I've learned a lot of Naval history on this tour... names of ships especially. I took the opportunity to go to Mt. Samat, a 90 meter cross shrine on top of the mountain, dedicated to the memory of those lost in the Bataan Death March. I had heard of the Bataan death march but never read the history. In case you haven't, here is a summary. World War II The Bataan Death March began as a plea for life. Men were tired, weak, lacking food and the 70-mile march from Mariveles (on the tip of Bataan) to San Fernando was a trial that tested a man, broke him, or got him killed. On April 9, 1942, American and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula on West Luzon Island in the Philippines decided that they would not ... read more

Looking around for a legitimate dive shop, I am quite concerned about getting Jeremy "safe" gear. I mean, I have my own, I'll be okay, but every shop I go into treats me like a child and Jeremy lets me do the talking when it comes to diving. Smart man Anyway, I keep getting annoyed, so we go down to have some lunch in the Barrio. It's not too crazy during the day and Blue Rock is a pretty nice spot. In essence, it doesn't have as many hookers and the food is good, though the beach hawkers are just as annoying as the guys outside the pier gate. We see a dive flag. Jeremy had googled diving and Blue Rock had been a listing, so we walk over to check it out. We talk ... read more

This is mostly just so I can post some photos of me and my guys on the ship, but there is a story behind the photos. I will talk a little about that. For you non-military types, well, a ship is broken down into department that work (hopefully) like a well-oiled machine. There is Operations, Deck, Air, Engineering, Navigation, a few others... and then there is Supply. I seriously think they took everything else they couldn't find a normal department to run and made it supply. Food, mail, repair parts, consumable materials, ship's store, laundry. You name it, Supply takes care of it. If you need to find mocha starbucks coffee for the Admiral while you're steaming in the North Arabian Gulf, or maybe Diet Dr. Pepper is his/her fave drink, a Supply team can get ... read more

Majuro, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the flagship, Richard Byrd. It's continuing mission, to explore strange, new islands... to care for people and animals and to boldly go where no Supply Officer has gone before. Okay, that was a little dramatic, you catch my drift. My final place to enjoy my Veterinary experience... I truly don't want it to end. Who says the Army, Navy, Air Force and Public Health Service can't work together? They should have seen all the fun we had! As the last stop, my boss was really great about letting me go out every day with the team. I really didn't have much else to do, so he was happy to accommodate. Thank goodness for my great boss, because this turned out to be the spot where I got ... read more

The only way I've heard of any part of Kiribati is that the Navy has an amphibious assault ship called the Tarawa. My grandfather was on one of the Tarawa ships, I think it was a destroyer at that time though. Kiribati (pronounced Kee-ree-bahs) is an island group in Micronesia straddling the equator and, until 1995, the International Date Line. It is located in the Pacific Ocean along the edges of the Equator and includes the Gilbert, Phoenix and Line island groups. Most are uninhabited and are the protruding tips of undersea volcanoes, extending only a few feet above sea level. Kiribati's 33 atolls are scattered over an area of 3.5 million km². The waters surrounding Kiribati witnessed intense whaling activities in the 19th century and the islands were an important battlefield during World War II. ... read more