Mission on!

20JUL

First week complete. We received the USNS Richard E Byrd in Tonga last Monday in a torrential downpour. They delay go us off to a slow start, but by the afternoon the weather broke and soon enough the small port of Pangai was swarming with Seabees in green, and pallets of supplies and equipment. The advance team took small boat out where the massive ship was swinging into the northwest swells. We arrived in the frigid command space soaked to the bone and looked pretty pathetic. The difference was stark. The staff was gathered looking well fed, slightly pale faces sporting soft chins and fresh military haircuts. The team was native brown with wild hair grown long and bleached by the sun, our uniforms hanging off us soaking wet and baggy. Everyone kept saying how skinny we were. I really don’t think they understand how we are living here. We started fielding questions and immediately realized much of the work and coordination we had done was lost or forgotten. We knew it was going to be a painful start.
Day two arrived and the Engineers were off to work before the sun and the opening ceremony went off before lunch. By the end of the day they medical site had treated almost 200 patients. And that is the miracle of military operations. Despite small scale confusion at every level, the massive momentum of people, equipment and supplies just keeps rolling and the mission is up and running. I stayed on the pier sorting out minor issues with transportation and coordination most of the day and felt confident and in stride. By afternoon I was onboard the REB gearing up for my first helo ride! I was going up to point out the landing zones for the school visits so the crew could take GPS fixes and check the sites. When they mentioned it at the morning brief I immediately volunteered to guide the tour- Hey I’m here for the team. So after checking all the sites, we went off in search of Humpback whales and flew around all the local islands. The water was so transparent you could see detail in the reefs from 1500 ft up. After 2 hours and no whales we headed back to the flight deck for an uneventful landing. The Puma was a great ride, and I highly recommend it if you have the means.
Day three was my first School visit for community relations. It was an unbelievable success, and a hell of a good time. We met at the rugby field behind Pangai Elementary school and the kids were assembled seated under shade tents and the DJ was pumping music and the teachers were dancing to warm up the crowd. We got the band setup and smoothed the program. After an opening prayer and remarks by our senior officer present, LCDR Rick Parry RAN, and a response from the peace corps volunteer that teaches English at the school the band jumped up and played a number. Immediately, all 20 of our volunteers ran out onto the field and started dancing with the kids. Everyone was having a blast with kids gathered in circles holding hands and dancing. The program alternated between our Navy band playing music and dancing, and the Tongans presenting some traditional dances. All of this continued for an hour until you could hear the sound of a helicopter approaching. Once it got on the field and shut down we offloaded the donations (school supplies) the kids came out class by class and climbed inside and posed for photos. After all the classes got their turn we went back and the kids danced more traditional tongan dances and the band played a few numbers. We wrapped up with a closing prayer and went back out to the field to play Frisbee with the kids. We wrapped up and loaded all the volunteers back in the van and went back to the port with a bus full of smiling volunteers. A true community interaction, with give and take on both sides and I couldn’t have been happier with how my plans worked out. Throughout the day people from the mission kept approaching me and telling me how great the event was and patting me on the back. It was one of the proudest moments in my career. So often in this line of work all the planning and coordination I do is detached from the action. To be on the field dancing around with the kids and knowing everyone was making life long memories was a pretty great feeling.
Since then we have done two more school visits and the band has played at the medical site and the Saturday market. The school repairs are going well and all the local community are out helping at the construction sites and cooking for the crews. The Tongans are so generous and grateful for the work. Of course we still have small issues day-to-day getting last minute supplies and dealing with incoming and outgoing personnel. But by and large the stress is low and the work is great.
Saturday night we watched the Aussies and New Zealand rugby match at mariners cafe. We had both countrymen in the house along with a bunch of Americans just there to incite arguments and generally stir the pot. I arranged to have our Aussie Advance team Officer Rick Parry arm wrestle a Kiwi if the match was a tie. New Zealand's "All Blacks" took the win and we all called it an early night.

Sunday we got permission from the community elder to take the dive boat out and go diving. This was huge, because in Tonga it is in the constitution that it is illegal to work on Sunday. We slipped out in the morning and flat seas on the shops whale watching catamaran to do two dives. They were of course amazing, and I saw my first white tip shark, as well as my first manta ray! On the way back to the shop I snoozed in the nets under the tongan sun and enjoyed the best nap of my life.
That is all for now folks. Will post again before we wrap up here in Tonga.