Greeting from the Western Pacific!
I am aboard the mighty (sorta) warship USS Germantown cruising around the Western Pacific as part of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit. In plain speak we are an air-ground-logistics group of about 2k Marines ready to react to any emergency in the Pacific region. My company in particular is an amphibious mechanized company, meaining we have troop carrying vehicles that can swim to shore and drive on land (Assault Amphibious Vehicles or AAVs if you want to look it up). We’ve been underway for several weeks now cruising around theWestPac with a stop in Thailand. Okinawa was fairly dull, but ship life and our training exercise in Thailand have some things worth relating.
Navy Life
The Company loaded up on our “small deck”amphibious landing ship in Okinawa. The CO and I stayed behind in order to conduct some staff exercises (I was serving in my capacity as a fire support advisor). After giving a brief to the Colonel on our work, we readied to fly out to the Germantown. That is when the adventures began.
Due to some complex air scheduling we were unable to fly directly to our ship, but rather fly to another ship and proceed by small boat to our final destination. A CH-46 helicopter picked us up from the baseball field aboard Camp Hansen. We lifted into the sky and sped our way out to sea. Just off the coast a low hanging marine layer pushed our flight path down to just a few hundred feet above the water. Skimming across the water in an old CH-46 air frame is not the pleasure cruise you may think of if you have taken a commercial tour chopper. The rotors sound like a chainsaw being turned on a cement block. The back is open, and it gets pushed around in foul weather. I am glad we are not in Helo Company.
We reached our first ship without incident. As they shut down the flight deck and readied our launch, I laid down for some much needed rest in a concealed nook. I quickly fell into a deep sleep, slumped as I was in my life jacket. After an undeterminable amount of time I was awoke to a loud “Let’s go!”. I shot up with all the trained fury of an Officer Candidate. In my half-asleep dazed state I smashed my head full force into a beam. Within half a minute I had a small swamp of blood on top of my head. I gingerly fastened my helmet as they lowered our boat into the crashing waves below (sea state 3 for you insiders out there). A rope ladder led 30 feet down to the small boat, bouncing beside the hulking frame of the ship. I checked my life-vest and clambered down the side of the ship.
Our launch began cutting our way through the waves towards our ship, just barely visible on the horizon. No sooner had we turned away from the hull of the USS Tortuga than a wave crashed over our bow soaking me head to toe. I looked at my buddy, a prior enlisted lieutenant with 18 years, and we just began laughing. Before our 45 min boat ride was over every passenger was soaked to the bone. It was January 23rd - my birthday .
Ship life is pretty good. I live 2 men in a 4 man stateroom. My roommate is another 1st Lt, Andrew Long. He had 8 years enlisted in the reserves before he became an active duty officer. He’s a cool dude, and as a former personal trainer – so a good roommate. The food aboard ship is excellent by military standards. It’s usually tasty, and always healthy and filling (not always the case at Marine Corps bases). Due to the tight confines training is mostly done on a small unit level. Aside from my supervisory duties that leaves my fellow lieutenants and I plenty of time.
We fill our days with a lot of reading and a ton of working out. Our normal routine is to work out twice a day. We do a lot of Olympic lifting outdoors - not a half bad way to pass the time. Otherwise I go running a lot in the well deck. The well deck is the true belly of the ship. It is where all our AAVs park. It can be flooded from the back where AAVs can launch out to swim ashore. It is also where we store (sectioned off from the water) our Artillery pieces and several trucks. It’s got a pretty cool industrial feel to it. A long thin path can accommodate several joggers if constant turn arounds don’t bother you. I’m training for the San Francisco Marathon in June so I’m pretty happy to at least have somewhere to keep training.
For reading I just finished the The Mission The Men and Me. It is a phenomenal book about leadership applicable to any human endeavor. I also knocked out a philosophy book, Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor E. Frankl. Not of the military genre, but a good read from a good friend. I’m currently slugging through General Slim’s 550+ page account of the WWII Burma Campaign. This is truly an undertaking only to be attempted when in confinement, either penal or naval.
The Navy does have some fun too. When we set out from Okinawa we caught up to our sister ship, USS Tortuga. The Ship’s Captain, Cmdr. McKenzie, played classic rock over the PA, flew the Battle Ensign (really big flag) and started turning donuts around the Tortuga at high speed. About every week we do an all-hands ship cleaning – blue and green. They make it a little fun by playing music over the ship’s PA. The selections are generally some solid gold oldies. It’s a pretty classic scene scrubbing down a ship from the Johnson Administration and listening to the same music. They also play a lot of Motown love songs for all the lonely souls (of which there are many among the Japan based Navy crew). We had a lot of fun on the Superbowl, which was a ship holiday. There were Officer and Enlisted viewing parties. All the infantry officers had the opportunity to serve ice cream for the Marines. That was a lot of fun. All in all shipboard life aint bad. We’ve seen some beautiful ocean and coastline, and gotten a much needed break from the hectic drive of dry land training.
!!!Ying Meang Ler-y!!!
Our trip ashore was a joint US-Thai training exercise called Cobra Gold in and around Ban Dan Lan Hoi. The main effort was a joint live-fire attack involving US-Thai infantry, mortars and artillery. My job was to make sure that all 7 of the Thai and US fire support agencies fired (live ammo) according to plan during the attack. Everything was planned to the last detail to ensure the best show for the assembly of Generals, diplomats, officials and international press. The several days prior to execution were a trying experience. Hazy weather and wild fires clouded our vision so that we could only register and rehearse firing on one day of the five planned. The toughest part though was that we did not have a translator. Attempting to cooperate firing full size artillery with a language barrier is tough, to say the least. We were blessed to have one Thai lieutenant who spoke some broken English. Lt. Egg, Thai Marine Artillery, was the critical man in our operation. I was his main US liason as we tried to bridge large differences in doctrine, protocol and language. We had particular differences over approval (safety checks) of firing. The Thais don't do things the way we do. The result was a lot of frustration and hesitation to shoot.
However, Lt. Egg was a hell of guy with a great attitude. Under pressure of both of our chains-of-command to do it our way we figured things out. The term “ying pai lew” is the official firing command in Thai. Part of my job was to tell Lt Egg when the Thai agencies were approved to fire. The term I used, which was to become our unofficial motto, encapsulated the spirit of Cobra Gold for me. Just before H-Hour I turned to Lt Egg, and whispered: “Ying Meang Ler-y”. Loosely translated that means “Fire that Shit!”
I am now back aboard the USS Germantown eating good chow and relaxing. We’re going to cruise around for a little bit, then head back to Okinawa. Once we get back we only have one more weeklong field op. We’ll start packing up at the end of April. Our flight window to return home is 15-25 May. I have leave 1 June to 16 June. I’ll be in SF for part of that, and for the SF Marathon on 15 June.
Let me know what you all are up to.
See you soon, Semper Fidelis,
Dominic
PS. The third photo is my Fire Support Team (minus our artillery officer and radio operator who was elsewhere). They are from left to right: Sgt Gallegos (mortars) Lance Corporal Szmergalski (radio operator) and Corporal Finch (artillery scout) and I'm far right. When I'm not looking after weapons platoon I spend a lot of time with these guys on a hill somewhere. I call Szmergalski, my radio operator, the hardest working man in showbiz.
