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Honest Abe heads for hell
The USS Abraham Lincoln, in all its nuclear-powered, aircraft carrier glory, headed out to sea Friday. This event means different things to different people. For one, it means there will be a few thousand less people hanging out in the Everett-Bremerton-Seattle triangle (the Lincoln is home-ported in Everett, gets work done to it in Bremerton and Navy personnel go to Seattle because there's nothing to do anywhere else). A few thousand isn't a huge number compared to the population, but for the observant citizen, it means there will be a fewer number of men with short hair and no (obvious) piercings running about. Because a large percentage of the crew of the Lincoln is in the 18 to 23 age range, the ship's departure will mean at least a few hundred people will no longer be out at the clubs, no longer shopping, no longer hiding out at raves avoiding the "undercovers" and no longer riding the ferry to or from Bremerton, drunk as monkeys, at all hours of the night. They will be missed. The Lincoln's departure also means a good deal of people will be going on their first Navy deployment. An article in the Seattle P-I noted something like half of the crew is in for its first deployment. They are in for a treat. For a little background info, the Lincoln is taking off on a "West Pac," or Western Pacific deployment. A deployment for an aircraft carrier means the majority of one's time is spent cruising on the water, with limited stops for short periods of time at ports on the way to and from where you're going. The last two West Pacs the Lincoln underwent entailed two trips to the Arabian Gulf. In 2000, the West Pac lasted six months. In 2002, it lasted 10. During the Lincoln's last deployment to the Gulf, the ship participated in "Operation: Shock and Awe." As an enlisted individual on board, I was out on "vultures row" (the little balcony area above and to the side of the flight deck), when nearly every single plane on the ship took off, fully loaded with 500 and 1,000 pound bombs, headed to Baghdad. I was most likely asleep by the time the planes returned without any of those bombs left. Sailors on the Lincoln are headed out on a journey of their own, probably toward the same area, maybe to do the same thing, maybe not. This deployment is slotted to last four months and scheduled to take them to Guam, Korea and beyond. I personally have mixed feelings about what I was involved in during my time out on the boat. I hated my whole experience out there, hated the system, hated the lack of control I had. It was my own damn fault for signing up; I wanted money for school. But it's full circle now, as I stand in school, using the money I got from enlisting and managing to make out with an honorable discharge. I wonder how many people on that ship are where I was, not particularly agreeing with the basic U.S. military philosophy. How many feel guilty they are getting paid to, directly or indirectly, support an institution that, especially in retrospect, can't quite figure out if it did something good or bad? My best guess is the men and women on the Lincoln today are in for a rough time. I can only speculate that they've been sufficiently lied to and that their combat pays, health benefits and chances for promotion are going down. They won't actually go where they've been told and many are going to come back bitter, just like the many of us that went out last time. Tomorrow must be better. |
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