Deployment, Day 153 – Anchored Phuket, Thailand

Today we left Phuket, Thailand after a four-day port visit. It’s been a pretty eventful few days, so let me start at the beginning.

The day before we pulled into Thailand (July 13), I got up in the morning and checked my e-mail. In my inbox was an e-mail from the ship’s operations officer (OPS), telling me (and the ships assistant supply officer, or ASUPPO) that I had another CDO board later that day. Now remember, the ASUPPO and I had failed one only a couple weeks earlier, and I hadn’t so much as glanced at my notes since. I wasn’t supposed to get a re-board until September, at the earliest. They just decided to give us another shot because there was some free time on the schedule.

Needless to say, the cram session was on that morning. OPS called a couple hours later and told us our board was at 1pm, so besides a quick break for lunch I was pouring through notes and running all over the ship getting information from people. I felt set up for failure, but surprisingly I rolled in there and passed! I am now the Peleliu’s newest Command Duty Officer. When I am on duty, I am in charge of the ship and its daily operations in port when the commanding officer is absent. Unfortunately, the ASUPPO was not so lucky and failed for the second time. Sad for him, but a huge relief for me to get my LAST qualification on board out of the way. Now all I have to do is my safety officer job until those glorious set of orders appears transferring me off the ship and back to flying status.

Okay, now to Thailand. My first day in port I had duty as the senior shore patrol officer. If you’ve ever heard of military police, that is pretty much what shore patrol is, but we are not armed. We just patrol the streets and try to de-escalate any situation involving Sailors and Marines that might occur. As Senior Shore Patrol Officer that night, I was in charge of the SP headquarters and the 50-person contingent of shore patrol personnel out and about in town.

And we had a LOT of situations that first night. Phuket is really a beautiful resort town, but unfortunately it also has a thriving red-light district. Sailors and Marines are told that, although accepted in some cultures, prostitution is illegal according to military law. Unfortunately, you always have people who will partake regardless of the rules. Another aspect about Thailand is that many of the “women” you see peddling themselves on the streets are actually transvestite men, who have had amazing surgeries and hormone treatments to make them look outwardly like women.

The local Navy representatives always warn the ships during port briefs to watch out for these ladyboys, or katoys. Unfortunately, we had a couple of Marines that got a little drunk and decided to invest in the services of a couple of prostitutes, who, unbeknownst to them, were local katoys. When they got to the hotel room and discovered the truth, they got very upset and decided to fight the katoys. Unfortunately again, the katoys look like women but are actually men, and they fight like men. By the time shore patrol was called over to the hotel, the Marines and katoys had busted up the room and a window and were in the custody of the local police.

The only thing those Marines had going for them that night is that the local police do not like to arrest U.S. military. When at all possible, they hand over military members who are causing problems to the local shore patrol. However, someone had to pay the damages for the hotel room and the money to the katoys, who were demanding payment for their “services” and for the assault. When I got to the hotel, we worked with the tourist police and negotiated for the two Marines to pay the hotel owner about 2400 Baht ($63 U.S.) and the ladyboys 12,500 Baht ($330 U.S.) to settle the issue and prevent them from getting arrested. We then handed the two Marines off to the senior Marine shore patrol officer to send them back to the ship and handle disciplinary issues. In my eyes they got off easy; they are lucky that they are not in a Thai jail right now.

You really can’t make stuff like this up. That night, we also had two drunk and rowdy Marines handcuffed in front of the shore patrol office for six hours, and another Marine who got drunk, fell, and hit his head and almost needed an ambulance, and another couple of people who were caught out past curfew without their liberty buddies (all military personnel are prohibited from going anywhere alone). I didn’t get to bed until almost 4am, after all the issues were settled and when liberty was mercifully secured at curfew.

Once I was relieved of shore patrol duties the next morning, I was able to relax for the last three days of the port. About a dozen of us from the ship rented a huge villa up on the hill above the resort beach of Patong. It has five master bedrooms, a pool, a breathtaking view of Patong Bay, and two housekeepers that cooked all of our meals for us, all for a total of about $800 per night. Besides traveling into town a few times for groceries, a command-sponsored event one night, and a little souvenir shopping, we didn’t leave the villa the entire time, and none of us wanted to go back on the ship!

Now that we’re all back on board, we all are aching to get back home. This whole deployment routine is starting to get really old. According to my sea counter we have 30 days to go until we’re moored San Diego; just about one month.