The Best Day
I have a great job. It’s also an incredibly challenging job, and one that really wears me down at times. The highs are high, the lows are low, and the pursuit of an average easy-going day is unending. Recently I got to play a small part in helping create one of the highest of highs for someone else, and in the process was left trying to figure out why my eyes kept leaking…
I’m currently deployed as the commanding officer of a jet squadron onboard an aircraft carrier in the North Arabian Sea. We’ve been gone for coming up on three months. Due to operational requirements, and now with the restrictions in place from COVID-19 we haven’t stepped foot on land since leaving in January, and it’s very likely we won’t see a port call — at all. Add on top of that the fact that we have no idea when we’ll be home and I’m finding out how much of my job is to be a cheerleader, life-coach, psychologist, listener, and seeker (manufacturer) of little victories. I’ve written about the importance of seeking out the little things each day that bring us small shreds of happiness and pleasure. It’s easy to get overcome by the noise, stress, heat, lack of privacy, and distance from loved ones, so it’s important to look for those little things that make this thing called life so enjoyable— even out here. And, sometimes you learn that those little things are actually really big things to someone else.
One night about two weeks ago I was walking around down in the hangar bay visiting with several of our youngest Sailors. We talk about what they’re working on, what questions they have, what rumors they’ve heard, what’s going on at home, and what’s hurting their heads — or their hearts. One young man told me that his wife is also a Sailor and aircraft mechanic. They met and were married when they were both stationed in California. He’s since moved to join my squadron in Washington. Now he’s here with me on this carrier and his wife is deployed on a different carrier. As it turns out, her carrier and ours were going to be in the same “neighborhood” for a few days. He told me it’s the closest they’d physically been to each other in a long time, but it still felt worlds away. I could easily empathize with him. My wife was in the Navy, and during our engagement and first two years of marriage we navigated through three deployments. There was a period of almost a year where we didn’t see each other except when we flew to foreign ports to visit the other. I shared my experience with this young man, and it seemed he was grateful to be able to share his heart-ache with someone who’d walked that path before.
Proving there is a God listening, or just through some serendipitous stroke of good luck — up to you — I came back to my room to find an email from an old friend I hadn’t seen or spoken with in more than a decade. He’s the commanding officer of a squadron on the other carrier out here. He’s the commanding officer of the squadron my Sailor’s wife belongs to. He asked if I thought there was a way we could try and get these two together. We exchanged some emails, promised to work on it, and agreed that we wouldn’t say anything to either of them until the night before; the Navy has a way of changing its plans at the last minute, and we didn’t want to build an expectation we might not be able to come through on. That turned out to be a wise plan, because though we were able to work with the right people to arrange a helicopter-Uber for him to go visit her, it ended up getting cancelled the afternoon prior — hours before we’d planned to tell them. Though neither had any idea what was in the works, I was heartbroken for both. However, what the Navy taketh away, the Navy (sometimes) giveth back…
Almost a week after the first try, we were able to make it happen for them. Late the night before I was signing paperwork — essentially a permission slip — to do something we hoped would turn out well. In the back of mind there was a tiny bit of apprehension. Surprise reunions are almost always joyous and celebratory, but sometimes not. This lifestyle, the stresses, distance, and loneliness can do a number on a relationship. I prayed their reunion would fit the former description and not the later. He woke up early and went up to the flight deck to hop in the back of a helicopter. For most of our Sailors the helicopter flight itself would’ve been great deal, but this helicopter was simply a means to a much better end.
Below is a picture and email I received from him yesterday:
Good morning sir,
I first off would like to start off by saying thank you so much for the trouble you must have gone through to make my transit to the USS Truman a reality. I know not everyone gets the pleasure of seeing a loved one during deployment so thank you so much for providing me that luxury. I want to extend my thanks to anyone who had a hand in making that opportunity possible. I would greatly appreciate it if you would send them my regards. Enclosed is a picture of me and my wife the moment she ran and embraced me and I wanted you to see what the fruits of labor the chain of command produced. I would thank everyone individually by email if I knew everyone’s email who had a part in it. Again with my deepest regards and heartfelt thanks, from this husband and to all others, thank you for the opportunity of lifetime.
With the upmost respect and gratitude,
[his name]
There are countless people to thank for making this happen for these two. That list starts with her commanding officer on the other ship. I’m the one writing this, but he’s the one who initiated the conversation. Well done, Justin… The list also includes the young woman who works on one of the staffs here who herself is a helicopter pilot — and is married to another service member; she put her full and critical support behind the effort. Additionally, the helicopter pilots who safely delivered precious cargo back and forth deserve tremendous respect and gratitude.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t sit at my desk and tear up a bit reading that email. Here’s a young man who got to see his wife for just a few hours — the only few hours they’ve had or will have together in a long time, and he was thanking me for it. I wanted to run down to his overcrowded sleeping quarters, pull him out of bed and thank him. I wanted to thank him for helping me find the not-so-little little thing that made today awesome.
farva
