RIMPAC...

I spent the entire month of July off the coast of Hawaii, and a little bit of it actually in Hawaii, participating in RIMPAC, or Rim of the Pacific Exercise 2008 if you like the long version. It is the longest, most involved exercise I have ever had the privilege of being a part. It is amazing you can bring together so many ships, subs, and aircraft together from so many different countries and have them work together as a team, to accomplish a single goal.

On the flip side, it's a lot of work. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't be where I am today if I wasn't a hard-working, motivated, type-A personality, goal driven, mission accomplishment-oriented type of guy, but after this past month, if you told me I never had to participate in another RIMPAC Exercise ever again, it would be too soon for me.

I was heavily involved in behind the scenes issues, so heavily I almost missed out on some hard-earned liberty time. I was ready to get away from it all and called the Navy Lodge to see if they had a room available, really a shot in the dark since every BQ and hotel room was taken due to all the military personnel in town. As luck would have it, and this never happens to me, they just had a cancellation and there was a room. I immediately booked it for two nights and arrived around 8pm. And wouldn't you know it, the Navy Lodge is located on Ford Island, where you can visit the Arizona Memorial.

The big thing for me was just getting away from the ship. I was just plain worn out and didn't want to be around anyone. So I get checked in to the Lodge and find out the cable is out. Turned out to be a blessing in disguise as my mind was free for other things. I brought my laptop with me and hooked up to the internet and spent some quality time with my son on WoW and talking to him in Ventrilo. That's where part of my problem was because my wife called me shortly thereafter and I was so involved with the game and my son I was pretty much ignoring her. I think she's upset with me because she didn't call me back. I tried to call her but couldn't get through. At first I thought I was dialing wrong but it turned out that wasn't the case. I just couldn't get a line into Japan. So I had to call her later from a reliable phone. Needless to say, I'm going to call her everyday for a couple of days to make up for it.

I've been working the night shift while underway so it was easy for me to stay up all night and well into late morning. I saw the sun come up and decided to take a walk around the island. I can't put into words the beauty of the place. The best part of all, I forgot my camera...