Buffalo

I bet you'd never guess that I'd see a buffalo here on the island, but I did.....but this wasn't just any buffalo, it was the USS Buffalo, a real submarine in the US Navy. And not only did I see it, but I got to go inside and get a tour of it. It was pretty cool. Let me tell you all about it: First of all, it's black, which would make sense, but for some reason, I always thought subs were yellow....!! It was docked at in the harbor and had a large gang plank that we walked down to get to the opening on the top that takes you inside. The sub has 3 levels. The top level has a lot of the control room stuff. This is where the periscope is located. I think I look pretty good lookin' through one of those things! The middle level is where the kitchen/cafeteria, board room, and upper-level officer's quarters are. The lower level is where the weapons (torpedoes and launchers) are stored, and where the rest of the crew sleep. The ship has a capacity of 140 men and is often “under way” for extended periods of time. When they are underway, no one, except of course the Navy, can know where they are. There was a lot of things they couldn't tell us, such as how deep they go. The Buffalo is named after Buffalo, New York. It's older than I am. They started building it in 1980 and launched it in 1982. It was officially commissioned into the Navy on November 5, 1983 and has called Pearl Harbor it's home port since then, but is now in the process of being transferred to Guam. Life is tough on the Buffalo. The crew work in 18-hour rotations. They are on-duty for 6 hours (recording numbers of stuff that they can't tell us), then they're off-duty for 6 hours doing maintenance and other things around the ship, and then they sleep for 6 hours, before the rotation starts all over again. They are all grouped into groups of 3's and they all share the same tiny living space, not much larger than a coffin. When one finishes his shift of being off duty, he wakes up the one sleeping and crawls into bed. The one that just woke up is now on-duty and he goes to relieve the one that has been on-duty for the last 6 hours, who now is off-duty. They all keep rotating like that. And all 140 men rotate through the cafeteria that way because it can only seat around 25-30 men at once. It's all very interesting. It made me realized that the original living arrangements of missionary girls wasn't so bad after all! It was an amazing adventure – one that will be remembered forever!