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No - this is not the DuffleBlog. You can't even say it sober.
Read it all here if you must ...
OPNAV NOTICE 5400
From: Chief of Naval Operations
Subj: ESTABLISHMENT OF COMMANDER, NAVY EXPEDITIONARY COMBAT COMMAND PACIFIC; MODIFICATION OF COMMANDER, FIRST NAVAL CONSTRUCTION DIVISION PACIFIC; RENAMING OF COMMANDER, FIRST NAVAL CONSTRUCTION DIVISION/NAVAL CONSTRUCTION FORCES COMMAND; MODIFICATION OF COMMANDER, COASTAL RIVERINE GROUP ONE; AND MODIFICATION OF COMMANDER, EXPLOSIVE ORDNANCE DISPOSAL GROUP ONE
Ref: (a) OPNAVINST 5400.44A(b) OPNAVNOTE 5400 Ser DNS-33/12U102020 of 01 Mar 2012(Canc: Mar 2013)
1. Purpose. To approve establishment of Commander, Navy Expeditionary Combat Command Pacific (COMNAVEXPDCMBTCOMPAC), modification of Commander, First Naval Construction Division Pacific (FIRST NCD PACIFIC), renaming of Commander, First Naval Construction Division/Naval Construction Forces Command (COMFIRSTNCD/COMNAVCONFORCOM), and modification of Commander, Coastal Riverine Group One (CORIVGRU ONE) and Commander, Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group One (COMEODGRU ONE) per reference (a).
Hat tip Chris Cavas.
Character, it can be argued, cannot be built; it can only be demonstrated.
We can find clear examples of individual character. Places where two roughly similar people, of similar background, at a similar place and time, are faced with a similar challenge react in different ways.
The harder the challenge, the more the clear distinction of character it brings out.
The greatest challenges are often those that you bring on yourself through you own bad decisions. Those that challenge every person's weak spot - their ego. The desire to avoid shame, ridicule, or having to publicly be held to account.
For example, from Don Markus at the BaltSun;.... after he and three teammates he declined to name were found to be in violation of academy regulations that prevent midshipmen from having any type of off-campus housing other than to stay with a guest family.
Academy officials learned about the house after a party was held there the night of the spring football game in mid-April.
"We knew what we were getting ourselves into, and we knew we were putting ourselves at risk," (Jabaree) Tuani said recently. "We didn't think anything like this was going to happen. We thought it was going to be a low-key, under-the-radar-type deal where we could just relax."
We'll get back to that in a minute. Remember our friend Proctor?Kriss Proctor, Navy’s starting quarterback last season, will not graduate from the Naval Academy. Proctor has submitted his resignation from the academy, a school spokesman confirmed to The Capital.
...
An inside source at the academy with knowledge of the situation told The Capital that Proctor’s resignation comes on the heels of an alleged honor code violation.
Amazing what five months can bring out;Proctor resigned from the academy around the same time, two months after he said he was caught cheating on a thermodynamics quiz. Proctor is now enrolled in classes for the fall semester at Boise State, where he is working as an unpaid intern for the school's No. 24-ranked football team.
Though on the brink of graduation, Proctor said he chose to resign from the academy rather than fight the honor-code violation because he wanted to start working toward a career as a college football coach and didn't want to become a Navy pilot. Proctor will have to repay the Navy the cost of his college education, approximately $160,000.
We'll revisit that too.
Back to the focus of our post today;Tuani graduated Friday, three months after the rest of the senior class, four months after he and three teammates he declined to name were found to be in violation of academy regulations that prevent midshipmen from having any type of off-campus housing other than to stay with a guest family.
...
When he learned he was not going to be able to graduate with the rest of his class, Tuani said, he was "very scared" he had risked losing his college degree and a chance at a military career for what he called "a rash decision." Tuani thought there was a "high chance" he was going to be dismissed from the academy.
Tuani, who is expecting to be sent to Japan shortly to begin officer training in surface warfare, said he chose to take his punishment because he didn't want to let down his family and the coaches who supported him during the remediation process and eventually came to his graduation.
The punishment included Tuani being restricted to the academy grounds for 45 days, marching in full uniform at 5:30 a.m. several days a week and then spending three weeks with the fleet this summer.
"I had to prove myself worthy again of being an officer," Tuani said. "Being an officer is all about decision-making, and our decision-making was in question."
Both of these young men have been damaged by the Naval Academy's misplaced focus in D1 football and all the moral compromises that go with it.
Let us speak as adults here;Academy officials learned about the house after a party was held there the night of the spring football game in mid-April.
That is not a statement grounded in reality. Houses such as this have been an open secret for awhile. If a NROTC retired CDR has known about them, it beggars the imagination to believe that Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo or Navy athletic director Chet Gladchuk did not know about the party houses.
Ensign Tuani deserves a nod from everyone involved. BZ to him for stepping up as a man, and by taking his punishment like such - he will be a better leader for it. The humility it brought him will refine his good character already demonstrated. I wish him the best in his career.
Now that you are feeling warm and fuzzy, let's go back to Gladchuck and Proctor.... Gladchuk wrote a glowing recommendation to a number of schools on the former quarterback's behalf, saying that Proctor had "developed into a well-rounded, impressive young man" who "can continue to be a role model to those around him."
Gladchuk concluded by writing, "He leaves the Academy with our very best wishes and every expectation that he will continue to be highly successful in the future as a well-educated young man with an indisputable competitive spirit. He is a winner."
Go back and read that again.
Is that the right attitude to come from a high official at the U.S. Naval Academy about a man who left in dishonor in the middle of a cheating scandal?
As for Proctor - who did not go to Annapolis so Proctor could? Is it any surprise this type of person quit? "Ever since my sophomore or junior year in high school, I have known I want to be around football. I always thought about after college football, I wanted to get into coaching.
"During my junior year [at Navy], I was selected to be an NFO [Naval Flight Officer], which requires seven to 10 years of commitment. I came to grips with the fact that maybe that I wouldn't start coaching until I was 30. I was kind of OK with that at the time, we were in the middle of football and you're not thinking long-term."
...
"I wouldn't trade my experience at the academy for the world. I had four years of meeting some of the greatest people in this country and building relationships with them that I will have the rest of my life. I grew up so much as a person, physically, mentally, all of that stuff. I got to experience a lot of things that normal college students don't get to experience. I got a top-notch education, not just academically, but in character and integrity. I feel nothing but blessed."
"...all that stuff." Indeed Mr. Proctor, indeed. Do you actually believe that - or are you making excuses for running away from facing your bad decisions? Either way, you never belonged at Annapolis, and the Fleet is better for you leading no one but ... whoever an unpaid coach intern leads in Idaho. I just feel sorry for the person whose slot you took at Annapolis.
I want to end with a quote from Coach Niumatalolo, as I mostly agree with him here and he makes some very good points;"They're human. We all make mistakes. The standard is high here, and nobody makes any apologies for that. We're trying to play football at the highest level and compete, and the administrators, professors and company officers are trying to prepare these young men and women to be officers in the military. If you don't live up to the standard, there are consequences.
"I just feel grateful that Jabaree stayed the course, he's going to graduate [and] I think he's a wonderful young man. ... He made a bad decision, he suffered the consequence and the academy was going to push him to see if he really wanted to be here. They said, 'Here are some priorities, here are some steps you have to do and any missteps you're gone.' Kriss got the same choices. He decided to go a different route. I wish he would [have] stayed and graduated."
Yes coach, there is a conflict between trying to compete at D1 football and preparing men and women to be officers in the military. When one is in conflict with the other - then what is the priority?
People are also human - and by the permissive attitude towards football players, their human weakness if enabled. There are more compromises out there than just party houses. Before the next Tuani is led in to shoal water - ponder that a bit. The leadership at Annapolis can fix it, if - and this is a big if - they are willing to protect their institution from NAAA and those who are more interested in the performance of a sports team than they are the performance of tomorrow's junior officers.
A lady biker sits on Biden's lap today at Cruisers Diner in Seaman, Ohio. via the AP
If that isn't enough .... here.
Everyone knows CENTCOM, many know PACOM or EUCOM ... but what about NORTHCOM?
What is their role in national defense, and what special role does it have inside the United States - specifically in disaster response?
This Sunday, September 9th from 5-6pm EST, our guest for the full hour to discuss this and more will be Brigadier General Donald A. McGregor, the Deputy Director of Operations for Domestic Operations, Headquarters, United States Northern Command, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado.Join us live if you can, but if you miss the show you can always listen to the archive at blogtalkradio - the best way to get the show and download the archive to your audio player is to get a free account and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.
From our friends at DuffleBlog;
I was chatting a bit earlier this week with one of my fellow members of the Eeyore Debating Collective, when I wandered down a dystopian path only those military professionals over the age of 45 really remember: thinking nuclear war.
You can - and should - remember that we used to think in rather cold ways about nuclear war. Contrary to the Left and the intellectually lazy, nuclear war does not have to be a binary thing where you either have no nukes, or total global nuclear winter. No. That was never the story.
There is still a remnant of the nuclear intellectual capital we had. There still is "that" planning group out there - but enough of that; let's keep them behind their cypher door with the crazy aunt in the basement.
The conversation I was having with my fellow EDC member was about the hot mess Pakistan is. With the demographics and the Islamist zeitgeist, I just don't see it getting any better in my lifetime. Most of the modernizing Pakistani and the best educated have left or are leaving. What is left, is left.
Those Pakistani left with nukes will eventually overplay their hand with their boogie-monster, India. Through events are too far in the mist to track from today, a non-zero chance there will be a chain of events that will result in a Pakistani nuke going off somewhere in India. Perhaps multiple nukes. Why? A 100 reasons.
That would be a bad move. India - much more than Pakistan - can still be considered an adjunct to the Anglophere due to their centuries of soaking in the British Empire, like the USA. They retain some intellectual connections to the Anglo-Saxon way of war. "You stop on my toe - I break your face."
India is a huge nation of well over a billion people. A horrible and difficult thought to have (but is required when thinking like a nuclear planner) - Pakistan or its nukes (they can be different things) could kill 1-million, 10-million, or a 100-million more Indians in a 1st and 2nd strike and .... India as a nation would survive. The nuclear fallout would kill thousands to hundreds of thousands in the long run afterwords probably - but even then, that is not a nation destroying event. Nations have experienced worse.
If India was so attacked with nukes, which I think is a non-zero possibility at some time in the next few decades, then my money is that India will do what India must - it will destroy Pakistan. Pakistan has a population of 176 million. Much of that is highly concentrated. Properly planned out, India could effectively remove all of Pakistan's population centers. Once that is done, especially in The Sind and Punjab - then Pakistan starting with Balochistan will break apart.
India will have made its point. It lives in a tough neighborhood; a pagan nation on the bleeding eastern edge of Dar es Salaam, and with China to the north. I cannot be seen as weak.
There you go - when you need to feel darkish - but darkish and informed by human history, add this to your mix;...the gravest danger -- not only for the region, but for the United States itself -- may be the South Asian incarnation of a Cold War phenomenon: a nuclear arms race.
Pakistan, with an estimated 90 to 120 warheads, is now believed to be churning out more plutonium than any other country on the planet -- thanks to two Chinese-built reactors that are now online, a third that is undergoing trials, and a fourth that is scheduled to become operational by 2016. It has already passed India in total number of warheads and is on course to overtake Britain as the world's No. 5 nuclear power. Pakistan could end up in third place, behind Russia and the United States, within a decade.
This April, Pakistan tested a short-range ballistic missile, the Hatf IX, a so-called "shoot and scoot" battlefield nuclear weapon aimed at deterring an invasion by India's conventional forces. This development carries two disturbing implications. First, Pakistan now has the know-how to build nuclear warheads compact enough to fit on the tip of a small missile or inside a suitcase (handy for terrorists). Second, Pakistan has adopted a war-fighting doctrine that does not preclude nuking its own territory in the event of an Indian incursion -- a dubious first in the annals of deterrence theory.
India, meanwhile, has just tested its first long-range ballistic missile, the Agni-V, with a range of 3,100 miles. In April, the Indian Navy added a new Russian-made nuclear-powered submarine to its fleet and is now building its own nuclear subs. One has already been launched and will enter service next year, and India is determined to add submarine-launched ballistic missiles to its arsenal. This puts India on the verge of joining the elite nuclear "triad" club -- states with the ability to survive a first strike by an adversary and deliver a retaliatory strike by land, sea, or air.
Nukes - not the big boys the B-52s carry, but the modern ones. Smaller, much smaller, than even a compact VBIED.
Have a fun weekend all!
As a parting gift before I head off for hunting season; anything military always sounds better in German.
Time to revisit the Battle of Westerplatte - as a final chapter has closed.
For a heroes obit, I hope they don't mind if I steal 90% - it is too good to chop up.At the end of August 1939, trouble entered the harbour in the form of the 14,000-ton German battleship the Schleswig-Holstein (a ship predating the First World War). Although sailing under the pretext of a courtesy visit, she contained a company of marines. In the early hours of September 1, Skowron was looking through his telescope and saw a flash emanating from the ship. Within seconds, a shell had landed on a gate near the railway, and a whole wall collapsed. What Skowron had witnessed was, in all possibility, the first shot fired during the Second World War.
After the salvo had ended, the peninsula was stormed by the German marines. Taking one of only two machineguns, Skowron ran down to a guardhouse and helped to repulse the first German assault on the main gate. The attackers were expecting an easy victory, but the Poles fought back ferociously, and managed to catch the Germans in a murderous crossfire. In addition, well-placed mortar rounds also fell on the attackers, and by around 10 o’clock that morning they retreated, having suffered 50 casualties to the eight of the Poles. The German losses would have been far higher had the Polish commander not wished to conserve mortar rounds.
On the following day, the Germans stepped up their attack. “There were three attacks in the morning,” Skowron recalled, “which got worse and worse. Aircraft, reportedly 50 of them, dropped nearly 200 bombs.” The air raid not only destroyed a guardhouse, but also the Polish mortars. Supplemented by a naval barrage, those aboard theSchleswig-Holstein reckoned — with good reason — that nobody could have survived the bombardment. Despite the intensity, the Poles sat firm. “Our men were calm,” said Skowron, “nearly indifferent, because the cycle was so repetitive — aircraft, bombs, missiles, again and again.” The entire peninsula soon resembled a First World War battlefield, with huge craters, bombed-out buildings and raging fires.
Nevertheless, the Poles would not be moved. Their morale was boosted by an announcement made by the Polish Commander-in-Chief, Edward Rydz-Smigly, that all the defenders of Westerplatte would be promoted to officer rank, and would be awarded the Virtuti Militari, Poland’s highest military decoration.
With the battle for the peninsula now becoming more symbolic than tactical, the Germans threw everything they had at the defenders. Burning trains were rammed into fortifications, and a torpedo boat even launched an attack. Although the Poles stood firm, the attacks certainly took their toll. “The worst part was the lack of sleep,” said Skowron, “because we couldn’t change troops, and we had to keep watch non-stop. The Germans could change their attackers, we could not.”
Eventually, on the morning of September 7, the Poles knew that any further resistance was fruitless. With a lack of food and medical supplies, the Polish commander decided to surrender. Skowron and his fellow survivors, of whom there were some 180, were ordered to cross the canal and throw down their tunics and caps. A German motorboat appeared, and the Poles were taken prisoner. The Germans were impressed by the Polish defence, not least because it had cost them an estimated 200 to 300 casualties, and had tied up more than 3,000 troops.
Skowron was imprisoned at Stalag IA near Königsberg, after which he was made to work on a German estate. “The Germans treated us decently,” Skowron recalled, “because they knew we were from Westerplatte. They said with admiration, ‘Polish soldiers good’.” The working conditions were nonetheless tough, and Skowron ended up in hospital, and was then discharged back home in February 1941.
He soon found work as a labourer on the railways, but he continued his own war against the occupiers. He joined the underground ZWZ — the Union of Armed Struggle — for whom he reported on German troop movements and shipments.
After the war Skowron worked on the railways until his retirement in 1975.
A modest man, he did not speak much of his participation at Westerplatte, but he soon found himself being lionised by a country that was keen to show the world that Poland had not rolled over for its aggressors. Skowron took part in many anniversary celebrations of Westerplatte, and was the recipient of numerous orders, medals and decorations, as well as being promoted to major.
Skowron was married to Anna Lisek in 1937. The couple had six children. Anna died in 2000. Skowron is survived by his children.
Major Ignacy Skowron, soldier and railway worker, was born on July 24, 1915. He died on August 5, 2012, aged 97
Hat tip AB.
