‘Battleship’ preview set for Super Bowl
February 3rd, 2012 | Battleships Movies | Posted by Kevin Lilley
Cmdr. George Kessler, executive officer of the destroyer Spruance, and Cmdr. M. Tate Westbrook, the ship's commanding officer, give a tour to Peter Berg, director of "Battleship."
It’s shaping up to be a traditional Super Bowl Sunday: A six-hour pregame show followed by football, snacks, drinks, aliens, surface warships and Liam Neeson.
The last part might need an explainer. “Battleship,” the action movie somehow based on the board game of the same name, will debut in theaters this May, but you’ll get a new 60-second sneak peek during the first quarter of Sunday’s big game, Deadline New York reports.
We’ve shown you earlier, longer trailers for this one before, but this’ll be the biggest audience yet for the SWOs-vs.-aliens adventure, which stars Neeson, “Friday Night Lights” youngster Taylor Kitsch, hip-hop artist Rihanna, Sports Illustrated eye candy Brooklyn Decker and, maybe, a sensible plot (not pictured in any previews so far).
Deadline also reports director Peter Berg will use Kitsch in his upcoming movie treatment of “Lone Survivor,” a real-life tale of heroism by retired Special Warfare Operator 1st Class (SEAL) Marcus Luttrell. IMDB pegs that film for a 2013 release.
Bold Alligator
February 2nd, 2012 | Amphibious operations Bold Alligator Navy Training | Posted by Bill McMichael
I’m spending Friday AM cruising south to MCAS Cherry Point, N.C., where I’m to take a noon hop out to the Wasp to begin Navy Times’ coverage of a certain gi-normous amphibious training exercise you may have heard of by now. Bold Alligator is the biggest Navy-Marine Corps at-sea training exercise in some 10 years.
As part of Bold Alligator, Marines with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit prepare to board an MV-22 Osprey Jan. 31 to depart from the amphibious dock landing ship Gunston Hall during a Certification Exercise, the final qualification before their scheduled spring deployment. // U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Lauren G. Randall
Wasp is sort of the exercise mothership, so that’s where we’ll get our senior leader interviews and exercise briefings. On Saturday, I’m slated to fly over to Kearsarge and begin covering the training itself, as the Navy-Marine Corps team prepares to launch an amphibious assault that will take place sometime over the following few days.
Connectivity at sea can be dicey, as many of you know. I’ll do my best to keep you posted on the goings-on here and on our web site.
Meanwhile, looks like a Super Bowl XLVI party at sea. The last time I watched the Super Bowl away from someone’s living room, I was in a tent with an Army air defense artillery unit outside Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, where the air strikes for the first Gulf War were underway; the launch of the huge armored assault and the famous “left hook” was three weeks away. The Giants won that one 20-19 when the Bills’ Scott Norwood missed a last-second field goal wide right.
Who are you picking this Sunday? Seems to me the Giants are rolling at the right time.
Hand is an amazing, yet creepy, Navy development
February 2nd, 2012 | Facebook Health Medical Navy | Posted by Joshua Stewart
The Navy has developed one of the most realistic prosthetic limbs ever. Creepily realistic.
The Navy has developed an incredibly realistic prosthetic limb. When finished it better not be so scary or nobody will want to use it. // Navy Photo
The picture appeared on the Navy’s Facebook page but it didn’t include many details. What is clear is that it’s part of the Navy’s ongoing work to make wounded service members as whole as possible. Needless to say, this is an amazing piece of equipment that will hopefully improve somebody’s life in immeasurable ways.
But until then, it seems unnaturally lifelike and kind of reminds the Scoop Deck of this:
We should all live so long — and well
January 31st, 2012 | Amphibious operations Historical Marine Corps Navy Photos Seabees SEALs SURFLANT World War II | Posted by Bill McMichael
Reaching 100 years of age is remarkable enough. But the Navy made it extra special for a former Navy Seabee Dec. 2.
Retired Capt. James R. Mims, the nation’s oldest living Seabee, was made an honorary member of Amphibious Construction Battalion 2 by the unit’s top sailor, Command Master Chief (SCW) Johnny DeSarro, during Mims’ 100th birthday party, held at the Oaks Country Club in Richmond, Va.. Mims also received a U.S. flag flown over the Capitol building, a birthday greeting from President Obama and a very cool commemorative paddle.
Retired Capt. James R. Mims stands with Command Master Chief (SCW) Johnny DeSarro (left) and Senior Chief Builder John Woolston, PHIBCB 2 Operations Chief, at his 100th birthday party after receiving a commemorative paddle custom-designed by Woolston. // U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class (SW/AW) Jonathan Pankau
Mims has experienced some remarkable moments in his life. In DeSarro’s words, Mims “served at Okinawa during World War II, swore in the first 25 frogmen, known today as Navy SEALs, and met and spoke with Adm. Ben Moreell” — the father of the Seabees.
DeSarro wanted to hear more about all that, so he returned to Richmond Dec. 19 to meet Mims at his hangout — a local restaurant called Joe’s Inn, where Mims goes every Friday for a meeting of the Bon Air Rotary Club — where he has a 56-year perfect attendance record.
Amphibious Construction Battalion 2 Command Master Chief (SCW) Johnny DeSarro and retired Navy Capt. James R. Mims sits down for breakfast at Joe's Inn, a local Richmond restaurant, during a Dec. 19 meeting discuss his history and experiences as the world's oldest Seabee. // U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class (SW/AW) Jonathan Pankau
Naval Surface Force Atlantic released the Mims story on the day after the start of Bold Alligator, the largest Navy-Marine Corps amphibious exercise in a decade. The timing was splendid because Mims had some stories to tell about one of the biggest amphibious assaults in history.
Mims was a Civil Engineer Corps cargo officer during that mission and his task that day was to rendezvous with the main Seabee camp, according to the story, by SURFLANT Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class (SW/AW) Jonathan Pankau.
“We rode on a (Landing Ship Tank) from Saipan to Okinawa in 1945 on an Easter Sunday morning,” Mims told Pankau. “There were 1,400 ships in that operation and we had some Marines in an Army DUKW (a six-wheel-drive amphibious truck used for transporting goods and troops over land and water and for use approaching and crossing beaches in amphibious attacks) heading for the east side of the island,” said Mims.
Their mission was to trick the enemy by drawing fire to their location on the eastern coast of Okinawa and to delay Japanese reserve troops, according to Pankau. The main landing force assaulted the beach on the western coast that Easter Sunday, supported by the 2nd Marine Battalion’s effective decoy tactics.
“About halfway to the shore we started drawing fire so the LST driver turned around to lay down a smoke screen,” Mims told Pankau. “We repeated this several times to draw the fire away from the west. The Army guy driving the LST wouldn’t go all the way to the beach so we had to jump out and wade through the water while the enemy was laying down strafing fire by us.”
Exhaustion set in after two days of combat without sleep and Mims found an abandoned fox hole to take shelter in. As he looked up from his fox hole, a formation of Japanese fighter planes passed overhead.
“I don’t know whether they were kamikazes or what but they flew so low I could see the first pilot’s face. I’ll never forget the smile on his face,” Mims told Pankau.
Earlier, Mims had a brush with another seminal moment in naval history: The forming of the Navy SEALs.
Today’s SEALs trace their lineage to a group of volunteers selected from the Seabees in the spring of 1943, according to Naval Special Warfare Command. Mims was the enlisting officer for the first 25 frogmen, according to the story.
“I was at Camp Perry at the time and a lieutenant said to me ‘I want you to go out there and swear in those frogmen.’ And so, as a junior lieutenant, I went out there and swore them in and then I said, ‘What’s a frogman?’ Turns out they were the beginning of the SEALs.”
Mims had no idea that he swore in the original 25 frogmen until he saw a familiar name in an obituary in the Richmond paper naming one of the first frogmen. He later saw them in action and described the night operation he witnessed, where the frogmen pulled onto the beach in rubber rafts. They performed reconnaissance missions and set up targets for bombing and troop placements. Mims laughed, Pankau wrote, as he recalled the sign they left up for the Marines that said, “What kept you?”
DeSarro said that making a Mims an honorary member of the unit was special.
“We (Seabees) are fiercely proud of our heritage and we are very protective of anything that ties us to our history,” DeSarro said. “Making the paddle for him ties us back, in a big way, to our legacy and our heritage.
“Everything we do as Seabees, we do to live up to the expectations of our predecessors,” he said. “We bear the burden of carrying on the Seabee tradition that men like Capt. Mims laid out before us.”
A public apology for barfing on the COD
January 30th, 2012 | Aviation Carrier On-Board Delivery plane Carriers Chow COMPTUEX Enterprise Life at Sea Naval aviation Navy | Posted by Joshua Stewart
Dear VRC-40 “The Rawhides,”
I’m just writing to apologize for getting airsick in your C-2A Greyhound. It was certainly unintentional. You handled the plane with steady hands as we flew from Naval Air Station Mayport, Fla., to the carrier Enterprise last week. We even had weather on our side, allowing for a particularly calm flight.
If only my stomach was able to manage my breakfast as well as you flew the COD.
Usually I handle flights pretty well, but the combination of the smell of aviation fuel, the lack of windows, the heat and the sheer grittiness of the Navy’s draft horse airplane was more than I could manage. I didn’t even make it halfway through our quick flight. By the time we were headed into our approach, I wasn’t as excited about going from 100 to zero mph in less than two seconds as much as I was excited about just getting out of that torture chamber.
This C-2A Greyhound lands on the carrier Enterprise with a reporter who is very sorry he got airsick. // Navy
Please don’t think anything less of me for this; better-known reporters have handled it just as poorly (one former SWO who took a COD with a certain cable news star told me “Wolf ralphed” during a flight to the carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower). And please don’t forget that I cleaned up after myself. I just wish I had had an airsick bag
While I’m feeling contrite, I should also apologize to the cooks who made breakfast before our flight back at Mayport … that was your banana muffin with green apple syrup that ended up in the seat next to me. This was not a commentary on your culinary skills; it was certainly delicious on the way down.
And to everyone else on the carrier who heard about my illness, from the chief medical officer who gave me a motion sickness patch (if you’re curious, they certainly work and I’m available for paid endorsements) to the three people who provided me with stacks of airsick bags for my return flight (I thankfully didn’t need to use them for their intended purposes, but I’ll hold onto them to carry lunches through the year), I appreciate all of your help.
Once again, I apologize for my faux pas and I hope I can one day fly with you again.
Sincerely,
Josh Stewart
Top SEAL: Amid Hollywood hoopla, quiet preferred
January 27th, 2012 | Entertainment Movies Naval special warfare | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
The Navy’s “silent” warriors won’t exactly be off radar when “Act of Valor” hits the theaters in February. The movie, produced by the Bandito Brothers, is notable for the use of some real Navy SEALs, rather than more actors, to portray the commandos.
Since the successful killing of Osama bin Laden last year, and even the 2009 rescue of an American boat captain held hostage by Somali pirates, the oft-secretive naval special warfare community has been in the spotlight more than usual. The occasional best-selling book and, unfortunately, tragic losses of SEALs fallen in combat capture the public’s focus. This week’s news that SEALs – presumably Naval Special Warfare Development Group, aka SEAL Team 6 – parachuted into Somalia and rescued an American female aid worker and a Danish man kidnapped by Somali pirates further adds to the attention.
“It’s pretty hot in the kitchen right now,” Rear Adm. Sean Pybus, a top SEAL officer, told a San Diego defense industry conference Jan. 24, hours after the successful mission was a wrap. “The SEAL brand is red hot.”
Rear Adm. Sean Pybus, who heads Naval Special Warfare Command. // Navy photo
Part of that is by design. To pull off “Act of Valor,” the directors sent teams to embed with real SEALs and special warfare combatant craft crewmen with the intent of helping them portray naval special warfare more realistically. That relationship, five years in the making, required approval from the top – which it got. Several real SEALs, who typically shield their identities when they are operational, will be portrayed on the big screen as well as in promotion literature, trailers and press kits, perhaps. But their names won’t be on the credits. You can catch the trailer here, and the official website here.
Much like what the Navy saw when “Top Gun” was released in 1986, top officials expect the movie will help with recruitment. But all that attention can be discomfiting to those who consider themselves “quiet professionals.”
“Operations security matters to us,” said Pybus, before showing the movie trailer to the morning audience. “Inaccurate or incomplete pictures…concern me,” he continued. “We as a community are not used to operating under such a spotlight. We’ll figure this out.”
SEALs and SWCCs, and others within the community, he noted, are proud of their work outside the public spotlight. “We’ll work for positive outcomes, find better ways to protect sensitive information and our force and our families,” he said, “and we’ll adapt.”
If there are fewer movies or books about SEALs, what they do and who they are, that might suit Pybus just fine. “I would like to think that your reputation as a naval special warfare operator or enabler would be sufficient when you transition to civilian life,” he said, responding to an audience question. “You’d be quietly proud of that.”
Rudy’s one-liners
January 27th, 2012 | Don't ask Historical Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek - Fort Story Naval special warfare Navy Photos Retired Navy SEAL Team 2 SEALs Traditions | Posted by Bill McMichael
Retired Master Chief Rudy Boesch earned more than a few laughs Friday during his remarks at the East Coast SEALs’ celebration of the SEALs’ 50th anniversary (the West Coast SEALs marked it two weeks ago), both centered around his post-SEAL Team 2 days.
The 1986 Goldwater-Nichols Defense Reorganization Act helped spark the 1987 formation of U.S. Special Operations Command. That same year, Boesch, coming up on 26 years as a member of SEAL Team 2, was one of three senior military enlisteds called to Coronado to interview with Gen. James Lindsay, the command’s first commander-in-chief — as the position was then known – to become the command’s first senior enlisted adviser.
Retired Master Chief Rudy Boesch at the East Coast SEALs' 50th anniversary celebration Jan. 27 at Joint Expeditionary Base - Little Creek. //U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Meranda Keller
“People were telling me that I would have to study ’cause I might get asked questions like, `Who was the president of Zimbabwe?’” He paused for effect and then added, offhandedly, “To this day, I don’t know who it is.” After the laughter subsided, he added, ”I wasn’t going to study to find out.”
When Boesch’s turn came to be interviewed, he said, “The general asked me how the hell I managed to stay in the military for so long. At that time, I had 42 years in it. Since I had a few more years in the service than he did, I told him that if he hired me, he would find out because he was going to have to do the paperwork to keep me in the service.”
After the laughter subsided, Boesch said, “He thumped me in the chest and hired me right on the spot.”
Boesch’s closing one-liner also drew laughs, but not for a joke the Navy would be pleased to hear expressed in a year following the reversal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” ban on gays in the military.
“In 2000, I tried out for the first Survivor series on TV, and the rest is history,” Boesch told the crowd. “Some of the people in here have been asking me if I keep in touch with anybody in the Survivor [series].” He paused. “I don’t write to queers. ” He made it clear that he was talking about “homosexuals.”
Naval Academy’s ‘South Pacific’ is a secret
January 24th, 2012 | Naval Academy Navy The Pacific World War II | Posted by Jenn Rafael
The Naval Academy Glee Club is putting on Rodgers and Hammerstein's "South Pacific," but apparently isn't allowed to say so. // Amazon.com
Next month, Naval Academy midshipmen will perform possibly the most nautical musical ever to hit Broadway — but you wouldn’t know it by reading the school’s announcement of tickets for the winter musical.
It’s South Pacific, but “licensing restrictions prohibit releasing the name of the production in this announcement.”
The story is set on a South Pacific island during World War II, featuring two love stories threatened by prejudice and war. Nellie, a spunky nurse from Arkansas, falls in love with a French planter, while Lt. Joe Cable finds himself denying his love for an island native.
The songs are familiar: “There Is Nothin’ Like a Dame” and “Some Enchanted Evening,” “Younger Than Springtime” and “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair.”
“The performance will be a fully realized Rodgers and Hammerstein production, complete with dancing, costumes, and a live pit orchestra made up of midshipmen musicians,” according to the news release.
The show will be performed Feb. 24, 25, and 26 and March 2, 3, and 4 in Mahan Hall. Performances are at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays. Tickets go on sale Jan. 24 and can be purchased online, by calling the Music and Theatre Box Office at 410-293-8497 or at the door.
McRaven, Navy spouse among first lady’s State of the Union guests
January 24th, 2012 | First Lady Spouses State of the Union address White House | Posted by Bill McMichael
Adm. William McRaven, the nation’s top special operator, and Navy spouse Adrienne Howard will join first lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden for tonight’s State of the Union address, the White House announced today.
The invitations honor veteran Navy SEAL McRaven, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, who as commander of Joint Special Operations Command had operational control of the Obama administration’s signature moment in the war on terror — the May 1, 2011, killing of Osama bin Laden in his Pakistan hideout — on the occasion of the SEALs’ 50th anniversary, being marked this week. It also honors Navy spouses such as Howard — and, by extension, all of those “married to the military.”
McRaven and Howard are among 21 guests who will be seated in the first lady’s box.
McRaven’s story is well known. Howard’s is not.
A native of Lynchburg, Va., Howard currently lives in San Diego, Calif., with her three children. According to the White House, her husband, Cmdr. Colby Howard, commands the destroyer Dewey, currently on deployment.
Like many military spouses, Howard has moved a lot — 14 times during her husband’s career. Their oldest child has attended 9 different schools in that time.
For nearly 20 years, Howard has been heavily involved as a volunteer in family readiness groups and Navy spouse organizations. This past September, after hearing about Joining Forces initiative launched by Michelle Obama and Jill Biden, Howard reached out and urged her local community to “adopt” a single sailor. You can read her story on the White House-affiliated Joining Forces Blog.
Navy cooks vie to be region’s `Top Chef’
January 24th, 2012 | Chow Competition Cooking Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek - Fort Story Navy Navy Region Mid-Atlantic | Posted by Bill McMichael
At least seven teams of Navy culinary specialists from Mid-Atlantic Region are sharpening their knives for Wednesday’s big 2012 “Top Chef” galley cook-off at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek – Fort Story.
(Blog entry aside: Isn’t that the most ungainly possible name for a military base? Sure hard to fit on the front of an HQ, much less say.)
The competition, which is not affiliated with the Bravo TV show, has a great angle going. Each team, consisting of two military chefs ranging in rank from E-1 to E-6, will have a variety of ingredients to choose from — the same stuff for each team. Then, before they begin, each team will be given a secret ingredient — which, we presume, will be something a bit more exotic than garlic salt yet at the same time, compatible with the base ingredients.
Armed with this intel, each team will have 30 minutes to figure out what it will create and get the judges’ approval for their menu. They’ll have to make two main dishes, and use every ingredient available — in two hours. No crock pots, please.
The judges will verify that the cooks have correctly prepared the meals. Then, the cooks will spoon it out, giving judges two plates from each dish to be judged on presentation and taste, respectively.
This will be the 4th annual Mid-Atlantic Regional Galley Culinary Competition, according to Spence Layne, assistant public affairs officer for the [ungainly-named] base. Winners get trophies and bragging rights.
If you were a judge, what secret ingredients would you impose upon the teams?