Lee's Blog (4)

My sailor (Kevin) serving aboard the USS Tortuga had the rare privilege of visiting Iwo Jima as part of the 65th Anniversary celebration on February 25th. While he wasn't able to attend the ceremony (he was pulling road guard duty) he did get to see a lot of sights and catch a glimpse of some of the dignitaries in attendance including the Secretary of the Navy.

What really struck me was when he told me about this was his encounter with a WWII vet of the Battle of Iwo Jima. My…

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Well, Kevin has been gone almost 2 months now and is still somewhere on the open sea. I don't even think he knows exactly where he is. Since leaving Australia, the phone calls have stopped and the emails aren't as frequent and are shorter in length. He said he had been assigned to a "Tiger Team" and they were fixing various things on the ship that required attention. Seems strange for an IT to be doing this, but the big advantage is he is gaining first hand knowledge of the entire ship. He said… Continue

Well, it has been a little over 4 weeks since Kevin shipped out. Since then, he has already been in Okinawa and is now on his way to Australia. He said there would be stops along the way, but he can't tell me where he is at this time nor when he will be in Australia. Sunday was not an easy day as this was the first Father's Day he wasn't home. He was thoughtful enough to leave a gift for me with my wife. Kevin and I visit Barnes and Noble at least once a month and this year, he got me a gift… Continue

After a 3-week leave upon completing A-school, my son Kevin left North Carolina on Sunday to join the crew of the USS Tortuga in Sasebo Japan. To say it was hard to say good-by is an understatement. It is one thing to send your son to Illinois, but to send them to Japan was a lot harder than I imagined. He had a grueling trip, which included a 14-hour flight from Atlanta to Seoul, South Korea. Jet lag did catch up with him and his LCPO allowed to take a nap on his first day on board, which… Continue