Homecoming.

For how crazy my deployment went, I was anticipating our fly-off/homecoming to be eventful. We had an early start that had the first helo take-off at 430am and loiter until I was able to take-off at 6am and joint. Usually if something breaks, it will break when there is a hard timeline to get the birds off before the ship pulls in for good. But everything went smooth. Both aircraft lifted and we gave the ship a sporty fly-by on our way home. The only problem was that "home" wasn't open because it was too early. So we flew around the area for 3.5 hours before we landed. It felt like the longest 3.5 hour flight ever but it was leisurely -- we were able to see Mt. Fuji, we did a Tokyo fly over and just flew around waiting for our squadron to get in to catch us. 

Good bye, USS SHILOH (CG 67); its been fun.

Coming around for the pass.

Yours truly in the lead. 

Thanks for the memories, Captain Morris!

 Time to head home.

We made it to the Japan coastline.

A quick trip to Hakone.

And then on to Tokyo.

Here we come.

Taxiing into the line.

 Excited! 

 Attack! 

 So good to finally be home! 

Kisses.  

 More hugs! 

 

Mom blocking Ellis from the picture.  Thanks a lot. 

Ellis kept saying, "momma look.... its daddy!" 

Home.  

Chaotic Deployment of 2015

I returned from deployment on the 19th of June and it has been so nice to be back. As of today, I am not scheduled to go back out... but I've been told that before. Overall, deployment was good. I brought back 26 people with all their fingers and toes as well as two aircraft. So I think that means it was successful, however, it was just straight up chaotic and stressful to say the least. My DET officially left Japan on 6 March and from the get-go, it was filled with stress. I flew the first aircraft onto the ship and the second one wasn't able to land because the securing device on the ship was busted. So after 8 hours of them circling, they had to go back home as USS SHILOH continued over the horizon. Not only did the aircraft not come on, but the pilots and aircrew had to go home. The ship continued and away we went. We conducted a Taiwan Straits Transit that ended up shooting one of my pilots in the head because he unintentionally flew into Chinese airspace. After that, it was on our way to Malaysia for an Airshow. We flew off our one and only helo and landed at Langkawi, Malaysia for the Langkawi Int'l Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition (LIMA). We supported a static display of the helo but our flight demo was cancelled because some planes practicing a few days before crashed -- so they cut back on the demos. There was a ton of people that was there and there was a lot of heads of defenses and government officials in attendance checking out all the military and commercial systems and airplanes. Inside the large convention hall, companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin and other aero companies were there to sell their goods. Our helo was center stage (along with the F/A-18 hornets) since Malaysia was interested in buying both airframes in the future. We were parked right next to the F/A-18's and the F-15's. Pretty awesome. Brought back a lot of cool memories of being at the Elmendorf AFB air shows walking around and wanting to be a pilot. Langkawi was pretty nice. It was a total beach town with a lot of resorts and all that, so it was decent and had yummy food. It was rather hot -- temps on the flight line was 110 on a few of the days. After LIMA, we flew the helo back on and proceeded to Singapore. We had a nice stop in Singapore and then we were supposed to transit home. Our ship ended up getting pop-up tasking so we turned back around and had to stay at sea for a few extra weeks. It was good stuff, so it I can't complain. Once we were cut loose, we headed home. On the way home we found a lot of fuel in the helo's fuel cell so we had to do some pretty in-depth maintenance to get that sorted out. Once we were close the home, the other helo was flown on to make it two. The ship then pulled in the next day to Japan and we were home for about four days before pulling back out and heading to Busan, South Korea. The trip to South Korea was fine. The port was pretty neat but what made the port visit was the trip to Seoul. A few of us took the bullet train up to Seoul for a two day trip and booked a tour that went to the border (Demilitarized Zone). That is really spectacular. Really neat to read about all that and actually see what is taking place. We were in Korea for about four days and it was back home to Japan. This time we were home for about five days before we pulled back out. This time we only went to Shimoda, Japan, which is about a 3 hour drive from where we live. Our ship participated in the "Black Ship Festival." Luckily, Shannon and the girls piled in the car and met us. We rented a house for the week and had a good time. After Shimoda, it was back home for another four days and then back out. This outing was a little bit longer (5 weeks) but we got to see some cool places. The first night of flying we had a little accident on the flight deck. One of my crews miscalculated their landing and they landed in the flight deck safety nets. Could have been a lot worse but the helo sustained some damage. After a few days, we were back to flying. We then pulled into Subic Bay, Philippines. We had a good time there for four days and the highlight was the trek up to Mount Pinatubo. After the Philippines, it was on to Guam. Shannon and the girls met me there as well and we spent the week there logging serious pool/beach/water park time. After a 4 days transit back home, we finally flew the helos off and off unloaded all our crap off the ship. And how we are home and it is just great!

Entering the Straits of Mallacca in route to Langkawi, Malaysia. 

The ship anchored off in the bay, so we had to take the liberty boats to and from the beach. 

I found a new favorite fruit -- mangosteen. 

The war machine next to the F-15's

There were a few other US aircraft - P-8, Huey, F-15/16/18's. 

Some of my pilots with the ladies from the Malaysian military. 

Pretty nice beach scene. 

This was the device that was broken. The electrical umbilical cable was ran over and severed so the thing was hard down. 

Some of my pilots in Singapore after visiting the watermark on Sentosa Island. 

We all got rooms at the Holiday Inn and they had a really awesome pool on the roof. 

Sentosa Island Beach, Singapore on the last day

And Chinatown for dinner. Delicious food!

We didn't have to shave while at sea so we all grew pretty sweet facial hair. 

We all dressed up and "manned the rails" for our arrival in Busan, South Korea. 

This was the Captain exchanging gifts with the Koreans after we arrived. 

Korean BBQ!

Downtown Seoul. Definitely want to go back before we leave. It was a really nice city and easy to get around.

We ate at a fancy restaurant on the tallest building the first night we were there. Pretty nice views. Food was okay (although better than ship food). 

South Korean Soldier guarding the door that leads to North Korea. These dudes were super scary. To serve at the DMZ, each one of them has to be a certain size and build and they all are black belts in martial arts. The room we are in is a meeting place there both sides comes to meet. There is a table in the middle and doors to their countries on each side. This South Korean dude is guarding the door into North Korea. \

The blue buildings are where the above picture was taken. The far large building is North Korea and you can see the change in color of the cement indicating the border. Pretty crazy!

This was a tourist stop leading up to the DMZ. We got a really exclusive tour that is only for the US military folk. They take you right to the border. Other folks can only go to these out posts and see the border from a distance. 

North Korea in the back ground with the large flag pole. 

Shimoda, Japan. A really quaint and cool fishing/surfing town. 

Dinner. 

Crappy weather the first night but we still checked out the beach. Water was freezing but the girls still wanted to get in. 

LC and i took a gondola ride up with some of my friends and their families. Weather wasn't pleasant so the views weren't that great.  

LC and her friend Joanna (her dad as my roomy on the ship)

I still think sunsets and sunrises at sea never get old. 

In the jeep headed up to Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines.

Volcanic rock!

The jeeps dumped you out about 3 miles from the top. From there you had to hoof it to the top to the crater. This was a Philippine Army dude patrolling on the mountain. That whole area is controlled by the military. 

Pretty scenic. 

Made it to the top. 

Weather started rolling in so we had to leave a bit early. 

The guy in the maroon jacket was our driver and the guy in green was the guide on the trail. 

We stopped at a few Bataan Death march markings on where the trail was. There are mileposts all along the route. 

The Filipinos are known for their woodworking. Here are a few guys crushing it. 

Beaches in Guam were absolutely spectacular. 

We woke up to this the first morning. 

E is ready to go to the beach!

Night shot from our hotel room. 

The girls absolutely loved the water. We literally spent every waking our near the pool, beach and water park. Shannon had been taking them to the pool so they were really comfortable in the water.

Very very hot there. Had to lather them up and they wore all their sun gear. Didn't take too many pix because we were always in the water. 

Flying home.