about that Lincoln

I’m thoroughly enjoying sharing my military career with you, but I’d like to take a step away from it for this post. A side step, really. I’ve been telling you about my time on the ship USS Princeton during the Vietnam dust-up. so I’d like to discuss what life at sea is like. The USS Lincoln, in the news for being on a monster deployment, is bigger than the Princeton was, but I’m guessing that it had similar crowded conditions. The Princeton had a Marine Battalion Landing Team of about 1200 Leathernecks and a smaller helicopter squadron, but they were off the ship more than on.

The support unit I was with had about 25 enlisted, all stuffed into quarters with little floor space but a high ceiling to accommodate the stacks of four bunk beds. Even though it put me perilously close to an air conditioning vent, I took a bed at the top to minimize my exposure to the horseshit that’s generated anywhere a bunch of jarheads have too much free time. Between work, time in the ship’s library and movies shown on the hangar deck, I was able to keep it together.

But every six weeks or so, the Princeton would set out to Subic Bay in the Philippines for repairs and resupply. For several days, the sailors and Marines were free to patronize the plethora of bars and brothels just outside the gate. As luck would have it, the one time I stayed behind in Vietnam, the docks in the Bay were full, so the troops had to wait for hours to get in via liberty boats.

The troops on the Lincoln have been at sea for nine months. Supplies and morale are dangerously low. And the best Trump can offer regarding this mammoth stint is a flippant remark that it hasn’t been “nearly long enough”. I don’t know if he said that out of cluelessness or mindful cruelty, but does it matter anymore?