You know you’re in a great country when…
…you can stand on a pier surrounded by other anxious people - young, old - family and friends… each having a sailor on board a returning warship - son, daughter, mother, father… little children waving flags in excitement… grown women weeping at the sight of their husband’s boat… and to see the first glimpse of that dark gray sail… slowly and purposefully rolling down the river… and then the horns - every horn - every warship in the port (including the brand new Virginia) sounding a full 60-second long blast in unison to welcome home these 12 million pounds of American military ‘love’ - the very sound of glory resonating through the entire harbor. Awesome! Don’t even think you can know what it was like.
Web designer and developer. Loud discerner. Software engineer and 
. Remember...
You did a great job describing it. So what does your brother have to say?
I was always sad pulling in to port after a deployment. There was never anyone to greet me. I was happy for my ship mates, when they would see their families waiting for them. But the loneliness would kill me, knowing that I and only a handfull would be left alone on the ship after the crowds left.
I agree with the sediments that were explained so colorfully. Being an ex squid myself, I have “manned the rails” in my dress whites or blues and got to see the reaction as my ship approachd the berth. It tickled the emotions every time.
When all the pomp and circumstance was over, however, I was always the one on duty the day our ship pulled in, since I didn’t have any family or friends there to greet me. I usually volunteered for duty so that someone else might get to go home with their families. But sometimes I was forced into duty and had to miss all the action because I was in the engine room doing a shutdown.
Even though nobody was greeting me, I always experienced the joy just by witnessing what was going on around me.
Even though I didn’t have anyone close to me there to greet me,
Enough sap already - I also liked getting off the ship onto land to get
some beer and check out the babes!
My little bro didn’t know we were coming. He had volunteered to shut down the reactor so the other guys could see their families. I sent a LT to go in and tell him we were here… he was surpised.
I remember one training stint at Ft. Bragg that had everyone else’s family there but I was going off to MORE training so I wasn’t done… and everyone else was going home with their girl. That was not cool.
Tony:: “Sediments”?
Ya know…. I’m in a software engineering class and my recent project was to analyze an example of software from the book that dealt with oil mining. It had a bunch of Objects about rock types and the drilling rates. You know, igneous, metamorphic, and SEDIMENTARY rocks. I guess that word was on the brain. Or maybe I need to proofread my posts next time. Splel chcek eniwhon?