Being away from home can get old to even the most adventurous person. As duty calls, we celebrated Independence Day onboard the mighty USS COLE DDG 67.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY USA!
Today we celebrated our Independence Day onboard USS COLE DDG 67 out to sea somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. Celebrating the American way in a warship is something you have to see it to believe it. Hence a lot of photos. Of course I blurred the faces of Sailors for their privacy.
Yes, it is a federal holiday. Yes, it a Tuesday. Yes, everybody state-side has the day off. Yes, we are actually at work, after all this is a warship, and it is moving. So that means people onboard are not home-home. But while we are onboard, this is our home for all intents and purposes.
A warship is like a small city, or a small town where everybody knows each other. The ship really never sleeps in the sense that there is always somebody guarding our sleep as we doze off, and everybody onboard guards the nation’s sleep. The ship itself does not rest, the crew is up and about 24/7, and we take turns getting some rest to remain attentive.
Today we started as a regular work day, and as the day moved forward, we were able to afford our crew a chance to celebrate and unwind. We were going to have a gun-shoot to celebrate. But there were too many people out there enjoying the sea so we did not shoot anything – for safety. Not a huge let-down, the reason why we are underway is to train with some partner nations and we’ll get a chance to showcase our weaponry.
The day continued as usual until after lunch. It is Tuesday, so we did have our usual “Taco-Tuesday” – which is not always “tacos” but it is some taco-inspired type of meal. And most people onboard really like it – that is why it continues to be added to the menu every time our ship’s menu is reviewed.
For dinner, as predicted we had our steel-beach picnic in the afternoon. And yes, this gets as American as you can imagine. We fire out the grills out, there is corn-hole, fishing off the stern of the ship, there are some American staples food for our crew to enjoy. And yes, as you can imagine there were burgers, hot dogs, grilled chicken, ribs, potato salad, coleslaw, a bunch of soda, and so much more. So yes, your typical all-American barbeque.
Also there was music, games, which included the chance to whack some golf-balls into a gigantic net… as to not feeding golf balls to the marine life. This is a camaraderie-bonding social time for our crew. We get to change into something more comfortable than the usual uniform for a few hours. It is nice. And of course we have our beautiful gigantic American Flag and our Ship’s Battle Flag proudly waving under the hot summer sun.
After the barbeque we had one of our famous ice cream socials. This are times when we open these gigantic tubs of ice cream… many different flavors and Sailors get to enjoy it. This time we also offered Root beer floats. The Sailors can come as many times as they one through the line for more servings. This time we also had very fancy home-made cupcakes and a beautiful American-flag-inspired cake. Some Sailors got to enjoy some videogames in the mess decks (the main dinning area for the ship), other had fun conversations.
And from there we continue moving towards our next mission area. This is a shorter article. But really there is not much to say, except that if you ever wandered if America is indeed Great. It is already great, and the Sailors onboard USS COLE can empirically demonstrate what is like being among the world’s finest mariners.\
Although this article will be posted well after the 4th of July, because of the technical requirements to post this article. Regardless, the article was written on the 4th of July 2023. Happy Birthday America! HLC