Travel, Tragedy, and Neglect

I started the year in Japan, having traveled there by C-17 military transport from Africa with half of our detachment, two of our helicopters and support and maintenance equipment. We made stops in Diego Garcia and Thailand, but they were short with not much exploring possible. We did all enjoy some beverages beachside on the tiny Diego Garcia atoll and it was fun to have the detachment all celebrating a next step together. Unfortunately, once we arrived in Japan and ran our unload and launch drill I saw the beginnings of fatigue and training issues which would rear their head even more later in the year.

Looking rough in Diego Garcia

I arrived home in early April, secured a great apartment in Pacific Beach and promptly left town again to attend the wedding of my friends and former Harvard roommates Sean and Jess in Hawaii. I had a great time, though I was visibly exhausted. My wedding role was to be the reception dinner “MC” and I received pretty good reviews. Sean and Jess were pleased which is all that counts.

Sunrise at Haleakala

I made two trips in May, one to Orlando for Mary Michael’s wedding and one to see friends in Washington DC where I attended a Kygo concert at a new venue called the Anthem in southwest waterfront area. It was wild to see the changes in the city after only eight months away.

The crew at Mary Michael's wedding

June brought you and Dad to Southern California and I was able to show you around the “new” squadron for the first time. I saw Les Miserables for the millionth time at the San Diego Civic Center. I also embarked on one of the more fun trips of the last several years, a few days in wine country with Mack and some DC friends. We had great service thanks to a letter of introduction from ABC Fine Wines and Spirits and learned about lots of new wines – I even joined a wine club from Duckhorn that I’m actually satisfied with!

The parentals at HSC-85

With Mack at Duckhorn Vineyard

I spent July 4^th watching fireworks in Imperial Beach at a squadron get together and though summer was now in full swing, my post-deployment leave travel became less enjoyable as I became more stressed about the job I knew was in front of me, with very little support or even hearing of grievances from our chain of command.

The command tour honeymoon ended later in July with the death of Petty Officer John Clement (from Florida) due to maintenance malpractice. The next six months would include memorial service planning and execution, caring for the Clement family and enduring safety and liability investigations into the incident. I was able to come to Portofino shortly after the incident, but I’m not sure my presence did me or anyone else any good - always good to see everyone and the kids though!

Waffle House crew

Christian came and visited San Diego in August. He had never been so it was good for me to get out and show someone around. We did all the San Diego things, and additional mutual friend came down from LA and we went to a live 80’s band (the Molly Ringwalds) concert which was very fun and a welcome distraction.

In September I made a couple weekend trips to LA to see Mack’s show “A Box of Tissues” and go to the LA Film Festival Showing of “We The Coyotes” an independent movie that he was involved with that was also shown at the Cannes film festival in France.

I also had to “end” my year of mobilization by going to a third location decompression program in Germany since I was deployed to an austere location. At first I thought it was a real hassle, but once I accepted that it was mandatory I tried to make it work and enjoy myself. Nothing earth shattering happened here, but I did enjoy our two tourist days with German food and beer. I went from Germany to Norfolk for demobilization which is a very stressful process when trying to be XO at the same time, ensure your pay doesn’t get stopped and a number of other things that make you anxious because you are a “special case”. But everything worked out and I returned to San Diego expeditiously.

"Decompressing" in Germany

At the squadron we hosted the Seawolves, sort of a squadron alumni reunion, which was a huge hit with our sailors and our chain of command. It was a nice morale boost that would soon be forgotten as Joe and I were ordered to move up our change of command with four days notice. I will forever be mad at the process, because it robbed me of celebrating the day with you all, but Mack came down from LA and Chris Dalton was also there, which was very nice on both their parts. I become Commanding Officer on October 20, 2018.

Mack and classmate Matt Martin in the HSC-85 Wardroom

With Chris Lemon, my Executive Officer and USNA classmate

Just before the change of command I made it up to Massachusetts for a weekend for my friends Jon and Liz (Harvard and DC) wedding. The travel was tough – planes trains automobiles to a remote location – but the mini-Harvard and DC reunion was very fun and the wedding was really very nice.

Wedding venue glamour shot

The early change of command delayed us getting our detachment that was training up to deploy to Nellis AFB for their necessary training period. Against most people’s advice I decided we needed this detachment and we departed the day after the change of command, me flying the lead helicopter. I was vindicated in the decision because it was our first training detachment with the MH-60S helicopter and we were able to identify numerous weaknesses in the systems that we would need to find workarounds for before deploying. If it wasn’t completely evident that we were going to be in trouble to make deployment timeline previously, it was now. We did spend one leisure weekend in Las Vegas which helped out with some much needed team building.

The Nellis Detachment gunners

In November I made it to another of Mack’s shows and home in Orlando for Thanksgiving. Any renewal of “good vibes” was quickly dashed as the deployed detachment suffered a ground mishap, and I was ordered to deploy again to Japan to take care of things there. This was a ridiculous order – to take charge of two grounded helos, two broken ones, and 40 personnel in Japan, leaving my 8 helos, 350 personnel, and replacement detachment sorely in need of leadership at home – but it would become one of many.

Christmas in Japan

I returned to San Diego in January trying to get our MH-60S, which were the dregs of the fleet, reluctantly transferred to us, ready for deployment from the “preservation” status that they had previously been in. In February we made another training trip, this time to Fort Carson, CO, which was miserably cold flying. It was also evident that the detachment was not ready to deploy.

Former Redwolves pretending our current jobs are fun

After another short trip to Portofino I would enter the next Mom year in March having to make a decision with large ramifications on my career and the future of the Firehawks – whether or not to refuse to deploy due to lack of support and readiness. 

Life can't be all bad with these jokers in your corner!