Now hear this, now hear this

I'm finally writing

Hey shipmates - I’m Blake. My flash to bang on starting this Substack was…suboptimal, so I appreciate those of you that subscribed pre-content. But I’m here now.

I thought it would be good to kick things off with a short intro - who I am and and I why I am this way. (Just kidding on the latter, we don’t have time to get that deep.)

I’m a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve, based in Singapore. There aren’t many units to work for out here in the Pacific, an inexplicable truth that is absolutely going to come up in a future newsletter, so my unit is 4,576 km away in Busan, South Korea. If you’re wondering if that’s where I have to go for weekend drills, the answer is yes. It’s great.

But I wasn’t always a reservist. I joined the navy in 2008, and commissioned as an ensign in 2010 (Class 13-10A, very motivated). I was an intelligence officer (or 1830), because obviously I was going to be Jason Bourne. My first tour was basically my last choice in terms of work and location. Having asked to go to Afghanistan, Hawaii, Washington state, Washington D.C., or Iraq, I spent four years with the mighty Pelicans of Patrol Squadron 45 in Jacksonville, Florida…and had the absolute time of my life. Over the course of my time there as the Aviation Intelligence Officer, we deployed to Europe/North Africa and the Pacific and I got a crash course both in the terrible responsibility of American power (Libya) and the rising power of the People’s Republic of China (anti-submarine patrols across Asia). I loved every minute of it.

I came to Singapore in the last days of 2013, just missing the first arrests in the Fat Leonard scandal and had a front row seat for the second round. For a few years I represented a very small navy outreach capability that worked with civilian shipping and the maritime industry. When the time came to take new orders and move on I met a very nice young lady who I decided I would marry (on our first date) and left active service shortly thereafter.

So I joined the reserve, because why not? My friend and cubicle neighbor in my first real civilian job had come ashore in Singapore on a similar trajectory, and had also moved to the reserve. His advice to me on joining was twofold. First - don’t. Second - if you don’t listen to #1, then you need to learn the system inside and out, make it work for you. Because the support network of people you had on the active side whose entire job it was to help you no longer exists, and a non-zero percentage of those whose job it is to help you now, won’t. I’ve had pleasant surprises when this didn’t turn out to be the case…but I think all reservists will know that a lot of the time, it is.

I almost got separated from the reserve in my first year because I had no idea what was going on. Being overseas, I was just left to figure it out on my own and I’m comfortable admitting that I didn’t. But eventually I caught on, to a degree, and I’ve been part of a unit supporting Commander, Naval Forces Korea since then. I readily admit that I’m still not a great admin sailor.

Just under years two years later I got the word that I’d soon be at the top of the mobilization (involuntary deployment) list. At the moment I answered the phone I was in the lobby of the hospital where my son had been born that morning. Because of course I was. So I spent the better part of the next year on the USS Lewis B. Puller (ESB 3) in the Arabian Gulf and, again, had a wonderful time. The thing I love most about the navy is working with sailors, and Chesty’s blue and gold crews, especially the small detachment that went forward with me, were the best the navy has to offer.

When I demobilized, I laterally transferred into the Foreign Area Officer community (1715), where I get to do a bit more of the stuff I really enjoy. I’m still in the same unit for reasons that we’ll definitely get into in another edition and still in Singapore. I’m an Indo-Pacific Command FAO, so I focus on the Pacific and Indian Ocean. I also write a fair bit for places like Foreign Policy, the Center for International Maritime Security (CIMSEC), and Proceedings. I’m no Alfred Thayer Mahan but I’m doing my best.

So what are you going to hear about if you stick around? I promise that, unlike my Twitter account, it won’t just be moaning about the things that are wrong with the Reserve. We can definitely get into that though…and there’s plenty of grist for the mill, but my plan is to address the issues the U.S. Navy and its Reserve face both internally and internationally. I’ll get into the reasons I joined and the reasons I love it, as well as the things that I would happily burn to the ground. (That is not a Bonhomme Richard joke). I’m happy to respond to your questions too, especially if you’re thinking about joining the Navy in either the active or reserve component.

So that’s it for the inaugural edition of Sailor Take Warning. Hopefully I’ve given you a bit of an idea of what to expect. We’ll laugh, we’ll cry, we’ll do it all. Stick around! And if you feel like sharing this with a friend, I’d be obliged.

BT

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