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L-R: me, incoming CC Ken, outgoing CC James, Doug. I had a chance to go on a bike ride while it wasn't raining at Diego. Reminded me a lot of the old days--the ride was fun but when it started raining it was kind of a miserable place. Being wet all the time isn't fun and, of course, with the air conditioning on all the time and cranking out cold air, it felt damp and cool all the time that it rained. But it was still fun to officiate the change of command at the det that's always been the most equal among equals. After the outgoing commander handed me the Det 2 guidon, Doug whispered to me "You're the REEF Commander." First time for everything, I guess. Though I am nominally the commander of the Colorado Tracking Station, the MSgt who runs it on a daily basis really is. So it was fun being the CC of REEF, even for a 20 seconds or so. That brings my list to 4--PIKE, REEF, POGO, and GUAM, with only HULA and COOK remaining (the Brits run LION for us and BOSS is it's own squadron, though I often refer to it as Det 6!).

We also visited the Changi Chapel and Prison Museum in Singapore. That was an interesting tour, touching on a small tidbit of WWII history. The Japanese occupied the British colony of Singapore following a miserable defeat of the Brits in Feb '42 when a force 1/3 the size of the defense defeated them. But the occupation, as it was in most places under Japanese rule in WWII, was brutal, especially for the ethnically Chinese population. In addition, the Japanese used slave labor to build a railway into Malaysia. This is a chapel that was part of the prison camp where the Japanese interred their enemies during the occupation, which didn't end until after the surrender in 1945. And the feelings about the Japanese occupation linger. Our travel agent, an ethnically Chinese woman, talked about the hotel where we stayed on our way to Diego as being smaller and for the Japanese. The tone in her voice said a lot.