Think of thing in the Navy that, well, just don't make it to the recruiting advertisements.
Deploying over the holiday season.
Finding out your "liberty port" is Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Throw in the post COVID-19 experience, and, well ... so sorry Shipmates.
USS Milwaukee (LCS 5), a Freedom variant littoral combat ship, remains in port as some Sailors test positive for COVID-19. The crew is 100% immunized and all COVID-19 positive Sailors are isolated on board and away from other crew members. A portion of those infected have exhibited mild symptoms. The vaccine continues to demonstrate effectiveness against serious illness.
I've spent a bit of time in GTMO. Besides swimming with the iguanas, I'm not sure they are missing all that much.
Knowing how Omicron is burning through everywhere ... is this going to be our standard response from here on out?
We'll see.
Well, besides working on PQS and catching up on PMS ... I wonder what else they can do?
Do they have a ships band? If so, GenX has an idea for them.
If you modify the lyrics (suggestions below) ... they the 80s may have something for them to work with.
This should be the USS Milwaukee's breakaway song: (apologies to the Dead Kennedys);
Watch the above but with these lyrics in your head ... I think it works.Â
So, you've been on sea duty for a year or two
And you know you've seen it all
In COVID's Navy, thinking you'll go far
In the Caribbean your type don't crawl
Playing counter-drug to parade your aluminum
On your 3-jab vax
Braggin' that you know, how the Coasties feel warm
And sea duty is sea duty
It's time to test what you most fear
Cloth masks will not help you here
Test yourself, my dear
Test yourself, my dear
It's a holiday in GuantanamoÂ
It's tough, kid, but it's life
It's a holiday in Guantanamo
Don't forget your deployment wife
You've lost your taste, your smell
You want everyone to quarantine
Do PQS while you bitch, per diem will make you rich
But your CO gets more PMS from you
Well, COVID gets you more time in your rack
For a slider a day
Asymptomatic no one cares
Then your test is pos anyway
Now you can go nowhere
Now you are welded to the pier
What you need, my son...
What you need, my girl...
Is a holiday in Guantanamo
Where MA's won't let you leave the pier
A holiday in Guantanamo
Where you'll still get sea duty credit anyway
LCS, LCS
LCS, LCS
LCS, LCS
LCS, LCS, LCS, LCS, LCS, LCS
LCS, LCS, LCS, LCS, LCS, LCS
LCS, LCS, LCS, LCS, LCS, LCS
LCS, LCS, LCS, ...
And it's a holiday in GuantanamoÂ
Where you're called a plague ship
A holiday in Guantanamo
Where the banana rat makes fun of you
LCS!
photo credit Anne NeyÂ
In a strange twist, Jello Biafra went on to form another band following the break up of the Dead Kennedys. That band was Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine.
Funny story from my time in Gitmo, but one of my EM's had a wild night talking to the lizards outside the Enlisted Club.