i know, i haven't posted in a while... blame it on computer problems!!! i am going back to my computer tomorrow!!! for today... david sent me this post a week ago, and i was waiting to post it so i could include his pictures. but, i can't get my mom's computer to work, so the pics will have to be another post. but rather than put this off any longer... here is a wonderful email from my darling husband. we have been able to skype the last two saturdays (today and last week...). it has been great for me to see him! the kids and i get on a LONG airplane ride tomorrow and are home tomorrow night. i am a little sad about going home to an empty house, but it has been fun being here!!!
Hello and Konichiwa from the Pacific!
Thanks so much to all of our friends and family who have kept our
whole family (Michelle, the kids, myself and O'Kane) in your thoughts
and prayers. As you may have seen from Michelle's posts a couple of
weeks ago, leaving for many months was a very difficult experience,
one of the toughest of my life. The night before departing, reading
the kids bedtime stories for the last time, was particularly rough.
So too was saying goodbye to Michelle the morning before we left. I
have been on deployments before, but never this long and never with
kids- we have been very blessed in this respect. It was definitely
not easy, but after being underway and being able to settle in to
somewhat of a routine, things have become much more settled.
As you may have gathered from some of Michelle's previous posts, we
have something in the military called OPSEC, or Operational Security.
It is a term we use to safeguard information that, although
Unclassified, could be pieced together to determine the operational
schedule fo a ship. Essentially what this means is that I cannot
share any specifics of upcoming port visits, events, or ship's
movements or missions. Everything I share will be "after the fact"-
meaning that I can only share it in detail after it has already
occurred. Thus, when this is posted, I can share with you that we
were recently in the port of Sasebo, Japan, which is located on the
southwestern Home Island of Kyushu, and is home to one of two US Navy
ports in the Home Islands (Yokosuka, near Tokyo, is the other). We
are here for some operational tasking, the nature of which I will talk
about in a later post.
Deployment so far has been quite busy. Much of my day revolves around
my watch schedule. I stand watch as the Tactical Action Officer
(TAO), in charge of employing the ship's weapons, sensors,
communication systems and data links. TAO's are the Captain's direct
representative in charge of maintaining the tactical readiness of the
ship, and if necessary employing weapons. Right now we rotate four
people through the TAO watch, meaning that I will be "on watch" for 5
out of every 20 hours. The rest of my schedule- meeting, briefings,
paperwork, inspections, training, eating, sleeping, working out and
having "down time"- all revolves around watch. Some days are rougher
than others- this past week I had three days in a row of less than 5
hours of sleep, which can wear you down. The trick is to prioritize
effectively, and to know what needs to get done now vice what can be
put off until tomorrow. Hopefully that gives you a peek into my daily
schedule- in future posts I will write more about the people I work
with, what kind of routine and non-routine issues I deal with, what
going into and out of port is like, and any fun tidbits about
different areas of the world we go to. If you have any questions you
would like me to try and answer as well, please let me know- I can be
reached at david.haile@ddg77.navy.mil. I have sent some pictures for
the blog with captions of some of my sailors working to load various
weapons systems on the ship- hopefully it gives you some idea of the
great sailors I have the honor to lead and work with. Thanks again
for all your thoughts and prayers- they mean the world to me!
God Bless,
David
Thanks so much to all of our friends and family who have kept our
whole family (Michelle, the kids, myself and O'Kane) in your thoughts
and prayers. As you may have seen from Michelle's posts a couple of
weeks ago, leaving for many months was a very difficult experience,
one of the toughest of my life. The night before departing, reading
the kids bedtime stories for the last time, was particularly rough.
So too was saying goodbye to Michelle the morning before we left. I
have been on deployments before, but never this long and never with
kids- we have been very blessed in this respect. It was definitely
not easy, but after being underway and being able to settle in to
somewhat of a routine, things have become much more settled.
As you may have gathered from some of Michelle's previous posts, we
have something in the military called OPSEC, or Operational Security.
It is a term we use to safeguard information that, although
Unclassified, could be pieced together to determine the operational
schedule fo a ship. Essentially what this means is that I cannot
share any specifics of upcoming port visits, events, or ship's
movements or missions. Everything I share will be "after the fact"-
meaning that I can only share it in detail after it has already
occurred. Thus, when this is posted, I can share with you that we
were recently in the port of Sasebo, Japan, which is located on the
southwestern Home Island of Kyushu, and is home to one of two US Navy
ports in the Home Islands (Yokosuka, near Tokyo, is the other). We
are here for some operational tasking, the nature of which I will talk
about in a later post.
Deployment so far has been quite busy. Much of my day revolves around
my watch schedule. I stand watch as the Tactical Action Officer
(TAO), in charge of employing the ship's weapons, sensors,
communication systems and data links. TAO's are the Captain's direct
representative in charge of maintaining the tactical readiness of the
ship, and if necessary employing weapons. Right now we rotate four
people through the TAO watch, meaning that I will be "on watch" for 5
out of every 20 hours. The rest of my schedule- meeting, briefings,
paperwork, inspections, training, eating, sleeping, working out and
having "down time"- all revolves around watch. Some days are rougher
than others- this past week I had three days in a row of less than 5
hours of sleep, which can wear you down. The trick is to prioritize
effectively, and to know what needs to get done now vice what can be
put off until tomorrow. Hopefully that gives you a peek into my daily
schedule- in future posts I will write more about the people I work
with, what kind of routine and non-routine issues I deal with, what
going into and out of port is like, and any fun tidbits about
different areas of the world we go to. If you have any questions you
would like me to try and answer as well, please let me know- I can be
reached at david.haile@ddg77.navy.mil. I have sent some pictures for
the blog with captions of some of my sailors working to load various
weapons systems on the ship- hopefully it gives you some idea of the
great sailors I have the honor to lead and work with. Thanks again
for all your thoughts and prayers- they mean the world to me!
God Bless,
David
No comments:
Post a Comment