Seawall Cleanup

June 7, 2013, was a big day for Rodney. That morning, he led a Community Relations project cleaning up a seawall, then that afternoon, he received his Fleet Marine Force pin (next post).

The section of seawall they worked on was just down from our apartment, so I was able to meet them over there to help a bit and play photographer!

The entrance to this section of seawall, right beside that apartment building.

It doesn't show up too well in this picture, but next to the white sign on the wall, is the entrance to the steps (below) leading down to where they were cleaning. You can just barely see them down there in the picture below.

That's a lot of trash!!! Much of it has probably washed down there during the typhoon rains.

Those giant "jacks" always fascinated me!!!

The fisherman seemed quite peaceful next to our trash collecting!

A job well done!!!

Now to get home and clean up and head to Rodney's pinning!!

Memorial Day 2013

A beautiful Memorial Day at Courtney Beach!

The waves...

The topography at low tide...

The sea life...

a sea cucumber

bright blue little fish

Notice all the pieces of coral on the bottom of the tide pool?

I have NO idea what this guy is!!

Nor what the things are plastered around the side of this wall!!

Peace out!!

Changes of Commands

When we received orders for Okinawa, Rodney was assigned to 1st Marine Air Wing (1st MAW), which is made up of five subordinate commands. His first attachment was to the smaller Marine Air Control Group 18 (MACG18 or Group 18). For the last year and a half, he was re-attached to one of the larger subordinate commands, Marine Aircraft Group 36 (MAG36).

On May 23, 2013, Group 18 had a change of command. Unfortunately, it was a rainy day, so it had to be relocated from the parade ground into the gym, which made for pretty lousy lighting for photo ops!!

The next day, May 24, 2013, was change of command for MAG36. A perfect day for a flight-line parade!!

Being the Command Chaplain for MAG36, Rodney did the invocation.

The troops parade in...

...and line up by unit.

The band performs...

The units parade around...

The outgoing Commanding Officer gives a speech...

The incoming Commanding Officer gives a speech...

Then the exiting parade begins...

...marching past the saluting COs.

C130 Back to Oki!

Another morning to pack up and head to the terminal...

...this time, there was a flight for 50 on a C130!!

AND the flight stuck!!

So, Oki here we come!!

We got to keep a close eye on our luggage.

A few views around the plane prior to take-off

Closing the tail...

We may not have had an in-flight movie or meal, but we had a toilet!

Anybody need to potty??

Welcome back to Okinawa!