all right.

the berthing is all cleaned up, repainted, and everyone has moved back in.

we are still washing the curtains and some sheets and blankets. but the berthing is habitable now. still a hint of a smoky smell, but its tolerable.

the investigation as to what happened is still going on...no idea if they have gotten anywhere.

still moving along with the cruise as planned. so far so good.

got a couple packages today, so im gunna go enjoy them....

I just wanted to share my “war” story.

Its 1246 a.m. on Wednesday the 24th. A report is made of white smoke near the ships laundry room. Soon I am woken up, after I just laid down, and am told to evacuate. I get out of my rack, and immediately smell burning plastic. At this time im thinking oh crap…something’s on fire. We go to the messdecks, and a fire drill is called away. A little bit later, the messdecks have a haze of smoke seeping in, and my first real life General Quarters is called away. I go to my station in CIC. Standing there im hearing the fire reports over a radio, and its getting bad. Then one of the firemarshal officers comes running in and says we need some spare bodies to help fight this fire, its starting to get out of control. I volunteer and rush down to the messdecks. I get into a fire suit, strap my oxygen tank and mask on, and gather up my other supplies. Then a group of us walk out to the focsal (front of the ship), and am told to stand-by. Smoke is pouring out of the hatches and doors. I wait there for hours. In the end, (about 6am) they get the fire under control and put it out; unfortunately I never got to go in and fight the fire. I did sweat a waterfall…those suits are heavy! Around noon they let us back into our berthing, and everything was covered in soot. We had to strip every single rack, air out the mattresses, and now we are sleeping in some marine spaces (they went on land for some training). We got a lot cleaned up, but there’s a ton more to do…that soot doesn’t wipe off very easily.
Okay, so I take a look at the damage.
In our berthing, the bulkhead closest to the laundry room has all the paint peeling off.
Not TOO bad.
The laundry room, however, is completely destroyed. All the dryers, washers, press machines; everything inside the room is ruined. Platics melted, paint charred, and even metal is warped. Its unbelievable! I took some pictures.
so basically this means we have NO laundry service what-so-ever. We took all the sheets and blankets to the Iwo Jima (the accompaning ship with us) by helicopter to be washed, so at least we have clean linens now. But all uniforms or other clothing that was in the laundry room is now gone. The navy will reimburse anyone who lost clothes though. But that’s almost half the crew. Many now only have one or two uniforms left.
We are still investigating how the fire started, and what to do about the damage and how to clean our laundry. So for now, everything smells of burnt plastic and soot is still lingering in the air. But all we can do is suck it up for now.

Its unfortunate, but now i have a cool to story to tell!

CRUISE UPDATE:

nothing new. still working on ESWS. started working out too. its been over a year since i last lifted, so im pretty sore now. but its good. working a lot too. i only get about 5 hours of sleep a day now because of work. it sucks but...im used to it.
got a letter from Kyle the other day! said boot camp is hard, but he likes it. its in the 100's almost everyday he mentioned. also said its fast paced, a lot of training, and a lot of stuff to learn. but he will do good. he has four months (at Fort Benning, GA). hopefully he can come home for Christmas that would be really cool.

WORLD UPDATE:

at 8am Monday, a cease-fire was set between Irael and Lebanon. so far its holding up. but no one is sure witch side "won"...easch side has their say, and each side is saying THEY won.
who knows where that'll go....

...thats the big news, otherwise nothing much but usual chaos!

UPDATE UPDATE:

finally started working on getting my Enlisted Surface Warefare Specialist (ESWS) pin. theres two books worth of signatures i have to get. it involves knowing stuff from every department on the ship...and theres a ton of stuff to learn! when i get both books completly signed, i take a small written test, then i go to the 1st class "murder board".....basically an oral test. they ask questions and i have to answer. its a lot of work, but its worth it in the end. it adds points to advancment tests, helps with quals and looks good in your records. im trying to get it done before i take my third class test in september, and hopefully put the pin on before i actually make third class. that would be nice. im about 20% done...

otherwise i went on my first helicopter ride a couple days ago! that was really cool. got some good pics. they flew around the ship and around a couple other navy ships in the area. really neato.

anyway we just pulled into Limassol, Cyprus; making our third port visit of the cruise....or our first in over a month. not sure if im going out in town though...might just catch up on sleep instead. but that may change...

Cruise Update:

first off i dont think ineed to say where i (still) am. so. the biggest thing is we have a couple detainees onboard. as the story goes, one of the ships who is accompaning us, the USS Gonzales, had their VBSS team out in a boat in the water doing some boat operations and training. from what i heard, a small boat came towards the team at a high speed, and started opening gun fire at the them. the team acted immedietly, returned fire, disabled the craft, boarded it, and arrested two guys that were onboard. not sure what ethnicy they are, but one can guess. anyway, the ship didnt have a brig to put them in, but we did. so they asked if we could hold them, and we agreed. so now there are two convicts onboard; they converted one of the officers staterooms to a "jail cell", and thats where they are now. its very well gaurded with locked and loaded weapons, they got sheets covering the hallways as not to spark curiosity and such. its a little uneasy, but pretty cool we actually caught someone. not sure who we are going to hand them off too though.

anyway, other than that, the Middle East Crisis is still pretty bad. the other day a bunch of protesters in Bierut stormed the UN Embassy. they were breaking windows, climbed the fences, burned UN and American flags and were yelling and ranting. it was crazy.
today Israel launched a massive ground assault on the town of Baalbeck, which is known have many Hezbollah fighters; they use it for their training and re-supplying and stockhousing of weapons. i havent heard how that turned out, but last i saw it was getting very fierce. Israel is still launching massive airstrikes, and Hezbollah is still launching rocket after rocket into the heartland of Israel.

back in the states its getting crazy too. lets see, the weather has been hitting the triple digits all over the country. power grids are getting overloaded, people dieing from heat strokes; panic in some places too. what else...Mel Gibson is charged with DUI...not a big deal for a star....but hes getting blown up for making anti-semedic remarks while being arrested. so thats a big story, it looks like his career and his reputation might not be a good one from here on out. he has apologized and is going to rehab.
more to follow im sure.
Lindsay Lohan is in the light too, for "partying too much and neglecting her work" as James G. Robinson, CEO of Morgan Creek Productions said last week. Lohan is currently filming a movie, and Robinson said in a letter she has been frequently late for filming and has been "discourteous, irresponsible and unprofessional." he went on saying "If Lohan does not honor her commitments, the studio will pursue "full monetary damages.""
more to follow im sure.

thats about all i got to say. theres always someone or something going on in the world of today that seems to catch us all off gaurd.

well back to criusing around in the Med...