8/25> Things have been so busy here!! I have successfully qualled in CPR, 9mm,> shotgun, and M-14 shooting. We shot off the back of the ship at hanging> paper targets. You all thought the one I had in my room at school was> good? haha.. wait till you see the M-14! I had my first small pox shot> ever. That is such a pain. It gets filled with puss and then it scabs> over. It is getting the scab now. Its quite an adventure to say the least.> We had a swim call the other day off the coast of Jabouti, Africa. We> try to have "Steel beaches" every week during "holiday routine". They> cookout on the flight deck and play loud music. Swim call day they> lowered the sterngate (the back part of my kind of ship) so the water came> up slightly into the ship. There was an inclined plane access to the> middle of the ocean. We had an 11m and 7m rhib out with people on shark> and safety watch. That was so much fun eventhough I was relieved late> from watch and got to swim a grand total of 15 min. > As you all saw on the news the 2 US ships were attacked by an RPG Rocket> in Jordan. We were supposed to be going there but that obviously isn't> going to happen. So, that means that rather than stopping since we have> been at sea for a month this coming week, we wait until mid september> instead. We'll be going into the med and making a couple stops on the way> to West Africa. We are all fine on the ship-- stepped up the vigilance as> far as force protection.