Living for the simple things in life: Navy

I asked my Son BC to send me information on his days in the Navy this is what he sent me. I laughed and cried at his days serving our Country. This is the only picture I could find with B.C. in his uniform. This was taken after he graduated from bootcamp. He is holding one of the twins.

This is a picture of my very handsome son B.C.

This is a picture of my lovely and beautiful Daughter-in-law Jess.

It was very hard for me when my son told me he was going to go into the Navy. I was only 14 when I had B.C. we grew up together. I posted about this a while back. I'll link to that post.

Living for the simple things in life: The next story of my life

I spent four years in the Navy. I was stationed in Pensacola Florida for School after I went to boot camp in Great Lake Illinois. I was in Pensacola for 6 months and was then sent to serve aboard the USS Detroit. I met up with the ship in Greece and went on to be deployed for six months between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea. I missed my family remendously while away on this deployment. Life aboard the Detroit was unlike anything I had ever experienced. After returning from the deployment, I was living in New Jersey as this was the home port for my ship. I met the women who would later become my wife one week after returning from over seas. She was a feisty one (she is as sweet as can be) and I did not pay her much attention at first. (Ya whatever, my son fell head over heels in love the minute he saw Jess, it was Jess who ignored him Hee, Hee) She was in the Navy as well and I had my own rule not to date Navy girls. She was assigned to the same division as me, and was in my duty section. After a few weeks of getting to know her, I decided to break my rule, I made the right decision. We will be married for 9 years this December and have three wonderful Children. (They have a very good relationship, I love them both very much)

Back to the Navy, the ship was ported in Philadelphia for 4 months for an overhaul about 2 months after we returned from overseas. I lived in a hotel at night, and helped rebuild the ship during my work day. We then began work ups to prepare to go back overseas.

I moved up in rank rather quickly. I was interested in running the flight deck on our ship. We did not have any Airmen assigned to the boat, so the Boatswains mates ran the flight deck for transporting ammunition and food to other ships. The Detroit was a supply vessel. I tested into this rate and passed with flying colors. I worked on the flight deck tying down the air craft when they landed and hooked up the cargo to the Helicopters as they came in to pick up. I did maintenance on the life saving equipment, fire fight gear, and transportation gear. I was later sent to school to become a Landing Signalman enlisted. After this schooling I became the work center Supervisor in charge of the flight decks maintenance and facilities. I was the youngest person in our ships history to fill this position. During flight quarters, I directed air craft. I also directed personnel to move cargo, tie down air craft, and hook up cargo to the air craft upon approach. I was deployed again for a second six month tour oversees. When we were preparing to leave, we thought it was going to be a pretty easy time, but one day after leaving, we were informed that war was eminent with Iraq, and we were being sent immediately to the Middle East. We were supposed to go to Spain for a couple of weeks to take on supplies. I was bummed out, because I was looking forward to spending time in Spain. Have you ever heard the expression, full steam ahead? This is what we did. I had never seen our ship go that fast for a long duration. We went directly to the Middle East through the Suez Canal. We bombed Iraq for a couple of weeks, spent some time waiting to see what would happen next and them we were sent off the Coast of Kosovo. From what we were told, the US was helping the people evacuate as they were being force from their land. I don't know all the detail behind it. We supplied food and other items to the ships around us, and to the people of Kosovo. We were then sent back to the Middle East to finish our tour. I was promoted again after testing to the rank of E5 after being in the Navy for two years and nine months. My rate was BM2.

I could not wait to come back to see my wife and 1 year old son Josh. It was hard to be away from them for all this time. Josh would not come to me at first when I returned, which was pretty hard. (This is very heart breaking to read, I remember this very well).

Upon returning from being oversees, the ship was dry docked in Philadelphia for another overhaul. This time we were in Philly for almost one year. I was nominated and awarded for Senior Sailor of the quarter during my stay in Philly. After completion of the ship's overhaul, my facility was audited for flight deck readiness (AVCERT). We passed with no exception. I passed the requirements to become the Flight Deck Officer during flight quarters as well.

Time came up for me to get out. They offered me quite a few options and bonuses to stay in, but I chose not to. I thought about my decision to leave home and go to the service. I thought about moving every four years and what kind of life this would be for my family. Also, my son would have no roots. I also thought about how hard it was to be away from my family, and decided to become a civilian. Now I am back, and have this crazy Mom that writes novels on the computer for others to read for free. I am working on becoming a millionaire, and was trying to figure out how writing this could help me. I figured it out! The cost to read this is $2.00 per word. As of the last sentence there are 1014 words in 84 sentences. Please pay me $2028 for this article..

(My son thinks he is so funny) He tries to charge me every time I come over to see my grandchildren. : ) We have a great relationship! I love my son very much and yes, I am very proud of him.

This picture was taken when I went to see B.C. and Jess, When my son was station in New Jeresy. This was only the second time I had seen my Grandson sense he was born. (Please excuse the stupid look on my face but I thought my grandson was adorable in the picture).

This is B.C when he was four years old. I had a mission to find a father for B.C. before he started Kindergarden. We were visiting a man that I was going to marry; we were at his Army base. I think every sense we visited this Army Base B.C. wanted to join the Military.

I would not have had to stoop to post these two picture of B.C. had he not made his funny comment about my blogging. This first picture is of B.C. at Christmas opening his presents, I have never seen a more enjoyable child to watch open presents as B.C. To this day B.C. gets this look on his face upon opening gifts. (You might think I'm joking but I am not, I love watching B.C. open presents, Hee, Hee)