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USS HARRY S. TRUMAN's public affairs officer, then-Lt. Greg Hicks, and me on our return trip from a liberty port visit to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, in October 1999. Greg is now a lieutenant commander. |
My entire tour aboard USS HARRY S. TRUMAN was a bittersweet experience. I started the tour on an extremely high note, having only married the love of my life less than two weeks before I reported aboard. It was my first time at a sea command, so I was anxious and concerned about how well I would do, and I was also a freshly-minted first class petty officer, which meant I would be in charge of the other "blue shirts" in my division. I had met some of the people in my division a few months before, when I flew in from Cuba to search for an apartment. But I hadn't met my chief until that first day.
I didn't realize it at the time, but he would wind up being the finest chief I ever worked for and the standard I try to model myself after now. His name is Kevin Mills, and he had only been a chief for a few scant months. He was my age, and was also in my situation: this was his first shipboard tour. Knowing I wasn't in this strange environment alone made it easier to adjust to duty on a ship.
The first six months were almost all done out of an office in a building down the street from where Newport News Shipbuilding was putting the ship together. Duty days were spent on board, but these were simple days when not much was required from any of us, other than the time spent preparing for commissioning. But what I mean is that we weren't fighting fires or flooding at sea or standing at general quarters for hours on end; that would be a few months later. For now, my life revolved around coming home at night to be with my new bride. These early months probably compare to my days in Sasebo for how content I was with myself and the world around me.
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Kevin Mills |
When we finally did hit the ocean, in June 1998, it was an
eye-opening experience. One of the nice things about being assigned to a
pre-commissioning unit was that you never went any where. Sure, you join the
Navy to see the world, but when you finally get married and want to spend some
quality time with your new bride, being a sailor tends to take away from that.
It's just part of the job. But when that fateful day in June rolled around and
we were on our way out to test this brave new ship, I was anxious to see what
the salty air had to offer.
The first time out in early June took us around the Virginia
Capes for four days. I thought it would never end. A busy cascade of people and
noises occupied my senses. These images, produced by the ship's photo lab and
public affairs office, cannot begin to send an uninitiated person on their way
across the open seas, but it does lend a feel to what life alone with just 3,000
of your closest friends can be like. The TRUMAN's commissioning occurred July
25, 1998, and the ship is now an active element of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet.
The ship went under way several times during the rest of the year, mostly for flight deck certification, which meant we were making circles in the capes while pilots qualified for taking off and landing on the flight deck. We did make a few port visits in 1998, including Fort Lauderdale and Mayport, Fla., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. During all these at-sea periods, the longest of which was about six weeks, I thought about Jackie and how much I missed her. I used to have pictures of her taped up over my desk that I would sometimes find myself fixated with, daydreaming about how much fun we were going to have when I got back in port. It was something that kept me going until I did pull in.
The work was also demanding, with media flying on and off practically every day. Our office would escort reporters around the ship, making sure they got the stories and pictures they wanted. I can't even tell you how much you might have read in the newspapers from a "spokesperson aboard the TRUMAN" was myself or someone from our office. We also produced the "Give 'em Hell Herald" every day underway. This was a four-page newspaper featuring mainly wire stories and one or two locally-written stories. We also updated the ship's website daily with stories from the paper.
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The hangar bay was decorated with a Canadian flag in honor of our hosts. |
After the new year, the ship did a few more flight deck "certs" until late March 1999, when we steamed into Newport News Shipbuilding for a four-month yard period to fix broken equipment that was still under warranty. There was nothing major that needed repair; it's just part of the contract in which all equipment is tested out and if anything is not working properly, this is the Navy's last chance to get it fixed without additional charges. This was a great convenience for me, since I was now living in Newport News, just a 15-minute trip from the yard. Plus, this was a sort of down time for us, so our working hours were reduced, and I was home by 3 p.m. nearly every day. But as problems between Jackie and I increased, I began to long for being out to sea, where the hectic work pace kept my mind off things I'd rather not think about.
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Greg Hicks congratulating me after pinning on my enlisted surface warfare specialist designator. |
One thing I did during this time to keep my mind off my problems was concentrate on earning my enlisted surface warfare specialist designator. This certifies that a sailor understands many aspects of how his or her ship operates, both at peace and at war. I earned it in July and was officially pinned by Greg the following month. I was incredibly proud of this accomplishment because it took so much of my time and I wanted it so badly.
The ship pulled out in mid-August for sea trials, and then again a couple weeks later for more certs. In late September, we anchored off of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, for a few days as a liberty port. That was a great time, and I hope to visit there again in the future. I enjoyed it so much, I almost forgot the fact that Jackie had moved out three weeks before.
As the pace of underway periods increased, I received my orders off the ship. At the time, I was very thankful to be leaving, as I usually am by the end of a tour, but now I miss being with my friends in the PAO, escorting media around, working on the daily underway newspaper or just playing cards in the TV studio after work. But the opportunity to go to Intermediate Photojournalism Course at Fort Meade, Md., and then on to Stars and Stripes in Tokyo promised to make the Navy adventure that much more intriguing. But, as with the start of my tour on TRUMAN, it would also be bittersweet.