Folger's in Your Cup

So the last few days onboard the fine naval vessel, the USS Mobile Bay, have been pretty fun. I have been busy with work as usual, but on Easter Sunday we had what we call a steel beach picnic. It’s more of just a barbeque on the helo deck, but we do get to sit outside in shorts and t-shirts and get some sun (the chairs Marty and I got were once again “money!”). The day is somewhat of a day off from work. People on watch still have to stand watch and if you have important work that needs to be done you do it, so not everyone gets all of the day off, but it is nice to get a chance to relax. Some of the crew brought out a karaoke game they had for Playstation, and it got hooked up to speakers and that made for some interesting fun (as Asian as I am, I didn’t participate… I know, I know). A couple pictures from the day:

I ended up sitting outside for too long and got really burned. My legs are bright red, and so is my face, but it makes my mustache look better. I think the ladies really like the mustache… not so much.

On to the questions!

What would define a good day out on sea?

Considering that I do not get sea sick, a good day at sea is one with good visibility and some sunlight. The weather is important, but it’s not that important to me. The things that make a good day for me are, how much work I have, how much I get done, how much sleep I get, and if I get some time for myself to read or beat Marty in some NCAA 2008 or not.

Do dolphins or some form of sea life ever swim with the ship?

We actually have dolphins or whales swim near the ship fairly often. Our Sonar dome is fairly constantly putting out Sonar pings. The marine mammals are attracted to the frequencies of the sounds put out. I actually do not like seeing any dolphins or whales. The hippies believe that our Sonar is killing marine mammals and as part of research for the government, whenever someone sees any marine mammal life, I end up having to write a message and send it off the ship, equals more work.

Do you get to stop off in HI or is it a straight shot from SD to Singapore?

This question actually leads me into what I got to do yesterday. We do not get to stop off in Hawaii on our transit to Singapore, but we did get within cell phone range of the islands. Someone with an international calling plan and some extra minutes let me use their cell phone to give my momma a call. It was not for too long as I didn’t want to use up too many of his minutes or money, but it was very nice to get to talk to the momma.

Things are well onboard the Mobile Bay. I get more and more excited for Singapore. It is going to be nice to have some time to just sit and drink a beer, or two (… or eight… Joel). I will continue to write as I can. Twenty seven weeks to go!

Living Large on the USS Mobile Bay

I am thinking that each day I will start off answering questions that people have. This will probably be the most interesting, rather than my continuous rambling, and will explain more about what I do from day to day.

Question 1:
In the movies they don’t always go to “General Quarters”, sometimes the go for something like “ASW Operations”… do you really call out for different situations, or is it just General Quarters? How often does that happen? Do you go to different Battle Stations for different conditions?

So the movies have it partially correct. General Quarters is called when there is a situation that requires every war fighting asset of the ship to be manned. This mans every single station that is available. Very few people are not manning a watch station during General Quarters. There are other conditions that can be called for. I have never heard of an “ASW Operations” condition setting, but there are Damage Control Condition settings and specific response teams that can be called away. These alternate settings or conditions pick specific portions of a full General Quarters and sets just those parts. One person should not have two different positions, one in GQ and one in DC conditions. This keeps any one watch station from getting missed.

Aside from the Navy stuff, yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day out. Marty and I did our usually patio relaxation time and were able to get a picture of ourselves enjoying life on a carnival cruise ship. All we needed was a few drinks in hand and some ladies to look at, but not get the courage to actually go up and talk to them.

Things are going fairly quickly time wise. I am busy with work and then I sleep and eat when I can. There are no weekends here and you really only have port calls to look forward to in terms of real time off, but it’s not too bad and I am getting into a routine. I can’t wait for Singapore! Only a few more days to go, or a month… whatever!

Destiny's Child (Mostly just Beyonce, but Kelly was cute too)

First things first, I have been asked for my mailing address onboard the ship. If you would like to send me boxes with large sums of money (preferably cash, it’s hard to cash a check onboard a ship) you can send things to:

ENS Mitchell Britto
USS MOBILE BAY CG 53
FPO AP 96672-1173

On a more serious note, anything that you are all willing to send is greatly appreciated. I thank all of you for taking time out of your day to put some thought into me.

Another thing, the title from now on is going to be the thing that Marty and I miss the most that day.

So I posted in my profile that any questions are welcome and I would respond when I could. I have received several questions or ideas that I could write about that I’m sure some people are interested in (It might be only one person and this person sent me all of the questions). I can’t answer all of these questions in one day, but each day that I post I will answer a question or two as well as add my greatly enjoyable point of view on life.

Question 1:
What does the sky look like in the middle of the ocean on a clear night?

Because of the complete lack of any light around, on a clear night the sky is filled with a countless amount of stars. You can see the milky way grouping, but it is difficult to pick out specific well known star groupings. Big Dipper, O’rien’s Belt, the Seven Sisters (Pleades is it? I don’t know how to spell it) are almost impossible to depict in a group of other lights. It is pretty out and as long as the weather is not too cold or windy I will sometimes go out onto the bridge wing and look up for a bit. What is better is when the moon is close to 100% illumination. It gets exceptionally bright out and the moon seems to be closer than usual.

Question 2:
What is it like when the fog is really thick?

Out on the open ocean it hasn’t gotten especially foggy so far. There were times when we were pulling into port into San Diego that the fog was so thick it was difficult to see the bow of the ship (the front). Its pretty tense to drive a ship where you cannot see what is in front of you, but sometimes you just gotta go, and hope that when people here the loud ship’s whistle that they use some common sense and go away from the increasingly loud noise.

For the Taco Tuesdayer’s, I can absolutely hit Joel’s house with a couple of TLAMs (Tomahawks… big boom missiles). My question is how did you get the coordinates to his house? I checked the coordinates on our voyage management system, and they are actually in or around San Diego.

In this installation of Mitch’s Deployment blog we will be having a special guest. He will probably add something every once and a while to change the perspective. And now… Martin Blomberg:

“Greetings from the high seas… I am sure that some of the readers (assuming that more than one person is reading this) know who I am. For those of you who don’t, I guess I will begin with a quick introduction. I am Mitch’s roommate, about six feet tall, just started growing a beautiful mustache, and I am the one making all of the real decisions for the battle group. We are just a few short days into this deployment and let me tell you things are already getting a little strange out here. For instance, my computer is randomly opening and closing its CD drive as I type this… weird. Oh, and before I go I must once again thank Mike and Diane for being really nice and laughing at my jokes. Until next time, fare winds and following seas.”

Thanks Martin! (He is the one in the picture with me in my profile). We have started a mustache growing competition between a few of the Junior Officers onboard. I rejected the idea at first due to the fact that I can’t grow facial hair very well, but after much needed convincing I came to the conclusion that you gotta find something to entertain you out here. As the mustaches develop pictures are to follow.

I gotta go for now, but I will continue to write as I can. Later!

Aimless Thoughts

As I stand watch on the bridge for hours at a time I get a chance to think about random things. If you can imagine your mind tends to wander if you aren’t doing a specific task. So, from 2 am to 8 am, from now until we reach Singapore, I will get the chance to think about whatever it is that crosses my mind. Last night, (this morning) for example, I tried to explore productive things that I could do when I returned from deployment that would better my life (financial situation) in the future:

Professional Athlete: If I were to spend countless hours (when I am not working) on honing my skills in some athletic event (bowling, golf, and croquet came to mind), at sometime around my 60s I think I would be in prime condition to start in some minor league and begin my professional athlete career. Considering the time constraints here I decided that I would probably have to think of something else.

Real World/Road Rules Challenge Contestant: I absolutely love the show “The Real World” on MTV. That show is filled with attractive lunatics that act like idiots and get to live in a huge mansion in some fantastic part of the United States for six months and while there, their only responsibility is to throw parties for a job (Real World Las Vegas). The best part is that even when these six months are over any member of the show gets to repeatedly appear on Challenge shows and win copious amounts of money. Plus every generation “Y” young adult in the U.S. can name the more popular people from at least the last 6 Real Worlds. Problem is that I currently have a commitment to the United States Navy and I don’t think that the Navy would let me out to embarrass myself with drunken debauchery. Darn.

Marry for Money: I really just giggled at this idea while on the bridge and then started to think about something else. Oh well…

I think this is enough rambling for the time being, but I do plan on thinking of something truly useful that I can begin to work on when I return from deployment. With how many watches I have left to stand before deployment, I will probably have a million dollar idea that I can sell right away when I return. Thing is that I will be so out of the loop on what is going on in the Americas that someone will probably already have thought the idea up, produced the product, and is making my millions.

Love and miss you all.

Early Days of Deployment

Getting underway for a seventh month deployment would seem to have a difficult adjustment period, but hasn’t proved to be overly strenuous… yet. I have been told that most people act their worst in the first week, before they get into a rhythm. Work and studying for qualifications has kept me pretty busy so far and I haven’t had a lot of time to think about it or let it bother me.

Marty (A friend of mine on the ship that I am sure you will hear more about and come to know and love) and I took our arm chairs, with the much needed invention of the foot rest, out on to our patio (the aft missile deck) and talked about randomness for 30 minutes or so when we got our first break from work. Marty loved the chairs and proceeded to tell me multiple times how “money!” these chairs were and that they were probably the best investment I would make all deployment. Marty and I plan to do this every night just to give ourselves an opportunity to relax.

I am looking forward to spending sometime in Singapore. Although, I don’t yet know the things I will miss as I have only been underway for a day, I can imagine that getting to eat good food, hang out in the sun at a pool, and sleeping in a nice bed will be some of the best parts of Singapore. Yeah, yeah… I’m sure the culture and the people will be great too.

I have never been someone that sulks or mopes, so I can say that I think deployment will be fun. It’s a new experience and I’m sure I will find outrageous ship activities to entertain myself. The goofy and giddy will become hilarious. It won’t be long and I will be back to San Diego.