I stayed at the Green Park Pattaya resort, in a junior suite which was pretty pimp. The resort sported a nice pool that trailed around the property, and even though my fat ass doesn’t normally do the whole swimming in public thing, I swam so much I ended up with severe sunburn, and I have to go to medical for the next few days to keep having it bandaged up. You don’t realize how involved your shoulders are in simple mobility until even the simplest movements are excruciating.

While I tried to stay away from the sexual exploitation mecca known as Walking Street, we did end up going there about two times. We visited a couple go-go bars, but I was so occupied by my Bangkok friend that I didn’t really bother talking to any of the “entertainers.” We did hit up a nice disco and I got my dance on for a while. Aside from that, the rest of my time was spent doing legitimately fun things. I rode the elephants again, as well as the go-karts, and I even went nuts on the quad motorbikes. The first time we rode the quads, our guide took us on the scenic route which had us cruising down Pattaya Beach Road. The second time, however, he took us to some clearing and let us go ape shit. I learned how to burn out without killing myself, and the guy even tried getting me to do a wheelie. I was wearing flip-flops and didn’t even have a helmet on, so that shit was out of the question. I also tried driving a dune buggy on some off-road track, but I just ended up going over the tire barriers and being politely asked to leave. Good times.

One difference I really noticed from last time, was the price of everything. Despite the dollar to baht rate being about 10 THB lower, the prices were still pretty high for Thailand. I didn’t really notice it until I realized I spent about $2,000 for the whole visit. It’s not something I’m happy with, but at least I have souvenirs and a nice tailored suit to show for it, and my soul is relatively in tact.

Working as an Information Assurance Manager, I routinely come across personal thumb-drives that have been mistakenly left in workstations or lost. When these thumb-drives are turned in, we perform virus scans and then enumerate the files and folders on them for a number of reasons. One to identify the owner and another to ensure it’s not storing any unauthorized information.

One thing that always blows my mind is how much personal information people leave on their thumb-drives, without any type of security to keep prying eyes out. I’ve seen people’s e-mail archives, personal budgets, password lists, and even nudie pictures of themselves or their significant others…not always pretty. There’s nothing wrong with using a portable thumb-drive as a storage device for personal information, but in this day and age, when identity theft is as common as any other crime, it is absolutely crucial that you secure this information.

This step-by-step tutorial will show you how to use the free and open-source TrueCrypt encryption software, to create an encrypted security container (think of it as an encrypted folder) on your thumb-drive, which will contain all your personal and privates files, and can only be accessed by knowing the password you’ve chosen. For my example, I have a 4GB Kingston Data Traveler USB 2.0 thumb-drive being encrypted on a Windows XP machine. Any thumb-drive should work, and using TrueCrypt on other operating systems, like Mac or Linux shouldn’t be pretty similar.

To begin, download and install the TrueCrypt software. You will be required to reboot after the installation is complete. Do so, and then insert your thumb-drive after Windows finished booting. Double click the TrueCrypt icon on your Desktop, or run the program from the Start menu > Program Files > TrueCrypt menu.

Once the TrueCrypt window loads, click the “Create Volume” button.

When selecting the how we want to create the volume, we will select the “Create a file container” option. A file container is an encrypted file that will sit on the thumb-drive, and will “hold” all the information we wish to keep secure. The reason we select this option, instead of a fully-encrypted thumb-drive, is because 4GB is a lot of space, and I want to still be able to use the drive to quickly move files, that aren’t personal and don’t need to be secured, between different computers. Select the first option, and then click the “Next >” button.

The next window asks us to select the volume type. Since we’re not spies, the “hidden volume” is unnecessary. Select the default “Standard TrueCrypt volume” and click the “Next >” button.

The next window asks us where we would like to store our encrypted volume. Click the “Select File…” button.

Browse to the thumb-drive we want to store our personal information on, name the file anything you’d like, and then click the “Save” button.

Back at the volume location window, click the “Next >” button.

The next window asks us to select our encryption type. The defaults of “AES” and “RIPEMD-160” offer enough protection for our information, so just click the “Next >” button.

The next window asks use to specify our volume size. Remember I’m using a 4GB thumb-drive. Since I only want to use a small portion of the thumb-drive to encrypt private information, I select 1000MB for my volume size. When finished, click the “Next >” button.

The next window asks us to select a password. No amount of encryption is going to keep anything private if you use choose a lousy password to decrypt it. This password should be as complex as the information on your drive is important. You will need to enter this password whenever you want to access your encrypted files, so make sure it’s something you can remember.

The next window asks us to select different options for the way we want the volume to be formatted. The filesystem and cluster defaults should be sufficient, so unless you know what NTFS, leave the defaults. Before you click format button, randomly move your mouse pointer within the TrueCrypt program window. Your random mouse movements enable TrueCrypt to generate stronger encryption keys, ensuring your information stays as secure as possible. Do this for a few seconds, and then click the “Format” button.

TrueCrypt will take about a minute or so, depending on the size of your drive, to format the volume.

When formatting is complete, you’ll receive an alert message indicating the operation completed successfully. Click the “Ok” button to acknowledge.

The final window confirms the creation of our volume and asks us if we’d like to create another. At this point we’re finished, so click the “Exit” button.

Accessing our Encrypted Volume.
Now that we’ve created an encrypted volume, we will populate it with files that we wish to remain private. In my example, I have a text file with my credit card number that I want to store on my encrypted volume.

To access the volume, we first have to “mount” it. In the TrueCrypt main program window, click the “Select File…” button.

Navigate to the thumb-drive, and select the volume we previously created. Click the “Open” button.

Back at the main program window, we now have the location of our encrypted volume. To open, click the “Mount” button.

Next, you’ll be prompted to enter the password you created to secure your volume. Enter it and click the “OK” button.

If the password is correct, you will now see that our encrypted volume is mounted. In my example, it shows that my volume is mounted as the “G:” hard drive. To start working with it, you can either navigate to the G:\ drive in “My Computer,” or just right mouse click on the drive in TrueCrypt and select “Open.”

Now that I’m in my encrypted volume, currently mounted as the “G:” drive, I can save whatever files that I want to keep private. In my example, a text file with my credit card number.

When I’m finished working with the volume, I can once again encrypt it by “dismounting” the volume. From the main TrueCrypt program window, right mouse click on the mounted drive, and select “dismount.”

Now, if you were to lose your thumb-drive, you wouldn’t have to worry about whoever finds it being able to access your private personal information. When they access the thumb-drive from their computer, all they’ll be able to see is the encrypted volume, and whatever other non-personal files you had on the thumb-drive.

Some words of warning.
Personal encryption is not authorized on Department of Defense workstations, so the drive you’ve secured should not be the same one you use at work. Talk to your command Information Assurance Manager should you have any questions on how to safeguard Personally Identifying Information (PII) or FOUO information using officially sanction mechanisms.

There is no way to get into an encrypted volume if you’ve forgotten your password. Always ensure you’re using a strong and hard to guess password, but try not to go overboard. It’s a good idea to keep a written copy of it somewhere in a box at home, should you forget it.

Be aware of the perception about using encryption. While it is perfectly legal to use encryption, and you have every right to keep your information private, there are those out there who believe people who use encryption have something to hide. I was once being interviewed by a Naval Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS) agent about a work-related matter when the topic of disk encryption came up. His exact words were “the only people who really use encryption are people like us, NCIS, and sophisticated pedophiles.” He was absolutely incorrect in this unfair assumption, so be mindful of what others may think.

Navy CyberSpace Blog - Run by a retired Navy Career Counselor Master Chief, NavyCS offers a great amount of information related to the Navy, and would definitely be a site I’d recommend to any new Sailors or potential recruits.

The Deckplates - A blog written by a friend of mine. He’s also based in the Seventh Fleet, and touches on a lot of the happenings in and around his life in the FDNF. Always a good read if you want a better perspective on what the average Sailor thinks.

Lots of Nothingness - A blog written by Lynn, a Navy spouse to a Sailor on the USS George Washington. I normally find all Navy wives annoying, but Lynn is pretty web-savvy, which is sorta hot. Her squid should be so proud.

Yokosuka Social Network - John M. Andersen, who is a regular reader (thanks John!), started a social network site for active, reserve, and retired military personnel that are or have been based in or around Yokosuka. It has about 150 members as of this writing, and a lot of them are old salts. It’s really great to see what the old Navy and the old Yokosuka were like. I may have been born in the wrong decade, but I can still live vicariously.

The Destroyermen - The official blog of the USS Russell (DDG-59). The posts are written by various ship crew members and give a real look at what life at sea, and on a guided-missile destroyer is like…minus all the envying of cruisers of course.

The Mooring Lines - The official blog of Pacific Fleet Master Chief Tom Howard. While it’s a new blog with only a few posts, which are all pretty polished, I have to give credit to Master Chief Howard for experimenting with the blog medium.

TOKYO (AP) — A small amount of uranium powder escaped from a machine at a Japanese nuclear fuel plant near Tokyo, slightly exposing a worker to radiation, the plant operator said Thursday.

There was no health threat to the worker and the spill from Wednesday’s incident was contained inside the plant in Yokosuka, about 30 miles southwest of Tokyo, according to Global Nuclear Fuel-Japan Co.

The accident occurred when a uranium pressing unit was started up without a cap that had been removed for an inspection, the company said.

Stars & Stripes and other media outlets are reporting on an incident involving the submarine USS Houston (SSN-713). It appears the nuclear-power sub may have leaked small traces of radioactive water in bases around Japan, and it’s home port of Guam. No need to fear, however, Big Navy says the amount of water leaked was about the size of a 50 pound bag of commercial fertilizer (or 0.0000005 curies if you want to impress your friends from your dirty-bomb building club), and apparently that’s not anything to worry about. From the article:

The leak on the USS Houston was found on July 17 when the submarine was in dry dock in Hawaii, according to Lt. Cmdr. David Benham, a spokesman for Commander Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet in Hawaii.

Navy officials are still investigating the cause of the leak and when it started, Benham said in a phone interview.

But he stressed that the leak was extremely minimal — less than amount of radiation found in a 50-pound bag of fertilizer — and that the Houston’s nuclear reactor and crew were never in danger.

“We are talking about extremely low levels,” Benham said. “This is definitely not nuclear waste. This is water.”

Now I’m not a NUC, so excuse me for being ignorant. What’s the difference between radioactive waste and anything else that’s radioactive? Is one less harmful than the other. If the amount of water that leaked was comparable to a 50lb bag of fertilizer, than it shouldn’t be a big deal. I don’t think Japan was ever known for its clean beaches. Unfortunately, this is just going to add fuel to the fire of opponents of the upcoming arrival of the USS George Washington. On the upside, even though it’s a minor amount of radiation, maybe it’s enough that we could have a live-action Godzilla sequel soon.

Read the article: U.S. sub may have leaked trace amounts of radiation at Japan, Guam bases. Read a Bubblehead’s take on it here: USS Houston Radioactive Leak Reported.

And now from the we-all-saw-that-coming department, the USS George Washington’s Commanding Officer (CO) and Executive Officer (XO) have been relieved of their duties following the shipboard fire they had in May. The firing came at the direction of Admiral Willard, Commander Pacific Fleet, who cited the typical nondescript “lack of confidence” with an additional “failure to meet mission requirements and readiness standards.” How did he fail at mission requirements and readiness standards you ask? A PACFLT investigation determined the initial cause of the fire to be unauthorized smoking. The fire was then intensified when it ignited 90 gallons of oil that were stowed in an unauthorized compartment. The end result of someone getting their nicotine fix? 70 million dollars! The official report will be released once disciplinary and administrative actions are complete. Admiral Wren, Commander CTF 70, has been tasked with doling out the punishment.

UPDATE: I was reading a forum where someone brought up a good point. Since the GW caught on fire, there have been a lot of protests and concern from the Japanese about the safety of having a nuke carrier here in Japan. So it might not be a stretch to see this as a possible example that US Navy is giving Japan about how serious it takes accidents on its nuke carriers, would it?

UPDATE..uh to the…uh UPDATE: Let me be a little more specific for the kids sitting in the back of the short bus. I wasn’t implying this fire was some conspiracy by the Navy to demonstrate how they deal with accidents. The accident itself was just that, I was saying I don’t think it would be a stretch to think the Navy’s firing of the CO and XO may have been influenced by the unease of a nuclear carrier accident by the Japanese population.

Read the NavyTimes story here: GW skipper, XO sacked following May fire, or the CNN story here: U.S. Navy boots captain after fire on carrier

Below are two videos of the interview, originally posted on YouTube by user “asiapress,” but I reuploaded them to DailyMotion, since YouTube is blocked from Navy networks. For those of you at sea who can’t see the videos, feel free to read the transcript I painstakingly made below. A big thanks goes to reader ve1ez who originally sent me the links.

Transcript of the interview:

Reporter: Admiral Roughead, thank you very much. It’s nice to meet you again.

CNO: It’s good to be with you again

Reporter: And congratulations to your promotion as Supreme Commander of US Navy.

CNO: Thank you very much. It’s an honor to be in this position and to have the privilege of leading our Navy in this very special time.

Reporter: You were, if my memory is correct, skipper of a surface ship?

CNO: That’s correct.

Reporter: And Commander of Pacific Fleet?

CNO: That’s correct.

Reporter: And now you are Supreme Commander of US Navy. That’s kind of a dream of a young Japanese boy of my age. (I’m assuming his boyhood dream - Jim)

CNO:

Reporter: Well, I’d like to ask you about your Navy and mission. You have almost 300 ships, and almost 200,000 personnel, and many airplanes. What’s your most important mission at this time?

CNO: Well, right now our Navy is 280 ships. We’re moving to 313 as a minimum Navy, or uh number of ships. Our most important mission, at this time, is to support the war we are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is important to our country, it is important to the region; I believe it’s important to the world. But the Navy of today is also focused on ensuring the free and open movement on the oceans of the world. And, in October, we produced a maritime strategy. The maritime strategy described how the US Navy, in cooperation with the Coast Guard and in cooperation with the US Marine Corps, would go forward into the future. The strategy is one of cooperation; cooperation not just among the American services, but cooperation among the navies of the world, and maritime forces of the world, to be able to ensure peace, stability, and prosperity. In the case of the Navy, to be a global Navy; to be a Navy that can prevent conflict, because we believe that preventing war is as important as winning war. A Navy that can control the sea, a navy that can project power wherever it may need to be. Also, to conduct maritime security operations, again, to ensure the flow of resources and goods on the oceans. And to be able to respond to humanitarian disasters, and to be able to provide humanitarian assistance where possible.

Reporter: I hope you can elaborate something more on the details, such as the place like the Malacca Straight, or the Straight of Taiwan, or the Persian Gulf. First, the Malacca Straight, what are you doing down there?

CNO: Well the US Navy has no desire to patrol in the Straights of Malacca. But the Malacca Straights is a perfect example of what we talked about in our strategy of maritime security. As you may know, a few years ago in the Straights of Malacca, there was a problem with piracy. That piracy was driving up insurance rates, which meant that people were having to spend more money on things that were shipped through the straights. Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia came together and developed practices and policies, and began to work together in such a way that piracy in the Straights of Malacca has almost gone to nothing. So that is an example, I believe, of how nations and countries can come to together to share information, to operate in a cooperative way, so that we can make the oceans a better place to trade, and because of that, make things cheaper for our citizens in their daily lives.

Reporter: How about the Persian Gulf. You said you’re helping the ground war, but free and safe passage of that gulf is very important for oil, and Iran has missiles and it’s becoming a dangerous hotspot.

CNO: Well you’re absolutely right. The Arabian gulf is a very very important body of water. And most importantly are the Straits of Hormuz, where much of the world’s energy resources move through everyday, especially the energy for the western Pacific. Japan, Korea, China, draw much of their energy from the Gulf. We have been in the Arabian Gulf for over 60 years, and we will be in the Arabian Gulf for much longer.

Part 2

CNO: And our presence, and working with other countries there, maintains an environment that allows for that flow of resources. Recently, there have been some incidents with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Navy, not the Iranian Navy, but the Revolutionary Guard, where they have behaved in a very provocative way. This is not helpful to the way, that we as nations of the world, must live. But other countries in the region have come together and formed coalitions to ensure that the stability of the Gulf remains. I’m very proud, because for the first time in history, an Arab country, in this case Bahrain, took command of one of these coalition task forces. That’s the first time in history that an Arab nation has ever commanded a maritime task force. It’s through those types of efforts that we can build a much more cooperative and a much more peaceful area. And the Gulf is where, I believe, it’s important that we do that. Working with our friends and partners, particularly the countries in the Gulf, to ensure that stability.

Reporter: Fifth Fleet is stationed down there?

CNO: Fifth Fleet is stationed in Bahrain.

Reporter: How many Carriers do you have?

CNO: At the present time, we have one aircraft carrier in the Gulf. It is our practice to maintain a carrier presence in the Middle East and the Gulf. But as you know, we are able to move our carriers around very very quickly. And occasions in the past, we have been able to move additional carriers on very short notice. That’s why the aircraft carrier, particularly the nuclear aircraft carrier, is such a good instrument for security and stability, because it can move very quickly, it has a tremendous amount of power on it, and it can stay at sea for long periods of time. That’s why we’re so grateful to the government of Japan, and the people of Japan, for the forward-deployment of the USS George Washington in a few weeks.

Reporter: (…) The most hotspot is the Straight of Taiwan. Do you have any contingency plan or something? People are talking about some dangerous stories about the Straights of Taiwan.

CNO: Well I think it’s so important, and as our policy has been for many many years, that the use of force, in and around the Straights of Taiwan, is not the way to address the issues there. And I believe it’s important for navies, as part of a broader effort, but in my case, for navies to look for ways to works cooperatively with other navies in the world. In the case of the PLA Navy, I’ve had the opportunity to visit with my counterpart, Admiral Woo-Shan-Lee (I don’t know how to spell it - Jim) on a couple of occasions, and I’ve had the opportunity to visit China, and for the first time, see a US Navy warship tie up in a PLA Navy operating base. I believe these types of activities are helpful to better understand one another, to better provide for a very peaceful region, and to make possible, communications that can occur among the leaders of navies.

Reporter: So can I understand, you are determined to maintain the free passage of that straight, by any other means, not necessarily military, diplomatic, whatever?

CNO: Well the Straights of Taiwan are, it’s an international passage and it’s not unusual for ships to transit through the Straights. But I believe it’s important that we look for opportunities that when our ships are operating in that area, if there are opportunities for some cooperative activities in areas such as search and rescue, or perhaps humanitarian assistance, that we should try to encourage the PLA Navy to participate and gain a better understanding of one another, and remove any suspicions and any doubts about what the intentions would be.

Reporter: You have a huge area to cover. Africa, or South Pole, North Sea, so you are quite busy.

CNO: Well we are busy, but in our maritime strategy we call for the areas of emphasis to be in the western Pacific, and the Arabian Gulf and Indian Ocean region, because we believe those are the two areas that contribute significantly to the prosperity of our country and our friends and partners and allies. And from that prosperity, enhances the global economy, and so those are the two areas where we most concentrate. But we are still operating around South America. We just finished some successful operations around Africa, so we will be in all the oceans of the world, but our main areas of focus are the western Pacific,Arabian Gulf and Indian Ocean .

Reporter: Thank you.

(END)

Regular reader i*heart*rice was kind enough to take some photos of the protest and send them in:

The serious crime rate for US service members off their bases is “approximately half” that of the Japanese population, he told reporters.

Considering Japan has a low crime rate, “our ability to maintain our rate that is 50 percent less than the general population here is a strong indication that our actions are having an effect,” he argued.

A series of incidents including the alleged murder of a Tokyo taxi driver by a US deserter and a Marine’s sexual abuse of a 14-year-old girl in Okinawa has caused anger in local communities and triggered mass protests.

Amid public uproar, the US military pledged stricter discipline and education for its 40,000 troops in Japan.

“Despite all of our efforts, I believe there is often a misperception about the level of crimes committed by US service members,” Rice said.

I have to say I highly respect this man, as he’s shown he has the testicular fortitude to essentially tell the Japanese people to look at their own fucked up countrymen before acting like we’re the cause of all their problems. I know it won’t change much, and everytime we get a traffic ticket, we’ll have another thousand protesters at the gate screaming “Go Home USA!” That is, of course, right after they come to an open-base event and buy as much Anthony’s Pizza as they can carry home.

I got this story from one of the foreigner-in-Japan type websites I frequent, FuckedGaijin. Other posts in the thread question the math involved in Mr. Rice’s statement, since there are just under 50,000 US service member in Japan, and over 127 million Japanese residents. I have to agree that the numbers don’t quite add up, but I’d be willing to bet the percent of crimes committed by Japan-based US service members is substantially less than what USFJ stated. Unfortunately, there’s not enough solid data, such as breakdown per crime, etc., to really make an accurate analysis.

Additionally, one of the thread comments from “MeInJapanLongTime” brought up a good point, also arguing that the percentage of crimes by US military could be much lower when taking into account rotations, and lack of experience with living in Japan:

Well, when folks quote numbers that X number of crimes have been committed over the last decade, I believe it is important to take into account that (and this is a major wag in the numbers) there were perhaps 5 “major” (rape, murder, and such) crimes out of perhaps 400,000 military members that rotated through Japan. That drops the “percentages” significantly.

In a perfect world there would be no crime. No society is perfect, regardless of how much military training and discipline you instill in that group.

If you transplanted 40,000 Japanese businessmen into the US and then monitored them for drunk driving, I wonder what those statistics would look like.

My point here isn’t to say one group would do better than the other, simply that it’s not a perfect world, and there are idiots in every culture who will break laws and do idiotic crap. You can’t weed them all out. The US military tries its best to do so.

How many AFN propaganda commercials does it take to get it through people’s heads not to drink and drive?

Apply that same logic to the general populace. How many public service announcements and restrictions on sales and so forth would actually bring drunk driving to zero?

It’ll never happen. There are always idiots out there who think they’re above the law or “won’t be caught.”

If leaders should get anything out of this, it’s that it’s OK to call bullshit when you see it, instead of just bowing and mumbling sorry.

It’s not that I don’t want to help out, it’s just I could go to the car wash for my car wash. At least there I wouldn’t have to worry about people washing my car with dirty water and used rags. Another idea, which must be a staple of fund raising, was the food on the pier idea. Whether it’s hot dogs and burgers or something else, too many people have done it, and not enough people are willing to buy an overpriced burger when McDonald’s is right down the street. Someone brought up the suggestion of patches, which wasn’t well received. The custom patches are going to cost $5,000 just to make. Sure they’d look cool on an 80’s acid-washed denim jacket with “Born to be Wild” on the back, but I don’t think we’re going to be able to sell more than a handful, which could be a big financial loss to our small organization.

I wasn’t much help at the meeting, since I woke up as soon as they passed the word. However, I think our fund raising ideas could be a little better than the boring stuff we normally do. Here are some of the ideas I proposed to the group via a follow-up e-mail.

1. Blind Auction - Basically we offer two cool prizes, like a laptop and an iPod touch. Additionally, we offer about eight more not so cool prizes, like gift certificates and whatnot. Each item is put in a plain brown box, which could be weighed down or modified to through people off. With no one knowing what box contains what, we start auctioning each box off, one at a time. I think the desire to get the expensive prizes for a relatively cheap price will cause people to bid higher.
2. Reverse Raffle - I know this one sounds a little lame, but I think it could work. At some command event, give everyone a raffle ticket with a unique number. There’s a lists of tasks or rewards that people will be eligible to receive, all of which aren’t something they’d necessarily want, like crank for a day. The raffle holders can then take their chances with getting picked, or sell the ticket back for a set price, like $5. Not too sure how it would work, but I think it would be worth a shot.
3. Smashing a Car - This is a weird one, I know. I was able to do this in high school, and it’s actually pretty fun. Since so many people sell their cars for dirt cheap when they transfer, we could buy a junker to pound into oblivion. After working out all the safety stuff and getting the permission from the right people, we could charge people to take a few whacks at it with a sledge hammer. I think this is a good idea, because it could include people from all over the base, vice the local command. I’m not sure how well it would go over with the base safety officer, however.
4. Kickball Tournament - Last year, our team took the Captain’s Cup trophy in the base kickball tournament. I’m not going to say I was the MVP, buuuut I think I was. It’s a game that everyone can play, and I think the nostalgia aspect would get a lot of people involved. I figure we can do this locally, letting the various ship’s divisions buy-in their team. At the event we can also offer hotdogs or other refreshments to bump up our sales
5. Bagging at the Commissary - This is an easy one, and I believe it’s been done a few times on base. Still, it’s better than a car wash. We get the commissary to allow us to bag customer’s groceries, all while accepting donations. I’m sure we can guilt enough shoppers into fattening our coffers.
6. Topless Car wash - This is actually my favorite so far. Instead of the normal car wash offered on base, we spice things up a little. Have the car wash area concealed behind a building, so passersby can’t see all the wet hot action. We can have a few of our more attractive volunteers holding “Free Topless Car wash! Adults Only! (Since no one underage drives on base anyway)” to convince drivers to stop. One the horndogs men drive their car around back, we tell them we’ll wash the bottom part of the car for free, and we’ll only wash the car for a donation.

In addition to raising the funds, we’re still trying to figure out what we could use the finds for. of course, everyone wants to throw a party of picnic, but that’s just a waste of time. Everyone knows the majority of the crew doesn’t want to go to a picnic or party. Instead, they’ll leave work early to go to the picnic, hang around for a couple minutes to make sure everyone saw them, and then roll out. Though, someone did bring up the awesome idea of a “Sailor Relief Fund” to help Sailors who may be strapped for cash in a time of need or emergency. Personally, I think that should be our primary goal to work towards. Sure we have the Navy & Marine Corps Relief Society, but they can’t help with everything. Giving an interest free-loan, or even purchasing a plane ticket for someone’s emergency leave would be much more fulfilling than another circle-jerk of a party.

Something I plan on suggesting is a drunk ride program. A while ago, the ship played with the idea of using the MWR van to pick up drunk Sailors and take them to the ship, but it never materialized. I know the Air Force out here also has a 225-RIDE program which is largely publicized, and I’m sure it’s been a success. Being a driver, I wouldn’t mind giving up a Friday or Saturday night being available to drive some drunk shipmates to their homes. Since courtesy turnovers (CTOs) are no longer just a courtesy out here, and are instead a direct route to Captain’s Mast, I’d rather drive some drunk Sailors home, instead of the MAAs. I don’t think it would cost too much to run either. We’d just need a cell-phone, so there’s one reliable number, and gas money. I think the biggest problem with this idea, however, is the lack of volunteers I assume we’d get from my fell Firsts.

So, help us out here. Have you seen any fund raisers that you just thought were so unique, that you had to participate in, or donate to? What are some ideas that your ship or command has implemented, that ultimately made things easier or better for the junior guys?

In the three years I’ve been on board this ship, there has been a few times where I’ve noticed a Sailor was acting unlike their usual self. Since I talk to everyone on board, I’d stop them and ask them how they were doing. Once you do this, you can pretty much tell right off the bat that something isn’t right. Underway can be stressful, and many Sailors might be going through personal, financial, family, etc., problems, that just compounds the stress. Some times when you genuinely ask how they are, it’ll open the flood gates, and all their problems starts pouring out. Unfortunately, sometimes talking can only help so much. On a few occasions while talking with someone, I could see that the conversation was going in a pretty scary direction. I’m not a shrink, so what could I do? Send them to Chaps.

Sending them to the chaplain isn’t just a way to get them off my hands, but I know from personal experience, the chaplain can really help you make sense of problems you might be experiencing. When I’m in a good mood, I’m a productive asset to the division and ship. However, if I’m experiencing any type of problems, such as issues with my family back home, my whole day is preoccupied with the problem, and I’m utterly useless. If one ever finds themselves in that type of situation, the chaplain can really make sense of it all and help them to better understand how to deal with whatever is troubling them. This is something that can only be done by a chaplain who has been around for some time, and is familiar with the crew. Chaplains have to earn the trust of their Sailors, otherwise people would just rather let all their problems overwhelm them, and that could lead to a pretty bad situation.

The bottom line is the chaplain is one of the most crucial components to a good and healthy crew. Removing the chaplain, takes away from the already few options Sailors have to address the multitude of problems that may be hindering their productivity and success. Please, for the sake of all fleet Sailors, keep them billeted to ships.