Day 26. Aviation Week.

24 JUNE 2012
1245

On Tuesday of Aviation week, Alpha and Bravo met for a welcome aboard brief at NB North Island with the Commander that organized the week's events for us. It informed us it would be lot of hurry and wait, but we were all expecting that.

They split us up, half would be flying the helo's and the other half the T-34's. I went to the Helo's and magically got selected to be in the first group flying! We got our head gear and walked across the flight deck to the SH-60 Bravo Seahawk. Let me tell you it was AMAZING. I was lucky to be sitting in the gunner's seat on the starboard side of the helo. It was cool because I had my own little personal window and got the best views if you ask me.  We flew for about 30 minutes but it went by way too quickly. We flew along the USA/Mexico border, threw the hills, and got great views of Coronado/Imperial beach, the NB San Diego ship yard, downtown SD... everywhere!

The ride in the Seahawk was awesome. Honestly, naval aviation has never been on my radar simply because I've never been exposed to it and thus never considered it as a future career path. After learning about helo's and riding in one, it's definitely sparked my interest. I like the idea of humanitarian assistance too, which helo's are often involved in. I felt comfortable in the air, and I don't know too much about aviation but I'm definitely interested in learning more about it.

Well the "June gloom" finally started going away this past week so the weather was amazing! (This was not only good for beach days, but also for clear skies in order to do aerobatics in the T-34's!) Unfortunately, liberty didn't start until 1700 so myself and a few friends found ourselves at the pool on base. We all laid out got some rays and played around in the pool. I got dinner at the galley with Chris before heading back to Donelley.

The first few weeks during CORTRAMID, everyone wants to GO OUT. We ate out, did lots of activities, spent money like we all owned the place. After about the second week though, our money had been depleted and suddenly the mediocre but free food at the galley didn't seem so bad...

In the gunner's seat!

The pilots.

Just a view out my window.

SH-60 Bravo Seahawk

My two favorites!

JJ!

Future aviator?

View of Point Loma out of the helo.

Look what I just flew in!

Back to blogging!

24 JUNE 2012
1236

The reason I didn't stay on top of my blogging was because if I had any free time, I spent it with my friends. It was our last week and suddenly the thought of never seeing these people again was depressing. So I made the most of the time we had left together and honestly wouldn't have changed a thing about my last week at CORTRAMID.

So here I am, sitting at my Aunt's house in my comfy Queen bed, still in my pajam's at half past 12 in the afternoon. This really is the life, sleeping in and being lazy. But I miss my friends being around all the time and going out to explore San Diego. So now I'm listening to Country music to remind me of flying down the freeway on our way to Coronado Beach windows down blasting 93.7 Country KSON. What a way to kick off my summer!

After talking with a few of my friends about CORTRAMID, I realized that not everyone had as great of an experience as I did. I guess it's how you go into a month long of training and your mindset that really affects your experience. I went in with an open mind, excited for the once in a lifetime opportunities, and made LOTS of friends that I really hope I meet again one day in the fleet. I took full advantage of being apart of absolutely everything possible and while I'm glad the month is over and I can get on with my summer, I'm very thankful for my entire CORTRAMID experience.


After I finish this post, I'll go back and finish out my last week (Aviation Week) of blogs. I have Tuesday-Friday to update and it was probably the coolest week so I can't wait to talk about it!

Day 25. Aviation Week.

18 JUNE 2012
0708

It's barely 0700 and I've been awake for 3 hours already. Today has probably been our earliest morning, and now we're waiting for a brief to start.

Well the brief started and I had to put my phone away and it's 1105 now. We've done so much this morning and it's not even noon. It's even crazier to think that with all we've done this morning, some people are just now waking up!

So after our welcome aboard message we had an intro brief regarding emergency situations and safety precautions. The lady was super nice and really made the boring brief relatively entertaining. After about an hour, we got changed into our swimsuits to start our water training evolutions.

We started with a breaststroke swim then an underwater swim back and forth across the width of the pool. We threaded water and drown proofed for 30 seconds each as well. Once we showed we were capable of that, we got geared up in our flight suits.

The gear included a flight suit, boots, gloves, helmet, and floatation device. We swam the length of the pool, approximately 25 yards, then drown proofed for 2 minutes before having to manually inflate our life vests. I felt like I was the flight attendant doing the preflight safety precautions for real blowing into the little red tubes on the side. Haha.

The swim qual was relatively easy and I really enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun! The salt water was warm so that was nice too. Some people didn't pass which was a bummer but I think that just means that they won't be able to fly over water, only land. Which is no big deal if you ask me.

There were showers to rinse the salt water off before changing back into our dry flight suits. It's lunch time and I'm currently sitting in a lecture room. Some people are sleeping, some listening to their iPods, others playing on their phones, and the rest of them socializing. I wish I would have brought my ear phones to be able to listen to my music. But I learned my lesson today and won't forget them tomorrow!

Especially since tomorrow we're flying! Which means lots of waiting around.

At 1145 we're going into our next set of classes. I think ones on parachutes and bail out training again, but I'm not sure on the other one. We should be back to base around 4, which means plenty of time for liberty.

Wonder what the rest of the day has in store! :)

Day 24.

17 JUNE 2012
1114

I know I haven't updated the past two days, but all I've really done was hang out with friends and beach it! The weather is surprisingly AMAZING and I even got sunburnt!! I'm so proud. Hopefully when we finish today I'll be able to go to the beach again :)

Anyway, I'm blogging from my phone right now because I wanted to share my morning. Yesterday we got fitted for our flight suits and today we're wearing them! We mustered at 0940 to head over to Naval Base North Island We're practicing bail out training today because we start flying on Tuesday. We sat in a T-34, got all strapped in and went over bail out procedures. Tomorrow we have our swim test that we have to pass in order to fly too.

Being in these flight suits is sweet! They're super comfy and good looking too. Just being in a flight suit makes me want to be an aviator. But do I really wanna fly? We'll see.

Days 20-21. Sub Week.

15 JUNE 2012
1733

It's been a busy past few days since I've last blogged! On Wednesday the 13th, we mustered at 0900 to start our adventure to the submarine! There was a lot of hurry and wait, but we finally made it to the airport of North Island. My group got to fly half way and take the tug the remainder of the way.

I've only toured a fast attack, so I was expecting very limited space. However, the SSBN was HUGE! Once we boarded the sub and took our last breath of fresh air for the next 24 hours, we were divided into 4 groups and assigned to a group leader. My group leader was LT Dunn. He was awesome! I knew he'd be cool after I saw him in his American flag toms.

On the sub, it's a much more relaxed environment. We were regular tennis shoes (or in LT Dunn's case, Tom's) and one guy even wore his Sperry's. The guys aren't even forced to shave! Although they do normal keep a clean face. I did see lot's of mustaches though...

When we first arrived we were given Snickers, M&M's, candy, and trail mix. Little did we know this would be the first of the continuous food they would shower us with. LT Dunn gave us a tour of the boat and showed us where our berthing was and we were given free time to explore. Since we were only at PD (periscope depth) I went up to the bridge to take a look. It was quite the climb! I also looked out the periscope which is always cool too.

A couple hours after boarding we "Dive, Dive, Dive!" I was sitting in the officer's study, and watching the depth increase was crazy. It went from 65 to a few hundred feet deep VERY quickly. I always thought I would freak out being underwater in a sub, but it was honestly no different than being inside a ship except subs don't rock and roll and actually, being inside a sub is more like being inside a building with no windows. It's smooth, steady, and roomy.

Two groups had dinner in the wardroom while the other two ate in the mess deck with the enlisted. We had spaghetti and it was REALLY GOOD. In fact, the food was probably the best part. Only a couple hours after dinner we had angles and dangles where right after, we were given pizza and cake and grapes. I was so stuffed from dinner I didn't eat any pizza (ok, I had a bite) but I had some grapes!

The sub performed some maneuvering transients and engineering drills, but I hung out with my friends in our berthings. Right before pizza we also did angles and dangles. It's sooo fun! Since the sub was at such a steep angle, I could do a pushup and push myself up into a standing position. People were hanging from the ceiling too! So fun.

Going into sub week, we all thought for sure we'd stay up all 24 hours. But after watching Anchorman in the wardroom, we were all super tired. and to be honest, there really wasn't that much to do.... so I went to sleep. I had my alarm set for 0500 to wake up for breakfast, but I didn't make it... so we woke up at 0700 when the MC1 told us to get out of bed.

Then, it was "WAR TIME!" I went down to the torpedo room where we got to climb inside the tube and write our names. Crazy to think that a simple hatch separates me from being absolutely crushed under hundreds of feet of water. They shot water slugs for entertainment purposes and we had a DC Olympics. We were split into four groups to race against each other to "put out the fire." My team got 2nd place. I really enjoyed the DC Olympics. It was the most engaging activity we did. However, since we were in the presence of fighting a "fire" we had to wear those masks and (never do I ever) get claustrophobic, but those masks freak me out. Still, it was a lot of fun.

I got to have lunch in the wardroom with the CO. The lunch menu included:
Tomato soup and salad
spicy chicken fingers
shrimp scampi
brown rice
green beans
biscuits
apple sauce cake and vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup

I have probably gained at least a solid 5 lbs from CORTRAMID. They feed us so much.

After lunch, we got changed back into our boots, said our goodbyes, and waited on the tug to pick us up. I was and wasn't looking forward to the tug ride. It was 5 hours long. I mainly slept, but visited with some friends off and on as well. Finally had my feet back on solid ground and was pretty happy too.

Spending these two days are the sub were such an adventure. I have solidified my inkling that maybe subs aren't for me into subs definitely aren't for me. I go stir crazy much too easily when I have to stay in one place too long, and I was only on the sub for 24 hours and I was going crazy. However, their missions and objectives are some of the coolest and craziest and most admirable of them all. Submarine warfare is necessary and for those who want to go subs, I believe the experience will be truly enriching and everything they want to get out of being a Naval officer.

I'll keep my head above the ocean in the sunshine personally though :)

Day 19. Sub Week.

12 JUNE 2012
2302

Today has been a lovely day. We mustered at 0830 and left relatively quickly. Today's agenda included a tour of the Deep Submergence Unit over on Naval Base North Island. We got there, had a PPT regarding what the actual DSU is, toured the grounds, and was supposed to have a talk from the Capt.

Once we got there, the LT took over. He's a submarine officer who said, just like the majority of the sub-o's, that he really enjoyed his service time and wouldn't have had it any differently, however he's getting out now that he's done with his commitment time. He gave us a PPT presentation explaining what the DSU does.

The DSU are the ones who go in and rescue submarines. So if anything goes wrong they allow themselves 72 hours and can be anywhere in the world to rescue whoever is trapped at the bottom of the ocean. They only can help out at a depth of 2000 ft. but subs aren't designed to go any deeper anyway. He explained their different forms of rescue and during the tour showed them to us.

My personal favorite was this Michelin Man looking suit that a Navy diver operates. It too can go to a depth of 2000 ft.

I'm not sure all the details of what I'm allowed to share, but just know the DSU will be there to rescue you if you ever find yourself stranded at the bottom of the ocean.

The best part of this tour was that we were back on base by 1045! And the rest of the day we were free to go out on liberty. Colleen still wasn't back yet (sad bonnie) but I was happy to have Sam and a marine option female from U of Virginia, Stephanie, join me for a trip to the beach. It was a beautiful morning so we made plans with the Scott, Jake, Rayne, and Bryan to meet up at the beach after lunch. By the time we got there around 1300, the clouds rolled in (June gloom sucks) but we still laid out and hung out. I eventually fell asleep only to wake up to find that more friends had joined us so it was a fun time.

I kept my tank top on but took my shorts off. It was so overcast, but as I was getting out of the shower tonight, I did notice an extreme difference in skin color. Happy to finally get some color on my legs!

After we left the beach, the girls and I went to Panera Bread for dinner. We were all craving something warm, so we got bread bowl soups! Delicious. Panera Bread is definitely one of my favorites!

Since bowling last night with Bryan didn't work out, we decided to go tonight. When we got there, we had a little bit of a wait until a lane was open so we invited Chris (they were finally back from the submarine underway!) and Sam. The 4 of us bowled 3 games and had a blast. I'm horrible at bowling but I still love it. It was a super fun way to end our day.

Now I sit here blogging when I should be sleeping. I took a shower when I got in around 2215. Tomorrow I go underway on an SSBN (a Boomer). We don't muster until 0915, but Chris thinks it will be a great idea to get breakfast together at 0630. It's tempting to skip and be able to sleep an extra 2 hours and not wake up until 8, but I can sleep any time and don't wait to miss any meals with my friends. Bryan and Chris are 2 friends I am definitely going to miss.

Tomorrow they are going to fly us to an unknown location before boarding and spending 24 hours underway. I'm nervous but looking forward to it a lot! Submarines do some seriously cool stuff. I'll be back late Thursday evening after taking a 5-6 hours tug boat ride back to land. Not looking forward to that but I'll probably just sleep.

Getting sleepy now. Can't wait for those fake eggs tomorrow morning!

Day 18. Sub Week.

21 JUNE 2012
1833

These past two days have been awesome! It's Sub Week, so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect but it's been fun.

Yesterday, we mustered at 0730. We headed over to Naval Base Point Loma, an ASW (Anti-Submarine Wareface) base. There we got the chance to do the DC (damage control) trainer, the wet trainer, and the "driving the submarine" trainer. (I don't remember the actual name for that last one...)

They split my group into 4 different smaller groups where we then split up to do the activities. My group went to the "driving the sub" trainer first. It was totally cool. I got to be the lee-helmsman and control the steering. Jake was the helmsman at the time and the Sub chief that was working with us pretending to be the OOD (officer of the deck/officer on the deck... something like that). There were 10 of us in the real life cutout of a submarine pilot house. The chief gave us orders and played around with speed and what not and it was so fun! The simulator had hydraulics and whatnot so we went at some crazy turns and angles.

After we finished with the simulator, we had lunch at the galley. The food was totally awesome! Then it was my groups turn to head over to the wet trainer.

The wet trainer has by FAR been one of the coolest things I've done within the past 3 weeks! You're enclosed in this room with pipes and the "engine" of the sub that has to be kept away from rising water and as dry as possible (which is impossible). There are multiple random leaks in the pipes that have to be patched up by us. My group of about 10 went in, we were given coveralls and sperry's to wear since we were going to get soaked. I personally have this pet peeve of getting wet when I'm not physically in a bathing suit or swimming attire. However, once I was down in the wet trainer and I was walking around in waist high water with water spraying at me from absolutely every angle possible, I embraced it and got super into it.

We're given tool bags with leak fixing tools like wrenches, adam's patches, rubber and rope, etc. And while we're down there (lasted approximately 15-20 minutes) they play with the lights, which was totally unexpected. So it went from being totally lit, to dim lights, to dark with red lights. It was a stressful situation, but I did my best to keep calm and fix the leaks.

My favorite memory was watching one of the Marine options attempt to patch one of the leaks. He had an adam's patch that would fit about a 5 in diameter pipe around a pipe that was about 3 inches in diameter. He was stressing out and legitimately couldn't figure out why it wasn't working. I went over there to help and couldn't help but laugh. He looked at me with the most panicked "help" look, ridden with innocence and worry. I'll never forget that face or how impressed he was when I pulled out an adam's patch that actually fit the pipe.

When I say you got soaked during the wet trainer, I mean you might have well just jumped into a swimming pool. They had us bring a towel, undershirt, socks, and underwear to change into afterwards (as this is all you wear under the coveralls), but do you think they reminded the females to bring a sports bra? Nope. And since they literally gave us 3 minutes to run back upstairs to grab those items since they forgot to tell us what to bring the night before, grabbing one didn't even cross my mind. Thus, (laugh all you want) but myself and at least one of the other females, were braless for the remainder of the day. To be honest, it was better than having a soaking wet sports bra on! Plus, under our NWU blouse, you couldn't even tell. So females reading this, don't forget your sports bra even when the males don't remind you to bring one!

After the wet trainer, we met up with the other half of our large group to tour an SSN, or a fast attack submarine. I personally have toured that exact sub before so it wasn't as exciting the second time (especially since sonar didn't even play the cool marine life (specifically the dolphins) noises that they get to listen to). SSN's are super cramped too, so trying to fit a group of 30 MIDN onto an already crowded with the crew submarine wasn't very fun.

We finally got back to base around 6 where I took a shower and headed to dinner. I also went to the rec yard to watch a movie with some friends and ended up spending the rest of the night visiting with Bryan. We initially wanted to go bowling, but decided we actually wanted to go a little too late, so we just hung out in the TV lounge. He's a super guy and we have plans to go bowling tonight!

So that's where I'm heading off to. Supposed to meet him in about... 2 minutes, but I gotta be fashionably late right? :)

Sad.

12 JUNE 2012
1847


Unfortunately, due to the highly secret nature of the Submarine community, they don't allow photos to be taken, so sadly I don't and won't have many (if any at all) photos to share with you.

Lame.

Day 17.

10 JUNE 2012
2356

I had full intentions of going paintball today with some of the people in Bravo, but unfortunately woke up with a massive headache. Totally bummed I missed out, but I knew I wouldn't be any fun and didn't want to bring anyone else's day down so I stayed in bed all morning. We kept the blinds shut so it stayed extremely dark in our "cave" so it was relaxing. Literally, Colleen and I didn't get out of bed until noon. It was amazing, minus the migraine. Around noon, my stomach was grumbling so we went to the galley for lunch. It was technically closed, but the ladies who worked there let us eat anyway. Super nice.

After lunch we did laundry and went to the beach! We decided on Mission Beach which turned out to be INSANELY packed. I haven't ever seen it so busy. I guess it makes sense since it's a weekend and summertime, but I'm just used to it on a regular weekend during the school year. I did see one of the sailors from the USS Stockdale so I went to say hello. Totally random and considering the amount of people at the beach that day and just the chances of seeing him again in general, I couldn't believe the odds but it was nice to visit with him.

Liberty ended at 1900, so we left the beach around 1730 so we would have time to get my truck washed and make it back on time. I washed my car for the 1st time in 4 months! I can't believe it's been that long... Feels good to drive a clean truck again though :)

We had to be back at 1900 because we had a meeting to discuss the upcoming Sub week. Alpha and Bravo were split into 3 large groups. I'm in the 3rd group with a lot of my friends so it should be a good week. Sadly, Colleen and I (we've decided to name our friendship 'Connie') have been split apart. That's 4 days we have to spend apart and we're worried about our separation anxiety already...

After the meeting we walked over to the mini mart to grab some dinner with Bryan and Chris. It was quite the adventure. After Colleen and I ate, we went to the Liberty Rec. center to meet up with some friends. We watched about an hour of 'Warrior' before the Rec. center closed at 2300.

Group 3 will be spending our 24 hours underway on the submarine on Wednesday night. I'm not sure what we'll be doing tomorrow and Tuesday, but I'm soon to find out! We muster at 0730 and it's midnight right now. I still need to wash my face and brush my teeth.

Again, why I stay up this late.. I'll never know. Goodnight :)

Days 11-15 Pictures. Surface Week.

First day, Colleen making her rack.

Coming out of the porthole that leads down to our berthing.

Can't tell you how many times I've hit my head trying to climb up from these things.

Brouker and I, he's a close friend from my unit. We were the only 2 from San Diego on the Stockdale.

Colleen, myself, Bruno, and Buckon. If only this photo truly demonstrated how windy it was trying to take this photo. Also, none of us have our covers on because if we did, they'd all blow off!

Charles, myself, and Colleen standing on the bridge wing.

Getting ready to shoot the .50 cal and M240! This is me and Brockman.

Practicing my shooting stance on the .50 cal!

Listening to instructions.

Finally shooting the .50 cal! Such an adrenaline rush!

Listening to instructions on the M240.

It was too bad that guy was standing in front of the gun! :(

These are the racks in the berthings. 3 levels and the space underneath your rack was all the space you had for any personal belongings. I slept in the middle rack. This is also exactly how they all had to look for berthing inspections every morning.

This was my rack! It was awkward and hard to climb into, but once I was settled in I found the small space cozy. The rock of the ship was so relaxing and rocked me to sleep like a baby every night too.

Colleen getting ready to shoot!

These are the ammo for the .50 cal!

Colleen on the .50 cal, probably aiming at the waves.

After the guys had their turns shooting, they took naps in the sunshine on the deck.

They told us we weren't aloud to bring hairspray or gel onto the ship because it was flammable, so we made do with our buns, however after being outside we always had to redo our buns since it was so windy!

This evening we went outside to watch the sunset. 

It was most definitely one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen.

This is the sunset!

This is the supply ship that we aligned with for the UNREP, only 180 feet in between the 2 ships!

This is the long hose that pumped the fuel across to the USS Stockdale.

This is me with the CIWS behind me.

The 5 girls standing on the flight deck Friday morning excited because we could see land!

Day 16 Pictures.

Just got to Sea World!

I made them take this photo with me, what good friends.

Nice hat!

Group shot!

Not a hero yet, but I am so appreciative to Sea World for their support!

Just hanging with my Jelly friends.

We're kind of outta this world.

Sam! :)

Glasses are so fun!

Fabulousss.

"This is my gooood side."

Giant shark teeth behind us!