USS John Rodgers (DD-574) - The Journey Home

For those of you who haven't heard of this yet, a group of wonderful people have gotten together to save a really grand ship, the USS John Rodgers (DD-574).



Right now, an inspection team is in Mexico preparing her for a tow back to the United States. Ward Brewer, the fearless leader of this endeaver, would like to have this operation published far and wide via the internet, so he has drafted eminent Milblogger John Donovan of Castle Argghhh!!! to chronicle the trip. John has delegated many other bloggers to help spread the word. So, in order to carry out my tasking (but avoid stealing John's bandwidth) I will be quoting John's posts in their entirety and hosting his pics on my own server. Never-the-less, please be sure to visit Castle Argghhh!!!, because much else of an interesting nature is be found there -- especially if you like weaponry.

Bringing the Rodgers Home, Day 1
No pics with this post, sadly. I'm having some technical issues with the wireless, and don't want to have my little hard drive touch this network, since who knows who else is touching it?
We all made it, though some of the baggage didn't (mine did). We move on tomorrow to Lázaro Cardenas and will get our first look at the Rodgers, after puddle-jumping our way there in the morning.
The Mexican Navy is picking us up and taking us straight to her. Pics tomorrow, one way or another, I promise!
This is a nice airport - though you can see why some locals the world over aren't fond of American commerce... McDonalds, Burger King, Dunkin' Donuts, Cinnabon, etc, all filled with people.
The most startling thing to this midwesterner is how few Mexicans at the airport look like the Mexicans we see at home. These guys look very European-US, with a sprinkling of the kinds of faces I'm used to seeing at home or I saw when I was stationed in San Antonio and California. Says something about the structure of the immigration problem.
I find I'm doing okay with spanish commerical signage as far as reading it. Get into details and I'm reaching for a Babelfish. But nothing is helping understand spoken Spanish. These deaf english-german trained ears haven't been up to it.
The documentary film crew we brought down are doing some initial interviews (I'll get roped in later).
I gotta go, there's a line for this computer (I already spent a half-hour wading through the day's mail).
I'll check in again tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Here is a link to the original.