Calvary 4-Wheelers

We arrived in Honolulu airport on November 6 after a much longer flight than I'm use to and a lot of turbulence in the last hour as we approached Hawaii. Wendy and I spent the next few days sight seeing awaiting the Bonhomme Richard to pull into Pearl Harbor. They should have arrived on Thursday but because of a problem with the USS Denver they were delayed until Friday.

Wendy and I were able to attend the Hawaii cultural center, a huge exhibit with villages and a luau in the evening with a big "in ground roasted" pig! We had purple sweet potatoes and the rolls were purple too. Everything was fantastic. At the Luau I met a man with a USS Arizona hat and asked him if he was on the ship during the attack. He said "I was blown off it during the attack!" I thanked him for his service and as par for those men he said he was just there doing a job. Those guys are so humble about their service.

The next day we hiked to the top of Diamond Head (forgetting the camera!). When you reach the top you discover that you are looking out over the ocean from a WWII "pill box"! It was where the big guns sat ready to defend the island, the attack came from behind Diamond Head though.

As we usually do, we found the Hard Rock Café and enjoyed a good (but pricey) meal and bought way too many things to take back. Still waiting for the now delayed ship we headed for Pearl Harbor Friday morning. While walking to the Arizona memorial we could see a carrier backing into dock. It was the Bonhomme Richard, all lined with sailors in white uniforms! They had finally reached their first home port after a long, 7-month deployment to Iraq. Daniel called me as we were taking the ferry to the Arizona. We waved to each other as he was still standing on the bow, cool!

The Arizona is a somber experience. One look into the oil slick water and your eyes well up thinking about the men that died that morning, still entombed in the ship below. Reading the names on the wall of the memorial is more than one can take without tearing up. I took a few shots of Wendy and myself looking across the harbor out of the memorial window with Daniel's ship in the background. It is a interesting picture if you look at it and think about the past and present, where the picture was taken and what ships are involved.

Getting back to shore we picked Daniel up at the base store, I don't think I've ever hugged my son so tight! Heading back to the Arizona we checked out the USS Bowfin submarine and the USS Missouri, the ship where WWII ended with the treaty signing. Soon we were finally headed to the Bonhomme Richard for the 9-day cruise home. Pulling up to the ship in the shuttle another girl who was also going asked, "Does that thing move?!" She was reassured that, yes, that huge 844 foot long thing did actually move.

The first night was spent in port getting settled. Let me tell you, it's a very intimidating thing being a civilian in a ship's berthing area! I thought I would be welcomed in, boy was I wrong! Intimidating is not the word, no one wanted to help and I was wondering what in the world had I gotten myself into. I was also wondering how Wendy was faring in the women's berth.

For those who know me, it will be no surprise that I decided that, if they wanted to be tough, I could be tougher! I soon had their respect that continued to grow over the next few days, in fact the crew and I became very good friends. They kept asking Daniel if I was a retired Chief because I wouldn't take any guff (not their word) and I got along with the 1st class and the Senior Chief so well. Daniel just laughed and said "No, he was never in the military!"

Our first day at sea was not bad, but boy did I get sick that night, wondering what in the world was I going to do for the rest of the cruise, barf all the time? (I never did actually, just felt awful) That passed soon and then it was my turn to watch everyone else get sick, hee hee!

The first day at sea we met the captain, a very fine Christian man with good values and leadership, and, yes, that is me sitting in his captains chair, VERY cushy! Daniel asked if I wanted to drive and I jumped at the chance. Driving and aircraft carrier is a very interesting experience. Even though the windows looking over the bow are there, you never look at them. Instead you are very intently watching the many dials on the consol in front of you, these show position of the rudders (there are 2), engine speed, heading, and an inclimeter that shows ship roll. I did pretty good my first time, or so everyone said.

Down below the hangar deck there were 97 pieces of equipment, ranging from huge 3 ton trucks to a small vehicle made by Mercedes and a row of large Howitzers all wrapped up. The 3 giant LCAC's (hovercraft transports) were all in the lower well deck loaded up with hummers. (I should note that the captain did say we could go anywhere and take pics and movies of anything we wanted.)

Sunday afternoon was spent on the flight deck doing "steel beach." Steel beach had several games including a giant chess game. A huge cookout was going on and the captain was grilling hamburgers. I tell you, you can spot a real leader by his willingness to do the mundane when someone else could. I even saw him grab a broom at one point in the cruise.

The days that followed were spent getting anywhere from 2 - 4 maybe 6 hours of sleep at night (the guys in the berth just don't go to bed!). Over the week we were able to watch the anchors being raised and lowered (these things weight 20 TONS each, 101,000 pounds each when you include their respective chains!), we were treated to an air show that civilians just don't get to see (how many of you have ever been to an air show where the aircraft fired live missiles?), we watched the Seawiz in action (a 25mm rotating 6 barrel lazer guided machine gun that fires 3,000 rounds per minute!) and Wendy and I both got to shoot M16's at a very tempting target (Osama bin Ladin’s face and I got a better grouping than most Marines on the ship).The Marine commander asked me where I learned to shoot, I told him, "My Dad!" We also watched Daniel go through a firefighting simulation. We had a hard time finding him as everyone looked the same with the suites on. The head engineer on the ship said he views the ship as an 844 foot long fire truck. Everyone, even the cooks, are trained in fire fighting.

Daniel wasn't supposed to be on watch while we were on board but someone screwed up and put him on anyway. True to my word I stood watch with him. Wendy was with us for the forward watch. The night was 40 degrees in heavy fog at 20 knots so it was a bit cold. We did the next 2 hours on the bridge and the last 2 on aft watch ending at about midnight. Man was I getting tired! All in a normal day for the crew though.

Pulling into San Diego harbor was cool, literally. We came in at 7 am in dense fog standing on the over 2-block long flight deck. I've never been prouder than looking at my son standing at attention with his crew mates as they lined the rails. We finally arrived at port and everyone couldn't wait to get off, they had been gone for 7 months remember.

After we got on the dock I asked Daniel if it was a floating dock because I felt it move. He laughed and told me that it was firmly part of the earth. It took a couple of days to finally get over the "ground moving" feeling. We came away from the experience with a humble thank you to the many service men and women that have given a part of their lives in service to their country.

People ask if I had fun. I reply, "No, fun had nothing to do with it. But I wouldn't trade the experience for the world." I wish everyone could take a tiger cruise, there would be a lot more "thank you's" instead of grumbling. In fact, next time you see a person in a military uniform, go out of your way to shake their hand and thank them for their service, I do.

By the way, this was an official bonus trip. The vehicle is definitely an off road vehicle, it has many winches, it has tow points rated at 1/2 million pounds each and I got to drive.
[Trip Pics]