If We Aren't Going to go Roman on ISIS, Should We Go Israeli Instead?

Had a chance to ponder what Israel has been doing in her corner of the Long War the last few years?

I'm discussing some interesting concepts the Israelis are working with over at USNIBlog. Come by and visit and tell me what you think.

Hints from Ukraine

Adversity can be a great motivator and agent of change is you have the right leaders in place to take advantage of it. Likewise, if you have an institution with an open and learning mind, you can learn a lot that was previously unseen in reality's unstressed state.

Paul Shinkman's article from last week should have you thinking if we are taking best advantage of the low-boil conflict in Eastern Ukraine by having the right people taking stock of the Ukrainian operational experience against Russia and her proxies.

It starts with a clear reminder that as the future moves forward, to rely on paper and the good will of others for your own nation's security is to invite a predator in to your home;

In the years after the collapse of the Soviet empire, the need diminished in Ukraine and elsewhere for a state-of-the-art army following Western promises it would protect these new allies in exchange for giving up their nuclear weapons, through a set of agreements known as the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances.

The most valuable part of what we are doing to help the Ukrainian military modernize, is that we are getting a few on how the Russians operate;

The pro-Russian forces, believed to be backed by Moscow directly, have perfected other 21st century warfighting techniques that make their infantry movements that much more effective. Troops here say they are harassed with "reverse text messages," prompting them to lay down their arms and quit. Their enemy has also integrated drones into its fighting formations, using them to identify targets like Danilo and his men, and firing artillery much more accurately.
...enemy targeting drones that have become ubiquitous with the fighting. In fairness, troops at the front lines and international observers say that Ukraine, too, employs drones in the war zone, despite explicit international agreements barring either side from using such technology.
...
The 25-year army veteran was also quick to point out how much he and his comrades were able to teach the Americans, who haven't focused on tank warfare following 15 years of counterinsurgency fights in the Middle East. Balkovnic also boasts his army is the only one that has fought the Russians on the ground in decades, and he's offered insights to his American counterparts on the kind of fighting he's experienced – namely drone and electronic warfare.

"It's a very different war than we have grown up training for," says U.S. Army 1st Lt. Edward Timmis, one of the trainers at the base in Yavoriv. "These guys have a very, very real threat with the mechanized [vehicles] and people that have a lot of men to back them up with equipment."

"We came in with an expectation of the caliber of soldier we'd be training and really with the first unit, we were blown away. They were very professional soldiers, obviously very experienced. It's been humbling teaching these guys and training them."

I hope that we are sending out very best officers and NCOs to Ukraine. No offense to the California National Guard, but we need those on the fast track in the regular army soaking in this. We also need our best USAF and USN EW types in country. I assume they are. If so, no reason for anyone to confirm it. If not, get to it.

There is a maritime security component to the conflict in the Sea of Azov off Mariupol and the Black Sea that I hope we have both green-water advisers and smart people watching and learning. 

The Russians have had a lot of opportunities to see how we operation, we sure better be taking maximum advantage of this and Syria to get our share.

What Kind of Message Does a SECNAV Publish on a Friday Night?

Profile in courage, I guess.

First glance takeaway; if you want a sex change but cannot afford it, join the military.

UNCLASSIFIED//

ROUTINE

R 051937Z AUG 16

FM SECNAV WASHINGTON DC

TO ALNAV

INFO SECNAV WASHINGTON DC
CNO WASHINGTON DC
CMC WASHINGTON DC

BT
UNCLAS

ALNAV 053/16

MSGID/GENADMIN/SECNAV WASHINGTON DC/-/AUG//

SUBJ/SERVICE OF TRANSGENDER SAILORS AND MARINES INTERIM GUIDANCE//

REF/A/SECDEF MEMORANDUM/30JUN16//

REF/B/DOC/DODI 1300.28/30JUN16//

NARR/REF A is DTM 16-005, Military Service of Transgender Service Members. REF B is Department of Defense Instruction 1300.28, In -Service Transition for Transgender Service Members.//

RMKS/1. On June 30, 2016, the Secretary of Defense announced that the Department of Defense (DoD) had lifted the ban preventing transgender
individuals from serving their Nation in the military. The Department of the Navy (DON) remains committed to ensuring that all who are qualified and wish to serve have the opportunity to do so. Until DON policies and procedures are released, interim guidance for the service of transgender Sailors and Marines is provided in this ALNAV.

2. Consistent with the policies and procedures set forth in references (a) and (b), transgender individuals shall be allowed to serve openly in the DON. These policies and procedures are premised on the conclusion that open service by transgender Sailors and Marines, while being subject to the same standards and procedures as other members with regard to their medical fitness for duty, physical fitness, uniform and grooming, deployability, and retention, is consistent with military readiness.

3. Applicability. This policy applies to all DON military personnel, including those serving in the Reserve Components.

4. Definitions
a. Transgender Service Member. A Service Member who has received a medical diagnosis indicating that gender transition is medically necessary, including any Service Member who intends to begin transition, is undergoing transition, or has completed transition and is stable in the preferred gender.
b. Gender transition process. Gender transition in the military begins when a Service Member receives a diagnosis from a military medical provider indicating that the members gender transition is medically necessary, and concludes when the Service Members gender marker in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) is changed and the member is recognized in the preferred gender.

5. Timeline for Implementation. Policies for the service of transgender Sailors and Marines will be implemented in stages over the next year-starting most immediately with addressing the needs of current Sailors and Marines, followed by training for the entire force, and ultimately accession of transgender applicants.
a. Effective immediately
(1) Transgender Sailors and Marines may serve openly, subject to the procedures set forth in this ALNAV.
(2) Transgender Sailors and Marines will be subject to the same standards as any other member.
(3) Sailors and Marines shall not be involuntarily separated, discharged or denied reenlistment, nor continuation of service, solely on the basis of their gender identity.
(4) A Sailor or Marine whose ability to serve is adversely affected by a medical condition or medical treatment related to their gender identity should be treated in a manner consistent with a member whose ability to serve is similarly affected for reasons unrelated to gender identity or gender transition.
(5) Exceptions to Policy (ETP). DON policies and procedures related to transgender service and gender transition to include completing a gender marker change in DEERS are being developed. In the interim, requests related to transgender service and for gender transition shall be submitted through the first General or Flag Officer in the chain of command, via Chief of Naval Personnel/Deputy Commandant (Manpower and Reserve Affairs) and ultimately to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Manpower and Reserve Affairs)(ASN(M&RA)) for adjudication. ETPs will be addressed on a case-by-case basis, following the spirit and intent of references (a) and (b).
(6) Sailors and Marines and Commanders and Commanding Officers with questions regarding service of transgender Service Members should contact their Service Central Coordination Cell (SCCC).
b. No later than October 1, 2016.
(1) The DoD will issue a training handbook for Commanders and Commanding Officers, transgender Service Members, and the force; and medical guidance for providing transition related care to transgender members.
(2) The Military Health System will be required to provide transgender Sailors and Marines all medically necessary care related to
gender transition, based on the guidance that is issued.
(3) Reference (b) is effective October 1, 2016. Sailors and Marines will be able to begin the process to officially change their gender in personnel management systems. Once the Sailor or Marines gender marker is changed, the member will be responsible for meeting all applicable military standards in the preferred gender and will use military berthing, bathroom, and shower facilities associated with their preferred gender.
c. Between November 2016 - July 2017. DON will conduct training for every Sailor and Marine, with specialized training provided for Commanders and Commanding Officers and medical personnel.
d. No later than July 1, 2017. The Navy and Marine Corps will begin accessing transgender applicants who meet all standards. The gender identity of an otherwise qualified individual will not bar them from joining the Navy or Marine Corps, from admission to the United States Naval Academy, or from participating in Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps or any other accession program.

6. Harassment. It is DoD policy that discrimination based on gender identity is a form of sex discrimination. DoD and DON issuances are being revised to prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity and to incorporate such prohibitions in all aspects of the DON Military Equal Opportunity (MEO) program.

7. Responsibilities
a. ASN(M&RA)
(1) Adjudicate ETP requests received from Sailors and Marines requesting gender transition.
(2) By November 1, 2016, promulgate a Secretary of the Navy instruction to establish policy, assign responsibilities, and prescribe
procedures for the standards of retention, accession, separation, in-service transition, and medical coverage for transgender personnel serving in the military services.
(3) Ensure all DON and Service regulations, policies, and guidance are reviewed and updated, in accordance with references (a) and (b).
b. Chief of Naval Operations and Commandant of the Marine Corps
(1) Continue to ensure that all Sailors and Marines are able to perform their duties free from unlawful discrimination. It is DON policy that discrimination based on gender identity is a form of sex discrimination.
(2) As in all cases, ensure that all Sailors and Marines are afforded the opportunity to obtain mental health care and allowed reasonable accommodations to receive medical care as recommended by their medical providers. In-service medical care for issues related to transgender service or gender transition do not require exceptions to policy.
(3) Continue support of SCCCs to provide multi-disciplinary (e.g., medical, legal, military personnel management) expert advice and assistance to Commanders with regard to service by transgender Service Members and gender transition in the military and assist Commanders in the execution of DoD, DON, and Service policies and procedures.
(4) Effective immediately, provide a weekly update to ASN(M&RA) summarizing requests for ETPs for adjudication.
(5) Effective immediately, review all Service issuances, the content of which relate to, or may be affected by, the open service of transgender Service Members, and provide a list of affected issuances to ASN(M&RA).
(6) No later than November 1, 2016, create a Service-wide training and education plan, to include specialized training for Commanders and Commanding Officers and medical personnel. The training of Sailors and Marines across the DON shall be completed no later than July 1, 2017.
(7) No later than November 1, 2016, issue implementing guidance, addressing the military service of transgender Service Members, to include establishing a process by which transgender Sailors/Marines may transition gender while serving, consistent with mission, training, operational, and readiness needs, and a procedure whereby a Sailors/Marines gender marker will be changed in DEERS.
(8) No later than November 1, 2016, provide to ASN(M&RA) a list of facility changes that may be required to fully implement references (a) and (b), with associated costs.
(9) No later than July 1, 2017, update all existing Service regulations, policies, and guidance, or promulgate new issuances as
appropriate, in accordance with references (a) and (b).

8. Points of Contact. Questions on transgender service policy should be directed to the Navy and Marine Corps SCCCs:
a. Navy SCCC: Comm: 1-855-628-9311 or email: usn_navy_sccc @navy.mil
b. Marine Corps SCCC: Comm: 703-784-9386, DSN: 278-9386 or
email: USMC.SCCC@usmc.mil
c. DoD SCCC: https://defense.gov/transgender

9. Released by Ray Mabus, Secretary of the Navy.//

BT
#0001
NNNN
UNCLASSIFIED//

What I Saw at the Trump Rally

Especially if you follow me on twitter, it should be fairly obvious that I’m not a Trump supporter. That didn’t stop me recently from taking the eldest Wee Salamander and heading out to a Trump rally.

Why? It wasn’t because I like crowds – I don’t and neither does my daughter. It isn’t because she is a Trump supporter, she isn’t. We went because I believe in primary sources. Way too many people I know are self-selecting their information and are caught up in a self-feeding human centipede of emotion based politics. There is no better primary source than yourself, so I took the opportunity to teach something to my daughter again and we went to the Trump rally.

We went there because when the chance presents itself, you should listen to candidates in person. If HRC was in town, I’d go as well. I wasn’t so much interested in the candidate as I was wanting to get a flavor for his supporters.

It has gotten personal not just against the candidate, as against his supporters. This is well beyond the anti-Trump version of my occasional tongue-in-cheek “ObamaVoter” snicker against Moonbats – this has moved on to violence against citizens who just happen to support someone.

There is a lot of violence related to the Trump campaign, but it isn’t by Trump supporters – it is by anti-Trump types who go in to Orwellian 2-minute hates against anyone showing support of Cheeto McEgo. That is not healthy in a republic, so time to find out for myself who these people are who are drawing out violent opponents.

Gathering my Human Terrain Team of two, the Wee Salamander and I put on our weekend casual Trumpist mufti and headed on down to the show.

The Line: Yes, the famous line outside Trump events. We walked from the front of the line to the back. If the front was 6-o’clock, the end of the line went counter-clockwise to the 11-o-clock position. In the walk up the line, beside how orderly it was, what caught me a little off guard was how young it was. It was also easily 50-50 male female, at the most 60-40 male to female. There were a lot of 20-35-yr old people and young couples in the crowd. Most dressed in weekend sub-tropical casual except for those who came directly from work. There were four guys still in their AC Repair company uniforms right behind us, talking to two trial lawyers who walked down from their office. By the time we got in through security and moved in, 90% of the seats were already taken and there were a few thousand people behind us.

The Vendors: The vendors selling T-shirts, hats, buttons, etc, were the same ones I see at baseball and football games. 90% of the ones walking around were black, and 85% of the people in their target audience were by appearances white. So, no big change there. Up near the front were the “tent” vendors. They were all about 90% white if you include the Lebanese/Palestinians as white, which I do. It was there that you saw the only possible “alt-right” presence in one goober who was selling Confederate battle flags with “Trump 2016” on them. He wasn’t doing all that much business – so bully to my hometown for that. “Hillary for Prison 2016” and standard issue Trump t-shirts and buttons were the most popular, as where the ubiquitous “Make America Great Again” hats. As you passed by the vendors, you got closer to the door and the fun stuff; the protestors.

The Protestors: Besides one guy how looked like a meth-addict screaming in front of a TV camera like an over-caffeinated MSNBC guest, the protestors were mostly well behaved. Almost as if they were a setup by a performance artist, the first one you came to was some guy with a bullhorn who was dressed like a member of the New Black Panther Party with a couple of guys “tough-guy” posing to either side of him. I could only understand him the few seconds I walked by him, but at that time he was yelling about how black people need to take control of their own destiny blah, blah, blah. Next to him were the mostly spoiled white rich kid bunch dressed in black with their faces covered waving around red-banner flags. Of course, they were doing that in exactly the space the police were telling them. They seemed mostly to direct their venom not at those in the line, but at the press cameras. Nice to see those guys haven’t changed much since the 1980s. After them were the honest protestors with the actually hand made signs quoting John Lennon, calling all the people in line rascists, or in a roundabout way asking what’s so wrong about peace love and understanding. They looked bored, and slightly embarrassed by having to share space with the New Black Panther Party and Trust Fund COSPLAY brigade. I actually took a little video I may post later. Sorry, but both the Wee Salamander and myself had to laugh while walking by.

The Politicians: What I didn’t expect was the Star Wars bar scene before you got to security where you had a bunch of candidates for local office there to shake hands. Trump may have scared away everyone from Mayor on up, but down ballot, there are plenty who are willing to associate with Trump. Not sure what to make of that, as those weren’t fringe locals.

The Crowd: So, through the metal detector rather efficiently to the packed arena. 16,000 admitted, with a few thousand left outside. Impressive. There was more room on the floor, but it looked to me like security wouldn’t let them pack it in. As is our introverted nature, we went up to the rafters to the very back so we had easy access to the exits and no one at our back. A dislike of large crowds is a family trait. This also gave us a great view of the crowd. Like I mentioned, it was a younger crowd than I thought it would be. The most common demographic if I had to pick one? Young, middle class working white couples and groups of male co-workers. It was not a white out by any measure. If you consider that 80-90% of blacks in this area are Democrats, no shock that the audience was not representative of the ~30% of the population here that is black. I would say probably 5% was black. Those around me included and extended family of three generation and then a real funny guy two rows down who was there with his cute as a button blonde haired and blue eyed girlfriend. Trump voters being a bunch of racists? No. You can put that to bed right away. Also in this area, Asians are about 5% and “Hispanics” 9%. As such, I would say Asians and Hispanics were over represented as Trump supporters. It also seemed that 5% of the crowd was Albanian, Bosnian, Russian, Ukrainian or Russian. I can’t tell those languages apart, but I heard it as often as I heard Spanish, and we have a significant population of each here. There were two cases of protestors in the crowd being taken out that I saw. They were both your standard issue hippie wannabes – one straight out of central casting with beads and floppy hats. Of course, they both threw their hissy fits in front of the press gallery. The crowd response was to chant, “USA USA” as pro forma.

Flynn & Trump: The introductory speaker was Flynn, who is about as good as one can get given that the local Republican party is full of Bush and Rubio loyalists still needing to wash their hair that day. As for Trump himself? Standard issue stump speech, but he took extra time to address the Khan issue, not to him directly, but about his meetings with Gold Star families locally. A lot of press bashing.

The Bailout: We did not stay for the full length of time. As mentioned before, we don’t like crowds and we had seen enough. What was nice for me as a father was to hear my very independent and opinionated daughter come to the same conclusion that I came to; there is nothing wrong with Trump people. There is plenty of things to go after the candidate for, but we should stop with the smears, depersonalization, and invective towards his supporters.

One big surprise on the way home, Dash-1 even said something to the effect, “Trump was not as bad as I thought he would be.” After two years at a liberal arts university, she still has her critical thinking skills.

Neither one of us was swayed one way or another about Trump himself by going to the rally, but it did firm up one conviction that has built up for the last few months; the anti-Trump movement is even more anti-democratic than Trump himself. Nothing is more dangerous to a democratic system of governance than political violence, and the vilification to the point of instilling fear in to your political opponents that is a hallmark of the anti-Trump forces should give everyone pause.

If you don’t like Trump, then go after Trump. If you find yourself ignoring or making excuses for those who promote violence against Trump, or fall in to the trap of painting Trumpists with the usual leftist smears of racists, sexist, homophobes etc – you should take a deep breath and then go find out for yourself.

Back in the day, "Poke Finder" meant something completely different

I would like to thank CNRF for my weekend LOL.

-- To all COMNAVRESFOR commands and units with government issued devices:

The Pokémon GO, Poke Rader, and PokeFinder applications are not approved for government furnished devices. Reserve Sailors that have downloaded any of these applications should remove them immediately by following the instructions below:


1) Press and hold the application icon until the 'x' appears.

2) Select the 'x' to uninstall.

　
If you are unaware if it has been installed, please check that you have not used your personal Apple ID to log in.


1) Go to Settings iTunes & App Store

2) Validate the Apple ID

3) It should not be your personal Apple ID acct but your gov't email acct (as instructed in the iOS User Setup Guide)

4) If you are logged in with your personal Apple ID please select the Apple ID and select Sign Out and then sign in using your gov't Apple ID account.
　

Please contact the COMNAVRESFOR N6 department help desk with questions or concerns at 757-322-2489.

Fullbore Friday

How in one FbF can you do justice to a ship with 20 Battle Stars like the USS O'BANNON (DD-450)? 17 in WWII (second only to USS ENTERPRISE (CV-6) ), and three in Korea.

Well - this has been such a iffy week - let us take a moment to reflect with a smile.

We aren't the only US Navy that has trouble getting its Sailors armed ... and we aren't the only US Navy with resourceful Sailors.

From the Destroyer History Foundation and Ernest A. Herr - BEHOLD!

On 5 April 1943, DesRon 21 was returning from a night of shelling Japanese shore installations deep in the New Georgia area of the Solomon Islands. Our destroyer, the O’Bannon, as part of this force, picked up a radar contact that turned out to be a large Japanese submarine cruising on the surface and apparently unaware of our presence. The Japanese lookouts undoubtedly were fast asleep.

We approached rapidly and were preparing to ram the sub. Our captain and other officers on the bridge were trying to identify the type of sub and decided, at the last minute, that it could be a mine layer. Not wanting to blow up ourselves along with the sub, the decision was made that ramming was not a wise move. At the last moment, the rudder was swung hard to avoid a collision and we found ourselves in a rather embarrassing situation as we sailed along side of the Japanese submarine.

On board the sub, Japanese sailors, wearing dark shorts and dinky blue hats, were sleeping out on deck. In what could be considered a rude awaking, they sat up to see an American destroyer sailing along side. Our ship however, was far too close to permit our guns lowered enough to fire and since no one on deck carried a gun, not a shot was heard. Ditto on the Japanese sub, no one there had a gun either. In this situation, no one seemed sure of the proper course of action and it probably would not have been covered in the manual anyway. Therefore everyone just stared more or less spellbound.

The submarine was equipped with a 3-inch deck gun and the sub’s captain finally decided that now was probably a good time to make use of it. As the Japanese sailors ran toward their gun, our deck parties reached into storage bins that were located nearby, picked out some potatoes and threw them at the sailors on the deck of the sub. A potato battle ensued. Apparently the Japanese sailors thought the potatoes were hand grenades. This kept them very busy as they try to get rid of them by throwing them back at the O’Bannon or over the side of the sub. Thus occupied, they were too busy to man their deck gun which gave us sufficient time to put a little distance between our ship and the sub.

Finally we were far enough away to bring our guns to bear and firing commenced. One of our shells managed to hit the sub’s conning tower but the sub managed to submerge anyway. At that time our ship was able to pass directly over the sub for a depth charge attack. Later information showed that the sub did sink. When the Association of Potato Growers of Maine heard of this strange episode, they sent a plaque to commemorate the event. The plaque was mounted in an appropriate place near the crews mess hall for the crew to see. Well, it was the crew’s battle.

BTW - as any WESTPAC guy will tell you, even today the Japanese have no idea what to do with a spud.



The FbF first posted JAN11.

The End of Blueberry Season

It looks like The Front Porch can close a file from the extended rant drawer and put it in the "victory" file;

The Navy’s most mocked camouflage uniform will soon be a thing of the past, the service announced today.

The Navy Working Uniform Type I, blue camouflage utilities commonly referred to as “blueberries,” will be replaced everywhere in the service by the forest-green NWU Type III camouflage utilities developed by Naval Special Warfare Command as a tactical uniform.

According to an announcement today by Naval Personnel Command, sailors will have the option of wearing either the NWU Type I or III beginning Oct. 1 of this year, and will be required to wear the NWU Type III as the primary working uniform ashore and in port by Oct. 1, 2019.

Well praise Buddha - another bad idea from a decade of bad ideas is finally done.

I should have known better than make fun of the Turkish Air Force back in 2005, because a year later - well, you know the story from my opening salvo on the topic in March of 2006, "Sweating My Balls Off;"

Look at that heat-sink (higher res here). Everyone who has been deployed on the deck (not in the air looking down) to Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and/or Iraq during the summertime in the last 5 years raise your hands. The summer, heck spring and fall, direct sun of SW Asia should not be a shock to anyone. Throw in the deck of a CVN and think about how dark that uniform is. I am not going to even talk about the "blue theme." That BDU is going to give Sailors heat stroke and will do zip, zero, nada to anyone trying to hide in a desert environment.

I hope our Corpsmen get to wear Marine BDU. If you are Haji bringing your AK up on a group of Americans, if you even bother to aim, where are you naturally going to point....right! At the dark target against the light background. This is so wrong in so many ways. I like that they kept the hat and all, but just take the Marine or Army pattern, save some money, and get to the business of the Navy. I am sorry. I don't care about your desire to hide you paint stains (this won't do it BTW). This is the wrong answer. As we say in D.C. - I non-concur, sir.

All the reasons we are ditching this horrible uniform a decade later were known then. That is why we need to look very hard at the institutional mindset that got us here. This was the uniform no one asked for, liked using, or thought in hindsight was good. Well, some people did - but you know the type.

The evidence was all there that we had options, but we ignored them. Why? It can only be mindless bureaucratic inertia and loyalty to personalities inside a toxic command climate. Then again, this is the same team that birthed LCS, so there you go.

Enjoy this outstanding decision, but use this as an example. Remember the Blueberries for what they represented, and when you are wearing stars, don't be that guy.