Thanksgiving, and Remembering 70 Years Since Pearl Harbor

It's gotten pretty busy. My language classes have begun, and let me tell you, they're intense.

Figure, a typical college-level language course meets twice weekly, in 1.5-hour blocks, for a total of about three hours a week. Here at DLI, we have class 5 days a week, seven hours a day. Thanks to two long weekends, two of our past three weeks of class have been cut short, and instead of 15 days, we've only had 12. 12 days, at 7 hours per day, is 82 hours of Chinese language class. Divide by the 3 hours per week at your typical college, and we're 28 weeks into the course, in just 12 days.

Yeah. If you took the course material for a college-level Chinese course, we just blew through an entire semester in 12 days.

So I hope you'll all understand if I end up posting less frequently!

In any case, it's a part of the year that's really humbling (again).

I just returned from a surprise trip back home to Watertown for Thanksgiving, a holiday which took on a whole new meaning this year. I found myself reflecting a great deal on what Thanksgiving is all about (yes, it's about more than marking the time when radio stations start playing their holiday songs, which is still way too early, if you ask me). I thought about where I was this time last year — I hadn’t even gone to see the recruiter yet. My family still didn't know I was planning on enlisting. It's amazing just how far I've gone in the past year. I wouldn't give it up for anything in the world. People ask me how I like the Navy, and I find myself at a loss for words, because they can't possibly understand what an honor it is to be doing what I'm doing. Many Americans say it's an honorable thing to do, but I think it's the other way around. I don't feel like I'm an honorable person because I'm serving, I feel like I'm honored to have the opportunity to be doing this.

I was able to see members of my family last week who I haven't seen since June — in other words, since I was a civilian. I got to show up and surprise my dad, who had suffered a minor stroke and spent two or three days in the hospital the weekend just before the holiday. I finally had the opportunity to meet my girlfriend's family. I was able to attend the first half of the Watertown/Belmont game on my old turf (which, incidentally, is actually new turf)!

It was wonderful to be back home, even for such a short time. And I got to enjoy all of the things for which I'm most thankful. I suppose being away from it all has really put into perspective just how grateful I am for the people and the things in my life. I don't think I've ever had a happier Thanksgiving with my family, especially having just had to come face to face with the reality that they're not going to be around forever. My dad's stroke was a minor one, and he's already made a near-complete recovery, but it was also a surprise, and sometimes surprises aren't quite so minor. No words in any language can do justice to how glad I was to be able to spend this Thanksgiving with my family.

And I almost didn't make it home. Thanks to Orbitz, I ended up with a connecting flight at LAX (if any of you have been there, you already know a story involving connections at LAX are not good stories), but the flight from Monterey was delayed by about 20 minutes, and the connection was a different airline, which was on the complete opposite end of the airport (for those of you who have not been, LAX is enormous), and instead of 40 minutes to get to my next flight, I now had 20. To make things worse, nobody could give me clear directions, and I was directed twice to the wrong terminal by people who were only half-paying attention, and mixed up gate and terminal numbers (because LAX uses numbers for both gate and terminal, instead of letters for one and numbers for the other). I arrived at the correct gate just two minutes after my flight had left.

Thankfully (and probably because I was in uniform), the service agent at the US Airways counter made sure I got on the next flight out, which would connect to a Boston flight in Philadelphia instead of Phoenix, and then I was also moved into first class for the flight from Philly to Boston. When it seemed that my entire Thanksgiving was about to be completely wrecked, and that I'd probably be stranded at LAX for who knows how long, US Airways practically bent over backwards to still get me home in time. I can't thank US Airways enough, because they made my entire holiday with my family possible, and they saved me from getting stuck in LA and missing class and my watch shift when the weekend was over. I guess that's another thing I have to be thankful for — the lengths to which some people will go to help other people. It's one of the things I love about this country, and when I say I enlisted to defend not just American security, but the American character, that's exactly what I'm talking about.

This week, there's another very important date in US Naval history. Dec. 7 marks 70 years since the Japanese surprise air raid on Pearl Harbor, an attack which claimed the lives of 2,117 Americans, the majority of whom wore the uniform of the United States Navy. It's a reminder of the dangers we all face, even when everything seems okay. It's also a chance to honor those who serve, especially those who never get to go home and spend another Thanksgiving watching their high school football game or having dinner with their families. It's also a chance to remember those who served in the Second World War — it's important we don't miss the opportunity to honor and thank them, since their generation is slowly vanishing. It's very important to me personally, because both of my grandfathers served in that war, in the same uniform I wear today — that of the United States Navy. Even though I hardly knew either of them, I'm sure Dec. 7 will be a day when I feel closer to them than ever.

Before I end this post, I feel almost obligated to remind you all about another important date, Dec. 10 It's the Army-Navy football game, and I'll be watching it on an Army post.

Go Navy! Beat Army!