Caleta Cifuncho

I think most of my friends already know this, but my first ship ran aground.  Hard.  As in, stuck on a mountain in a foreign country, needed to ballast, wait for high tide, and get a tow boat...  I guess the good thing is we weren't stuck on the reef outside of Waikiki in view of our home port and wrecking the coral reef for days.  Not that it was a fun time by any stretch of the imagination, but definitely a learning experience that I am grateful for.  Then again, it's easy to feel thankful when the entire crew somehow made it through unscathed.

LMC in Cifuncho Bay

Considering the damage sustained by the ship, it is a miracle that no one was seriously injured and a true testament to the crew that she didn't sink.  Trust me.  I spent hundreds of hours learning every tank, valve, and piece of engineering equipment on that rust bucket.  People gave me lots of shit about how badly the ship was damaged and I laughed along because I didn't want to argue with someone who wasn't there, but the truth is, it's really not funny if you know how close we actually were to sustaining catastrophic personnel casualties.  It feels odd to say that was over a decade ago.  I can't get over how young we were back then.

Us, on the LMC, in Cifuncho Bay

Exactly one month after we ran aground, the USS Cole was attacked.   They were not as fortunate.  I've met people with permanent head and other injuries, unable to return to serving at sea due to the attack... and they considered themselves lucky compared to those shipmates who didn't make it.  
Sometimes it seems like life is pretty random.  I used to feel extremely guilty about the fact that we didn't lose a single person when the Cole lost so many.  But as the years have gone by, that guilt is mostly replaced by gratitude.  Not because they were in harm's way and we weren't, but because we have all learned so much from their experience.  (And to a lesser degree, folks have learned from ours, although we are mostly a tale of what not to do.)

LMC the following year.  Target practice.

When we were stranded in Cifuncho Bay, we thought that was more or less the worst thing that could happen in the Navy.  9/11 occurred one day shy of the anniversary of the LMC grounding.  By then, we'd all moved on to new assignments and I was on a completely different ship in a completely different capacity, suddenly getting ready as fast as we could to deploy when the call came.  Our expectations and perspective changed dramatically.   Now, I look back at those pictures in Cifuncho and smile wistfully because it all seems so innocent compared to what lay ahead.

Remembering the lessons of the past is not the same as living in the past.  Sometimes mistakes don't erase very cleanly, but that's okay too.  We choose to be thankful or resentful for where life takes us. 

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The Navy Hymn

   Eternal Father, Strong to save,
  Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
  Who bid'st the mighty Ocean deep
  Its own appointed limits keep;
  O hear us when we cry to thee,
  for those in peril on the sea.

O Trinity of love and power!
  Our brethren shield in danger's hour;
  From rock and tempest, fire and foe,
  Protect them wheresoe'er they go;
  Thus evermore shall rise to Thee.
  Glad hymns of praise from land and sea.

And when at length her course is run,
   Her work for home and country done,
   Of all the souls that in her sailed
   Let not one life in thee have failed;
   But hear from heaven our sailor's cry,
   And grant eternal life on high!

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