I miss the piazza | Tragic Comedy

well after 22 hours in transit I have returned from Sardinia to the land of really bad Capoccino. I spent my birthday (Saturday) sitting in the Piazza in La Maddalena drinking Capoccino...there really isn't any comparision to the wonderful sense of relaxation that I felt there. Even the half day we spent taking the train all over Rome during our layover was sooo much more low key than a similar adventure in the US would be. Walking into a supermarket in Italy is grand adventure in eating cheese, olives, deli meats wine...the wine was amazing, $4 a bottle for wine that we can't get for $20 here in the states. Sadly I wasn't able to bring any back with me. To answer Jakie's question as for what I do and why I fly around the world at a moments notice. Well I guess the easiest decription is that I do repairs and quality assurance on submarine periscopes. When a deployed Submarine breaks down I fly out and repair and recertify so that they are ready for sea. Which means I need to keep a bag packed but I also get to see some cool places. When I was stationed in Pearl Harbor I traveled to places like Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, Thailand and sadly GUAM. Now here on the atlantic side to the Navy I get to see places like Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Baharain, UAE, Diego Garcia, Scotland, England and Norway...hopefully I will see more of these places. Now before any of y'all think that I'm living too much of the good life on your dime, I will say that there are times that I have flown halfway around the world to work 20 hour days for a week to fix a problem and have barely gotten them fixxed before the boat pulls out. Sometimes the work is easy and you know what needs to be fixxed sometimes it takes every waking moment to repair the boat and put them back on mission. My reputation was made a few years ago when I made the right decision at a very unpopular time and was over rulled because I was too junior (and couldn't posible know what I was talking about)...unfortunatly for the Navy my opinion was correct and 6 weeks later it cost the Navy a million dollars instead of a week's delay. When I leave on one of these trips for all the fun I have to be right about whats wrong and how to make it right 100% of the time so that the Sub can go back to work. What scares me more than anything is being wrong so while I may talk up the fun stuff I do when I travel the reason that leave home is to insure that the boat I am going to can return to it's job in the shortest amount of time. That said if "Any" of you has the chance to visit Sardinia its beautiful, I highly recomend that you drink the house reds, they are cheap and amazing...and San Georgio's restaurant in Palau makes a killer scallop/mushroom fettaccini.

Two Replies to I miss the piazza

Lori Lancaster | October 27, 2006
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Tony Peters | October 27, 2006
I have the utmost respect for thse that put to sea aboard a submarine...I however would have to be tied up and knocked out before I ever went to sea on one...those things scare the crap out of me.

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