We had another long overdue First Class meeting today. The 15 or so, out of over 45, firsts classes that show up to all the meetings were there as usual. The topics were fund raising ideas, and uses for the said funds. I’m convinced that no one really wants to raise any money on this [...]
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Posted 10 July 2008
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I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, chaplains need to stay on ships. Back in 2006, the Navy planned to remove chaplains from small ships and consolidate them into one shore-based unit, which would deploy chaplains to ships getting underway. Nearly two years later, I asked my chaplain how the process was going, [...]
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Posted 10 July 2008
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Allison Batdorff and Travis Tritten, both Stars & Stripes reporters, did a story on MilBloggers and the thin-line they walk when it comes to free speech. I met with Allison a couple weeks ago where she asked me some questions regarding FEWL and the positive and negative aspects about being a MilBlogger. While technically I’m [...]
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Posted 06 July 2008
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The beloved chu-hi stand, officially known as KADOYA, has been put on the off-limits list for the month of July. CFAY sent the owner’s a letter informing them that the establishment will be off-limits to all Armed Forces personnel, citing public drunkenness and noise complaints. This should come as no surprise to anyone whose taken [...]
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Posted 02 July 2008
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As you may have noticed, the site was down for about 15 hours while I let the mob mentality of the NTWS people die down. My CMC noticed my site was down and had me come talk to him. I told him all the stuff that had been going on and he pretty much just [...]
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Posted 27 June 2008
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So I’ve finally settled into the whole First Class thing. I’ve gotten over the weird feeling of being called IT1, and now I’m just trying to figure out what I’m supposed to be doing. If anything, I actually have less work to do. Since my division has a total of four Firsts now, I assumed [...]
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Posted 11 June 2008
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Mary-Beth wrote me an e-mail asking for my perspective on her confusing relationship situation with an FDNF Sailor. Here’s her e-mail (ship name was removed):
My name is Mary. I really enjoy your blogs. Since you are in the military I would like to ask you a couple questions if you don’t mind. I have an [...]
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Posted 08 June 2008
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Just a quick note here folks. If you happen to be the person who posted a previous comment under the nickname “OLD SALT,” please contact me via e-mail. I sent an e-mail to the address that was tied to the comment, but I suspect the author may be on a ship or somewhere else they [...]
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Posted 06 June 2008
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I know sometimes I can be pretty hard on the Navy and make it seem like my service has all been attributed to one big mistake. That’s not entirely true. When I was going up for my ESWS qualification and studying the section for Navigation/Administration, I started reading about the Battle of Midway. I heard [...]
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Posted 04 June 2008
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A while ago a reader asked that I do a post on a silent ongoing struggle between DODDS teachers and their principle in Yokosuka. I had no idea that when I posted the blog entry about something I thought was a non-issue, whether teachers should have to stand lunch monitor duty, that it would become [...]
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Posted 04 June 2008
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A few days ago while crawling The Honch, I noticed Geodana’s, a popular “hip-hop” club was closed. Since it’s usually one of the busiest establishments in The Honch, I figured some stupid Sailors got it placed off-limits, but I hadn’t heard or read anything official. Stars and Stripes has an article confirming it was placed [...]
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Posted 03 June 2008
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CDR Salamander recently blogged about a Washington Post article that reported only about 36.1% of active duty military are enrolled in the Thrift Savings Plan. While I agree with the CDR that the remaining 63.9% are screwing themselves, I can sort of relate to why it’s not so popular. I originally enrolled in TSP sometime [...]
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Posted 02 June 2008
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If you’ve been following the recent news in Yokosuka, you may have heard of the Combined Anti-Violence Reflection Education, or “CARE” campaign. The program, which incorporates current anti-violence education, will have a stronger focus on “recognizing and preventing” violence amongst Sailors stationed in Japan. This is an obvious attempt of the US Navy to show [...]
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Posted 04 May 2008
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This post isn’t about Kitty Hawk’s last port visit, because I really don’t care.
We recently visited Hong Kong for a few days, and try as we may, me and my liberty buddies gave up all our original plans for the warmth of neon lights and the comfort of businesses of ill repute. I’ve been [...]
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Posted 04 May 2008
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I was recently sent the following e-mail which carried the bold subject line “Jim, I Need Help, PLEASE READ SOON!” The e-mail is from a shipmate who is asking for much needed advice. I hope one of the other readers, who made one of the decisions he details below, can help him much more than [...]
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Posted 26 April 2008
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I get a lot of e-mail from people asking questions about the Navy, being in Japan, or just calling me an asshole. I always have every intention of replying to the e-mail with an honest answer, but I never seem to get around to it. In an attempt to not leave any of these e-mails [...]
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Posted 23 April 2008
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In my recent post about things I didn’t like about Yokosuka Naval Base, a few of the comments showed a number of people really weren’t happy with the TV and Internet service offered to base residents by Americable Japan. I’ll make it clear now that I don’t have Americable. I live off base and I [...]
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Posted 19 April 2008
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So I was waiting to see if this would appear in any of the Japanese news sources I frequently monitor, and just as I figured, it didn’t. It’s a shame that a few problem Sailors are able to make such a negative impact on our image here in Japan, and can dominate the news for [...]
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Posted 18 April 2008
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