Thanks for the thanks! He just returned from "WestPac" as he calls it and was between Pearl Harbor and San Diego when the attack hit. He will be shipping out again soon, I am sure but the next time it will probably be on a Carrier.
I turned down the option of coming back with him from Hawaii to California with the hope that he'd be making tha trip again on a Carrier and the option would be extended again.
He was on the sister ship to the Cole, the Benfold. When he went on his first trip, he told me that and told me his bunk was right where the hole in the Cole was ... Really knows how to get to the old Dad! ;-)
His twin brother is in the Army, freshly trained in Arabic ... they may both be "invested" over there soon.