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
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.”
And then there are two
November 28th, 2011 | Aviation Naval aviation Unmanned systems | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
The second X-47B Unmanned Combat Air Systems Demonstration, or UCAS.-D, took to the air Nov. 22 for its own maiden flight. The Navy eyes the X-47B bomber for its future unmanned fleet. (Northrop Grumman Corp. photo)
Nearly three years ago, the Navy and defense giant Northrop Grumman Corp. unveiled the X-47B unmanned air system in Palmdale, Calif., showing off the bat-wing-like tailless and pilotless autonomous bomber that is designed to take off and land on aircraft carriers. In February, the first air vehicle made history when it completed its first real flight, a half-hour mission over the California desert.
On Nov. 22, the second air vehicle, known as AV-2, took off in the hazy blue skies at nearby Edwards Air Force Base and flew up to 5,000 feet as it cut some race patterns over a dry lakebed before landing to wrap up a successful 27-minute flight, according to Northrop Grumman, the program’s prime contractor.
That first flight of the second demonstration aircraft will propel the program closer to actual flight deck landings and carrier trials that are planned to take place in 2013. But first, there’s at least a year’s worth of flight testing at Patuxent River, Md. “With two aircraft now available, we can increase the amount of aircraft performance data we gather, which will allow us to meet our required aircraft capability demonstration goals in a timely manner,” Carl Johnson, Northrop Grumman’s vice president and program manager for its aerospace systems sector, said in a Nov. 28 announcement.
The company will send one of the air vehicles to Pax River by the end of this year, where it will continue with flight and systems testing that will eventually lead to the X-47B’s first carrier shot and trap.
Down Under, memories of another ‘Pearl Harbor’
November 25th, 2011 | Australia Historical Liberty Navy The Pacific | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
No doubt the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor stands out as a critical turning point in our nation’s history. Next month, we mark the 70th anniversary, and the nation will join countless veterans and service members in recalling the sacrifice from that day and the amazing generation that stepped up and answered the nation’s call.
Such pivotal moments are shared by U.S. allies including the Australians, who are strengthening their ties and military relationship with the United States that goes back 60 years to World War II with an alliance that’s remained solid – and popular among U.S. sailors and Marines who get to visit the remote island continent. Most recently, President Barack Obama announced a new rotation of Marines and Air Force units to Australian military training bases that will also see more U.S. ships visiting in Darwin, in the Northern Territory, and likely other liberty ports Down Under.
At the USS Peary memorial in Darwin, Australia, President Obama and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard pay respects to the 91 sailors who perished when the city was bombed in 1942. (AP photo)
Like our Pearl Harbor, the Aussies, too, had a pivotal moment during World War II when 260 Japanese fighters and dive bombers attacked Darwin, home to several key bases and communications stations, on Feb. 19, 1942. Although the Australian military was in the thick of the larger war, this was the first attack on Australian soil. Thick dark plumes of smoke rose over the city from oil storage tanks struck in the attack as soldiers and sailors manned anti-aircraft guns. Two Royal Australian Navy shipswere crippled in the harbor as the hulls exploded. The attack killed as many as 252 troops and local civilians and left hundreds wounded. The bombing of Darwin remains a dark day in that nation’s history. Australia recently announced a new national day of observance to mark the attack.
The enemy aircraft that day also struck the USS Peary as it sat in Darwin’s harbor, off the Timor Sea, killing 91 sailors. On his recent visit, Obama laid a wreath at a memorial dedicated to the Peary, a site anchored by one of the ship’s four-inch guns recovered after the attack. The president met Tony Duke, whose late father, Boatswain’s Mate 2nd Class Melvin Duke, had survived the attack, received the Purple Heart medal and later had his remains buried at the wreckage site. His son provides a poignant recollection of his father and how he learned what he went through on that fateful day.
And the winner takes home the trophy
November 11th, 2011 | Basketball Carrier Classic Navy | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
The 2011 Quicken Loans Carrier Classic trophy. (Huntington Ingalls Industries)The winner of Friday night’s Quicken Loans Carrier Classic basketball game will walk away with its first victory of the season, some bragging rights (we won at sea!) and a very unique trophy.
The 86-pound trophy – you read that right, 86 pounds – is the result of eight weeks and some hard work by a creative team of 30 workers with Newport News Shipbuilding, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries. A group of them traveled to San Diego for the Michigan State-North Carolina game, with the trophy securely packaged for the cross-country trek.
LaMar Smith, a graphic designer with the Newport News, Va., shipbuilder, came up with the idea for the trophy. He wanted to incorporate the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson – the game’s host – into the design and have the carrier’s signature look – the ship’s tall island house, or superstructure – as the focal point. “It works well in a trophy,” Smith said. And in honor to the ship itself, the team designed the Vinson’s hull number – 70 – into the trophy.
The team fashioned the trophy with 17 pieces of quarter-inch-thick pewter and placed it atop a teak base, stained in red mahogany and finished with a lacquer coat and fashioned with a pewter cutout of the ship itself. “Pewter looks good,” noted engineering designer Paul Evans, who took 3-D scale models of Vinson’s island and sketched the patterns for the mold.
Pattern maker Lance Pruitt helped make the full-scale wooden model the team used to create the pewter trophy. Despite the trophy’s heavy weight, Pruitt said, “it actually is hollow inside.” It will require more than a pair of hands to carefully move the trophy and present it to the winning team. No predictions, however, whether the winners will haul the trophy onto their shoulders or above their heads in celebration.
A flight deck, transformed
November 11th, 2011 | Basketball Carrier Classic Carriers Navy Navy secretary Veterans Day | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
The Tar Heels of North Carolina hit the court to practice on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson on Thursday in preparations for Friday's Carrier Classic basketball game.//Gidget Fuentes
Organizers of the Quicken Loans Carrier Classic game and ESPN were thrilled Thursday that a Pacific storm might hold off any rain until well beyond the basketball game’s tip-off at 4:15 p.m. Pacific time Friday on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson in San Diego. A rainy forecast had threatened to force the season opener between Michigan State and the University of North Carolina to the hangar deck below.
But by midday Thursday, throngs of journalists converged on the flight deck on a comfortably balmy day for pregame activities that included a press conference with team officials and organizers and the first practice by both teams on the pristine but outdoor hardwood surface. In recent days, workers assembled the basketball court and surrounded it by bleachers lined with green plastic seats. Bright lights and a pair of huge high-definition screens flanked the makeshift arena built atop the hardened steel deck that’s launched and recovered thousands of fighter jets and combat aircraft over the ship’s nearly 30-year career.
Half of Carl Vinson’s sailors off the ship and away for scheduled leave, and fewer than 800 of ship’s company got the free tickets to attend the game, said the skipper, Capt. Bruce Lindsey. “It’s been a very busy…two years,” Lindsey told a packed press conference held in a tent near the ship’s bow. “We are preparing to go on our third deployment in three years.”
But preparations for the game, and its accompanying festivities for the teams, dignitaries and fans, haven’t interfered “one iota” with the ship’s training or operations, Lindsey said. In fact, he said, it’s provided real training for some members of his crew, including those in supply.
Vinson's flight deck is the host court for the UNC-Michigan State game that will air Friday, Veterans Day, on ESPN. (MCSA Dean M. Cates/Navy)
Still, the transformation of such a formidable warship into a sports arena was something to marvel.
“It makes it look much smaller,” said Chief Aviation Boatswain’s Mate-Equipment (AW/SW) Robert Sanders, who joined other sailors in the bleachers for a break to watch the teams practice. Just off in the distance, beyond the ship’s waist, lights dotted the San Diego city skyline as dusk neared. “Honestly, if the island wasn’t here, it would seem like we’re sitting in an arena,” he said.
Sanders, a 16½ year veteran, was among the initial skeptics among the crew when they first heard that their ship would host an NCAA basketball game. “You heard about it, but you’re like, it won’t happen,” he said. Aviation Boatswain’s Mate-Equipment 3rd Class (AW) Blas Manzanares couldn’t quite picture “going from flight operations to a basketball game.”
Both sailors plan to attend the game. Sanders will bring his wife. “My wife is real excited. She’s a huge basketball fan, he said. “She just wants to be in the same realm as the president.” That’s where Manzanares hopes he will find himself. “I’m going to try to get his handshake,” he said, quite confidently.
Aviation Boatswain’s Mate-Equipment 3rd Class (AW) Josh McNeese sat with them in the bleachers and just took in the whole scenery. McNeese has a ticket and is excited for the game to begin. “This is actually going to be my first big event,” he said.
For other fans, like Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, the game marks a new forum to commemorate “a celebration of service.”
“It’s about honoring the people who have served and are serving today,” said Mabus, who visited the ship Thursday afternoon. He will be there in the crowd for the game Friday during his three-day visit to San Diego that will include the Saturday christening of the Navy’s newest resupply ship Medgar Evers, which is being built across the bay at the General Dynamics NASSCO shipyard. Carl Vinson’s role as the host for a nationally-televised game honoring veterans also puts the big spotlight on the naval service. “This is America’s ‘away’ team,” said Mabus.
I wonder what this button does?!
October 6th, 2011 | 7th Fleet Diplomacy Photos Ships The Pacific | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
A Russian boy watches as another plays with the controls in the combat information center aboard the destroyer Fitzgerald during a recent visit to Vladivostok, Russia.//Navy photos by Ens. Carissa Guthrie
We couldn’t help but smile at the faces of these Russian boys, who got the chance to play sailor aboard the destroyer Fitzgerald during an outing from Parus Nadezhdy Children’s Rehabilitation Center in Vladivostok. If we only knew what they were saying…
The Yokosuka, Japan-based Fitzgerald wrapped up a four-day visit to Russia’s Pacific Fleet port city, where they joined in community projects, sporting matches with Russian sailors and visited sick children at a local hospital before returning to sea for a planned U.S.-Russian joint exercise. The Parus Nedezhdy center for orphan children is something of a regular guest when U.S. ships visit the city. It’s Russia, of course, so chess remains a popular hobby and the obvious outlet for the American sailors to match wits and brains with the local children. Looks like fun. But it’s not about winning and losing, right?
Fire Controlman 3rd Class Alexander Poehner and Sonar Technician 1st Class Joseph Whalen face off Russian boys in a chess tournament Oct. 3 on the Fitzgerald's mess decks.
The warm relationship with Chile
September 2nd, 2011 | 3rd Fleet Diplomacy Submarines Training | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
The quiet diesel-electric submarine Carrera slid through San Diego Bay on Sept. 1 for the start of a three-month deployment to the United States, where the Chilean boat will train with 3rd Fleet’s ships, subs and aircraft.
Carrera’s presence in a U.S. port – it calls the submarine piers at Point Loma Naval Base its short-term home – marks the fourth time the Chilean Navy is sending one of its small, stealthy subs to play with the U.S. fleet. The goal of the Diesel Electric Submarine Initiative, of course, is for the U.S. Navy and its foreign seagoing allies to train and operate together, namely with the mission of hunting down those quiet subs that get into the hands of rogue states or terrorist organizations. The stealthiness of the quiet diesels posts quite the challenge for sonar techs, aerial sub hunters and tacticians, and their growing proliferation in the Pacific region continues to worry naval commanders and is seen as a growing threat to U.S. national security and that of its allies.
Last year, Thomson, a Type 209 boat in Chile’s fleet, trained off Southern California and in November headed back to their homeport of Talcahuano with good memories and a few smiles from some victories in the cat-and-mouse game at sea with U.S. sailors – including the crew of fast-attack submarine Asheville.
Chilean submarine Thomson at the pier at Point Loma Naval Base in San Diego in November 2010. This fall, a sister sub, Scorpene-class Carrera, will train with 3rd Fleet in San Diego./Photo by Gidget Fuentes
Thomson’s presence here in San Diego last year came months after a devastating 8.8-magnitude earthquake and tsunami struck Chile. Mother Nature’s fury devastated many communities, including homes of crew members assigned to the sub. But even as their military helped in recovery efforts in the ensuing months, the Chilean navy kept to its commitment and deployed the sub and its crew to San Diego.
U.S.-Chile naval relations go as deep as the diesel-electrics. This week, the Chilean training ship Esmeralda, a masted sailing ship, is visiting Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, following visits to San Diego, San Francisco and Vancouver, Canada, where protesters complained about the ship’s seedier past as an alleged torture chamber dating back two generations to the days of dictator Augusto Pinochet. No such greeting expected in Hawaii, though.
New oldest Frogman – and that’s no bull
August 26th, 2011 | Admirals Historical Navy SEALs | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
Navy SEAL and Adm. Eric T. Olson salutes the flag during his Aug. 22 retirement ceremony at Naval Base Coronado, Calif.//Navy MC2 Chad J. McNeeley
The Aug. 22 retirement of Adm. Eric T. Olson marked the end of the Navy SEAL officer’s 38-year naval career – and the passing of the title of longest-serving SEAL.
Olson, a 1973 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, became a SEAL officer in 1974, an achievement that led to a storied career and command at nearly every level, from SEAL team to Naval Special Warfare Command and ultimately to his most-recent job as head of U.S. Special Operations Command, the Tampa, Fla.-based headquarters for the military’s joint special operations forces. For nearly two years, Olson also held the title of “Bull Frog,” the moniker and honor given by the UDT/SEAL Association to the SEAL who has served the longest time on continuous active duty in naval special warfare. Olson, the first Navy SEAL to reach the four-star rank, also is the first SEAL to lead the nation’s commando forces. But he’s not the last. Earlier this month, he handed over SOCOM’s reins to another experienced SEAL, Adm. William H. McRaven.
Adm. William "Bill" McRaven./DoD photo
In fact, McRaven, also a former commander of Naval Special Warfare Command and most recently commander of the Joint Special Operations Command, also follows Olson in holding the title of Bull Frog – and he gets to share it with another Navy SEAL. That is Cmdr. Brian Sebenaler, who serves as Naval Special Warfare Command’s training and readiness officer and, like McRaven, graduated with Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL’s Class 95.
Both men will share the title as the 15th Bull Frog. The names of the officers, who combined have served 70 years as SEALs, are engraved in the Bull Frog trophy, which will be kept at the association’s new UDT-SEAL Heritage Center in Norfolk, Va.
According to the association, the nickname hails back to the old days of UDT swimmers, who were nicknamed “frogmen.” The team boss was known as the Bull Frog, a moniker adopted by Rear Adm. Richard “Dick” Lyon, the original and first Bull Frog. But it wasn’t until 2007 when the Navy “officially” recognized the title with an official instruction signed off by another veteran SEAL, now-Vice Adm. Joseph Kernan, who headed the Coronado command at the time.
“Know Your AOR” edition: Spratlys
July 22nd, 2011 | China Diplomacy Geography Navy The Pacific The Philippines | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
You may have caught it in passing on a news ticker or blog, but have no clue what or where on Earth are the Spratly islands. But you hear they are contested islands some defense experts think potentially could spark the start of a regional war.
The archipelago is comprised of small atolls, reefs, islets and outcroppings in the South China Sea, west of the Philippines and spread across a large area but claimed by the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Taiwan and Malaysia. The islands, which range in size from small to tiny, are in a prime fishing region and sit atop what’s believed to be vast reserves of oil and natural gas. It’s no surprise numerous disputes flare up between nations that stake claim on the islands and nearby waters, a well-trafficked route for commercial ships and military vessels.
“The worry, among others that I have, is that the ongoing incidents could spark a miscalculation, and an outbreak that no one anticipated,” Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen told reporters in Beijing during his China visit earlier this month. The Spratlys were among the hot topics at a regional security conference in Bali just this week.
But that political and diplomatic hubbub is pretty much lost on residents of the remote tropical islands. Their biggest worry? Boredom. So says this Associated Press report from a recent – and controversial – July 20 visit by some Filipino lawmakers to Pagasa, one of the islands: “The only sounds are the waves slapping the shore and the wind whistling in the ears. At high noon, fighting off sleep is a struggle.”
Nonexistent crime tests the Filipino police officers on the island, which covers just 91 acres. “One big problem really is how to kill time,” said one town mayor. “After fishing, walking around, playing billiards and cards, what else can one do next?”
Something to think about during those long days at sea.