Airport Rescue Firefighting

On Monday, I finished my final cert earned in this year on Kwaj. With my ARFF, the total is now 4 certs earned since coming to Kwaj. I earned HazMat Operations, Firefighter 2, Shipboard Firefighting and ARFF this year.

More would have been nice, but those are the ones I came here for.

This Year

So I'm quickly approaching 365 days here on the atoll (I can feel Lisa smiling at that fact), and I was looking back and thinking about the past year.

> Kwajalein Atoll diving: This place has so much to see, I'm grateful I had the opportunity. Sharks, rays, turtles, eels, dolphins, various fish, coral reefs, anenomes, ship wrecks & ships sunk in battle, planes shot down or dumped after the war, giant clams. The dives and the history that goes with it is truly amazing.

> USAKA Fire & Emergency Services: Not quite what I had in mind. Simply put, way too slow a department to keep me happy. That isn't the departments fault by any means. The opportunity to get certifications didn't pan out to the extent I wanted, but I did earn a few very important certs. Financially, the time here has been great. Not my-god-I-never-want-to-leave great, but just about where I was planning on being after spending some serious DOH! on my vacation. This department certainly has some things to work on (as I'm sure most departments do). Kwaj station living conditions are pretty bad, Meck station is horrendous (in a condemned building), and Roi is... cozy. But the apparatus & equipment, for the most part, is pretty nice.

> Lisa: I don't think any one person has had a bullet just to themselves before. She has been really amazing. Being away from her has been very tough. We were apart for our first holiday season, birthdays, marathon, MFT licensing, anniversary, a nephew being born, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but I hope she'll forgive me since she got her own bullet! Missing all that sucked and I'm looking forward to being there for the second go around (except the marathon, I don't wanna!)

>John y Judy: I was blown away when my big brother asked me to be his Best Man. I was honored and I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

> Mom and Russ: What is the greatest sign of a mother's love? No, it's not childbirth, or the years of teen angst they put up with, it is being willing to go to the DMV for hours on end to straighten out a paperwork nightmare so you can sell your truck. The sign of a brother's: taking care of, adding things here and there and then selling said truck. Trust me, this stuff may not seem like a big deal, but I was so fed up with the DMV Bulls#!t, I was ready to dump it in the Atlantic.

> Timing and Opportunity: Words taught to me by a very good friend. And a theory I'm still working on mastering. Now, in the waning days of my tour on Kwajalein Atoll, I'm mulling the timing and opportunities awaiting me back in civilization.

Quote of the Day

To get your ideas across use small words, big ideas, and short sentences.
-John Henry Patterson

The Guns of Kwajalein Atoll

The Guns of Kwajalein Atoll
Originally uploaded by Scuba Steve 2005
photos by G. Van Rensalear

Rock Star!

Ladies and Gentleman, Lisa is now officially a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. After breezing through the second exam in a mere 37 minutes, she finally realized what she has wanted since she was 14 years old. That in and of itself is odd, I don't know too many people who knew what they wanted to do with their lives at 14. Hell, it took me 25 years to figure it out. Next step, Private Practice.

Congratulations Lisa, 1435.

Weekly Update

HMS Booby

I didn't realize that it's been well over a week since I posted anything. It's simply because tons of stuff has been happening, all day every day. I've barely had time to sleep.

Not really. I'm just a big slacker.

But I have actually been doing stuff. Went diving this past Friday. Two dives, one to a junked C-46 which I've already been to and the other to an actual crash. A Japanese Zero crashed about a quarter mile off of Namur. Here is a little info on Zeros. Fortunately I had my camera with me, and it LOCKED UP halfway through the first dive. I'll go back before I ship out and get some snaps of it.

Saturday was the kickoff to the big holiday weekend. We celebrated island style with the annual Roi-Namur coconut races. There were two classes, Stock and Modified and while my personal favorite the HMS Booby didn't win, it certainly got Best-In-Show.

And now I'm back at work. Workin' hard. Workin' for the Man. Not lettin' him keep me down.

And So It Goes...
--
stevePARK
http://fyrefyter75.blogspot.com

Quote of the Day... er I mean Week

The least of learning is done in the classrooms.

Thomas Merton (1915 - 1968)