29 November 1989
Hello,
This will be my last generic letter of my Western Pacific deployment, and I'm sure that you are not too sad to be rid of my typed and photocopied letters. Now you'll only get a letter if you send one to me. Well, I just left Hong Kong a few days ago. I had a wonderful time there. It's an unusual city, very international. I had Thanksgiving dinner with some American families. It was arranged through the American Consul and our group of ships. I'm glad that I signed up for it because I had a great time, and now if I go back to Hong Kong in the next couple of years I will have a place to stay. All of the Americans I met work for the U.S. government in some way. A couple of them work for Customs, and couple work for the DEA.
We are now heading east, toward home! Everyone on board is very anxious to go home. We will stop in Hawaii for two days, but it won't be a vacation. We will have to work there. We will finally reach home at 0900 on December 20th, a day that will live in infamy. Right now we are on the edge on the edge of a typhoon (Irma) so it is pretty rough. Yesterday was much worse than today has been. Hopefully tomorrow will be almost calm. On the way over from the Philippines to Hong Kong we ran into another storm. Everything in my stateroom found the lowest point in the room. Meaning that everything was on the floor (deck in Navy-speak) and it took a few days to get it all cleaned up. Only some of it has found it's way to the deck during this storm. It's kind of scary to try to sleep at night with stuff falling down around you. Also, the things in the compartment above you tend to make very loud noises when they hit the deck right above you. The largest roll we took was about 40-45 degrees. The Captain fell out of his bed (he has a normal twin sized bed instead of our miniature racks). I was on watch ten, so I didn't have the chance to fall out of mine. When I got off watch I couldn't open the door to my stateroom because of all the stuff that had fallen down behind the door. I eventually forced the door open only to find that even my bed sheets were on the deck. All I could do was to grab my sheets, dive into my rack and go to sleep.
30 November 1989
You've probably heard about all the drastic measures that the Navy has been put up to doing in light of all the accidents that the Navy has been having lately. Well, we did our part in the 48 hour Safety Standdown. It was a big pain in the butt. It was just one more thing to do in addition to all of our regular duties. It was well timed, too. It occurred over a weekend. It was pretty much undue punishment for us ships that have an excellent safety record. Nothing new was discovered. All the accidents that the Navy has suffered can be attributed to human error, specifically due to error caused by fatigue and unnecessary haste. The Navy will never really admit that, though, because it means that it is working its people too hard and demanding unrealistic goals. Something that many people have been telling the Navy for quite some time. They think it is just some big scam to get out of working. The big problem with it is if we are working too long and hard, the only solution it to hire more people. That means more money, something which is taboo right now.
1 December 1989
We just turned around, and are heading back towards the Philippines. There is a coup going on to overthrow the Aquino government and we are heading there to assist if needed. This means that we will not be stopping in Hawaii on the way back, if we don't turn back around sometime soon. We will rush back t make the 20 December return date. If we end up staying out here a while who knows where we end up or when we will make it back to the States. The worst part of the whole thing is that the typhoon (Irma) is right between us and where we are going. I hate rough weather. They tell us that we will wait for Irma to pass by, but we will undoubtedly push into the outer fringes of it to some degree. The guy who decides where our group of ships go is on the biggest one of the four ships. It rides much smoother than ours does, so I'm sure his opinion of whether the ride is too rough will not be the same as mine. This whole event is just too typical of our whole cruise. We never know when or where we will be, and there is little or no direction from the big guys above us. Their ability to not decide has ruled our lives for the past six months.
3 December 1989
We are now heading east. The guy in charge of our group of ships couldn't figure out what we were supposed to do, so finally the guy two levels above him told him what to do. We had been just sitting there out in the middle of nowhere waiting to see if we were supposed to go to the Philippines or to Hawaii. We waited just long enough that we might not be able to stop in Hawaii. We'll see if we can make it there in time. On the satellite communications circuit we can hear some of the reports as to what is going on in the Philippines. The reports we hear are not very encompassing, since they are coming from just one source located in Manila. It is interesting to hear it as it happens, though. Right now there is still sporadic fighting going on. The Rebels have certain positions, and they have such and such kind of forces are what most of the reports consist of. I have been in the lobby of one of the hotels that the Rebels took over (the Hotel Inter-Continental). It's kind of weird to hear about something like this that is going on where I have been. It makes me feel like I'm part of history and not just watching or reading about it.
I'm in no real hurry to finish this letter because we will not be sending mail off the ship for a while. A by-product of being out in the middle of nowhere. The weather has been really awful today. It's not the typhoon, just rain and rain from a regular old storm. Typhoons aren't the only thing to watch out for out here.
4 December 1989
We just refueled from USNS Passumpsic and are heading toward Hawaii. We will get in there on the morning of the 12th and will leave the afternoon of the 12th. That means no fun for me in Hawaii. This letter will leave the ship when we pull into Hawaii. It might beat me back to California. We will still arrive at Long Beach on schedule, December 20th. We cross the International Date Line on the 8th so that means we will get to go through the 8th twice. It makes up for the day we missed when we crossed it on the way over here. If you're wondering what the "USNS" in front of Passumpsic means, it stands for "United States Naval Ship." What that means is that it is a civilian ship, run by civilians, but it works for the Navy. There is a small group of Navy people on board for running the communications system so they can talk with other Naval vessels. They paint them gray just like our ugly Navy ships. We will refuel again right before we get to Hawaii and right before we get to Long Beach.
8 December 1989
Today is the second 8th, not the first. That means I am on the same day as you are now. I haven't written anything for a while because I have been real busy. I have been studying to take my Surface Warfare Officer oral board. It is a real important step in my field specialty of surface ships. Well, I had my oral board today and I passed. I am so relieved that it is over. Now I have completed all of the qualifications that I have to do. I get to wear a little gold colored pin on my shirt, above my shirt pocket, that says that I am a qualified Surface Warfare Officer.
Well, we are only a few days out of Hawaii, so I will close now. Bye for now.