Singapore & At Sea - March 1993
It’s the 19th of March and I thought I’d start this letter now so I can get it in the mail when we hit Bahrain. Things so far have been going ok. Read that as not great, but bearable. I really had a good time in Singapore. The city is so clean and the people for the most part are really friendly. It really is a planned community type place. The government builds these high rise apartment buildings in clusters and they form their own neighborhood. Schools, businesses, shops, etc fill the lower floors and then the upper floors are for living. So you don’t really every have to leave your own neighborhood. The transportation system there is great with an extensive rail systems as well as busses.
Singapore was a working port so I only got to go out at night. Orchard Road was shopping mecca. They have these huge malls which have small shops, large stores, and then designer boutiques in them. I check out Gianni Versace, but what am I going to do with a blue suede and linen suit. Yes it sounds really gross, but it was really cool and for only $1500 Sing Dollars it was a steal. That’s roughly $1250 US dollars. Unfortunately, the first night we were there I got whole bunch of officers to go the Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel. This is a famous bar where Joseph Conrad and Somerset wrote some of their best works. It is also the birthplace of the Singapore Sling. It sort of became our unofficial hangout. I spent too much money there. I really didn’t find any good buys, but managed to pick up a gift or two. I’m glad I didn’t go shopping for pirated computer stuff. About two days out of Singapore, we had two different viruses hit the ship’s computer. Most likely from Singapore stuff.
The transit through the Straits of Malacca was scary. All those ships and the Battle Group Commander wants to go 18 knots the whole way. So besides overtaking all of these merchant tankers and cargo ships, we are dodging “bonka boats.” Why are they called that? Because they are small, made out of wood, don’t show up on radar hardly at all, don’t look where they are going, and go “bonka” when you hit one. I didn’t score any points, but it was close a couple of times. I don’t think the Captain left the bridge for more than five minutes during the whole day transit. Just when we cleared the northern separation scheme, we get tasked to do a bilateral operation with the Royal Malaysian Navy. Those guys were really professional and knew their business.
Well we have rounded the tip of India and are heading for the Gulf. We did our turnover with the Kitty Hawk battle group yesterday. Manuevering the two battle groups wasn’t difficult until the battle group commanders got into a little tiff over who was controlling who. “I’m in command!” “No, I’m in command!” “No, I’m in Command.” “Well you’re messing it all up!” All of this over the radio! Please children! We sort of ignored them and went to where we were supposed to be. The good news is that I don’t think we are going to Somalia. There had been a rumor that due to the fuel crunch we would go to Somalia and steam up and down the coast at three knots. Boring! Bur our revised, revised, revised schedule shows a lot of input time in the Gulf. Right now it looks like we will hit Muscat, Oman, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi and Dubai as well as Kuwait. Of course, everything is subject to change.
One of the big issues is the UN resolutions that expire at the end of March. So that means the No Fly Zone goes away and Saddam can do what he wants. I hope he’s not psycho enough to try any funny stuff again. If he wants trouble though, I predict he’ll head east and attack Iran. It could get ugly. And what does that mean for me? Nothing if he sits back and relaxes until July. If so, we spend our time in port and doing bilateral exercises with some of the Gulf states. If not, then it’s out in the Gulf earning our hazardous duty pay.
Well it is the 21st. Remember when I said things were okay? Not! The past couple of days have been hell. I had the 1200-1600 and the 2000-2400 watch on the 19th. But when, and why I’ll never know, they changed our underway replenishment time from 0700 to 0400. So I crawled into the rack a little after midnight and closed my eyes for three hours. Then I am the safety officer on the aft refueling station. Well that gets done around 0520 and I figure I can grab an hour of sleep before my next watch. I’m curled up in my rack when the next thing I hear is Flight Quarters. The ammunition ship decides that 0600 is the best time to deliver the rest of our ammo. They’ve had the stuff since Singapore, but wait until now to bring it over. Go figure. So I’m running around making sure that we are ready for Flight Quarters/Ammunition Handling. It was ugly. I got off Flight Quarters just in time to go take a nice five hour watch. What fun. Then I find out that we are plane guard. Dose somebody hate me or what? Anyways, I thought it was the Army who did more before eight than most people do all day. I think the Navy is making a run on that claim.
Well today is Sunday and what did we do? Flight Quarters (again!) for supplies. At what time? 0700? Gee, if I hadn’t had the 0400-0700 watch I might have been able to sleep in. Not. Well since it was sort of a holiday routine, I managed to get a couple of hours of sleep before getting to work. I got some stuff done and then called it a day around 1300. So I am writing to you all and then I am going to get some reading in. I’m trying to labor through the biography of Lawrence of Arabia. It is good but a behemoth. Quite daunting when you first pick it up.
I keep having this dream. It’s six o’clock and I wake up and roll out of my bed, put on my running gear on, and go running down the tree lined streets of my Georgetown neighborhood. I read the Post and eat breakfast before I ride my bicycle to work in less than ten minutes. Work is a challenge, but enjoyable. The hour and half lunch breaks are tough, but a group of friends/co-workers find new and different places to go eat. I get done with work by 1630 and go home to watch the five o’clock news. I have class at six, but by eight-thirty I am meeting a friend at a local bar. It’s a school night so I can’t stay out late so I’m back by 11PM. On the weekends I drive out to the Eastern Shore, or maybe catch a Navy game, or go up into the Shenandoah's? Maybe a road trip to New York? The possibilities are endless. The problem is that I keep having this dream when I’m standing watch on the bridge and it’s really slow. Sounds nice though, doesn’t it? I’m sure it’s just a dream, but it’s got to be better than this.
Well the transit through the Straits of Hormuz was not good to start with and ended in tragedy. On the 20th we were in the Gulf of Oman and it was like sailing on a lake. The water was so clam and it was hot! Well we transited the Straits and the weather got worse. The seas got choppy and the temp dropped. Unfortunately our Battle Group had its first, and hopefully last, fatality. In support of the transit, the Leftwich, a Destroyer out of Pearly Harbor, had its helicopter up doing surface ship identification. Well I took the watch around midnight and then we started getting reports that they had lost comms with the helo. The Leftwich turned around and headed to the last known position. The Lake Champlain also turned to help, but we were forced to stay with the ammunition ship (the Shasta) and the Nimitz. It appears that during the flight, due to the bad weather, the pilots lost the horizon and may have hit the water. The Leftwich first reported seeing a helmet and a seat cushion in the water. The Lake Champlain put her boat in the water and searched two or three square mile area full of oil and debris. They reported that the sharks were coming up right next to their boat. Both ships continued the search throughout the night and into the daylight hours.
Everyone feels really bad because we are like sister ships, both from Pearl Harbor, and a lot of people have friends on the Leftwich. I’m the Safety Officer onboard the Reeves and I tell guys that what we do every day is inherently dangerous and they need to watch out for themselves and their buddies. It just hurts when you find out how right you are when someone is killed doing something that is “routine.”
Well we pulled into Bahrain on the morning of the 23rd. It was freezing and we were in our Summer Whites. Of course. The pier we are at seems to be out in the boonies, but then you realize that whole country looks like this. Manama is a modern city, but it has crumbling cement block buildings right next to a tall modern skyscraper. Plus it is very expensive here. One dinar is about $2.7 dollars. Quite a change from Singapore and Hong Kong. Kevin, a friend of mine, said it was like living on CNN. I mean it sort of takes you by surprise when you wander down the streets and see the rubble, the trash, the shopping malls, and the cop on the corner with a machine gun. It is Ramadan right now which is the Islamic holy month. They fast during the daylight hours and alcohol is strictly forbidden. It ends tomorrow night and there should be some celebrations. Our first night in port we went to the Gulf Hotel. It was nice, but expensive. But the bonus is that the airline attendants stay there. We met some lovely ladies from British Airways at the pub there.
Well I want to get this in the mail. I’ll write again after Oman. Take care and please write!