Awesome story, Rhino. If we ever link up, drinks are on me.

From November of 1990 to July 1991 I was underway on the USS Kalamazoo (AOR-6) for Desert Shield then Desert Storm. We had 3 port calls:
1. 4 hours in Bahrain. Nobody made it off the pier, left right after arrival due to SCUD missile attack.
2. 14 hours in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. No one allowed beyond the pier. Loaded stores from pier and departed.
3. Hurghada, Egypt 7 glorious days in port. I spent them all quarantined in medical with the Chicken Pox which some boot had brought on board during a helo PAX XFER. I was over the chicken pox but wasn't cleared by the medical officer until after final liberty expired, he was ashore on liberty.

I did 227 consecutive days onboard and only touched dry land twice, while loading stores on piers, for about 6-7 hours total. I did at least get off the underway watch bill for 7 days while quarantined in medical, but the HMCM had me paint the entire sick bay, since I was a deck guy. Fun. Time. Navy
We did set the Navy UNREP record on that deployment with something over 420 if I remember correctly.

quote:

Originally posted by CaptainMike:
From November of 1990 to July 1991 I was underway on the USS Kalamazoo (AOR-6) for Desert Shield then Desert Storm. We had 3 port calls:
1. 4 hours in Bahrain. Nobody made it off the pier, left right after arrival due to SCUD missile attack.
2. 14 hours in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. No one allowed beyond the pier. Loaded stores from pier and departed.
3. Hurghada, Egypt 7 glorious days in port. I spent them all quarantined in medical with the Chicken Pox which some boot had brought on board during a helo PAX XFER. I was over the chicken pox but wasn't cleared by the medical officer until after final liberty expired, he was ashore on liberty.

I did 227 consecutive days onboard and only touched dry land twice, while loading stores on piers, for about 6-7 hours total. I did at least get off the underway watch bill for 7 days while quarantined in medical, but the HMCM had me paint the entire sick bay, since I was a deck guy. Fun. Time. Navy
We did set the Navy UNREP record on that deployment with something over 420 if I remember correctly.

Damn, that is a whole lotta suck. After we did 159 days straight, we hit Bahrain for 3 days, then back to the war for a couple of weeks before rolling back through the Med and doing 4 amazing days in Marseilles France before going home.

Next deployment we hit 2 great ports in the Med to start (Italy and Greece), the nuggets were all excited and happy with how awesome cruise was - I told them to prepare for the suck as we did the ditch - what followed was 3 sixty day underway periods, with short 3 day ports to break them up. Rated beer days on each, but the leadership was too chickenshit to allow beer days on the CVN, while the CG and DDG drank up 100 yards away.

Sounds like you guys really miss all that time on cruise. Here’s a few ideas to help you capture those magical times again:

Buy a dumpster, paint it gray and live in it for 6 months straight.

Run all of the piping and wires inside your house on the outside of the walls.

Pump 10 inches of nasty, crappy water into your basement, then pump it out, clean up, and paint the basement "deck gray."

Every couple of weeks, dress up in your best clothes and go the scummiest part of town, find the most run down, trashy bar you can, pay $10 per beer until you're hammered, then walk home in the freezing cold.

Perform a weekly disassembly and inspection of your lawnmower.

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays turn your water temperature up to 200 degrees, then on Tuesday and Thursday turn it down to 10 degrees. On Saturdays, and Sundays declare to your entire family that they used too much water during the week, so all showering is secured.

Raise your bed to within 6 inches of the ceiling.

Have your next door neighbor come over each day at 5am, and blow a whistle so loud that Helen Keller could hear it and shout "Reveille, Reveille, all hands heave out and trice up."

Have your mother-in-law write down everything she's going to do the following day, then have her make you stand in the back yard at 6am and read it to her.

Eat the raunchiest Mexican food you can find for three days straight, then lock the bathroom door for 12 hours, and hang a sign on it that reads "Secured - contact OA DIV at X-3053."

Submit a request form to your father-in-law, asking if it's ok for you to leave your house before 3pm.

Walk around your car for 4 hours checking the tire pressure every 15 minutes.

Sit in your car and let it run for 4 hours before going anywhere. This is to ensure your engine is properly "lit off".

Empty all the garbage bins in your house, and sweep your driveway 3 times a day, whether they need it or not.

Repaint your entire house once a month.

Cook all of your food blindfolded, groping for any spice and seasoning you can get your hands on.

Have your neighbor collect all your mail for a month, randomly losing every 5th item.

Have a 5-year-old give you a haircut with goat shears.

Sew back pockets to the front of your pants.

Needle gun the aluminum siding on your house after your neighbors have gone to bed.

When your children have been in bed for 3 hours, run into their room with a megaphone, and shout at the top of your lungs that your home is under attack, and order them to man their battle stations.

Post a menu on the refrigerator door informing your family that you are having steak for dinner. Then make them wait in line for at least an hour, when they finally get to the kitchen, tell them that you are out of steak, but you have dried ham or hot dogs. Repeat daily until they don't pay attention to the menu any more, they just ask for hot dogs.

In the middle of January, place a podium at the end of your driveway. Have you family stand watches at the podium, rotating at 4-hour intervals.

quote:

Originally posted by mojojojo:
Sounds like you guys really miss all that time on cruise. Here’s a few ideas to help you capture those magical times again:

Bahahahahahahahahah. You know you only remember the 0.5% good times, and not the 99.5% of pure suck.

quote:

Originally posted by CaptainMike:
From November of 1990 to July 1991 I was underway on the USS Kalamazoo (AOR-6) for Desert Shield then Desert Storm. We had 3 port calls:
1. 4 hours in Bahrain. Nobody made it off the pier, left right after arrival due to SCUD missile attack.
2. 14 hours in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. No one allowed beyond the pier. Loaded stores from pier and departed.
3. Hurghada, Egypt 7 glorious days in port. I spent them all quarantined in medical with the Chicken Pox which some boot had brought on board during a helo PAX XFER. I was over the chicken pox but wasn't cleared by the medical officer until after final liberty expired, he was ashore on liberty.

I did 227 consecutive days onboard and only touched dry land twice, while loading stores on piers, for about 6-7 hours total. I did at least get off the underway watch bill for 7 days while quarantined in medical, but the HMCM had me paint the entire sick bay, since I was a deck guy. Fun. Time. Navy
We did set the Navy UNREP record on that deployment with something over 420 if I remember correctly.

I do believe you un-repped the USS Ranger a few times.

Our primary attachments were to the Kennedy and America battle groups, but I think we did every ship in the Persian Gulf at least a couple of times. The BB's were the coolest ships to have alongside. UNREPping during carrier flight ops was also very cool.

quote:

Originally posted by CaptainMike:
UNREPping during carrier flight ops was also very cool.

Yeah it's pretty wild to walk out in flight gear, looking for your aircraft during flight ops and see a ship right next to the CVN.