It’s hard to say no matter what language you use.

Yes, it’s that time again.  In a matter of days, I leave for deployment.  My last one was a bit more vacation-like compared to this time around. No long stay in Japan, visiting old friends, and SCUBA diving. I’ll spend a lot more time at sea and a little closer to the tip of the spear as I do my nation’s bidding. As usual, I can’t mention any details, but it’s safe to say we will be sailing east until we hit desert, and then sailing a little more east. I should be able to post periodic updates along the way, mostly after we have come and gone at a particular location. For those that want to keep an eye out in the news, I’ll be floating aboard the USS NASSAU in support of the 24th MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit).

I’m looking forward to what should be an interesting adventure over the next 7 months or so, but do not look forward to leaving the family for so long. This will be deployment #2 for Faye (and Shannon for that matter), and I really don’t think it gets any easier for any of us. Last time we had ready access to Skype and phone calls, this time I will be far more isolated. Luckily, I married a super-wife and I know she will keep the kids and I involved in each other’s lives with photos, videos, letters, and treats via good old fashioned mail. I will be coming home to a completely different son who will, God-willing, be walking and talking, but hopefully he won’t forget who I am with a steady stream of pictures and videos.

Some of you out there have asked what kind of things I would like to receive in the way of care packages while underway. If you really want to make my day, I have updated my Amazon wishlist specifically for deployment (to include my deployed mailing address). Books and movies are a great way to pass the time when we aren’t busy. Space is extremely limited on the boat, so please hold off on buying me that new bike or bar-b-q grill until I get back. Homemade snacks and treats are always good too. Just realize it may take 2-3 weeks to reach me, so no deviled eggs please.  Shannon has my mailing address, so you can drop her a line if you want to send something directly.  Even letters and cards offer a great morale boost, so don’t hold back.

Thanks for all the support and good wishes!  Please keep my family and I in your prayers.

For those who don’t know, I’ve spent the past 2 weeks in the desert of El Centro, California digging large craters into the desert 1000 pounds of explosive at a time.

My squadron is out here for 3 weeks for training.  We can’t really drop high-explosive ordnance on the east coast, so we come out here for the great flying weather, the plethora of ranges, and the ability to actually blow things up.  It stinks to be away for the family, but these kind of detachments really allow us to focus on flying and get a lot done.  Plus, 3 weeks is nothing compared to 6 months.

We have managed to gather a good bit of bomb video footage during our time here, so I promise, I’ll put together some compliations and post them to the site.

Shannon and the kids are doing well.  Faye will probably lose her mind this weekend when she goes to see Thomas the Train, the musical (yes, such a thing exists).  I really wish I could be there with her, but getting the full story from her via Skype will probably be almost as entertaining for me.  I’m sure Shannon will post some pictures from the event (hint, hint, honey).

Contrary to what I normally post on the blog, I do spend the majority of my time at work.  Unfortunately the vast majority of that time is spent doing paperwork or plenty of other “un-fun” stuff.  I have been flying more lately, but every once and a while I get a real good deal flight.

Well, last week I had two of them.  Both flights were low altitude bombing sorties with live high explosive ordnance.  We spend a great deal of time practicing high altitude precision guided attacks (laser or GPS guided bombs).  Those are neat to see and have their own challenges, but it’s a bore compared to diving at the deck and seeing the big booms with your own eyes and not through a little video screen.

Luck would have it that my flight lead caught the impacts from my attacks on his targeting pod.  So with a little help from iMovie, here is the video:

My stay aboard the USS ESSEX is finally done.  It was a valuable experience for me, but I am very happy to be off the ship.  I’m back in Okinawa, in my comfortable spacious room.  It’s funny how comfort is so relative.  Being back in my old barracks with my old stuff feels a little bit like home.  Not home home, but still familiar and nice.

So now that I have real internet access and time to write, I can share some of my experiences on the boat.  I just uploaded a ton of pictures from the float and our stops along the way.  You can see them in the gallery.

I drew the short straw and wound up walking on the ship when we pulled out of port.  As a pilot, it’s always nice to fly onto the ship, but the advantage of walking on is you don’t have to worry about jamming your gear under your ejection seat to get it on the ship.  We started off the float sailing around Okinawa working on initial qualifications.  Every pilot (jet and helicopter) has to qualify on the ship and the MEU as a whole has to prove that we can conduct amphibious operations.  An amphibious ship doesn’t bring nearly as much air power as a big-deck aircraft carrier, but it is an impressive weapon considering you can launch an entire amphibious assault (including air support) from one ship.  For those interested in how landing craft launch and recover from a giant ship, see these pictures.

Flight time was actually few and far between while we were underway.  Harriers are the minority when it comes to aviation on the ship.  There are far more helicopters aboard and we have to compete for flight time with all of them as well.  Flight deck operations are planned to the minute and there are no gaps in use.  When you have a planned land time of 1430, you need to be landing exactly at 1430, not 1431 or 1429, because there is probably another flight preparing to arrive or leave.  It’s a very different environment than flying at an airfield and an impressive feat for the people who plan it all out.  We need to hire these guys to work at civilian airports!

Everyday life on the ship was OK.  The accommodations weren’t wonderful, but they are far better for officers than enlisted.  Here are pictures of what the rooms look like.

There are 4 officers to a room and it doubles as our office as we need it.  The food was a bit better than I expected, but it all starts to taste the same after a while.  Every once and a while we would get a nice treat though, like some fresh kiwi fruit or some fresh baked pie.  It’s easy to get fat on the boat, since you can have as much as you want at any one sitting.  Fresh fruit and vegetables were always more plentiful right after a replenishment.  I’d like to take a second to explain a replenishment at sea, as it’s an interesting thing to watch.  A supply ship pulls up right next to ours and they shoot these lines from one ship to the other (using shotguns).  Then they run giant fuel hoses across the water and fill our tanks.  All the while we are steaming at a pretty decent clip.  Then helicopters go back and forth ferrying crates filled with supplies and parts.  There are plenty of pictures from one of these evolutions here.

After our initial qualifications for the MEU, we headed to the Philippines to participate in an exercise known as Talon Vision and/or PHIBLEX.  You can read my previous post about what went on there.  It was a nice break from the ship life and I did a lot of flying there.  The pilots flew onto the ship from where we were working and spent a couple days at sea until we pulled into port in Subic Bay to meet the rest of our guys and load all of our equipment back on board.  We then cut loose for a few days of liberty in Subic.

Subic Bay used to be a giant U.S. Naval Base, but we pulled out of all of our bases in the Philippines over a decade ago.  Now it’s kind of a tourist destination.  Subic is what you would picture an Asian port visit to be like in a movie.  Vendors of everything from cigarettes and t-shirts to fake Rolexes and Viagra line the port and nearly attack you to get you to buy something.  When you walk a little further into town, you realize that there are about 4 prostitutes for every person, and they are equally as aggressive in their sales technique.  With a little effort, several of us managed to have a good time while keeping our wallets and marriages intact.  There was plenty of good food and drink and we found a great little “local” bar with live music, including an incredible Bob Marley cover band.  Perhaps the most memorable sight in the Philippines (and especially Subic Bay) was the transportation.  The ride of choice is called a Jeepney.

They come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, but they are mostly heavily modified jeeps that serve as buses.  Some owners get pretty creative with their designs and paint jobs.  In Subic, the next most popular form of transport were these motorbikes with covered sidecars.  Like I said, it’s something right out of a movie.

You can see all of my photos from Subic Bay here.

We left hot and humid Subic Bay and steamed north to waters off the coast of Korea for a short exercise up there.  It was a great feeling to go to sleep in 90-degree weather and wake up to cool breezes and weather in the 60s and 70s.  We had been sweating everyday since the deployment began, while we all received emails from home about leaves changing and sweater weather, so my first taste of cool weather was a real treat.  We never set foot in Korea, but the squadron did some flying in the exercise.

From Korea, the ship headed back to Okinawa to offload our squadron and give those staying on the ship a chance to see their loved ones.  I again drew the short straw and missed the fly-off, so I joined a couple other pilots in riding the ship into port and walking off with everyone else.  Again, not a big deal, but I’ll always take a few extra days ashore than on the ship.  The MEU is continuing to operate at sea, but the Harriers have other obligations that we can better support in Okinawa.  The MEU CO was wise (and kind) enough to let us stay off the ship and support them from land for the remainder of the float.  We will miss out on some good port visits, but a comfortable bed and long showers are worth the trade.

I enjoyed my time on the ship, but I’m glad it’s over.  There is still plenty of work to be done on the deployment, but the end is in sight and I continue to count down the days until I can come home to the people I love the most.

Just a quick update for now.  I have arrived safely in the Philippines and am extremely happy to be off the ship.  We are not going to be here for too long, but it is nice to see someplace new and have a change of scenery.  I’ll try and write more soon and hopefully include some photos.