The Virtual Command Environment

This post is about a hero that struggled against the foe of time to do his job and save the lives of those he swore to serve and protect. He was doing a job that received little thanks to help protect not only the lives of his wife and child but of the citizenry of New York. This is my tribute to Christopher Charles Amoroso. A man that I will never met but will try and serve to my up most to honor his memory.

Christopher Amoroso always wanted to be a hero. His job in the Port Authority represented this wish, at 0522 the morning of the attack his wife woke in time to watch her loved one walk out the door and toward the fateful moment that would fulfill his dream of protecting the lives of people that had fallen into distress. His actions that day would save the lives of many who would otherwise had perished in the collapsing debris.

A caring man who enjoyed playing with his newborn daughter, Amoroso responded to the call that would take the lives of many of New York’s police officers and firemen. His quick actions lead many to safety even while the building came down around him. He didn’t hesitate to go back in search for others even though it meant giving his own life. A man who wished to be a hero, given to him in one of the most shocking moments of our nations history.

My words are a poor choice to represent a man who is a hero. A letter published by the New York Times illuminates the soul of the man that dashed back into the building that would take his life in the struggle to protect his fellow countrymen. A letter given to his daughter to tell her how much he loved her:

"Sometimes it makes me cry, as I am overwhelmed by the joy I've been given by you and your mother. I want you to know that I consider myself the luckiest man to ever walk the face of this earth. If anything were to happen to me, I could honestly say I've known true love and happiness in my life. I've known that because of your mother and now you."

This is my tribute to the memory of a hero.
This is something that all should take to heart.

Just because I've not been updating doesn't mean I'm dead yet...:P.

Enjoy the vids...Those familure with the cars will get a kick out of the 94 Camaro vids...resizing turned it into a tonka toy...:D. My Kodak camera was killed shortly after the flight in so I tried using the video camera for pictures...Needless to say I was disgusted with the picture quality and probably will not post those pictures.

92 Camaro

74 Nova

Hmmm...let's start with the final couple of weeks onboard. It was very amusing going through every drill known to man as I made my final push towards freedom. Most memorable was the time a co-worker came into the workspace after I had just came back from an underway replenishment, walked to the back, came back forward going; "Aah! Aah! OMG!" Needless to say the rest of the watch and myself just kinda looked at her with a quizical look as she had a rubber prosetic simulating her hand being chopped off over her hand. Finally she says; "I'm serious guys." We finally jumped into action breaking open the training medical bag and completed that drill. The action didn't end there as I finally made it down to berthing shortly after to take a shower to get the grime off from the unrep.

Walking into berthing I quickly got ready to shower and came walking around the corner to the showers to see five shipmates fleeing the scene of one of our corpsman simulating an injury on the floor...these guys flat out ran away from the scene. Draped in a towel held in one hand and shampoo and soap in other I came forward to render aid to the "injured" corpsman. As I started the process of getting the victim to put pressure on the wound and making sure there wasn't anything else wrong when I was stopped by the training team member observing the scenario. I was thanked for my proper response to the situation and told to stop what I was doing so that they could track down the five people that fled the scene before I came up. Needless to say I had gotten done with my shower, redressed and was heading out of berthing before the tounge lashing was done. I think those guys were "trained" in proper first aid for about an hour and a half...heheheh.

The time finally came for the ship to hit Singapore and allow me to disembark. Before we could do that we had to do a series of drills leading to a simulated abandon ship scenarieo. I actually got to be a casuilty, suffering a burned arm requiring treatment. It was quite funny watching my co-workers try and do treatment as I went into "shock". Later that week I was given a pleasent surprise as my co-workers got togeather to have a little going away party. The set up was entirely random but it worked out that everyone from my division was able to make it and give their well wishes. There had been a cake planned but of course the day crew in the galley cut it up for lunch so I guess I got to celebrate my going away with more people then they had planned...heh. I recieved a very cool gift as well, an ipod shuffle along with a card signed by the division. My ipod nano that I used for around four years for workspace music had finally suffered a battery burnout so the new ipod was a great replacement.

Of course I've still to use it. Unfortunately my itunes install was not complete on my computer and wouldn't recognize the new ipod. Despite numerous install and uninstall attempts I've yet to get itunes back on my laptop so I will probably have to wait till I get home to install on my home computer that I'm anxiously waiting to use for the first time as well...Well, I have to board my final flight to get home. I promise to post more soon!

Enjoyed making co-workers mad today with that short statement...Heheheh. Beginning of deployment and everyone is having a grand time trying to not kill each other. Of course me smiling down the p-ways isn't helping anything.

Had an entire four hours of liberty the other day. Was able to download some pocket queries for our potential ports. Not expecting much this deployment caching-wise due to the fact I will be more focused on keeping my gear down to the minimum in order to fly out easier. The more I travel to the various caches the more I get trinkets, which are cool for friends and family but not so great on the pocket book trying to get home or as extra weight in my sea bag.

Pretty have everything planned for my pack out. Girlfriend always comments on me packing and repacking everything during my way too short visits back home. I guess I just like to know what I've got and want to make sure I can access everything I need when I need it. Right now everything I have fits in one sea bag with my civilian items nearly bursting my Oakley back pack...poor thing's been through hell and back and is finally starting to show some wear and tear. Still love it to death due to the fact I can stow nearly eighty pounds in the thing and still hike comfortably, ala Mount Kota Kinabalu.

New software came out for my triton 1500, I'm hoping it helps with battery life but I've not had a chance to install it yet but I'm excited to see the new units that Magellan is coming out with dedicated to caching as well. Though acquisition of one of them may have to wait until I see some good reviews...Once bitten twice shy, I had to wait for over a year in order to easily use my triton to cache, I was infuriated.

I will do my best in order to get you guys some good pictures before I head home for the last time. I will point over to my DA account when I upload new stuff, right now it has some quick snaps from my final days in Oahu but I'm hoping to add to that with some more exotic shots before my 27 days are done.

Sorry for the neglect, I've finally managed to emerge triumphant from my battle with my commands administration(Admin) people and the personal support(PSD) people. Within the week my personal belongings will be packed up and I will have a little over a month before I see home for good this time. It has been quite the ride these past four years here in Hawaii, memories that I will take with me as I go forth and explore.

To say that I was depressed these past few weeks was a vast understatement. At every turn it seemed that the people that I delt with had to be beaten into submission for even simple tasks to be done. After an entire month of handing in paper work to my commands admin department I had expected some direction as to what I had to do to get my separation orders, last week I was informed that instead of getting my orders from admin I would have to make an appointment at PSD...with only two weeks before I had to leave and hopefully never return to the island. This information would've been nice two weeks before when I busted my ass trying to get all the paper work in to them and would've had a chance to space out my appointments...Nah, doesn't work that way.

I went into the personal property building today with the same attitude that I would have to kick and scream my way into a date with the movers. The lady at the front desk was the same one that I had talked to the previous Friday and during that conversation I was told that the only appointment avalible would be at the end of the week and the movers would need two weeks in order to come to my apartment to pack. This conversation was after four hours of hopping from PSD and customer service due to an issue with my terminal leave. I finally managed to convince her of the urgency of my situation and I walked into the personal property building this morning to set up my appointment.

The lady at the front desk warned me since I was a walk in that there was a chance that I would be there a while waiting for their morning appointments to clear. After filling out most of the paper work given to me for my vehicle and house hold goods I was surprised to be directed to someone to complete my appointment within five minutes of stepping foot in the building. When asked when I needed my move done I explained that I only had until the end of the month to do it in. The next question was if I wanted it done in a couple days, which totally took me by surprise since up until this time I was led to believe that it would take heaven and earth moving to get something like that done. Twenty minutes later I was shaking the clerks hand after resolving some questions about my vehicle move and I was out the door with a hop to my step and much of the weight removed from my shoulders.

This week I fully intend to further explore the island as I prepare the apartment for the movers. It has been raining fairly frequently but I think I should be able to find some geocaches and beaches to keep me entertained as my time here on the island comes to a close.

Everyday Decay is a great artistic representation of what our future would be like if the unthinkable happened. I've enjoyed checking in week after week to see the pages take shape and got hooked on the web comic over a year ago. I'm sorry to say that they've discontinued the comic now, below is the explination they gave and while I will miss the irrigular updates I would never wish someone to go through pain to provide an audience with enjoyment...unless of course it's those Jackass twits... The archive is up and I strongly suggest a visit to enjoy some great artwork and a fantastic representation of our world in it's last hours.

( http://www.everydaydecay.com/ )

Been in a slight funk since my girlfriend left but it is slowly getting better. Another day till the New Year and the start of my countdown to freedom! Thought I would detail out my quest for #300 a little bit.

I was stoked to find that I would be able to hit three hundred before the holidays and very excited to see that another friend had decided to try out geocaching as well. The first stops for the last ten caches were with my friend as we revisited some of his past finds and made a few new ones near on of the island parks. A pee-wee football game was going on nearby as we started out and it was funny to watch how intensely the little ones played as they battled one another a crossed the field.

The next few led us into the park area, this place was huge! Twelve baseball fields, several tennis courts, soccer fields and many play areas for the little ones. This made it difficult sometimes to make a few of the finds due to the crowd. Our last try we set our selves up for failure as we tried to cut a crossed some tall grass to a cache that was just 800 feet away...Lesson learned, when the grass is taller then you, you should probably find another way...heheheh, cut up and very tired we u-turned and made our way out to stop at taco bell to celebrate the accomplishments we made that day.

The next four caches were a personal matter of honor on my part. There was a particular trail called The Ditch Diggers Trail that I had been on several times before but was not able to make any finds due to losing the trail, taking the wrong trail and gps misdirection. This time I was determined to complete it and a very long five miles later I added those caches to my find list ending up inside the ditch itself trying to probe the darkness for the last one, right after I found it I was so excited I neglected to duck on my way out and found out my rather hard noggin isn't as hard as the granite the ditch was carved out of...heheheh.

The last two caches found me back at the park that I had previously visited with my friend. I started out the day by replacing a log in on of my previous finds so that others could continue to enjoy the cache due to it's owner being deployed and his wife unable to make it out to do the replacement. This time the park was largely empty due to the weekday which made it a lot easier to find one of the caches we had to pass up previously due to a game being played by it. Again I found that I had to replace the log due to the original being full and I made my way to #300.

The last cache was one that my friend and I had tried to cut through the grass and reach but had failed. I took a lesson from battles fought before and here is the log for your enjoyment. Take care!

Toby's Walk #3 - The Pathtag Palace
"Only a few days before "Sarge104"erxes and "R.H"ydarnes asailed the side by side grass forces arrayed against us. Time and shear numbers went against us and we were forced back to rethink our battle plan. Many days were spent drawing up battle plans and scouting the area for our last and final attempt to claim "The Pathtag"rmopylae.
A lucky break came as "Google"phialtes notified me of another trail behind the forces against us. Alone I marched past the manned fortifications on my left and found the goat path leading right up to my goal. Pillaging the contents I placed my mark on this my 300th cache!

I really enjoyed the park and it was fun trying to figure out how to get to this cache. TFTC!"

( Christmas Pics )

Will fill this out more after I get some sleep!

Early Christmas present in the form of my girlfriend came to visit last week. Was able to do quite a few things before she left. Right now I'm dealing with a messed up phone, seems I can start a conversation but sometimes it just cuts out, they can hear me but I cannot hear them. Tried to get a new phone today but T-mobile's new phones seem pretty flimsy and cheap regardless of the two hundred dollar price they put on them. Asked if they had my phone still in stock and the only color choices were purple and pink, neither bring out the color of my eyes ;).

Right now I just want to register a complaint. I discontinued my cable internet before the last deployment and when I returned and let a new roommate came to the apartment the decision was made to get wireless internet. I quickly found the quality of the product to be quite inferior to even what we get on ship. How is it that I can surf the web and get email when I'm off the coast of who knows where but I can't even get 56k out of a "supposed" 3G network? Argh! What really pisses me off is the fact that I have to fiddle with the modem every so often like a damn tv antenna just to get good reception. I'm living on a damn island, at one of the highest points....basic wave theory says I should be getting great reception from this POS!

Okay, *breath* now to what you all have been probably waiting for. My girlfriend was due to arrive in the next two days, I was also supposed to have duty the day I picked her up so I routed a leave chit a month in advance to the people that make the schedual for our ship board watches. The day right before I go on leave and I check the watch bill, I have one watch. I'm surprised to see that it is eight in the afternoon to midnight because I'm supposed to go on leave at four in the afternoon. I quickly found the person responsible for the watch bill and let them know I went on leave in the afternoon the next day. I was told that it would be handled, cool.

My duty day arrives and I checked the watch bill, I'm not on watch at all but I'm part of our inport emergancy teams, sounds good, there are a lot of people who can take my place when I leave on those so I go about my day. We have a scenario in the afternoon where we have to respond to a casuilty in the ship, I wasn't directly apart of the team sent to repair the casuilty so I mustered with the rest of the duty section till the drill was over and we would go over our lessons learned. To my surprise the watch bill cordinator pulls me over in front of one of my chiefs and starts to say that I had lied to him about not going to be on ship for that day. Surprised I responded that I informed him yesterday that I would be taking leave this day and that he was the first to see my leave chit about this as well. He responded that he had put me down as being in class for this day, I had nothing to say to this because I obviously can't write his itinerary, and further discussion wouldn't solve anything, so made my way back to my seat. My chief came to me afterwards to make sure that he understood what was going on and after explaining myself and what I had done to try and keep the situation from happening I was told that it would be handled.

Five minutes before going on leave the watch bill cordinator pulls me from cleaning stations and tells to meet with the force protection officer of another ship for a drill that they are having. Disguised and adrenilen pumping I ask for permission to come onboard the ship fully expecting to be stopped at the quarter deck since I really don't look like anyone from that ship. I make it on board and shortly after I met with the officer in charge of the drill. "Are you my infiltrator?" after nodding my confirmation I'm told to wait and be apprehended. Shortly after one of the saliors asks to see my ID and I'm told that I'm to be escorted off the ship. Every thing ends peacefully but I got a laugh as his shipmates gave him more of a hard time then they give the "suspect" since he refuses to follow the directions given him.

Finally free and on leave I get some rest and some random items from the store to try and make my girlfriends stay a little more enjoyable. At the airport I was able to meet her and surprised her with a Lai before taking her back to the apartment to meet the roomate and have dinner. Seems her flight was pretty bumpy so when the plane first touched down everyone started clapping, of course the clapping stopped immidiately after the plane started shuddering again before it settled down to land.

The day after she landed I took her on the trail behind my apartment for a "short" 4.5 mile hike...hehehe, we had fun finding most of the geocaches around the trail but just 100 feet away from the last cache she ran out of steam and had to stop for a while before we continued. The last cache was the one I enjoyed the most from the trail since it is in an unusual container and not placed like most of the other caches.

I also took her to a couple movies during her stay. The first was Everybody's Alright, really enjoyed the movie but drama really isn't my forte. Of course she had to beg and plead to go and see New Moon. The entire movie she revilled in my disgust, I usually don't say bad things about movies unless I've seen them but I never intend to see nor want to view any more of that crap. Batman calls shenanigans on your sparkely vampires! The books are not much better, my girlfriend would sneak some reading in while I was napping or if we were idle. After I started quoting from the book that is..."I groaned, but they didn't hear me." was a favorite of mine for a while...hehehe

The last day I took her around the island and we stopped by one of the blow holes to get our first earth cache, basically a geology lesson to claim credit for the find. While I was climbing the nearby rocks for another cache she also saw some of the large turtles that like to play around the island. Afterwards we spent some time at Wikiki and watched the sun go down.

Our final activity before she left was a haunted tour of the island. I am not sensitive to these things but she most definately is. During the day we had visited Pali Lookout and took in the great sight from high above the island. At night it was very interesting to go there again as the guide retold the story of the battle faught there. What made it even more interesting that there was also a probable murder that had happened just a week ago there as well. My girlfriend was very spooked and the pictures that people took did nothing to ease her feelings that the spirits were there. Me, it was my turn to have some fun leading her around the spooky places and watching her reaction. We also toured a grave site, a couple sacrificial areas, and the Chinese Children's cemetery. All and all a good experiance.