I'm posting a picture and letter that Marcus sent out in a mass email yesterday. I hear from him several times a day and I have talked to him on the phone three times!! It helps so much that we are able to email back and forth and that he is able to call me. It is different talking on the phone on the boat because he has to hold down a little button to talk and there is a delay, but I don't care because at least I'm talking to him!!! Hope you enjoy and I will post more when he sends more out. When he sent out the email yesterday morning he was five hours ahead and then when I talked to him last night on the phone he said they are now six hours ahead.
Well, we are well out to sea in the Atlantic Ocean. Obviously, for the sake of operational security (which, as you might imagine, is constantly stressed), I cannot say exactly where, but it is safe to say that America is not the closest land or even the closest continent at the moment. We are five hours ahead of Eastern Time, and have been crossing a time zone every few days, so my biological clock is getting a work out and everyone’s body is a bit confused. For pilots, and all aircrew for that matter, regulations outline a very strict crew day/crew rest cycle to ensure that we get the appropriate amount of rest before we launch a multi-million dollar hunk of metal equipped with machine guns and a squad or motivated killers into the air and careen around the skies of foreign territory in search of our nation’s enemies (probably a good idea). However, when you’re crossing time zones at the rapid rate, trying to adjust your body’s clock and normalize your circadian rhythm becomes challenging.

Sleep becomes even more precarious due to the mode of transportation. There are several ships in our ESG (Expeditionary Strike Group), and I am stationed aboard the largest one. However, even on a ship as large as this there is good deal of rocking and rolling. We have experienced some fairly heavy seas over the last few days with some large swells. It is nice being rocked to sleep at night, however there are disadvantages as well. As the ship rolls to starboard, every unsecured door on the decks above and below the birthing area can be heard as they bang open, and then as the ship rolls hard to port all of those doors slam shut. I have been on several forays in an attempt to find all of these doors and secure them, but I can never seem to find them all. The best remedy is a set of ear plugs and a mental ability to block out the noise.

There has been only minimal flight operations so far during the trans-Atlantic. Obviously, the main goal right now is to get into the theater of operations, everything else is secondary. This presents some conflicting interests between the Marines and our chauffeurs (the U.S. Navy). They want to make a bee-line for our destination, and we want to fly. The problem is that all aircraft that fly on and off of ships have strict wind limitations or envelopes for take-off and landing. Since the runway is a ship, it can be maneuvered to give you any winds you want, but the Navy doesn’t always want to play. It is always preferable, and sometimes essential, for aircraft to take off into the wind (headwind) for purpose aerodynamics and increased lift capability. So, for example, if the winds are out of the west and the boat is heading east, we have a direct tailwind and so are out of our wind limits. If they Navy won’t turn the ship to give us proper winds, we can’t take off. So we have to work out drug deals with the Navy to get our flight time, but sometimes they just say no. That is probably more than any of you wanted to know about flight operations aboard ship.

So, in the spare time we do a lot of drills (i.e. man overboard, abandon ship, general quarters, etc.). Not very exciting. Once we get where we’re going things will become more interesting. We won’t be staying any one place for more than a few weeks unless something breaks out that requires our unique skills and abilities. We can be used in a variety of missions ranging from long range raids, prisoner snatches, humanitarian assistance, non-combatant extraction operations, casualty evacuation, etc. We will be going ashore in several locations to conduct operations from expeditionary land bases for short periods of time. As we are cleared to release information I will pass along whatever I can about where we have been and what we have done. I will send pictures from time as well. The picture attached to this email was taken a few days ago at sunset at the stern of the ship. No, it wasn’t photo-shopped. I didn’t superimpose my picture on a brochure from Carnival Cruise lines. It really is that beautiful out here.

Thanks for taking time to stop by and chat. I look forward to hearing from anyone that chooses to reply. Ya’ll take care.


Marcus