Tuesday, October 31, 2006, 04:19 AM - Family, Nathan, USMC
Well, the embassy called and they don't want us to execute an HA/DR mission here. That's good and bad in my opinion. It's GREAT because that means I get to go home to my family in a few days!!! It's bad because we have so much to offer to people, especially when they've had their homes destroyed. Here's a thought to ponder...what would you do if your whole town was ravaged by a storm? If all you had left was your family and none of your possessions? It certainly makes me think about how little "stuff" matters and how important my family is.
On that note, Lisa called me this afternoon with some news about Nathan. She took him to the doctor because he involuntarily rolls his eyes into the back of his head from time to time. It looks like he's fainting or having a seisure, but he never loses consciousness. The doctors don't know what's going on but asked Lisa to video tape it and come back in for more tests. Talk about scary...he's my perfect little boy. How could anything be wrong with him? I especially hate being away at times like this. I feel so helpless.
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Sunday, October 29, 2006, 05:06 AM - USMC
Well, the exercise is officially over because a) there's a typhoon coming tomorrow night and b) we're almost to the end point anyway. So, today we tore down the entire camp, packed it away, and are awaiting the storm. The big thing we're waiting for is to see if there's going to be a Humanitarian Assisstance/Disaster Relief (HA/DR) mission coming out of this.
One of the big missions of Marine units is HA/DR. We're known throughout the world for being the first to respond to various natural disasters (i.e. mudslides, tsunami, typhoons, etc). Since we're in a country that's about to be hit by a pretty large typhoon, there's a good chance that we'll have to execute an HA/DR mission while we're here. Now, the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit is also here and that's one of their core missions, so they might take the bulk of it. But, we've still got some helicopters and a bunch of comm assets in country, so I'm keeping a close eye on this one to see what kind of package I could put together to get good comm to certain areas.
There's a lot of shacks in this country, so a lot of people will lose their homes and everything they own, no matter where it hits. We need to be prepared to send people out there to coordinate with Non-Governmental Agencies (NGOs) as well as military aide (medical, food, supplies, etc).
So, anyway. I'm going to be spending most of the day tomorrow looking at options in the event this does roll our way. The more I can be prepared, the easier it'll be for me to execute if the time comes. Because I know what it's gonna be like: "PC, we need to setup comm at this location in 2 hours. Go."
If all goes the way it's supposed to, then the typhoon will roll past us and we'll keep on charging with our current plan to leave here in a few days. <fingers crossed>
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Friday, October 20, 2006, 04:11 PM
Last night some of my more stealthy readers revealed themselves to me. Now I need to go back through my archives and find out what I wrote about them 
. To the G-6 crew: dueces! (ask LCpl Hummer about that).
Moving along...things are going well here. After about the first week and a half we got most of our issues worked out and we've had fairly reliable comm since then. Every time I go on a deployment, I remember why I'm so glad that we live on base. The number one reason I'm happy about that is because our phone number at home is a DSN phone. That means when we go out on a deployment and use tactical phones, that I can call back to my house at no cost to the government!! And, since I'm the CommO, I have to do line checks every day to ensure that the capability is operational. That means that I bite the bullet and call Lisa for about 10 minutes every morning before my brief to the CO. Then at night before I leave work, I usually call and talk to her for a little while longer.
Last night I stayed late so that I could fix her computer problems. I read her blog and saw her emails saying that her IT department has left, but that's not true!! I've fixed most of her issues even though I'm not on Okinawa!!! Is that service or what?
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Friday, October 6, 2006, 09:36 AM - USMC
Well...our stuff got brought up here earlier this evening so tomorrow we'll really begin setup. From tomorrow on it's going to be balls-to-the-wall, probably working 18-20 hour days for the next week or so. Today was mostly spent dealing with cell phones for people (uggghhh, I hate cell phones) and radio stuff.
Not too much to say...I do miss Lisa and Nathan a lot! I got a couple of emails from Lisa today describing some of Nathan's new skills (i.e. sharing his binket with Sandy). Lisa, however, has not learned any new skills yet. Neither have I...I guess I'll have to work on that!
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Thursday, October 5, 2006, 05:59 AM - USMC
We made it to our final destination last night and slept on the HSV until this morning. Side note: most of you already know where I'm going and how long I'm going to be there, but Lisa keeps reminding me about this whole OPSEC thing that the Air Force always blubbers on about.
Anyway, we made it. It took us 15 hours to leave Okinawa (I'll go into that story later) and 31 hours for us to traverse the big, bad, Pacific to the top secret destination where I am right now. I sat in the bow of the boat (that's the front to ye land luvers) so I didn't have to deal with as many people throwing up as I did when I was on the HSV in March. That was nice! The food sucked...nuff said on that.
Now to the bad part. After finally getting to where we'll be working/living for the next undisclosed amount of time, a thought occured to me. As far as USMC deployments go, this one is really gonna suck. And I'm not even thinking about being away from my family! Nope, I'm saying that because we're staying in hotels. That's right, you heard me: HOTELS. This is like an Air Force deployment.
As a Marine, there's no better thing than to create a bond between you and your Marines through shared misery. When I was in Korea, that was perfect. It was FREEZING cold, we lived in tents, showered every 3 days, etc. I built a bond with my Marines because I was going through the same crap as they were. They also worked their asses off because they were getting to do their job and they had nothing else to focus on. This exercise will be different.
We're living in villas (old officer housing convereted into resort villas), have 2 casinos on the property, 3 golf courses, an American style mall, eat in the hotel dining rooms, etc. When we come home from work at night, we change into civvies. Where's the misery? Where's the "awww, man, this sucked so bad because blah blah blah"? I think the Marines are going to be a lot more lax than if we were living in tents in the middle of a field, digging holes to you-know-what in, eating MREs, etc.
But hey, that's just me. I guess that's why I want to go to the Division instead of staying with the Wing. Anyway, more later! I'm gonna hit the rack now.
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Monday, October 2, 2006, 04:14 AM - Family, PC, USMC
Well, I'm off to <EDITED FOR CONTENT: OPSEC> for a month! We're going over there on the WestPac Express High-Speed Vessel (HSV) which is pictured here:
;)
And described here:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ ... v-4676.htm
Fun, eh? The next 15-20 hours of my life will be spent with 900 of my closest friends aboard this little boat. After that, it'll be 30+ days at <EDITED FOR CONTENT: OPSEC> (which is considered a combat zone but not a tax free zone apparently). We're staying in hotels, eating hotel food, gambling at casinos, and will be partaking in the water park once or twice. Oh yeah, and spending about 16-18 hours a day making sure comm ain't broke.
Most of all though, I'll be missing Lisa and Nathan. It's pretty darn hard to explain how I feel leaving my little guy. He's going to be doing so much growing and learning that he's going to be a differen't person when I get back. How sad! I'm also going to miss Nathan's first (real) Halloween. I hate missing things that he does. The last time I deployed, Nathan started to laugh while I was gone. Lisa recorded it and played it when I called one time.
Deployments are a tough situation for me and my peers. In the Marine Corps, you're pretty much guaranteed to deploy somewhere for some amount of time. Those are the times when you get to actually do your real job without any of the garrison bull shit that normally surrounds you (i.e. my last 3 weeks). You're either killing terrorists or training to kill terrorists; simple as that. On the flip side, that means you're away from your family. So that puts someone like myself in a hurt locker. I like deploying because I get to do my job and see my Marines do their job (and do it VERY well) but I hate leaving my family.
One of the nice things about being in Okinawa, though, is that we rarely deploy for more than a month. That kinda gives me the best of both worlds: I can go to the field and do my real job AND not be away from my family for very long.
Having said all of that, it doesn't make it any easier on Lisa. She still has to be the one who holds down the household with no help from me. She still has to cater to Nathan's every need without any breaks. She still has to show Sandy some love'n in order to keep her calm.
So, in the end, I'm back to square one. I'm glad I'm going but I hate the fact that I'm going. Here's to hoping that a Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief (HA/DR) mission doesn't pop up while we're there!
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Wednesday, September 20, 2006, 03:02 AM - Family, Nathan, Lisa, PC
Lately everyone has been asking me how things are going, how I'm doing, yada yada yada. The answer as of late has been "busy busy busy" followed by a big sigh, rubbing of the temples, and shaking of the head.
On my way home tonight I was gearing up for a big fight with Lisa because when I talked to her aroud 5:30pm,, I told her that I'd be late tonight and would miss dinner. This would mark the 4th dinner I've missed with the family in the last 2 weeks. So, I was all ready to come in and be like "hey, I've got a lot going on at work and I'm trying to do the best job I can being a good husband, father, and Marine so cut me some slack".
As I walked up the sidewalk, I noticed that the light in Nathan's bedroom was on which could only mean one thing at 7:15pm: the bedtime routine had started. I opened the door and wasn't greeted with the typical "DADDY'S HOME!!!!" Nope, tonight I walked upstairs and went in to Nathan's room and was greeted by a "dadduh" from Nathan and a "oh look, Daddy's home just in time to say good night to you" from Lisa. Of course I gave her the evil eye at that time...but then I just looked at Nathan and realized what a jerk I am.
My son, the one who I'm supposed to love, nurture, teach, protect, etc hasn't seen me for about 13 hours. He briefly saw me at 6:15am when I left for work, but that's it. At first I was thinking "hey, I've got a lot of things to do at work in order to prepare for this exercise". Just from looking into his eyes, staring at his face, and touching his skin, all that crap fell away and I saw myself as being a failure in the last couple of weeks. I'm going to be gone for more than 30 days for work, there's no reason why I need to extend that just because I can't get everything accomplished in one day.
If I can't get everything done during the normal 7:30 - 4:30 work day, then I need to do that work after Lisa and Nathan go bed. For most stuff, it's not worth being away from my family because THEY are the priority.
After I kissed Nathan goodnight, we went in and changed our sheets then went downstairs and cleaned the kitchen, picked up the family room, and ate dinner. Actually, I ate dinner while Lisa did all of those things. So what's the other thing I feel like a jerk about? Yup, you got it: not only is Nathan paying for my workload, but Lisa is too. She's acting like a single Mom, doing all the clean up, laundary, cooking, etc ON TOP OF taking care of Nathan. Her day never ends and yet I expect to come home after a LOOOONG day of work and relax.
See, I told you I was a jerk.
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Thursday, September 14, 2006, 03:56 AM
Thanks, guys, for your love and support. Lisa told me about the hate comments on my last blog entry...awesome. I'll just say this: when you start waking up at 1:45am in order to be at work by 2:45am and then don't get home until 6 or 7pm, then you can make those comments. For all of you out there who are having normal days and normal sleeping hours, good for you. Tonite was the first time I'd seen my son awake in the last 3 days because I left so early and came home so late. How bad is that?
Anyway, the reason for my crazy hours this week is because I've been at the rifle range from early in the morning until about noon. After that I go into work with every intention of checking my emails and then going home early. Well, my unit is moving headquarters from one building to another and nothing has been going right as far as comm goes. There were no phones turned on in the building for almost 2 days after we moved in, the computers weren't hooked up until a day later....ugggh it's been a bad week.
If you're lucky, I'll post more during my recovery period this weekend. It's been so bad that we haven't really even watched Prison Break!!
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Friday, September 1, 2006, 04:33 AM
I just wanted to wish PC a very warm welcome back to the blogging community. Oh wait...that's me!! Yes, I know, some very RUDE people have been leaving comments on my blog, mean messages on our answering machine, even going so far as to fly out to our house to acost me in person. I GET THE HINT!!! You want me to blog on a regular basis. Right, got it. Here ya go...
So what have I been up to lately? Well since my last post I had a flight suit formal, became 27 years old, spent about 30 minutes with my parents while they were here for 2 weeks, planned an exercise for 1000 people, planned the move of 80 computers and phones to our new building at work, flew to the Philippines for 4 days, and started building a rock garden. In short, I've been really busy. In fact, last night I was up until 2am working on stuff that I didn't get done during the day. Man, there's just not enough time. That whole hourly rate that I talked about in my last post really hits home during weeks like this.
I haven't had time to respond to emails, blog, or even search the Internet and read blogs that I normally enjoy reading. So, it's good and bad that I'm taking a week of leave next week. Yes, I'll be working after everyone goes to bed, but it'll be nice to get out of the daily grind and take some time off.
Anyway. The Philippines was neat. It was kind of like little America in a lot of ways. There's a mall on Clark Airfield that is exactly like what you'd see in Colorado or Virginia or...well, maybe not Iowa, but you get the idea
So there ya go, a small blog entry. Stay tuned tomorrow for an update on the rock garden. Lisa doesn't think that I'll finish it before our guests arrive. I'm gonna show her!
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Friday, August 4, 2006, 03:21 AM - USMC
Lisa brought up a topic in one of her recent blog entries that is very near and dear to our hearts: military pay. For those of you who don't know, all of our pay is public knowledge and you can see that here: http://www.dod.mil/dfas/militarypay/new ... pdated.pdf.
Let's do some analysis. I'm a 2ndLt (paygrade of O1) with over 2 years in the military. My base pay is $2,514.60 per month. The equivalent of my time in service on the enlisted side ould be a LCpl (paygrade of E3) with over 2 years in the military and his base pay is $1,595.70 per month. In both of our cases, our medical care and housing costs are covered. I get $187/month for "subsistence" (food) while the LCpl get's a meal card for free meals at the chow hall.
Having said all of that, if we do an hourly wage type dealy, here's what it comes down to:
2ndLt hourly wage (working 50 hours/week): $12.32
LCpl hourly wage (working 50 hours/week): $7.82
But, 50 hours a week is what we usually only spend at our desks. In the eight months I've been working here, I've been deployed for a total of about 2 1/2, working 12-18 hour days the whole time. Technically, we are on call 24 hours a day. I have gone into work on more than half of the weekends since I've been here. So, looking at the 24 hours a day, here's the new hourly wage:
2ndLt hourly wage (working 24 hours/day): $3.67
LCpl hourly wage (working 24 hours/day): $2.33
Enlightening, huh? We don't do it for the money, especially the enlisted guys. The benefits are pretty good, but the reason most people do it is because they want to get out of a bad situation or just to give more meaning to their lives.
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