Back to where it all began. . .

So we're back in Iwakuni, Japan. . . have been since December 4th actually, but it's been a busy time since then with flights, maintenance, training, travels, and a certain visitor (covered in the next entry) taking up most of my time for the past few weeks. I'll try to add a bit more "meat" to this blog, but there will be quite a few pictures to go along with the writing. Not much going on for the first couple of weeks, but I think it's enough to write about at least!

The pack-up went well on the boat, but unfortunately not everything I had in my room fit into the bags I had, so I left some select items behind that I won't be needing back here. Anyway, at least the flight from the boat up to Iwakuni went rather smoothly. As usual, we flew into Fukuoka to refuel on the way north (to include the pictured view of the Yahoo! Dome).

Last Sunset from the Deck of the Essex (for now)

Yahoo Dome - Home of the SoftBank Hawks

The relief of leaving the boat only led us to another project for the detachment. We had only a couple of days to prepare for a meticulous inspection of our aircraft by the Maintenance Officer of the Wing in charge of our squadron. They checked for everything from corrosion and material condition all the way into the system and process we use to keep our birds flying. The maintainers did some pretty amazing work to get them ready, but I still think we would have rather relaxed after the long fall underway. Oh, and in case you're more curious, we actually made the base news station's daily news report (watch the first 2 minutes):

I'm not sure if we could always deploy on 24 hours notice, but I'd say we're usually pretty close to that. (especially if both aircraft are actually working at the time)

The bulk of our detachment changed over to a new group on the 10th, and when the old gang left, so did my duties as division officer (for the most part). It has so far been a nice relief from the paperwork, hotel arrangements, and travel payments, but the new job (training/safety/communications officer) hasn't exactly been a vacation. Oddly enough, the comms officer part sounds innocent enough, but dealing with emails, computers, and equipment for the whole detachment involves enough paperwork to keep me occupied pretty much every day. Add to that the fact that I'm still studying for my upcoming HAC boards, and I can usually fill up my weeks. Between our return to Iwakuni and the visit from Maddie, there were a few more "interesting" events besides work, so I'll cover the highlights.

Army/Navy

It was nothing like being at the game, or for that matter, even watching it in Utah, Pensacola, or wherever I've been before. The game started at 2am, but the 3 USNA grads on our Det woke up from our evening naps to watch another Black Knight Beatdown. We left the TV room around halfway through the 4th quarter to get a couple more hours of sleep before work, but of course I stayed up to watch the last few minutes. Good thing it didn't stay exciting for too long because I think I was too sleepy to be nervous or anxious!

Hector, Dan, and Boss enjoying some warm-up refreshments

Even one of the Aggies joined us for some of the game.

Go Navy

Det Party

We rented out the party room at the bowling alley to celebrate the end of one detachment and the arrival of the new crew. Unfortunately for a few of us, the "end" is still a couple months away. The party was still a good time though. Free bowling, prizes for almost everyone (gag gifts for the officers... the JG's got pacifiers), pizza & wings, and of course, a pie-in-the-face contest. People pitched in money on behalf of who they wanted to see the pie go to. I got pictures of the other two targets, but the "after" picture of Mark's pie pretty much gives you the idea. I'm not sure of the final count, but I think we raised about 2 or 3 hundred dollars for the next group to use for a party or whatever we need during our stops.


Basketball

On the base in Iwakuni, there isn't much to do besides eat, but we found a good group of us who enjoy some good basketball. I'm not saying that the NBA scouts should be here, but we're good enough to make a fun game out of it. I didn't bring my camera to most of the games, but we had one outdoor occassion that allowed for a few good pics.

The court was sort of a hard turf, but the sand on the top made for interesting footing

Mark Ziegler powering in for the layupFloating on thin air!

Take notes on this series, text-book form
count it.

Karaoke etc.

The new Mark in the group is as musical as about anyone I've met, so of course, we had to make time for some Karaoke outings in town. On more than one occasion, we turned a pretty quiet bar into quite a party.

Pre-Karaoke party at "Terry's Place"

One of the Patrons even brought her dog along.
Out again for some tunes. . . This duet brought the house down
The crowd that actually stuck around for the singing.