Oh boy....Hump day.

well it has been awhile since I last posted and really even though I have seen my share of things I guess it just doesnt really come to me to write about it.

So since the last time I posted I have been through the Straits of hormuz twice. Now some of you may be wondering "whats the big deal?" or "did he mean hummus?" or even "does that mean in the navy your called it the SOH?" well if you thought the third one your right because everything in the navy is an acronym. but if your thinking the first one I will answer it for you right after I answer the second....no.... ok back to answer question 1. This is the chokepoint to get into the Gulf and up to Iraq, kuwait, bahrain and several other countries..... all very very hot. At this chokepoint Iran has many many missile sites and patrol craft and so on and so forth, this is where something would happen if it were to happen. So as you can imagine in a the time honored tradition of bad management we had meeting after meeting about it leading up to the much feared day. All our preparations all that I am trained to do was meant for this moment. And.... wait for it...... easy! we went through without a hitch and the transit back was even easier. Now I dont want to make it sound like a walk in the park. at any time a missile could come from pretty much anywhere so it was tense but not overly so and we acting professionally and swiftly through just as we drew it up.

This leads me to why we had to go through the straits or SOH if you read the first paragraph. As most of you may know the USS ANZIO is the flagship for the counter piracy operations in the Gulf of Arden (any guesses on the acronym) and the horn of Africa (that acronym is almost too easy). Since we are a flagship this also means we get to take on staff, usually an admiral and officers. Now up until that point we had a turkish staff on board since this is a multinational operation. I can't tell you how many or who but you can rest assured there are many countries and man ships out here patrolling for pirates. When we pulled into Bahrain we had a change of command from teh turkish staff to the good old american boys. So now its mostly US staff with a few british guys thrown in for fun.

While in bahrain I was able to enjoy to nice relaxing cool 120 degree heat. With a nice stiff breeze of 1 mph it didn't really feel that hot, for an oven. Besides the heat Bahrain is a growing country and many buildings were being erected even with the global economy as it is. The base in Bahrain is very large and offered a large store a mini mall and live acts nightly. Bahrain has become the hub for all naval activity in the region and has been built up to accomadate the occasional few thousand sailors at any one time. One of the days we were able to travel outside the base gates and check out the city. I was able to visit the golden sueq and golden city. you can guess what they sold mostly.

Now this was my first real visit to a country totally differnt in culture then my own. even isreal was rather western and of course europe familiar. but here it was a small bit of a culture shock. the women all were covered and the men mostly wore traditional outfits. The busniess men and the store keepers wore normal cloths though. As you would walk down the street the store keepers would yell to you saying anything they could think of to draw you in. Everything was cheap, knock offs and never ever accept the price they tell you. Its required to haggle here and they will talk to you and do anything they can for a sale. This is very odd for me cause I am used to just asking what the price is and accepting that price. for example at a watch place he showed us a rolex watch, which was no doubt fake, and said 120 dinar which is roughly 300 dollars. we said no and started to walk away he kept lower the price. by the time we finally walked away 30 dinar and he was still willing to go lower but we never wanted to buy it anyways.

There are a million stories like that everywhere we went customer service was over the top. they would follow you with a big smile telling you "you nice man I give you good price" or "this happy place I make price to give you smile" and so on and so forth. One such occasion we walked into a persian rug store and the store keeper I kid you not unroled over 40 rugs showing us all the different types and kept asking him to stop cause I knew he would have to roll them up and I would feel bad but he insisted by the end the stack of rugs had piled up past my knees. I will say this, those rugs were amazing. true persian rugs, very high quality made from silk. Some of them thousands of dollars but if you were to see them you would say it was worth it. I also got a small 4 x 3 for around 300 dollars just because it was so beautiful and I think it would be cool to have but I thought better of it and moved on.

My liberty buddy was thomas and he had been to Bahrain before and he told us of a mall nearby and he said it was walking distance and we didn't want to pay for a taxi anyways...... well if you knew thomas you could figure out where this is going. about 3 hours later and about 4 miles of walking through the non-tourist part of town we came apon the mall. along the way we came apon the local fishermans hub where they stack the ships when they are not out fishing. these boats are little dhows with not much more then wood, duct tape and rope and some nets. all crunched together maybe 400 in about the size of a football field. it was a site to see. As we walked by it was getting close to a couple hours before sunset and the fisherman were just starting to head out for the night catch. it was cool watching the group one by one detach from the mass and turn toward the open water, like the sands going through an hourglass they poured out into the guld.

The mall is very western and accordingly the people and wore more western cloths and the women uncovered their faces though not all of them. its was interesting to see the different attitude and style. the center of the man is like a stage not unlike local malls here and they had a kids group performing traditional acts and musicals. I watched for awhile soaking up the culture. I find it funny I saw more of the traditional culture in the western style mall then I did anywhere else in the city. by the time we had checked out the mall it was time to head back, a good day full of new experiences a hike through some "interesting" areas and I got to say no probably more times then I have ever said in one day before. Not bad if I dont say so myself.

Now I am back out in pirate country patroling the shipping lanes looking for cpt jack sparrow. I can't say its the most exciting thing in the word but then again not every day can be action packed or I think I would get pretty burnt out hehe.

Now if you have already forgotten the subject title of my post I will refresh you now. Hump day is the official day we are half way through deployment and that happened last sunday. To mark the event we had a multitude of events including a talent show, tug-o-war, gallon of milk chug, jello eating contests, egg toss (chief you have stone hands!) and a few more activites to mark the event. A good time was had by all. We have a couple navytimes journalists onboard so look for pics of us at navytimes.com from time to time. So this also means I am now officially on the back 9 of deployment though not heading home people are starting to see a wee light in the distance. The next big milestone will be when we turn two and start heading back home. thats when things will get crazy.

I have written a lot and I dont have time to spell check so please pardon the grammar and spelling error I just wanted to update everyone on how I am doing and whats going on. Take care everyone.

mark