Sunday Funnies

SEAL Charge Sheets - read 'em and weep

From the official press release.

Based upon the evidence uncovered in this investigation, three Sailors were accused of making false official statements with the intent to deceive the investigator and dereliction of duty for failing to safeguard a detainee who was in their custody.

One of the three Sailors has been charged with assaulting the detainee after the prisoner had been apprehended and while he was in their custody at the base.

Another has been charged with an additional offense of impeding an investigation by unlawfully attempting to influence a witness in the investigation.

At the conclusion of the investigation, the three Sailors were offered non-judicial punishment as a means of resolving the allegations. All three Sailors exercised their right under Article 15 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice to refuse the administrative punishment. After this refusal, the attached charges were then referred to Special Courts-martial.
...
Two of the Sailors are scheduled to be arraigned on Dec. 7 beginning at 9 a.m. at the Regional Legal Service Office at Naval Station Norfolk, Va. The proceeding is scheduled to last one hour.

The third Sailor's arraignment has not been scheduled. Trial dates are tentatively scheduled for mid-January 2010 at Naval Station Norfolk.

Read the charge sheets yourself here.

Feel free to make any Air Force jokes you want to.

Hat tip Maggie.

Dude?

Hat tip Lee.

Admiral Harvey - be careful where you dig ....

This will leave a mark.

The Navy has relieved the commanding officer of the Norfolk-based USS James E. Williams due to loss of confidence in his ability to command. Cmdr. Paul Marquis has been reassigned to administrative duties. He will be replaced by by Cmdr. Anthony J. Linardi.

The ship's command master chief, Master Chief Petty Officer Timothy Youell, was also relieved as a result of the substandard performance of his duties. The Navy says the ship's prospective command master chief is Master Chief Petty Officer James Stuart.

The relief comes after nine James E. Williams' Sailors received nonjudicial punishment last month, following investigations of charges of fraternization between senior and junior enlisted personnel aboard the ship.

"Such a large number of fraternization cases in one command is a clear indication of a leadership failure," stated Adm. J. C. Harvey, Jr., commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command. "This leadership failure fostered a command climate that allowed the fraternization to occur. The responsibility of the commanding officer for his or her command is absolute. It is our tradition that with responsibility goes authority and with them both goes accountability. This accountability is not for the intentions, but for the deed. Nobody trusts or has confidence in leaders who believe they cannot be held accountable for what they do. And when confidence and trust are lost in those who lead, we fail. The James E. Williams' commanding officer and command master chief are being held accountable for the fraternization that occurred on their watch."

Additionally, the Williams' executive officer, Cmdr. Daniel D. Sunvold, will be reassigned as the executive officer on USS Bainbridge.

OK, this is a touchy subject - but I will go there.

First of all, everything Admiral Harvey says is true and good. Here is the rub: this is a huge problem in the Fleet, and if we are going to have a "Not on my watch; not on my ship; not in my Navy" attitude towards Shipmates bump'n uglies - then stand the fark by.

It is widespread and largely ignored. Why is it ignored? Because it is widespread. Why is it widespread? Because people are terrified about what will happen if they hold someone accountable.

The minute you bring OS2 Nicfit to mast for gerspunkeng YNSN Bubblicious in a fan room - then the OS2 is going to say, "What about BM1 Navaljelly and ITCS Perdiemsponge?" You take ITCS to mast and then she will ask, "What about LT Firmbuns and ENS Noqual?" Oh, and half of them are married, and YNSN has 45 minutes of gerspunking video with four partners spanning three fanrooms and two sponsons, and OS2 is filing a CMEO complaint because he is the only left-handed Lithuanian on the ship and is the only one going to mast - oh and to add to your pleasure the YNSN just made a hotline complaint for lord knows what.

Before you know it you have nine people going to mast and your ISIC and/or FFOITCOC does this number.



I have watched COs twist themselves into pretzels to avoid the subject. I have seen PRD cycles adjusted to get rid of problems. I have see commands stand by and do nothing as marriages and watch sections were torn apart due to fraternization everyone knew about - all because they were terrified of what would happen if they finally held someone accountable.

If this is the start of an accountability project WRT fraternization, then very well; you have my full support. Just be advised, this will be a long, costly and expensive enterprise. This has been a nasty habit for a long time. This isn't a one ship problem, and the habit starts at a Sailor's first command - and many times in bootcamp.

Just look at the number of single mothers we produce in the Navy (as a past CNP, you know the stats). Talk to the 19-yr old Sailors who will not identify the father of their child because he is a married E6 or an E8. I have.

Talk to the COs who look the other way about the problem. I have. Watch those officers put on star after star. I have. That is the example I saw starting as an ENS.

Our officers learn it early. As we all know, this is a very common activity at Annapolis - our officers learn that habit as well - and they are not held accountable.

Is there a whole lot more to this story? Of course. What would be interesting to know is how those nine went to Mast. Was it the COs idea? Did he only do it after pressure from the ISIC?

Once again; Admiral Harvey - you've made a clear statement. Short and tight. I don't think you need to repeat it or clarify your remarks. That is D&G anyone can run with.

What I think a lot of us are looking for is the follow through. Give top cover to your COs who decide to execute your D&G. Help them survive the false accusations via hotline complaints that will come as a result. Help everyone from you to that CO to stiffen their spine when the gnashing of teeth and rending of clothes at the "unfairness" of it all comes along. When the retaliatory claims are made.

If you are serious, then you have a long, hard slog ahead. With real top-cover, you will get the results you want. If there is even a hint of a lack of top cover, then we will go back to SOP - make the lump under the rug higher and thicker - and hope no one notices until the end of the PCS cycle.

The time to act is now;

The Navy plans to target more female recruits in 2010. Currently, 15.4 percent of the Navy enlisted force are females, and the Navy wants to increase that number to at least 20 percent. While the overall active duty enlisted recruiting goal for 2010 remains the same (35,000), the Navy hopes to recruit at least 7,996 female recruits (up from 7,474 in fiscal year 2009).

According to officials, the Navy wants women in "nontraditional" ratings, such as engineering and combat systems, instead of the clerical or health care fields women have to volunteer for in the past.

With an increasing number of women - there are more opportunities for this to take place.

That is in no way an anti-female comment (I actually like women in the Navy) - that is simple biology, statistics, and the fallen nature of man ... and woman.

---

UPDATE: Looks like a bit more blood on the floor.

The Navy has fired the commanding officer, command master chief and five other chiefs....

Fullbore Friday

We have lost an iconic figure - and a Salamander favorite. Those who know me well will know why. Not just for this,

Colonel Millett, a career Army officer who was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1951 after leading a bayonet charge up a hill in Korea, said in a 2006 interview, “I must be the only regular Army colonel who has ever been court-martialed and convicted of desertion.’’

Yep - that is a man's man.

Retired Col. Lewis L. Millett, who received the Medal of Honor during the Korean War for leading what was reportedly the last major American bayonet charge, died Nov 14.

Millett, 88, died in Loma Linda, Calif., last weekend after serving for more than 15 years as the honorary colonel of the 27th Infantry Regiment Association.

I read about him a few years ago and his leadership style brought a nod and a smile to my face - and brought many of his men home.

On February 5, 1951, it was moving through a frozen rice paddy west of the road running south out of Osan. Suddenly, the crackle of enemy machine-gun fire broke the morning air. The first platoon found itself pinned down. Chinese were emplaced on two hills straddling the road. Their fire picked up. The bullets whistled through the air, slapping into the ice.

"Second platoon!" Millett hollered. "Fix bayonets--move to the left of the first." Then Millett was off, shouting, "C’mon with me!" He bounded to the base of the hill. There he waited for his platoons to form up. "We’ll kill‘m with the bayonet! Let’s go!" he yelled when they were ready. Up the hill the two platoons went, all the GIs yelling at the top of their voices. Above them, Millett appeared on the skyline, rifle in one hand, waving his men upward with the other. Even as he did so, Chinese soldiers scurried from their foxholes, skittering down the reverse slope helter-skelter.

By the time the two platoons joined Millett on the crest only a few enemy stragglers remained. They were quickly dispatched. To the rear, the rest of Millett’s battalion observed the audacious charge. The colonel quickly came forward to shake Millett’s hand and congratulate him for his courage. That night the colonel began the paperwork that would bring Millett the Distinguished Service Cross. Little did he know that Millett’s charge was but a rehearsal for what would come just forty-eight hours later.

At midday on February 7, Company E had the point for the battalion. Near the smoke-blackened village of Soam-ni, just west and south of Osan, they approached a ridge line. On military maps, it was designated Hill 180. To the men of Company E and the annals of U.S. military history it would forever be "Bayonet Hill."

Accompanied by two of his platoons astride tanks, Millett approached Hill 180, fully expecting to bypass it completely. Then one of his men noticed movement among the thick foliage near the top of the hill. It was crawling with Chinese. And Company E sat almost directly under their guns. Once apprised of the situation, Millett quickly ordered the tanks off the road. He got his two platoons deployed along a paddy dike.

By now the Chinese had opened fire. A number of Millett’s men fell, cut down by vicious machine-gun fire. Leaping aboard the nearest tank, Millett grabbed its .50-caliber machine gun. He sent a stream of tracers flying toward the enemy position. "Keep it going there," he told the gunner. Then he jumped off the tank and moved on. He knew from here on it was all a matter of timing. He had to get an attack under way quickly. He didn’t want these Chinese to get away like the others had two days earlier.

Millett called to one of his platoon leaders to get ready to move out. Seconds later, enfilading fire from a previously quiet Chinese machine gun tore into the first platoon. Casualties mounted. Then the .50-caliber machine gun supporting first platoon went silent--jammed with a ruptured cartridge. Millett swore under his breath. His attack was crumbling even before it started. He scrambled from his position and raced across the bullet-swept ground to the first platoon. Spotting the platoon sergeant as he barreled into position, Millett just hollered at the men, "Get ready to move out! We’re going up the hill. Fix bayonets! Charge! Everyone goes with me!" He raised his rifle and took out across the open fields.

Bounding from the small rises and hurdling the ditches, Millett kept his feet across the ice-covered ground. Behind him the platoon sergeant and a dozen men ran after Millett. Those who hadn’t followed were cut down minutes later as enemy machine-gun fire from Hill 180 zeroed in on them. When he reached the base of the hill, Millett flung himself down under a rocky outcropping while he waited for the others to catch up. After they did Millet motioned upward. "Let’s go!" he said. Dashing from rock to rock. Millett made the first of three small knobs that comprised Hill 180. The center and far knob rose some twenty meters higher. Millett spotted a Chinese machine gun to his left. He ordered a BAR to fire on it. Another soldier spotted eight Chinese squatting in a hole just ten yards from Millett. The captain ran to it, firing his carbine and throwing grenades. The enemy died.

Millett now radioed for his third platoon to come forward. After he had them in position Millett told them, "Attack straight up the hill!" With their bayonet-tipped rifles carried at high port, screaming Chinese phrases as they ran, Millett and his assembled men raced toward the two higher knobs. Lunging into the first line of enemy foxholes, the GIs ripped into the Chinese, bayonets first. The terror-filled shrieks of the bayoneted enemy rose above the din of battle. Millett was so far in front of his men he had to dodge grenades thrown by both sides. Ignoring the thundering explosions, he charged headlong at an anti-tank gun firing point-blank at him. A few well-tossed grenades took care of that weapon.

A cluster of grenades flew down from a Chinese position farther uphill. Millett danced and dodged around, avoiding the detonations of eight grenades. A ninth got him, sending hot steel shards into his back and legs. He could feel the blood coursing down his skin, drenching his fatigues beneath his parka. Unmindful of the intense pain, Millett continued his charge. He urged his men forward. "Let’s go!," he screamed. "Use grenades and cold steel! Kill ‘em with the bayonet!" At the crest of the highest knob he jumped into one arm of a V-shaped slit trench. With a savage thrust of his bayonet he impaled one enemy soldier. He had to fire a round to dislodge his weapon. A second enemy soldier rushed at Millett. The emboldened captain met him like a frenzied tiger, jamming his sharp steel blade into the man’s throat, ripping it wide open. A third Chinese, in the far arm of the V, raised his rifle. Before he could fire Millett was on him, slamming his blood-stained bayonet into the enemy soldier’s chest. While Millett dispatched the soldier, the rest of his men rushed past. Millett leaped after them. Together they went on, screaming and yelling, firing from the hip, ripping and stabbing enemy flesh with their bayonets, throwing grenades into bunkers and foxholes until they had completely eliminated the enemy from the hill.

When it was all over Millett stopped atop the saw-toothed ridge and pumped his bloody rifle up and down, signaling to those below he had conquered Bayonet Hill. After the battle forty-seven enemy dead were counted on the forward slope of the hill; thirty had died as a result of bayonet wounds. On the reverse slope lay another fifty enemy, dead of either bayonet or gunshot wounds. Witnesses estimated another hundred Chinese escaped.

Evacuated due to the seriousness of his wounds, Millett spent several months in the hospital recuperating. His Medal of Honor was presented to him at the White House on July 5, 1951.

Some wonder why his men were so well versed in the "archaic" bayonet. Well ...

A few weeks earlier, he had heard that the Chinese Army was circulating handbills among their troops accusing the Americans of being “afraid of cold steel”—the bayonet—so he had trained his men hard in the use of that weapon.

His Medal of Honor citation:

Capt. Millett, Company E, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action. While personally leading his company in an attack against a strongly held position he noted that the 1st Platoon was pinned down by small-arms, automatic, and antitank fire. Capt. Millett ordered the 3d Platoon forward, placed himself at the head of the 2 platoons, and, with fixed bayonet, led the assault up the fire-swept hill. In the fierce charge Capt. Millett bayoneted 2 enemy soldiers and boldly continued on, throwing grenades, clubbing and bayoneting the enemy, while urging his men forward by shouting encouragement. Despite vicious opposing fire, the whirlwind hand-to-hand assault carried to the crest of the hill. His dauntless leadership and personal courage so inspired his men that they stormed into the hostile position and used their bayonets with such lethal effect that the enemy fled in wild disorder. During this fierce onslaught Capt. Millett was wounded by grenade fragments but refused evacuation until the objective was taken and firmly secured. The superb leadership, conspicuous courage, and consummate devotion to duty demonstrated by Capt. Millett were directly responsible for the successful accomplishment of a hazardous mission and reflect the highest credit on himself and the heroic traditions of the military service.

A little side-bar to his life. He lost his youngest son with the 347 people who were killed returning from a peacekeeping mission in the Sinai.

He wrote the following in his memory:

A SOLDIER’S PRAYER - by Col. Lewis L. Millett

I’ve fought when others feared to serve.
I’ve gone where many failed to go.
I’ve lost friends in war and strife, who valued duty over the love of life.
I’ve shared the comradeship of pain
I’ve searched these lands for men that we’ve lost.
I’ve sons who’ve served our land of liberty who’d fight to see that other lands are free.
I’ve seen the weak forsake humanity.
I’ve heard fakers praise our enemy.
I’ve seen challenged men stand ever bolder.
I’ve seen the duty, the honor, the sacrifice of the soldier.
Now, I understand the meaning of all lives,
The lives of comrades of not so long ago.
So to you who answered duties siren call, may
God bless you my son, may God bless you all.

War leadership

UPDATE & BUMP - See bottom of post.

---

Z 020118ZDEC

FM CINC

TO ALLWORLD

BT

UNCLAS
MSGID/GENADMIN/CINC/WEST POINT NY/DEC//

SUBJ/AFG TIMELINE//

RMKS/1. BEGIN THE TRANSFER OF OUR FORCES OUT OF AFGHANISTAN IN JULY OF 2011.//
BT
#0000
NNNN

---

O 021530ZDEC
FM SECDEF
TO ALLWORLD
BT

UNCLAS
MSGID/GENADMIN/SECDEF/WASHINGTON DC/DEC//

SUBJ/AFG TIMELINE//
REF/A/020118ZDEC/CINC//
RMKS/1. REF A SHOULD BE SEEN AS A STATEMENT OF CINC STRONG INTENT. CINC ALWAYS HAS THE FREEDOM TO RE-EVALUATE HIS DECISIONS.//
BT
#0000
NNNN

---

R 022308ZDEC
FM CINC/PAO
TO ALLWORLD
BT

UNCLAS
MSGID/GENADMIN/CINC PAO/WASHINGTON DC/DEC//

SUBJ/AFG TIMELINE//
REF/A/021530ZDEC/SECDEF//

REF/B/020118ZDEC/CINC//
RMKS/1. CANCEL REF A. REF B REMAINS IN EFFECT.
2. CINC EMPHASIZES REF B IS LOCKED IN - THERE IS NO FLEXIBILITY. TROOPS WILL START COMING HOME IN JUL11. IT IS ETCHED IN STONE. PAO HAS CHISEL.//
BT
#0000
NNNN

---

Follow the links Shipmates. I don't make this stuff up.

SECDEF - you were just punked.

---

UPDATE: The goat roping spaz's along in a great expanding grabastic cluster.

Looks like McChrystal and SECSTATE were punk'd too. Hey - when you follow this link to Allah at HotAir and watch the video, you would almost think that SECSTATE learned Operational Planning from 'ole Phibian Salamander. Strange bedfellows, indeed.

Oh, wait ... visual .... unghhh ... errrrr .... I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry ....

---

UPDATE: The waters just get murkier.

July 2011 is not a withdrawal date, but a specific target date for beginning to transition security responsibility to Afghan forces, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said on several morning talk shows today.

“We’ve been given very clear direction from the president to start the transfer of responsibility for security to the Afghan security force,” Navy Adm. Mike Mullen said on “American Morning” on CNN. “July of 2011 is a time where we can start to transition, … but it’s not a hard deadline to leave.”

That does not match with what the CINC and his spokesman said yesterday.

I know very well what the transition phase of an operation is. I also know that a successful transition date is decided on by conditions. You set yourself up for failure if you don't have a conditions based transition date.

From a military planning perspective, what Admiral Mullen says in the clip below makes absolute sense and if it is the plan - then things are fine and well going forward (though mentioning any conditions free start date is a rookie planner mistake).

Thing is - what Mullen says isn't in alignment with what the CINC said yesterday.

On both the firmness of the date and the withdraw of US troops; we have a condition where the public statements of the CINC and his Spokesman are not in agreement with his SECDEF, SECSTATE, and CJCS are not in alignment.

If this confuses military professionals, Senators, and press - what is this doing to our STRATCOM and an understanding of our purpose to the rest of the world?

My $.02: the CINC needs to make a clear statement - soon.

I fully understand trying to clean up behind your boss - but it is the CINC's word that matters. He needs to clarify what his plan is.

Right now it just looks like our national security leadership is in chaos. No way to run a railroad, much less fight a war.

Diversity Thursday: Caption Contest!!

Body language Herr Commissar! Comrades, body language!

They sure give off the,

"We want to have an honest and open discussion about Diversity and the complicated nature of race relations!"

... vibe, don't they? (Except for the guy on the far right - reminds me of my fishing buddy. He'll have beers with 'ya and ponder, methinks. The others ...... )

You may read the latest diktat on page 26; but it really should be on page 1.