Back from Hawaiian Hell

Well, I guess it's time to throw down more words of what some day someone might think are wisdom, or maybe just the ramblings of a semi conscious mind.

I have spent the last three weeks in beautiful Hawaii. I was hammered with sunshine, heat, and humidity. I was also befuddled by the complete lack of planning and organization that went into the exercise. You see, I was not there for vacation, I was there to flex the muscle of the military.

I know that the military is seen as the end all of mission planning and success, more often than not that view is true. I hate to admit that there was a lack of planning, but I am proud to say that there was complete mission success for our part of the exercise. We had planned to do training locally, and use a facility close to us to gleen the knowledge and expertise from professional trainers that would spend a couple of weeks to marmalade information into our melons. That plan was scrapped when someone decided that we needed to perform a mission that we had not trained for yet, and do it in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. You think I am complaining....maybe I am. I was sent to Hawaii, vacation spot to the stars, plane ticket paid for, housing paid for, and meals for free.

Definitions:
Housing-60 year old barracks that have not seen a human inside for approximately 4-5 years. The majority of the building was unfit for habitation due to the black mold covering the everything. I found out at the end of the mission that our squadron mothership had paid $50K to have new tile work done and fix up the building, only to have the entire thing gutted after we leave so the place can be converted to a Navy Lodge. Smooth. No TV, internet, and almost zero cleaning supplies. Yes, we got to take care of the facilities ourselves. Joy.
Meals-Two "hot" meals a day. Breakfast was an egg of some type, a sausage product, a roll, and either rice or potato product. Almost enough to get the front of your stomach away from your spine, but not enough to fill up a 6'2" 230 pound male adult. Lunch was a MRE, what I like to call food in a bag. The contents was one of 12 things, 10 of which tasted like shit, and the other 2 tasted like crap. Dinner was a meat product, rice, and a vegetable. Usually a salad and a roll came with it, but not always. Funny thing is, the Per Diem for Hawaii is over $100 per day per person, and that is NO WAY that the food we consumed was worth over $25 (even with Hawaii's inflated food costs). What did the caterer's charge for the food? Don't know.

I think that I have just stepped off of the train for a minute, and I don't think that I am ready to get back on right now.

Here is a joke that I heard from some Australian Sailors.
What is the difference between jam and marmalade?
You can't marmalade your dick up a chick's ass.

Back to the world.