Greetings from Dubai, UAE

nukemm · May 24, 2008

Hey guys... I just wanted to drop a quick hello while I've got the chance to get off the ship and use decent speed internet. Greetings from Dubai, I hope everything is going well where you guys are.

fleurya · May 24, 2008

Dubai, eh? I hope you get a chance to go out on those crazy man-made islands shaped like a palm tree! Drop some pics in the photos subforum if you get a chance.

louishen · May 24, 2008

hi there, what are you up to in Dubia?

nukemm · May 24, 2008

I'm on a port call while on deployment. It's nice to get off of the ship every now and then. 7 months straight would be awful. It's bad enough being gone and leaving my pregnant wife at home... hopefully I'll make it back on time, though.

PapaNoHair · May 24, 2008

Out thoughts and prayers are with you. Any pics you can post?

baggss · May 24, 2008

nukemm said:
I'm on a port call while on deployment. It's nice to get off of the ship every now and then. 7 months straight would be awful. It's bad enough being gone and leaving my pregnant wife at home... hopefully I'll make it back on time, though.

I thought you were transferring, or is that after the deployment?

Dubai, been there, done that. Ugh.

iRye · May 26, 2008

Good luck in Dubai, my prayers are with you.

nukemm · May 26, 2008

baggss said:
I thought you were transferring, or is that after the deployment?

Dubai, been there, done that. Ugh.

Right now it looks like I'm transferring in February. My rate is incredibly undermanned at my command (a little better than 50%) so we have to get more people before anyone can go. The good news is that I'm getting out of here before my PRD. My PRD is in June 09, but since the ship is going into the yards in Bremerton again they are letting people go early to boost their manning. I don't understand the logic, but I do like the fact that I won't have to deal with a 4 hour commute to work.

nukemm · May 26, 2008

PapaNoHair said:
Out thoughts and prayers are with you. Any pics you can post?

No pics right now... not enough bandwidth. I've got 64K downstream, but only 3K upstream. At the very least when I get home in October I'll have tons of pictures from all over the world, and plenty of pictures of my kid when it is born, too.

baggss · May 26, 2008

nukemm said:
Right now it looks like I'm transferring in February. My rate is incredibly undermanned at my command (a little better than 50%) so we have to get more people before anyone can go. The good news is that I'm getting out of here before my PRD. My PRD is in June 09, but since the ship is going into the yards in Bremerton again they are letting people go early to boost their manning. I don't understand the logic, but I do like the fact that I won't have to deal with a 4 hour commute to work.

Good deal. Any change to avoid being in the yard in Bremerton (heck, ANY yard) is worth taking. I didn't realize your rate was that undermanned. Is it Nav wide or just the ship?

nukemm · May 26, 2008

Navy wide. Less than 30% A retention... my ship is even worse than Navy wide. Worst retention in the fleet - only 9% last year from my rating, less than 1/5th of the fleet average. That and we've lost over 30 people to drugs in the last 18 months...

baggss · May 26, 2008

nukemm said:
Navy wide. Less than 30% A retention... my ship is even worse than Navy wide. Worst retention in the fleet - only 9% last year from my rating, less than 1/5th of the fleet average. That and we've lost over 30 people to drugs in the last 18 months...

WOW! No Golden Anchor award for you guys!