Deployment preparation and thoughts (1 week prior to leaving)

So here I go entering into the world of blogging with the hope of sharing my experience with all my friends and family in a meaningful way.

The theme of my blog will be God, family, and country because these are the priorities that I live my life by, so I will try and share my perspectives, thoughts, and yes even opinions as the time passes. I recognize the need to share these thoughts because it offers a way to stay in communication with those that I love and wish to stay connected with, but deals with the reality that I won't always have time to call or even write everyone emails. My hope and prayer is that this will help us all stay connected during this time of physical separation, in a manner that allows our relationships to continue to grow and strengthen each other through this unique experience.

So you all might be wondering a few common questions? (some have asked me in person, so I will share my thoughts and response with the group)


1. So how do you feel about deploying for 8 months to Iraq?
To be honest this has been an evolution of feelings, but really I am quite at peace with the pending deployment.

I have journeyed through the emotions for the past 2 years or so, as the writing has been on the wall for some time that eventually I would deploy. The community in the Navy that I am in (Engineering Duty Officers) made a policy decision about 3 years ago to assist our Army brethren who have been deploying to Iraq for the last 5 years. At first my reaction was to be anything but excited, I honestly had thought my days of deploying were over, I had switched to the Engineering Duty community for their technical engineering focus which I love, and the fact that I would spend more time at home with family than I had while deploying on Submarines. This drove me to some hard soul searching, I wasn't sure if I wanted to stick around and stay with the Navy if it meant leaving my wife and daughter for harms way. But as with all crisis of the heart, God was faithful to help me work out and find peace with the path he had chosen for me. I took time to weigh my options of heading out to the civilian sector or sticking it out in the Navy. What I realized in that process is that I have a love and passion for serving a greater cause than myself. Whether it be service in the Church or service of country, what most satisfies me is working for the service of God, family, and country. I know part of this DNA has been passed down to me from my family, a step-father whose career I watched as a police officer, a mother who worked hard for her family, and always was serving her community. I think it is not surprising to know that my sister works for a county District Attorneys office, and has married a police officer, and that I have chosen to serve my country in the Navy. We were raised with good hard work ethics, and the idea of service. God has redeemed all of my experiences in life to date, whether it be the college experiences I gained at San Diego State or challenging times in the submarine nuclear power community, to the hardest job I ever loved in the public shipyard at Pearl Harbor, God has shown me my ability to persevere hard trials, and affect peoples lives with my service. I have had the opportunity to watch a couple of dear friends deploy and return from Iraq with positive spirits, and a feeling of job worth doing. The first to deploy was CDR James Lee who I watched jump up and volunteer to go at the first opportunity. I was inspired by James' call to the mission and his family's support of him as he deployed. Upon returning he shared his experiences and made it more 'real' for me what was going on over there. The next to deploy was an office mate LCDR Tim Spicer, whose attitude was also exemplary. While I know Tim, like me, did not look forward to leaving family behind, he did realize, that when he signed up for the Navy he was volunteering to serve wherever they called him to. Tim's deployment helped truly firm up my opinion of deploying. His experience while challenging, was communicated as rewarding and he came back with a great perspective on work, family, and service to country. So in the end I began hearing God's call on my life to continue to serve others right where He has placed me and have found the peace that only He brings as we prepare this deployment.

So in the end, I volunteered last July hoping to do my part to serve the ED community, the Navy, my country, my family, and ultimately God, who has provided for my every need.

How have I prepared for this deployment?
I have spent the last six months or so following various checklist, reading as much as I can about the region, culture, and current events. I have a personal passion for watching movies at home, and set myself on a course to watch every movie regarding the war, the region and it culture. I believe this to be a truly unique opportunity for soldiers in this day and age, to be able to watch the movies depicting various aspects of a conflict while the conflict is still going.

Here are some of my favorites in the process:

"Lawrence of Arabia" - this epic movie helped me understand the arab culture the challenges western cultures face in integrating with them.

"Where in the world is Osama Bin Ladin" - an interesting documentary from the guy who made "Supersize me" - follows his search for Bin Ladin. Gives some great historical context.

"Charlie Wilson's War" - an intersting look at the Cold War and the middle east, in particular our involvement in Afghanistan.

"Band of Brothers" a great series about a company of Army Airborne soldiers as they went from training through the invasion at Normandy to the end of the ward and the capture of the "Eagles Nest" Hitlers private estate in the mountains of Germany.

"Generation Kill" - a HBO miniseries on the invasion of Iraq from a Marine companies soldiers perspective. A little edgy but goes to show this generations difference from the World War II veterans.


There were numerous blogs and emails shared by fellow ED's and even a few You Tube video's discribing the unique training we get as IA's (stands for Individual Augmentee's ) we are Navy sailors who are sent to augment the efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, but not neccesarily deployed with a Navy unit. Often to augment joint force efforts in the region we fill vital roles where our skills developed in the Navy can be used to help, while relieving some of the heavy deployment rotations of the Army and our own Navy Civil Engineering Corps soldies and sailors.


Here are a few you might be interested in looking at if you wish to know more about my deployment and what I watched to prepare:

You tube Video of Training in South Carolina:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7C6j5oPRR8


Well that's all for today, I am spending all available spare time with my wife and the girls, we are all happy and healthy, and thankful for another great day together.