CDR Salamander

Labels: Cartoon, Obama

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:23

Labels: Music

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:17

This battle is known more by the name than the place, as it was fought over 400 miles from Ushant, near Brest. [Some sources give the distance as 700 miles, which may be where the pursuit began.] There have been four battles by this name, with the last in 1944.

A British fleet under Admiral Lord Howe was escorting merchantmen to North America at about the same time as a French fleet under Rear Admiral Louis Villaret de Joyeuse was escorting 130 merchantmen loaded with grain from America to France. Admiral Howe had dropped off his charges when on May 28, 1794 the two fleets sighted each other. Because of fog, only light fighting took place between the British (24 ships) and the French (26 ships). During this time, the French managed to successfully feint and draw the British away from the merchantmen, which made it home intact.

Nonetheless, the battle cost the French 6 captured and one sunk, against no loss for the English. Eleven English and 12 French ships were dismasted. Ushant III is also famous for a savage duel between HMS Brunswick and the French Venger, which lasted four hours – a very long time for these actions. These were typically fought at point-blank range; each broadside that connected caused terrible havoc, particularly on the open decks. Captain Harvey Brunswick commanded HMS Brunswick. Wounded three times in a battle that saw 44 of his crew killed and 14 wounded, he did not survive the battle.

Overall casualties were 1500 French killed, 2000 wounded and 3000 POWs; 287 English killed and 811 wounded.

The British were too exhausted to pursue. The French claim Ushant III as their victory because the grain fleet made harbor safely.

.... this battle took place at the height of the Revolutionary Terror in France, with over 380 people a month executed. The French Government had a policy of executing failed commanders. Admiral Villaret-Joyeuse escaped the guillotine undoubtedly because the grain fleet came in safe. Wargamer.com feels that many French captains continued fighting after their situation became hopeless because of the “zero-tolerance-for-failure” policy.

The third battle of Ushant, where British Admiral Lord Howe fell upon the French fleet of Admiral Villaret-Joyeuse after several days of fierce fighting and won a tactical victory, though he did not intercept a food convoy from the new world.

Aboard the HMS Tremendous, one pregnant passenger gave birth to a boy. People thought this happy event was tremendous, so the kid got the nickname "Tremendous" and a Naval General Service medal in recognition of his presence at the action (with a rating of "baby").

Labels: Fullbore, Tall Ships

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:07

These events have heralded a new era of partnership between the White House and private companies, one that calls to mind the wonderful partnership Germany formed with France and the Low Countries at the start of World War II. The press conferences and events marking this new spirit of cooperation have been the emotional highlights of the administration so far.

Labels: Obama

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:27

Born and raised in Mozambique and now a naturalized U.S. citizen, Serodio, 45, has filed a lawsuit against a New Jersey medical school, claiming he was harassed and ultimately suspended for identifying himself during a class cultural exercise as a "white African-American."

"I wouldn't wish this to my worst enemy," he said. "I'm not exaggerating. This has destroyed my life, my career."

The lawsuit, which asks for Serodio's reinstatement at the school and monetary damages, named the Newark-based University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and several doctors and university employees as defendants.

Filed Monday in U.S. District Court in New Jersey, the lawsuit traces a series of events that Serodio maintains led to his 2007 suspension, starting with a March 2006 cultural exercise in a clinical skills course taught by Dr. Kathy Ann Duncan, where each student was asked to define themselves for a discussion on culture and medicine.

After Serodio labeled himself as a white African-American, another student said she was offended by his comments and that, because of his white skin, was not an African-American.

According to the lawsuit, Serodio was summoned to Duncan's office where he was instructed "never to define himself as an African-American & because it was offensive to others and to people of color for him to do so."

"It's crazy," Serodio's attorney Gregg Zeff told ABCNews.com. "Because that's what he is."

Serodio, who lives in Newark, said he never meant to offend anyone and calling himself African-American doesn't detract from another person's heritage.

Neither the American Civil Liberties Union nor the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People responded to messages seeking comment on the meaning of African-American.

The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines African-American as "an American of African and especially of black African descent."

"There are people of all races who are African," Serodio said, adding that he's never had a problem identifying himself as an African-American until that day in Duncan's class.

Zeff pointed out that Serodio only labeled himself after his instructors asked him to do so and was then penalized for it.

Labels: Diversity

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 17:57

Labels: Sestak

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 14:56

Labels: Britain, Music

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 14:09

Maryland couldn't balance its budget last year, so the state tried to close the shortfall by fleecing the wealthy. Politicians in Annapolis created a millionaire tax bracket, raising the top marginal income-tax rate to 6.25%. And because cities such as Baltimore and Bethesda also impose income taxes, the state-local tax rate can go as high as 9.45%. Governor Martin O'Malley, a dedicated class warrior, declared that these richest 0.3% of filers were "willing and able to pay their fair share." The Baltimore Sun predicted the rich would "grin and bear it."

One year later, nobody's grinning. One-third of the millionaires have disappeared from Maryland tax rolls. In 2008 roughly 3,000 million-dollar income tax returns were filed by the end of April. This year there were 2,000, which the state comptroller's office concedes is a "substantial decline." On those missing returns, the government collects 6.25% of nothing. Instead of the state coffers gaining the extra $106 million the politicians predicted, millionaires paid <>$100 million less in taxes than they did last year -- even at higher rates.

Labels: Economics

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:34

Mike Wallace: But how are we going to get rid of racism?

Morgan Freeman: Stop talking about it.

Labels: Diversity

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 05:58

My students at the U.S. Naval Academy, for example, mostly male and conservative, scream bloody murder if, as I sometimes do, I ask them to read Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary as part of our introductory course. (Tenured full professors teach freshmen here at Navy.) They come to class the first day — they've read up through Emma's disenchantment with her boring husband, Charles — incensed.

"Sir," they say flatly, "she's a slut." (The women tend to be harder on Emma than the men are.) Subsequent class periods get even uglier. Many of the men admit that they're fearful of marrying and then having their stay-at-home wives cheat on them. For that reason, they say, "you've got to get her pregnant before you deploy." Emma is their worst nightmare. Emma should have been faithful to Charles! He loved her! He was a good provider! What more does she want?

Initially the students have trouble seeing any resemblance between themselves and Emma: In their view, they're free individuals and have chosen to come here to college. The dogma of their upbringing in most cases holds that individuals can make something of themselves if they are motivated enough. They can't imagine being stuck in Emma's position.

You're being too literal, I say. Most of you aren't female, and in any case, you aren't constrained by lack of education, social class, or the expectations of a provincial world. Then I remind them of the constraints that do bind them, as occupants of the lowest rung of a rigidly hierarchical system where the sometimes arbitrary fiats of officers or even upperclassmen rule their lives. If anybody can understand poor, confined Emma, it should be them. Hmm, they say.

Besides, I ask — I'm moving in on them now — Emma has dreams. Don't you remember the dreams that brought you to Annapolis?

Now they are silent. They do remember those dreams: inflated, Hollywood-fueled dreams of heroism on the battlefield, of overcoming Evil Enemies of America, and of swinging swords in their strong right arms, dreams of duty, honor, country. Where are those dreams now? I ask. They're, after all, the military-male version of Emma's dreams of perfect fulfillment in marriage. Perhaps they were never viable? Is it better to let them die completely than to try and keep them alive, as Emma does?

Annapolis, they tell me, is the place dreams come to die in the daily grind of shining shoes and passing inspections. And the verdict of society is as strong here as on poor Emma: There's only one way to do things here at Annapolis — those who think differently have to give in.

The way to stay sane, I suggest, is to have achievable dreams, not unrealistic ones. By the time we move on to other works, they still think Emma is "a slut" (which, arguably, she is) but at least — they admit grudgingly — they understand her a bit better.

Labels: Books, USNA

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 05:47

• At some time in the future, the USA is under occupation by the People's Republic of China. Why, I don't remember - but they weren't invited.....
• The main character is a young man of standard American stock.
• Another of the main characters is a Chinese female who is either an PLA officer or mid-to-high level civilian bureaucrat who is part of the occupation force.
• I think it takes place in Louisiana - I am not sure though.
  
• The Chinese female, in line with their continued restrictions on birth, has a birth control device inserted under her skin - on her backside I think. This is standard in the novel - but I remember it because it seemed ahead of its time but plausible, and I was of the age that anything that hinted at s3x stuck in my mind.
• I think the two are lovers, and somehow the birth control device didn't work or was taken out by the female - I think - again, no shock that stuck in my mind at such a young age.
• The GM tie in is that the American cars they drove in the book were generally seen as cr@ppy, poorly made excuses for transportation - and forced that way by the occupation and the requirement to use substandard products as all the good stuff was going back to China. The one our hero drives had plastic windows that didn't properly roll down, if at all, and I believe were scratched up or becoming opaque.

A 72hr pass over any three day weekend for the first person that can identify the book ... please!

---

UPDATE: Thanks to Paul and Byron, I think we have a winner, Frederik Pohl's Black Star Rising

Labels: Books

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 14:04

Labels: Humor

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:31

The Kirk's annual meeting voted by 326 to 267 to support the Rev Scott Rennie, whose controversial appointment has threatened to split the church.

The 37-year-old divorced father-of-one plans is now free to take up his new post at Queen's Cross Church in Aberdeen, where he plans to share the manse with his boyfriend.

Labels: Britain, Religion

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 05:28

As revealed in about 3,000 pages of Navy and Naval Academy documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act covering the five-year period, female accusers - and sometimes their witnesses - generally received immunity for conduct violations uncovered during investigations of the alleged sexual abuse.

But male midshipmen accused of sexual abuse, even when the evidence against them was weak, were likely to be dismissed for the same type of offense for which a female mid received immunity, the documents show.

Forgiven offenses typically included underage drinking, drinking in the dorm, binge or "extreme" drinking, possessing a fake ID, having consensual sex in the dorm or being absent from duty without authorization.

As a result, some male midshipmen were driven from the academy for being intoxicated and foolish, while female mids who broke many of the same rules were allowed to continue with their careers.
...

These were mostly "he-said, she-said" cases. But in 21 of the 37 cases, or 57 percent, the male was dismissed from the military, often with the case being handled administratively and never going to a court-martial, according to documents.

When cases were slated for a trial, the male mids were always separated from the military, often before trial.

Some academy graduates have expressed outrage over the double standard of justice.

"The best defense for a woman is to claim she is a victim; it happens all the time," said defense attorney Charles W. Gittins, a military law expert from Virginia and a 1979 graduate of the Naval Academy.

Gittins said granting widespread immunity began when Rempt was superintendent, from August 2003 to June 2007.

"I am certain that the immunity was a Rempt thing," Gittins said. "There is no precedent for such a blanket grant of immunity in the Judge Advocate General Manual, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, or the Manual for Courts-martial. What Rempt did was create blanket immunity in order to 'purchase' the testimony of the female."

Labels: USNA

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 05:28

A top NATO leader says the alliance's politicians are effectively absent without leave in the battle against Afghan insurgents.

General John Craddock, the outgoing Supreme Allied Commander, was referring to the fact that countries such as Canada, the United States, Britain, and the Netherlands are doing most of the fighting in Afghanistan's most dangerous regions.

"I'm probably being harsh here, but I also believe that much of this is due to the fact that political leadership in NATO is AWOL," the U. S. Army general told the Atlantic Council of the United States.

More fundamentally, the Alliance has not kept its promises. It has not come close to funding the objectives it set for itself in 2006, upon taking control of the mission, and it is clear that the domestic political interests of NATO member states have been paramount over Alliance goals — even though said goals were achieved through painstaking consensus building. Craddock understands that political leaders in democracies have to consider public opinion. At the same time, however, he said "It's the job of leaders to persuade the citizenry" on important foreign policy goals and that "often, this has not been the case."

Watch Video:

Labels: Afghanistan, NATO

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:01

Because I watched this watched this twice.

Labels: Tall Ships

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:57

THE problem with those lefties on California’s coast is that they “love fish, hate farmers,” says Virgil Rogers in his Okie twang, so common in California’s Central Valley. Actually that’s just where the problems start, and he begins to list them. So different are the folks by the sea and in the interior, he says, that the only way forward is to split the state in two.

Thirteen coastal counties, from Los Angeles to Marin, just north of San Francisco, should become the 51st state, to be named whatever they please; the remaining 45 counties would remain simply “California”. Based on the reaction he gets at farm fairs, he reckons his recently founded organisation will easily collect enough signatures—the number required is currently around 700,000—to force the split onto the ballot by 2012. Winning, of course, would be an entirely different matter.

Labels: Moonbats

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:23

Dear CDR Salamander:

I happened to Google Sadron Lampert and found your article on the WWII memorial in Winona. My name is XXXX. I live in Norfolk, and my father, XXXX, is Sadron's brother. I would like to add to and clarify some of your information regarding the five young men from Winona who gave their lives serving their country.

The only person among the five that my father did not know was Robert W. Jones. Three of the families literally lived next door to each other: the Lamperts, Settles, and Woods. In fact, my grandmother, XXXX Lampert, was next door consoling Mrs. Settle on the death of her son, not knowing that her own beloved Sadron had already been killed.

By the way, my grandparents had already lost a little girl, Doris, when Sadron died, and my father, who was five years younger than Sadron, had gone into the Army before Sadron and was in New Mexico training to go overseas when he heard of his dear brother's death. My father--my hero--went on to fly more than his share of missions over Japan, flying out of Tinian. The siblings had another brother, Ralph, who died at age 56 of a massive heart attack.

To clarify Sadron IV's e-mail, Sadron III was two when his father was killed. Sadron III, of course, is my first cousin.

Sadron, Jr. entered Yale at age 16. He graduated at age 20. He was on a special football team--the 150 lb. varsity team--because of his slender stature.

Sadron, Jr., .... met his wife, Edith, (while she) was working at Farmer's, Inc., my grandfather's company, as a secretary when Sadron, Jr. met her. She was from South Norfolk. ...... After Sadron and Edith married, they moved to New York, where Sadron was the manager of marine and war risk insurance at Johnson and Higgins on Wall Street.

Sadron and Edith were married at Rosemont Christian Church in South Norfolk. The church was on Bainbridge Blvd., the same street where Edith's family lived. Her maiden name was Edith Herbert. Again, Sadron and Edith were a lovely couple. My mother and father can still picture them attending their church, First Methodist, Edith dressed to the nines and Sadron perfectly outfitted in a gorgeous white summer suit.

Sadron, Jr. was actually drafted in early 1944. He was drafted as part of Roosevelt's Limited Service Act because of his nearsightedness. Instead of the Army using his vast intelligence and putting Sadron where he could have made a weighty difference, the Army sent him straight to North Africa and then to Italy. .... He died on September 14, 1944, three days before my father's 21st birthday, because he and a boy from Wisconsin caught a mortar in their foxhole at Futa Pass, Italy, which killed both of them instantly.

Although Sadron Lampert was at Futa Pass at Highway 65 in Northern Italy on September 14, 1944, several WWII websites list incorrect information. For example, one lists him as "Lambert" and another lists his date of death as Sept. 29, 1944. Both are incorrect. Sadron Lampert died on Sept. 14, 1944.

I know that the fighting between Sept. 2 and Sept. 25, 1944, along highway 65 through Futa Pass--known as the Gothic Line--was intense. Between Sept. 10 and Oct. 26, four U.S. divisions suffered over 15,000 casualties. Some sites even suggest that the Futa Pass activity in September 1944 was a diversionary sacrifice to draw enemy fire away from other strategic points.

Sadron was dashing and extremely intelligent; everyone admired him. My mother also grew up in Winona and remembers seeing Sadron and Edith together and thinking what a perfectly beautiful couple they were. They had the aura of movie stars. My grandparents continued to live on Morris Crescent until their deaths. My grandfather, Sadron, Sr., died in 1983. I was lucky enough to know him well into my adulthood. My mother's parents lived on Huntington Crescent until their deaths (with my grandmother living almost to age 97). My uncle and my brother and his family still live in Winona, so my attachment to the neighborhood is quite strong.

Charles H. Ware went by Hal. He and my dad were the same age and were on the high school football team together. My dad believes that he was in the Army Air Corps.

Carl Wood was drafted rather late in life. He was 6 or 8 years older than Sadron. He was the first husband of another long-time Winona resident, Winnie (Mrs. William) Scullion, who died several years ago. Her sons (by her second husband) are still in the area.

Robert Settle was an Annapolis grad. He took Naval Flight Training and was killed in a crash stateside.
.....
Just last year, the Lafayette/Winona Civic League held a special Memorial Day service and dedicated the memorial site with new lights. My mother has photographs of the original dedication service, held in the early 1950s, complete with shots of Sadron, Sr.; his wife, Elizabeth; and their grandson, Sadron III.
.......

Labels: Heroes

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 13:55

Labels: Amphibs, Shipbuilding

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:56

Labels: Cartoon

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:33

Labels: Advertising, Music

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:54

At the ceremony, Pensacola NAS personnel also dedicated a Vietnam-era attack aircraft to Navy Lt. Peter Russell, who was killed during a mission over North Vietnam.

Russell was part of a special "Black Pony" attack team, tasked with providing close air support for troops on the ground.

On May 25, 1969, Russell dove his OV-10 to attack a group of enemy soldiers firing on a Navy Riverine Patrol Boat in the Mekong Delta. A single bullet shattered through the canopy and killed Russell in the pilot seat.

Russell's back-seater, Navy pilot Jeff Johnson, took control of the airplane and pulled it out of the dive, moments before it crashed into the river.

The plane survived the war, and is on display at Pensacola NAS.

"I'll never forget Pete," said retired Navy Capt. Marty Schuman, who knew Russell well and was his commander when he was killed. "I was fortunate enough to have two wonderful sisters, but I never had a brother. But if I did, I wished he would be one just like Pete."

Labels: Fullbore, Riverine, Vietnam War

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:14

Reflections on a Naval Career

Larry Di Rita

On board thc USS Boorda (CVN-80). The ship is off the coast of Brazil, conducting rain forest preservation research as flag-ship for Commodore N. Singh Nifighandi, Bangladeshi Navy, Commander. U.N. Environmental Task Force 161.

Captain Will Keith drew on his cigar and let the smoke drift from his mouth. He knew he shouldn't be smoking; his cabin was on the same ventilation system as the crew nursery and the filters wouldn't catch everything. But he had a reason not to care. There was a surprise in the message traffic today: his relief's orders. Keith could start counting down the days until he retired. Funny, he thought, command wasn't supposed to be like this.
–
When he'd left Annapolis in 1980, carrier command seemed about as likely as spaceship command. His only aspiration was those wings of gold. Only one thing could top the feeling of pinning on those wings: Tomcat. And the hard work paid off; in two short years, Keith was doing touch-and-gos from the deck of the USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) in the Free World's baddest plane.

“Captain! Sir, are you down there? The muffled voice of the officer of the deck wafted down the voice tube above Keith's head. As he cleared his thoughts, he was struck with the irony of this quaint form of communication," which Lord Nelson himself had used," on board a nuclear aircraft carrier. He took comfort in the tradition as he yelled back up the tube. "Bridge, Captain. What's up?"

"Sir, the Commander of the Peacekeeping Detachment is finished with training on the flight deck. She's releasing it to you for flight operations."

"Great. Have the Executive Officer meet me in my cabin." Damn peacekeepers, thought Keith. Always fouling the deck with mock hostage situations and crowd-control training. Getting hard to remember this is a warship. It was important, though. Once back home, the ship would be sending peace-keepers to the Commander of the U.S. Internal Security Force in Miami. Keith was determined to send well-trained troops, even if it was a mission he didn't like: U.S. military forces deployed against U.S. citizens. Still, after the second Haiti occupation in '96, when General Colin Powell was named U.S. Governor General, it seemed less bizarre. Things sure had changed since Desert Storm, though....

"This thing is going down!" Lieutenant Commander Keith whispered to his wingman as the squadron listened to the mission brief. The air in the ready room was electric. It was going to be war after all. Years of training had come to this. Looking around, Keith saw the same mix of resolve, anticipation, and fear in the faces of every one of his shipmates. What could they expect he wondered.

He'd seen the so-called experts on television in the weeks since Desert Shield had begun. They were predicting thousands of American dead. They talked about chemical warfare, cruise missiles, mines, and the fourth-largest army in the world. To hell with all of them, thought Keith. All the "experts" knew were charts and tables and statistics. They knew nothing about the only things that mattered: the faces of his fellow fliers and the sound of Tomcat engines winding up on the flight deck. The ship continued her full-speed rendezvous with war through the cool Persian Gulf evening....

Knock! Knock! Knock! The pounding on his cabin door brought trim back to the rain forest. "Who is it?” he demanded.

"XO sir. The OOD said you waned to see me."

"Come in. XO." Keith looked up. I want to conduct some flight operations. We've been out here a week without any flying. I might even suit up myself."

“What do you mean, sir? After all, we send a couple of V-22s to the beach every day to drop off and pick up the Environmental Control Team."

“Very funny, XO. We haven't done a cat shot since we’ve been here. We've got the last Tomcat squadron in the Navy on board, and I'm determined to ride it hard."

"Just one problem, Skipper. I've scheduled our Diversity Stand-Down for this afternoon."

“You remember, sir. The Chief of Maritime Services ordered it to remind all hands about the strength the Navy draws from their diversity. All because of that business on the Schroeder.” Keith winced. After eight years, he still hadn't gotten used to the redesignation of the Chief of Naval Operations as the Chief of Maritime Services. It happened back in '97, when the United States occupied Venezuela to restore democracy after a military coup. The U.N. Secretary General had convinced the President that "Chief of Naval Operations" sounded too "war-like," since the U.S. intervention in Venezuela, Nigeria, Haiti, and Somalia had been conducted for peaceful purposes.

He recalled the incident on board the Schroeder, the new Aegis battleship. After being denied an advancement, a seaman of Indo-Ugric heritage sued his Master Chief. The charge was "insensitivity to diversity," a grievance some of the old-timers were having a hard time adjusting to after spending so many years learning that individuality had nothing to do with military readiness. The sailor claimed that the Master Chief was insensitive to his Indo-Ugric traditions, which required him to spend each Wednesday and Friday afternoon in quiet reflection "away from his normal place of work." The Master Chief thought that sounded like an excuse to goof off twice a week, with the rest of the division carrying his load. But the court ruled that the Chief had shown "reckless disregard for the importance of diversity in defending the national interests of the United States." The Navy-wide Diversity Stand-Down was the result.

"Anyway," the XO continued, "we won't be able to conduct flight operations today. “Skipper, you still with me?” But Keith was in another time and place, thousands of miles away. When everything had begun to change.

He’d been in Las Vegas that week; he'd even been on the third floor that night. And he had lied about the whole thing under oath. He wasn't proud of his behavior; never had been. But it was every man for himself right from the start. The flags were the first ones: trudging up to Capitol Hill to admit that the Navy had serious problems and that things would have to change; agreeing to just about anything to avoid losing their jobs; and denying that they knew what went on in Las Vegas. In thc end, everyone got off. But everything changed. Sensitivity training, diversity stand-downs, women on combat ships, women in combat aircraft, and after the second Gulf War, women in body bags.

And then there was the Arthur affair. Admiral Arthur, the commander of Desert Storm naval forces, had his career short-circuited in '94 when a j.g. who had washed out of flight school complained to a senator about a "climate of sexual harassment" at Pensacola. As Vice Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Arthur had reviewed her record. He reprimanded her instructors for inappropriate comments, but stood by their decision to deny the woman wings on the basis of poor performance. Wrong answer. He had been nominated to be Commander-in-Chief Pacific, but that was not to be.

The whole thing had a perverse logic. That this wartime leader should be lost because of "insensitivity" reflected a turning point for the Navy that had started somewhere between the deserts of the Middle East and the deserts of Nevada. Anyway, the lesson was clear to mid-grade officers like Keith: If flag officers could watch Arthur go down with nary a whimper, what could a lieutenant commander with kids and a mortgage hope to achieve by speaking out?

"Skipper, did you hear me?” intoned the XO. "I saw your relief s orders. Do you know her?"

"Met her once," said Keith. "Year behind me at Annapolis. CH 46 pilot; had the during the Jamaican Drug War."

Keith had missed Jamaica in '01. He was pulling a U.N. tour in Sudan. U.N. assignment was critical for anyone with flag aspirations; back then Keith still saw stars. He worked for an Indonesian two-star as Chief of Police for the U.N. government in Sudan. Keith never had given much thought to disarming private citizens, distributing food, and patrolling the streets. But he had to admit that it did prepare U.S. forces for the kinds of missions they were doing in Miami, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Keith always had sensed a vague connection between Tailhook and these strange new missions. The Navy brass already had been concerned about the budget cuts at the end of the Cold War and were willing to sign up to just about anything to keep the money coming. And after Tailhook and Arthur and all that, they weren't in a very good position to choose the good missions and reject the bad. After a while, patrolling the streets of U.S. cities didn't seem much different from catching drug runners at sea and occupying Third World countries.

"Captain to the bridge!" blasted the speaker. Thoughts of an imminent collision raced through his mind as Keith bolted out of his cabin. The OOD must need him up there bad if he didn't have time to call himself. When he arrived, he saw Commodore N. Singh Nifighandi sitting in the commanding officer's chair. These U.N. types always ignore military tradition, he thought." Even the sanctity of my bridge chair. "Yes sir,"
he saluted.

"Good morning, Captain," began the Commodore in his curious British accent. "I just saw your Marine detachment holding close order drill on the hangar deck. We are on a peaceful U.N. mission here. Please have them stop."

"But, "sir," began Keith, his jaw tightening. "Those men must stay sharp. That's what they're trained to."

"Thank you, Captain," clipped the Commodore. "That is all."

"Aye-aye, sir." Keith realized it was more despair than anger that he felt. As he turned to leave the bridge, the bos'n handed him the phone.

"XO for you, sir."

"Yeah XO, what is it?"

"We just got an order modification on your relief. She'll be here three months late. Turns out she's expecting; taking mandatory family leave. You know the regs. Skipper, you there?”

He wasn't. He was back at Annapolis, tossing his cap in the air. He was pulling Gs at 30,000 feet, locked on to a bogey with weapons free. He was feet dry over Kuwait and itching to splash an Iraqi fighter. Something had changed, and it wasn't him. Maybe it was better, probably not. He didn't know for sure, but he knew it wasn't fun anymore. And it had stopped mattering.

Mr. Di Rita, a former naval officer who served in Desert Storm, is Issues Director for Senator Graham's presidential campaign.

Labels: Diversity

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:38

Take, for example, refueling at sea. A regular warship matches speed with an oiler by syncing up the revolutions per minute of the ships’ propellers. The problem? Freedom doesn’t have propellers.
...
This is a revolution, not an evolution, for the Navy,” said Cmdr. Mike Doran, captain of Freedom’s Gold Crew, which rotated onto the ship in March. “The normal way the Navy does things today doesn’t work for my ship.”

Labels: LCS

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 05:59

It was the time in which Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara and the Whiz Kids he had brought to the Pentagon from the Ford Motor Company were pressing to save money by building a common plane, with slight variations, for both the Air Force and the Navy.

In theory it was a brilliant idea, but to the Navy, the execution was weighted dangerously in favor of Air Force needs. Indeed, to a man, Navy aviators and naval aviation specialists argued that the plane, the F-111, was unstable and too heavy for its thrust to take off from carriers.

In the political climate of the Johnson Administration, however, the Navy's concerns were swept aside, and like the loyal officers they were, the Navy's admirals kept their objections quiet in public.

Then came the day Vice Admiral Connolly joined a team headed by the Secretary of the Navy at a Senate hearing conducted by John C. Stennis, the chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee.

Gerald E. Miller, a retired admiral who was present as an aide to Admiral Connolly, recalled that Mr. was sympathetic to the Navy's position. But with Secretary Paul R. Ignatius of the Navy fielding every question, no matter how technical, and following the Pentagon line to the letter, Mr. Stennis despaired of getting the explicit criticism he needed.

Finally, in desperation, he singled out Admiral Connolly, noted his renowned expertise in naval aeronautics, and asked him pointedly to give his personal, not his official, opinion. Admiral Miller remembers vividly that Admiral Connolly swallowed hard, then declared, "There isn't enough thrust in Christendom to fix this plane."

With his answer, Admiral Miller noted, the Navy version of the F-111 died aborning and Admiral Connolly's dream of promotion to full admiral died along with it.

When will the Navy decide whether to base a nuclear aircraft carrier in Mayport, Fla., asked Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla.

“Those decisions will be made as part of the Quadrennial Defense Review,” answered Adm. Gary Roughead, the Navy’s chief of naval operations.

Where is the Navy’s 30-year shipbuilding plan, required to be sent to Congress every year, wondered Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va.

“Those are questions that have to be answered in the QDR, which will have an effect on what the plan will be,” Roughead replied.

How many new Expeditionary Fighting Vehicles will the Marine Corps need, asked Rep. John Kline, R-Minn.

“The number of amphibious ships in the QDR in part will determine the future of the EFV,” said Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway.
...
Roughead, speaking to reporters Thursday in one of his first public appearances since the budget was sent to Congress on May 7, was asked if the QDR would contain force-structure numbers.

“The QDR will address some of the areas we have to resolve,” Roughead said. “The QDR will inform [the 2011 budget request], and then with ’11 we can get back on track.”

So will the QDR effort produce force-structure numbers?

“The force structure numbers,” Roughead said, “needs to be a plan that I can certify to the Congress is affordable. I think the QDR will give a clear indication of the magnitude of the force. And then once we take the amphibious piece, the Nuclear Posture Review will obviously get into sea-based strategic deterrent that will define the capabilities and capacities and how that goes into the total shipbuilding plan. And I have an obligation to make that fiscally executable.

“I don’t think I can give the plan per the terms of what I have to submit here without having a view of the budget as well. QDR is going to define certain things we need to know. That will go into the overall shipbuilding plan. That has to be tempered by what I can certify as affordable.”

During the House Armed Services Committee hearing, Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo., expressed his concerns about several Navy programs, including keeping down costs on the Littoral Combat Ship, watching technical issues with development of the new electro-magnetic launch system for the next class of aircraft carriers, and monitoring how the service would deal with a looming shortage of strike fighters. Skelton also highlighted concerns over the transfer of 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam and other islands in the Marianas, and over Navy readiness and the material condition of its ships.

Ranking member Rep. John McHugh, R-N.Y., noted the Navy’s reluctance during the May 7 budget rollout to recertify the “floor,” or minimum number of ships, of 313 for its fleet.

“It would appear that the situation has changed,” McHugh said.

He recalled that Navy budget chief Rear Adm. John Blake, in response to a reporter’s question, said that “one of the significant pieces in the QDR is force structure.”

Blake did not reaffirm the number, although at Thursday’s hearing Roughead declared “the floor is 313.”

Labels: CNO, Congress

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:00

A persistent capability gap in U.S. naval surface fire support (NSFS) could well be filled by the new Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), according to Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway.

Conway said his Navy counterpart, Adm. Gary Roughead, has agreed to expand the concept of using the LCS as a firing platform for what Conway called a “box of rockets.”

The services are still examining storage and elevator capacity aboard LCS, and Conway said “we don’t have [the] box we need.”

NSFS is the ship-to-shore artillery element of the fires triad used to suppress and break apart enemy forces under an amphibious assault. Marine and the Navy leaders looked to reinvigorate the Corps’ classic, forcible beach-entry role after years of in-land counter-insurgency fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. But as adversary defenses become more sophisticated, and reach farther from shore, the challenge for U.S. forces remains to outfit ships with systems offering enough firepower and range.

The truncation of the DDG-1000 and cancellation last year of Raytheon’s Extended Range Guided Munition (ERGM) put a dent in the Corps’ requirement for NSFS (Aerospace DAILY, Dec. 19, 2006). In the near-term, Conway said, the Marine Corps has not found a volume of firepower that can successfully fill the NSFS gap. Using the LCS “may fix the problem for the long-term,” he added.

The services are still examining storage and elevator capacity aboard LCS, and Conway said “we don’t have [the] box we need.”

Labels: LCS

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:45

Lt. Commander Garnar Sutton, grandson of Mrs. Elizabeth Sutton of Newnan and the late Rev. R.W. Sutton, has been awarded the Bronze Star medal by the U.S. Marine Corps for his service in Iraq.

Sutton participated in two tours in Iraq's Al Anbar province. He served as the information operations officer with 2D Marine Division, and as the future operations planner for the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force in Fallujah.

"I am proud to have received the Bronze Star. It's a very emotional award for me, because it carries a lot of memories," said Sutton. "It is something I will hold dear because of friends and people I lost. There are people who received lesser awards but paid a much bigger price than I did."

According to Sutton's award citation, the integration of RIVRON ONE led to the successful deployment of a Naval Riverine unit in support of Marine operations for the first time in more than three decades.

"The Riverine Squadron got the Navy involved by patrolling the Ditha Dam and the Euphrates River," said Sutton. "We could repel terrorists in that area just by a show of force."

Labels: Riverine

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:48

Kolchak, being of the opinion that the person responsible for planning operations should take part in their execution, was always to be found on board those ships which carried out the operations and sometimes took direct command of the destroyer flotillas.

Labels: Movies, Russia

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:25

Labels: Take a Powder

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 05:53

From the team that brought you Band of Brothers - the other side of the WWII saga in 10 parts. You know, the one without weekend passes to Paris.

THE PACIFIC is based on the books "With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa," by Eugene Sledge, which was hailed by historian Paul Fussell as "one of the finest memoirs to emerge from any war," and "Helmet for My Pillow," by Robert Leckie (recipient of the Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Annual Award), as well as original interviews conducted by the filmmakers. Continuing the World War II oral history work begun by his father Stephen E. Ambrose (author of the book "Band of Brothers"), Hugh Ambrose serves as a consultant on the miniseries.

Labels: Marines, Movies, WWII

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 09:50

Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., chairman of the Seapower subcommittee, asked the CNO about Somali pirates, wondering whether a military security team could be placed on all American-flag vessels. Taylor urged that if a ship “has got an American cargo on it, it’s our stuff. We should put a team of trigger-pullers on there.”

Roughead noted that just hours before the hearing, a contractor security team aboard a ship in the Gulf of Aden had repulsed a pirate attack.

“I believe that that scheme is something that should be pursued as opposed to putting sailors and Marines aboard ships,” the CNO said.

While visiting the Annapolis High School Navy Junior ROTC program yesterday, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead said his top long-term priority is increasing diversity in the officer corps.

Labels: CNO, Diversity, Pirates

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:59

Labels: Iraq, Media

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:58

As the car spiraled across the road and roughly flung her against her seat, one thought echoed through her mind.

"Angels. Save me!"

Her appeals for help were answered when the upside-down vehicle stopped shaking. Two hands reached into the wreckage and pulled her to safety.

"He was my angel," 83-year-old Blanca Toda said as she gestured toward her teenage savior. "I grabbed on to him, and we walked away together."

Jamar Williams, a 14-year-old Kernan Middle School student, modestly averted his eyes.

"I didn't think about it when I did it," he said. "I just wanted to make sure she was still alive."

The shy teen was honored for Toda's speedy rescue at a Jacksonville Sheriff's Office award ceremony Thursday.

He was with his mother, Michelle, a school-bus driver, heading back from a Christmas party hosted by Mayor John Peyton about 6:30 p.m. Dec. 6. They had chauffeured a group of elderly partygoers and were letting them off in a parking lot when he saw Toda's car rapidly accelerate after hitting the cement stops in front of a few parking spaces. She swerved across the lot and appeared to have a stuck gas pedal, according to a Sheriff's Office crash report. The car struck a pole, flipped multiple times and came to rest with its tires skyward.

"He was out of the bus before I could put it in park," Michelle Williams said. "He pulled the emergency door open and ran to where she was stuck in the car."

Toda, who was wearing a seat belt, was stuck in the driver's seat and couldn't free herself. She said a group of onlookers watched the crash but didn't come to her aid.

"They looked petrified," she said.

Before she knew it, Jamar swooped in and freed her from the crushed-metal prison.

Labels: Heroes

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:42

Labels: Humor, Obama

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:46

As an economics reporter for The New York Times, I have been the paper’s chief eyes and ears on the Federal Reserve for the past six years. I watched Alan Greenspan and his successor, Ben S. Bernanke, at close range. I wrote several early-warning articles in 2004 about the spike in go-go mortgages. Before that, I had a hand in covering the Asian financial crisis of 1997, the Russia meltdown in 1998 and the dot-com collapse in 2000. I know a lot about the curveballs that the economy can throw at us.

Having separated from my wife of 21 years, who had physical custody of our sons, I was handing over $4,000 a month in alimony and child-support payments. That left me with take-home pay of $2,777 (wife #2 had a job bringing in ~$2,400 a year)...

Within a few weeks, an appraiser valued our house at $505,000, almost 10 percent above the original purchase price two years earlier. On June 12, Patty and I signed a new mortgage for $472,000 with Fremont Investment and Loan in Santa Monica, Calif.

Fremont gave us a classic subprime loan. Our monthly payment jumped to $3,700 from $2,500. If we kept the mortgage for two years, the interest rate would jump as high as 11.5 percent, and the monthly payments would ratchet up to as high as $4,500.
...
We were still loaded with debt, but we weren’t paying 27 percent interest rates on our credit cards.

When I first called Chase in October, a representative named Sarah said I didn’t qualify for a loan modification because I wasn’t yet 90 days past due. The only “loan modification” she could offer me was a “repayment plan” under which I paid $400 more per month for six months until I was current again.

“It sounds as if I would be better off waiting to fall 90 days behind,” I said. “I think I’ll wait for that.”

It took a while, but Patty and I found we could get past blaming each other. We had seen each other’s worst sides, but we were still together, and that helped us to get closer. We started listening to each other. Patty began to find her way in the work world, and I was learning that I didn’t have all the answers. And we saw how our children were thriving. My three sons transferred to schools in our neighborhood and made scores of friends. Emily, Patty’s daughter, was a sparkling 10-year-old who loved her home and her school as well as all her brothers. Even if we lost the house, we had gained in other ways.

I called Chase back in January, when I was 90 days past due. Another representative told me that I would automatically be evaluated for a loan modification.

“You should just wait until you hear from one of our negotiators,” he told me politely.

Another two months passed without anyone calling, so I tried again in late March.

“I’m sorry, but our analysts have been backed up,” yet another Chase rep told me, even more politely than the previous one. She said each analyst had about 500 distressed borrowers to deal with, and it had been taking about five weeks for customers to get a direct response. The delays seemed to be getting longer.

I was actually beginning to feel sorry for Chase. It seemed to be so flooded with defaulting borrowers that it didn’t have time to foreclose on my house. Eight months after my last payment to the bank, I am still waiting for the ax to fall.

Labels: Economics

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 15:25

Labels: Afghanistan

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 13:21

Conservatives are like the biblical Jews who wandered through the desert for 40 years until that generation's flawed leaders had passed from the scene. Conservatives are not going to get to the political promised land until we get new leaders. And until those Republican politicians who brought plagues onto Americans are gone, voters will refuse to buy whatever Republicans are trying to sell.

To paraphrase cartoonist Walt Kelly's character, Pogo: We have met the enemy, and it is big-government Republicans.

Conservatives should be under no illusions about the massive challenge ahead of us. We face a very popular President Obama, with a radical left-wing agenda designed to punish and silence all opposition, and at taxpayer expense. Mr. Obama and the Democrats have available massive financial revenues, and Republican opponents are leaderless, dispirited, confused and without an agenda or principles.

Most of the establishment institutions of our country are arrayed against us: the mainstream media, entertainment industry, higher and lower education, the legal community, organized religion and big business, including Wall Street.

Conservatives, though, have been here before. Against these same forces, Republicans won three presidential elections in the 1980s by landslides and swept into control of Congress for 12 years starting in 1994. Republicans did it with conservatives paving the way for boat-rocking political leaders such as Ronald Reagan, who could say about the Soviets: They lose; we win.

Leadership starts with each of us. We should cease looking to Republican politicians for leadership.

We have a party and a country to save, and the Republican establishment is part of the problem, not the solution. Conservatives must not wait for orders from headquarters: Rush to the sound of the guns.

instead. If you are interested, there is a short interview with him by National Review's David Freddoso here, or you can buy his book from a few years ago, 100 Innovative Ideas for Florida's Future.

Labels: Republicans

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:55

1. Optimal manning. Going from 330 on the DDG down to 270 hurt and hurt bad. All the N1 wizards in the world can spin whatever web they want about work hours the truth is that it corrodes the ability to self train and preserve the ship on the paradigm we have. I have seen it on numerous ships on the waterfront. Where is the CSTT TIC? Oh...she isnt here because she is off at AIC school for five weeks for that CCR and because we have 17 OSs instead of 28 so we only have 2 TICs. So who is going to observe and train the TIC? Chief will do it. No he wont because he is the AAWC CSTT and covering for the missing OS1 billet that we don't have anymore. Well make it work somehow. BMC the waterline and bow need painting. Well sir we have 8 less deck seaman and BMs than we did when we got here so I am going to have to have BM1 and BM2 bust rust and the duty section do it all the way up to sunset and have them start again at first light. Sounds like a plan chief but make sure the punt is out of the water by 0800 because we have ATG coming over for AT/FP cert tomorrow before we get underway to go to Seal Beach in afternoon. Darn it sir that means we can only do the waterline.

Labels: Blogg'n, Leadership

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:38

The two steam cutters were fitted out as mini-gunboats to provide the sailing launches with covering fire and pin down the Spanish soldiers firing from the rifle pits along the beach and from the surrounding hills. For this purpose, each of the steam cutters, in addition to its crew of five, carried a sergeant and six Marines to act as sharpshooters. To supplement the Marines and provide greater firepower, additional armaments were added. A one-pound Hotchkiss cannon was mounted aboard Marblehead’s steam cutter, while Nashville’s cutter was fitted out with two Colt machine guns. Together, the two cutters provided the operation with significant firepower.

Just after dawn on the morning of May 11, 1898, Nashville’s cutter and launch pushed away from the gunboat. They were soon joined by the boats from Marblehead. Winslow was in command aboard Nashville’s sailing launch; Lieutenant E.A. Anderson of Marblehead, the expedition’s second-in-command, was in charge of the flagship’s sailing launch. En-sign T.P. Magruder commanded both of the accompanying steam cutters.

The task of the supporting naval squadron during the operation was to draw the Spaniards’ fire away from the work boats. And the gunboats wasted no time in putting their part of the plan into operation. At 6:45 a.m. both ships got underway. Marblehead was the first to open fire upon the Spanish positions on shore. And no sooner had the sound of Marblehead’s opening salvo faded than Nashville commenced firing as well. The ships soon found the range of their target, their shells falling regularly in the vicinity of the cable house.

There was no doubt about the effectiveness of the naval fire. The cable house on the beach was quickly destroyed.

Again and again the shells found their mark, bursting and sending clouds of stone and mortar into the air, Winslow would later write of the engagement, …until one shot, striking the tottering structure, burst, and brought it down, leaving nothing but a disordered pile of masonry covering the wreck of the electrical equipment.

At five minutes before 7 o’clock,, the second phase of the raid began when, with the bombardment continuing, the boat flotilla started moving toward its designated position offshore. The steam cutters led the way, each towing one of the sailing launches. When they were about 300 to 400 feet offshore, the steam launches threw off their tow lines, leaving the sailing launches to move in toward shore under their own oar power. The men in the sailing launches began throwing their grappling hooks overboard in order to locate the telegraphic cables.

The presence of coral, however, made the task of locating and raising the cable with grappling hooks particularly difficult. In order to grapple the cable, the men had first to be able to see it on the bottom through the clear Caribbean water. To do this, the launches were forced to move closer and closer to the shore — closer and closer to the source of enemy fire.

Almost from the beginning, the Americans had lost all hope of keeping their true intentions secret. A Spanish cavalryman astride a white horse spotted the boats as they moved toward the beach. The sharpshooters in the steam launches opened fire in an attempt to prevent him from escaping and raising the alarm among other Spanish troops in the area. The pitching of the boats in the Caribbean waves, however, made precise shooting impossible. The Spaniard was successful in his escape, and word of the American operation quickly spread among the Spanish troops.

The boats were about 100 feet from the shore when the sailors saw the first of the cables in about 20 feet of water. This particular cable ran east and connected Cienfuegos to Santiago.

The sailors aboard the launches wasted no time in trying to raise the cable, but pulling it up from the bottom and aboard the boats proved difficult. The heavy submarine cable, two inches in diameter, was shielded in so much lead and insulation that it weighed about 6 pounds per linear foot. The 30 men in both boats heaved and strained to pull the cable to the surface. The heavy cable, laid taut along the bottom, seemed to weigh tons, Winslow later wrote.

They finally did raise it, and now the steam cutters towed the launches to deeper water for the task of cutting the cable. Here inexperience at the task began to tell. The sailors aboard the launches at first tried to use axes to hack through the cable. Then, when this method proved unsatisfactory, they tried to cut through with cold chisels. They finally found, however, that hacksaws worked the best. All the experimentation took time. It took 20 to 30 minutes to complete the first cut, but the work went more quickly after that. The sailors finally managed to make two cuts in the cable, removing a section of about 150 feet to make it difficult for the Spanish to repair.

Despite the heavy labor, the first step of the operation had gone with surprising ease. The eastbound cable, though, had been out of the line of fire from the Spanish rifle pits on the beach. In addition, the task had been largely completed before reinforcements arrived from the town. All in all, the Spanish response so far had been weak and ineffective. Winslow later wrote that the Spanish fire was so desultory and ineffective that the working parties had paid no attention to it.

Such a lack of enemy resistance, however, was not to last for long. The search for the second cable took the boats farther and farther to the west, and when the American sailors discovered the second cable, their launches were directly in front of Spanish rifle pits on the shore. To make matters worse, the underwater coral again forced the boats to move closer to shore to search for cable. When the crews finally discovered it, the launches were within 100 feet of the shore — close to the Spanish rifle pits dug along the beach.

To ease the plight of the cable-cutting parties, the ships’ commanders increased their bombardment of the Spanish positions on shore. According to Winslow, the shells from the ships’ guns passed so close overhead that the crews instinctively ducked when the rounds passed. The shells could hardly have come closer to us without hitting the boats, Winslow said.

The close shelling was unnerving for friend and foe alike. We soon realized that we had to take the chance of an accidental hit from our ships or receive fire from the enemy at pistol range, Winslow wrote of the battle, and the men worked in disregard of both.

As if the location were not enough to contend with, the second cable proved to be even more difficult to snare than the first. The coral growth underwater made it hard for grappling hooks to reach the cable. Worse, rough water knocked the boats together and made it hard to see through the high waves.

Increasing fatigue also overtook the crews as they struggled to locate the second cable, which connected Cienfuegos with all-important Havana, and drag it to the surface. Nonetheless, the men persevered and eventually succeeded. As with the first cable, Marblehead’s men made the cut in the inshore end while Nashville’s men made the cut on the offshore end. A section of cable about 100 feet long was removed.

In lifting the second cable, Winslow and his party discovered a third, smaller telegraphic cable, too small to be an ocean cable. They assumed that it connected the cable house with the city of Cienfuegos, and before returning to the ships, Winslow and his men set about cutting it as well.

Under the intense naval bombardment that lasted throughout the morning, the Spanish small-arms fire from the shore had gradually faded. As the boat crews finished cutting the second cable, it almost seemed that the Spanish had given up the fight altogether. In response, the fire from the American warships had also nearly stopped.

The lag in Spanish gunfire, however, was only temporary. As work began on the third cable, the Spanish shore fire became stronger. By late morning, large numbers of Spanish reinforcements had made their way out from Cienfuegos and the surrounding area and taken up positions at Punta de la Colorados. Under cover of tall grass and bushes of the chaparral, the reinforcements were able to crawl unseen into the rifle pits and trenches, even into the lighthouse.

Locating and raising the third cable again took the boats perilously close to the Spanish positions. Both boats were within 100 feet of the shore and within 200 feet of the Spanish trenches. Because of the noise of sea and wind, the Americans at first did not notice the increase in fire. Moreover, the Spaniards’ Mauser rifles used smokeless gunpowder, so the men in the boats could not see the incoming fire. The only evidence of the gunfire for the men aboard the boats was the small splashes the bullets made as they struck the water.

Again the ships moved into position, firing their heavy guns upon the positions ashore in effort to quell the Spanish gunfire. And again the naval fire had its devastating effect. All along the ridge and down its sides our projectiles were falling, shattering the rocks, bursting, and sending fragments into the air, clouds of dust, Winslow later said.

Despite the shelling from the ships offshore, the Spanish fire remained concentrated on the launches and the cutters as their crewmen worked to destroy the enemy cable. The Spanish persistence led to the first American casualties of the Spanish-American War. Aboard Marblehead’s cutter, one of the Marines, Patrick Regan, was killed when struck in the head by a bullet. Another man, also struck by a bullet, fell in Nashville’s cutter as well. And in Winslow’s own boat, sailor Robert Volz was struck four times by Spanish bullets. Winslow himself was struck in the hand.

No longer using small arms only, the enemy now opened fire with a fieldpiece mounted in the vicinity of the lighthouse and with machine guns, as well. Clearly, the position of the men in the boats had become untenable. Winslow was forced to abandon the effort to destroy the third cable and ordered the boats back to the ships.

It was a fighting retreat. Some of the sailors took up their rifles to return the Spanish fire, while others bent over the oars. Ensign Magruder’s steam cutters quickly came up to take the launches in tow. They then all made their way back to the ships. Their ordeal, however, was far from over — the Spanish fire remained heavy. Especially hard hit were the boats from Marblehead, enveloped by shore fire as they passed in front of the lighthouse. Five of their men were badly wounded.

The heated Spanish fire also caused minor casualties aboard the gunboats. Spent bullets from the shore injured several men aboard Nashville. At one point during the action, a spent round struck a sailor, then hit Commander Maynard in the chest as he stood on the bridge of the gunboat. The impact was sufficient to put him out of action, and Nashville’s executive officer, Lieutenant A.C. Dillingham, was forced to assume command. The brief interruption in command, however, did little to disrupt the gunboat’s covering fire. We had to clear away very large numbers of Spanish troops, and you can tell [the volume] of our firing when I say we each [Marblehead and Nashville] fired 400 shells, an officer aboard the Nashville wrote home after the battle.

By 10:15 that morning, the boats had finally pulled alongside the ships after being under enemy fire for three hours. For about 30 minutes, the fire had been galling. Nevertheless, Americans casualties were amazingly light. One Marine had been killed, one sailor would later die of wounds, and several men had been seriously wounded. Winslow’s bullet had passed through his left hand.

About an hour later, the American ships got underway and put back out to sea. The raid on Cienfuegos was over.

The following men served in the cable-cutting party. Those with an asterisk (*) received the Medal of Honor:

From the NASHVILLE:

ERNEST KRAUSE, Coxswain. *
AUSTIN J. DURNEY, Blacksmith. *
JOHAN J. JOHANSSON, Ordinary Seaman*.
JOHN P. RILEY, Landsman. *
DAVID D. BARROW, Ordinary Seaman.*
BENJAMIN F. BAKER, Coxswain. *
LAURITZ NELSON, Sailmaker's Mate. *
HUDSON VAN ETTEN, Seaman. *
WILLARD MILLER, Seaman. *
ROBERT BLUME, Seaman. *
FRANK HILL, Private, U. S. M. C. *
JOSEPH H. FRANKLIN; Private, U. S. M. C.*
JOSEPH F. SCOTT, Private, U. S. M. C. *
THOMAS HOBAN, Coxswain.*
ROBERT VOLZ, Seaman. (severely wounded 4 times)*
ALBERT BEYER, Coxswain. *
GEORGE W. BRIGHT, Coal Passer. *
WILLIAM MEYER, Carpenter's Mate, 3d class.*
HARRY H. MILLER, Seaman. *
JOHN EGLIT, Seaman. *
MICHAEL GIBBON, Oiler. *
PHILIP GAUGHAN, Sergeant, U. S. M. C.*
POMEROY PARKER ,Private, U. S. M. C. *
OSCAR W. FIELD, Private, U. S. M. C. *
MICHAEL L. KEARNEY, Private, U. S. M. C. *


FROM THE MARBLEHEAD.

JAMES H. BENNETT, Chief Boatswains Mate. *
JOHN J. DORAN, Boatswains Mate, 2d class (shot through right buttock)*
FRANK WILLIAMS, Seaman. *
HARRY HENRICKSON,' Seaman (shot through liver, thought to be fatal)*
ALBERT BADAS, Seaman. *
AXEL SUNDQUIST, Chief Carpenter's Mate *
WILLIAM HART, Machinist, lst class. *
FRANZ KRAMER, Seaman. *
HENRY P. RUSSELL, Landsman. *
HERMAN W. KUCHMEISTER, Private, U. S. M. C. (shot through the jaw bone and neck; thought to be dead). *
WALTER S. WEST, Private, U. S. M. C.*
WILLIAM OAKLEY, G. M., 2d class. *
JULIUS A. R. WILKE, B. M., lst class.
JOSEPH E. CARTER, Boatswain. *
JOHN DAVIS, G. M., 3d class. (wound, right leg)*
WILLIAM, LEVERY, Apprentice, lst class. (wound, left leg, very slight)*
HERBERT L. FOSS, Seaman. *
NICK ERICKSON, Coxswain. *
FREEMAN GILL, Gunners Mate, 1st class. *
JOHN MAXWELL, Fireman, 2d class. *
LEONARD CHADWICK, Apprentice, lst class. *
JAMES MEREDITH, Private, U. S. M. C. *
EDWARD SULLIVAN, Private, U. S. M. C. *
DANIEL CAMPBELL, Private, U. S. M. C. *
PATRICK REGAN, Private, U.S.M.C. (fatally wounded)
E. SUNTZENICH, Apprentice, 1st Class
JULIUS A. R. WILKE, Boatswains mate, 1st Class*

Lt. Winslow was slightly wounded in the hand.

Labels: Fullbore, Heroes

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:37

President Barack Obama will restart military tribunals for a small number of Guantanamo detainees, reviving a trial system he once said the Bush administration had abused, but with new legal protections for terror suspects, U.S. officials said.

Labels: Take a Powder

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:31

Labels: Me

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 13:42

The Saudi Navy is said to be still favoring the FREMM-class frigate and the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) for its frigate programme. The following 403-word report included in Tactical Weekly of May 8, 2009, focuses on the subject and tells why the Saudi Navy still favors the FREMM-class frigate. It also tells whether it still prefer the LCS-1 built by Lockheed Martin to the LCS-2 built by General Dynamics. Besides, the report tells what about the other offers.

Type: Frigate
Displacement: 6,000 tonnes
Length: 142 m
Beam: 20 m
Draught: 5 m
Propulsion: GE/Avio LM 2500 G4 gas turbine 34 MW + 2 EPM (4 D/Gen 2.1 MW)
Speed: Over 27 knots (50 km/h)
Range: 6,000 nautical miles (11,000 km)
Complement: 108 (accommodation available for 145)
Sensors and processing systems: Herakles (Fr) or Empar (It) radar

Armament:

MU 90 torpedoes
MM-40 Exocet block 3 (France version), Teseo\Otomat Mk-2/A (Italian version)
MBDA Aster SAAM
Otobreda 76 mm SR gun
Further armament depending of variante
Aircraft carried: 1 (Fr), 2 (It)NH90 helicopter, capability for EH101 (It)

Labels: LCS

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:50

The problem is, the charges against McKiernan don't stick. In a media briefing last autumn, shortly after taking command, McKiernan set out a clear, thought-through, and politically subtle strategy. More troops were needed, especially in the south, after years of neglect due to Iraq. But reinforcements alone were not the answer.

"We can win all the tactical battles but that doesn't mean we win. To win, we have to win the battle of ideas," he said. "We must define winning in Afghan terms: meaning improved security, reduced civilian casualties, trustworthy government, economic and social progress."

McKiernan spoke of the need to increase Afghan army forces, provide a better-respected police force, root out foreign jihadis and Taliban extremists, and seek regional solutions via a "bottom-up" approach. "Most Afghans don't want the re-emergence of the Taliban. But we need a greater commitment by the international community ... Afghanistan will not ultimately be a military outcome. Isaf will not run out of bad people to kill. It will be a political solution."

These approaches accurately reflect Obama's Afghan policy, except McKiernan was already pursuing it six months before Obama made it his own. So the question remains: why was he fired?

One answer seems to lie with General David Petraeus, the Centcom commander and hero of the Iraq surge. Petraeus was the baleful, missing figure in the room when Gates and Mullen wielded the knife. Subordinate to McKiernan in Iraq, he is now his superior. The two men are not said to be close. McKiernan had allegedly been slow to adopt Petraeus's favoured counter-insurgency tactics, such as co-opting local tribal groups (as in Iraq). McChrystal, in contrast, is a special operations expert with a reputation for hunting down "high value" enemy targets.

But personal and tactical disagreements are not the whole story. The preoccupation of both Gates and Mullen with the urgent need to turn Afghanistan around rapidly reflects the pressure they are under from a White House that inherited a war it does not really want to fight and is not convinced it can win. McKiernan warned last year that a satisfactory outcome would take a decade, perhaps 14 years. For his political bosses, that was way too long.

The changes in command underscore the impression that Obama, abandoning long-term nation-building goals, is looking for quick, minimalist results in Afghanistan, chiefly containing and deflating the insurgency. His aides don't want the war dragging on when he stands for re-election in 2012.

In this latter respect, this week's developments mark another stage in the "re-Americanisation" of the Afghan war.

Jack Keane, an influential retired general who lobbied for the dismissal of Gen
McKiernan, said the senior Pentagon leadership had "made a tough call, but also the right call".

"The problem with Gen McKiernan was his lack of experience dealing with irregular warfare and counter-insurgency and his inability to really put in place a comprehensive counterinsurgency strategy," said Gen Keane.

Labels: Afghanistan

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:37

Issue: Diversity Retention/Mentoring Summit
Discussion: To build on the momentum from the February Diversity Accessions Summit hosted by Navy Recruiting Command, RADM Dan Holloway (N13) will host a summit focusing on diversity retention and mentoring to be held in Washington, D.C., 12-13 May. The agenda will include retention briefings from PERS 41, 42, and 43, restricted line communities, and the Center for Career Development. Additionally, we will include Mentoring Pilot updates from the enterprises.
Desired Effect: Discuss our collective actions to date and gain an overarching understanding of what we must do to effectively mentor and retain our diverse leaders.
Action: None. FYSA only.

Labels: Diversity

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:15

Review here.

In the anarchic days of the Iranian Revolution, Ghorban-Ali had found work as a prison guard in a neighboring town. There, he met a 14-year-old girl whom he wanted to marry. Polygamy was encouraged in Ayatollah Khomeini's Iran, but Ghorban-Ali didn't want to support two families, and did not desire to return his wife's dowry. How to rid himself of his "old" wife? That was the easy part. Accuse her of infidelity. No matter that her husband had not actually seen anything untoward, or that Soraya was completely innocent, or that her husband's cynical accusations were only backed up by his cousin, who as it turned out had been coerced into concurring with the vaguest of accusations: a smile here, a brushed hand there.

What court of law would find someone guilty on such flimsy evidence? A "sharia" court is the answer. And so Soraya was convicted. The sentence was death-death by stoning.

Labels: Iran, Islam, Movies

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 12:57

Chinese subs leaving port to hide in deep water must be identified and followed as they sortie out from the shallow waters. Now a significant capability of the Zumwalt-class destroyer becomes essential - the ability to defend itself with a significant punch while locating, tracking and identifying Chinese submarines in the cluttered littoral waters off Hainan Island and elsewhere.

Should a Chinese ballistic submarine make a run for open water in times of a building crisis, a future Zumwalt destroyer can tag it in shallow water, follow it to blue water and pass that intelligence along to a Burke destroyer and American attack submarines. This not only keeps America safer, it also keeps American sailors safer.

Labels: ASW, DDG-1000

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:47

"[Y]ou've got two and a half centuries...where the Romans are busy killing each other every few years [in civil wars]. It can only have done huge damage, and yet for some reason it never really gets a mention when anyone looks at the fall of the Roman empire," says Adrian Goldsworthy, author of How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpower.

Labels: Books

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:46

Labels: Republicans, Senate

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 11:50

Labels: Heroes

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:23

The U.S. Naval Academy released a graphic novel Thursday to attract minority students and applicants from areas that don't send many students to the college, using sharp drawings, tales of saving the world and sound-effect words such as "FZZZZZZZ" and "FZAAAAAAT."

Adm. Fowler has made diversity a priority at the academy, and minority characters play a prominent role in the story. The 4,500 minority applications for the class of 2013 were the most ever received at the school founded in 1845.

"Them there dark-skinned minority kids have trouble reading like our normal kids here in the USA and just don't seem to get it. Let's see if we can hook a few of those boys by putting some pictures in front of them so they can understand."

"Bravo Zulu" tells the story of five midshipmen on the day of their induction at the academy. They envision their futures during a night in an ornate crypt under the academy's chapel, a shrine to Revolutionary War hero John Paul Jones.

One student touches Jones' sarcophagus to a thunderous "FZZZZZZZ" and sees "Destruction. Despair ... the world is on the brink of chaos. It's strange how the decisions of one can affect so many ... and sometimes the entire planet."

The student then is shown "a future where you graduate first in your class and are assigned to the [carrier] Ronald Reagan."

"Then one day ... while on watch navigating the ship ... you spot a pirate ship ... in the cornerstone of evil in the world." Panels illustrate the student peering through binoculars and spotting two armed pirates on a ship in the distance.

A shadowy adult character who earlier chided the students for not being able to "see past the next five minutes to your future" tells the student: "Your eyes caught what no one else would have. And no one else might."

Another student envisions being a doctor on the hospital ship Comfort and going on to "be the doctor to one of the greatest presidents of the United States."

The publication, which had an initial run of about 100,000 at a cost of 40 cents a copy, will be distributed during outreach programs throughout the country.

"This is a first edition," Adm. Fowler said. "We are under way planning the second one and we're going to see how it's received and what its effect is before we decide how much further we go."

Labels: Diversity, USNA

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:10

Labels: Economics

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:09

Labels: Movies

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:06

The Pentagon will replace its top general in Afghanistan as President Barack Obama tries to turn around a stalemated war, defense officials said.

The exit of Gen. David McKiernan comes as more than 21,000 additional U.S. forces begin to arrive in Afghanistan, dispatched by Obama to confront the Taliban more forcefully this spring and summer.

McKiernan, on the job about a year, has asked repeatedly for additional forces. Obama’s revamped strategy for Afghanistan does markedly increase the number of U.S. forces in the country but focuses on nonmilitary solutions as a better long-term solution.

Military officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said McKiernan will be replaced by Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the announcement. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was likely to announce the new leadership in Afghanistan later today, an official said.

Labels: Afghanistan

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 15:31

[about LCS] We need to think of the best way to operate the ship and maintain the ship with 40 people and not being overly consumed with cosmetics. Cosmetics are man-hours.

I don't like anything that creates work.

"SSLCM Activity will execute the complex task of maximizing the material readiness of our current Fleet by ensuring each and every ship in our inventory is ready to respond to their missions today, tomorrow, and well into the 21st century," said Vice Adm. Kevin McCoy, commander of NAVSEA. "And as we continue to build our future Fleet, particularly as our Littoral Combat Ships come online, every newly commissioned ship will be meticulously tracked right out of the gate to ensure our warfighters, our taxpayers and our nation get the most out of these national assets."

Labels: CNO, Diversity, LCS, Shipbuilding

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:25

... the Virginia class is over budget by $45.6 million (~2%), the LPD-17 is over budget by $99.3 million(~6%), and the DDG-1000 is already over budget by $309.6 million (~9%).

Like I said, we don't know why, perhaps John Young who touted "on cost, on schedule" all last year can make himself available for comment?

Considering this is previous fiscal year, it happened before October 1, 2008, over 6 months ago and more importantly after Congress pushed ahead with the third DDG-1000 in the FY09 budget. One can't help but have a really bad feeling when the new $3.5 billion dollar destroyer that has only been under construction for 3 months is already 9% over budget.

The DDG-1000 may get fixed price contracts for the 2nd and 3rd ship, but something tells me the first one is going to cost a lot more than John Young's $3.5 billion number, and I won't be surprised if it costs more than the 55,000 ton yet to be built brand new USS America (LHA 6) when it is all said and done.

Labels: DDG-1000

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:23

The tiny Swiss canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden has voted to prohibit the phenomenon of naked hiking.

Anyone found wandering the Alps wearing nothing but a sturdy pair of hiking boots will now be fined.

Appenzell is considered one of the most conservative regions of Switzerland; it gave women the vote only in 1990.

Locals have been outraged by an apparent upsurge in hikers who think the best way to appreciate the mountains is with their clothes off.

The vote was taken with a show of hands at Appenzell's annual Landsgemeinde, an open-air meeting of all registered voters held in the town square.

Appenzell is one of only two Swiss cantons that still decide local government policy in this way.

There was a big majority in favour of prohibiting naked hiking, and introducing fines of Sfr 200 ($175).

Labels: Europe

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:31

Labels: Cartoon

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:22

Labels: Movies

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 17:53

President Obama is quietly keeping his options open on offshore oil projects. He told Democratic lawmakers last week that his administration may consider more drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf.

The May 5 meeting with members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee had been called to discuss climate change legislation.

But Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., asked if the White House was going to reinstate the moratorium on drilling that lapsed last year, according to lawmakers there. Obama replied that he would not, because the country might need to develop those resources. “The president was fairly pointed in saying we need to have domestic production,” said Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas,who backs such drilling.

According to Green, Obama said: “We are not going to drill everywhere off the shore of every state, but, if there is reason to get there, we think we can produce it (in an) environmentally safe (manner) in our own country.”

Labels: Energy

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 11:23

Labels: Aircraft, Fullbore, Navy

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:59

• VH-71.
• CSAR-X.
• TSAT.
• 2nd ABL.

• DDG-1000.
• F-22.
• C-17.
  

Labels: Navy

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 16:13

The top U.S. military officer on Monday called for more innovative approaches to military challenges, saying that throwing money at new weapons programs wasn't always the answer.

Labels: Shipbuilding

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 15:40

The United States’ maritime supremacy allows the Defense Department to slow production of sea-based defense systems, Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III said today at the Navy League’s annual Sea-Air-Space Exposition in Oxon Hill, Md.

Lynn addressed the group days before the department is slated to submit its budget proposal to Congress. Echoing remarks Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates made last month when announcing his budget recommendations, Lynn said the new fiscal breakdown reflects the need to balance traditional and unconventional capabilities.

“The United States stands alone unsurpassed on, above and below the seas,” Lynn said. “One consideration as we rebalance the department’s priorities is that the military dominance that we enjoy is greater in some areas than in others. We look for ways to strengthen irregular warfare capabilities while maintaining the overwhelming edge we enjoy in conventional capabilities.”

Labels: Navy

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 15:35

If at first you can’t compete, run to the government and cry “DIVERSITY!”

Labels: Diversity

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:54

Labels: Humor

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:07

The Pentagon Tuesday played down a confrontation between Chinese vessels and one of its Navy surveillance ships, taking a decidedly more low-key tone than during similar incidents two months ago.

The Pentagon did release a brief statement on the latest confrontation in which two Chinese fishing vessels came dangerously close — to within 30 yards — of the USNS Victorious Friday as it was operating in the Yellow Sea.

The Victorious crew sounded its alarm and shot water from its fire hoses to try to deter the vessels in an hour-long incident, one official said. The vessels didn't leave until the Victorious radioed a nearby Chinese military vessel for help, said Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman.

Labels: China, Long Game

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 13:35

The chief executive of a shipping company urged Congress on Tuesday to pass legislation allowing vessels to carry armed security.

Testifying before a Senate subcommittee, Philip J. Shapiro of Liberty Maritime Corp. said that although an 1819 statute gave ships the right to defend themselves, they still were subject to laws and inconsistent port rules governing whether armed vessels could dock.

...the incidents constituted a "game changer." He said Liberty Maritime and other shipping companies wanted Congress to "clear the obstacles" that stand in the way of ship operators protecting their crews and cargo with armed force.

"We're doing everything we lawfully can do, but frankly . . . we need the authority to put guns on our ships, to arm our ships, so that our people can be protected," Shapiro said.

Until legislation is enacted, Shapiro said, the military must protect ships that fly the U.S. flag. "Our ships need protection now -- not six or nine months from now," he said.
But the military says it is spread too thin and the sea off the coast of Somalia is too vast to protect U.S. merchant vessels.
...
Roy Kienitz, transportation's undersecretary of policy, said many "complicated factors" must be addressed before the shipping industry can hire private armed guards, such as developing rules on use of force and compliance at various world ports.

Undersecretary of Defense Michele Flournoy told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee in another hearing Tuesday that it was the responsibility of the shipping companies to invest in methods to thwart attacks -- which, she said, many had been reluctant to do.

"Ships from all over the world transit the Gulf of Aden and use the shipping lanes along the east coast of Somalia," Flournoy said. "But many assume unrealistically that there is no need for more robust shipboard security measures because military forces will always be present to intervene if pirates attack."
...
Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, compared onboard security to that used in a shopping mall. He said the responsibility for protecting ships belonged in the private sector.
...
Lautenberg, who chairs a Senate commerce subcommittee with jurisdiction over the maritime industry, likened the military's approach to the reactive response of alarm companies. He noted at a hearing on how to best protect U.S. ships that many merchant ships under siege by pirates off the waters of Somalia are delivering humanitarian supplies.

"At what point do we say it's our responsibility? We have to have ... cops on the beat there because we know there's trouble on these streets," said Lautenberg, D-N.J. "What is wrong with organizing ourselves to protect these ships?"

"We expect folks to provide their own security," Levin said. "Why should we not expect that ships that are vulnerable going into that area will provide their own security personnel?"

According to eyewitnesses, two passengers came screaming into the bar and gesticulated wildly as they addressed the captain. A speed boat had appeared at the stern and several armed men were preparing to board the cruise ship, they said. One was already trying to scale the vessel. Several passengers were desperately grabbing deck chairs and tables and hurling them down at the men trying to board the ship.
That's when the first shots were fired. It was also the point at which the captain understood what was happening -- his ship was being attacked by pirates.

Pinto radioed an alarm code to his crew and ordered all passengers to go below deck, immediately. He then ran to the bridge. The pirates continued to try to board the ship. Pinto opened the safe and handed pistols to the security guards on board. He then called on the helmsman to steer the ship on a zig-zag course to fend off the pirates by creating large waves. The security guards, who by then had arrived at the ship's stern, fired two warning shots into the air.

Within a few minutes, the acute danger appeared to have been averted. The fact that the cruise ship's crew were armed apparently surprised the pirates. According to the account given by the MSC Cruises company, the pirates then rode away in their speedboat, but not before firing a few salvos at the ship with their AK-47 rifles. Window panes were shattered and bullets thudded into the ship's side.
"It was like war," the captain proudly announced on an Italian radio station the next morning. The crew and security personnel had defended themselves from the attack professionally, he said.

During war or threat to national security:

(a) The President, through any agency of the Department of Defense designated by him, may arm, have armed, or allow to be armed, any watercraft or aircraft that is capable of being used as a means of transportation on, over, or under water, and is documented, registered, or licensed under the laws of the United States.
(b) This section applies during a war and at any other time when the President determines that the security of the United States is threatened by the application, or the imminent danger of application, of physical force by any foreign government or agency against the United States, its citizens, the property of its citizens, or their commercial interests.

Labels: Pirates

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 12:56

A military usher suggests to a guest a better location than the crosshall of the White House to change a baby's diaper before an event in the East Room in Washington May 1, 2009.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:58

Labels: Politics

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 14:32

Labels: Media

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 10:31

Labels: Moonbats

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:04

...on Hardball tonight, Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) said for the record what many of us have long inferred--that he's "thinking of getting in" to Pennsylvania's 2010 Democratic primary.

He's come a long way. Seems like only yesterday, he was standing by his position that he was perfectly happy in the House and had no intention of dropping out. But in reality that was more like four days ago, and even then he was putting in a lot of face time on the networks.

Now when he appears, he reiterates themes and everything--questioning Specter's sincerity and leadership, touting his military record, and referencing a local diner in his district (where it seems he spends an inordinate amount of time). But still, this counts as a bit of news.

Again, 2010 is a long way off, and Specter will cast many-a-vote between now and then. But it's becoming pretty clear that Sestak isn't going to let him breathe easy along the way.

(Sestak on Specter running unopposed in Democrat Senate Primary)"It isn't Washington's decision.."

"I'll wait and see. Is he gonna be for what we believe in. if it's not good for Pennsylvania, well then we'll make that decision."

Labels: Sestak

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:52

Issue: Discovery Channel Documentary

Discussion: Discovery Channel continues work on a 3-part documentary focusing on various aspects of the Maritime Strategy in action. The series is expected to air around Labor Day 2009. The intent of this project is to provide the American public with a comprehensive view of the Navy through interesting and compelling television. A Discovery Channel embark was recently completed in the C5F AOR for the at-sea mini series. The trip was a success, with filming aboard various ships to include the USS BOXER (LHD 4) and USS EISENHOWER (CVN 69). The next step is the production of vignettes for use by Navy Recruiting. A Discovery production crew will be traveling to Monterey, CA this week to shoot a segment on the CTI community. CTI1(NAC) Angel Diaz, serving as an instructor at the Defense Language Institute, will be interviewed for the segment. He is fluent in both Spanish and Arabic and is an outstanding Sailor.

Desired effect: Showcase the 21st century Navy in a unique and compelling way across a multitude of communication mediums. Discovery Channel intends to air this production in both English and Spanish.

Action: None. FYSA only.

Labels: The Maritime Strategy

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:44

Labels: Blogg'n, Broadside, Cartoon

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:19

Labels: WWII

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:37

Most humans have only one hair color and one eye color. Europeans are a big exception: their hair is black but also brown, flaxen, golden, or red; their eyes are brown but also blue, gray, hazel, or green. This diversity reaches a maximum in an area centered on the East Baltic and covering northern and eastern Europe. If we move outward, to the south and east, we see a rapid return to the human norm: hair becomes uniformly black and eyes uniformly brown.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:31

Labels: Fullbore, Heroes, Submarine

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:16