Thursday, July 5, 2007, 03:39 AM - USMC
Happy July 4th! I'm on duty today and if you've read any of my other posts while I'm on duty, you know that this will be corny too.
Some of us are sitting in an office watching TV, surfing the Internet, reading, etc waiting for something to happen. We represent the command while everyone sleeps. We're armed with email, telephones, cell phones, M9 pistols, and quite a bit of ammunition. In a sense, we're the lucky ones because we're standing duty in an environment where the worst thing that is likely to happen is that someone does something stupid and we have to report it up the chain.
There are other types of duty standers today though. Those are the people currently deployed all over the globe in harms way. The difference is, people are actively trying to kill them. They are acting on behalf of our country to help secure independence and freedom for the countries they're in. Freedom from tyranny, oppression, violence, terrorism, etc.
For everyone who looks up at the sky tonight and sees fireworks instead of mortars, hears joyous pops in the sky instead of car bombs in the distance, and thinks about what our country had to go through over the last 231 years versus thinking about your best friend who was just killed in combat: Happy Independence Day.
On this day, don't think about the military, Iraq, war, etc. Look within yourself and your family to find ways to improve our homefront. Are we better or worse off than when our founding fathers declared our independence from Britain? That's what I think you all should be thinking about today.
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Monday, July 2, 2007, 10:55 PM - Family, Nathan, Lisa, PC, Food, Japan
Well, Lisa and Nathan successfully made it back to the States yesterday/today. We got to the airport an hour and a half early (normally that's WAY too early, but we figured Nathan would like to play on the inside playground for a while). As soon as we walked in the terminal, we saw like 500 people in a line that snaked across all of the ANA counters and into the middle of the building. We looked at each other in utter disbelief...never has it been so busy in our small little airport!!
Lisa waited in line with all the stuff while Nathan and I went and changed his diaper, played on the airplane playground, watched the airplanes and airport trucks drive around the tarmac, etc. It wasn't until 11:20am that Lisa finally got up to the counter (for a 12:00pm flight)!!! After about 20 minutes, Lisa got all their tickets AND an ANA escort to take them to the plane. I couldn't go past security, so it was kind of a quick goodbye. After talking to Lisa today, she said that the airline lady walked them all the way to their seats and helped install the car seat too!!
I'll let Lisa tell the rest of the story on her blog, but that's the beginning part.
So, what did I do with my new found bachelorhood? Mowed the lawn, cleaned the house, read my book, and tried a GREAT new ramen restaurant. I'd been wanting to go there for the last year or so, but it just never worked out (they open late). Anyway, the place is basically a shack on the side of the road but their ramen is awesome! Just like the stuff we had in Sapporo. The have a set menu where you choose what type of ramen you want (soy sauce, miso, etc) and you get a drink, gyoza, japanese salad, and garlic fried rice all for about $8. Definitely a keeper.
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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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Sunday, June 17, 2007, 02:04 PM - Family, PC, USMC
About two weeks ago I got back from a conference in the Philippines with about 11 other Marines. Without going into too many details, we had an entire KC-130 to ourselves. A few days before coming back we were told that the primary mission of our flight had changed from "picking us up" to what's called an "HR mission" or Human Remains mission.
Apparently a Navy Chief who was on terminal leave (meaning he was a few weeks shy of retiring) in the Philippines had drowned and we needed to take his body back to Okinawa to make it back to the US. This was my first opportunity to be part of the transportation of remains and it was really neat. One of the other officers with us had worked at an I&I unit (Inspector & Instructor == basically a handful of active duty Marines who run a reserve center while the reservists are at their civilian jobs). Unfortunately, the I&I units have been doing the majority of all burials since the war began which means they have a lot of experience with this kind of thing.
We formed a 7 man honor guard and practiced the ceremony of loading the casket onto the plane and then removing it on Okinawa over the period of an hour just before the casket came. As the hearse drove up, we unexpectedly saw a large number family members which we didn't expect at all. We performed our ceremony, took off, then unloaded the casket in the same manner on Okinawa.
I have to admit, although we didn't know this person and he wasn't even a Marine, we all felt a sense of obligation and duty to make sure that we showed his casket the same amount of respect we would want someone to show us. A few days later the LtCol who runs the Joint US Military Assistance Group (JUSMAG) in the Philippines wrote an email to our Commanding General and his boss thanking us for the cermony we put together on such short notice. He mentioned that the family was in awe of the dignity we showed this person.
It's the little things that make me feel good about what I do.
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Wednesday, April 25, 2007, 03:17 AM - Family, Nathan
Nathan has this book that is the Airplane Alphabet. Of course, under "R" is the F-22 Raptor. Every time we get to that page, he starts pointing outside of his room because he remembers that we went to see the F-22 this last weekend. How do it know? How does he know that? Amazing.[ 1 comment ] ( 11 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink
Wednesday, April 18, 2007, 03:53 AM - Family, Nathan, PC
Today I had a mole removed from my neck. And now I have a band-aid on my neck. Lisa pointed it out to Nathan and said "Dadda's Hurt". Throughout the rest of the evening, Nathan would look over at me with this thoughtful look and do the sign for "hurt" (putting his hand on his head) and either point at my band-aid or say "Dadda". How cute is that?
Before he had his bath, I showed him the spot on my arm where the blood was drawn and said that Dadda was hurt there too. Then, when I was putting his PJs on after bath time, he was sitting on my lap and pointed that same spot out to me and made the sign for "hurt" again.
Amazing...and he's my little boy!
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Monday, February 19, 2007, 06:11 PM - Japan
And now for something uniquely Okinawan! On Saturday, we went to the beach by Jusco/American Village and had a great time walking around in the water and sand. When we came back towards the car, what did we hear going on in front of American Village? Break dancing of course!!! I've seen this troop before and they're pretty bad ass. So, without further ado, I present to you a little bit of break dancing and a little bit of robot man!
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Sunday, January 21, 2007, 02:30 PM - Family
Here's a good article I just read about learning from your kids. I'm already starting to see a lot of this in Nathan...it's a good wake-up call!!
http://www.steve-olson.com/10-things-i- ... -year-old/
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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, January 19, 2007, 06:17 AM - Family, Nathan
I got home from work today and Nathan was SO excited to show me his new skill!! Apparently, Lisa taught him how to give Sandy a dog biscuit. Sweet! So, the first thing he wanted to do was feed her dinner, of course, but then he wanted to give her one to show me how awesome it was. I asked Lisa if he knew how to make Sandy "sit" and then "shake", but she just looked at me like I was an idiot and laughed. To prove her point that I'm an idiot, she said to Sandy in a lovingly-yet-stern voice: SIT. Without skipping a beat, Sandy continued eating her dinner as if nobody was there but Nathan plopped his butt down into the sitting position and tried to give Sandy the biscuit.
So, the moral of the story is: Nathan won't do it if we ask him to, but if we ask Sandy to do it, Nathan responds like a Marine recruit at boot camp!! Immediate obedience to orders...that's what I'm talk'n about.
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