Wednesday, July 11, 2007, 04:15 AM - Family, PC, Japan, Pictures
On Sunday I got to do something that I'd wanted to do for the last year or so (since I first heard about it). About a mile off Torii Beach, there's a net with three whale sharks inside. A Japanese diving company runs tours out there so you can dive with them. For only $115, you can dive with the largest fish in the sea...sounds good to me!
Since Lisa doesn't dive, I figured it would be a perfect thing to do while she and Nathan were gone. So, on Sunday I saddled up with two friends and we went out there. It was one of the best experiences of my life. I can't really even explain what it's like to have this huge fish coming towards you with it's mouth open and nudge you into the net. Or to run your hands across it's back from the mouth all the way down to the tail.
Click on the related link below for some (bad) pictures. I also took all the videos that Brian took with his underwater camera and made a little consolidated video shown below. Enjoy!
(Click the Play button in the window below for the video to start)
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Friday, June 22, 2007, 05:23 AM - Family, PC, Japan, Pictures, USMC
Last Friday, I had one of the greatest opportunities of my career: to go visit Iwo Jima. That was one of the very few things I really wanted to do before I left Okinawa and I'm stoked that I got to go. Our Ops Chief was re-enlisting and was able to get a flight from Okinawa to Iwo Jima for 40 people. He swooped up most of the officers and SNCOs of the unit and off we went!
With only 4 hours on the deck and an hour and a half hump up to the top of Mt. Suribachi, we didn't waste any time. We humped up to the top, took some pictures, did the ceremony, humped down to the beach, walked up the beach, got some sand, jumped in the shark infested ocean, and finished humping back. All in all, it was amazing.
;)
;)
On a more somber note, if you're not familiar with the battle of Iwo Jima at all, here's a little history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Iwo_Jima
Over 27,000 US troops (mostly Marines) were casualties. Over 6,000 were killed in a battle that lasted a little more than 30 days. More than 20,000 Japanese soldiers died. This battle is one of the most important battles in the history of the Marine Corps, which is why it was such an honor to be able to walk those same grounds.
"Among the men who fought on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue"—Admiral Chester W. Nimitz
BTW, I made this image by merging a photo of the landing with one of my photos. I think I'm going to mount it in a shadow box style frame and put some sand in it. What do you think?
;)
Click the related link below for some more pictures.
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Saturday, January 20, 2007, 08:00 PM - Family, Nathan, Lisa, PC, Japan, Pictures
I've been lazy about putting pictures up lately, but today is your lucky day! 17 pictures that we've taken around Sunset Beach (right near American Village) in the last couple of days (click the related link at the bottom to see all of them).
;)
The first four (including the one to the left) are from about a week ago when we went down there to watch the sunset from the beach. Of course we had to stop and get Lisa a Starbucks (and let Nathan stare at the bad ass ferris wheel), so just as we rolled up to the beach we saw the last 10 seconds of the sun setting. DAMMIT!!! As I said to Lisa, we were one Carmel Macchiato too late.
;)
This picture is of the sun rise the morning Lisa drove me in to work because I left my car at the airport. Let's be realistic, when I say airport I really mean the building we call the "terminal" on the flightline. It's really just a waiting area with a door onto the flightline. Aaahhh, gotta love flying Sumo Air!!!
;)
And finally, the pictures from this morning. Today we were going to look at the AN-124 on MCAS Futenma, but it turned out that it took off about 30 minutes before we left. Oh well, we'll go see the one that's flying in tomorrow!!! Afterall, it's the second largest aircraft in the world! Anyway, we decided to go get Starbucks and walk around the beach a little bit. Nathan enjoyed eating his chocolate scone, feeding the pigeons, and being fearless by trying to walk up and down all the stairs by himself. He also tried to jump down from the picnic table bench and...well, you can see what happened:
;)
Don't worry, his nose broke his fall!
And, lastly, a little bit of Engrish for all you lucky readers out there. At the snack bar, they sell Squid Arm Fries for only $5!!!
;)
You also have the option to rent beach ambrellas and ash trays. Sweet!!
;)
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Friday, November 10, 2006, 09:20 PM - Pictures, USMC
Well folks, I've been home for a week now and no blog posting on my deployment. So, here ya go! Why am I doing it now, you ask? Oh, that's easy, because I feel like CRAP. Like FLU CRAP. Yes, I was stupid and got a flu shot yesterday at work. Stupid Navy Corpsmen telling me it's okay. Stupid flu. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Yup, I have the flue now. My family left me to go to the BX and hang out, so I'm home alone to blog.
;)
Anyway, back to the Philippines. We set sail on the amazing High Speed Vessel (HSV, discussed here) in the afternoon on 2 Oct. That was after a 12 hour delay of just...waiting at the port. I'm glad that Okinawa has great weather, because there were about 350 Marines just hanging out on the asphalt during the night of the 1st!! Anyway, 30 hours later, we made it to the Subic Bay, The Philippines. Back in the day, it used to be a US Navy base, but not anymore. We left there by bus and headed to our final destination: Clark Air Field. Until 1991, that was Clark Air Force Base. In fact, my parents lived there for a little bit in the '70s!!
;)
We got dropped off at the flightline where we were going to be working and waited to take buses to our hotels. There were about 500 Marines there at Clark, staying in one of three hotels: Holiday Inn, Monte Vista, or Fontana. All of them are old officer/SNCO housing that's been renovated into 2 bedroom villas with a maid's room, living room, and kitchen. All for about $85 per night.
If you know me, then you'd understand that I couldn't wait to get started. So I dropped my seabag and pack on the deck with the rest of my section and took off looking at how things were laid out already. I spent a couple of hours getting some initial stuff worked out and I went back to where my gear should've been...and it wasn't there. Awesome. 4 hours into the deployment and I've already lost my gear.
;)
So, I make my way over to the hotel and head into my villa. I was going to be living with 5 other officers of the same grade ("the single bar club"
for the next 30 days. Well...kinda. 4 of them wouldn't get there until HSV-2 which was in like 2 weeks! Sweet! Me and one other Lt shared the villa for about 2 weeks...boy was that nice!
For the next 2 hours, I ask everyone I can think of if they've seen my bags, including some of my Marines that are in a totally different hotel. I run into one of my Marines who was attached to another unit and he said that they saw my bag laying on the grass near the hotel (i.e. someone had put it on the bus at the flightline, then just threw it out when they got to the hotel) and he put it in his villa! So, I go in there and he shows me my seabag. YEEEESSSSS! That's the one with all of my civilian clothes, underwear, etc. Now I just need to find my pack...that has all my government issued stuff, called 782-gear (pistol holster, gas mask, canteens, flak jacket, kevlar helmet, etc). Another hour goes by and I get a call on my cell phone from my villa-mate saying that he's eating dinner with a Marine who says that she has my pack!! Awesome! So, after dinner, I go over to her villa and pick up my pack. It only took like 6 hours, but I was finally in the Philippines with all my gear. Sweet.
;)
Over the next couple of days all of the gear from the HSV and the commercially contracted ship arrive and we start setting up. For the next 2 weeks it was non-stop issues: fuel, power, lack of supplies, etc. Me and my SNCO were working like dogs those two weeks...but hey, that's what it's like during a deployment! After we get everything setup, it's pretty much smooth sailing:
;)
;)
After comm was all setup and operational, we kinda sat back and dealt with the daily issues as they arose. We tried to get as many people up in either a CH-46 or a KC-130 while we could. I don't think we ended up getting that many people up, but my CO asked me if I'd been up yet. I told him no, that I was trying to get my Marines up first. He told me and my GySgt to meet him down by the aircraft in an hour and we'd go fly with him. We ended up getting to watch the KC-130 refuel 4 F/A-18s!! Neat-o!
After all that fun, we came to the end of theexercise time and a typhoon was slated to hit us. That, combined with the fact that our external comm link was going to go down for a day due to a power outage on Okinawa (what a mess that was!), the whole camp tore down and packed everything up. We ended up spending a week there waiting for flights to take us back or the HSV to come in. I left with my Marines on a KC-130 flight back to Okinawa last Friday and got home around midnight. As it turns out, the HSV still has not returned yet. It got caught in the middle of another typhoon, so it had to turn around in the middle of the ocean and go back. That's going to be a horrible story to listen to when those guys get back!
So, that was my time in the Philippines. You can see all the pictures by clicking on the related link at the end of this post. Now for some generic observations about the Philippines:
The People:
In short, they're awesome. Most everyone speaks english and they'll give you the shirt of their back. As one of my friends would say, when they see us walking around, they get a sense of hope from us. Because we're there, more people have jobs and more money is flowing through their economy. None of the Philippinos I talked to understood why we left in 1991! They all talk about what it used to be like when the Americans were there...people had jobs, they made more money, etc.
The Shopping:
It was very weird shopping there, because it felt like America. There was a big American-style mall on the base that we were allowed to go to. They had other "duty-free" shops on base that sold all kinds of American products too. One of the big ones, called Pure Gold, was seriously like walking into a Costco! They even sold Kirkland-brand stuff! I ended up buying Nathan a model of a C-130, some books, and some clothes that were like $2 per outfit! I got Lisa a few things, including a San Miguel t-shirt (the big beer company there).
The Nightlife:
;)
I can't post about the Philippines and not talk about the nightlife. I'll be brief, though. Alcohol is cheap, prostitution is prevalent, need I say more? I however, did not partake of any of the latter and very little of the former. That kinda goes into a different topic which I'll save for a later date. The picture to the side is of two "ladies of the night" that were waiting outside the hotel one morning for their ride back. This was a pretty common sight as well.
The Food:
I can't say enough good things about the food! Pondesal bread, Lumpiya, pork adobo, barbequed bird, fish eyeball (yes, I ate one), all awesome! And sooooo cheap. If you've never had Philippino food, give it a try, it's well worth it!
The Exercise:
I've got a lot to say in my after action report this time, but basically I don't think it was a very good exercise for us. I don't know much about how the flying was or stuff like that, but I think the Marines had a hard time getting into the exercise mindset because they'd go home at 5:00pm and switch over into civillian clothes and go out to the mall. In fact, one night I was talking to a junior Marine and he told me that he was kind of pissed off about having to stay late because he missed a date. A date? Geez, we're in the middle of an exercise...practicing for war...and this Marine is worried about getting some from a Philippino!!
I think that's it for now. That's pretty much all the exciting stuff that happened. If I left anything out leave me a comment and I'll try to answer it.
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Monday, July 31, 2006, 03:14 AM - Family, Japan, Pictures
;)
Today we drove to Ikei Island to see what all the hubub was about. In order to get there, we pass the Jusco that I just found out about and cross a really pretty bridge, drive through two other islands, and finally end up on Ikei Island. The island is tiny and is mostly inhabited by farmers. There's one resort, a motorcycle racing track (huh?), a lot of farms, and a bunch of beaches. It seems that more than one person capitalized on their beach front property by charging $4-$6 per person to use the beach. There were a couple of beaches that we found (where all the surfers go) that are free and deserted. My kind of place!
After driving all around Ikei for about 30 minutes, we drove back and stopped in the middle of a bridge to take pictures. Nope, we weren't the only crazy people!! There were 3 other cars stopped on both sides taking pictures. He he he, I love Japan!
After that, we drove through the other islands, stopped at a few more beaches, and commented on the fact that Okinawans really love taking their sun tents out to the beach along with their grills and doing an old fashioned (Japanese) BBQ. Full on with yakitori, hot dogs, vegetables, etc. Sounds like fun to me!
On the way home, of course, we HAD to stop off at the Jusco mall and get a blood orange slurpee from the Doutor Coffee place. We saw that last week when Lisa finally took me to the mall and I got the slurpee. Man was it good!!!
All in all, it was an awesome day exploring one of the great benefits of living on a (sub) tropical island. Click the related link for the rest of the pictures.
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Sunday, July 23, 2006, 03:15 AM - Family, Nathan, Food, Pictures
Lisa stole most of the wind from my sail because she posted her update first and included some pictures. Well...I'm including them ALL!!! See the related link for the pictures.
BTW, note the picture below of the three of us in front of the table where Nathan and I were picking our noses. Nathan started it!!!
;)
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Tuesday, July 18, 2006, 08:08 PM - Family, Food, Japan, Pictures
Sorry, I'm a fair-weather-blogger, so I haven't posted in a while. That's what Lisa is for!!! Anyway, as you already saw from her blog, we went to the Nago Pineapple Park and Pizza in the Sky this weekend. Click on the related like for all of our pictures.[ 2 comments ] ( 26 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink | related link
Saturday, July 8, 2006, 11:27 PM - Japan, Pictures
Typhoons are kind of a big deal in Okinawa. At least for the Americans. All of the bases pretty much shut down on the threat of a typhoon here. The aircraft are either thrown into hangers or evacuated to other air bases around the area (Korea, mainland Japan, Guam, the Philippines, etc). In the case of this storm, we went to TC-2/TCCOR-2 on Friday afternoon, so my Marines had to tie down all of our mobile facilities (we have a complex of 14 20" metal shelters). For more information on what TC-2 means, take a look here.
Anyway, the typhoon was supposed to hit this morning but it didn't. In fact, it won't come within 100 miles of Okinawa, but we're still feeling some of the winds (supposedly up to 58 mph). So, Lisa and I went driving around some of the beaches looking for shells and stuff. Take a look at the related link for some pictures.
As a side note, the sheers of death are still up. Now do you know why we're afraid?
;)
UPDATED: I updated the name to reflect what the American weather folks are calling this typhoon. I got the T0603 off a Japanese weather site.
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Wednesday, July 5, 2006, 05:46 AM - Family, Japan, Pictures
;)
Last entry for the night. Tonite we went to the 18th Services Squadron's "All American Bash" a few blocks from our house. They had rides, music, food, prizes, and a fireworks show at the end. Nathan ate his first sno-cone and saw his first fireworks tonite. Yaaayyyy for Sue (as Lisa would say)!! He loved both of them, so it was totally worth waking him up an hour after we put him down for bed this evening. The one bad thing was that I was stupid and lost the little thing that attaches our camera to our tripod, so most of my night pictures came out a little blurry. Oh well, I get to go search for it in the morning!! Maybe I'll find some of my dignity at the same time. Probably not.
Click the related link for more pictures.
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Wednesday, July 5, 2006, 05:38 AM - Family, Japan, Pictures
We went to the local zoo yesterday. It was kinda depressing. Especially since we just moved away from one of the greatest zoos on the planet! Anyway, it's about 5 minutes outside Kadena's Gate 2 and only costs ¥500 per adult. Naturally, we went at the hotest time of the day but Nathan was a trooper. He was beet red the whole time but didn't complain a bit. The only requirement he had was to be held the whole time, which I gladly did. He even stopped picking his nose for a second to smile in front of the Giraffe:
;)
Click the related link for more pictures.
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