Photo By Petty Officer 2nd Class Sawyer Haskins | ARABIAN SEA (April 7, 2020) Master-at-Arms 2nd Class Jorge Cruz-Morales poses for a...... read more read more
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A lot can be learned from a Sailor’s first deployment. There are ups and downs, laughing, possibly some crying and mental walls, or bulkheads, that one must break through. But for one Sailor, this is not his first deployment.
Before enlisting in the Navy, Master-at-Arms 2nd Class Jorge Cruz-Morales enlisted in the Army at the age of 20 and achieved the rank of sergeant as a signal support systems specialist (25U). As he experiences his first deployment as a Sailor aboard the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69), Cruz looks back on his nine-month Army deployment to Romania in contrast.
Cruz helped train the Romanian Army Monday through Friday, teaching classes and helping the soldiers to grasp the concepts of the U.S. Army. Besides the work itself, Cruz said there are some differences to being deployed at sea versus on land, such as daily stressors and scheduling.
“In the Navy, there is a lot of ‘what if’ stress,” said Cruz. “Everything is subject to change: where we are going next, what port we are hitting, if we get to hit any at all, what condition the ship is in. Things like the coronavirus can throw our entire schedule off. In Romania we knew exactly how long we would be there and when we would leave.”
With limited space on Ike to unwind or have a moment alone, Cruz said it’s harder to decompress on an aircraft carrier than it was deploying in the Army.
“We had the weekends off in Romania because we were on land and in a city,” said Cruz. “There were things to do. Out here we are working 24/7. Gun quarters could be called at any moment, and we could go from zero to 100 in a matter of minutes. If you don’t find a way to make time for yourself the stress will get to you.”
After about six months in Romania, Cruz said he hit his “deployment wall.”
“After a while we start asking why are we here?” said Cruz. “We’ve been doing the same training over and over again, thousands of repetitions, they know what they are doing now send us home. But we are just told ‘nope we have three more months left’ and we just have to keep pushing forward.”
This is something that we also experience in the Navy, but Cruz has a saying that helped him get through the tough times in the Army: “it’s not that bad.” He said that he uses it because things could always be worse.
“We would be outside and I would say ‘it’s not that bad guys, at least it’s not raining,’ and I brought that over to the Navy,” said Cruz. “Because here every time we think we’re good, something else pops up, and I just say ‘it’s not that bad guys we can handle it.’ It’s about taking everything as you go and knowing that things could always be worse.”
With an Army deployment under his belt, Cruz said he has learned some lessons that he can pass on to Sailors who are deploying for the first time.
“Take it as you go,” said Cruz. “Don’t let it defeat you. If you let everything get to you, all the changes, not hitting ports, you’re going to have a bad experience. You can definitely still make memories here without going out to town.”
| Date Taken: | 04.03.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 05.11.2020 02:56 |
| Story ID: | 369673 |
| Location: | ARABIAN SEA |
| Web Views: | 57 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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