BOXER TRIAD TABLE OF CONTENTS CAPT. COMMANDING GATOR RONALD OFFICER THE CS DOWDELL 3 10 CYCLE ON THE

CAPT. Yulong Wang EXECUTIVE DALE OFFICER HEINKEN 4 12 STREET A Sailor’s Story Cpl. Kasey Goolsby Shelbyville, Indiana USS BOXER LHD 4 CMDCM(SW) COMMAND 1 What are your goals for this deployment? VERONICA MASTER Golden To lose weight. CHIEF HOLLIDAY 6 14 2 What are you looking forward to in ? OPERATIONS Gators I’ve always heard about getting gold there, so I might try MIDDLE EAST to get that. ROMANIA 30 UKR. 40 50 60 Aral KAZAKHSTAN Bucharest Sevastopol' Sea Krasnodar RUSSIA Constant¸a KAZAKHSTAN C A Gora Elbrus Sofia U C A S (highest point in Aqtau¯ U S Varna Europe, 5833 m) (Aktau) Black Sea BULGARIA M Groznyy Nukus O U N Sokhumi T A AmuUZBEKISTAN I N Bosporus S Caspian Dasoguz Thessaloníkí GEORGIA Darya Istanbul D O Batumi Tbilisi G Samsun Sea 3 U Where do you see youself in 5 years?

40 K A Trabzon 40 R A Bursa D E N Sumqayit I Z Bukhara Aegean Ankara D ARMENIA AZERBAIJAN Dardanelles A G L A R I Yerevan Baku Türkmenbas¸y TURKMENISTAN GREECE Erzurum Turkmenabat . Sea Izmir Balkanabat G A R A G U M TURKEY K O P P E H D A G H Athens Denizli Kayseri Van Ashgabat Mary T Konya S Tabriz¯ The Faces A Lake Diyarbakir Married with a happy family and kids. N U I Van R A Antalya U T Lake N Adana Rasht S U Gaziantep Urmia O E M LB Zanja¯n UR Mersin Z Mashhad MTS. Aleppo Euphrates Mosul Qazvin¯ Nicosia Erbil Tehran Crete Middle East Hera¯t Latakia Tigris Z Kirkuk D A S H T - E A Qom ¯ CYPRUS SYRIA K A V I R Homs G

Beirut R

Mediterranean Sea Damascus Kerma¯nsha¯h O Ara¯k K A V I R - E L U T AFG. LEBANON S Y R I A N Baghdad S

M Es¸faha¯n ¯ of ISRAEL Port O Tel Aviv-Yafo Said West Bank D E S E R T I R A Q U What has been your favorite part of deployment?

Alexandria Amman N I R A N 4 8 Jerusalem T Dead Sea Ahva¯z Suez A 30 (lowest point in Asia, -408 m) I 30 Canal Gaza Strip N Kerma¯n An Na¯s¸iriyah¯ QATTARA Cairo Aba¯da¯n S 15 Suez DEPRESSION Al Jizah¯ Al Al Bas¸rah Za¯heda¯n SINAI ‘Aqabah Shiraz¯ PAK. Gulf Kuwait of City Bandar-e Suez MapKUWAIT Bu¯shehr Wog day and the Steel Beach picnic! Tabu¯k H¸ afar Bandar - Asyu¯t¸ Gulf of al Ba¯t¸in¯ ‘Abbas PUBLIC PUBLIC AFFAIRS W E S T E R N Aqaba H¸a¯’il¯ Persian Al Jubayl Gulf Boxer Ad Damma¯m Manama Strait of EGYPT Buraydah Dhahran Hormuz OMAN D E S E R T Luxor H BAHRAIN QATAR Dubai Abu Gulf of E Doha Dhabi Oman J AFFAIRS A Riyadh Aswa¯n Medina Tropic Muscat of Cancer Z

Yanbu‘ SAUDI UNITED ARAB EMIRATES Administrative OFFICER MCCS(SW/AW) ADAM VERNON boundary H¸ ala¯’ib Jeddah ARABIA OMAN 20 N U B I A N Mecca 20 D E S E R T Red A

S

Nile Port Sudan U B' A L K H A L I I Sea R R

PUBLIC Abha¯ S¸ala¯lah SUDAN Jazan¯¯ Al Ghayzah¸ MC1(SW/SCW/AW/IW) Omdurman Khartoum AFFAIRS ERITREA Massawa Kassala ABHAN Adam Doyle Sanaa YEMEN Wad Asmara Whi Medani Al Mukalla¯ Arabian Sea te Al H¸udaydah

Blue Nile Ta‘izz LPO Nile BRIAN CARACCI Aden Lac Assal YEMEN Lake (lowest point Socotra Ta n a Bab el Gulf of Aden in Africa, -155 m) DJIBOUTI Mandeb Pineville, Louisiana Dese¯ Djibouti Boosaaso 10 10 Berbera The United States recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017 without taking a position STATUS OF THEScale 1:21,000,000 NAVYDire¯ Hargeysa on the specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty. Addis Ababa Y E The West Bank is Israeli occupied with current status L Dawa Lambert Conformal Conic Projection, L subject to the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement; A V permanent status to be determined through standard parallels 12°N and 38°N T further negotiation. IF R 0 300 Kilometers ETHIOPIA The status of the Gaza Strip is a final status issue to be EDITOR MC2(SW/AW) JUSTIN RANKIN T Provisional 1 What are your goals for this deployment? A resolved through negotiations. E administrative line 0 30 300 Miles R 40 50 Boundary representation is not necessarily authoritative. 60 G As of June 14th, 2019 19-3696 4-19 To lose weight.

CONTRIBUTORS 2 What are you looking forward to in Bahrain? Amphibious Assault I’m looking forward to some real food, maybe an iPad Mini case. Active Duty: 332,507 Ready Reserve: Ships underway MC2(SW) JOHN MCGOVERN Officers: 54,263 101,865 USS Boxer (LHD 4) Where do you see youself in 5 years? Enlisted: 273,832 3 MC2(SW/AW/IW) DAVID ORTIZ Selected Reserves: 7th Fleet MC2 DALE HOPKINS Midshipmen: 4,412 58,801 USS Wasp (LHD 1) Either as a first class or out of the Navy. MC3 ZACHARY BEHREND Pacific MC3 JESSICA HATTEL 4 What has been your favorite part of deployment? MC3(SW/AW/IW) Navy Money. Tax-free money. ALEXANDER KUBITZA Department Deployable Battle MC3(SW) KEYPHER STROMBECK Individual Ready Civilian Force Ships: Aircraft MC3(SW) JUSTIN WHITLEY Reserve: Employees: 289 (operational): 43,064 274,854 Deployable Battle 3700+ Reserves currently Force Across the Fleet: AT1 Dion Jefferson mobilized: 83 Lithonia, Georgia 3,071 1 What has been your favorite part of deployment? Deployed Ships Aircraft Carriers Underway: Underway Being able to visit Phuket. 54 (19%) USS Eisenhower (CVN 69 FAIR USE NOTICE Ships Underway for Atlantic 2 What are your goals for the next few months? Local Ops / Training: USS Lincoln (CVN 72) To get myself home safely. Not withstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a 29 (10%) 5th Fleet copyrighted work, including such use by a reproduction in copies or phonorecords or USS Truman (CVN 75) 3 What do you miss the most about home? by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, Atlantic USS Reagan (CVN 76) My family, my PS4, and my king-sized bed. news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or Pacific research, is not an infringement of copyright. 4 Where do you see yourself in 5 years? This publication is an authorized publication for military members aboard USS BOXER (LHD 4). Becoming a father, making Chief, and finishing my Master’s. The contents of Bark of the Boxer are not the official views of, or endorsed by the U.S. Government, the Department of Defense or the . 3 USS BOXER (LHD 4) | BARK OF THE BOXER | 2019 months, I can buy a used People come help you. That’s Yulong Wang car. In China? No.” love. You just go, people will It took nearly 3 years, but help you.” Wang finally became a lawful Wang wants to do shore permanent resident in 2015, duty after his tour on Boxer, and with it, a sense of hope. but after, he says he’d like to go “I see hope now, I have a back to school and get a doctor’s future, I can make more, I license, this time for practicing can do more. Now I have a in the states. “I still want to help plan. I come to America, and people. Or I can buy a restaurant, I think, you have the best because I know how to cook. I education, best opportunity, have a lot of choice, I can save if you just give a little bit, money, I can do it myself. In you can be rich. Just make a China, you buy a house, they take Wang and his parents. plan, take advantage of that. it all, they take your future.” told me I could have help because Go to college, go to study, Of course, home will always of my religion. He wrote a case build your money.” be just that, despite the struggles for me, I told him my story. He And that was where his story associated with it. “I miss my Story by MC2 Justin Rankin helped me a lot.” intersects with that small, single home, I miss my parents. I miss percent of Americans who serve. the food. My cousin, my friends, mmigrants in the American Armed Forces have a long and storied history dating back to the “In China if you’re a Wang had endless opportunities my classmates. They watched me revolutionary war. The United States is one of a handful of countries that allows non-citizens to Christian, you can get in trouble I available to him, yet he chose a grow up.” join their armed forces, and is arguably the most accepting of them, perhaps second only to the French for that. They will watch you, The details of Wang’s Foreign Legion. Like anyone who serves, the reasons and stories behind their service are multicolored. and you have to go story could overflow a For some it’s simply a path to naturalization, for others it’s pursuit of a better life, a family tradition, a call every week to the police book - the struggles, the to serve, or simply a yearning for adventure. And for others, it’s the ideals found in that small, powerful station to report. If a pain, and the resolute statement enshrined in the document we’re sworn to defend. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. neighbor would see you, I see hope now, I have a and you have a group future, I can make more, I can hope born of it all. Our story begins in Henan, a of himself, but when his mother Chinese medicine. Needles, on Sunday, they would But talking to him, you province in central China’s Yellow returned home when he was massage, acupuncture.” Wang probably report you, and do more. Now I have a plan. begin to see there is “ something constant in his River valley. The birthplace going to high school, he realized spent a total of seven years the police comes to your of China’s 5000-year-long she needed to be taken care in school to become a doctor, home to arrest you and viewpoint: the focus on civilization and its most populous of as well. Seeing his mother a lucrative and respected question you. Every year others. Perhaps Wang, in province, with a population suffering from rheumatoid profession in many countries. they put out of a lot of money path very few choose to take. his sometimes broken, always of almost 100 million people arthritis, Wang decided he Yet even as a doctor, there was so people don’t make trouble. “I joined the Navy to endearing English, sums it up crammed into an area roughly wanted to help people. He no sense of upward mobility. “In It’s better now, but there are still challenge myself, what I can do.” best. “If you’re alive, always the size of Washington state. It’s wanted to become a doctor. China, even as a doctor, I lost crazy things.” Go somewhere I never been, pain. If you help others, you here, in one of the most densely “I went to community hope, I still study, I work hard, But getting his green card, do something I never done. forget pain.” populated areas on Earth, where college first, and I transferred I help people to fix them, but I which would make Wang a legal Because my English is bad, Yulong Wang was born. to university to learn traditional cannot see the future. I see my permanent resident, and thereby I tried training my English. Wang (pronounced whole life like this, in eligible to serve in the armed I wanted to go somewhere wong) grew up in this office, nothing else, forces, wouldn’t be quick, or easy. really dangerous, do the city of Luoyang, everyday keep working, Although he had a degree in something really dangerous, and by the time he no holiday.” Chinese medicine, his education I just want to learn. To train was a toddler he was There are no green wasn’t necessarily recognized myself, don’t be afraid of mostly taking care of cards given out for or accredited in the states. So pain, have courage. I used himself. “When the hopelessness, but during Wang took work where he could to be really shy, really afraid teacher would meet Wang’s schooling, find it. “I started working as a of talking to people, seeing with parents, everyone he spent some time dishwasher or waiter. Sometimes peoples eyes, I don’t want to would go with them to studying in the states, I think, why am I doing this? be that anymore. The first meet, but not me. My and discovered that there This is really crazy. But you know time I went to the gym, I parents want us to be were avenues of entry what, when I got my first car, my was afraid, I say I cannot do together, but there was for immigrants fleeing mind changed. In China, even if this, people will laugh at me. lot of pressure to make religious persecution. I’m a big doctor, I cannot buy But after, even if they laugh, money.” Growing up “I came here to study, my own car, and my own house, I say don’t worry, just do it. in such a way taught and I went to church on it’s really expensive. In America, And after, no one laughed at Wang how to take care Wang (right) as a doctor in China. Sunday, and the Father I work two months, or three me, people take care of you. Wang with his wife. USS BOXER OPERATIONS LHD 4 The Faces of Boxer: Capturing our shipmates in a different light Photos by: MC3 Alexander C. Kubitza “If you wake up in the morning, and you get brunch, a good breakfast, bacon, whatever it is, that’s going to translate to your whole day. We are a direct reflection of the crew’s morale.” THE CS CYCLE -CSC Lewis

PLANNING COOKING SERVING CLEANING CS’s plan for seven days in CS’s serve four meals a day Serving done primarily One of the most advance 28 meals a week by FSA’s important jobs on the Use the 1059 (very 120 meals every 30 days 32 Food Service ship, as it helps keep important document!) 222 meals served as of July Attendants currently everyone healthy Vital to operation of mess 13, 2019 TAD Mess decks and every decks Done best with a smile galley are thoroughly cleaned after every meal

“In the galley and the mess decks, we are the life of the ship.” -CS2 Ronald Holton FACTS AND FIGURES $2,157,709.50 spent during the month of June on various RASs The ship averages $350,000 each RAS

The ship spends on average, $60,000 each brunch

720 lbs of lobster tail is consumed every brunch The ship consumes 1,740 wings every Saturday

Brunch costs $26.23 per person The ship consumes 79 tubs of ice cream during ice cream socials 12 USS BOXER (LHD 4) | BARK OF THE BOXER | 2019 13 USS BOXER (LHD 4) | BARK OF THE BOXER | 2019 Iran (A short primer courtesy the CIA World Factbook) MIDDLE EAST ROMANIA 30 UKR. 40 50 60 KAZAKHSTAN Golden Gators Bucharest Aral Sevastopol' Sea Krasnodar RUSSIA Constant¸a KAZAKHSTAN Known as Persia until 1935, Iran became anWeek Islamic of JuneIran’s 21st elected government institutions, which C A Gora Elbrus Sofia U C A S (highest point in Aqtau¯ U S Varna Europe, 5833 m) (Aktau) republic in 1979 after the ruling monarchy was culminated with the August 2005 inauguration of Black Sea BULGARIA M Groznyy Nukus O U N overthrown and Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi hardliner Mahmud Ahmadinezhad as president. Sokhumi T A AmuUZBEKISTAN I N Bosporus S Caspian Dasoguz Thessaloníkí GEORGIA Darya was forced into exile. Conservative clerical forces His controversial reelection in June 2009 sparked D Istanbul O Batumi G Samsun Tbilisi Sea U 40 K A Trabzon 40 led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini established nationwide protests over allegations of electoral R A D Bursa E Sumqayit N I Z ARMENIA AZERBAIJAN Bukhara a theocratic system of government with ultimate fraud, but the protests were quickly suppressed. Aegean Ankara D A I Dardanelles G L A R Yerevan Baku Türkmenbas¸y TURKMENISTAN GREECE Erzurum Turkmenabat political authority vested in a learned religious scholar Deteriorating economic conditions due primarily . Sea Izmir Balkanabat G A R A G U M TURKEY K O P P E H D A G H referred to commonly as the Supreme Leader who, to government mismanagement and international Athens Denizli Kayseri Van Ashgabat Mary T Konya S Tabriz¯ according to the constitution, is accountable only to sanctions prompted at least two major economically A Diyarbakir Lake N U I Van R A Antalya U T Lake the Assembly of Experts (AOE) - a popularly elected based protests in July and October 2012, but Iran’s S N Adana Rasht U Gaziantep Urmia O E M LB Zanja¯n UR Mersin Z Mashhad 88-member body of clerics. US-Iranian relations internal security situation remained stable. President MTS. DC2 Janise Hummel LCPL Allison Cannon AC2 Justin Clark Aleppo Euphrates Mosul Qazvin¯ became strained when a group of Iranian students Ahmadinezhad’s independent streak angered regime Nicosia Erbil Tehran Crete Latakia Hera¯t Tigris Z Kirkuk D A S H T - E seized the US Embassy in Tehran in November 1979 establishment figures, including the Supreme Leader, A Qom ¯ CYPRUS SYRIA K A V I R Homs G

and held embassy personnel hostages until mid- leading to conservative opposition to his agenda for Beirut R

Week of June 28th Mediterranean Sea Damascus Kerma¯nsha¯h O Ara¯k K A V I R - E L U T AFG. LEBANON S Y R I A N Baghdad S January 1981. The US cut off diplomatic relations the last year of his presidency, and an alienation of

M Es¸faha¯n ¯ ISRAEL with Iran in April 1980. During the period 1980-88, his political supporters. In June 2013 Iranians elected Port O Tel Aviv-Yafo Said West Bank D E S E R T I R A Q U I R A N Alexandria N Iran fought a bloody, indecisive war with that a centrist cleric Dr. Hasan Fereidun Rohani to the Jerusalem Amman T Ahva¯z Dead Sea A Suez eventually expanded into the and led presidency. He is a longtime senior member in the 30 Gaza Strip (lowest point in Asia, -408 m) I 30 Canal An Na¯s¸iriyah¯ N Kerma¯n Cairo JORDAN S QATTARA Suez Aba¯da¯n to clashes between US Navy and Iranian military regime, but has made promises of reforming society DEPRESSION Al Jizah¯ Al Al Bas¸rah Za¯heda¯n SINAI ‘Aqabah Shiraz¯ PAK. forces. Iran has been designated a state sponsor of and Iran’s foreign policy. The UN Security Council Gulf Kuwait of City Bandar-e terrorism for its activities in Lebanon and elsewhere has passed a number of resolutions calling for Iran Suez Tabu¯k KUWAIT Bu¯shehr H¸ afar Bandar - in the world and remains subject to US, UN, and to suspend its uranium enrichment and reprocessing Asyu¯t¸ Gulf of al Ba¯t¸in¯ ‘Abbas W E S T E R N Aqaba H¸a¯’il¯ Persian EU economic sanctions and export controls because activities and comply with its IAEA obligations and Al Jubayl Gulf EGYPT Buraydah Ad Damma¯m Manama Strait of of its continued involvement in terrorism and responsibilities, and in July 2015 Iran and the five Dhahran Hormuz OMAN D E S E R T Luxor BAHRAIN MA3 Jeremy Flory SGT Teresa Vergara IT2 Cody Light H QATAR Dubai concerns over possible military dimensions of its permanent members, plus Germany (P5+1) signed Abu Gulf of E Doha Dhabi Oman J

nuclear program. Following the election of reformer the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) A Riyadh Aswa¯n Medina Tropic Muscat of Cancer Z

Hojjat ol-Eslam Mohammad Khatami as president under which Iran agreed to restrictions on its nuclear Yanbu‘ SAUDI UNITED ARAB in 1997 and a reformist Majles (legislature) inWeek 2000, of July 5th EMIRATES program in exchange for sanctions relief. Iran held Administrative a campaign to foster political reform in response to elections in 2016 for the AOE and Majles, resulting boundary H¸ ala¯’ib Jeddah ARABIA popular dissatisfaction was initiated. The movement in a conservative-controlled AOE and a Majles OMAN 20 N U B I A N Mecca 20 floundered as conservative politicians, supported that many Iranians perceive as more supportive D E S E R T Red A by the Supreme Leader, unelected institutions of of the Rohani administration than the previous, S

Nile Port Sudan I authority like the Council of Guardians, and the conservative-dominated body. Rohani was reelected Sea R U B' A L K H A L I

R

security services reversed and blocked reform president in May 2017. Economic concerns once Abha¯ measures while increasing security repression. again led to nationwide protests in December 2017 S¸ala¯lah and January 2018 but they were contained by Iran’s SUDAN Jazan¯¯ Al Ghayzah¸ Starting with nationwide municipal elections in security services. In May 2018, the US withdrew from Omdurman Khartoum Kassala ERITREA Massawa Sanaa YEMEN 2003 andQM2 continuing Alexander through Peppel Majles electionsHN Owenray in Garganerathe JCPOA and reinstitutedHM3 Quincy economic Godina sanctions on Wad Asmara Whi Medani Al Mukalla¯ Arabian Sea 2004, conservatives reestablished control over Iran in November. te Al H¸udaydah Blue Nile Ta‘izz Nile Week of July 12th Aden Islamic Republic of Iran Lac Assal YEMEN Country name: Lake (lowest point Socotra Ta n a Bab el Gulf of Aden Etymology: name derives from the Avestan term “aryanam” meaning “Land of the noble [ones]” in Africa, -155 m) DJIBOUTI Mandeb Dese¯ Djibouti Boosaaso Government type: theocratic republic Population: 83,024,745 (July 2018 est.) 10 10 Area: 1,648,195 sq km, almost 2.5 times the size of Texas; slightly smaller than Alaska Berbera The United States recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017 without taking a position Climate: mostly arid or semiarid, subtropical along Caspian coast Scale 1:21,000,000 on the specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty. Addis Ababa Dire¯ Hargeysa Y E SOMALIA The West Bank is Israeli occupied with current status L Dawa rugged, mountainous rim; high, central basin with deserts, mountains; Lambert Conformal Conic Projection, L subject to the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement; Terrain: A V permanent status to be determined through standard parallels 12°N and 38°N T small, discontinuous plains along both coasts F further negotiation. I R 0 300 Kilometers ETHIOPIA The status of the Gaza Strip is a final status issue to be T Provisional Elevation: mean elevation, 1,305 m - highest point, Kuh-e Damavand 5,625 m A resolved through negotiations. E administrative line 0 30 300 Miles R 40 50 Boundary representation is not necessarily authoritative. 60 Major urban areas: TEHRAN (capital) - 8.896 million, Mashhad - 3.097 million G Esfahan - 2.041 million, Shiraz - 1.605 million, Karaj - 1.585 million, Tabriz -1.582 million 19-3696 4-19 ISSN Zachary Smith CPL Drake Gann GSE3 Christopher Wright