Upon graduating from navy bootcamp in the summer of 1991, I received orders to one of the most accomplished ships in U.S. naval history: The battleship, USS Missouri BB-63, or “Mighty Mo” as it was nicknamed. I had little to no idea how fortunate I was to be sent to such a famous warship. I didn’t know that the Japanese surrender of World War II was signed just a few yards away from where we held our daily quarters.
I was assigned to Deck Department. We handled the mooring and rigging lines, ship upkeep and maintenance, underway replenishments as well as helm and lookout watches. The topdeck was made of teakwood which was a highly used ship building material due to its durability and low maintenance. In Deck Department there were six divisions which maintained various sections of the ship. I worked in 5th Division which was responsible for the small boats and their associated areas of topdeck.
The navy’s way of life was so new to me and the Missouri made it very exciting. I faced many challenges and hard lessons to learn. On one occasion, after being on the Missouri for a couple of months, a friend of mine named Tommy and I impulsively decided to drive down to San Diego on a week night. Our intent was to hang out with Tommy’s friends and drive back to Long Beach (a two hour trip) to be back to the ship by 7:00am for morning muster. The consequences of poor planning and acting on a whim was a lesson we learned the hard way. Tommy’s car broke down in San Diego. We were stuck at his friend’s house waiting on new parts which caused us to be U.A. (unauthorized absence) from the ship for twenty-four hours. The punishment was not worth the crime. The price for waiting around and doing nothing in San Diego was fifteen days of restriction to the ship and extra duty.
My first time underway on the Missouri was our cruise to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It was December of 1991 and President George Bush Sr. was going to meet the ship at the base for “Operation Remembrance.” It was to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan. This was a big event for naval dignitaries, historians and the media. All hands were topside in their dress whites. Everyone from cooks to engineers had to be in their formal attire, on the mere chance that the President would walk into their areas. In the opening scenes of the movie Under Siege, real footage of the Missouri pulling into Pearl Harbor and President Bush’s speech was used. The whole pier was overwhelmed with tents, chairs, red, white & blue decorations and a multitude of people. All of us on the topside saw President Bush approach the ship and the officer of the deck announced, “United States, arriving.” I have always heard admirals and other captains announced but hearing the President arrive was monumental.
A few months later when Under Siege was in the making, Steven Seagal (the main star) and his wife then, Kelly LeBrock, came onboard the Missouri to have lunch with the captain. I was on watch at the quarterdeck and had the chance to see them up close. Mr. Seagal was a towering giant, well over six feet tall. I made eye contact with his wife as she smiled happily. It seemed that everyone on the ship was finding a reason to be in the vicinity. My division officer, the First Lieutenant, was used as an “extra” in the film. He played one of the Chiefs of Staff in the war room. The movie wasn’t actually filmed on the Missouri but some of the aerial shots may have been authentic.
The Missouri decommissioned on March 31, 1992, the same day I was to transfer to San Diego, California. There I served onboard the USS Ranger CV-61, the USS Constellation CV-64 and the USS Jarrett FFG-33. Finally, in January of 2003 I was up for orders overseas and was sent to a major communications station in central Hawaii. It was the break I needed after being on so many ships and doing so many deployments.
Since the Missouri decommissioned, it had been sitting, “moth-balled,” in Bremerton, Washington all of these years. It had become a faded memory. In October of 2003 the Missouri was towed back to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii to become a museum ship. It was docked just a few hundred yards from the USS Arizona Memorial. The place where United States entered and exited World War II were now in the harbor together. Time and nature had its effect on the old warship. It was in dire need of maintenance and rehabilitation. A volunteer workforce was called upon to restore and polish the ship. Grass was growing out of those old wooden decks I used to maintain. It was a shock to see the ship in such poor condition. It reminded me of one of those “life after humans” documentaries. A young woman named Angie and I volunteered on our day off to help clean and fix the ship. There were dozens of other sailors from various commands there to contribute. Once again, excitement over the Missouri was in the air.
Two years had gone by and in the fall of 2005 some friends and I went to pay the Mighty Mo a visit. She was squared away, looking clean, sharp and well taken care of. We took a tour of the ship and I got the chance to see some of the formal officers’ areas that I had never seen before because I was enlisted. The tour route took us through one of the living areas to show what shipboard life was like. The compartment that was on display was my very own division’s berthing. Part of the setting was an ironing board with a set of old dungarees pinned up. The beds and lockers were the same as I remembered. I was so fascinated that they used my old berthing and work space as an example. I felt very privileged to see my humble little home on the Missouri on display for the whole world to see. From the first day I stepped onboard to that very moment I was honored to be a part of the mighty battleship’s history.
References
https://ussmissouri.org/learn-the-history/the-ship/ship-characteristics/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105690/ Warner Bros. Under Siege (1992)
Tuesday, February 16, 2016
Monday, February 1, 2016
pet owners vs non pet owners
I would tell my grandmother that the experiment mentioned in the newspaper is not 100% proof that having a pet will help a person to live longer. There are a lot of factors and variables that are unknown. The experiment does specify where the different groups of people come from. There are other possible variables that could be affecting the groups of people with or without pets. The researchers in the article are making a correlation of pet ownership to living longer as if it were the cause of the latter. What the researchers failed to mention was that there are possibly other variables that would be causing people to live longer. I would tell my grandmother that there is not enough scientific evidence to prove that owning a pet would cause a person to live longer. For instance, what if the people in the experiment who did not have pets lived in an environment that had long term health risks associated with them such as industrialized pollution as opposed to the other group which may have lived in rural areas that were cleaner and healthier? There are a lot of unknown and untested factors that could be causing the different test results among pet owners and non pet owners.
Saturday, October 24, 2015
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
Saturday, May 30, 2015
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Ohio Trip/Memorial Day Weekend
Tom R. and I went to visit Valerie K. and her family for the Memorial Day weekend. We went to Steak n' Shake on Saturday. On Sunday we went to Valerie's church and then to Denny's afterwards. Monday, we went to Wellington, OH for their church's picnic. We stopped in some antique shops on the way back and drove to Cleveland to say we've been there. We stopped at Val's mom's house and meet her grandmother "Scotty." Then we had some pizzas from Little Caesars and watched "The Equalizer." at Val's house. Her grandma Clarisa came over. We was able to have a prayer for her grandma because she was having some health concerns being 81.
Thursday, April 30, 2015
Alzheimer's and Family Caregivers
Alzheimer's Disease is a chronic neurodegenerative (the umbrella term for the progressive loss of structure or function of neurons, including death of neurons.) disease that usually starts slowly and gets worse over time.
AD is usually diagnosed based on the person's medical history, history from relatives and behavioral observations. Information from medical imaging and computer technology is also studied. The diagnosis can be confirmed with very high accuracy post-mortem (autopsy) when brain material is available and can be examined.
There are four stages of AD: Pre-dementia, Early, Moderate and Advanced. For caregivers, each stage requires different levels of care and responsibility.
Family Caregiver Alliance
"Alzheimer's disease is called a family disease, because the chronic stress of watching a loved one slowly decline affects everyone. An effective treatment will address the needs of the entire family. Caregivers must focus on their own needs, take time for their own health and get support and respite from caregiving regularly to be able to sustain their well-being during this caregiving journey. Emotional and practical support, counseling, resource information and educational programs about Alzheimer's disease all help a caregiver provide the best possible care for a loved one."
Wikipedia:
"The role of family caregivers has also become more prominent, as care in the familiar surroundings of home may delay onset of some symptoms and postpone or eliminate the need for more professional and costly levels of care. Home-based care may entail tremendous economic, emotional costs as well. Family caregivers often give up time from work and forego pay in order to spend an average of 47 hours per week with an affected loved one, who frequently cannot be left alone. In a survey of patients with long term care insurance, the direct and indirect costs of caring for an Alzheimer's disease patient averaged $77,500 per year in the United States.[1] Caregivers are themselves subject to increased incidence of depression, anxiety, and, in some cases, physical health issues."
As the disease progresses, caregivers tend to suffer from anticipatory grief, which is the anticipation of their death.
"The Invisible Victims of Alzheimer's Disease: Family Caregivers" by MaryAnne Sterling
-Many sacrifices: Earnings potential, Financial Burden, Health Challenges
-Psychological Trama, Post Tramatic Stress Disorder
Roles taken on: care coordinators, medical record keepers, medical decision makers, insurance navigators, medication administrators
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marie-marley/5-things-alzheimers-caregivers-shouldnt-do_b_2988424.html
A good information source for family caregivers:
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Welcome 2015
I want to start the new year off right. I really want to be more selfless and not selfish. I really need to seek God first in all things and really get more and more tight with the Lord. I'm tired of my old ways, I want to put video games behind me and use that time for God. I need to get hot on my prayers, prayer list, etc. I need to get hot on studying my bible more and working on the bible studies God would have me to do. I really need to keep my spiritual guard up because the devil will try to distract me and set up traps for me. I need to ask God for deliverance from temptations and to stay pure from sin. I really want to work on my self. I need to stay motivated by the things I really want.
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Saturday, June 14, 2014
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