Today

I have came to the realization that this is most likely my last tour in the Navy. I have to enjoy every day no matter what it brings. I have enough experience to realize that even though I am anticipating retirement and letting this military phase of my life come to a close, I know I will miss it. Like so many older former military guys I see walking around with their old ball caps on with pins indicating previous commands, places visited, or medals earned. You can see in their faces when you look at them and they are watching you in uniform. I dont know if I will be like that. Im proud of the things Ive done, the places Ive been, and overall sacrifice of my career in service. But I think that Its on me to make my next phase, my best phase so that my best years are ahead and not behind me.
Today I met our Command Master Cheif and our Commanding Officer- For those who are not in the military (the command master cheif or CMC is the top enlisted guy at a command. He is the voice for all the enlisted folks. The Commanding Officer or CO is the officer in charge of everything who we all report to. ) He was a wiry older guy with intense eyes. All COs in air squadrons are former pilots and some still fly. So he had his flight suit on, all most of them wear daily. He said that he was glad to have me onboard and that he was shorthanded- as I knew before. I assured him that I would do my best to make sure everything is taken care of. And thats exactly what I plan to do. I went on to meet many more people in the squadron who all seem like one big family. I doubt everyone gets along perfectly but when you are at a small command everyone knows everyone, and that creates a somewhat "family" type atmosphere.
Im glad to be here for my last command. Its going to be somewhat of a challenge to keep a eye on so many different things going on. But we all need to be pushed out of our comfort zone in order to grow and stretch ourselves. And this is definitely another one of these times.
I moved from my temporary quarters to my permanent quarters today. I learned that most rooms are two-man rooms. But the brother who assigned me my room hooked me up with my own room. Its not the most luxurious of accomodations. But ill make it do what it do. The most disapointing thing is I learned that everytime we get underway for a cruise, they move us out of the barracks and put all our things in storage. Then when we get back, they move us back into the barracks in different rooms. This is true malarky(remember "G"rated blog) Im going to have to use my connections to snag another single room. I have two much stuff to be sharing a room. I dont think a grown man should have to share a room with another grown man on a permanent basis. I havent had a roommate since 1996 while in the barracks in Japan, and this dude was a country music loving black dude. Who talked with a country accent and wore those boots. Now you can imagine how many times I wanted to strangle this cat. Especially when his friends came over. They all hated me. But from that time I swore i would never have another roomate if I could avoid it. Im sticking to this mantra. Ive earned the right to my own room. No country music allowed.