The best “perk” of being a Navy wife
July 8th, 2011 | Books Movies Navy | Posted by Blair Tomlinson
It is the end of an era for Harry Potter fans. The final installment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, is set for release at midnight July 15 in theaters across the country.
But lucky fans (and their spouses) stationed at Naval Base San Diego have the chance to see an early screening of the movie July 9 , and one Navy wife is so excited she thinks it’s the best “perk” of being married to a SWO.
“The Navy base showing a sneak peek of Harry Potter is a better perk than free checked bags at the airport,” Colleen McAdams said.
The sneek peak is free and seating is first come, first serve. McAdams, like any Harry Potter fan, said she will be sure to arrive early.
“My husband thinks people won’t be lined up,” McAdams said. “So naive.”
Television with stopping power
September 24th, 2010 | Books ordnance | Posted by Phil Ewing
Chief Gunner's Mate Anthony Chatman punished the Pacific Ocean from the fantail of the carrier Nimitz during a live-fire exercise. // MC3 John Wagner / Navy
Our senior Marine Corps Times colleague Gina Cavallaro, author of the hot new book “Sniper: American Single-Shot Warriors in Iraq and Afghanistan,” scored a highly coveted guest spot on Washington’s top weekly defense news TV show, “This Week in Defense News.” You’ll be able to see her Sunday morning at 11 a.m. here in the National Capital Region, Monday everywhere on Armed Forces Network, and online soon here.
Shoot to thrill
August 18th, 2010 | Books | Posted by Phil Ewing
Cpl. Jeff Glod, of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, trained with his rifle aboard the amphibious assault ship Nassau. // MCSN Christopher Williamson / Navy
In a very rare flash of notoriety last year, the international spotlight found a still-unknown trio of SEAL snipers whose quick work ended an action-movie hostage standoff over the abducted American captain of a cargo ship. And although the world may never know much more about those men and their story, Military Times senior writer Gina Cavallaro has written a new book collecting dozens of stories from snipers, some of the most intriguing but least understood people in the force today.
Not for amateurs
June 29th, 2010 | Books Historical | Posted by Phil Ewing
Did Jellicoe make the right decisions at Jutland? The question is treated extensively in the new "Warship 2010." // Royal Navy
The new “Warship 2010” will make certain readers pray for e-mail outages, rainy weekends or sunspots — anything to free up as much time as possible in which to get lost in this year’s edition.
Bang!
June 28th, 2010 | Books Ships | Posted by Phil Ewing
MC3 Adam Thomas / Navy
This isn’t a gun salute — it’s a live-fire exercise starring the destroyer Curtis Wilbur — but it brought to mind this passage, from The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea:
“Gun salutes were fired on every possible occasion and were often unlimited in extent, largely due to a predilection of naval officers of all nations for loud and prolonged noise…”
Now hear this: Read Scoop Deck, win free books
June 1st, 2010 | Blogs Books | Posted by Phil Ewing
Comic: Scoop Deck. All art: NavHistHerCom
That’s good gouge. Find out more after the jump.
It certainly looks fearsome
May 7th, 2010 | Books Foreign navies Photos | Posted by Phil Ewing
MC3 Devon Dow / Navy
Check out this neat shot of the amphibious command ship Blue Ridge docking during a visit to Vladivostok, the Russian navy’s headquarters for interesting photo opportunities. Next door is the Slava-class cruiser Varyag — although who knows, the way their names change all the time — bristling with those ominous surface-to-surface missile tubes.
That Russian cruiser brought to mind this passage from Norman Friedman’s 1979 classic, “Modern Warship: Design and Development:”
Admiral Sergei Gorshkov has undoubtedly done a superb job of convincing his superiors about the virtues of a navy, and they have responded by buying him a series of what are certainly very expensive warships. It may well be that an important element in their own acceptance of this cost has been the impressive and aggressive appearance of the larger Soviet warships, which Gorshkov can describe as bargains (per unit of apparent firepower) in comparison to the ‘yachts‘ of the West.
In week full of political rumblings about the future of the Navy, it somehow seemed like an apt quote.
When small was small
April 20th, 2010 | Books Historical | Posted by Phil Ewing
The destroyer Knapp escorted the battleship Alabama and the carrier Lexington in the Pacific in 1944. The naval interest in screening big ships against small boats is back in style. // National Archives
In this era when everybody connected with the Navy is talking about small boats — should the U.S. be building them, how will the Navy fight them, how big is “small” — Osprey Publishing has picked the ideal moment to drop two new books with much to say on the subject.
Big ship, little ship
April 8th, 2010 | Books Carriers Life at Sea Maritime operations Ships The Pacific | Posted by Phil Ewing
The carrier Carl Vinson sent a probe over to the littoral combat ship Freedom's RAS station atop its superstructure. // Lt. Ed Early / Navy
Our pals at Naval Surface Forces just sent out this photo as part of a set showing how the littoral combat ship Freedom had “integrated” this month with the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson and its strike group out in the Pacific. The exercises included the Freedom’s first refueling at sea from an aircraft carrier, and this image shows that evolution in progress.
Freedom’s crew found refueling from an oiler for the first time tricky enough, so it’ll be very interesting to learn how things went down with Carl Vinson. This picture brought to mind a passage from “Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts,” by the big-dog analyst/author Robert D. Kaplan, who spent a month aboard the destroyer Benfold several years ago and wrote about its underway replenishment with the carrier Abraham Lincoln:
Sometimes the aircraft carrier itself would refuel the Benfold. But the Benfold crew was not crazy about this type of maneuver. Not only did the carrier tower over the destroyer only 160 feet away, but because carrier crews did not do unreps very often, there was a lot of fumbling around.
“It’s like having sex for the first time with a girl,” one sailor remarked.
Fade out
February 19th, 2010 | Books Royal Navy | Posted by Phil Ewing
The destroyer Daring sailed into the sunset on a training exercise off Portsmouth // Royal Navy
The plight of the Royal Navy today has been building for a very long time, according to a recent book that recounts the story of the modern service from 1957 until now.