Navy officer and Doritos inventor dies
September 29th, 2011 | Historical Navy Veterans World War II | Posted by Sam Fellman
Arch West, 97-year-old former naval officer who invented Doritos, died on Sept. 20. // theimpulsivebuy via Flickr
The idea for Doritos tortilla chips, which brought about a sea change in snacking and became a top seller for Frito-Lay, came from the mind of former Navy man Arch West, who died of natural causes on Sept. 20. He was 97. West joined the Navy in 1943 and served as a gunnery officer onboard destroyer escort Holt in the Pacific during World War II, according to The Dallas Morning News.
A chance encounter on a family vacation inspired West to mass-market tortilla chips, according to The Washington Post:
“He was on a family vacation in Southern California in 1964 when he first bought a grease-smeared bag of toasted tortillas at a roadside shack.
As marketing vice president at Frito-Lay, Mr. West immediately sensed he had stumbled upon a snacking phenomenon.
When he returned to work, Mr. West pitched his idea: a crispy, triangle-shaped corn chip that would complement the company’s lighter Lay’s potato chip and the thicker, curly Frito.”
The Washington Post also published a photo of West from his Navy days.
Doritos are now the chips of choice for millions around the world. They come in 21 flavors, from old stand-bys like Cool Ranch and Nacho Cheese to more extreme offerings like Blazin’ Jalapeno and All Nighter Cheeseburger. Global sales of Doritos were nearly $5 billion in 2010, a Frito-Lay spokeswoman told the Post.
Family members plan on tossing Doritos chips at his Oct. 1 burial so that West can face the ages with his addictive creation on-hand.
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.
That flag
August 2nd, 2011 | Aviation Foreign navies Helicopters Historical Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Maritime operations Naval aviation Navy Pearl Harbor Photos Ships The Pacific Training World War II | Posted by Bill McMichael
I remember a 1990-ish visit to a Japanese submarine base and being dumbfounded to see the subs flying the rising sun flag off their stern masts. Dumbfounded, because being, ahem, of a certain age, I associated the flag — a red disc with red and white “beams” extending outward — with the aggressive World War II-era regime that launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in an effort to exercise total dominance over the Pacific. Its use was banned in 1945 following the surrender to the United States and its allies, but many Americans don’t realize that it was re-adopted in 1954 as the war flag and naval ensign of the Japan Ground and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, respectively.
This isn’t news to U.S. sailors stationed in Japan, now a staunch U.S. ally, or those who’ve trained with the Japanese navy — such as the Norfolk-based sailors assigned to Destroyer Squadron 26, taking part in a “PASSEX” with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Training Squadron — manned by newly commissioned Japanese surface warfare officers — through today off the U.S. East Coast.
The Japan Maritime Self Defense Force training ship KASHIMA passes the destroyer Nitze during a passing exercise. // U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Marie Brindovas, PASSEX Public Affairs.
PASSEX is an exercise that tests routine operational challenges and is meant, according to the Navy, to strengthen the partnership between the U.S. and Japan. Tasks include operating a Japanese helo on a U.S. ship.
Sailors assigned to the destroyer Nitze guide a Japanese SH-60 helicopter onto the flight deck. // U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Marie Brindovas, PASSEX Public Affairs.
Today, incidently, is a big date in post-World War II affairs. The final meeting of the “Big Three” nations — the U.S., the Soviet Union and Great Britain — concluded on a sour note. The failure to resolve expected post-war issues at the Potsdam Conference, historians say, helped set the stage for the Cold War.
Former JAG becomes federal judge
May 12th, 2011 | Historical Navy JAG Photos | Posted by Bill McMichael
The Navy JAG Corps got a nice feather in the cap May 11 when a former Navy JAG and civilian public defender was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as a U.S. district judge in Virginia’s Eastern District.
Arenda L. Wright Allen of Norfolk, nominated by President Obama in June 2010, becomes the first black female federal district judge in the state. She was confirmed on a unanimous 96-0 vote.
“I believe that the president has made an extraordinary choice in nominating Miss Wright Allen,” Sen. Jim Webb, a former Navy secretary, said on the Senate floor May 11 before the confirmation vote. “She distinguished herself as the premier candidate in a very competitive field for this vacancy. She has displayed during her career the highest degree of integrity, competence and commitment to the rule of law. She exemplifies the best of the Virginia bar and in fact, she received the highest ranking from the Virginia State Bar.”
Allen, 50, was commissioned in 1984. After earning her law degree from the North Carolina Central University School of Law in 1985, Allen served as an active-duty Navy lawyer for five years, various other assignments, and as a reservist for an additional 12 years before retiring as a commander in 2005. She also served as an assistant U.S. attorney from 1990 to 2005, when she became a federal public defender.
Silent service turns 111
April 21st, 2011 | Historical Navy Submarines | Posted by Sam Fellman
Happy (belated) birthday, bubbleheads!
It was on April 11, 111 years ago, that the Navy purchased its first fully submersible vessel, Holland VI, from inventor John Holland. The 64-ton sub cost $150,000 and was christened the SS-1 Holland. Powered by a gasoline engine, it could make could make roughly 2 knots submerged, had a crew of six and carried torpedoes, according to the book “Submarine: The Ultimate Naval Weapon – Its Past, Present and Future.”
One hundred and eleven years later, subs are still integral to national defense. Ballistic subs bear more than half of the nation’s nuclear weapons, keeping potential adversaries at bay. And attack submarines serve in a variety of missions, including shielding carrier battle groups from their spookiest threat: diesel boats.
Meanwhile, sub ops are high. As of Thursday, two-thirds of attack subs were away from the pier and nearly half were on deployment. In operations against the Gadhafi regime, two attack subs and one guided-missile sub fired the lion’s share of the cruise missiles. That, too, has a historical precedent.
During World War II, the Barb bombarded Japanese coastal cities with rockets in the first sub-launched strike mission ashore.
Realism, circa 1929
April 12th, 2011 | Aviation Historical Naval aviation Naval aviation centennial Navy Sea Air Space | Posted by Joshua Stewart
Developed in 1929, Edwin Link's "Pilot Maker" trained aviators for $85 each. By World War II, some 500,000 aviators had trained on the system. // Joshua Stewart/Staff
An F/A-18F Super Hornet simulator provides panoramic views and complex flight technology, but it doesn't have a hydraulic motion system. // Joshua Stewart/Staff
Tucked between displays of what will become the future of naval aviation is a tribute to the previous century of naval flight.
An early flight simulator is one of the more interesting attractions. It looks like a really intense kiddie ride, one of those machines found outside of grocery stores that that blare really loud music and buck kids around for a quarter. Basically, the aviation simulator is a miniature open-cockpit airplane — it’s around the size of a golf cart — sitting atop a hydraulic system. The cockpit has a series of controls that make the whole device move around.
It was developed in 1929 by Edwin Link and dubbed the “pilot maker.” Training included ground school and two hours of flight time. Cost: $85 per student.
In 1934 Link made his first big sale, six machines. And by World War II, about a half-million Allied pilots were training on roughly 10,000 of the devices.
Not too far away is a Super Hornet simulator. That one has three projectors that give a panoramic view of the ground and skyline and two seats positioned behind a panel of complex controls and interfaces. Despite its sophistication, it doesn’t have one of the biggest components of the pilot maker: the hydraulics.
Daly: Amphibious forces are more relevant than ever
April 1st, 2011 | Admirals Amphibious operations Amphibious Ready Group Gator Navy Historical Korean War Marine Corps Marine Expeditionary Unit Maritime operations Ships The Med The Middle East | Posted by Bill McMichael
The deputy commander of Fleet Forces Command used his keynote speech at the decommissioning of the amphibious assault ship Nassau in Norfolk March 31 to stump for continued support for the “Gator Navy” and the capability to launch U.S. Marines onto contested shore, arguing that such a capability reduces the need for U.S. bases on foreign shores.
Vice Adm. Peter Daly pointed to the Essex Amphibious Ready Group and the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit providing humanitarian assistance and disaster response following the earthquake and tsunami that ravaged northern Japan; the Boxer ARG and 13th MEU being accelerated into the Persian Gulf to provide what he called “essential capacity” for potential non-combatant evacuation operations and to provide the fleet with a theater reserve force; the Bataan ARG and 22nd MEU’s short-notice (120 days early) deployment to the Mediterranean to relieve the Kearsarge ARG and 26th MEU; and the Kearsarge ARG and 26th MEU’s central role in the NATO air strike campaign against Libyan forces — in particular, their rapid movement out of the 5th Fleet area of operations, where they were relieved by Boxer and the 13th MEU, to the Med, where they have provided combat sorties and air space control.
“We are witnessing a living clinic for why we need amphibious power for our Navy,” Daly said.
More than a few military analysts have questioned whether the U.S. should maintain an amphibious capability — made famous during World War II’s Pacific theater island-hopping campaign — noting that the last significant amphibious combat landings took place at Inchon during the Korean war and that weapons such as long-range missiles make large-scale amphibious assaults obsolete. Proponents argue that the ability to launch smaller-level assaults on unimproved beachfronts continues to be an important capability. The threat alone can also be an advantage, they say, pointing to the famous Persian Gulf War feint in which a large amphibious force poised off the coast of Kuwait diverted thousands of Iraqi forces from the main battlefields.
During a Dec. 2 “DoDLive” bloggers roundtable, Brig. Gen. Christopher Owens, deputy commanding general, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, also pointed out that assault operations are but one of a wide range of possibilities on the amphibious palette and argued for keeping such a capability, while further refining concepts to “keep it relevant.”
Daly would agree.
“People often ask, `Well, maybe we don’t have to do this anymore’,” Daly said. “Maybe we don’t have to provide the bandwidth, the training and the time, and the effort and the money to do [them]. But when they were needed, they were there.”
Daly acknowledged that the capability to conduct amphibious assaults has been somewhat diluted. “The demands of land conflicts over the last decade have forced something of a separation between our Navy amphibious forces and the Marines they are designed to carry into combat,” Daly said. “Only by training together, sailing together, fighting together, can we ensure that amphibious warfare remains a premier national capability — so the country is not dependent on overseas bases, and able to conduct forcible entry without a buildup, and without a permission slip.”
Bracketology and aircraft carriers
March 8th, 2011 | Carriers Facebook Historical Navy Sports | Posted by Joshua Stewart
The month wouldn’t be complete without tournament brackets. And not to be outdone by the NCAA’s basketball showdown, Naval Air Forces has created a competition of its own.
But instead of matching up the best basketball teams in the country, this bracket pits aircraft carriers against each other in a Facebook-based competition designed to determine the best aircraft carrier in U.S. Navy history. Every week is a new round, until the April 5 championship game (or contest or match-up or whatever this type of competition should be called).
While it takes the form of a tournament bracket, the actual competition appears to be more like American Idol. Instead of the most physically capable contender advancing to the next round, the most popular ship, as determined by “likes” collected on an accompanying picture of that carrier, moves forward.
It’s a democratic system that gives older, antiquated carriers a fighting chance, but gives the Enterprise, a carrier whose name has appeared on several other vessels, including a fictitious spacecraft, a large amount of alumni support… consider it a home court advantage.
Ship in the spotlight: The Black (DD-666)
January 18th, 2011 | Historical Navy Photos | Posted by David Larter
It appears sailors aren’t that superstitious since the Navy let this hull number slide.
The Navy has been around for a while, and there have been a lot of ships in its service with fascinating histories. So it would seem appropriate to highlight a ship and its story from time to time on Scoop Deck.
To start it off: The destroyer Black
In service: 1943-1946 and 1951-1969
Class: Fletcher
Built: Kearny, New Jersey
Dimensions: 376 feet long, 39-foot beam and displaced 2,934 tons
History:
Named for Lt. Cmdr. Hugh Black, killed in action in 1942, the ship served in the Pacific during World War II. She saw action at Leyte and Okinawa, and participated in two bombardments of the Japanese mainland. On the day Japan surrendered, Aug. 15, 1945, the Black was present during 0ne of the last kamikaze attacks.
It was taken out of commission in 1946, but the Cold War prompted her return to the fleet. In 1951, she served in the Korean War.
The Vietnam War brought Black to the coastal waters of Vietnam where she provided gunfire support for the troops ashore. Black was taken out of service 1971.
Anyone in Scoop Deck-land have any memories of USS Black?
A piggybacked peek into the future
December 16th, 2010 | Aviation Historical NASA Science and technology | Posted by Bill McMichael
A few lucky travelers passing through Lambert International Airport in St. Louis Dec. 13 may have caught a glimpse of aviation history in the making — and of military aviation’s future — when Boeing’s Phantom Ray unmanned airborne system hitched a ride on NASA’s Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.
NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, a modified Boeing 747, taxis to a runway on Dec. 13 at Lambert International Airport in St. Louis with the Phantom Ray unmanned airborne system secured atop. // Ron Bookout, Boeing
The flight was a test to check the in-flight performance of the SCA while flying with the Phantom Ray and a special adapter before making the much longer trek to California for test flights at Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. And it marked the first time in 33 years the SCA had flown carrying an aircraft other than the Space Shuttle Orbiter. The fighter jet-sized Phantom Ray, designed and built by Boeing’s Phantom Works and funded entirely by Boeing, is a prototype that will be used as a test bed for advanced technologies ranging from intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to suppression of enemy air defenses.
Boeing's Phantom Ray unmanned airborne system sits atop a NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft prior to takeoff Dec. 13 at Lambert International Airport. // Ron Bookout, Boeing
The verdict: thumbs-up. The next day, the SCA and the Phantom Ray completed the 1,800-mile journey to Edwards. This pic was taken the day before:
NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, carrying Boeing's Phantom Ray unmanned airborne system, takes to the skies Dec. 13. // Ron Bookout, Boeing