A ‘Like’ From John Paul Jones?
February 29th, 2012 | Facebook | Posted by Joshua Stewart
The Navy is switching to a re-vamped Facebook format that shows everything important that has ever happened in the service’s history.
Gone will be the standard page. Instead, information will be in the “Timeline” format, which allows visitors to see every photo, comment and ‘like’ ever posted on the Navy’s page.
It also allows the Navy to put in old photos and important events, including its “birth.” Typically, people put in cutesy pictures of themselves as a newborn, but here, clearly, should be a shot of John Paul Jones.
The Navy in Leap Year: WWII, Vietnam and the modern sub inventor’s birthday
February 29th, 2012 | Historical Leap Year Navy Photos Submarines | Posted by Bill McMichael
Every four years, Leap Year adds one day to the calendar to keep our timekeeping in alignment with the Earth’s revolutions around the sun. I thought it’d be neat to find an event in naval history to highlight and mark the unusual day.
Unfortunately, there aren’t any of those major anniversaries that one would normally note — say, one of the World War II island assaults. A web search yielded nothing. Nada. The Navy agrees. According to navy.mil, “There is no Navy historical data noted at this time for Leap Day (Feb. 29).”
The Navy’s reference is to the big stuff, however. Things happened, and things that involved combat operations and risk to sailors, as well. According to the Naval History & Heritage Command, there are two Leap Year events of significance, both from the 20th century and 44 years apart:
1944 – PB4Y-1s from squadrons VB-108, VB-109, and VD-3, conduct a low-level bombing raid on Japanese positions on Wake Island.
1968 – Four North Vietnamese trawlers attempting to simultaneously infiltrate supplies into South Vietnam were detected. Three of the trawlers were sunk in battle on the following day and one survived by turning back.
Today also marks the 1840 birthday of John Philip Holland, the inventor of the modern submarine — one that could successfully operate on internal combustion afloat and electric battery power while submerged.
According to website of the Clare County Library, Ireland, Holland, an Irishman and engineer who emigrated to America in 1873, has his first submitted design for a submarine rejected by the Navy; the Navy Secretary called it “a fantastic scheme of a civilian landsman.” But he persisted and he launched his first sub, the Holland 1, in 1877, in New Jersey’s Passaic River.
Unfortunately, someone forgot to insert two screw plugs, and it began to sink. But the following day, several successful dives were made.
Holland kept at it. The Holland 6 was launched in May 1897, passed U.S. Navy trials in 1899, was bought on Apr. 11, 1900, for $150,000 and became the USS Holland — the Navy’s first sub.
Deal avoids prosecution for former sailor who threatened suicide with homemade gun
February 28th, 2012 | Navy Suicide Veterans Veterans Affairs Veterans Treatment Court Virginia Tech | Posted by Bill McMichael
A welcome compromise was reached Monday in federal court in Roanoke, Va., when prosecutors agreed that a Navy veteran of the Persian Gulf War who called a suicide hotline last year and threatened to kill himself with a homemade gun would not be prosecuted if he completes mandatory counseling.
The Washington Post story points out three elements of the case that have angered many, particularly veterans’ groups. First, what was the government doing prosecuting a veteran, Sean Duvall, who was reaching out for help — especially at a time when the government is at the same time urging combat veterans of all stripes, but especially those of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, to seek help for post-traumatic stress disorder?
Second, the lead prosecutor, Timothy Heaphy, was the son-in-law of Veterans Affairs chief Eric Shinseki, who, as reporter Christian Davenport writes, is “an advocate for helping troubled veterans rather than punishing them.”
Most troubling, perhaps, is that the government went after Duvall, who was homeless, jobless and despondent over his father’s death, although he’d called a VA suicide hotline that he presumed was confidential.
Another government prosecutor explained Monday that authorities were concerned that Duvall, armed with the homemade handgun, had made the call from the campus of Virginia Tech, site of the 2007 shootings that left 33 dead and where he’d once worked part-time as a cook. He also has a criminal history, although it doesn’t include any charges of assault.
Heaphy, however, apparently had a change of heart after media reports on the case generated a highly negative response.
Under the agreement, Sean Duvall will be admitted to a state Veterans Treatment Court. The concept, akin to drug treatment courts, offers vets with war-related mental health conditions counseling and treatment alternatives in the context of a highly disciplined environment. Typically, charges are dismissed upon successful completion of the program. VTCs have caught on nationwide, and the Virginia VTC is the state’s first. Duvall’s case will be the first felony referred to that court.
It’s the sense that Duvall’s confidentiality was violated that seems to have drawn the most angry responses to the government’s response — even though it may have been the responding police officer’s report, not the hotline call itself, that resulted in the weapons charge.
One commenter under the Post story, “bluewhinge”, wrote, “It wasn’t the call to the hotline that was the problem, it was admitting that he had a weapon and was on the grounds of a university. But yeah, it was handled pretty stupidly. Imagine what it’s going to be like when we start adding discharged Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans in, with the unemployment rate for vets already higher than the average. They’re bringing them home, but there aren’t any jobs for them.”
Thoughts? Should Duvall have been charged?
Meme: What my LPO thinks I do
February 27th, 2012 | Entertainment Humor | Posted by Sam Fellman
Doctors have one. So do karaoke singers, movie directors, librarians, pilots, journalists and disc-jockeys. Now, sailors can claim their own What-people-think-I-do meme.
For the uninitiated, that’s the Navy’s top enlisted man, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (SS/SW) Rick West, mugging in the top center photo. Scoop Deck thinks the rest of the 6-photo slide, designed by a sailor, speaks for itself — and with its own salt.
Mismanaged projects and funds? The boss wants to know — through channels
February 23rd, 2012 | Blogs Fleet Forces Command Inspector General Investigation Maintenance Navy Software | Posted by Bill McMichael
Fleet Forces Command chief Adm. John Harvey sure raised eyebrows with his Thursday post on the command blog when he chastised those posting comments about “potential mismanagement of Navy projects and funds.”
Harvey said he wants to know about potential problems — and he’s been one to solicit feedback in the past — but a blog, he said, is not the place to voice serious allegations that, if unresolvable by the chain of command, might be better directed to an inspector general.
Harvey appears to be referring specifically to five comments posted at the tail of Feb. 9 post providing an update on his comprehensive review of all software being used in the fleet, dubbed the “Fleet FAM effort”. The initiative aims “to reverse the damage caused by so many years of undisciplined software management in the Fleet and by the many entities who were able to deliver software applications to the Fleet,” Harvey wrote.
The comments begin with a critical post about Automated Work Notification, a replacement for Organizational Maintenance Management System-Next Generation (asleep yet?), a program used to manage and document surface ship maintenance actions that provides an interface for requesting material and spare parts support for a ship’s installed systems.
The problem, the writer, an officer, complains, is that more than $100 million has been spent on development since 2007, yet AWN “does nothing to ease the burden on the Fleet and help Sailors do their jobs” and, in fact, “increases the burden.” At the same time, the Navy has simultaneously developed a “95 percent solution in-house” that does the job, the writer claims.
A follow-on commenter corrected the first writer, saying more than $175 million has been spent on OMMS-NG since 2005. The writer provided an equally negative assessment, saying the money bought the Navy “pretty much nothing, just a bunch of software that is riddled with security vulnerabilities.” The root of the problem, the writer said, lies with Harvey’s own N43, Fleet Maintenance.
Two additional writers poured it on, with a fifth arguing that both AWN and the in-house solution should be skipped over in favor of the existing Fleet Assessment Support Tool, which with some tweaks could do the job. The money would be better spent hiring more subject matter experts at Regional Maintenance Facilities, the writer said.
To Fleet Forces Command’s credit, the comments weren’t deleted — testament to Harvey’s stated desire to hear about problems. But he’d obviously much prefer to air the dirty laundry out of the public eye.
“I want to be clear that I am still very interested in feedback regarding the various topics we routinely discuss on this blog,” Harvey concluded. “As I said in my last post, deckplate feedback has been absolutely critical for me to identify and address some of the biggest issues in the Fleet. But I want to strongly reiterate that when the issues involve matters such as fraud, waste, abuse and the mismanagement of projects and funds, we need to ensure we’re reporting those matters through the proper channels.”
And the problems already aired? Said Harvey, “My staff has been gathering the facts on the issues identified and will determine whether an official investigation is warranted.”
Public rationales for unanticipated shipbuilding costs
February 21st, 2012 | Carriers Gerald R. Ford Navy Newport News Shipbuilding Photos Ships Shipyard | Posted by Bill McMichael
A euphemism is “the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant,” according to Merriam-Webster. An example might be couching a near-$1 billion increase in the cost of the most expensive ship ever in the most innocuous terms possible.
My colleague Chris Cavas has a fine explainer story in the print version of this week’s Defense News on the soaring cost of CVN 78, the Gerald R. Ford. Chris notes that the Navy’s recently unveiled fiscal year 2013 budget request asks Congress for another $811 million atop a total price tag of more than $15 billion — the most expensive ship ever built.
A 945-ton superlift is lowered into place near the stern of PCU Gerald R. Ford, or CVN-78, on May 21, 2011, at Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Va. The superlift erected contained a diesel generator room, a pump room, an oily water waste pump room, 16 complete tanks and 18 partial tanks that was welded to the rest of the ship. It is one of 162 total superlifts that comprise the ship. // Photo courtesy of Newport News Shipbuilding, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries.
Chris made sure to include the euphemism the Navy unwrapped to describe the rationale for the cost bump. The Navy is attributing the need for more money to “fact-of-life cost increases.”
I understand that the Ford is the first in a new class of ship and that the Navy was ordered to put nearly all of the technology improvements originally slated to be spread across the first three carriers of the Ford class into the first one, yada yada. It’s all a matter of scale, I suppose. But that’s some “fact of life.” $811 million would go a long toward, say, remodeling aging barracks for single sailors’ pockets. Put another way, it’s enough to pay for about a third of a new Flight III Arleigh Burke destroyer.
But from a writing standpoint, I just love that phrase! What’s next? “Lessons-in-life cost increases”? “Cost-of-doing-business cost increases”? If you were trying to spin this increase for Congress, how would you term it?
Navy croquet sobers up
February 17th, 2012 | Navy | Posted by Joshua Stewart
The St. John’s College and Naval Academy annual croquet match, the country’s biggest collegiate event in the sport, was just hit with some horrible news: You can no longer bring your own alcohol to the match.
Under policies released this year, you will no longer be able to bring your own booze onto St. John’s, the classically liberal school that hosts the event. Instead, you’ll have to buy your own beer, wine and champagne at a cash-only bar. And don’t think about sneaking in your own private stash: Bags and baskets are subject to search.
This is pretty major, since the rite of spring is more about the accompanying lawn party than the actual sport, which very few if any of the attendees actually know how to play anyway.
For the unfamiliar, here’s how it all works: People wear extravagant tweedish outfits, sundresses and floppy hats, smoke tasty cigars and sip wine poured from bottles corked with real corks, champagne that costs at least $8 per bottle, beer that’s made in small batches and doesn’t come from cans and otherwise act sophisticated (unless you write for Scoop Deck and wear old jeans, a band T-shirt and a Camel Bak filled with National Bohemian and sneak cucumber sandwiches from unsuspecting picnickers). Mids, Johnnies, their families, alumni, and men, women and children of all ages from Annapolis and elsewhere come, construct white lawn tents, set out giant spreads of food and make a day out of it. It’s Gatsby-esque.
Meanwhile, while the party continues, the nation’s premier collegiate croquet match goes on in the background. Midshipmen dressed in their white croquet uniforms — they kind of look like milkmen — usually get clobbered by the Johnnies, who unveil a new, usually satirical, uniforms every ear. All the while, the players have their own caddies/butlers who follow them around, holding their drinks on silver platters, wiping the sweat off their brows. In terms of Navy athletics, it’s probably second only to the Army-Navy football game.
Maryland has a recent history banning outside alcohol from important sporting events. The Preakness, proudly the scuzziest of the three legs of the Triple Crown, enacted a similar policy. The people revolted.
Watch out, St. John’s — they may come after you with mallets in hand.
Love and the Navy
February 9th, 2012 | Blues Liberty Navy Valentine's Day | Posted by Bill McMichael
This year’s Valentine’s Day will be particularly special for all the couples reunited in Norfolk this week after the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group’s return from that insanely long 10 1/2-month deployment. But since it falls on a Tuesday, those with duty, as well as many of us working stiffs, are more likely to take our significant other out for that romantic dinner on Saturday night, and perhaps follow up with some (overpriced, but you gotta do it, right?) flowers on the Big Day.
It won’t be so great for those whose loved ones are still deployed. Veteran Navy couples know how to stay in touch and keep the fires burning. But for those newbies in need of a suggestion or two, here are some great tips. It’s Navy wife-oriented, but there are some solid ideas for husbands on the home front too. Just use the ol’ imagination.
In another time and place, most of the Navy was not married. And thinking about sailors and lovers brought to mind the best-ever blues song — couldn’t recall another, actually — about sailors and lovers in one of those other times and places. It was written and recorded in 1932 by Lonnie Johnson. Great tune, sad ending. But hey — it’s the blues!
The lyrics:
Boys, you ever heard that tale ’bout Winnie the Wailer?
She fell in love with that redhead sailor.
Boy, he made her fall, and she fell hard.
Then he left poor Winnie flat in the navy yard.
Cryin’ boo hoo hoo,
She said, “Boo hoo hoo.”
Now she moaned all day,
And she wailed all night.
Because that sailor man didn’t do her right.
Yeah man. [spoken]
Then she traveled ’round,
From ‘Frisco to China.
She met a guy way over in Asia Minor.
He got a kiss on that very first trip.
He promised her that ride on that battle ship.
She cried, “Boo hoo hoo,
I’ll get even with you.
She says, “Now you may smile,
Then you may frown,
But I can’t let you keep poor Winnie down.”
Do it again. [spoken]
Then she met sailor man named Popeye the Skipper.
When she was mean, boy how he used to whip her.
He loved ta fight ‘n, and she was tough.
He had to leave her ’cause she plays too rough.
Ship ahoy,
Ah, ship ahoy.
She knows her Qs,
And she knows her Ps.
Now poor Winnie sails them seven seas.
Ah, swing it. [spoken]
I do believe. [spoken words]
Now then she met a sailor man, he knowed the ocean.
He fell in love with her, give her his devotion.
He says, “I put a many a gal on the spot,
Ah, but Minnie you got me tied in that sailor’s knot.”
I said, “I’ll get even with you,
Ah, I’ll get even with you.”
Now boy one day the hearse stop,
At poor Winnie’s door,
And now she can’t wail no more.
Brrrrrrrr…..it’s cold out there
February 6th, 2012 | 7th Fleet Entertainment Navy | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
Members of the brass section of the 7th Fleet Band perform in front of a massive ice sculpture during the Sapporo Snow Festival in Japan. // Navy MC2 Kenneth R. Hendrix photos
When temperatures go below freezing, perhaps the last place you’d want to place your lips is anything made of metal. Anyone who’s ever played in a marching or military band for an outdoor performance knows that the show must go on, regardless of Mother Nature’s moods. That’s just what some members of the U.S. 7th Fleet Band did this past weekend, enduring snow and icy conditions to entertain the crowd in Sapporo, Japan. The northern Japan city on Hokkaido island, which hosted the 1972 Winter Olympics, is famous for its annual Sapporo Snow Festival attended by some 2 million visitors who don wool caps and thick layers of clothing to enjoy the region’s wintry landscape and an impressive array of sculptures and statues. The festival runs through Feb. 12.
The 7th Fleet band played tunes on stage Feb. 6 as part of the kickoff for the 63rd annual festival, performing for the crowd in front of a massive sculpture featuring some of the ocean’s most popular residents, including a walrus, gray whale, bottlenose dolphin and sea turtle. Meanwhile, sailors aboard fleet command ship Blue Ridge visited the nearby port city of Tomokodai and joined in that city’s annual ice festival.
A massive sculpture of sea life serves as the backdrop for the 7th Fleet Band's performance in Sapporo, Japan.
And not to be outdone, this year a team of sailors from Misawa Naval Air Facility in Japan battled the cold over three days to shape their own homage to sea service. The result is a sharp looking sculpture (below) that honors the Navy’s “Lone Sailor” statue. And after several days making something out of a chunky block of icy snow, the end result is, according to the Misawa folks, ”finally is within U.S. Navy body fat standards.” You can see more pictures of other sculptures here.
The "Lone Sailor" sculpture at this year's Sapporo Snow Festival. // NAF Misawa Facebook photo
Rough day at Bold Alligator
February 6th, 2012 | Amphibious operations Bold Alligator Navy Photos Training | Posted by Bill McMichael
Between rolling blackouts and very limited connectivity, the press gaggle I was with out on Wasp and Kearsarge this weekend had a devil of a time getting on line long enough to transmit stories back to land. Timing is everything. I finally managed to get one sent Sunday night from Kearsarge that was posted Monday morning.
It was a pretty blustery day out there Sunday — so much so that flight operations were practically non-existent. But as the story notes, it was fun watching the topsiders track some “bad guys” who disembarked early afternoon into a small boat or two.
Master-at-Arms 1st Class (SW) Erwin Piper (left) scans the seas for possible enemy contacts while Master-at-Arms 3rd Class Evan Richardson makes a logbook entry Sunday aboard the amphibious assault ship Kearsarge, underway off the North Carolina coast during exercise Bold Alligator. // Photo by Bill McMichael, Navy Times
It also gave me a renewed appreciation for just how hard it is to spot small objects out on the water when there is any sort of inclement weather. The cloud ceiling was low and sometimes, what was visible disappeared into the fog.
Here’s a late-morning view of a choppy day at sea, looking aft, from the top of the Kearsarge’s well deck:
That's the dock landing ship Oak Hill trailing the Kearsarge Sunday and, we're pretty sure, the cruiser Anzio in the distance, as the six-ship group (and another in front of it) simulates a strait transit. // Photo by Bill McMichael, Navy Times.