I have more important stuff to do, like work on the Iowa, work on my car, and mow the lawn, than continue to go in each day at 0-dark-thirty and do NOTHING for 8 hours.
And I'm there with only about half the people who are normally there, as most everyone else is burning up their vacation in anticipation of the cheap, evil, slimy bastids not paying it to us when we leave, although I think Kaliforniastan law forbids that.
On a lighter note, it's "Navy Days L.A." this weekend, and I got to see the LPD-23, USS Anchorage, and the DDG-111 USS Spruance today.
USS Anchorage
USS Spruance
They're both docked immediately North of the Battleship Iowa (we're not allowed to call her the USS Iowa as she's no longer a commissioned USN vessel), and all three of them sure make an imposing sight as you come into San Pedro!
Some of the active duty personnel from each ship came over to the Iowa to help us do some grunt work, chipping, scraping, and painting, and I was privileged to get to meet a few today.
All I can say is we have a terrific bunch of young folks in our Navy, and I thanked each one of them I met.
I had an opportunity to have dinner on the Spruance, but missed it by *that* much.
I would have been most honored to have been allowed to share a meal with these fine people, but I sent my application and donation in about 12 hours too late, and all available seats were taken.
Oh, well........
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Navy chow is Navy chow... Unless you're on a sub, then it's GOOD! :-)
ReplyDeleteIt wouldn't have been what they served to eat, but rather who I was eating it with.
ReplyDeleteAnd IIRC, the donations for the dinner went to Navy Relief, as good a cause as I can remember.
Good point... And the Spru-can 'I' am used to is this one... http://www.navysite.de/dd/dd963.htm Can't get used to the 'little' one... :-)
ReplyDeleteThe Burke class are smaller?
ReplyDeleteHave to go look that up. I've only seen a few of the Burke class, and usually from a distance. The tilted mast makes them pretty easy to spot!