Adventures in Paradise

Morning Report

This morning when I woke up I was provided the following After Action Report (AAR) regarding the evening previous (edited to make it somewhat understandable to non-Navy types):
 
Captain, we picked up unidentified contact bearing 310, 35NM, speed Outrageous and heading inbound. The Tactical Information Coordinator immediately issued queries and requested permission to warn the
contact. Air Warfare Coordinator, in a state of shock, commenced making his reports to the Air Warfare Commander. Based on the contacts speed and maneuverability, the Air Warfare Commander directed us to cease queries and denied warnings, he evaluated the contact to be St. Nick. We held track until about 5 miles and suddenly, out of nowhere, we heard “DECATUR this is St. Nick, request Green Deck.” No flight quarters were required. As we all looked at the flight deck camera, he safely landed on deck.  The Officer of the Deck, amazed like an 8 year old boy with a new train, immediately raced to the announcing system and passed 12 Bells and “St. Nick, arriving” topside only, of course. Within seconds Santa was in Combat with a huge smile on his face. We offered milk and cookies (what was left, because Weps was the TAO) and also provided him with his favorite ice cream (we’ll apologize to Suppo later, it was for a good cause.) We told him how great the Commanding Officer and her crew had been and all the hard work we have done. As he stood there with his hand on his nose and rubbing his belly, he handed the Watch Supervisor a note. The note said “To CDR Sethi and her crew, You have done a fabulous job and I am glad to have made this stop. You all have been extremely nice and dedicated. I wish you Happy Holidays, a safe return home, and thanks for serving your country; especially during this time of year. Signed, St. Nick.” Unfortunately, the note smelled like gingerbread and peppermint so it was eaten by one of the watchstanders. The Engineering Officer of the Watch and watches in Central Control provided the reindeer with a hot pump of snacks, bug juice and milk (we ate all the pizza and wings last night.) Within a matter of minutes he was on his sleigh and airborne again. His final words as he gave us a sparkling fly-by were “Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!”

The Best Christmas Tree Ever

I walked into the ship's General Workshop a few days ago to conduct a spot check of some maintenance procedures, when I saw an amazing Christmas tree sitting on the table.  It's decorated now, and sitting in front of the door as part of the division's holiday door decorations.

It's not your average artificial tree.

My welders made it from a couple of sheets of metal, some spray paint and decorated it with valve handwheels.  So, of course I wanted one.  And they obliged...in spades!

My Tree

 

A Little Halloween Fun

I have to say, DECATUR
is the most celebratory ship I’ve ever served in. We celebrate
EVERYTHING, and Halloween was no different. Not only did we have costumes, but
hallway and door decorations (I was the judge) and even an apple bobbing
contest. I tell you, childhood apple bobbing contests have nothing on our
Sunday night – we pitted two guys against each other in a bracket-style competition
down to the winner, which ended up a best 2 out of 3 because it was so fun. I
should mention that the big cooler we used was filled with ice and water in
addition to apples. In the final contest we took all but two of the apples
out, just to make it a real challenge. Given that we were about to enter the Persian
Gulf and start working for real shortly thereafter, we took the time to do it
up right!