Well, I have completed the first week of my deployment process and am currently heading to my next destination for some good old fashioned Army training at Fort Jackson in South Carolina.
Here is what I have been up to since I last blogged:
Sunday Nov 2nd: I departed my dear family in Hawaii. We had a great last day together, lots of close family, good food, and movies galore. For me it provided a good distraction from the impending thought of leaving the girls behind. Abby was real champ and good Navy wife and sent me off with lots of hugs, kisses, and not too many tears. For me an uneventful, low key departure is best, as I prefer to keep the emotions under control and conserve my energy for the time ahead and ultimately a jubilant celebration upon returning.
I arrived in San Diego for NMPS (Navy Mobilization Processing Site) on Sunday night, and we jumped right into the processing on Monday morning 0600 for uniform fitting. That is where I learned excitedly that I would be issued the Army Camouflage Uniform (ACU) vice the Navy Desert Camouflage. The nice feature of ACUs are the tons of pockets for storing everything from I-pod to 20 oz bottles of coke, and the ability to not even look like you are concealing anything. Just imaging those popular 80’s zipper pants and zipper jackets that had tons of pockets everywhere, but instead of zippers they use Velcro, and it is all camouflage so each day you discover a new pocket that you didn’t realize you had.
My assessment is that NMPS is just a necessary administrative evil that must be endured. It serves two purposes. First, another thorough review of all your medical, dental, and personnel records (considering I spent 6 months prior to departing Hawaii doing a thorough 6 page deployment checklist, I expected to have them find very little, but was not the case) This proved to be a monotonous and often frustrating process of being herded around from one clinic to the next, getting last minute shots, answering questionares and seeing different doctors and corpsman. This brings us to the second purpose of NMPS, to prepare you for the Army way of doing business … hurry up and wait, don’t ask too many questions, this is the way we do business. The ultimate inefficiency of the process got under most of our skins, but we quickly realized that fighting against it only dissipated unnecessary energy, and that it was best to just make the most of each wasted moment. After day one being full briefings, we all came back day 2 with books, gameboys, ipods, and snacks to occupy our wait times in between events. The first two days where the hardest but then it seemed to thin out a bit as we all were just finishing up our last few administrative details on Wednesday. Thursday started looking up as they told us that we needed to only to get fitted for our gas masks and to report in at reasonable 0830 get our gas mask and then we would be released to enjoy San Diego a bit. Well as you can imagine it was another Army training session in which once we mustered, they figured out there was no way 
they would process all 140 of us in the morning, and told half of us to come back after lunch. The gas mask process completely captured the spirit of the whole week here, once we were sent, we waited 1 hr in line to get to the gas mask fitting room, only to realize the room was full of chairs of people waiting to be fitted and tested. The good news is you got a chair to sit and read a book for the next hour, while you watched everyone do the 10 min leak test while wearing their mask. I was able to capture a few pictures of that event. One Petty Officers displayed wise use of time reading email on her phone while doing the 10 minute leak test of the gas mask.
I did get some time for some liberty in the evenings, and Friday afternoon, so I spent some time visiting with old friends from college and their families, as well as going back to visit San Diego State. Wow what a change they have undergone. Lots of new buildings and renovations since I went there (except the engineering 
building where I spent so many hours of my life in college, it looked exactly the same. Not surprising engineers are so cheap!) many more starbucks and a cool new basketball arena on campus. I also ate my traditional carne aside meal in old town San Diego during my visit.
The final day at NMPS was uniform issue. That was pretty cool, 4 full sets of uniforms, 2 pairs of boots, gloves, sweats, a couple items for extreme cold weather . They gave us nearly a full seabag full of stuff when you included the gas mask, and it made packing the last night a little challenging. I ended up having 1 full sea bag, 1 very full back pack, and a small extra carry bag as I departed Saturday morning on a Navy DC-10 from North Island San Diego to Columbia South Carolina. Here in this picture you can see my miraculous transformation from Navy blue to Army green.
The story of the people: Everyone knows that men and women of the military serve for love of country and family, but one thing my Navy career has taught me is that we are motivated often times much more by the people we serve along side, the relationships we develop, and the desire not to let the guy beside you down. Here are some short bio’s of the people that were deploying with me from NMPS (names changed to protect the identities) that I found inspiration from:
OS2 (Operations Specialist 2nd class) Seawiss - I sat next this fine petty officer on the flight from Hawaii on United Airlines. It was not until we reached LAX that we realized we were both going to the San Diego for mobilization. He volunteered for a 1 year IA (Individual Augmentation) tour directly from his ship in Pearl Harbor. He is going to Iraq to operate the land based Seawiss systems that protect us on the military Camps in Iraq from incoming rockets and mortars. He just arrived in Hawaii 3 months ago and left behind his wife of 3 years. He was a humble and yet excited volunteer, really amazing from a guy going from a sea going command to Iraq.
HMC (Hospital Corpsman Chief) Savesem - I met the Chief waiting in the medical clinic. I thought it was a bit ironic that even a corpsman chief was not able to make it through the medical screening process at NMPS without finding something missing in his records. HMC was going back for his third tour over there. I was needless to say impressed, and listened carefully as he shared great stories and advice on how to operate in theatre with the locals, the contractors and the third party foreign nationals working there. The HMC was taking a 1 year GSA billet which is different from the IA billets that I am going on in that he actually detached from his previous command and took orders to ECRC (Expeditionary Combat Readiness Command) and upon return gets his orders to his next command. His family is allowed to move temporarily if they desire until new orders are received. It seems like a good idea, so that commands are not losing personell to gapped billets like the IA billets create.
CAPT Chopper (Supply Officer) - The CAPT is an activated reservist going back for the second time. He works supply and logistics in theatre. I enjoyed a good amount of time in the gas mask line getting to know him and his experiences. He is a San Diego resident and works in the medical supply field in his civilian life. He was all in all in good spirits and took it well being just one of the guys waiting in line for hours like the rest of us. It definitely impressed on me the diversity of the group both in skill training, anywhere from sonar techs to pilots and from seaman to CAPTs where in our group.
Reflection:
So what’s the take away from this unique and memorable week. There is more waiting and frustration ahead, and inefficiency has long been a pet peeve of mine (some of you may know that I have history of reacting in frustration when I get impatient) but that there are many great people in which to share the experience. Often times people grow close in times of adversity, and you make memorable friends along the way. I must rely on God to give me patience and peace during the trying times that lie ahead.
The verse of scripture that I believe God has given me to work deeply in my life for all the trials that remain ahead comes from Philippians 4:6-7
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus”
Thanks everyone for you continued support and prayers, I continue to pray for peace of mind for all my friends and family back home.
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