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Best wishes Todd.

Colin.

Oboy! Party Time!!!! Happy Birthday Todd

Ah, you guys are great! You beat me to it! :pdt12:

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Secret decoder message! :pdt12:

Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag!

Christoph

Posting this for Todd...

 

Thank you for the birthday greetings I know are on the forum. I am in the Pacific on my way to Australia for an exercise with the Aussies. We just crossed the line today (i.e. the Equator) and are now in southern waters. The Navy did have a Crossing the Line Ceremony today but the Marines could not take part. Our CO pointed out that that the USMC hazing order is quite clear that there are to be no rites of initiation or rites of passage other than boot camp or OCS. I certainly understand this and he is right – there’s no getting around the fact that Crossing the Line crosses the line as far as hazing is concerned. Also, in this day and age of CO firings, it is certainly prudent on his part. I am still disappointed that the order wasn’t written in such a way that this naval tradition was exempted. I’ve wanted to earn my Shellback certificate since I first saw one in late 1995 or 1996. ‘Twas not to be, however.

 

Anyway, we are going to be hanging around Australia training and visiting ports for more than a month. I will have to give you an update when I can. I will, of course, take pictures and post them when I can. Now that I think of it, I didn’t post a lot from last time. That is mostly because there wasn’t much to take pictures of in the training areas in Thailand and we never did a port call due to a contract dispute with the people that ran the port. Anyway, I will post what is interesting. We will be visiting Brisbane, Sydney, and Darwin.

 

Also, Happy Fourth of July! We are having a “Steel Beach” picnic on the flight deck where they cook burgers and hot dogs and have games on the deck. I’ve been up on the deck already and it is smooth and sunny but not hot at all. I would have figured it would be warmer as we moved toward the equator, but it was certainly much warmer in Okinawa. It will only get cooler from here as we head “south for the winter” so to speak.

Also, since I know you are all dying to know – I will tell you if the water drains in the other direction!

 

Cheers,

Todd

Hey guys! I finally made it on! Once again, thanks for the birthday wishes! It sure feels good to have friends from around the globe. Anyway, we just got done with a port visit in Brisbane and it was pretty cool. It did look a great deal like the United States in a lot of ways - large open countryside (not a lot of that in Oki), modern cities, Target (as in the store), malls, etc. I did get a pretty good steak while I was there and of course the obligatory beer or two . . .or three. . .or four (at least not all at once!) It was certainly good to get of the pirate ship and walk around and not have meetings to go to, slides to create, etc.

By the way, here is a picture of my reenlisting one of my Staff Sergeants:

Cheers and more photos to come.

Todd

the pirate ship... :pdt12: