Saturday, September 29, 2007

Alot of this will sound like a foreign language

I know this sounds crazy but I miss the Navy. I miss the chaos, the running around with no sleep, getting yelled at, sleeping in my 18 cubic feer of rack on a foam mattress, taking really fast showers while the ship was rocking and trying to keep my balance so I didn't touch the wall where somebody elses naked butt had touched or the bathroom flooding in the middle of the night and having to vacuum out 5 inches of water before I could brush my teeth, the 3 straight weeks of PB&J because we ran out of edible food, the slug I found in my salad, cranking, the ship rolling so hard that you could almost walk on the bulk heads and the toilet falling over, or the fights that all the girls would have down in berthing about the stupidest stuff(maria), sneaking down to combat between fixes because the OS's were cooler than anyone on the bridge, getting to be the conning officer for ships maneuvering drills, listening to conversations on bridge-to-bridge in the middle of the night, sneaking a few winks under the XO's chair(I can admit that now that they can't do anything to me), puking off the side of the ship and being so sick that I couldn't even stand up, I just stayed curled in a little ball with my head tucked in my jacket and had the Boats take the fix (I never did get over being sea sick), and sneaking off the ship wearing my flip flops to hang out with "the band."
I loved standing the night watches, particularly the rev watch. I would get to practice my star fixes or my morning azimuth. And pick the revele song, which I must sadly say the CO would never allow me to play Hakuna Matata, even on my birthday. For the night watches (when we were in the middle of the ocean and in no danger of hitting anything hard), I would take my 30 minute fixes and go out to the bridge wing(my first ship had the perfect little seat that fit my tooshie perfectly) and I would stay out there until my next fix. It was so peaceful, the light of the moon, the waves crashing on the ship, the salty air, I can still hear the wind whipping around the ensign above my head, gosh I miss it. Sometimes we would get a pod of dolphins that would swim next to us, but my favorite was the flying fish. I have seen a couple sharks, whales, a turtle with his head stuck in a bucket, a ship full of illegal aliens, tons of coke seized, drug dealers set their boat on fire, I got to go on a helo ride for my birthday, I saw so many beautiful countries and have so many good memories from my first deployment. I got about 6 hours of sleep a day total when you mush cat naps together, I have gotten yelled at more times than I can count, I got to give Nav briefs to the Commodore, I got assistant Nav qauled on my last ship, and I got to shoot an M-60 off the bridge wing(I look like billy bad ass too in that picture.) It was hard and it was a long 6 years but I wouldn't trade it for anything well maybe the last couple of years I could of done without, but regardless, I had fun and will look back at those days with a happy heart (as I chase my 1 year old around the house.)

1 comment:

MamaGeph said...

Of course you miss it. What awesome times!

Ha. Now you do twice the work for half the praise. Less yelling, more whining. Pht!