Uuurr-auughh as the Marine Corps turns 234
November 10th, 2009 | Historical Life at Sea The greenside leadership | Posted by Phil Ewing
Today is the birthday of the United States Marine Corps, marking 234 years since the Continental Congress met at the famous Tun Tavern and approved a resolution calling for two battalions of hard-chargin’ soldiers of the sea to fight from Navy ships against the British. Since then, the Marines have graciously permitted the U.S. government to organize other military services, as well.
The Marine Corps birthday brought to mind a time in Iraq this summer, when Scoop Deck was touring a forward operating post called Camp Ubaydi, in northern Anbar Province, as part of the entourage following around Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and Marine Maj. Gen. Richard Tryon, the commanding general of Multinational Force-West.
Our CH-46 Sea Knights (escorted by a menacing AH-1 Cobra) had landed on an unimproved mud pad; the “chow hall” was a wooden box; and now Tryon was leading Mabus through one of the crowded barracks rooms, occupied by elements of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines. The leathernecks were standing at attention next to their racks and Mabus, ever the politician, needed a way to break the ice with them.
SecNav returns to prime time in ‘NCIS’
November 9th, 2009 | Blogs Morale Washington leadership | Posted by Phil Ewing
"Janie, I need your help solving the mystery of the disappearing shipbuilding budget." // CBS
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus apparently so loved being on “The Daily Show” last month that he is returning to prime time — only for his forthcoming guest spot, he has taken a pretty steep demotion in rank. Mabus will play an agent in the Naval Criminal Investigative Service on an episode of its eponymous drama, “NICS,” scheduled to air Nov. 24, TV Guide reported Monday.
“He will be making a cameo appearance,” confirmed Mabus’ spokeswoman, Capt. Beci Brenton. He filmed his scenes during a trip last month to the West Coast that included a speech at the Pacific Council and a visit, with LCAC ride, to Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. The Navy’s West Coast public affairs office arranged the cameo with CBS, Brenton said, although she wasn’t clear about whether the process began with the Navy offering Mabus or “NCIS” asking for him.
Is Mabus a regular viewer of “NCIS?” Brenton said: “I believe he is.”
Other Navy officials, including the then-head of the real NCIS, have made appearances on the show before, but that precedent didn’t make it all right with at least one commenter over at TV Squad, who thinks Mabus probably has more important things to do than act in TV dramas:
I do not believe the secretary of the navy has any business being on television. If this is all he has to do, he needs to have someone review his “To Do” list. The sailors under his command need him more than NCIS. I hope Obama fires him! We have many more issues for our leaders to deal with. Bad choice by this secretary of the navy!
Another potential controversy here is Mabus’ choice to appear on the original “NCIS” and not its inexplicable spin-off, “NCIS: Los Angeles,” with Cool James and Robin. And if Mabus really wants to flex his acting chops, he needs to play a guy who loves LSU and the New York Yankees.
Hoo-ya, smoke shrine
October 22nd, 2009 | Life at Sea Photos leadership | Posted by Phil Ewing
MC2 Matthew White/ Navy
Back in Scoop Deck’s camping days, the standard practice was to say “I hate white rabbits” when smoke from the campfire was blowing on you, to magically send it in the other direction. (This does not actually work.) At this shrine outside the Sensoji Temple in Tokyo, however, the objective is to get the smoke on you, to absorb its curative powers. If it works, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (SS/SW) Rick West, and the other top enlisted leaders with whom he recently toured Tokyo, should be healthy for a long time… or at least give off a distinctive aroma.
CNN discovers skepticism of “Global Force for Good”
October 20th, 2009 | Morale Personnel Video Washington leadership | Posted by Phil Ewing
Sailors from the dock landing ship Tortuga conducted global goodness operations in the Philippines last week. The Navy's new slogan, "Global Force For Good," has encountered some early critics // MC1 Geronimo Aquino/ Navy
How influential are Navy Times readers like you? When CNN wanted to hear what no-kidding Navy people thought about the sea service’s new recruiting slogan, “America’s Navy, a Global Force For Good,” the network quoted posts on Navy Times’ forums that showed, for the most part, today’s sailors aren’t quite captivated by it.
CNN’s Lou Dobbs program aired the piece Monday night, and you can view it here.
There’s just something about this story… even after our article appeared summarizing responses from many of the sailors we asked about “Global Force For Good,” the emails have kept pouring into the Inbox of Excellence. Just yesterday we heard from Intelligence Specialist 1st Class (SW/AW) Grant Miles, who was watching TV with his wife this weekend when he saw the ad for the first time:
“…[O]nce it was done I asked her what she thought. She said, ‘It’s a good commercial, but what is with that slogan? It makes it sound like you guys are the world’s police force or a bunch of conquerors.’ So I think the latest commercials have been great but with the changing of the slogan I don’t think people are going to join because they can do good things.”
It’s been a few weeks since the debut of “Global Force For Good.” Is it growing on you?
The maritime strategy enters the terrible twos
October 20th, 2009 | Ballistic missile defense Coast Guard Foreign navies Maritime operations The greenside Washington leadership | Posted by Phil Ewing
The carrier George Washington trained with Korean warships in the Pacific last week. International cooperation was a key plank of the maritime strategy unveiled two years ago this week // MC3 Jeffrey Stewart/ Navy
The famed brown-shoe blogger SteeljawScribe — or as they’d say in Pittsburgh, “Stuhljawr-Scrub” — has reminded the Internet this week that we’ve reached the second anniversary of the unveiling of the maritime strategy (pdf), the document that was supposed to pave a clear road forward for the U.S. naval services and Coast Guard.
Asks Steeljaw: Did it? Answers Steeljaw: Kinda.
As a guidance document the strategy was useful, he writes, but it was incomplete because it contained no specifics for how many and what kinds of ships the U.S. would need to execute it. Those details were supposed to come in the “Naval Operations Concept,” the force structure document for which the world still waits. (Although incomplete initial versions have bubbled to the surface.)
The NOC, writes Steeljaw:
is increasingly important as planners inside and out of the naval services wrestle with new concepts and capabilities, the most recent example being the significant shift in BMD emphasis in the European theater … This redirection and the attendant gossamer-light expositions of how we will employ sea-based BMD in the maritime strategy has led to a fair degree of mis-information and erroneous assumptions as to general operational capabilities, requirements, and necessary force structure. More detailed explanation, as would be found in a NOC, would go a long ways to alleviate this condition.
On the anniversary of the MarStrat, it’s worth asking: How valuable has it proved for the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard?
If naval heroes had Twitter feeds…
October 13th, 2009 | Blogs Historical Washington leadership | Posted by Phil Ewing
With the Navy turning 234 years old today, it really makes you stop and realize: All this social networking, Twittering, blogging, Facebooking, silicon chips and such hasn’t been around very long, comparatively speaking. So here at the Center of Excellence we got to wondering — what would it have looked like if John Paul Jones had his cellie along when he fought the British off Flamborough Head? Or if Adm. George Dewey had set up his laptop on the bridge of the Olympia as his ships squared off against the Spanish? It might’ve looked something like this:
Time to decelerate your life, become a force for good
September 30th, 2009 | Personnel The deckplates Video Washington leadership | Posted by Phil Ewing
"Oh yeah, that part, where it says your life will be accelerated? Just disregard. Instead you'll be part of a global force for good." // MCC Hugh Laughlin/ Navy
If you’re thinking of joining the Navy, be advised: When you enlist, your life will proceed at the same speed at which it’s currently traveling. But on the other hand, you will go from being a neutral recruit to a global force for good. That’s right: The Navy is pulling back “Accelerate Your Life” as its advertising slogan and rolling out a new one — “America’s Navy: A Global Force For Good” — in hopes that it will appeal to today’s generation of youngsters.
When you picked up this week’s Navy Times — you did, right? — you might have seen an example of the Navy’s new print ads on page 2, right inside the cover. And here is one of the first TV spots, hosted on the Navy’s official YouTube channel:
What do you think? Will the idea of joining a “force for good” really appeal to the kids today? If you’re one of these kids today, does the new slogan make you want to join up?
Gordon Brown’s SSBN situation
September 25th, 2009 | Ballistic missile defense Royal Navy Submarines The Middle East leadership | Posted by Phil Ewing
Arguments are taking place around the world over whether Britain should mothball one of its four Vanguard-class ballistic missile subs // Royal Navy
U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s support for eliminating one of the Royal Navy’s four Vanguard-class ballistic missile submarines isn’t just a British issue anymore — there are reports about it from all around the world, including here in the States. The latest one to catch our attention was this editorial in the Wall Street Journal faulting Brown and his government for scaling back Great Britain’s nuclear deterrent:
[I]t’s no accident that Britain’s nuclear era coincides with her longest period of relative peace in history. Deterrence works, though its effects can only be inferred by crises evaded and battles not fought … All this, while Iran has just upgraded Britain to Most Evil Nation status. It’s an unpleasant reality and something Mr. Brown ought to think carefully about, lest he be accused of being Barack Obama’s poodle.
And that editorial was written before the world learned Friday that Iran has a second nuclear processing facility.
Here’s another thing to think about — what does Brown’s decision mean for the SSBN(X) program?
The U.S. and Royal Navies have said they want to share a common missile compartment for their next generation of ballistic-missile submarines. Will mothballing one Vanguard mean that work has to speed up? Or could it place Britain on the road to eliminating its deterrent mission altogether — as much of the population wants — and mean the U.S. will end up shouldering the whole load for SSBN(X)?
Is there a separate Facebook for officers?
September 22nd, 2009 | Officers leadership | Posted by Andrew Scutro
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.