The Wandering Hokies » Family

Bachelor Months

wanderinghokies — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 12:46:26 +0000

When Angela and AJ evacuated from Japan in March they left me with alone in a house with an 8 month pregnant Japanese refugee and her American Husband. While great people and company, I was working what seemed like 20 hours a day supporting the Search and Rescue (Operation Tomodachi) ops in northern Tohoku and couldn’t spend much time with them until they went home to Ibaraki (for a healthy birth of a beautiful baby girl!). Thus myself and scores of co-workers found ourselves in an awkward situation where our dependents actually “deployed” away from home while we were left on the homefront.

Once work started to regain some normalcy we started to delve into unknown territory. Everything seemed hard and simple tasks required a late night call to our spouses on the other side of the world. For example, how in the world do I pay our rent? Do I pay in yen or write a check? Where do I take the trash and recycling? And the biggest one was in regards to food. I wandered into the unfamiliar commissary and came across several geographic bachelors staring at aisles, unsure of where items were. I had maybe been in the commissary two or three times in a year until this point and was extremely confused as to the placement of products (though the selection was VERY poor due to the fact that less produce was being shipped in due to the earthquake… because we won’t need to eat in a disaster?!?!?).

I cleaned the house once all over and settled into a diet of quick turkey wraps, cottage cheese, coffee and alcohol. To deal with the stress of work, possible radiation, and family separation several of us at work developed an established bar routine on the weekends, enjoying the suddenly mellow local night scene (the Japanese had become very depressed and not out as much after the earthquake). One of the great things about Japan is the bars do not close, and stay open until at least dawn, so you can take a 0300 cab home, grab an anti-hangover “ginger” shot and be good to go (still not sure what is in these things but they are legit, and sold in every 24 hour convenience store). In addition to our hard drinking, we kicked off “Operation Keep Each Other Alive” where we each took turns cooking food. One person would barbeque, I would make enchiladas, and would switch off to make sure we were all eating. It was tough to the be the ones at home for once, without our spouses, kids, and pets, and it saddened us all.

Thankfully we survived, I now know how to pay the rent, made some friends with the local bartenders, and have Angela and AJ where they should be!

Following in Howard’s Footsteps

wanderinghokies — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 12:21:21 +0000

One of the first things we wanted to do in Japan was visit a site that Grandpa Howard did in 1945-1946 as part of the post-War occupying force. He often tells of a visit he made one day with some shipmate into central Tokyo on a train from their ship in Yokosuka. They rode the train past fields of burnt homes from US bombings, leaving only metal safes.

He said there was a Japanese girl on the train learning English through a vintage Reader’s Digest (interesting for the occupied country to embrace American culture so fast). When they got to Tokyo the thing to do was visit the Imperial Palace, partly because it was not targeted by Allied bombing and was actually still intact. All his sailor buddies got pictures taken in front a famous bridge on the palace grounds by a random Japanese photographer, who miraculously got the photos back to the correct ship. Howard always finished this anecdote with his encounter with General MacArthur whose headquarters were nearby. He watched as guards seemed to know precisely when to open the doors for the General to step out, wave at the Japanese well-wishers, and get into his famous black sedan.

Before we moved to Japan we spent an evening in Yorktown, and stumbled across Howard’s old photos. We took a digital photo of his aging 1946 photograph from the Imperial Palace and used that as a reference to find the exact spot he stood over 65 years later. On a nice late summer Saturday we took the train to the center of modern Tokyo to walk the outside of the palace grounds to find the photo spot. The bridge was remarkably easy to find and is still THE place to get your photo taken. Dozens of tourists, both international and Japanese, were lining up to take pictures with this bridge in the background. In 1945 the Emperor officially renounced his deity status to a shocked country, but the place is still revered. And guarded. Across the before mentioned bridge were stern looking uniformed guards that kind of reminded me of the Queen’s Guards in England. I am pretty sure we were being watched the whole time. But we got a photo of another Naval Gouger in the same spot as Petty Officer Howard did in the 1940s.

Happy 60th Anniversary Howard and Ethel!

wanderinghokies — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 05:47:53 +0000

We received this email today from Dad G and thought we would share it with everyone! Happy Anniversary GM and GP!

“We would not be here if not for this event 60 years ago September 2, 1950. La Plata Md.”

Dad B in Haiti

wanderinghokies — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 03:25:51 +0000

Dad_Flagship_Article_Haiti

Article about the Strike Group my dad works in. Look at the picture….you might see a familiar face!

(Picture is taken from the Norfolk Flagship. http://www.flagshipnews.com/ All rights belong to the US Navy.)

Enjoy the picture! He clearly didn’t know someone was taking a photo of him! Ha! Right now my dad is living in a tent in Haiti, helping coordinate relief efforts among the military. Please continue to pray for the people of Haiti, and please consider donating whatever you can to help the Haitian people through these devastating times. Though the earthquake happened almost a month ago, aid will be needed for years!

If you don’t feel comfortable giving, consider downloading the Hope for Haiti Now album from iTunes. Justin Timberlake has an amazing version of Hallelujah on it.

A Year with the Burley’s

wanderinghokies — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 02:27:24 +0000

Smilebox Card from Mom B

Merry Christmas from the Burley’s! My mom made this card through a Hallmark site, so I thought I would share it with everyone. I think I might make one too!