The day they left open the door to the goat locker
April 20th, 2010 | Environment Shore duty | Posted by Phil Ewing
Navy officials brought in a special team to eliminate a nuisance -- with extreme prejudice. // MC1 Michael Wagoner / Navy
There’s a reason the Naval Academy’s mascot is Bill the Goat, and the chief’s mess is called the Goat Locker — the goat is a fearsome animal that destroys everything in its path, and is a fine model for the stubbornness that Navy life requires.
How perfect, then, that officials at Naval Base Kitsap have brought back a flock of goats for a second round of targeted weed and invasive species destruction, just outside the gate. Much as commanders select the right weapon for the right target — except in recruiting commercials — so too has Kitsap chosen the most effective way to deliver death to its nuisance:
Using the goats as weed control may take a few rounds to knock out and kill the brush, but because the goats have an acidic environment within the inside of their rumen (stomach), they kill off a lot of the weed seed so it can’t reproduce…
That’s some Carthage-style stuff right there — not only do these goats kill the weeds, they kill any hope for future weeds. And all without pesticides!
Frigate patrol links
April 20th, 2010 | Carriers Environment Historical Maritime operations Royal Navy | Posted by Phil Ewing
Much as the frigate Crommelin swung away from scenic Mt. Fuji when duty called, so too are today's links ignoring the view and coming straight at you. // MCSN Adam Thomas / Navy
Smuggler chasin’, Coast Guard law enforcement detachment carryin’, unmanned aerial vehicle testin’, submarine huntin’ links, which can survive anything you throw at them — from a mine to an Exocet missile — to bring you the latest info from the Web:
- The Navy is changing its body fat rules for sailors, and Navy Times wants to know what you think about that.
- The aircraft carrier Enterprise, one of the most famous warships of the modern era, is back in action after two years in the yard and millions upon millions of dollars’ worth of work.
- Two items stolen from the World War II submarine Ling are back aboard — after 30 years.
- Remember that South Korean patrol ship that sank mysteriously not long ago? Apparently the U.S. Navy and intelligence services have been quietly asked to help investigate what happened.
- Although the world is still waiting to see the results of Dunkirk 2, the Royal Navy’s pending evacuation of Europe, ferry operators are already upset about it, because these warships are basically stealing their business. The Times’ writeup about it is a must read.
- When tomorrow’s recruiters go out recruiting, the Navy wants them to be simultaneously saving the Earth in their hybrid vehicles.
Liberty in New Zealand? Strewth! Well, maybe.
April 14th, 2010 | Environment Liberty Life at Sea nuclear weapons The Pacific Washington | Posted by Phil Ewing
The New Zealand frigate Te Mana escorted the carrier Abraham Lincoln in the Persian Gulf in 2008. Although the U.S. and Royal New Zealand Navies work together, American warships are forbidden in New Zealand. // MC2 N. Brett Morton / Navy
If you’re serving out in the Pacific and you’ve always wanted to see Middle Earth New Zealand on a port visit, your chances could be improving — maybe. U.S. warships have been banned from The Land In The Long White Cloud since 1986, when lawmakers there decided no nuclear-powered ships, or ships carrying nuclear weapons, would be welcome. The U.S. fleet hasn’t carried tactical nukes for years, but it’s politically convenient in several countries across the Pacific to pretend they do — and, to be fair, American credibility in these matters is not that good.
One of the architects of New Zealand’s anti-nuke policy, however, says that times have changed:
Sir Geoffrey Palmer, who was deputy prime minister during… the nuclear-free debate in the 1980s, says a lot of water has gone under the bridge since the controversial legislation led to New Zealand’s exclusion from the Anzus military alliance with Australia and the US. Changes to US nuclear policy in the 1990s, Friday’s milestone deal to reduce Russian and US stockpiles of nuclear weapons and this week’s shift in US military posture means old objections to ship visits no longer apply, Palmer says.
This is a big deal in New Zealand, so not everyone agrees. The current prime minister, John Key, said he didn’t ask Vice President Joe Biden about ship visits when he was in Washington recently, and powerful Kiwi anti-nuke advocates have said they fear Palmer’s remarks mean the anti-nuke strictures are under threat. From the way it sounds, the Navy and nuke ban still enjoys a lot of support.
Still, if Palmer’s comments mean some factions in Wellington might have less of a problem with American port calls, that might mean a new exotic place to visit for the sailors of tomorrow.
At last, a Shackleton at the South Pole
February 10th, 2010 | Environment Historical Life at Sea Maritime operations merchant ships Military Sealift Command | Posted by Phil Ewing
Navy Reserve Cmdr. Scott Shackleton this week visited the South Pole that his legendary ancestor, Sir Ernest Shackleton, never saw // Military Sealift Command
The Anglo-Irish explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton tried thrice to reach the South Pole and was thrice denied, but all his American descendant had to do to get there was step off a plane.
Cmdr. Scott Shackleton, a U.S. Navy reservist, flew to Antarctica on Jan. 26 as part of a mission to resupply McMurdo Station from the Military Sealift Command tanker Paul Buck and its chartered container ship American Tern. Today’s Shackleton was charged with overseeing the cargo off-load, according to MSC, and he had a chance to see sites visited by yesteryear’s Shackleton, as well as the big one that the old guy never saw: the pole.
“I’ve always felt a kinship with Sir Ernest,” Scott Shackleton said. “It’s been an honor for me to have this tie to him and the name Shackleton.”
Scott made a short trip to the South Pole this week aboard an Air Force LC-130 Hercules, one of the special ice birds with skis and extra hardware to operate in the punishing polar climate. Then he flew back to McMurdo and was scheduled to start the long trip back from Antarctica today — something else his ancestor Shackleton never accomplished.
And here’s still more we can look forward to seeing come back from Antarctica: Sir Ernest’s personal stash of Scotch and brandy, which was discovered in his cabin by a team working to restore it. It’s a tantalizing concept if you enjoy a wee dram now and again — the distiller that made Shackleton’s whisky could use samples from the cabin to recreate the very spirit he and his men used to ward off the Antarctic chills.
The disappearing ghosts
January 22nd, 2010 | Environment Historical Ships | Posted by Phil Ewing
The battleship Iowa, seen here with Task Force 38 at sea in the Pacific in 1944, is one of the ships illegally contaminating a bay in Calfornia as part of the rotting "ghost fleet." // NavHistHerCom
Scoop Deck gets a sick feeling sometimes when contemplating the circumstances of the battleship Iowa, a naval superstar moored at the end of a row of rust-buckets in the grandly named National Defense Reserve Fleet — aka the ghost fleet — at Suisun Bay, Calif. It’s hard not to connect the ship with another legendary mariner, Edmond Dantès, wrongly exiled as he rotted away in the infamous Château d’If.
The plight of the Iowa was driven home again this week when a federal judge ruled Thursday that the ships in the ghost fleet are disintegrating so badly they violate federal and state environmental laws. The case isn’t over yet — the state of California and environmental groups want to force the Maritime Administration, which oversees the ghost fleets in California, Virginia and Texas, to remove the ships. For now, though, the judge’s ruling confirms that the contaminants seeping off the old ships are hurting the bay.
You can see the full story here.
There may eventually be a silver lining for the Iowa, which planners in California hope to convert into a museum ship… although, as we’ve written before, that can be awfully tricky.
In the meantime, because this will be a highlight on any future tour, here is a photograph of Iowa’s bathtub — the only one installed on a U.S. warship. The Navy put it there for President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s convenience when he took the ship to the Cairo and Tehran Conferences in 1943.
The other kind of pirates
January 7th, 2010 | Environment Life at Sea Maritime operations merchant ships | Posted by Phil Ewing
Sailors aboard the dock landing ship Fort McHenry trained with a fire hose in September in the Persian Gulf. If eco-protesters attacked a Navy ship, its crew would likely try to wash them away with high-pressure water. // MC2 Kristopher Wilson / Navy
The Navy is growing accustomed to dealing with a certain kind of pirate: A Somali ex-fisherman and a few buddies in a small boat with a ladder, maybe an old RPG-7, and some Kalashnikovs. Paul Puntland isn’t the only kind of modern-day pirate, however — he has a cousin named Wally Whale.
Media-savvy, ecologically minded maritime agitators are in this news this week after the anti-whaling vessel Ady Gil was rammed and sunk by a Japanese whaler in the Southern Ocean — all while the cameras were rolling, of course — and its crew was rescued by the newest anti-whaling ship, the Bob Barker. (Yes, that Bob Barker.) All this prompted Scoop Deck to wonder: Among other things, environmentalists hate the effects they say Navy sonar has on marine mammals — what’s to stop eco-buccaneers from harassing warships?
(Protesters already have made life miserable for U.S. and U.K. ballistic missile subs.)
If it happens, the Navy has a plan. Current and former sailors told Scoop Deck that ships’ force-protection training includes scenarios involving Greenpeace-style protesters blocking their way or even attempting to board them. Just as merchant vessels in the Gulf of Aden try to keep away hijackers with high-pressure hoses, sailors would try to keep eco-boarders at bay with water jets. With the Internet and the world’s news media watching, however, one thing the Navy would try to avoid with save-the-whales types is using force.
“Ooooooohh yeah,” the former sailor said. “You can’t shoot ‘em.”