[Samwise]

Whoa Hoe!

What a great surprise. I am so happy that you two were able to tour the ship. That is soooooooo cool. (I'm a wee bit jealous, though.) Thank you for sharing the adventure with us. "Our guys" are absolutely the best, aren't they?

Tell us about the flag. Lemme guess. They gave it to you, right?

Have you heard about our Freeper Hobbit Hole adopting the 82nd Airborne in Kandahar? We freeped 'em good with care packages and letters. They were busting their butts for us, and we were trying to show them how much we appreciated what they were doing--and what did they do? After already sacrificing so much, they sent us each a flag that had flown over their base. I'n tearing up just thinking about it. I will treasure mine forever. Samwise Jr. will pass it to her kids. I'm gonna lose it, so I better stop.

Great trip! Treasure the memories.

[snippy_about_it]

Thanks for telling us about the Hobbit Hole supporting our Troops. It is very emotional isn't it. Words can't describe the love in our hearts for our men and women serving and our Veterans. So go ahead and tear up, I do it all the time.

:)

[SAMWolf]

The OA Division - USS Tawara
Honors Snippy

The OA Division Crew turned the dinner in their honor into a dinner honoring Snippy's support of the crew during their deployment.

We all met at a restuarant called Claim Jumpers in Grossmont at 1530 hours on Wednesday afternoon. Amazing to both Senior Chief bkwells and myself, we had a table of 9 Sailors and not one beer was ordered!!

We started off with the biggest plate of appetizers I've seen in a long time and after getting to know each other a little better we ordered dinner. James, our chauffeur, out ate everyone and the table and took plenty of ribbing. Of course, I've never met a Texan without a hollow leg when it comes to excellent food.

When dessert time came around James was the only one who even thought about being interested. More ribbing from everyone else and we decided to pass on dessert. But before we left the restuarant, James was presented with a "slice" of Death by Chocolate cake that was at least 7 layers tall and 6 inches wide. A small token or our appreciation for his chauffering duties. He said it wouldn't make it back to the Boat, because he had a fork (not borrowed from the Mess) in his vehicle.

After the dinner Senior Chief bkwells presented a folded flag in a display case to Snippy. This was a flag Snippy had sent to the crew, they had hoisted and flown the flag from the bridge of the USS Tarawa when they crossed the Equator and the International Dateline.

After a moving speech, (for a Navy Senior Chief), bkwells presented the flag to Snippy among a round of applause from the rest of the Division.

It was the last thing both of us expected and quite a moving moment for all of us.