There’s something very unusual about this photo
June 21st, 2010 | Aviation Maritime operations Photos | Posted by Phil Ewing
The littoral combat ship Freedom rendezvoused with the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard for a refueling-at-sea last week in the Pacific. // MC3 Marcus Stanley / Navy
A photo of the littoral combat ship Freedom taking on fuel is like a photo of a cow grazing — highly predictable behavior from a creature that needs lots and lots of sustenance. That’s not what’s unusual about this picture. Can you spot what is? The answer is after the jump.
Lily, Rosemary, the Jack of Hearts and MCPON
June 21st, 2010 | leadership The deckplates | Posted by Phil Ewing
"You don't need a weatherman to tell which way the wind blows, shipmates." // MC1 Tiffini Jones Vanderwyst / Navy
When you’re lost in the rain, in Juarez, and it’s Easter time too, you still need to remember to use operational risk management. And you may have many contacts among the lumberjacks to get you facts when someone attacks your imagination — but if you want the real gouge, go to Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (SS/SW) Rick West.
West has a new video on his Facebook page about the importance of safety in these warm summer months. But before you watch it, take a look at this video for a song called “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” by a rock-and-roll artist named Bob Dylan — apparently he’s a new singer who’s popular with the kids these days. [The video is in the bottom row, fourth from the left.] In MCPON’s video, it’s clear he learned from the master.
The Truman “armada:” Arglebargle or fooferaw?
June 21st, 2010 | Blogs Carriers | Posted by Phil Ewing
The Harry S. Truman carrier strike group has caused yet another web kerfuffle just by existing. // MC2 Kilho Park / Navy
Inside the family, we reporters have a shorthand to describe kinds of stories that tend to reoccur with the same basic features: An “on the one hand, on the other hand” analysis is a thumb-sucker; a minute-by-minute retelling is a tick-tock; a piece about the latest amazing technology is a gee-whiz story.
But here’s one I’ve seen many times that we don’t have a ready term for: The “ship-movements-mean-the-U.S.-must-be-getting-ready-to-attack-Iran-or-
otherwise-escalate-its-wars” piece, in which the normal rotation of carriers in the Middle East is blown into a full-scale invasion that the mainstream lapdog media isn’t telling you about. It’s a phenomenon that takes place on the periphery of the Web, on sites that don’t normally cover the Navy, and this week includes one of the biggest examples of this echo-chamber effect.
The Harry S. Truman carrier strike group is on its way to relieve the Dwight D. Eisenhower carrier strike group, on station contributing air power to Afghanistan. It’s a routine, scheduled change-over that happens all the time. But according to some reports, Egypt (that puppet!) “allowed” the “U.S. battleships” in the Truman strike group, which “were the largest in years,” to transit the Suez Canal, “following the same route U.S. ships used prior to the attack on Iraq,” in the “prelude to a face-off with Iran.”
What hogwash! And yet, like clockwork, this exact same non-story occurs every time an amateur rabble-rouser spots an item about U.S. warships, hoping to take advantage of Internet sea blindness and cause a stir. So we need a term for this. Strikegroupsploitation? Fleet alarmism? Navy Chicken Littletry?
What do you think? What would you call the predictable carrier rumor boomlet?
The power of the periscope
June 18th, 2010 | Submarines | Posted by Phil Ewing
Hey, look at that! Is that a submarine? Well, yes -- in this case the fast-attack sub Virginia. // MC2 William Pittman / Navy
Scoop Deck turns a year old this month, and in addition to a little promotion we’ve got going on, we’ve been looking back at our hundreds of posts from the past 12 months. Some of my favorites are the “local yokels alarmed by possible submarine sighting” stories, of which we’ve had a few examples.
In fact, it’s funny: We did our first “locals see sub” post exactly one year ago Saturday, which detailed an encounter between two fishermen and the guided missile sub Georgia and included this timeless quote:
“It was a trip, man,” said [Bryan] Marlowe, 32. “I don’t see a lot of that type of crap. It just popped up out of nowhere.”
Now, 364 days later, here’s another one: The Florida Sun-Sentinel reports three buddies were out on the water — just like last year — tryin’ to catch them some fish — just like last year — and they spotted a periscope staring back at them.
When our boys tried to move closer for a look in their vessel, Fishy Business (!), the periscope “took off” at “20 knots,” they said, and then the submarine underneath it dove amid a mass of bubbles.
“It was crazy,” fisherman Ryan Danoff told the newspaper. “If it was just myself out there I wouldn’t believe what I saw.”
And the cosmic gears of the blog world keep going around and around…
Former Coast Guard vice commandant gets new gig
June 18th, 2010 | Coast Guard | Posted by Susan Schept
Then-Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen presents an award to Vice Adm. David Pekoske during his May 24 retirement ceremony at Ft. McNair.//PA1 Kip Wadlow/Coast Guard
After a week off, newly retired Coast Guard Vice Adm. David Pekoske landed a new gig. As of June 1, the former vice commandant is the executive vice president of A-T Solutions Inc., a counter-terrorism intelligence company in Vienna, Va.
“I love it,” said Pekoske, who retired May 24. “It’s a company whose culture is very similar to the place from which I came.”
Among other services, the company provides intelligence on how to locate and defuse improvised explosive devices. IEDs have wreaked havoc for troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Pekoske said it is “only a matter of time” for these types of bombs to be used on civilians in the U.S. He cited the recent attempt to set off a bomb in Times Square as an example.
Pekoske will be responsible for developing and managing A-T Solutions’ international maritime and port security business unit.
The faceless men
June 18th, 2010 | Carriers Royal Navy | Posted by Phil Ewing
ABOARD THE HMS ARK ROYAL — My colleague Colin Kelly snapped this surreal image of a damage control drill on the ship’s elegant quarterdeck. Over the roar of the wake under the fantail — Ark Royal was almost at full power to get wind over the deck for flight ops — sailors trained for how to respond to a fire.
The idea was to train sailors to work in spaces completely obscured by smoke, so the crew members wore hoods to block their vision and radio helmets through which they could hear voice commands. A sailor picked up a drum of Aqueous Film-Forming Foam and listened to instructions from a supervisor on when to walk, when to turn, and when to stop.
All this took place in view of a grim reminder of the Royal Navy’s long experience with damage control. On the quarterdeck is Ark Royal’s battle honors board, which includes all the exploits of all the warships named Ark Royal throughout history, including the Spanish Armada, the hunt for the Bismarck, and the 2003 Battle of Al Faw.
In that context, with that damage control drill, it was impossible not to think of the third Ark Royal,which suffered the most violent end of all five ships to bear the name — sunk off Gibraltar in 1941.
Toddler-flage
June 18th, 2010 | Chow Life at Sea Morale Navy Photos | Posted by Susan Schept
A child looks at his father, CS2 Rowin Lameque, during a Father's Day celebration lunch June 18 aboard the amphibious command ship Blue Ridge. // MC1 Josh Huebner/Navy
Who knew the Navy Working Uniform came in this size? The Blue Ridge’s service staff invited sailors and their families to the enlisted galley for a Father’s Day luncheon. They served up a photo of the day.
SecNav becomes Gulf Czar. Or is it “Captain Marvel?”
June 18th, 2010 | leadership Washington | Posted by Phil Ewing
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, here touring Camp Leatherneck last year, has been tasked with formulating a Gulf Coast recovery plan for the Obama administration. But will it leave time for his day job? // MC2 Kevin O'Brien / Navy
The Navy world is still figuring out what it means that President Obama has asked Navy Secretary Ray Mabus to be the Gulf Coast recovery honcho. Reportedly, Mabus will keep his day job as the top civilian leader of the Navy and Marine Corps, which likely means he’ll log a lot of time in the air between Washington and points south, and may not have as many chances in the near term to get out to the far-flung corners of the Earth that he loves to visit.
Defense types here inside the Beltway bubble seem to be reserving judgment, but, at least according to early reports, the choice of Mabus is a hit down in the spill zone. In fact, the Southern Political Report seems to think Mabus is the perfect guy for what it called the “Captain Marvel” position, which seems to be a technical term down there for an official who outranks an ordinary “czar:”
For this pick to work, the person should have experience with (a) the region, (b) the ocean, (c) the environment, (d) working with Democrats and Republicans, (e) business, (f) executive governance, and (g) national and local government. Now you know why I used the “Captain Marvel” analogy, instead of a lowly czar.
The Jackson Clarion-Ledger quoted Steve Rozman, a Tougaloo College political scientist as calling the move a smart one, given Mabus’ local roots and knowledge of the ocean in his current administration position. “It’s better than picking someone who is secretary of commerce from New York,” Rozman said in the article “Mabus To Head Gulf Coast Spill-Recovery Effort.
Mabus’ “knowledge of the ocean” is more of a “knowledge of deadly machines that use the ocean as a medium from which to deliver violence,” but all right, it’s pretty clear what the hep Southern set thinks.
What do you think? Can Mabus juggle being SecNav and GulfCzar/GulfMarv, or should President Obama fleet up Undersecretary of the Navy Bob Work until the Gulf work is done?
Update: The king of Washington’s “defense types,” Loren Thompson, isn’t reserving judgment anymore: He says Mabus should either step down or decline the job as GulfCzar.
As hard core as they come
June 17th, 2010 | leadership Morale NECC Officers | Posted by Lance Bacon
Meet Lt. John Pucillo. This EOD leader lost his left leg above the knee when an IED exploded outside his vehicle in May 2006, in Baghdad. But he didn’t let that hold him back.
Pucillo endured nine grueling months of rehab at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, then returned to active EOD service. He made the U.S. Paralympics Sailing National Team and earned his master’s degree in national security and strategic studies from the Naval War College in Newport, R.I.
Now, the Bronze Star recipient has added another decoration to crown his fruit salad: Jump wings.
Power projection points to pending problems
June 17th, 2010 | Life at Sea Maritime operations Navy SEALs Submarines | Posted by Lance Bacon
For the first time ever, all four guided missile subs are deployed to an AOR. We’re not talking about being underway at the same time, and sea trials don’t count. We’re talking about being on the tip of the spear. For you strategists out there, that equals a combined 616 Tomahawk cruise missiles on station, and the ability to deploy up to 264 special ops forces.
The historic mark was hit June 10, according to this Navy release. In the article, Rear Adm. Frank Caldwell, commander of Submarine Group 9 said “… back in the mid 90’s this was just a power point presentation.”
While a commendable feat, the fact that all four SSGNs are out also points to a growing problem.