Time to start learning Spanish

You'd think growing up in Texas would have been the perfect place to learn Spanish at an early age. Well, I wish I had, but back then I was having a hard enough time learning the read and write English, pretty much on my own -- I didn't really learn to read well until I'd spent a couple of pumps in the med.

I bought a copy of Tell me More for Spanish a few years ago, but never used it much -- I had used the French version extensively while I lived in France and it helped a lot. I was dating a woman from Spain at the time -- met her watching the World Cup in Nashville -- but since she spoke English pretty well and wasn't too patient, I stopped trying to speak it with her. A few months later we stopped seeing each other and I got busy with other stuff and stopped using it altogether. Now that I'm done with my Ham license, I'll start studying it again. It should come in handy when I sail south, and I've got plenty of time on my hands and not much to do in the evenings or when it's hot.

As a Marine on board a Navy ship, you don't have much to do either, and playing cards gets old pretty quick, so I ended up doing a lot of reading. That's where I really learned to read. I think I mentioned reading Pride and Prejudiced before. I got my copy from another Marine who was trying to get rid of a bunch of extra stuff before we deployed so he wouldn't have to store it. I think he'd worked for a publisher, Franklin Books, at some point and had a bunch of seconds. These were all leather bound classics, so I took one of each, for a total of about 15 or 16. I was what I liked to call a combat librarian at the time, i.e., I was in charge of all the classified material for the 26th MAU, and already had thousands of books and maps of all kinds, so a few more didn't really make a difference.

I read a bunch of them while out, and most of the rest of them after I got back. I also read a few other books that I got from either one of our officers or the chaplain. Some religious organization used to send boxes of paperbacks to the chaplain and we'd comb through them for something interesting. Most of them weren't, but I did find a few that were. Due to the racy nature of some of the books we got, I doubt the folks that sent them had ever even looked at them.

I was on board ship for a total of 14 months, of which, only about a month was spent working for the ship, in combat cargo. That's where a group of Marines help load and unload helicopters. We were on the Guadalcanal, which has since been decommissioned. I mainly stayed down below and wore a headset. You know, the kind you see in all those old movies, with a strap around your neck and microphone sitting on your chest. It was okay, except for the time we were doing an exercise off the coast of North Caroline and the helicopter we just loaded went down in the sea right after takeoff.

My guys had just complained to me that the sticks we were loading -- a stick is what you call the group of about 18-19 Marines on a single helicopter -- weren't following directions. So, I lectured the next group a bit, and a few minutes later they were all dead. Actually, a few did survive, but the pilot, co-pilot, crew chief, and most of the Marines from the stick all drown. I think that 4 made it to the surface, but one of them, a chaplain, died of a heart attach.

Later that day, after the bodies had been recovered in about 60 feet of water, I helped carry the some of them to a specially rigged CH-46 for the flight back to shore. I specifically remember carrying the body of the sergeant whom I'd lectured. He'd been the stick commander. Unfortunately, I can no longer remember his name.

I don't remember ever hearing about what caused the crash, but it did result in a few changes. From then on, all the exits on board a helicopter at night where marked by those little glow in the dark wands. Also, we all had to go through helicopter egress training. That's where they take you to a pool and strap you into a section of a helicopter body and dunk you several times. The first time you do it with regular goggles, but then, they give you ones that are blacked out so you can't see a thing and have to feel your way out.

You have on seat belts, just like on a regular flight, and you can't see a thing. They drop you into the water from a few feet up, so you feel it hit, then it flips over, which is what a helicopter does almost immediately when it hits the water since the engines are overhead. Then it comes to rest on the bottom and you have to unbuckle and find your way out. I was a swimmer, so it didn't bother me, but I could tell it made a few of the guys uncomfortable. Thankfully, we didn't loose any more helicopters while I was in. At least not any from my units.

Zoe watch:

Yesterday was great and she hung out under the bow while I sanded the decks. Today should be good too, but might get up into the 90's. She's under the bow now, and I'll continue sanding the decks and getting ready for painting. Sanding takes a lot longer than you might think, even with an orbital sander.