“Saretsky, Eric W. CTMC (UFL N39 COPS3)” <xxxxx> wrote:
It’s 6 AM in El Cajon and I’m hoping that you’ve been able to sleep. I know how hard it is for you when you are in the middle of problem-resolution (baby-sitting) teachers and students!
I’ll be here all night, so I am just sending you lots of virtual hugs to comfort you!
Love you,
me
My wife found and shared with me old email we exchanged over ten years ago when I was on a Navy Reserve assignment to COMSEVENTHFLT AOR. It was my second visit to Yokosuka, Japan. Seven years earlier, in 1998 or 1999, I had been on Active Duty, aboard the USS CORONADO, when it visited Japan and Korea. That previous time, I had only just begun dating my future wife, and our exchanges by email were very slow and tedious. This, from a ship that was “state of the art” in most things electronic. In 2006 I had been a Reservist nearly six years, married five years and when I received orders to the SEVENTH Fleet for ULCHI FOCUS LENS, it was my first time in seven years that I was again on sea duty. And email was quite a bit more advanced in comparison.
My assignment aboard the USS BLUE RIDGE during UFL was interesting work, simulating tactical intelligence options, “PsyOps”( (psychological efforts to dissuade North Koreans from participating in the event of hostilities) and so forth. Other teams had different scenarios to develop. One of the things I learned, working with a joint unit of intelligence professionals ( Reservists who were also civilian experts in the fields they supported in uniform), is that some battlefield commanders, i.e. the Active Duty Army general heading up this exercise, are “warhead on forehead” types and not given to deep consideration of other forms of military conduct. I had previously seen that in a prior year working with an Air Force team who were reluctant to employ a new technology- because it was new, and not part of their manual (printed before the technology was in development).
Were I to do it again, I would again prefer to be a Navy Chief Petty Officer aboard ship. There is truth in Rank Has Its Privileges. While a Reserve Commander from my unit was also on this same Exercise, he had neither the camaraderie, nor the access to good chow that came with being a Chief in the BLUE RIDGE CPO Mess. It’s a tradition that all Navy Chiefs past and present are one, and all Navy units’ CPO Mess are one Mess
One other thing that seems to remain constant over the years since I last donned a uniform, is the fondness for change – in uniform styles, acronyms and Joint Exercise names. When I was reminiscing about ULCHI FOCUS LENS, online I found that this Joint exercise was subsequently changed to ULCHI FREEDOM GUARDIAN. In the decade that this has been in use, I presume the Pentagon is probably searching for a new name. “ULCHI FREEDOM MAGA”? Anyone? It undoubtedly will be huge.
Truths, Half-truths, and Sea Stories 