On a regular basis would be nice ....

We could use the training.

A pair of nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines has been patrolling off the eastern seaboard of the United States over recent days, a rare mission that has raised concerns inside the Pentagon and intelligence agencies about a more assertive stance by the Russian military.

The episode has echoes of the cold war era, when the United States and the Soviet Union regularly parked submarines off each other’s coasts to steal military secrets, track the movements of their underwater fleets — and be poised for war.

Make a port visit or two out of it as well. The folks at the pier in Newport or Groton would put on a fine liberty call for 'ya.

Just don't go on liberty anywhere south of NYC -- still too hot this time of year.

Oh, and anyone who is worried about this is a fool.

Have a CAPT Speicher POW/MIA bracelet?

It has become a tradition to wear a POW/MIA bracelet or dog tag until the person named is accounted for or comes home. A lot of bracelet wearers want to return the memento to the family.

They are requested not to attempt to contact the Orange Park family directly but to use the following procedure:

Write a letter to the family, making sure to include a name and an address should they choose to respond.

Place the letter and the bracelet in an envelope, write a return address, add the proper postage and send it to:
The Family of Capt. M. Scott Speicher,
c/o Military Affairs Office, City of Jacksonville
117 W. Duval St., Suite 175,
Jacksonville, FL 32202.

Hat tip Byron.

Sestak's in

"One step closer to the Whitehouse!", cackles Tim the Enchanter.

Rep. Joe Sestak announced on Tuesday he would challenge Republican-turned-Democrat Sen. Arlen Specter, setting the stage for a Pennsylvania primary race likely to center on Specter’s Democratic credentials.

Sestak, a former Navy vice admiral, made the announcement at a crowded VFW hall in Folsom in his suburban Philadelphia district, near where he grew up. He scheduled five campaign stops in Pennsylvania on Tuesday and Wednesday.

He is actually a retired RADM ... but you have to click the Sestak tag to get the details.

Did you hug your SM-3 today?

Defending against the dive bomber of the 21st Century, perchance.

The greatest threat to U.S. missile defenses are short- and medium-range weapons, the director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said today.

“Ninety-nine percent of the threat today” is from these types of missiles, Army Lieutenant General Patrick O’Reilly told Bloomberg Television in an interview. Defending against these missiles “is where the administration is focusing the majority of our funding.”

The administration’s proposed 13 percent cut in the agency’s budget wouldn’t affect current missile defenses because most of the funding lost would be for systems still being developed, O’Reilly said.

“We are not reducing the missile defense capability we have today and that we’ve built in the last couple of decades,” he said.

The approaches to the Taiwan Straits - if we still consider that inside our concerns - are looking tougher and tougher with each passing year.

Like I said before - the strategy of the porcupine is a good one. Make it not worth the trouble and you are fine.

WWII from a different angle

In a review of Andrew Roberts new book (not yet out), The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War, there seemed to be a couple of interesting things that might make it worth reading another WWII book. From The Economist.

Even war buffs may be surprised to learn that the supposedly supine Vichy regime in France executed German spies, or that more Frenchmen fought on the Axis side than with the Allies. A nutty British official in charge of Malta put Sabbath observance ahead of unloading ships, at terrible cost. Another nearly lost the vital battle for Kohima, the gateway to India, because he wanted to keep to peacetime rules restricting the use of barbed wire. Orde Wingate, the hero of the Chindits’ campaign in Burma, was an ardent nudist who never bathed. (He scrubbed himself with a stiff brush, instead.)

I knew the French thing ... and the Brit stuff isn't a shocker, but it is a way to make history a bit more interesting.

Here is one thing that should get E40's balls in an uproar,

He does not believe, for example, that the Soviet army’s inaction during the Warsaw uprising in 1944 was a cynical attempt to let the Nazis deal with the anticommunist Polish resistance: the real reason was that the Red Army’s lines of communication had been overstretched by its rapid advance westward.

Ponderable.

Bad job by his publisher, Harper-Collins. They have people out there writing reviews, but no way to pre-order on Amazon.

The fault lies with ourselves ....

I saw the transition --- I just got the last bit of the Officer Club culture.

Just seven officers' clubs remain on Army installations in the USA — down from about 100 in the late 1970s. The Marine Corps, which boasted dozens of officers' clubs in the mid-1980s, has 10 left. The Air Force has nine, down from 27 in 2003, and the Navy is down to 20. Clubs are nearing extinction because of changing demographics of today's armed forces; what the military calls the "deglamorization" of alcohol; economic realities; cultural shifts; and the availability of wider dining choices nearby.

The last nail in the coffin was the mass institutional cowardice post Tailhook when the then JOs saw lots of innocent and outstanding officers thrown under the bus for no reason other then to protect the careers of those more senior.

Let this be clear. Officers spend no more time with their families now than they did in the 1980s. They don't drink less. They probably smoke less, but at the same rate as comparable professionals in the civilian ranks.

Here is what happened. In the last couple of decades I know people who have been told to stop smoking if they wanted a chance for command, as important people would not support smokers in their community. Where as a JO I enjoyed quite a few good time on the town with more senior officers, only a fool would be found having more than one beer around anyone who owns paper on them or could impact community support for command --- unless you knew that person very well. If you did, you would in no way do it on base or anywhere near a base.

As a LT, I saw a peer get a DUI charge on base after literally having only 1 beer. How do I know? I was with him from 0645 to 1930 when he left the O-Club Hail & Farewell. He was stopped by the goose-steppers who were targeting the O-club. He fought it hard, but it was 1 annual and 1 Change of Command FITREP later that they dropped all charges against him and he could drive on base again. By then it was too late.

One of the regular things I told my JOs is that every event social or otherwise should be considered a work event. Never have more than one beer on base, and never be in the last half of the people who leave the gathering.

When on liberty, only go on liberty with those you trust the most --- and avoid anyone more than three year-groups senior to you.

Yep, clubs are dead and the fault is 100% with the uniformed leadership. If you cannot and will not defend your culture, then no one will. Maybe that culture needed to die, but you know what --- as you have seen with Retro Wednesday, it wasn't all bad. Yes, there used to be strippers at O-clubs back in the day ... but ... that was then.

Perfect? No. Better? Maybe not. Lost? Forever.

Support the O-club? Mandatory membership? Bah! If you suck the fun out of everything and remove any cost differential, people will vote with their feet - as they have. It is much better to sit on your back porch drinking scotch with a friend or two.

The whole wardroom? On base? At an O-club? Having drinks? Playing drinking games? Singing off-color songs? Now? As a JO? With a paternalistic, teetotaler, busy-body Commodore perchance coming by?

No. Way. Might as well show up at a Dining Out with her.

Idears - we've got us some idears 'dair....

Over at his home blog and USNIBlog, ADM Harvey asks,

What are some of your ideas concerning how we ensure our warfighting capabilities like ASW / BMD / Strike, etc. keep pace with the threat, while we also ensure we are prepared to combat “irregular” threats like terrorism, cyber-hackers, and piracy? And how do we best accomplish all this during a time when the great pressure on our budgets will not allow us to just “buy our way” out of the problem?

Well, in comments, Grampa Bluewater had some "out of the box" thinking going on. They don't directly address all of the points ADM Harvey raised - but they do address some macro issues that are part of the problem/context.

I'm not onboard with all GB's ideas - but those I think that should be considered I have in bold/underline.

Retire every even digital lineal number flag officer. Abolish billet for same.

Delay all promotion flow points 2 years.

Retire every third O6 at 25 years.

Allow no officer on the staff 05 and above to have more than two commissioned subordinates.

Send no LT to a staff. (Editorial note: I would make this "Reduce LT Staff billets by half. Of the remaining half, only half of those should be line officers." On the same theme, I would remove all LT and LCDR from JPME and/or War College requirements/orders. Save that for post-CDR Command.)

Make every shipboard DH a 3 year tour, XO's 2 year, CO 2 year.

Send no one but successful post CO's to CSO. Change title to "Staff XO."

Ens and JG go to sea except for family hardship or medical cases.
If problem unfixable in 4 years max, hardship or medical discharge or in rare cases LOA, slipping back a yr gr for every year on LOA.

Result, much smaller, smarter staffs.

Ponderable as a cost savings, efficiency focused, forward looking concept.