I was really looking forward to this trip to Thailand. We were going to be living in HOTELS, with liberty EVERY NIGHT. Able to go out to town in Pattaya Beach, one of the biggest resort cities in the world. Morale, Welfare, and Recreation had tours scheduled to see the fabulous cultural sites of ancient Thailand. The Reclining Buddha, 160 feet long and 36 feet wide. The Golden Buddha, cast from 5 1/2 tons of solid gold. Ancient temples. Thai boxers. The genuine Bridge on the River Kwai.

Our hotel has the largest pool in Southeast Asia, and I brought my swim trunks. After the exercise concludes, I now rate overnight libo. My favorite Gunny had invited me along with his overnight libo group. He spent a year living in Thailand, so he knows where to go. Then after Thailand, we head to Hong Kong, for three more days of liberty in one of the world's great cities.

After the freezing Korean forests, stinking Cambodian swamps, stinking Philippine swamps, and blazing hot Australian desert, I was really looking forward to a nice place to stay, with liberty rules that treated us as adults.

I am such a sucker.

I should have known better. We've been cancelled from participation in the Thailand exercise. As you've probably seen on the news, Phibron 11 and the embarked 31st MEU is going to Myanmar aka Burma aka Rangoon, effective instantly if not sooner. All hands are scurrying like a recently-kicked anthill. We set flight quarters at 0430 to get all the Harriers off the deck. It'll take us three days or so of sailing to get around the peninsula that points south from Thailand, so we're pulling anchor as soon as the ship finishes sending all the Harriers' containers ashore via landing craft. Some of our longer-range helicopters are launching immediately; they'll land in Thailand and wait for permission to fly into Myanmar overland. The rest of us will sail around to just off their coast.

I am going to miss the semi-vacation, easy-living deployment to Thailand. But. The last two years has been all political missions. My service says "No better friend, no worse enemy than a Marine." We've been wanting to either kill people or save some lives for the whole two-year float, instead of just cruising about hosting parties for ambassadors. A real humanitarian mission will feel good.

But, but, but. Myanmar HATES us. We've had sanctions against their military junta for decades, and they're paranoid about the US military. They have not yet granted us permission to enter their airspace or territorial waters. I am laying 50-50 odds that we will not do anything useful. We'll spend a couple of weeks floating back and forth outside the 11 mile territorial limit, until we give up and go home.

Just watch. Another wasted trip, on the way.

PS The stress is getting to people. My poor gunny went to medical last night worried that he was having a heart attack. Our flight surgeon got kicked out of the rack at 0330 to give him an EKG. Apparently gunny's ticker is OK, it was blamed as a stress-related panic attack. He's been going every which way for months now. He was prepared to be the shop head for a Flight Equipment shop. In addition to that, they made him Division Chief for Airframes Div, meaning he's in charge of not just our shop, but another shop the same size and a third shop that's quadruple the size. Then they made him squadron Big Dog too, which is a boat-only billet. It's the designated interface between our squadron and the ship's Flight Deck Handler, who is responsible for making sure aircraft, aircrew, and maintainers are all where they need to be when the schedule calls for it. Not an easy job at all.

PPS I guess I should go up to the flight deck and take some pictures of the Thai beaches, because right now I'm as close as I'll ever get to them.

Posted by: Boviate at 11:55 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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