Tim’s Journal 2010

Tim’s Journal 2010 21AUG10 Here I am in Pascagoula Mississippi! It has been a long year away from Angela, Kids, and home in general. Just a few months ago I was in Miami for the Haiti operations for 90 days and now I am at the beginning of 60 days here for the BP oil spill. The first thing that I must comment on is the hot, humid weather. The heat index today was 108! When I comment on that to locals here they just tell me that today was a “nice” day. I was as prepared as I could be for the heat but this is just silly. Our friend Wayne was down this way last month and that is mostly what he talked about but until you feel it yourself… WOW! My uniform needs constant attention or I need to just adapt. Probably the latter. My flight out here was uneventful other than I feel like I have logged too many hours in a cramped airline seat. Once I arrived here at around 10pm on Thursday (one day after getting back from Colorado for training) I called to have the ICP (Incident Command Post) come and retrieve me and my bags from the airport. I was taken down to the ICP in Mobile Alabama and it was all business from there. It is in a building downtown that BP purchased for us and the security was very heavy and lots of questions and forms to fill out stating why you are there and to confirm my Secret Security Clearance. It actually is not really a Coast Guard run job but rather a BP function as they are the Responsible Party (RP). Aug 30th 2010 I have been here for one week now. I have seen some oil sheens and I have felt the immense heat and humidity this region has to offer. I have to say, I am not impressed. This job is far different from my last deployment to Miami for the Haiti earthquake mission. The locals here are very nice and I do get that “southern hospitality” feel down here that I felt when I was in Athens Georgia. The thing is, well, the humidity. It is just awful. You can’t do anything but be soaking wet and disgusting. You can’t run from your little office (shack) to your air conditioned car without getting wet with humidity. Your clothes do not suddenly get dry once they hit the inside of the car, they just wrinkle more. The job? The job is somewhat interesting other than the fact that the majority of it has been done before I ever got here. It is basically my job now to “clean” up the mess now and gather to distribute all the property that we have bought with BP’s money up to this point. My emotions are all over the place. I mainly am upset that I am away from my Family so soon again. I recently spent 90 days in Miami and now just a couple months later I am here for 60 days. It is frustrating and at the same time somewhat… I don’t know… “feel good” to be this important to the Coast Guard that they need my specific skills and qualifications so soon. Of course on the other hand, My Family needs me and I need them! It is what it is though and this is my chosen profession. This has been a great, I mean GREAT job for me. I could be going to the big sandbox or worse, so I shan’t complain. Sept 1st 2010 It looks like we will be closing down this Vessel Support Unit here in Pascagoula within the next few weeks. I am coordination the movement of upwards of $800,000.000 worth of supplies. We have had multiple Coast Guard cutters come through here needing our assistance but now we have only one cutter moored up here as I type this. Our VSU will shrink from around 30 members to around 10 within the week. We will be a skeleton crew left behind to “clean up the mess” and not leave a trace that we were ever here. My two oldest children, Paige, and Simon had their first days of school today and I am blue that I was not there for them. I am super happy that I have a great wife and Mother to my kids that they may not even notice my absence. It sounds like they did well today and enjoyed it, which is a big weight off my shoulders. Since writing this post I have found out I am now moving to Panama City, FL. I am not sure for how long maybe a week maybe longer. Then not sure where. I have a feeling I will have been moved around to a few different places when this is all done and I get to go home.