AutoMatters & More What’s Going On This Weekend Like Music? Join Jan Wagner this week for the Surfer girls, surf dogs, parades, hikes, flea Check out our concert page for upcoming Lexus 2018 Driving Tour. markets, soccer and more! concerts in San Diego, Orange County See page 14 See page 18 and Los Angeles. See page 19 Navy Marine Corps Coast Guard Army Air Force Eat it before it melts! In 1984, President Ronald Reagan proclaimed July as National Ice Cream Month, calling it “a nutritious and wholesome food” ARMED FORCES and called on Americans “to observe these events with appropriate ceremonies and activities,” Time magazine reported. San Diego Navy/Marine Corps Dispatch www.armedforcesdispatch.com 619.280.2985 FIFTY EIGHTH YEAR NO. 8 Serving active duty and retired military personnel, veterans and civil service employees THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2018 August Monthly Loved ones welcome home Mercy’s crew Observances by Sarah Burford American Adventures AN DIEGO - The Military Sealift Command hospital ship American Artists SUSNS Mercy returned here July 21, following its support of Appreciation Pacific Partnership 2018. American Indian Heritage The ship’s crew is composed of MSC civil service mariners who Arrr-gust: Int’l Pirate operated the ship, and Navy medical and support personnel who Black Business staffed and oversaw the ship’s hospital and treated patients. This Boomers Making A year’s iteration of the annual humanitarian mission included stops Difference throughout Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka Bystander Awareness and Vietnam. Children’s Eye Health & Pacific Partnership is the largest multinational humanitarian Safety assistance and disaster relief preparedness mission in the Indo- Child Support Awareness Asia-Pacific region. The Navy and civilian sailors were joined by Children’s Vision & Learning personnel from nongovernmental organizations and regional partners Get Ready for Kindergarten at the various mission stops. Happiness Happens Mercy provided medical, dental, veterinary, public health services, Motor Sports Awareness engineering and disaster response to host countries who invited the Nat’l Breastfeeding ship to visit and provided services to the local populations. Nat’l Catfish Mercy was joined on the Pacific Partnership mission by the MSC Nat’l Crayon Collection expeditionary fast transport ship USNS Fall River. Fall River made Nat’l Goat Cheese separate mission stops in Yap, Palau, Malaysian Borneo and Thai- Nat’l Immunization land, supporting public diplomacy, community outreach, and theater Awareness security cooperation initiatives. Nat’l Panini “This has been one of those deployments I will never forget,” Nat’l Minority Donor said Julie Flaherty, Mercy’s civil service navigator. “Pacific Part- Awareness nership touches so many lives, not just the people who receive our Nat’l Read A Romance Novel services. Nat’l Spinal Muscular “It has been an amazing five months,” she said, and while I am Atrophy Awareness sorry to see all our good work come to an end, I am really happy to Nat’l Traffic Awareness be back in San Diego and home. I’m ready to be still and stay put Nat’l Truancy Prevention for a while.” Nat’l Water Quality Mercy wrapped up its Pacific Partnership mission with a stop Nat’l Win With Civility in Tokyo in June. Before returning to San Diego, the ship stopped Neurosurgery Outreach in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where it participated in a humanitarian Psoriasis Awareness Rye response and disaster recovery exercise as part of the multinational Shop Online For Groceries Master-at-Arms 2nd Class Jommellee Garcia as- maritime exercise Rim of the Pacific 2018. Tomboy Tools signed to Naval Medical Center San Diego em- “This year’s mission was a success all around,” said Capt. Brian What Will Be Your Legacy braces his two-month old baby for the first time Mershon, Mercy’s civil service master. “I couldn’t be happier with my World Mutt-i-grees Rescue during the homecoming ceremony for hospital crew and all their hard work. They are a true group of professionals Some weekly ship USNS Mercy. Photo by MC2 Indra Beaufort and it was a pleasure to sail with them on this historic mission.” observances Nat’l Scrabble (9-13) Navy corpsman shot dead in her Nat’l Motorcycle (12-18) Feeding Pets of the apartment, neighbor arrested Homeless (12-18) NAVY TIMES - A Navy corpsman stationed at Camp Pendleton Nat’l Resurrect Romance was found shot to death inside her apartment July 20. (12-18) Hospitalman 3rd Class Devon Rideout, 24, was discovered at about Weird Contest (12-18) 4 p.m. inside her Oceanside residence with multiple gunshot wounds, Little League World Series NBC San Diego reported. Attempts were made by paramedics to (16-26) revive her but she was pronounced dead at the scene. Minority Enterprise Oceanside Police arrested 25-year-old Eduardo Arriola early Development (18-24) Saturday morning on suspicion of Rideout’s murder. Nat’l Chef’s Appreciation The suspect is a resident in the same apartment complex, the report (19-25) said, but there is no known connection between the two. Arriola lived Nat’l Safe at Home (20-24) in the apartmentArmed Forces directly Dispatch Newspaper upstairs from Rideout. Int’l Clown (1-7) No motive was immediately known, the report said, and the Int’l Mathematicians (1-9) investigation is ongoing. Nat’l Donor Awareness (1-7) Simplify Your Life (1-7) World Breastfeeding (1-7) Gallop Int’l Tribal Indian Family members eagerly await Mercy’s return Powwow (3-12) home, to San Diego following its five month de- Lollapalooza (2-5) ployment to Southeast Asia. Photo by MC2 Indra DISPATCHARMED FORCES Satchmo Days (3-5) Beaufort Armed Forces Dispatch Newspaper A THOROUGHLY MODERN WAY TO KEEP UP WITH YOUR COMMUNITY A THOROUGHLY MODERN WAY TO KEEP UP WITH YOUR COMMUNITY THROUGH THE ARMED FORCES DISPATCH. THROUGH THE ARMED FORCES DISPATCH. DISPATCHARMED FORCES Armed Forces Dispatch Newspaper Armed Forces Dispatch Newspaper FOLLOW US FOLLOW US ONLINE ONLINE www.afdispatch.com www.afdispatch.com Like us on Like us on Facebook Facebook A THOROUGHLY MODERN WAY TO KEEP UP WITH YOUR COMMUNITY A THOROUGHLY MODERN WAY TO KEEP UP WITH YOUR COMMUNITY THROUGH THE ARMED FORCES DISPATCH. THROUGH THE ARMED FORCES DISPATCH. Armed Forces Armed Forces Dispatch Newspaper Dispatch Newspaper GET THE LATEST NEWS, PHOTOS AND ADVERTISING SPECIALS. GET THE LATEST NEWS, PHOTOS AND ADVERTISING SPECIALS. DISPATCHARMED FORCES Armed Forces Dispatch Newspaper Armed Forces Dispatch Newspaper A road to success Ensign Eduardo Ople’s wife and daughter place his new rank on his uniform dur- ing his commissioning ceremony aboard Boxer. Ople was selected for commis- sioning as a limited-duty officer after serving as an enlisted Sailor for 13 years. avy photo by MC3 Preston Jarrett by MC2 When he made it to the United ing experience for me.” Michael T. Eckelbecker States, things weren’t always SAN DIEGO - What does easy. Ople took work where he While his evenings were eaten success mean to you? Is it fame, could find it, but quickly dis- at the restaurant, he spent his money, power? For some, suc- covered working long hours in mornings delivering newspapers cess is a tangible thing; for oth- a restaurant late at night wasn’t in Coronado. ers, it’s a feeling of fulfilment exactly the American dream he through helping people. Where wanted to settle for. “There were times I ques- some find success at the end of tioned what I was doing to a grueling path, others find it in “Lourdes Restaurant always myself, but I had to do it in the journey. had a very lively ambiance, es- order to survive. So after my pecially during the night,” said shift at the restaurant, I headed From the day he left his family Ople. “It was always filled with straight to newspaper service and home in the Philippines in customers and their laughter; center to place each newspaper order to pursue a better life for however, working in the kitchen in the plastic and go right away them, to the day he was selected is another story. My night shifts to Coronado in order to beat traf- to become a commissioned of- were always chaotic.” fic and deliver the newspapers ficer in the Navy, and onward before 6 a.m.” through his life, Chief Aviation Working in the kitchen wasn’t Boatswain’s Mate (Fuels) Edu- a new experience for Ople, who The odd schedule occasion- ardo Ople has walked that path owned his own restaurant in the ally took a toll, and Ople had to with his head held high. Philippines. find ways to adapt and overcome the long hours of mentally and “We had a family business “The restaurant was great, physically draining work. back in the Philippines, but but it did not quite have a 5-star then problems arose when kitchen. It was very small, had a “On some occasions, I would the President of the Philip- peculiar smell and it was scorch- need to take a nap at one of the pines was ousted from his ing hot. We were like sardines parking lots at the ferry landing Presidency,” said Ople. “Ad- in the back and the smell of oil because I knew there was no ditionally, during that time the seeped through our clothes.” way I would be able to drive government and the economy back home. What I did was very back home were indefinite. I Ople didn’t just work in the exhausting, without a doubt, but was doubtful of what was to kitchen. He did everything that I would always remember the come; therefore, as a husband needed to be done, from waiting reason why I did the things I did, and a father, I wanted to protect tables to cleaning bathrooms.