What time is it where you are Son?
I have a son in the Navy, I may have mentioned that a few hundred times. He is deployed right now with HSM 70 (Det One) on board the USS Philippine Sea (CG-58).He is Helicopter Mechanic or in Navy talk an AD full rank and rate would be ADAN (AW) or Aircraft Mechanic E-3 Air Warfare Qualified, He has been in the Navy Just over 2 years.
He deployed February 15th, in that time we have talked once, for a few short minutes when they made a port call in Greece before heading through the Suez Canal. He is now someplace in the Persian Gulf. We do talk over text and Email. I ask him what he needs and he lets me know. We send whatever it is and a month of so later he gets it. So far I have cornered the market on Black Gold Peruvian Blend Coffee (12 pounds) Sent a Harmonica and a book on how to play it. Several pounds of Beef Jerky, Socks, assorted junk food, Several boxes of girl scout cookies guitar strings, plus birthday and Easter gifts. I am currently trying to find pistachio’s in large quantities.
The time difference makes anything close to real time difficult. When we do talk its short and almost cryptic, I tell him that I love him, that I am proud of him and that what he is doing matters. The same things that parents have been saying to Sailors for the last thousand or so years. I asked him the other day if he enjoyed what he does, his answer was” I am always tired, we are flying allot so we always have something broken on the Helicopters. In my off time I work out” I asked again if he enjoyed it and he said he did. He spoke about being on the ship and the times of boredom, but he also talked about the people he is with. He talked about the ship and being on it. I could tell that as tired as he is, as frustrating as being at sea can be he loves what he does, he loves being a sailor.
About 99% of the time all he knows is he is at sea, he doesn’t know if he is close to any land and if he is what land is a huge question. I ask him what time it is where he is, he tells me and with a map I can guess. His world for the next several months will be limited to what he sees on the sea around him, not unlike Sailors from the past. The reality is that very few deployed Sailors know with any level of certainty where they are. They have a general idea, but that general idea is like me saying I’m in the eastern time zone.
I think that is where the Navy and the rest of the services are very different. I have friends and sons of friends in Afghanistan right now, they Skype and the exchange of photos and phone calls are very regular. Not so with the Navy. An entire ship has less bandwidth than I do sitting at home. That bandwidth is shared among everyone, rest assured that some asshole is always trying to stream video.
At any given time about 30% of the Navy’s 298 ships are deployed. Another 15% are at sea doing training or some other more local type mission. (Local meaning they will be at sea up to 6 weeks) The Navy has about 325,000 Officers and Enlisted. Roughly one third are deployed at anytime. It has been this way since the end of WW2. War or Peace the Navy is at sea. It will continue to be that way. Its what the Navy does.
I don’t like to think about this part but it needs saying. The navy has relativity few true combat injuries. (I am not including the SEAL community or Corpsmen embedded with Marines) That being said there are very few Shipboard Jobs that are not inherently dangerous. LLoyds of London has consistently list working on a flight deck as one of the most dangerous jobs ever. The only reason that there are not more injuries and fatalities is that the men and now women doing that job are so well trained and pay so much attention to detail that accidents are a very rare thing. These jobs are done by Kids, the lasttime I saw my son he wanted to borrow my truck, I caught myself about to give him the “Don’t wreck my truck” talk. Then I remembered that everyday he has the lives of the pilots and crew in his hands. The he without question is a professional.
I have a very cool picture of my son washing down the rotor of a Sea hawk. I know that the tail section is hanging over the side of the ship, I know the ship is moving. I know one slip on his part can be tragic. I get a world class case of the willies just looking at it.
The E-4 promotion list comes out just before memorial day, I hope he is on it. I am not allowed to say more. Its bad luck to have you next rank in hand before you are promoted. But you can bet your last dollar that I have a 20 some year old very battered Crow to send him when he give the OK.
Just because I am a proud Navy Dad USS Philippine Sea Facebook
Copyright © 2014 This Aint Hell
Category: Navy
My son also went into “the family business” so I know that strange combination of pride and fear all too well. May God continue to look after yours as he looks after mine.
Enigma4you: you’re correct about the larger bases in-theater. But it’s not that different on some of the smaller COPs regarding bandwidth. Some places, not much bandwidth is available.
And yeah – being 7 to 9.5 hours “off” from home (neither Iraq nor Afghanistan does DST, and Afghanistan is on an half-hour offset from normal time zones) did complicate matters on those occasions when contact was possible.
Still, in general we knew pretty much where we were, and usually were allowed to tell the folks back home at least the rough location.
And it’s better across-the-board now than 30 years ago. One day I’ll write up a short article on my one phone call home during my first year in Korea. (smile)
Give your son my best, and tell him to “be careful out there.”
Does your story involve saying “Over”? (Bernasty would like that.) As a SigO in VN I made sure the MARS station was hot in Base Camp as much as propagation would allow. Later I ran MARS calls as a Ham. Hated it when one spouse would say something that really needed a reply and the frequency would drop before one could be made.
Enigma…great write up.
I was in the Navy when I used one of those (Somalia). We were not too far from the beaches of Mogadishu when some Soldiers based out of the airport there came onboard to set up a couple of MARS stations.
Yup, we had to say, “OVER” to signal to our spouses that we were finished with what we were saying. They had to say, “OVER” when they were finished and were ready for us to reply to them.
Even though we used OVER/OUT in military/NATO communications, it was wierd having to use it with our own family. 😯
There there was the “delay” in transmission/receipt and the tendency for communications to drop out… causing the Soldier to bring communications back up.
Nowadays, they have cell phones and commercial internet… but before that, despite its hick-ups, the MARS station was an nicely added touch.
The receipt of snail mail was also a big event back then.
More than once the wife would say something like: “Glad you called because today little Johnny….”(silence as the frequency dropped and he won’t know what Johnny did until a letter arrives 4 weeks later). Also heard some “Oh John, I’m now engaged to your best friend Sam, the draft dodger.”
I’m sure the “bubbleheads” here will remember the ole “famgrams” on subs. I think that the message was limited to something like 30 words once a week.
On my last deployment before I PCS’d, I left my wife with the hassle of preparing for our move. She was PISSED! So pissed that she refused to send me a famgram. I didn’t know this, so I was scratching my head when I got a famgram from a guy in my division telling me how much he loved me. Cracks me up just thinking about it again.
That was friken awesome!
😈
We were in Iraq during both scheduled time zone changes. Other than going on R & R leave, I didn’t have to worry about “setting the time ahead or back.”
I had forgotten about the MARS stations. I made one or two calls home.
Over,
Mom you have to say over when you are done talking Over
Why, Over
Because I am talking to you on a ham radio OVer
No you are not, we dont have a radio, Im on the phone, Talk to your father Over
Hey Enigma–your unabashed pride is showing, and it’s great to see! As for the worrying, it goes with the parenting territory. Was there a time a good parent didn’t worry? I wish him well, this future Veteran of yours.
Enima4you- So glad I got to read this! When my son was in Iraq, I spoke with him 3 or 4 times, the longest conversation about 10 minutes. He obviously couldn’t say where he was, but that didn’t matter- he called, he was “safe”, and we spoke of many things, ending with “keep your head up”. I would say the same to your son, and also “Thank you”.
Being retired chairforce…I can say that I never *got* the Navy way of life. It is as foreign to most of us as stepping on to Mars.
You go to most any Air Force Base and Maybe I can also say Army post and it’s all pretty much cookie cutter similar CONUS and OCONUS although I can’t speak to closer to combat theater areas as I never had to deploy to one.
Thanks to all of you and particularly *any* of you that have allowed or gritted your teeth and supported your child joining the military.
Thank the GODS my son is only 5 and I’m pretty certain that I will not have to worry about that for QUITE a long time and in some ways, I hope he doesn’t join because it’s a *WHOLE* different Military than when I went in in 1984 and I would hope that I raise him to have greater and broader opportunities when the time comes then some of the reasons that drove me to join.
God (and goddesses!) bless and keep all of our active warriors.
Enigma4you – Thanks for sharing this information! And, thank your son for serving!
He should get hot on his SW quall while he’s deployed, E4Y. Ship’s company are stuck out there as well, are arguably more accessible than the air wing, and most departments will be available 24/7 for sigs. All it would take is shorter workouts for a month or so.
AD3 (SW/AW) looks better on the E5 advancement exam than just AD3 (AW).
He is working on them, I was extremely proud of him for getting the SW,He was an AA when he did that. I went down and pinned them on him.
Correction,
He earned his AW while still an E-2 or Airman Apprentice. He is now working on his SW (Surface Warfare)
Well said, E4U.
enigma4you…Thank you for this article. Thank your son for serving. He has all my respect for all he is doing for our country. God bless and keep him safe.
God Bless and keep your son. Tell him at least one old jar head is proud of him and is grateful for his service. Hang in there dad!
Prayers up for the safety of your son and everyone else out there.
I know I’m dating myself, but all we ever got at sea on a boat were 50-word “familygrams” if traffic allowed. Even now, there’s little communication between family and crew underway. Time means pretty much nothing on a deployment, to the point where on longer under ways we’d simply shift clocks to Zulu time when we left and back to local time whenever and wherever we happened to pull in.
But I wouldn’t trade my time in, the experiences, and the friends for anything
Enigma4you…Your son is the promise in all our futures. Congratulations on your fine young Sailor, and thank you — and thank him –for serving our nation.
The only form of communication for me was mail call while at sea. Got one letter a year from my dad and I think I liked it better than the ones from my wife.
He always wrote about the American Legion, VFW and other vet organizations and what they were doing. Probably very boring to others but it meant a lot to me. He served only 9 months during WW2 but he took his vet status very serious and could not do enough for other vets.
His letters always ended with “stay safe, your family needs you”.
Thank you for sharing that moving piece Enigma, you are right to be proud.
Please thank your son for his service for all of us, and thank YOU for raising such a great kid!
Can’t be said enough or better….to Enigma’s Son out there in the great big ocean….. to you and all of yours….
As a former Aviation Structural Mechanic (Hydraulics) 2nd Class Petty officer (AMH2)….I would like to say that the flight deck of an aircraft carrier during flight ops has been described as a perfectly choreographed ballet. I can attest to the danger and the beauty. For me personally, as a Plane Captain and then troubleshooter it was the most exciting thing I have ever done in my life and I miss it every single day.
My son is going in the Navy quite soon, and is looking to go SEAL. If he doesn’t make it through BUD/S his plan is to become an Airframer like his old man.
Tell your son Bravo Zulu for me, and that this old sailor is wearing RED for him today.
E4U, I don’t know if this is your son’s first deployment, but if it is, tell him that the longest hour of his life is when he gets “channel fever” coming back into homeport! But, man, it is sweet when you’re coming down the brow after 6 months away!
As a former Aviation Electronics Tech 2, I can attest to what its like to FORGET that the tail of your ’60 is hanging over the edge of the deck at three am of a moonless night….. Fortunately I landed in the nets…well with catching one of the support beams in the ribs. Very colorful bruise from armpit to waist for a few weeks….. Tell your Son thank you from another ’60 det member HSL-44 (HSM-74 now)
‘Bout time we got quality Navy content by a qualified writer … Keep it up Brother.
I will keep my fingers crossed for your young Sailor son.
I can so understand the “great pride and choking fear”, to a point. When my oldest daughter told me she had talked to an Air Force recruiter I was beaming outside and screaming inside. She didn’t end up joining and I was upset and glad at the same time.
I think as parents we are always on the edge of two emotions with our children, blind love and going to lock them in a dark box forever!
Now as my 11 year son is bringing home books about the Military and asking me questions about stuff he reads here and sees on Don Shipley, I am excited and fearful.
For now if it’s ok with you guys, I’ll be proud and fearful for all of you guys and your children. God speed to all.