HV's Mitch Bottema returns Friday from U.S. Navy career

FINAL SALUTE:
After 20 years in the U.S. Navy, some of it spent in Hawaii, Mitch Bottema, 41, is done with uniforms.

After 20 years of active service in the U.S. Navy, North Valley High School alumnus Mitchell Bottema, 41, will return to the family ranch in Happy Valley this Friday evening with his June 7, 2008, bride, Tricia Hadiati Bottema, a native of Jakarta, Indonesia, who prefers the nickname "Thia."

"I know she will learn to love Shasta County as much as I," Mitch Bottema writes in an e-mail sent this week to the Valley Post. "Besides, we are retired and can travel when she misses her family."

Their plane is scheduled to touch down at 9 p.m. on Jan. 23 at the Redding Municipal Airport.

Friends, relatives, veterans and well-wishers alike are invited to welcome one of their own who has served his country in both war and peace, see two tours of duty aboard ship in the Persian Gulf, said Ray Bottema of Anderson, Mitch's proud father and a retired teacher who spent more than 50 years honing the dance skills of area students.

The younger Bottemas are arriving home just in time to see Ray Bottema remarried on Feb. 14, Valentine's Day, at a ceremony in the Scouts Hall at Anderson River Park that is sure to feature some ballroom dancing.

As happy as he is, however, the elder Bottema wants to keep the focus this week on Mitch and Thia's arrival.

Originally born in Ohio, Mitch, then nearly 8, and the rest of the Bottema family moved to Happy Valley in 1975. He spent 13 years in Happy Valley prior to earning his G.E.D. from North Valley High School in 1988. He joined the U.S. Navy on Feb. 22, 1989.

After completing Navy Boot Camp and basic training in Great Lakes, Ill., Mitch attended basic electronics school in Orlando, Fla., for six months, then returned to Great Lakes, Ill., for seven more months of advanced electronics school before completing two years of training in San Diego.

He headed off to Japan on the guided missile frigate USS Thach (FFG-43) in January 1991. For three years aboard the Thach, Mitch Bottema single-handedly maintained the ship's IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) system and computer mainframe SNAP II.

"It was very tough at times learning the complicated equipment, but it was also challenging and I love challenges," Bottema writes of the experience. "Besides, a lot of the times the ship was at sea and I had nothing better to do."

The USS Thach was on patrol throughout the Pacific, porting in Australia three times, Guam, Hawaii twice, Singapore three times, Hong Kong four times, various ports in Thailand three times and several ports in Iraq and the Persian Gulf twice.

After ever voyage, home port was considered Yokosuka, Japan.

Three years of travel and Mitch Bottema was ready for a little bit of stateside shore duty, which he took at China Lake Naval Air Station, in the middle of Southern California's desert, for the next 3 1/2 years.

"While there, I maintained a sophisticated airplane tracking system" about which the less said, the better, his e-mail continued.

At his 10-year mark in his service to country, Mitch Bottema heeded his father's sage advice to stay in and make it a career. He signed up for another tour at sea, this time aboard the destroyer USS John Young (DD-973), joining the crew in December 1997 and staying aboard until May 2000.

"On that ship, which home ported out of San Diego, I maintained the newly-upgraded SNAP III (computer mainframe) system and the ship's two computer networks of more than 180 computers," Mitch Bottema explained.

"Since I was the senior sailor in my division, and my jobs were getting bigger and more complicated, I became the Leading Petty Officer of the Electronic Division.

From May 2000 until April 2004, Mitch Bottema found himself in Hawaii as an instructor afloat, training sailors for combat. After the 9/11 bombings, however, his job duties changed dramatically.

"I loved every minute," Bottema writes of his 20-year military career.

However, he is looking forward to settling down with Thia and building the couple's dream home in Happy Valley.

He also intends to take full advantage of the New Post GI Bill before deciding what to do next.