Japan

I have been travelling for the Navy for over a week, and just got back to Chicago.

I turned on the TV last Friday, and saw what happened in Japan, and was glued to the TV.  I went to the Navy Memorial in DC to conduct a retirement ceremony for a friend. 

I saw how bad it "really"was when the Admiral who conducted the ceremony was "asked nicely" afterwards to go back to work.  He had a lot of work to do.

What a lot of people do not know, is that the United States Navy is the President's choice of first responders to any and every nation wide and world wide disaster.  There are so many ships, and so many of my friends that live in Japan and are working to help those affected by the earthquake and the tsunami. 

Some things that people do not know:  the current radiation levels are the same as one would get from normal use of a microwave.  That low.  How do I know this?  My friends that work in Japan are nuclear scientists in the Navy.  Also, the building codes in Japan are incredibly strict.  I encountered 3 earthquakes my first day visiting Japan 2 years ago, and it did zero damage.  I felt them all, they were 5.0-5.5 on the scale. Thus, all my friends that live just south of Tokyo in either Yokohama or Yokosuka have only encountered rolling blackouts.  None of their homes were damaged. 

It was scary for them, but they have been using facebook to communicate with all of us, to let us know how things "really are" over there. 

I learned while doing humanitarian missions in 2005 and 2006 (JTF Katrina and JTF Lebanon), that the media will sell whatever sensational story they can.  I met those news anchors, who I will keep nameless on here.  I ate lunch across from them, escorted them around, etc.  Then I saw them say a totally different thing on TV.  Yeah, they just lost a ton of street cred from me.  So read up on what the Navy is doing on facebook, www.navytimes.com, or http://www.navy.mil/.  These are sources that are legit, because Navy leaders want us and our families to be safe,and know what is going on. 

Praying for my friends, shipmates, and everyone over in Japan.