End of Month Report

March marks my third month on Guam. I've now figured out what I like on this island: the swimming, the sunsets, the community-oriented local culture. I've rented a car during my stay, but I'm ready to try transit: the Navy has now started (or restarted?) a shuttle service between the piers and its hospital, located near the island's capital. It operates with precision, and on a schedule; compared to the "island time" casualness of the existing, barebones, local bus service.

Shoutout to the end of USNS Supply's 25th anniversary month. Commissioned in 1994 as "AOE 6", she was the lead ship of the last class of supply ships to sail with uniformed Navy sailors. She was ordered by the government during the Reagan administration, when funding for new Navy ships was ample. This class of ship was intended to replace the four original AOE 'fast combat support ships', whose propulsion plants were built during WWII for battleship use, and which were commissioned in the 1960s to support a nuclear navy. All later-built classes of supply ships (the T-AKE and T-AO ships) would sail with civilian mariners. USS Supply, as she was known at the time, transferred to Military Sealift Command's civilian mariners in 2001, and by 2005, all underway replenishment ships were operated by civilians.