Ship Tour: Our Time on American Territory: Part IV

On July 17th, a Saturday, the public relations officer of the mission invited all the Peace Corps volunteers on a guided tour of the ship, the USNS Richard E. Byrd. Like every naval vessel, the ship is technically considered sovereign U.S. territory, so for a few hours that afternoon we were back home, a fact we found rather funny that also made us a bit homesick.We were taken out to where the ship was anchored (I think it was a few miles offshore) and when we finally pulled up next to the ship, we were shocked at how huge it actually was. The first thing we saw, after we climbed up the world’s narrowest flight of stairs to the level right below the deck, were lines of heavy machinery (think bobcats and whatnot) taking up a tiny portion of the storage space, which gave us an idea of just how large this boat was. We were given our tour by a very cool member of the non-naval crew (we later found out that most of the actual ship’s crew weren’t members of the military) who showed us around and kept us from getting lost. We got to see the top decks, the steering and control room, play with the giant binoculars on the deck, visit the engine room, and roam the halls. Highlights definitely included the water bubblers that were on every floor of the ship, climbing flights of stairs for the first time since October, seeing the cafeteria, finding out there were televisions in every lounge that somehow were able to get American TV and catching a glimpse of a live MLB game (!), walking by an ammunitions storeroom and seeing a crew member unloading cases of Budweiser (since this was a humanitarian mission the ship didn’t carry any weapons, and the soldiers used that extra space to store the beer they brought with them from America since on previous occasions they had drank small island nations out of beer- we also learned that there was a naval party planning committee of sorts onboard that organized the purchase of said beer and other fun things), and, finally, the ship store. It was packed with all sorts of processed food (soda, chips, dips, cheese sticks) that I would have avoided back home, but suddenly found irresistibly appealing. The ship only took American cash, which sadly I had none of, but people were kind and lent me enough to buy some goldfish and a Klondike bar…heaven! We went crazy in there, and certain individuals practically bought out the store- it was wonderful. I never thought that being inside a mini 7-11 would make me miss home, but there you go. It was definitely a bit tough to get back on the small boat and go back to Pangai, but we all went to Mariner’s afterward and consoled ourselves over beers and chips and salsa from the ship’s store.