (call sign “Gooch”, as evidenced by his call-sign also carefully stenciled below his name), and I probably never will. It’s just crazy to think that during both myself and “Gooch’s” limited time in the Navy (2.5 years and counting…) I have spent probably 3x as much time away from my family than he probably has his. This is my 3^rd deployment… Gooch is probably earning his first “sea service ribbon” for 90 day spent away from homeport. I probably have more sleepless nights standing watch on the bridge of a ship, overlooking a dark ocean going nowhere than he has hours flying his sweet air plane. And yet, he flies jet planes (insert Top Gun theme song here) off of this ship. And I, am a SWO.

Where did I go wrong? Sigh. Alright, well, I’d better go; somewhere, deep in the abyss of my email in-box, there is probably a color-coded long range training plan that needs careful critiquing. Or perhaps it’s a certification extension message that needs editing. Just another day as a SWO. My friend Gooch, he just caught the #3 wire right above my office.