Good morning Paul, a few years ago I had some training at the sub base in Bangor, WA and we brought our pop-up camper. It was great staying at a few of the local state parks while I commuted to the base for school. One weekend we drove up to Hurricane Ridge at Olympic National Park and it was beautiful. We also stayed a few days at Ft. Eby on Whidbey Island (Oak Harbor). We have friends at a little Presbyterian church there. Not too far away is the Mt. St. Helens site, too. Of course, you'll probably be quite busy with life on the carrier, but take advantage of your time off to see the local area and not just hang out with the guys. By the way, the ferry system up there is awesome, and they have great coffee!

Hi Paul, I can understand wanting a car but if you're on a deployed carrier it just sits in a storage lot for months at a time. So there's a lot of expense (insurance, maintenance, etc) for the opportunity to get away occasionally. You may want to wait until you figure out the deployment cycles. As for life aboard ship, everybody basically works 12 hour shifts (some work longer hours), but some work in air conditioned spaces (adminstrative), some work in machinery spaces, and some work on "the roof". The berthing compartments are not quite as spacious as you might like- 96 men per, but it's a good way to get to know your shipmates! I found other Christians on ship and we had some great fellowship.

Happy Anniversary! Hopefully, next year you and Melissa can celebrate together. Thank you for your service and may your duty go quickly so you can be home soon : )