replenish.

It is sometimes hard to explain what all we were doing to help the relief efforts while sitting off the coast. This tells a little of what we were working to accomplish... I am lucky to get to work with such great people who show such an awesome commitment to what they do and helping those in need...

 just another day working off the coast of japan.

education.

They don’t teach you how to deal with this stuff in school….

voluntary evacuations were put into place for family members in Yokosuka who wanted to return to the states after the earthquake hit due to the potential danger from the nuclear disaster. Whether or not there was an immediate danger, the potential and the discussion caused quite a panicky sentiment. People were far more worried about their families (understandably so) than their jobs, and family members just wanted their spouses home to help deal with everything. This is quite a change from being 22 in a college town where the biggest concern is who's planning next week's tailgate...

I am finding that my gradual education in the Navy is so much more than technical knowledge; it's how you help people, knowing where to find the answers you don't know. There are so many things to consider when you start working with all different people: single, married, kids, no kids, spouse who is from another country, young, old, loving life, hating life.... I never considered all the aspects that must be thought about when making decisions and talking with people. Everyone has something different that makes them tick. This sure is far from just a nine to five j.o.b.

precautions.

Apparently when there is a nuclear disaster in your vicinity, people start to freak out a little. This can be the only explanation for me carrying around my own personal gas mask on my hip and a dosimeter on my wrist.... and let me tell you, these were not a cute accessories. This is what I had to carry around as we went through waters that possibly were contaminated. We also had riders who test our air for radiation every hour for a couple weeks following the earthquake.... at least I know the Navy was looking out....no worries....completely safe levels the entire time.

blessings.

I did not quite realize the magnitude of the disaster that struck Japan until the next day. It took seeing the news and word to come our way from big Navy before we really understood what had happened. Since we were out away from land already, we did not feel the tremors when it struck.

I had emails from my family and friends immediately checking on me before I even knew that it was more than just a standard, we have them all the time, Japanese earthquake. Then, when I finally did get to send out an update, I got the most encouraging messages back. I got emails back even from people I hadn’t emailed initially. It never ceases to amaze me how much the people you love can help you to get through long days.  I am so blessed that I have such amazing people in my life.

If you are in this group of people, I will never be able to thank you enough for the encouraging thoughts, messages, and prayers.

generosity.

This restores my faith in mankind. Amongst corruption, cynicism, and anger, there are still truly good and generous people out there…. People will step up and amaze you when you aren’t looking.

devastation.

I have seen so many different disasters on the news. It seems like every year there is at least one major disaster around the world that draws international attention. There are relief funds put in place, people donate, feel like good people, and move on with their day. It usually falls under the attitude that it’s not my country; I did my part; let’s move on.

I don’t know that I will ever watch a disaster news story quite the same again. Off the coast of Japan, I watched debris, trash, and whole trees float past us. What struck me the most, however, were the life rafts and fishing boats that we had to maneuver around. There were tons of life rafts, pieces of wood tied together in an attempt to serve as a raft, and whole fishing boats that were abandoned, aimlessly floating. I couldn’t help but wonder each time we passed one how many people started out in that raft. We ensured there were no people in them as we passed; each time I silently prayed for there to be someone still in them. That would have been just one more person who survived this tragedy.

Sadly, the only person we recovered did not survive the experience. It was demoralizing to recover the remains of someone, but we did find solace in the fact that we could provide closure to at least one Japanese family. We returned the remains to the Japanese government, so they could give them to the family to have a proper burial.  As terrible as it was to think about this, I know that was well worth the search efforts…to have made a difference to at least one family.

The helicopter crew from our ship patrolled the waters closer to land where we could not go and scanned the shoreline. One of them told me he didn’t think he could find a word to describe what they saw on the ground, that devastation didn’t begin to cover it.

This has reminded me just how short life can be…. March 11^th began as a beautiful sunny day in Japan…by noon the day was as dark as they come.

blog backlog.

I have been underway the past few weeks. What was initially scheduled to be a normal underway with planned exercises quickly changed into a day-by-day mission after the earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit Japan. My ship participated in the search & rescue and relief efforts from day one because we were in such close proximity.

I was not able to blog while gone, but I had made sure to take note of some of the things that impacted me the greatest. I will try to share some pieces of what it was like from my perspective.  There were definitely highs and lows to the experience of being around this disaster and just underway in general.  I share this with no claim to be an expert and surely not claiming to have done anything special; I just wanted to keep track of what it was like keeping up with and trying to aid in the disaster relief from this side of the world.