New Post

Well, I am back finally from deployment. I am trying out a couple of new services that Blogger is offering. (New for me that is.) For example I am writing this from my email, and there is a new mobile phone post function... Though with the new smart phones, why not just email your post in and get over the 160 character limitation of the SMS.

At any rate, it's great to be back and I look forward to writing more.

Cheers,
Josh

New Post---- Unbelievable Enough As It Is

Well, I am about four weeks from the end of my deployment to Afghanistan. Of course much has happened since the last post to this Blog.
So this last year in review;
2009 started with a great night featuring much good company and cheer with the Nakajima's. The friendship that we developed with them will remain even as time passes.

Work continued, and as I continued to learn how to manage major capital improvement projects I was struck how much I still don't know. But boy was it ever interesting to learn how to make things happen.
So in January I received orders to transfer to Gulfport, MS. To the 22nd Naval Construction Regiment. So the intent was to get close to Kristin's family and best friends from college. And it was the job that I wanted. I should have been suspicious because everything was lining up perfectly.
Sometime in February I got a call from the Detail er. It's never a good thing when the Detail er calls you... LOL

So there was an issue with PCS money, and the bottom line was that I lost my orders and would be going to the 30th NCR instead. The 30th is located in Port Hueneme, CA, which is the same base that we lived on when I was in NMCB Five.
Kristin was disappointment, but at least we were going to a location we were familiar with and we even had several friends still in Port Hueneme.

So in May, amid a whirl-wind of working at closing out my projects, building a turnover binder, and training my replacement, we started the massive sojourn of moving from overseas back to the States. We decided that we would not go directly to Port Hueneme. I had not taken a single vacation in the three years that we were stationed in Japan. I deserved some time off.

Off to Seattle we went. We spent a wonderful three days with the Bowsers in St. Mary, WA up by Everett. It was great to see the kids and watch Ronan reconnect with Sarah Bowser who was born four days before he was. We also had dinner with Sam Wirsching and his family before flying out to Gulfport, MS to visit with Heather, Kieth and company.

Gulfpot was a great visit. We were all able to visit with friends and family. I was able to see Tim James, one of my coworkers and best friends from Japan, Kristin was able to see al of the girls and even a new addition. We picnic ed out on the beach, swam in a pool everyday, and had a very relaxing time before renting a car and driving up to Shreveport for a week.
Shreveport was everything that I recalled. Hot, muggy, and .... wel that's about it. We stayed with Kristin's mother, Connie, and had a chance to visit Rourke and Mel, and their kids Erin and Haylee. (I remember them when they were babies.) During the time, we drive up to Bentonville, AR to visit with Tim, Vicki and their two kids. We spent a day out on the lake, hung out around the pool, and generally relaxed.

The next stop on our tour of the country was a visit up to my family. We flew into Spokane, and after picking up our rental car drove to Michael's house which is 15 minutes from the airport. During that visit we had the opportunity to hang out with Rebecca and her new boyfriend Jeff (As well as his two boys), Mom, Dad, Randy and Erin. Of course we spent plenty of time with Michael as well.
After spending a week up there, it was time to start our final let down to California. We had much to do before I had to report into my new job at the 30th.
So we flew from Spokane, to Seattle, then on to LAX, from there we flew to Oxnard. (That will be the last time that I ever fly into Oxnard again.)

We picked up the rental car, and immediately went to go pick up the car that we had ordered while we were back in Japan. we had bought a 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI. So it was back into a diesel with us. Full nav system and multimedia package.
It was ready and off we went to the hotel.
We ended up staying in the old BEQ on Point Mugu NAF until we could get into base housing at Port Hueneme. It was interesting staying in there with two little boys and two adults. But we got through it and moved into our new/old house, which is two driveway entrances down from the house we previously lived in.

I reported for work, and after four weeks, we deployed to Afghanistan.

And that, I will save for another post.

~Josh

Quick update

Last weekend, my friend Mike Gabiga, and I embarked on an attempt to finish a grueling 72km endurance race. I decided to participate in this race at Mike's behest because he had attempted two other times and wanted to have company, and someone in his relative physical fitness. (At least I was able to provide decent company.)

We actually did not make it past the first checkpoint in the race, which was 22.4 km into the course. I found the course to be vertically challenging. Our elevation changes were impressive, with one ascent rising over 800m in close to 1 km in horizontal distance.

At any rate, I carried about 7 liters of water in with me, and drank most of it before we reached the 1st checkpoint. When I found out that there was no resupply of water at that location... well I went ahead and tapped out. There was no way I was going to hike another 22 km with less than a liter of water in my Camelback.

So that was our attempt at the Hasegawa Cup.

~jp

Hasegawa Cup

 

 

 

 

These are some picture of the Hasegawa Cup, which is a 72km in 24 hour extreme cross country race. We were able to take a few pictures before Mike's camera battery died.

~jp

I couldn't let this pass without sharing

We were cleaning out the baby's new room and I found my over night bag from my time in Iraq. The back pack is impressively large as you can see.

New Post.... As unbelievable as can be

Well, I have waited about a year to post on the old blogsite again. Do I have a good reason for waiting so long?
Not really.
Sure, work has been pretty intense this last year with a huge range of experiences and types of work I have been doing during that time.
Let's see, how can I update all of the people who have kept up with my site, or still look from time to time?
I guess the best way is just to go ahead and jump into it.
The last time I wrote on this blogsite, I was about to go off to Huntsville, AL for a contracting class. Enroute I took a couple of days of leave and was able to watch a Georgia Tech Football game, and catch up with friends from school. The class on the other hand was terirble. It was Construction Contracting, which is one of my technical profeciencies, and the level of teaching was terrible. But I was able to get my contracting warrant from the experience and that is a big deal in my community. Well, it's a big deal anywhere, because it put me in the group of people who can legally obligate the government in an agreement. It's been pretty interesting. To date, I abligated close to $3.5 million in contraction actions.
The next big thing that happened is that my supervisor, LCDR Mike Comstock went to Iraq for 6 months. That left me as the only military in the Facilities Engineering, Acquisitions Division (FEAD), with a new PWO and base CO both of which felt that having a military person in change of this very important division of the public works department was crucial. So I stepped up and became the acting FEAD officer. That was a very trying time, as the entire division was understaffed, the work was ramping up, and the demands of my bosses continued to increase. To tell you the truth it was exciting, and while I can't say that I did a great job, I kept it all afloat and juggled the balance of executing construction which I was responsible for, and providing the leadership for the people who work the Division.
During this time Kristin and I found out that she is pregnant. (Still expecting as of this writing.) I was promoted, and commited to another five years in the Navy. (There was a healthy retention bonus in it as well.)
Now for the recent past; In June I changed jobs. I moved from the FEAD when LCDR Comstock came back from Iraq and became an Assistant Public Works Officer (APWO). This means that instead of executing construction projects, I am the person who works with the customers to coordinate and drive their requirement for a project in the first place. So far it's been pretty easy compared to running the FEAD. (Knock on wood, as I rap on my head.) Working with the different people on base is a lot of fun, and educating them on the hazards of trying to get facilities projects executed in the militay realm. It's been very interesting, and I am sure will continue to be interesting.
In the last month, I have been able to go to Hawaii for a Junior Officer's conference. That was interesting and all said and done actually productive. The senior management in the Civil Engineer Corps is still very concerned with the retention of junior officers and there was much talk about that. Right now it doesn't look like there are enough people to fill the future ranks of middle and senior leadership. Time will tell how the retention strategies work in the long run.

Ronan is doing great, he is very verbal and active. We have had him in swimming lessons for most of the summer, and he seems to love playing in the water. That is great. He is actually starting an active, organized preschool this fall. He's very excited about that because they get to do so many really neat things.

Kristin is about to give birth. I think within the next couple of weeks.

I am doing quite a bit of outdoor adventuring. I am going to climb Mt. Fuji next week, and the second week in October I am going to do a 24 hour, 72km hike up in the hills west of Tokyo. Thatr promises to be an interesting thing. Who knows if I will even finish the hike in 24 hours.

Besides the endless computer problems that seem to be plaguing our house, that is about it for right now.

I will update again in the near future, I promise.

~Josh

Against all Odds, Another Post

Well, it has been a few weeks, so I thought I would go ahead and write another post.
It has been pretty hot here in Japan. The temps have not gotten into the 100 degree range, but you throw some 90% humidity into the mix, and you want to do nothing that involves walking around outside. (Unless it's early in the morning or late at night.)

I know it has been much hotter State-side, so my heart goes out to those that were affected by the heat wave. (Remember that global warming is nothing but a figment of our imagination.)

Work has continued to be a fairly rough endeavor every day. I am learning how to be a Contracting Officer right now, and that entails learning three seperate computer systems. I have made a few mistakes, and then people criticize me and expect me to be all ashamed. The look on their face when I look at them and blink then say, "So?" is priceless. You know the T-shirt that says , "Does it look like I give a damn?" comes to mind. If I could get away with it, I would wear it. Maybe I'll get a white one if I can find it, and wear it under my uniform.

Seriously people, it's not like I don't care, but with everything else going on at work, getting all of my contracting actions exactly right in the system does not jump to the front of the stove so to speak.

That's about all I have on that.

Later peeps.
~jp