Letters Home From Under The Ocean

Here are some letters that I have sent home to my wife while I was on deployment.  These are not all my letters and there was a bunch taken out of my letters that were too personal to share.  But what I have included here will provide a glimpse of what life is like on a US Navy Submarine.

 

USS Jacksonville Leaving Pearl Harbor on Deployment

11/7

I worked out for the first time ever while being underway at sea.  I have always been too busy before. I feel real good; I did the rowing machine for 20 minutes. It is not much of a work out but I am just starting out and I wanted to start out easy. Next time I think I will do a bunch of pushups and sit-ups and maybe just a little of cardio. But we will see I don't have a lot of time to work out, but I really need to do it. I need to loose a lot of weight and I need to eat a lot healthier. But eating healthy is hard since we have no fresh fruit and vegetables. With a six month deployment we have converted all the refrigerators to freezers and so all the fresh fruits and vegetables do not last. Also it is hard to be active in such tight, confined space.

So far this underway is very interesting; we are just transiting right now and are not doing really heavy operations so it is nice we are doing a lot more forward planning and training and not as much on watch evolutions. It is nice not having some time to plan and train my guys vice for some random inspection by an outside organization. It is also exciting as the Navigator because we are driving half way across the world and it is cool being in charge to this major evolution.

One thing of interest is for the last year we had a refrigerator on board but since we are going to be gone on deployment we converted the fridge to a freezer so we can have food keep for longer and we can be out to sea for longer periods of time. But the issue with this is fresh foods to don’t keep since there is no refrigerator to put them in. So vegetables only last for a day or two before they go bad. This means that we have not had fresh vegetables for a long time. So the other day when we pulled in for a few hours we were able to get some and it was amazing how good it tasted. I guess I had missed eating fruits and vegetables and did not realize it. I had to start taking the multi-vitamins because I kept getting cramps in my legs from not having enough vitamins and from standing up for long hours every day.

Well I probably should be going I do have a lot of things I need to do. We have a strike exercise starting in little bit and I need to get ready for that.

I love you Sunny and think of you and the kids all the time. You are in my prayers and hope to see you soon.

11/22

Today is thanksgiving, I totally forgot about it. We were inport Japan a lot longer than we were expecting since our mission changed and all the plans we have been making were completely thrown out the window and we are doing something completely different so I have been working around the clock the last couple of days just trying to get the new set of navigation and operational plans ready for us to go out to sea. And of course we just barely got it done before we went out to sea. The sad part was I was so busy that even though we were inport for almost a week, I could never get off base and see the sights of Japan.  Most of the other officers spent sometime in Tokyo and in Yokohoma but I could not get off base. This is the second time this has happened. This happened when we were in Alaska . So hopefully on our future port visits I will be able to at least see some of the country.

 

USS Jacksonville in Yokohama during deployment

11/28

Weather has been very bad the last few days. We have been in the middle of a storm so every time we try to go up to periscope depth to communicate (we stick antennas out of the water to talk with satellites) the boat has really been thrown around. We would hit 20-30 ft waves and we would be taking 15-20 degree rolls. At first it was sort of fun. A lot like a roller coaster but after a few days of it, it really gets tiring. A little bit of rocking is great to go to sleep with. But when you are trying to sleep and are getting thrown out of the rack or have to hold on to your mattress to not fall out gets pretty tiring. I have not been able to get any sleep for the last few days. I could only imagine how horrible it would be for people a couple of hundred years ago trying to cross the ocean like Lehi’s family crossing in the ship that they made. They had a few days of very hard weather when they rebelled and it must have been horrible for them. It really sucked for me here a lone, but if I had you and the kids here with me it would have been even worse. The kids probably would have been sea sick, and they would not be able to get out of bed or do anything because the waves were so rough.

Also because of the seas (and our mission) we have not been able to ventilate (get new air on the ship) which normally is not a big deal because we generate all our own oxygen and get rid of the carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide so atmospheres stay pretty good, but right now the pressure on the ship is really high. It is pounds higher than the atmosphere at sea level and this increased pressure has caused me to have a lot of pressure on my sinuses and has given me a constant head ache that I can not get rid of.

Well I have done a lot of complaining, but life is not too bad. Relatively speaking, I am doing well. I miss you and the kids a lot but I am happy that I know you guys are safe and being watched over while you are in Korea. I love you Sunny and hope you and the kids stay healthy and well.

 

The Open Ocean--Beautiful

12/2

The officer’s wives and girlfriends made boxes for the wardroom to open up one box for each month.... For the month of November it had a bunch of board games and activities. It was not that much fun but it was nice to have the gesture. Then for December we got each Santa Hats (they look like the red hats that Santa wears) each of them are different (mine has a big yellow smiley face on it), stockings, and some decorations. So we have decorated the wardroom with all the decorations. Someone had brought Christmas lights and we strung them up and a couple of the JOs made snow flakes out of paper. So now the wardroom looks very Christmassy. I like it, it reminds me more of home.

It might be a few days before you get this message, we have another big storm coming through and because of it communications on and off the boat are really bad. We are again in heavy seas. It really is not bad when we are deep but when we are shallow and trying to communicate it really gets nasty.

 

Me wearing my Santa Hat

12/6

I have been out to sea now for a few weeks with out a port call and there is something weird that happens to people around this time when they are together for long periods of time with out a break. In the submarine force we call it “hate week”. It actually usually lasts a couple of weeks long because people to get it at the same time so it spreads out over a couple of weeks. But what happens is people start getting irritable and cranky because they are forced to be around the same people all the time with out a break. And it just makes people cranky. Well we are going through “hate week” right now. It is almost amusing watching people argue or freak out about nothing. Some people get it really bad…I know have had a couple of flare-ups with guys that I really did not need to. But this usually passes after a couple of weeks and guys calm down. And it is something that if you know about it you can better control it.

 

Water going over the bow of the USS Jacksonville

12/10

I am sorry that I have not written the last few days. I have been pretty busy. I had to decide if I should sleep or write an email and normally I would just want to sleep. I have been so busy with navigation planning and standing watch and in general being involved in the many little crisis of my department that I have not had much time to sleep or write you an email.

One of my guy’s wife just had a baby while he has been out to sea and I had to work to try and get him a chance to phone home. But he was able to yesterday so that was a success. Then another one of my guys got the idea that the command hated him and that he was never going to get qualified a specific watch and demanding a transfer because of something I had said. I had told him that in order to qualify the watch he needed to grow up more and be more mature. My intentions were to try to motivate him to actually be more mature but he took my comments which I had meant to be motivational and he heard: that he will never qualify the watch station and the command hates him. I did not know that he took it that way until he was demanding a transfer. I had a hard time convincing him that he did not understand what I had meant and I feel really bad for making him feel so bad.

You know the things that cause me the most worry and stress from my job is not the nav planning or operations but the personnel issues. It is telling a guy that he cant be home for the birth of his child because he is needed out at sea. It is dealing with the guy who is an all star in every way but shows up to work drunk. It is dealing with guys who’s personnel lives are falling apart.

 

LA Class Submarine at Sea

12/12

We had a brief stop for some supplies yesterday and received some fresh fruit. I did not realize how much I was missing fresh fruit and vegetables and milk. We have been drinking powder milk for the last few weeks and it was wonderful drinking normal cow milk. Also last night for dinner we had a garden salad and I have to admit I was more interested in the salad than I was in the pork chops. I am eating some grapes right now. It is great. The funny thing is with 150 guys on board you have to eat as much as you can quickly or everyone else will eat it all before you get a chance. I guess we are like a pack of wild dogs. I know you probably don’t really want to hear this but since I have been eating a lot of fruit and vegetables the last day I have had to go to the bathroom a lot. But it is worth it.

At the current moment, things are going pretty well for me. But of course since I have just written this I am sure that something bad is going to happen and I will have a lot of stress and issues. I know that I don’t deal with stress all that well. How I want to deal with it is to shut up and isolate myself from the world and I know that this is not healthy and does not solve anything. I know that it is a lot better to just open up and discuss my problems, so I will try to do this more.

 

Me up on the Bridge

12/13

Well I have been under the water for a few weeks now. I have not had any sun and now we are going to be on the surface and transit for a few days on the surface. So I will spend a lot of time on the surface in the sun. I have been looking forward to it. In away it reminds me of Grandpa Lloyd because when he was on submarines during WWII, he was around this area and unlike now, they almost always spent their time on the surface. They would usually transit and stay on the surface most of the time and only submerge when they were close to the enemy and they were getting ready to shoot torpedoes. Now we are almost always submerged and only surface when we have to. This boat reacts different than Grandpa’s boat did. His had a pointed bow and keel that cut through the water while mine is completely round. So his handled a lot better on the surface while mine bobs around in the waves a lot more like a cork.

Any ways I don’t know if I am coming down with a cold or something but I have been pretty tired lately. I guess I might just need to get longer rest. I can’t sleep for more than 3 to 4 hours before being woken up for some issue or other and I think this might be taking a toll on me. But we will pull in somewhere in a few days and I will be able to relax for a little while. I am really looking forward to it.

It sounds like you and the kids are doing really well. That is wonderful to hear. I have not received an email for the last few days. I am sure it is because we have not had the opportunity to copy email because of the high transit time we have been doing lately and I know you probably will receive two to three emails from me at the same time for the same reason. But for the next few days while we are on the surface we should have a good chance of communicating on and off the ship regularly.

 

USS Paddle (SS 263),  My Grandpa's Sub

12/14

I stood watch last night on the bridge (the top of the boat when on the surface). It was great. It is very humid down here and it rained for about an hour so my clothes got all soaked. But it was nice. There was a big thunderstorm on the horizon and it was completely lighting up the sky. It was very beautiful. And at the same time there were major portions of the sky that was completely clear and without all the light pollution of any cities around the stars were very bright. There was no moon last night so it allowed the stars to shine very bright.

If you were wondering, if the thunderstorm came close to us we would have to go below decks and secure the hatch. It would have been very dangerous to be the tallest thing around on the top of a big metal boat. So we were preparing to go below if we needed to but we never needed to. I don’t like most of the things that I do for my job. Actually I hate most things I do, but the one thing that I really really love is to be on the bridge in the open ocean like I was last night. Some times it is so cold and nasty that you do not want to be up there but last night it was perfect.

 

Thunderstorm at Sea

12/16/12

So the last time I emailed I said how nice it was on the bridge. Well this time it was horrible for about an hour. For an hour it was raining. But raining really does not describe it. Rain was not falling down it was hitting me from the horizon. And rain gives the idea of drops but these were not drops. It was more like streams of water. It was more like a fire hose was spraying us for about an hour. But then after that it cleared up and was pretty nice. The only bad part I was completely soaked so even though it was nice it was uncomfortable standing there in completely soaked clothes.

We are going to be in port for in a couple of days. I am really looking forward to this. I am really tired of being out to sea. I am really tired of my job and look to have a couple of days laying out on and relaxing. I do have duty on the 25th but I had asked for it. I owed the WEPS from taking my duty day right before you left, Sunny, and so I figured I would take one here for him. But having duty on Christmas is not too bad. I know there will be no work that is going-on on Christmas. So it should be a nice quiet duty day.

I forgot Isaac’s birthday. I know it really does not matter because: first off he can not read this, second I don’t know when you will get this email, and third I have been really busy so I am the only one who cares here anything about Isaac’s birthday. I can’t believe how old he his getting. He is already 5 years old! It seems like only yesterday he was born and he fit completely in my hand. Now he is a big little boy. Please give him some extra hugs and kisses from me.

 

Cool Ocean Pic

12/19

I had to shave today. It was the first time I shaved in quite a while. I really got used to not shaving and I really did not want to. I wanted to let it grow out more. But of course I would not be allowed off the boat with a beard so I had to shave it. I did leave the moustache though. I really hate the mustache even though I liked the beard. So now I have the worst of two worlds but I will survive…

Every Wednesday is my laundry day and I was putting my clothes away after they were washed and realized I only used two pairs of garments in a week’s period. This means that I had only showered twice in a week’s period. Most guys don’t shower that much underway. Most go around every other watch or around 36 to 48 hrs to shower. But me only showering twice a week is pretty nasty. Especially with the last week being on the surface, I was rained on and had sea spray keep me covered in salt. So I really should have showered a lot more than I have, but I guess I am just really lazy.

Me in my Stateroom.  You can see pictures of my kids taped to the walls of my rack.

12/31

Today is new years eave. We are shifting clocks to Zulu time (Greenwich Mean Time) since where we are going, local time is only a couple of hours off of that and all our message traffic and operations are done in Zulu time it will be easier to be in Zulu time. But that means that we are shifting clocks six hours today. So instead of today being 24 hrs long it is going to be 30 hrs long. We are not doing anything special for New Years; I plan on being asleep for it. It is just another day.

I had to weigh in yesterday for the PRT. A couple of days earlier I was over weight. I have to weigh no more than 211 to be within regulation and I weight 215 so I decided I would not eat or drink anything until I was under weight and it took about 36 hrs before I was underweight. The funny thing is that my body weight did not gradually go down.  I stayed at 215 for around 24 hrs and then dropped like a rock the last 12 hrs. When I weighted in I was actually 208.

Anyways I need to go. I love you

 

Me on the bridge, trying not to get hit by the radar above my head

I had written a lot more messages than this but the rest contained a lot more personal information that I am not going to share or were not that interesting

USS Jacksonville pulling into port