Transferring from NAS Lemoore to NAS Whidbey Island

I finished up our housing inspection on Friday and over the last two days, have just worked on catching my breath.  Every time we move, we seem to have a more gear then the last time we moved.  The bride just graduated out of San Jose State with her Masters in History and most people can not imagine how many books that is, well I can, it's about equal to the amount of books I had sitting around the house before  her stack was added.  Over the last month, we've felt like we're filming an episode of hoarders, not much fun.  

Things that have happened over the last month, I finished my tattoo

The quote I attached to this when I posted it on Facebook, "This is my lighthearted look at TEOTWAWKI, in flame or flood. The Phoenix because at heart, I'm a comic book geek, I'm from Arizona and I've always had dreams of bursting into flame. The water because my earliest memory was being pulled out of a pool by my hair, I've always loved the mystery of underwater cities, the bridge is memories of Key West, the fire like a sunrise that sets the sky alight and the ocean ruled by robot fish because I could. Thanks Meghan Ortiz, the both of us are going to miss how you could turn our visions into art."

We planned out our trip to Washington taking the long slow route up the 1 driving 50 to 200 miles a day in Neil (my battered Toyota Tacoma with 270 thousand miles on it, named Neil because he's been to the moon (220,000 miles away) and working on the trip back).  The wife has every place we're staying reserved and I plan on taking a lot of pictures.  

Remember what this weekend is about, its for remembering those people who gave it all for a cause they believed in and that sacrifice should not be taken lightly.  This weekend, I'm remembering my friend Mark Lawrence, who died on January 10th and was an Army SSG stationed out of Fort Bragg.  The reason I'm remembering him is because I have not seen a single story out about his death in the news and as far as the world goes, he's been forgotten.  But not by me nor by his family.  He worked in the Wounded Warrior Battalion and his death was ruled a suicide, he was also worked with Army SSG Joshua Eisehouer, who was involved in a police shootout on January 14th, I'm not sure if these are connected but I haven't found anything online about it.  

Making the Most of Your Memorial Day Weekend

guest post from Kevin Pearia
 

Memorial Day is one of our country's most solemn holidays, a day set aside for Americans to take time to think about the men and women who have given their lives for the preservation of law and liberty.  While for many Memorial Day does evoke memories of those who have given their lives for our country, it is important that Americans use their time off to truly appreciate the sacrifices of those who have served and continue to fight for freedom.  It may seem like a difficult task when money is tight, but fun and respectful Memorial Day weekend activities that don't break the bank are plentiful:

Host a Potluck

The ability for friends, family, and even strangers to come together and contribute to a shared cornucopia has been an American tradition for centuries and is a product of both our appreciation for personal freedom and our economic success.  Both of these would never be possible without sacrifice.

Make That Big Home Improvement Purchase

If you've been saving up for some appliance updates or other big home improvement purchases, Memorial Day Weekend may be the perfect opportunity to spend the money.  Sales are abundant, as anyone without DVR is well aware.  All the while you're taking advantage of the economic freedoms others fought and died for, and better yet, doing so for the sake of responsible and necessary updates.

Hit Up the Nearby Museums and Zoos

If you live near a heavily populated part of the country then pay a visit to the closest art museums, history exhibits and science centers.  The cultural freedoms these institutions represent are some of the most important aspects of American society protected and preserved by those who have died serving her.

Enjoy the Great Outdoors

The United States is home to countless acres of virtually untouched beauty and wonder.  Plan a weekend camping trip or bike the trail if you seek an inexpensive way to appreciate the natural gifts of this great country.

Attend a Parade

The classic Memorial Day parade remains a great way to honor the memory of fallen soldiers without withholding fun and excitement.  In addition a parade is an economical event so long as you find a free place to park your car.

In addition, don't forget to perform a simple web search for free and inexpensive events happening Memorial Day Weekend in your area.  When it comes to choosing what to do this Memorial Day, simply taking the time to remember those who paid the ultimate price is enough to know you're doing the right thing.

Kevin Pearia is a writer for Veterans United Network (VUN), a source for veterans’ benefits and information.  VUN is proudly sponsored by the nation’s leading VA Home Loan provider, Veterans United Home Loans.  

My two cents on the discharge of Sgt Stein

Here's how it goes, every time an enlisted man takes the oath of enlistment, part of it says, "and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me". It's pretty black and white, something that goes before everything else you do in the military, before they shave you bald and everything else is built around it. If you don't like it, get out after your enlistment is up or get kicked out.  The only way you can change oath is to pass a law to change that which you can not do while serving.  Being the center of a political movement while serving on active duty is just foolish, no matter which side of the political divide you are on and this gentleman had been warned multiple times.  We are all just gears in a machine who can be replaced and the slightest change in the wind and that's how the system was designed.

Being in the military, we have the illusion of freedom of speech and there men in hats who troll the nets looking for people who work for the government who step beyond outside the bounds of that invisible fence, probably the same people who track terrorists, cyber criminals, haters and that lot, nice people you get grouped with.  Stein crossed the that line, probably didn't think much about it at the time but it's the line drawn at the core of our oath of the military of a country that elects a civilian leader to call the shots instead of a military government.  Most of the people who complain his discharge over this issue are people who haven't served or military people who have only taken that oath once, for the people who have taken it more then a few times and can still hear it ring in their heads, we look at it a bit differently.

Good luck with your life Sgt Stein, I appreciate you standing by you guns and I'm sorry I didn't pull you aside and tell you, "dude, if you post that, the brass is going to hammer you".  Which I have been known to do to my blogger buddies when I see someone stepping over that line.  But I can't follow everything that goes on with the military in cyber space, I do have a life.

My wife calls me a "Disaster Whore"

Anytime something bad happens in the world, I'm all over it.  I'm like the kid from the movie Final Destination, I start throwing out numbers.  Tonight is twister night on the news and I have friend in Kansas and I'm hoping they are all alright.  I think something is wrong with my inner workings, I get excited by "Acts of God".  A couple of days ago, it was earthquakes, I have an earthquake app on my Samsung Epic and when the 8.6 earthquake hit in Indonesia, my phone vibrates, there's a Google map of the world with a circle showing how far away it was felt and the circle went halfway across Australia and Afghanistan.  That's huge.  Then the earthquakes in Mexico the next day.  I can't peel my eyes away.

Anyhow, if you're in the path of the tornado's in the plains, take cover and I'm looking forward to your stories on the other side.

Fuzzilicious Thinking: Carroll Lex LeFon: The Goodbye (and it was good)

I wasn't able to make it to Lex's fairwell but Beth did an excellent job of telling it, thank you.

Fuzzilicious Thinking: Carroll Lex LeFon: The Goodbye (and it was good): i

How to do a mass text list or mailing list on an Android Phone

I just came back from a trip to Key West and I set up a mass text list for the 68 enlisted people that were out there with me.  I haven’t heard of anyone else doing it and it worked pretty good so I'm going to share it here.  I used this method to send out the phone numbers of our daily duty drivers, pass info on and since I was the Det LPO, I needed everyone's phone number in case there was a problem or someone wasn't where they were supposed to be.  This saved hours of time and we were able to change plans on a moments notice, almost like we had modern communication equipment! 

This works if you have an Android Phone (maybe Blackberry too, not sure about iPhones since I don't own one).  If you have an Android phone, you also have a Gmail account, I’ll put it together is steps.

This method is if you plan on putting the phone numbers in by hand (which I did)

11,         Go to Gmail.

22.       Click on the Gmail button on the top left hand of the screen.

33.       It will bring down a pull down menu, click “Contacts”

44.       If the contact isn’t a contact yet, you need to add them as a contact by clicking “New Contact”.

55.       After they are added, open up their contact card, click on the little crowd of people under the search bar that says “groups” when you put the curser over it and click “Create new” and call it what you will.

66.       Add names like that by opening up the contact you want on that list, clicking on the group icon, and clicking on the group.

77.       To send out mass txt’s by that method, open Messaging on your phone

88.       Click New Message, then Group and scroll down to the group you want

99.       Click on the names of the people you want to send messages to after you’re done, click Add.

110.   Type a message and send it

111.   MAKE SURE YOU HAVE AN UNLIMITED TEXTING PLAN OR YOU WILL REGRET IT!

112.   If you need to send something to all of the same people, just type anther message to them on the same string, you don’t have to click on the individual names again.

There is another method which theoretically should work that I’m going to try next time if I have all of the numbers on an excel file, I’ll export a group into an Outlook CSV, open that file and change all of the information to the numbers on the excel and Import it back into Gmail.

Remembering Captain Carroll “Neptunus Lex” LeFon USN (Ret.) 1960-2012

Back in 2004, when I started this thing called Doc in the Box, there were only a few Navy bloggers, Scott of Lt. Smash, Cdr Salamander, Chapomatic and Kevin of Primary Main Objective.  Lex was the guy who had lived all of the Top Gun stories, he was the aviator’s aviator and even better, told those stories on his blog Neptunus Lex.  Later, when I finally met him in person and found out that he was a Navy Captain and probably the most senior military blogger (side not to civilians, a Navy Captain is an O-6, squadrons are commanded by O-5’s mostly and on any given large base, there might be 3 to 6 Captains.  One in charge of the base, one for each carrier air group, maybe one at a hospital.  I’m currently attached to the largest squadron in the Navy and my CO is a Commander or an O-5, pretty big deal) and he was at my house for a blogger get together and I was definitely the kid at the adult table.  Unlike most of us cyber nerds, he was bigger than that large online persona that he assumed.  Over the years, I had met up with him at milblog conferences, dinners and once at a change of command which I didn’t recognize him at first in a suit.  Without fail, he always had a crowd of people around him and he was telling a story.  That guy burned with inner charisma and people hushed to hear what he had to say.  I admit, I had a bit of hero worship. 

But one on one, he was just a good guy with whom I’ve broke bread, he’s eaten my curry and bar-b-q chicken and we’ve turned up a cold one or three.  He was that way to everyone and if you search his name across the blogosphere, there are hundreds of people who are saying the same thing.  Lex was a giant among us and a true warrior poet.

I found out last night that he was involved in crash at NAS Fallon working as a contractor flying an Israeli F-21 Kfir by way of an underground Facebook message string of everybody who has ever been involved in military blogging, it blew up my phone.  I’ve never seen anything or imagined anything like it, seeing how many people this guy touched in his 51 years.  I say it with a heavy heart, you are missed, fair winds and following seas brother.  Through us, your friends and readers, you will not be forgotten and your memory will live on.


Story on the Navy Times

The best write up about Iraq I've seen lately

I Miss Iraq, I Miss My Gun, I Miss My War this guy knows what he's talking about.

I've had days and weeks where I miss the weight of the armor on my shoulders, a weapon on my hip and sweet sound of a round being chambered. Unlike this guy, I can be blithe in reality about most of my trips except for those moments that still are burned behind my eyelids that I have trouble putting into words. Life in war wasn't the stasis of base life, it was a state of being beyond the wire, being shot at by someone who wanted to kill you and you doing the same thing back.

Taking care of the bride

The lovely bride is under the weather with a head cold which I've been treating with sudafed, tylenol, cold compresses, warm liquids and TLC.  Tonight she was lying about complaining about sinus pain and head ache so... I introduced her to the move I losely call the Afrin head bang.  I had her lay on her back with her head hanging upside down and spray it in her nose.  She yelled and I held her down for a second while her feet kicked and she said, "You're trying to kill me!"  Five minutes later, my head feels better!  Disclaimer on Afrin, don't use it more then 3 days.

Climbing Corona Del Mar's Green Burrito 1993

I used to climb back in the day when I was skinny, this one day, I wasn't really planning on going to the beach but somehow ended up there without the right shoes and saw some folk trying one of my favorite routes. It's not about how strong you are nor the gear that you have, it's about the skill or talent that you have inside.

Marvel Phoenix Time Lapse Tattoo Finish

I've been a fan of Marvel's Jean Grey as Phoenix since I was a little kid and used to have dreams of bursting into flame and flying away.  Those went away after catching myself on fire for real a couple of times but the thoughts still linger.  My wife surprised me last year with an appointment with Meghan Ortez of 92 Proof Tattoo in Lemoore to check out my idea for a Phoenix and we decided on a plan of attack.  After finishing up my first 7 and a half hour session I thought, that would look pretty cool on time lapse and below is the finished product of what I came up with.  20 hours total, 12 of those hours condensed in the video below to Aerosmith's "Livin' on the Edge" which I think fits. Thanks Meghan for the great work and the bride for starting it off and running the camera.

And this is how it turned out

California Marines We're Unforgettable

This was my old squadron HMM-764, I'm glad someone took over the picture and video taking after I left, good job guys!

Phoenix Tattoo

My third tattoo in time lapse, this was my second sitting and I made a video of it.  The artist is Meghan Ortez, shop 92 Proof Tattoo in Lemoore CA and the amazing camera girl is my bride.

Book Review of Robert McCammon's: The Five

First off, Robert McCammon is my favorite author bar none and I consider Boy's Life one of the best works laid out in the English language.  But that and the review below are both personal opinions, I wrote the below for Audible.com

"This story flows like a river"

With every word of this book, Robert McCammon builds an elaborate web that goes across the American southwest, an epic and yet still a personnel battle between good and evil, makes you question your decisions and lays the groundwork and the reasoning behind deeds done later. The heroes of this book are hugely flawed, and the villains even after doing horrible crimes, aren't beyond redemption. The book is magic but it's not quite a fantasy, there are magical elements. It's the magic of what lies under our perceptions and the movers that are behind the scene. 


The book takes place from the viewpoints of the band members, their manager and a damaged Veteran of the Iraq war who was at the point of suicide at the beginning of the book and see's a music video that the band made protesting the war and it touched him.... but not in a good way.

Like most of McCammon's work, at the end of the day, you'll leave after grieving, laughing with joy, shivering in the shadows, saying, "Oh no!" and falling in love with the characters and feeling hope for the next day.  Good job Sir!