Just for convenience, I finally fixed that pesky problem with the title graphic. Now onto "THE POST"
I hardly ever take pictures.
For years I've had pride in myself for not taking pictures. I keep everything all up in the old noggin. When I was younger, I loved taking pictures of everything I could find and unfortunately that just led to a lot of pictures stored away in envelopes up in the attic.
Of course when I'm old, my memory starts to fade, and I begin to look backwards instead of forwards, I'll kick myself for not keeping a physical record of my memory. This past thursday and friday I was in San Diego for the first time since July. And while no tires exploded on the way there, no zombie jesus argued with a klingon in the klingon's native language, and no crowds of star wars fans dressed in imperial uniforms were present, my experiences this past Thursday were quite memorable.
Early thursday morning, my father and I hopped in the car and drove to San Diego. He and many of his old Navy buddies wanted to get together and go aboard the United States' latest and largetst aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan. I was looking for an excuse to leave Phoenix and I haven't been on a carrier since boarding the U.S.S. Coral Sea back in 1983.
To discribe the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan in one word: HUGE. The flight deck alone is over 300 yards long. The view from the flight deck, of course, was gorgeous. Being able to see the entire San Diego bay from Coronado island is always a treat.
The interior of the ship is a cramped metal maze of stairways, ladders, chambers, and possibly a minotaur in the center. The entrance to the ship was a little odd as the entrance contained a small memorial museuem for Ronal Reagan that was well designed but somewhat creepy. I'm not sure if Mr. Reagan wanted the poster for
"Bedtime for Bonzo" to be on display in an aircraft carrier named after him.
The real treat of that day was being able to talk to for the first time some of the people my father served with while in the military. The first was Terry Kaltenbach, a man who has been my father's closest and oldest friend. He is a retired Naval intelligence commander who now works as an insurance underwriter. Throughout the whole trip he discussed with me the idea of joining the Naval reserve intelligence program. The next person I got to meet was a woman named Stayce. She's a colonel in the Air Force reserves, a United Airlines pilot, and the first woman to be eligible to fly Air Force one. She was all around one incredible person that I hope to keep in touch with.
The third and final interesting person I got to meet was a short man named Charlie White. Charles was the youngest of the group (still in his fifties) who now works at Naval Air Systems Command or commonly known as "NavAir." He made a mention to me that NavAir is always short on staff for as many projects that they have. He also mentioned to me that there's a good chance I could get hired if I talk to the right people. Great guy, but I wonder if I'll ever hear from him again.
Of course hanging around all these people who had nothing but praise for their time in the service makes a young impressionable guy like me go... "HEY! I WANT A JOIN TOO!" That's the danger of getting stuck in a rut, you'll do almost anything to get out no matter how crazy. But I think I'll go teach english out in Japan before I decide to become an Air Force supply officer outside of bagdhad.
Besides, because of my bad eyesight, I could never do any of the cool jobs the military or other forms of government service has to offer. Just recently I learned that that I could easily be eligible to be a special agent in the FBI, only if my vision wasn't 20/400 uncorrected. The same goes with any type of aviation or navigator position. Even as a commercial pilot, I could not fly with my vision, so somewhere along the lines if I ever do choose to go these routes, I'll have to get lasik.
So here I sit, yanking out my hair trying to think of what to do with the rest of my life.
