So basically you're the reason we have to do "trafficking in persons" training every year.
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Favorite ports of call
- Thread starter Randy Daytona
- Start date
How about the trips that got cancelled? Missed opportunities perhaps? 
Vladivostok. My crew was scheduled to go there as part of a POLMIL exchange with some other ships. Cancelled at the last minute. Was hoping to go blind drinking vodka during that trip!
Palau. Was a 2P, got pulled off the ready in Kadena for some long forgotten stupid reason. Ready gets launched to Palau to find some idiot in a sailboat. P3 BREAKS (I know what a surprise), and takes the squadron THREE WEEKS to get the plane back. It involved a prop change, the maintainers flew comair down there. The one carrying the parts in his luggage got detained by security all along the way. My best bud was the NAV on that trip, he came back with a shit eating grin, they spent the three weeks at the beach resort scuba diving and drinking. Then that damn crew (a blessed crew to be sure), gets launched on a ready to Thailand for TWO MORE WEEKS!!!! No one liked that crew after that...
Vladivostok. My crew was scheduled to go there as part of a POLMIL exchange with some other ships. Cancelled at the last minute. Was hoping to go blind drinking vodka during that trip!
Palau. Was a 2P, got pulled off the ready in Kadena for some long forgotten stupid reason. Ready gets launched to Palau to find some idiot in a sailboat. P3 BREAKS (I know what a surprise), and takes the squadron THREE WEEKS to get the plane back. It involved a prop change, the maintainers flew comair down there. The one carrying the parts in his luggage got detained by security all along the way. My best bud was the NAV on that trip, he came back with a shit eating grin, they spent the three weeks at the beach resort scuba diving and drinking. Then that damn crew (a blessed crew to be sure), gets launched on a ready to Thailand for TWO MORE WEEKS!!!! No one liked that crew after that...
A unique/fun foreign port call closed to the U.S. for the past 57 years:
Havana, Cuba - I'm a newly reported ETSN out of Sub School to my WWII fleet-type Sub USS Cavalla (SSK-244) at NSB New London, summer 1955. Soon after reporting, sent TAD to Fleet Sonar School, Key West FL, for a 3-week Submarine Sonar Operators Course.
During the first week, our small class was advised that the school's assigned training ship USS TWEEDY (DE-532), would be making a RT weekend port call to Havana the next weekend, underway Fri PM return Sun PM, we were welcome to come along (4-hrs cruise each way).
Great liberty, 2 nights on the town, and toured the Morro Castle, and a tobacco plantation/cigar factory during the day. Stayed in a beautiful hotel/casino (that I learned decades later, was owned by Lucky Luciano & his NY "family", and run by Meyer Lansky)!
They sure treated us like royalty back then.
Meanwhile, unknown to us, Fidel, Raul, Che and their merry band of 'Commie' rebels were scurrying around the mountains of Sierra Maestra, fomenting the revolution that occurred 3 years later!
BzB
*Sub School Class 115-55
(ETSN BzB back row, dead center)
Havana, Cuba - I'm a newly reported ETSN out of Sub School to my WWII fleet-type Sub USS Cavalla (SSK-244) at NSB New London, summer 1955. Soon after reporting, sent TAD to Fleet Sonar School, Key West FL, for a 3-week Submarine Sonar Operators Course.
During the first week, our small class was advised that the school's assigned training ship USS TWEEDY (DE-532), would be making a RT weekend port call to Havana the next weekend, underway Fri PM return Sun PM, we were welcome to come along (4-hrs cruise each way).
Great liberty, 2 nights on the town, and toured the Morro Castle, and a tobacco plantation/cigar factory during the day. Stayed in a beautiful hotel/casino (that I learned decades later, was owned by Lucky Luciano & his NY "family", and run by Meyer Lansky)!
They sure treated us like royalty back then.Meanwhile, unknown to us, Fidel, Raul, Che and their merry band of 'Commie' rebels were scurrying around the mountains of Sierra Maestra, fomenting the revolution that occurred 3 years later!
BzB
*Sub School Class 115-55
(ETSN BzB back row, dead center)
I think Seychelles is actually AFRICOM. And while it was nice, in Africa, I'd say Cape Town takes the prize. Great weather, lots of stuff to do, and the port visit was long enough to actually get out and about, and liberty rules were relatively relaxed for the AOR.
In CENTCOM, toss up between Dubai/Abu Dhabi and Bahrain. The UAE cities are richer and more....ridiculous (never seen so many hot girls in a single place in my life), but I thought the scene in Bahrain was more down to earth.
In Europe, made several stops in Faslane, with trips to Edinburgh. Scotland in summer is amazing.
I didn't really dislike either, aside from both being horribly obnoxious f-ing ridiculous hot. That said, I'd have to lean toward Dubai. Bahrain is the Reno to Dubai's Vegas.
707guy
"You can't make this shit up..."
Ha!
Please elaborate.
Benny Hill's....big fish bowl drink...her English accent.
I think you're right about Seychelles. Goes to show you how grim a true CENTCOM deployment can be. I found all of the Gulf ports to be too hot to spend much time outside.
It's actually nice in the winter - Bahrain at Christmas was sunny and in the 60s pretty much everyday. Felt like San Diego.
I'll second Cape Town. Despite wasting nearly a day at anchor waiting for the sea state to mellow enough for the liberty boats, that place was great. Didn't have enough time to venture out to do the wine or safari thing (though we did eat some manner of antelope or wildebeest at dinner), but those would have certainly sweetened the deal.
Funny; it was Naples harbor where, for about a second and a half, I thought the liberty boat was going to capsize. Nothing like a bunch of varyingly drunken Sailors and Marines in an Italian tour boat that just took a couple 45-degree rolls. Watching the really hammered people try to negotiate the prow onto Mom's stern barge that night was simultaneously worrisome and amusing.
Problem is liberty policies. In Bahrain, crews from ships pulling in had pretty restrictive liberty policies. But folks deployed there (or Abu Dhabi/Dubai) live out in town (and with per diem). Completely different experience when you can actually go out in town without some big MWR sponsored thing and there's no curfew (at least not for E-7 and above while I was there).