Patrick Gerrity:  

Life I was in the Navy from March, 1991 until September, 2006. I started out at Recruit Training Center in Orlando, FL. Then I went to the Fleet on board the USS LaSalle, where I was stationed for 13 months, mostly homeported in Bahrain, but we made some port calls including Muskat, Oman, Karachi, Pakistan, Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. some of these places I had never even heard of before. After my tour on the ship I went to Construction Electrician "A" School in Gulfport, MS. Then I got married to my first wife. From there I went to Iceland for 18 months. Iceland is a beautiful place. I saw the Northern Lights - SPECTACULAR!!!! Next, I was stationed in Groton, CT. This was a great place also. I was close enough to visit home in New York pretty often, but far enough away that everyone was not in my business. During my time in Groton I was sent to Guantanamo Bay Cuba in the wake of the Haitian uprising. I spent 6 months there. That is where I first learned to SCUBA dive. Again - SPECTACULAR!!! Unfortunately, after that, I got stationed in Gulfport, MS. That is NOT a nice place. There is so much hatred there. They definitely don't like Yankees there. But the good thing is that my two beautiful children were born during my time there. My daughter, Grace was born in February, 1999 and my son, Liam was born in June, 2001. While stationed in Gulfport, I deployed to Cuba again with a redeployment to Honduras for relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch. I deployed to Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico and to Okinawa. I le...Expand for more