AP

In the social media world, there’s growing disbelief over the detainee abuse allegations against three Navy SEALs, which came to light this week. The three were charged in connection with the alleged abuse of the purported mastermind of the 2004 ambush in Fallujah, in which four contractors from Blackwater were hanged and burned. After the news broke on Tuesday, more than 14,000 people have rallied to support them. How? Where? Facebook, of course.

Some of us here at Scoop Deck prefer to take our news from paper. The deliberate design of words and images on pages you can turn allows a reader to find news or information he or she might have otherwise missed by pointing and clicking.

Take obituaries. They often make good reads not because someone is dead, but because the deceased enjoyed a rewarding life, a life worth sharing with strangers. It’s for that reason that we’d like to point out the obituary of one Capt. William B. Ecker.

It turns out this Omaha-native who went to University of Maryland became a naval aviator with a no kidding role in world history. Read his story to the end. He’s got a great take on one of the world’s most famous communists.

The looming U.S. military build-up in Guam has some asking how everyone will fit on the Pacific island. Surfers, as it turns out in this story, are also wondering how everyone will get along when more non-locals try to catch waves too.

Groton-based fast attack submarine San Juan arrives in South Africa for "regional security cooperation activities" and other events.//USN

In what’s becoming almost a habit, another U.S. Navy ship has stopped to visit South Africa. On Nov. 4, the fast attack submarine San Juan pulled into Simon’s Town for what 6th Fleet bills as a “first-ever, at-sea” engagement with that nation’s undersea fleet.

San Juan follows the destroyer Arleigh Burke, which arrived in Durban on July 13 for a similar visit. And last October, the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt and cruiser Monterey stopped in Cape Town, marking the first time a U.S. flattop had been to South Africa since the Franklin D. Roosevelt made a stop in 1967.

The U.S. Navy has been building ties with the South Africans steadily in recent years. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead met naval leadership there in April.

For most of the second half of the 20th century South Africa was an international pariah because of its segregation policy known as “apartheid,” which was repealed in 1991. Check out the South African military here.

Northrop Grumman has announced a date for the ceremonial keel-laying of the Navy’s new class of aircraft carrier. On Nov. 14, dignitaries and media will crowd into the Newport News shipyard for a ceremonial beginning of the Gerald R. Ford, CVN 78.

The last of the Nimitz-class carriers, the George H.W. Bush, was commissioned on a bright but chilly Jan. 10 by the former president himself. President Ford’s daughter Susan Ford Bales is CVN 78’s sponsor and her initials will be welded into the ship’s steel.

Like the first President Bush, Ford served in the Navy during World War II. The first of the Ford carriers is expected to join the fleet in 2015 with a host of new technologies and design changes from the Nimitz ships.

At one point in the Navy’s recent history, sailors serving ashore in Iraq and Afghanistan, often as individual augmentees in Army units, took to calling themselves “dirt sailors.” The brass didn’t like that, we learned. Maybe it was due to the implied value of “dirt.” Sailors, accustomed to being at sea and surrounded by water were merely being observant, as their usual habitat had suddenly turned dry and ah, dirty. 

Today however, a new light has been cast. In remarks during a ceremony for the Stockdale Award at the Pentagon, Adm. Gary Roughead, chief of naval operations, was describing the current duties of the winners, both ashore in Iraq. He said they are what he “affectionately” refers to as “sand sailors.” So, sand sailors it is.

Some things are just motivating, like the last few words of the Star Spangled Banner, sacks of cash, hot steak sandwiches and of course, the Five Vector Model. The Scoop Deck staff is on an eternal search for reliable sightings of the Five Vector Model and yes, we found another one, pictured above. It was in Groton. Here is one example we keep in the archive, a sighting from the Navy’s Birthday in 2006, somewhere in the Pacific.  If you see a 5VM, in any form, please send in a photo. Probably the most prized example would be a “5VM” vanity license plate. Or a tattoo. That would be sweet.

Fun Fact for the kids: note the difference in vector type and amount between the above example from Groton and the one from the Essex in 2006.

Just in time for the Naval Submarine League’s annual symposium next week here near Washington, D.C., the good news arrives that the ballistic missile submarine West Virginia successfully launched two unarmed D-5 Trident II ballistic missiles on Oct 23., likely off the Navy’s missile test facility in Port Canaveral, Fla. 

Maybe more likely to come up in discussion at Sub League will be the recent honor bestowed on the crew of the fast attack submarine Hartford. They were commended on Oct. 20 for 1,000 consecutive days without any of the 140 crew involved in a drunk driving incident. What might ignite a few wisecracks during a coffee break is that Hartford has been under repair at Electric Boat in Groton because on March 20 in the Strait of Hormuz it collided with the amphib New Orleans.

MC1 Tiffani Vanderwyst, Navy

When admirals from 100 different navies gather, they need a place to stack their covers. This was the pile-up outside a meeting of the International Seapower Symposium at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. on Oct. 7.  Scoop Deck usually has a sharp eye for detail but this one is a tough nut. Good luck placing more than three on a map.

Adm. Gary Roughead, the chief of naval operations, has joined the millions who use social media.// MC1 Tiffini Jones Vanderwyst/ Navy

It was only a matter of time. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead has a Facebook page. He also has a Twitter account.

A sailor with paint-spattered coveralls (right) compares his trousers to the new Navy Working Uniform. //Photo by Sheila Vemmer, Navy Times

Check out this photo taken aboard the cruiser Anzio in the Middle East. Good to know that if you can’t afford the new Navy Working Uniform (which was designed to hide grease and paint), a bucket of paint and a set of blue coveralls will do the trick.

So wait … the Navy spent $226 million to field a new uniform, just to have it look like another uniform it wants to hide?

Scoop Deck recently returned from a month in the 5th Fleet area. We were lucky enough to ride the Norfolk-based cruiser Anzio from the pier in Bahrain to the counterpiracy patrol area off the coast of Somalia. Check out this video from Anzio as the ship finished its transit through the Strait of Hormuz.

The cruiser Anzio tops off its fuel loads courtesy of the fleet oiler John Lenthall on Aug. 18 off the coast of Somalia.// Sheila Vemmer/ Staff

The cruiser Anzio was clearly not the first replenishment at sea for the fleet oiler John Lenthall, seen here off the coast of Somalia. Quite a few ships have met up with Lenthall for a rendezvous before.

Observing a ship's tradition, Anzio tied a bag of cookies to the nozzle for the Lenthall crew.// Sheila Vemmer/ Staff

The crew of the Anzio however, had the decency when it was over to tie a bag of fresh chocolate chip cookies to the nozzle which the Lenthall crew could retrieve and enjoy after the ships parted ways.

It's hard to tell from this photo, but it was was incredibly hot Aug. 9 aboard the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan. // Sheila Vemmer/ Staff

After entering the Persian Gulf aboard the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan, the ship passed several dhows nearby and was followed by a speedboat that kept up for quite some time. Among the crew watching the watchers was this sailor, positioned in the bow, just off the flight deck.

Smugglers sped with their illicit cargoes across the Strait of Hormuz // Sheila Vemmer/ Staff

Scoop Deck was lucky enough recently to do a daylight transit through the Strait of Hormuz, out of the Persian Gulf, aboard the Norfolk-based cruiser Anzio. While passing islands off to the Oman side, these smugglers dashed toward Iran. They were really moving fast and went across the bow to avoid the big warship’s wake. Speculation on the bridge was they were hauling booze and cigarettes.

Navy leadership says IA tours will be a fact of life for some time, even with the expected withdrawal of forces from Iraq.//Photo by Sheila Vemmer/ Staff

Here’s one that might throw you off. From a distance you’d think “soldier,” but in fact Scoop Deck found this sailor in Kuwait turning in gear after an individual augmentee assignment with the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division.

According to the latest information from 5th Fleet, there are 4,950 IAs throughout the Central Command area.

According to a Somali-born linguist, ship hijackers here are perpetually stoned and not too bright yet rich and popular in the small towns and villages. Flush with ransom money, they have their pick of women despite existing local ties.//Photo via ethiopianreview.com

ABOARD THE CRUISER ANZIO OFF SOMALIA — It’s always a good idea to know some of the local language and culture, no matter what or where. In recent years U.S. forces have had to rely on native speakers in Iraq, Afghanistan and on missions like this one off the Horn of Africa.

A Somali-born linguist (he requests anonymity for protection) has come aboard as Anzio steps up its counterpiracy mission. He shared a few relevant Somali terms:

pirate: burcad badeed (thugs of the sea)

folding stock AK-47: dabalabab

RPG: bazooka

automatic rifle: faal (German-made G3 specifically)

coalition sailors: cridank-bada (soldiers of the sea)

ransom: “There is no word. This is new to us.”

He has nothing but contempt for ship hijackers.  “Some of them wouldn’t know the difference between a warship and an oiler. That’s how dumb they are,” he said. “They have money and the small towns and villages welcome them. Everybody helps them. They’ve got multiple wives. The youngest most beautiful girls, they will select them.”

The sudden influx of loaded thugs does not bode well for local suitors. “If she is waiting for a poor boy from the next village, and there’s a pirate, that love is broken.”

The ship hijackers are also boozers with an overpowering taste for the leaf-borne stimulant khat that’s popular in the region. “If they run out they’ll go back . They are under the influence always. Not just khat,” he said. “Some of them are drunk.”

As for chow? “You can’t cook on a skiff, man. But they love Pop-Tarts. They [stick them together and] eat them like a sandwich.”

Somalis point to years of rampant factory fishing off their shores as the genesis of today’s situation but the  linguist isn’t the only one with contempt for ship hijackers. The Islamic militants Al-Shabaab operating around Mogadishu will cut off a poor man’s hand for stealing bread and have no tolerance for stealing ships, he said, “Al-Shabaab are bad ass.”

Navy

ABOARD THE CRUISER ANZIO OFF SOMALIA — We set out from Bahrain on Aug. 16, embarked on this, the flagship for counterpiracy Task Force 151. With extra staff and special personnel, just about every rack is taken, to the point where the junior officers are living in forward ops berthing, former lair of the boatswain’s mates. Two female hospital corpsmen from an embarked surgical team got the medical department racks. This ship does not have the female berthing modification, so there are no enlisted women in ship’s company.

The task force staff is combined with British Royal Navy officers and sailors. There’s also a Somali interpreter from the Midwest and a Coast Guard team from Galveston, Texas.

Military Times photographer Sheila Vemmer has been posting just a fraction of her photos here and here.

The ship is named for one of the most brutal battles of World War II and communications over the ship’s 1MC are often closed with the ship’s motto: Stand and Fight.

Terms like ”hero” and “warrior” and others too long to list here are thrown around with alarming disregard today. But the passageways of this ship are watched over by Medal of Honor recipients from the early 1944 showdown at Anzio. Their efforts, as the allies stood and fought ashore in Italy, were shockingly brave. If you need a reminder about that war, or the Americans who were thrown into it, look up the history of the battle and the MoH citations of men like Pfc. Alton W. Knappenberger, Capt. William W. Galt and  2nd Lt. Ernest H. Dervishian. There are 19 more names, several of them among the 7,000 allies killed in a few months there in 1944.

Capt. Baig, of the oil tanker M.T. Dorado, said he has dealt with ship hijackers off Africa and radio hecklers at sea. //Sheila Vemmer, Navy Times

ABOARD AL BASRA OIL TERMINAL IN THE PERSIAN GULF — If there is one thing that really scares mariners these days, it’s the risk of hijackers off the coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden. For Capt. Baig, the Pakistani skipper of the 21-year-old Korean-built very large crude carrier M.T. Dorado, his list of responsibilities include the ship, its cargo, his crew and even protection of the marine environment.  “Everything is connected to each other,” he said. His ship was tied up at ABOT filling up with oil before heading to offload it in India when he explained the modern dangers.

“Transiting Somalia is a big question now,” he said. “They have a mother ship.” If attacked, he said, “”We use the fire hose, some manuevering techniques and call coaliton forces.”

His chief officer, Sarvar Patankar, said seagoing colleagues stay up all night when passing the east coast of Africa for fear of hijacking. “My friends have been through it and they say it is really like hell.” An ominous poster in the passageway shows creepy seagoing bandits sliding onto the deck of a ship at night. It would give a child nightmares.

Mariners like Patankar and Baig contend with the same issues at sea that the U.S. Navy does, and in this area that includes the mythical radio heckler(s) known by the collective but derogatory handle,  ”The Filipino Monkey.”

Baig said the verbal skirmishes last all night.  “This part of the world, they still have a long way to go to be civilized. What is right is right. What is wrong is wrong.” He tells his crew to not get involved in the silly fracas. He tells them, “You are fighting on the VHF. There is no point. You don’t know who the man is.”

As captain, Baig has a four-month contract then gets to go home in Pakistan for a few months until he gets another ship. He has mixed feelings about being at sea. The pay is good. “But on the family life, everybody suffers, because our family life is disturbed. Attention from father, this we cannot give,” he said. “You don’t get everything you want, you know. You have to be lucky.”

A C-2A Greyhound, commonly known as a COD, stops for gas at an airbase in the Middle East before proceeding to the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan.//Photo by Sheila Vemmer, Navy Times

Everybody who rides CODs (carrier on-board delivery) surely has a story. The rumpled DV kid who barfed, the two-hour orbit over the carrier, the guy who acted just like the annoying guy on a normal airplane who would not stop talking despite the industrial noise levels. Et cetera.  Don’t get us wrong. CODs are deceptively cool aircraft for the reliablity and durability factors. We are grateful for the ride.

But on a recent flight in the Middle East several pax woke up from a woozy sleep with the sensation that their feet were on fire. Sure the plane was over the desert but far above the desert. The once cool breeze of air from overhead nozzles was replaced by pizza-oven levels of heat. No joke.

It turns out that a petite chief selectee passenger was seen shivering under the cool air the rest of the pax were enjoying, but rather than offer her an extra layer, we understand an aircrewman had the guys in the cockpit turn on the heat. Nice gesture. But my sneakers felt like they were melting.

Information Systems Technician (AW/SW) Christopher Conley, a crewman on the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan, tends goal during a brief practice while on deployment in 5th Fleet. The team split a two-game series while in port in the Persian Gulf.//Photo by Sheila Vemmer, Navy Times

The San Diego-based carrier Ronald Reagan boasts a number of sports teams, including an actual ice hockey team. They are in a competitive league back in home port and they played two games during a recent port visit in the Persian Gulf.  They lost the first game 12-0 against the Abu Dhabi Scorpions but came roaring back to vanquish the Dubai Mighty Camels 17-9 in the second game.

The team practices on a small patch of plastic flooring placed over the non-skid in the hangar deck.  One of the goalies is the command master chief, Mark Rudes. A Lake Placid, N.Y., native, Rudes says team comes before rank on the ice. “I get pointers all the time in the net,” he said. “Our only weakness is we don’t practice enough together as a team.”

A hull tech fabricated the goal and Aviation Ordnanceman 1st Class (AW/SW) Toby Snowden managed to find a space in the hangar to store their pads and gear. “It smells really, really bad in there right now,” he said.

And in case you are wondering who produced hockey players in the desert for the Scorpions and Mighty Camels,  “It’s all ex-pats. Twelve Canadians, one Turk, one American, a Swede and one from Finland. Two are American Hockey League-level and one is an NCAA player,” Snowden said.

The team does not have a name, though “Hellcats” is under consideration, stemming from the ship namesake’s 1957 movie, “Hellcats of the Navy.” 

//U.S. Navy

A few days ago we posted about an upcoming ballistic missile intercept test from the destroyer Hopper in the Pacific. According to the Missile Defense Agency it was a success, recorded on video. It was the 19th successful test of the seagoing Aegis-BMD system out of 23 attempts. Details.

Hitting a ballistic missile with another missile is often compared to hitting a flying bullet with another. There are plenty of short videos out there of gun range trick shots, especially with shotguns and clay pigeons. But this unique short shows a guy who hit a ping-pong ball with an arrow. Judging from the perforated backstop, this was not a lucky first shot.

Enterprise (CV-6) steams toward the Panama Canal on 10 October 1945, while en route to New York to participate in Navy Day celebrations.//U.S. Navy

Updating a previous Scoop Deck blog post, naval aviation blogger Steeljaw Scribe has taken up taken up a noble cause. A bill underway in Congress to name the second or third Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers after the late, conservative Sen. Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona has prompted Steeljaw to rally against the practice of naming flat-tops after polititians. At least the namesake of the last Nimitz-class carrier was a  proud naval aviator before entering politics. With the one-of-a-kind CVN-65 soon retiring, why not keep names like Enterprise in the fleet Steeljaw asks. See the petition to do so here.

Slight digression coming: Staffers here would agree. Years back for example, some of us thought it would be appropriate to use the opportunity of the Littoral Combat Ships to give them nasty names like Sledgehammer, Cutlass, Ice Pick and Machete. Then we looked on aghast as the first two were saddled with the impossible-to-offend-anyone names Freedom and Independence.

There’s just something more, ah, effective about the thought of a notional U.S.S. Sabre bearing down on a seagoing ne’er-do-well. It’s sort of like if the Air Force decided to call the AC-130 Spectre gunship the AC-130 Equality or the Pursuit of Happiness gunship. A lethal weapon for sure, so why sugarcoat with light and airy names?

//U.S. Navy

 Scoop Deck has learned that the destroyer Hopper will take part in a ballistic missile intercept test on Thursday off Hawaii.  Unlike the land-based interceptor tests also conducted by the Ballistic Missile Defense program, the Standard Missile-3 is shot out of vertical launch missile tubes aboard AEGIS-equipped warships during the seaborne BMD tests. Like previous tests this has the “Stellar” prefix, and will be called “Stellar Avenger.”

Will update with results.

//U.S. Navy

The cruiser Gettysburg was named the winner of the USS Arizona Memorial Trophy for calendar years 2007 and 2008. As a member of the Enterprise Carrier Strike Group, Gettyburg excelled in combat readiness and battle efficiency.

More information on the Arizona trophy, the Arleigh Burke Fleet Trophy and the Marjorie Sterrett Award.

U.S. Navy

Scoop Deck has been told by friends in the Navy that duty in Italy is widely popular. The food and lifestyle is often fondly recalled. But according to this report there are unseen hazards for those posted in Naples.

Adm. John Harvey Jr. (right) takes command of U.S. Fleet Forces from Adm. Jonathan Greenert (left), with CNO Adm. Gary Roughead on hand.//U.S. Navy

Today, Adm. Jonathan Greenert turned over command of U.S. Fleet Forces to Adm. John Harvey Jr. aboard the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman on the Norfolk waterfront. Harvey comes from the Pentagon where he ran the Navy staff and Greenert goes to the Pentagon to become the Vice Chief of Naval Operations.

Fleet Forces is the mother of all type commands. Headquartered in an old hospital on its own compound in Norfolk it has the mission to “man, train and equip” the fleet. There’s little that doesn’t pass through CFFC. 

But what does a Vice CNO do? Is it like being the CNO’s executive officer?  His bureaucratic hit man? According to its section in U.S. Code, Title 10, Chapter 505, the No.2 takes on duties assigned by CNO and steps in during an absence of the CNO. They traditionally keep a low profile.  A flow chart of the OpNav staff here at Deck headquarters shows a horizontal line running from his box to the JAG, Chief of Information, Inspector General, Office of Legislative Affairs, Naval Safety Center, NCIS and INSURV. Of course there’s also a vertical line running down to a dizzying maze of directors, heads, deputies and advisors. 

Two recent CNOs, Adms. Mike Mullen and Jay Johnson had been Vice CNOs.

//U.S. Navy

It used to be that you couldn’t swing a dead cat and not hit a Five Vector Model. But it’s been a few years without a single dead cat/5vM mishap.  Once everywhere, now vapor. Once always in arm’s reach, now gone on a midnight train to Georgia.

Above please find one of the last confirmed sightings of a 5vM, appearing in the form of a festive and frosted cake aboard the amphibious assault ship Essex on the occasion of the Navy’s 231st birthday.

Two questions about the 5vM (not the cake).

1. Where did it go?

2. We know what it was. Do you?

U.S. Navy

The new Virginia-class attack submarine New Hampshire returned today to  its homeport of New London, Conn., after its maiden voyage.  New Hampshire operated in the European Command area and took part in the UK’s Joint Warrior — formerly known as Neptune Warrior — exercise. Other Virginia-class boats have done short first deployments to the 4th Fleet area.

New Hampshire, the fifth in its class, was commissioned less than a year ago, on Oct. 25 at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

Navy

Scoop Deck was relieved to learn that the crew of the attack submarine Toledo found a crack in its topside hull that penetrated the pressure hull. Relieved that is, that they found the crack before getting underway. Sources tell us this is a very serious issue that could have had deadly results if gone undetected.

Any submariner will relate with dread the fate of the submarine Thresher. On April 10, 1963 while testing its deep-diving abilities off Boston, the sub was lost with 16 officers, 96 crew and 17 civilian technicians aboard.  An accompanying submarine rescue ship, Skylark, was in communication but then “Garbled transmissions indicated that–far below the surface–things were going wrong. Suddenly, listeners in Skylark heard a noise ‘like air rushing into an air tank’–then, silence,” according to a Navy account.

//Australian Government

While you’re waiting for the night flight to Vegas or you’re just waiting for a bag of frozen steaks to thaw, check out this video from the Aussie fleet. The relevance is both Scoop Deck’s unrelenting curiosity about other naval forces as well as the looming arrival of Australian frigates Ballarat and Sydney in New York City — escorted by the destroyer Mahan — on Sunday. The crews will enjoy their own version of Fleet Week before getting back aboard and heading out to continue their Operation Northern Trident tour.

You will have to be a real ship geek to watch the whole 12 minutes, most of which is slightly dry, until the slightly more moto stuff at the end.

Destroyer Arleigh Burke alongside South African Navy corvette Amatola in the Indian Ocean on July 15. //U.S. Navy photo by MC2(SW) David Holmes

With the destroyer Arleigh Burke recently in port in South Africa, Scoop Deck got to learning about that nation’s navy. Check out the website. Of particular interest to those sailors who think the U.S. Navy should allow beards again, look at uniform regulations, under the “about us” section.  Not quite ZZ Top, but not nothing either.

And the South African Navy slogan: Unchallenged at Sea.

//U.S. Navy

There’s a steady cascade of reports out of Great Britain about a lack of support for Royal Navy involvement in the next iteration of the Trident missile submarine. The argument is that with likely threats not coming from an actual country that can be punched back with a sea-launched ballistic missile, scarce dollars, if spent on the military, should be spent to defend against more likely threats. Prominent former military leaders have called for plans to improve the sea-based deterrent to be cast aside.

The U.S. Navy asked for $495 million in the 2010 defense budget to begin work on a future replacement for the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine. Since the U.S. and British boomers share the Trident ballistic missile technology, the Royal Navy has been assumed as a partner in updates to the missile systems.

Scoop Deck was disappointed to learn this week about a brewing controversy in the Royal Australian Navy. Male sailors aboard the unrep ship Success were found to have kept a betting pool at sea, with awards to those who were sexually successful with female shipmates. Reportedly the events were recorded in a sort of logbook and certain women fetched higher prize money than others, depending on rank for example.

Of course ships at sea in any navy are not without, ah, encounters or even fraternization, despite a command’s best efforts. Some ships have lasting reputations. But Scoop Deck has been lucky enough to be aboard Aussie ships at sea and came away impressed with the cool confidence and positive energy among the crew. Call it prude, but this kind of thing undermines cohesion and friendship whether it’s on a ship, in a college dorm or elsewhere.

Unfortunately the motto of this ship, where this competitive betting was discovered among a crew of 220, is “Strive to Win.”

Despite its large flight deck, the Navy's new LCS 2 is not built to handle an H-53. The mighty but now retired battleship Wisconsin however, was up to the task, as illustrated here. //usswisconsin.org

The General Dynamics version of the littoral combat ship, LCS 2 Independence, went out for sea trials last week.  Touted for its speed, LCS 2 also boasts a huge flight deck that cannot support the weight of an H-53, our colleagues across the newsfloor at Defense News have learned.  

However the now retired battleship Wisconsin appears to have been able to handle the massive helo, which depending on the version and load has a maximum weight of more than 20 tons.

U.S. Navy

A year ago, then-Surface Force Master Chief (SW/AW) Michael Schanche put out a message (second item) about a trip to the waterfront in San Diego that left him “professionally embarrassed” for the first time in his career. He expressed dismay at an overall lack of military bearing, courtesies and good appearance.

A year has passed and Navy Times decided to see if anyone got the message.  We’ve collected a bucketful of responses, most very thoughtful and expressing the same dismay as Schanche.

We’re wrapping up the project and will publish the results soon. But if you still have thoughts on the issue of “sloppy sailors,” e-mail reporter Andrew Scutro at ascutro@navytimes.com.

U.S. Navy

Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska needs no introduction. With the campaign long over, she’s still an instant news item, at the ballpark and from a now cooled skirmish with Dave Letterman. She’s news in the Navy too. Palin, and her husband Todd, embarked as distinguished visitors aboard the aircraft carrrier John C. Stennis in the Gulf of Alaska on June 22.

As a vice-presidential candidate she pumped up her home state’s proximity to Russia as national security cred, prompting the frighteningly good Tina Fey imitation to exclaim “I can see Russia from my house!”

According to Scoop Deck’s cursory study of geography in them parts, Russia would not have been easily visible from the Stennis.

FRUKUS 2007 was held in and around Norfolk, but cancelled the following year because of Russia's attack on neighboring Georgia. Pictured here are French frigate La Fayette, Russian destroyer Admiral Chabanenko, and British frigate Portland. Destroyer Laboon also participated. //Navy

FRUKUS, a normally annual naval exercise for France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the U.S. handily provides its own acronymn with first letters for each country. All four nations began holding the annual get-together in 2003 but it was cancelled last year after the U.S. suspended military-to-military activities with the Russian Federation following its conflict with Georgia, the nation.

The 2009 iteration got underway in the Bay of Biscay off France on June 19. And it’s a good thing Russia decided to show up, still willing to contribute an “R” to FRUKUS, or someone would have to come up with a new name. Fast.

The discovery of a British Royal Navy torpedo during a naval training exercise in the Baltic Sea has not been the only noteworthy event thus far. Photo courtesy of U.S. 6th Fleet public affairs.

In what was sure to be a stomach-churning evolution, amphibious command ship Mount Whitney was refueled underway by the fleet oiler John Lenthall on June 12 in 12-foot seas and 40-mph wind in the Baltic Sea.  As one observer put it, Mount Whitney must have been pretty thirsty to pull that off. By way of comparison, here is vintage footage of an unrep from 1973, in the Tonkin Gulf  in “moderate seas” and the late John Denver on the 1MC, sort of.  

Mount Whitney and John Lenthall are taking part in Baltic Operations 2009, or BALTOPS 2009, which has been a bit of a newsmaker as the same Swedish ship, HSwMS Faaroesund (MUL-20), last week found both evidence of a World War II-era minefield and also sniffed out a torpedo formerly owned by the British Royal Navy, picture above.

Here’s what torpedoes do when not stuck in the mud.

It’s not always clear how to take the old phrase that “A complaining sailor is a happy sailor.”  Does that mean when the crew goes silent they are so miserable it’s time to station sentries in officer country? In the case of a former foe turned ally, when their troops moan it’s cause for embarrassment.

Scoop Deck was saddened at the news last week that lawmakers in Bahrain are cracking down on bars on that hot desert island. Saddened because off-duty time there is fun–sort of the way the bar in Star Wars might have been fun. For the most part both expats and locals are friendly and though it needs no explaining, cold beer has refreshing qualities when the sun is strong. Closing down bars there is like draining an oasis. Even the tourism board touts the nightlife. 

Feel free to share your sea stories from Bahrain.

It’s that time of year again. Yes, it’s summer and that means it’s time for midshipman cruises. All season, they’re out with the fleet learning the ropes and charting a course for what kind of Navy or Marine Corps officer they might become. Or not.

Got a good sea story from when you were a mid in the summer or when you had mids on your ship? Send it.

U.S. 6th Fleet announced today that a service ship from Sweden’s navy discovered a “mine line” that might be “evidence of a minefield.” The find was made during Baltic Operations 2009 or BALTOPS. It’s not outside the realm, as 100,000 sea mines were laid between Sweden and Lithuania back in in WWI and WWII and of them, 60,000 were never recovered, according to 6th Fleet.

Mines are thought by some naval experts as a serious and underrated threat.   That was certainly the case during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, which saw mine damage to the gator-turned-mine-countermeasure ship Tripoli seen here and the cruiser Princeton, here.

A few days ago Scoop Deck asked about the delayed release of the O-7 list. It’s coming out today, we are told. See story on our website.

The French nuclear-powered submarine Emeraude (S 604) has arrived to begin searching for the black boxes from Air France flight 447, it was announced earlier. Yesterday two of the U.S. Navy’s pinger locators were sent down to Brazil to help find the signal emitted from the sunken flight data recorders.  A defense official told us yesterday the pinger locators, usually used to locate lost military aircraft, will be towed from French tugboats. One was to start the search today, run by contract operators and Navy personnel.

Dude, I know this sounds strange but I think I found chief's missing headgear.

According to a little known section of the uniform regs, wigs for women and men are OK in the Navy as long as they don’t clog a spinning turbine or get sucked into any rotor blades.

No joke.

“Wigs or hairpieces shall be of good quality and fit, present a natural appearance and conform to the grooming standards set forth in these regulations.  They shall not interfere with the proper performance of duty nor present a safety or FOD (Foreign Object Damage) hazard”

Please send any photographic proof.

A few weeks ago we began asking for opinions and observations from throughout the Navy with an eye toward sailors, chiefs and officers who do not seem to care about fitness, their uniform or simple military courtesies.  The curiosity was inspired by a message sent a year ago by then-Force Master Chief (SW/AW) Mike Schanche of Naval Surface Forces, expressing his dismay at what he witnessed on a visit to the waterfront. And did we ever hit a sore spot.  Most replies have been from active duty sailors and chiefs appalled by a seeming lack of respect for a crisp military appearance among their shipmates. But a handful of responses have been from those sailors who value their own seagoing abilities over how the uniform fits or if the ensign gets a sharp salute. What do you think?  Send it in: ascutro@navytimes.com

What gives?

According to the Navy officials who keep track of these things, the much-anticipated list is somewhere in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

The selection board met in December and despite the apparently delayed list, we are told there’s nothing awry. It just hasn’t come out yet.

Clearly, in comparison to lists of selectees at lower ranks the O-7 line group is a small one. The 2009 list had only 31 names on it, but they are the Navy’s newest members of a small club that only gets smaller with each round of musical chairs.

Check back with Navy Times. We’ll put it up as soon as we get it.

A May 27 visit by the first President Bush to the new aircraft carrier bearing his name revealed, well, a lack of uniformity. There are four, count ‘em, four different Navy uniforms visible in one space on the ship, where you might expect to see at least one clean set of practical and popular coveralls. Oddly enough, the Iraqi National Police took a liking to a very similar digital blue camo and were already in it a year ago.