Weeks #41 & 42 - Mad Dash (to the finish)

I had another cute name for these last couple weeks, but it’s been so crazy I can’t remember it now. For those of you that have been following closely, I’m just about outta here. It’s been an interesting, exhilarating, challenging, and fast seven months on my fourth deployment to the Middle East (and fifth overall).

Boat transit between ports

It’s also been the “two weeks of turnover” or “twelve days of turnover” since my last post. That’s why I haven’t had time to write. About a week ago was when it was the busiest. While overall in charge of the turnover project, I was personally in charge of the command turnover between our Commodore and the incoming Commanding Officer. There is a slight distinction in the titles, but I digress. Basically, I had to arrange meetings between them and other high-ranking individuals that our command, CTG 56.5, has direct relations with. In conjunction, I also scheduled tours of both bases focusing more on our forces and facilities. This also included a tour of the camp here.

Underway on an Army LCU

In this process I somehow became the Commodore’s scheduler, a function previously filled by a YN1 and an Ensign assigned as the Commodore’s driver.

Things lightened up the last few days because they traveled up to the OPLATs. I originally had them scheduled for a three-day trip, which changed to a two-day trip, which became a one-day trip when some transportation fell through. But it was still a lot less hectic during these three days since I’d front-loaded their schedule.

So today was the big day, the change of command. Except here we call it Relief in Place – Transfer of Authority, or RIP-TOA. We all stood around in the blazing hot sun for about half an hour while some distinguished visitors, our Commodore, and finally the incoming CTG 56.5 spoke. This was followed by cake inside the movie tent.

In the afternoon we had our big awards ceremony down at the Kuwait Navy Training Institute on base. At least it was inside. Except for the part where they made us go outside to have the ‘big gaggle’ photo as I like to call it. Back inside, they only presented a few ‘representative’ awards and tried (emphasis on tried) to spice it up with some videos and “top ten” lists. It was DJ’d by the Deputy, with parts for each of the individual units to recognize two or three individuals each. When Commodore spoke at the end, he mentioned me by name, and actually had me stand up to be recognized for my work on the OPLATs. Except I was already standing in the back, and it was dark back there so no one could really see me.

Being in the back, I ducked out right away when we broke up. So I missed the announcement that the staff was having their award ceremony immediately afterwards. But I’m pretty sure my award wasn’t ready anyways, and Ensign, YN1, and I actually had some work to do back in the office.

On the home front, literally, Katie and I had some financial gymnastics trying to get our mortgage application through the bank. I won’t go into details, but hopefully we are back on track and will still close in early August. It will be challenging getting our household goods down the street to the new place. Hopefully we can do it ourselves, maybe I’ll rent a trailer. The difficult part will be getting the big furniture out of the house. I remember the Disney contracted moving crew cursing and swearing about the stairs.

We will probably need to acquire a couple more rooms worth of furniture. We’re going from a two-bedroom apartment to a three bedroom house, with finished basement I might add. Personally, I can’t wait to go shopping for a lawnmower, snowblower, and maybe some other power tools. And I think we might need a shed to put it all in.

So, to wrap things up, I’m just about outta here. I can’t give out details for our flight from here to San Diego, but its not really relevant. What matters is I will be home in Connecticut on the 4th of July as planned. I will get my cell phone re-activated again before we leave Kuwait so I can call at our first layover in the States, which ironically is the same state that Katie’s parents have a summer home. If they are really industrious they could find a way to meet me there and bring me a beer!

The Boat House