Well, it’s Friday the 13th, and 11 years ago to the day, we got underway on the mighty USS SCRANTON (SSN756) for a scheduled North Atlantic deployment. This was pretty standard, and it was supposed to last about 4 1/2 months. My wife was 4 months pregnant at the time, so I knew I was most likely going to miss the birth, but it looked like I would be home within days of the birth.
Turns out, we got extended. My son was two months old by the time I got home.
We did get three port calls: Faslane, Scotland; Haakonsvern, Norway; and Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Spent something like 21 days in port out of 178 deployed.
Ahhhh, for the good old days of “Peace.”
What was liberty in Norway like?
Norway was a nice place. We were at the Naval Base at Haakonsvern, which is very close to Bergen. Everyone there speaks English and they all sound like Americans. In fact, I remember watching Patton on TV there and it was not subtitled or dubbed. You can get elk, caribou, whale, and a variety of other meats at the restaurants.
I did not have the best time, however, as I was somewhat distracted. By the time we pulled in, my son was 10 days old. I got to talk to my wife on the phone, but we were only in port for 5 days, so there was not enough time for me to fly back. Sucked.