A little dessert goes a long way
April 27th, 2012 | Blue-Green operations Food Life at sea | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
Lance Cpls. Jonathon Ziolek, right, and Matt T. Behrens with 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit enjoy their ice cream aboard amphibious assault ship Makin Island, at sea April 26. (USMC photo)
You have to wonder how quickly these Marines devoured that ice cream.
Amphibious assault ship Makin Island held an ice cream social for Marines and sailors aboard the San Diego-based ship, which has been deployed in the Arabian Sea region with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit and a three-ship amphibious ready group. As these junior Marines are learning, sweets like ice cream, cakes and cookies are often readily available aboard many if not all ships at sea, yet they still are familiar, comforting. Besides, you can’t really ruin ice cream, or most any dessert for that matter.
Ice cream is more the rarity for those training in the field or deployed away from the large camps in the combat zone of Afghanistan (though you might be lucky enough to find some while on patrol). But as more Marines get to experience the different pace of life at sea, and in new places like Australia, the Philippines or South Korea, dessert will be just one of those constants when the meals might vary from rations to local but unfamiliar favorites. So whether it’s ice cream, cake or cookies, few will pass up the chance to indulge in those simple comforts that often remind us of home. And it certainly beats the sweets that come with MREs.
Freshly-made cookies await takers aboard assault ship Peleliu during a visit by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta March 30. //Gidget Fuentes photo
Granted, food of any kind is a great unifier, as Marines and others got to experience during exercise Balikatan just recently, and there’s plenty of chocolate and candy, along with goodies from home, sent overseas to Marines. Still, some chilled ice cream, with or without toppings like cherries and whipped cream, and freshly-made cookies won’t last long no matter where it’s available. During Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s visit in late March to the Peleliu, an amphibious assault ship training with the 15th MEU off the coast of Camp Pendleton, Calif., the culinary specialists in the ship’s galley served up to the crew plates of fresh chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies. The top civilian at the Pentagon? He enjoyed two of the oatmeal raisins. Can you name your favorite?
One last meal before you go
April 2nd, 2012 | Food Life at sea MEU operations | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
Marines aboard ship find a variety of meal choices, from baked chicken, fish and beef to burgers and salad bars. Some days bring themed meals, like the Tex-Mex lunch aboard USS Peleliu off California last week. (Photo by Gidget Fuentes)
Last week, some 4,000 Marines and sailors on the East Coast furiously worked to get themselves and their units and ships ready for a scheduled deployment overseas. The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit and its 2,300 Marines and sailors headed out March 30 from Camp Lejeune, N.C., aboard amphibious assault ship Iwo Jima, dock landing ship Gunston Hall and dock transport ship New York. It will be an eight-month deployment to the Mediterranean and the Middle East for the U.S. European and Central Command regions.
You can bet during that last weekend home, just about every Marine and sailor made the most of every single free minute. The 24th MEU asked its Facebook fans for their must-have favorite food they’d want to eat before deploying on ship. More than three-dozen responded with choices ranging from pizza, meatloaf and steak to even sushi. Other favorites:
- Louisiana gumbo.
- Ribeye steak, baked potato and fresh corn on the cob.
- Lasagna.
- Pumpkin pie.
- Chicken and dumplings from Cracker Barrel.
The chain restaurant must be a popular stop – Sam Tate wrote that he would enjoy its meatloaf and accompanying side dishes. Diane Brankley Zimmerman relayed that she made her son’s favorites before he left home: Corned beef and cabbage and beef stroganoff. Hmmm, yummy. Andy Warren brought back memories of a timeless comfort food: Grilled ham and cheese with a bowl of tomato soup. Craig Babich was open to most any meal with one caveat: “Anything but chicken.” But Christopher Olinger and James J. Hayes must have been kidding with this suggestion: An M.R.E. We hope.
Marines, sailors take in Super Bowl at sea
February 6th, 2012 | Blue-Green operations Life at sea | Posted by Dan Lamothe
Marines and sailors watch the Super Bowl in the hanger deck of the amphibious assault ship Wasp on Feb. 05. (Mike Morones/Staff)
ABOARD THE AMPHIBIOUS ASSAULT SHIP WASP -– If you’re going to watch your favorite NFL team lose in the Super Bowl, it may as well be somewhere interesting.
That’s the scenario I found myself in last night as I continue to cover Bold Alligator 2012, a massive amphibious exercise involving at least 14,000 personnel and 25 ships off the coast of North Carolina and Virginia. Like many of the sailors and Marines aboard this gator ship, I had accepted there was a strong possibility the game wouldn’t be on while underway –- only to find out the exact opposite.
Not only did the Wasp have the Super Bowl, the ship’s leadership went out of its way to make sure as many people as possible could see it. From the ward room, to the barber shop, to the mess deck, several thousand personnel took a break to watch the game, in which the New York Giants beat the New England Patriots, 21-17.
The liveliest place to view the game was the hangar bay. A movie theater screen and hundreds of chairs were set up, and Marines and sailors turned it into a concert-like environment in which the game and the commercials alike received howling cheers and boos.
The crowd was polarized when it came to sports, with any close-up shot of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady or Giants quarterback Eli Manning receiving a loud, mixed response. It was less so when it came to the commercials, as the raucous response to a new ad for the Fiat 500 Abarth showed. It depicted a tall, exotic woman flirting with a short, awkward man – until he realized he was simply daydreaming. The Marines and sailors howled.
In the ward room, dozens of officers aboard gathered over chicken wings, mozzarella sticks, coffee and soda to watch the game on two big-screen TVs. Several foreign officers asked questions about the rules of American football, and U.S. personnel cheerfully explained.
As a Massachusetts native, I took all this in with a red Patriots T-shirt poking out from underneath my half-zipped fleece. A few people noticed, but no one poked fun. They understood the draw of the game.
In the hangar bay, Lance Cpl. T.J. Miller, 20, told me he found out he’d be involved in Bold Alligator two days before the ships launched earlier this month. A Patriots fan, he assumed he’d miss the game for the second year in a row.
“They told me two days before, ‘Pack your stuff. You’re going,’ and I thought it was possible I’d miss it,” the CH-53 mechanic said. “The signal has gone out twice for about 30 seconds, but if it happens again I’ll go see what happens in the mess deck.”
Ah, the signal. Late in the game, it did go out again. Shortly after Giants receiver Mario Manningham reeled in a spectacular sideline grab that put New York in position to win the game, the screens on board went dark.
“Are you kidding me!” several Marines and sailors yelled in the mess deck, frustrated with the timing.
The signal came back a few moments later, and stayed true through the end of the game. When Giants running back Ahmad Bradshaw fell into the end zone with the game-winning score with about a minute to play, much of the hanger bay exploded into cheers.
Brady’s last desperation heave into the endzone fell to the ground a few minutes later, and Giants fans on board erupted. A sailor began blowing a whistle as though it were a musical instrument, and a group of Marines and sailors began jumping up and down in celebration.
Lance Cpl. Alex Ovide, 23, was one of the most boisterous. An amphibious assault vehicle crewman from Queens, N.Y., he’ll be involved in the amphibious unfolding over the next few days, but was glad to watch the game. He missed it last year while he was in the field, he said, and didn’t know the Wasp would have the game until it was already underway.
Sgt. Frank Rush, a Giants fan from Putnam Valley, N.Y., reacts as the Giants score the winning touchdown against the New England Patriots. Rush was watching in the hangar deck of the USS Wasp. (Mike Morones/Staff)
“I was just hoping to get a phone call out and find out the score,” Ovide said. “There was a rumor mill at first that we’d be able to see it, and then it came together.”
The result of the game, Ovide said, was “simply beautiful.” He congratulated the Patriots on a great season, knowing that I was a fan.
“This was great,” he said. “All of us came together, and all of the branches of service on board, too. It’s something you can really appreciate.”
I couldn’t agree more. Other than the final score, of course.
Operation Bold Alligator 2012 underway
February 5th, 2012 | Battle Rattle Blue-Green operations Embedded journalism Life at sea Life at Sea MEU operations Training | Posted by Dan Lamothe
A Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) approaches the well deck of the amphibious assault ship Wasp on Saturday as part of rehearsals for an amphibious landing during Bold Alligator 2012. (Mike Morones / Staff)
ABOARD THE AMPHIBIOUS ASSAULT SHIP WASP — Greetings from the Atlantic Ocean, where we’re covering the largest amphibious exercise on the East Coast since the beginning of the Iraq war.
Bold Alligator 2012 involves at least 14,000 personnel from the U.S., France, Great Britain and other countries, and at least 25 ships. The majority of them are American, but Canada and France have both chipped in with their own hardware, as well.
Conceptually, the forces at sea are currently in the early stages of planning an attack on enemy forces from the fictional country of Garnet, a common enemy in what military officers call the “Treasure Coast” scenario. A mechanized Garnetian division has invaded the neighboring country of Amber, and is pushing north toward Amberland, which has asked for coalition assistance to stop advance. Garnet already has mined several harbors and established anti-ship missiles on the coastline, military officials said.
In reality, Bold Alligator will require naval officers to think on their feet to develop strategy and defeat their fictional enemy. They’ll be tested on how they do, and be forced to adapt to real-world changes ranging from scheduling mishaps to bad weather. An amphibious raid will be launched from several ships and coordinated from the Wasp over the next couple of days.
Exploring the ship, it’s clear that many of the Marines on board have been to sea only a few times until Bold Alligator, if ever. For example, Sgt. Michael McDaniel told me that he deployed with 2nd Assault Amphibian Battalion, out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., to Iraq for both the initial push to Baghdad in 2003 and urban combat in Fallujah in 2004-05. He’s still with the unit, and has never participated in an amphibious exercise on this scale.
“We’re down here for quite a few hours every day doing maintenance,” he said in Wasp’s well deck, over the clanks, scrapes and groans of Marines moving and cleaning vehicles and weapons. “As long as we stay on top of maintenance, everything should be pretty good.”
Bold Alligator has significant attention from some of the top officers in the Navy and Marine Corps. On board Saturday was Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the chief of naval operations; Gen. Joseph Dunford, the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps; Lt. Gen. John Paxton, commanding general of II Marine Expeditionary Force; and Lt. Gen. Dennis Hejlik, commander of Marine Corps Forces Command; and Vice Adm. David Buss, deputy commander of Fleet Forces Command. That’s in addition to Rear Adm. Kevin Scott and Brig. Gen. Christopher Owens, who are leading the exercise from the Wasp.
The exercise also has attracted attention in Congress. At least four members of the House were here Saturday, including Rep. Buck McKeon, R.-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
To the extent possible, photographer Mike Morones and I will keep posting updates from the exercise, which we’ll be covering for the next several days. As you might expect at sea, Internet service has been spotty. However, a “Super Bowl Bash” is listed on the ship’s plan of the day Sunday. As a Massachusetts native and Patriots fan, that suits me just fine.
Give me liberty – but where?
September 2nd, 2011 | Life at sea MEU operations Off-duty The Pacific | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
Sailors, Marines aboard USS Boxer man the rails as the ship entered Hong Kong harbor on Aug. 31./Photo by Lance Cpl. Jesse Witten
Will it be Hong Kong? Or Australia?
For some 4,000 Marines and sailors aboard three amphibious ships on the homestretch of an overseas deployment, liberty this holiday weekend means they will get to spend their days, nights and dollars in Hong Kong and Australia.
The crew of amphibious transport dock Green Bay is making its maiden operational deployment, and embarked Marines with 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit get to stretch their legs in Darwin, Australia. Darwin sits in the continent’s north-central coast. It’s a tropical city on the Timor Sea and the capital of the Northern Territory, a sparse region most known for Uluru, or Ayers Rock, the famous red-sandstone mound that rises above the outback. The city of 127,000 is familiar with sailors and Marines, as it recently hosted service members during joint training exercises this summer.
Two other San Diego-based ships with their amphibious ready group – amphibious assault ship Boxer and dock landing ship Comstock – are hanging for a few days in Hong Kong, some 2,600 miles northwest of Darwin. Hong Kong is notable for its super-sized, neon-lit, elbow-crowding urbaneness. It’s part of China, but the harbor-front city remains quite the hub of capitalism, so there will be lots of the usual shopping and partying, and likely some volunteerism with community relations projects that units organize when visiting liberty ports.
The Boxer ARG/MEU force left the 5th Fleet region in mid-August and is making the trek back to their California bases – but not before a little time to get on dry land and take a short break. ”Our sailors and Marines are looking forward to enjoying the richness and diversity of the Chinese culture,” Boxer’s skipper, Capt. Kevin Flanagan, said in a news release.
And what about “down under” in Australia? Green Bay, which along with Comstock last month visited the popular city of Phuket, Thailand, pulled into Darwin’s harbor on Sept. 2. “The crew has been asking to visit Australia ever since we sailed on deployment, and it’s great that we get to spend a few days here experiencing the local culture,” Green Bay’s skipper, Cmdr. Kevin Meyers, said in a release.
Get some…air (with a dash of sea salt)
August 16th, 2011 | Anti-piracy Life at sea MEU operations Training | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
There’s nothing like that spray of salty air, open seas and several hundred horsepower to make one think: And they pay me to do this??
Just a thought looking at some images released this month as the California-based 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit and the Navy’s Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group boarded a pair of ships and got underway for their first at-sea integration exercises ahead of a scheduled overseas deployment later this year. The boat crews supporting the training mission against mock pirates on a vessel near San Clemente Island operated off the transport dock ship New Orleans, which will deploy with dock landing ship Pearl Harbor and big-deck amphibious assault ship Makin Island (preparing for its maiden operational deployment). The exercise is the first of a trio of blue-green training geared to getting the MEU’s 2,200 Marines their sea legs and the shipboard sailors used to working, operating and living alongside their greenside partners.
While last year’s takedown of gun-toting pirate hijackers by the 15th MEU’s raid force cast a bright public spotlight on counter-piracy missions, such maritime interdiction operations are far from new missions for leathernecks, or sailors (and SEALs) for that matter. But they remain a curiosity for many who aren’t part of the maritime force that includes the sailors operating the boats (special warfare combatant craft crewmen) along with supporting air and sniper coverage.
An AH-1Z Viper attack helicopter takes off from the deck of amphibious assault ship Makin Island Aug. 14 to support anti-piracy training off Southern California with the 11th MEU. (Photo by Gunnery Sgt. Scott Dunn/Marine Corps)