I'm Back

The End

Out to the amphib

Met up with our team at 700, then with some other military and contractors and were en route via CH-53 Sea Stallion out to the amphibious assault ship (BHR) by 800. The primary mission of the BHR is to embark, deploy and land Marines by helicopter, landing craft, or amphibious vehicle. Because of this mission, although it is a Navy ship, it is Marine Corps in character. Hot, as usual, on the airstrip, but the 53 gets up high enough that when it's 120 on the ground, its a cool 80-90 in flight. This helo is powerful and muscular for heavy-lift missions. The first picture here is out the back of our helo as we are landing on the ship in the central Arabian Gulf. As we debark, we rush through the ship and into the hangar bay where a rope ladder is waiting for us to climb into a Coastie speed boat to take us out to sea.

Hunters Lodge

Hunters Lodge at the Adhari Hotel is in the heart of the Suq here in town. Other hotels in the neighborhood are off limits to military for various reasons, so this is about the only place to cool off with a couple beers after wandering around the dirty market paths in the triple-digit temps looking for deals. Its longevity may be due to its decor - that of some kind of early 70's Navy dive-bar in Vietnam. It's dimly-lit with dirty wooden floors, warped pool table and dart board, and menu items named for military operations. Its walls are completely covered with Navy weapons parts, decades-old unit photos, graffiti, and anything else a Sailor might think to donate. Dusty rocker patches with names like Forrestal, America and Constellation, and retired rating badges like Radioman add some more historical decor behind the bar. Two Filipino bartenders serve customers that are mostly the somewhat less-than-wealthy Saudi crowd. On a recent visit, our attention was divided between the spectacle of a group of deaf Saudi men in a drunken signing argument, an 60-ish British man trying to teach English to a Chinese prostitute (Chi-Pro?)), and another Saudi sitting next to me who kept failing at come-ons aimed at the bartender. He had been drinking there all day long and told me that if he got caught drinking at home, his head would be chopped off, drawing a slice with his finger across his throat. It's unfortunate that this place doesn't sell t-shirts.

Interviews

Reporters on board wanted to get footage of specific jobs performed by Sailors. Started with a Chief Warrant Officer who heads the kitchen ops talking about the tons of food that gets processed on a daily basis. They also interviewed cooks, people cleaning and asked a couple females what it was like to be a woman on a carrier. Later, during a break in the wardroom having some lunch, one of the foreign reporters saw a female in a flight suit and asked, "what does she do?" He was shocked to hear me say that she was an F/A-18 pilot. "You let women fly your planes?" he asked. He wasn't opposed or anything - just surprised - and he was pretty intrigued, so I had to go find one to talk to. Found a Marine, pictured here.

And one sign of the times, the reporters wanted to interview female Sailors studying in the library. In the library were a few bookshelves, naturally, but they were pushed to the side to make room for a 60 inch plasma TV with a movie playing in surround sound and Sailors kicking back in recliners. No one was reading an actual book, but the connecting room was packed with computers hooked up to broadband internet and a webcam at every seat.

F/A-18 Super Hornet Launch Video

I think I just figured out how to load a video on this thing, just when this blog will some to an end in a short bit.

Sunset Over Iraq

Flight Deck Ops

Here you see the launching and recovery of Navy and Marine Corps FA-18s that provide security in the Gulf and air support to ground forces operating in Afghanistan and Iraq. Enterprise, commissioned in 1961, is the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier. This ship was built for duty in the north Atlantic and the 46 year old air conditioning really isn't the greatest everywhere on board. By "not everywhere on board," I mean "in my stateroom" most of all, which sits directly under the flight deck. There were lots of flight ops going on all night when I got there, and the steam powered catapults that shoot the planes off the deck kept a steady pulse of heat into my room, which hovered around 100 all night. Adrenaline takes over when you are tired though, especially when you are in the middle of one of the most dangerous working environments in the world with aircraft launching and recovering every few minutes. These young Sailors, many only 19 or 20 years old, are a lot harder working than me - but I guess that really isn't saying much.