Holidays on an aircraft carrier are some lonely holidays and for a chronic holiday depressive they can be the worst of all.  We had went on a short deployment to the North Atlantic in November, which meant in this case we would spend Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Eve. at sea thousands of miles from home without any way to even call home.  Top that with some of the nastiest weather I'd ever seen and it looked to be bleak indeed.   

An aircraft carrier at its best resembles a federal prison in comfort and accomodations although I've been told that the food is marginally better on the ship.  Food is the major source of solace too.  We can read, watch bad movies or eat.  To say that Navy cooks are sometimes less than stellar is an understatement.  Even what sound like luxury meals become unappetizing imagine reading the menu and expectining surf and turf and getting for your hour long wait in line a cold, literally still frozen in the middle ribeye that was cut from old shoes and a tiny lobster tail that had spent so much time in hot water that it had no flavor and had the texture of an innertube.

The bad weather also meant that we got no mail at all.  No cards or letters or packages.  Isolation is no way to have a holiday.  On the bright side, the Navy doesn't recognize holidays at sea for the most part, some special meal or dessert and the rest is just business as usual.  That is unless the weather takes even the distraction of work away from you too.

That was the situation, to rough, and to cold to fly for training.  So we stood down.  There was nothing at all to do except wait for chow.  I laid in my rack oblivious to the whole world, just like it was towards me.