A Gratifying Day in the Navy

 
 

Here are two photographs I took from on base today. Although the LCD screen on my camera is still fried from the Humvee rollover trainer, I can still take wide-angle pictures with a fair degree of success. The first photo is looking down the parade grounds at Mount Ranier in the distance. The second photograph is at one of the boat landings for a freshwater lake on the north side of the base. As you can see, we had good weather today. It was sunny and the peak temperature was in the high 80's.

Most of you know that I have never been one to hide my opinion of the military when the organization or the powers that be do something stupid or foolish. However, today was NOT one of those days. Today was a day when I remembered what I always loved about the military: the importance of taking care of your people.

After we were done with our training today and headed to the dining facility for dinner, I learned that one of my Sailors had learned the night before that his young child back east was sick and his wife had been taken the baby to the doctor. Unfortunately, the combination of the fever, ear infection and virus led to the baby being admitted to a navy hospital on the east coast where the Sailor and his family lived. Due to our training schedule today and the prohibition on cell phones in the hospital, this young father was not able to contact his wife during the day today to learn how their baby was feeling. Understandably, this was a big deal for this father who was sitting on the other side of the country from his family.

After speaking with him on the way to dinner, I made a single phone call to our Navy Support Office here on base and informed them of the situation. The staff took the problem and immediately contacted their duty headquarters in Virginia, which was able to track down the phone numbers for the hospital room. Within one hour of our initial phone call to our Support Office, the Sailor was on the phone with his wife, and their baby is doing much better. All of this was accomplished on a Friday evening at 9pm east coast time.

It may not sound as exciting as some of the other work that we do in the military, but it is extremely gratifying to see how quickly the Navy can marshall its resources to help Sailors and their families when they need a hand. On that note, enjoy the pictures and I will try and collect some additional photos of our work over the last week and update you again shortly.

Cheers!

The Little Things in Life

I am roughly at the halfway point of my training here in the Pacific Northwest, and I have remembered a few basic things about military life, and learned some new ones.

#1. Everything is relative.
Basic living conditions have a monumental effect on your state of mind. In my earlier post from sunny San Diego, I included a picture of the scenic courtyard in the officer's quarters. In the first picture, you can see what my room looked like on the Navy base. In the next four pictures you can see my current "home away from home." This historic building was constructed in the 1940's and is used to house personnel during training. My room is a little more austere than what I enjoyed with the Navy, but it is better than living in a tent which seems to be a common practice with the Army.

Even though I am glad to have walls and a roof, the room does have a few significant drawbacks. First, there is no TV, so I have missed out on the NHL playoffs and the nonstop coverage of the primaries. Second, the heating system in this building is antiquated. The furnace has two settings - off and inferno. As a result, I have been leaving the windows in my room open even though the temparature has been averaging 55 degrees during the day. Third, the showers in the common bathroom also have two settings - trickle and power wash. There are four shower stalls and one of them will knock you through the curtain while the other three have extremely low water pressure. On the days we are out in the field and get covered in mud the power wash seems to be the most effective.

#2 The Army loves procedures.

Way back in flight school we learned one of the cultural differences between the Air Force and the Navy. In the Air Force, if the flight manual did not give you permission to do something, it must be prohibited. The Navy's philosophy on the other hand was that if the book did not prohibit something, it must be authorized. Although I can't prove it yet, I believe that the Army has never encountered this predicament because they have procedures for EVERYTHING! The Army makes Naval Aviation look like a bunch of improvisation addicts. Nevertheless, in part for the reasons below, I have gained a greater level of appreciation for the infantry community.

#3 This gear is HEAVY!

Holy crap this stuff weighs a ton. In the last photo above I am in my new business casual attire. Although I have found it easier to maneuver in this equipment than my old flight gear, I was shocked at the weight of this stuff. I have been wearing/carrying about half of the gear a typical soldier would carry, and by the end of the day my body is beat down tired. Everyone in my unit was commenting on the weight of the equipment and how your feet get sore just from bearing the extra weight throughout the day.

I think the DoD should consider embedding a chiropractor team at each military facility just to keep everyone walking upright.

I guess that is enough rambling for today, but I will try to add some more information in the next few days. Thanks for reading!

Standard Disclaimer

It is midafternoon on Sunday, and my unit finished its first full week of Army training for Sailors (affectionately called NNAARMY Training sir! for those of you who remember Bill Murray in Stripes).

Although I will try to describe what it has been like for a group of long-time Navy folks to adapt to Army life, I will not be going into the specifics of our training for security reasons. Since the internet allows what appears to be mundane information on the surface to be exploited by groups who want to harm our service men and women, I will purposefully limit the nature of future posts to what I belive are topics which have no bearing on our actions overseas.

Furthermore, all of the opinions posted on this website are exclusively my personal feelings and thoughts, or are the opinion of the people who view this blog and post comments of their own.

In no way, shape or fashion, should the comments and opinions posted on this website be construed as the opinions of the US Navy, the US Army, the Department of Defense or the US Government.

(I will probably have to repeat this disclaimer over the course of my tour, so I thought it best to get ahead of the game.)

Thanks again for taking the time to visit, and I will update the page again shortly.