The Life and Times of Adam Hinds

I am excited. The other day (25 Sept.) I qualified as Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist (ESWS). For those who know what this means, thanks in advance for your congratulations. For those who don’t know what it means, it’s an important qualification to obtain in the career for anyone in the Navy. I was way overdue to get qualified because I was off active duty for a year, but now I have it and I’m glad it’s one less thing I have to worry about. Now let’s just pray I made E-6.

I, right now, am at an internet cafe in Kuwait, so I wanted to drop in on my oh-so-glorious blog and update my readers (all 2 of you) on my status. I’m good. I miss my wife, dog, family and friends an unimagniable amount, but I am coping. The mission I’m working with is enjoyable and worthwhile, at least from my perspective. I don’t know that I am allowed to go into much detail about it though. I am learning a lot. A lot about my boat, my shipmates, my navy, and in a small way, my country. As much as I complain about who I work with and about the war, I don’t think I could’ve asked for a better group of people to serve with. It’s a challenging role I’m filling, but I think I’m filling it well. I’m currently pursing my ESWS qualification as well. I think I should be completely qualified by the end of September, if not before then. Other than that, I’m just pressing on.

Well I’ve been on deployment now for just over a week, so I wanted to give a bit of an update on how things are going. It’s starting off rocky, which I suppose is to be expected. We are all trying to find our niche and get everything the way it needs to be, make the boat “our’s” and get used to being on deployment. One in-deniable factor (which is a real drag on morale): it’s fucking hot. OH MY GOD IT’S SO HOT. You can’t even walk outside without getting soaked in sweat. Talk about having to adapt to your environment. But that is making me want to drink more water instead of Pepsi or Fanta, so there is a positive side. We’re preparing for our first patrol and everyone is nervous. At least I’ll get to wear desert cami’s. Overall I would say this: things probably couldn’t be worse right now, but they are starting to look better. That’s all I can say thus far without breaking operational security.

Oh yeah one more thing: I blew out my power adapter for my X-Box because the adapter only takes 100V and over here the voltage is 240V. DOH!