Join the Navy, See the World–Still True

As true today as when that slogan first came out. I’ll give you an example. If you had selected the USS Bunker Hill, a Ticonderoga class cruiser based in San Diego California, during ship selection night in 2008, here are some of the places you would have visited between January and April 2010:

• transitted through the Panama Canal, taped by PanCam for your family and friends to see
• transitted to Haiti to assist relief efforts
• transitted to Puerto Rico to pick up a sailor–long story. Surprisingly, American cell phones work there
• passed through the Bermuda Triangle–safely
• crossed the equator, where Pollywogs (sailors who haven’t yet crossed the equator) become Shellbacks
• stopped in Rio de Janeiro, site of the 2016 Summer Olympics (instead of Chicago, despite President Obama’s concerted efforts)
• met Brazilian Mids from the Brazilian Naval school–Escola Naval–and compare stories
• engaged the Brazilian Navy off the coast of Brazil in ASW (anti-submarine warfare) exercises pitting a Brazilian sub against America’s most advanced Aegis-class cruiser–that’s right, the USS Bunker Hill
• swam off the coast of Uruguay
• had Photo ops with the Uruguayan navy
• spent two weeks aboard a carrier
• transitted to Tierra del Fuego and around the treacherous tip of South America
• transitted up the western coast of South America, with a stop in Peru
• attended a Peruvian beach party
• swam off the coast of Ecuador–get stung by jellyfish. Now you’ve swum off both sides of South America
• arrived home to a raucous homecoming (still to come)

Me, I’ve never done anything on the entire list.

How about you?

Here are some of their pictures (be patient–the slideshow takes a few seconds to come up):

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