The Dripper or the Trickle Down Café?
March 2nd, 2011 | Carriers Humor Life at Sea Navy | Posted by Joshua Stewart
On Jan. 31 a new coffee shop opened up on the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan. Apparently Hellcat Café, as it’s called, is popular enough to draw lines several sailors deep. Cafés on other carriers have also been notably successful.
However, there’s just one problem: the name. Granted, Hellcat Café has a nice ring to it, and it’s a clever reference to the 1957 submarine flick “Hellcats of the Navy” which starred Reagan. There are, however, other monikers that could have worked. Namely, The Dripper, a la The Gipper, or the Trickle Down Café, a reference to the 40th president’s economic policy.
Any other ideas?
Firing Honors, pro and con, Week 2
January 10th, 2011 | Blogs Carriers Fleet Forces Command leadership Life at Sea Morale Navy Officers Personnel | Posted by Bill McMichael
Adm. John Harvey learned about the controversial, four-year-old shipboard videos co-produced by Capt. Owen Honors on Dec. 31 — the day before they were published for the first time outside the skin of the carrier Enterprise — and “immediately ordered an investigation,” he says in a Jan. 7 post on his command blog.
Harvey also says he reviewed the videotapes published online by Norfolk’s Virginian-Pilot newspaper that weekend and then made his controversial decision to fire Honors, who’d graduated from executive officer — his position when the sometimes-racy, meant-to-be-humorous short films were produced — to become the 49-year-old carrier’s commanding officer. Honors was canned barely a week before the carrier deploys Jan. 13, possibly for the final time.
“When I did view those videos, I took action – just as I would have had I seen them four years ago,” Harvey wrote.
Those weighing in on Harvey’s decision seem to fall into two distinct camps. 1: Honors was a great leader who motivated his hard-working, much-deployed crew with humor they could relate to, the content wasn’t any edgier than what is broadcast every day on cable TV and his dismissal is a gutless reaction to outside media pressure. 2: XOs and COs are supposed to behave like grown-ups; Honors created a poor command climate that denigrated at least some crew members; and like it or not, today’s naval leaders must be cognizant of the image they project, here and abroad.
One Honors supporter’s view: “How dare anyone act as if those silly videos compromise the Navy,” wrote a civilian identifying herself as Dani MarieBernadette D’Angelo. “They are what they are, a means of blowing off steam for our sons and daughters who are so far from home and in dangerous situations. … the only reason that they have become a problem now is because the Navy wants to bow to the politically correct agenda. Captain Honors lives by a set of core values that anyone would be proud of.”
Another: “Leaders lead by example,” Anonymous wrote. ” CAPT Honors produced a funny, over the top, and professional [sic] filmed movie which was not to be taken seriously. You talk to his sailors; CAPT Honors was all business, a role model, and one hell of a Navy Officer. He is the guy you want fighting your ship in battle.”
Others say Honors set a poor example for others to follow. “What those individuals have missed is, to my mind, the TRULY grievous act that CAPT Honors committed: setting a negative, hostile command environment for the crew of ENTERPRISE when he was XO,” wrote James. “He mocked anyone who objected to his unacceptable behavior. He erased ANY personal credibility that he had when it came to dealing with issues of sexual harassment. It was even implied that filing a grievance would do no good — he was `above’ their control. That, more than anything, is what makes his behavior so damaging and toxic.”
Added SubIconoclast: “The line between ‘bold’ and ‘reckless’ can shift depending on whether we are at war or in peace, and senior officers must recognize that even units employed in war WILL be evaluated against peacetime standards when they appear in the national media of a nation which is generally at peace.
“Today’s combat leaders simply have to meet both standards; complaining about it won’t change the fundamental facts of the situation. CAPT Honors knew that – he just made the mistake of assuming that he could get away with skipping the `Washington Post’ test before recording videos and broadcasting them to thousands. That doesn’t make him a bad American but it does diminish his ability to command effectively.”
Both camps generally express a common thread: Go after the senior leaders who knew of the videos and didn’t react decisively four years ago. Some of those leaders are the subject of our story in this week’s Navy Times.
A tradition of the sea
January 4th, 2011 | Carriers Life at Sea Navy Photos | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
Burials at sea are a long tradition of the sea. Capt. Bruce Lindsey, who commands the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, salutes the national ensign during a Dec. 27 as the ship sailed near Hawaii.//MC3 James R. Evans//Navy
On a cloudy but humid tropical day, several dozen sailors, donning crisp uniforms, gathered on aircraft carrier Carl Vinson’s port side elevator No. 4 as the ship maneuvered in the waters of the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii. On a table covered with a blue cloth sat urns of different sizes and colors – 43 in all – carrying the cremains of former service members and military spouses.
The honor platoon and rifle platoon lined up for the burial-at-sea ceremony on Dec. 27. With calm winds and flat seas, a trio of chaplains with the ship and Carrier Strike Group 1 led the ceremony, which included remarks by the carrier’s skipper, Capt. Bruce Lindsey. One at a time, each of the cremains was placed on a blue chute, committing the dead to their final resting place in the sea. Among those buried that day – it was the ship’s largest burial ceremony – was one of the Carl Vinson’s first command master chiefs.
The burial-at-sea is perhaps one of the Navy’s oldest ceremonies, an ancient tradition of sea-going sailors. It remains a benefit for former sailors and other service members, as well as their family members, and many ships and even submarines routinely perform the rite when at sea.
It can be a quite personal affair. Vinson’s ceremony marked a personal moment for Aviation Electronics Technician Airman Christopher Seubert, an honor guard member who also paid his respects to his grandfather, Fredrick Heidmann, a retired senior chief aviation machinist’s mate who died in August at age 74. “It was pretty intense for me,” Seubert said, speaking by phone Dec. 29 from the ship. “It was quite the honor to know I was part of the tradition.”
The burial-at-sea was a request of his mother, so Seubert carried his grandfather’s cremains when he and the crew deployed from San Diego last month. “She knew I’d be coming to the ship. She knew he wanted to be buried at sea,” he said. “I thought it would be a good opportunity for my grandfather and me to be on the same ship.”
Burial ceremonies are almost routine business on big-deck ships like Carl Vinson. “We’ve actually done a lot, probably more than any other carrier,” said Lt. Cmdr. Erik Reynolds, the ship’s public affairs officer. The public affairs office captured the ceremony in video and photographs, which with the chaplains’ help send personalized packages to each of the families. “We think it’s important, so we put a fair amount of effort and respect that goes into it,” Reynolds said. Reynolds himself is familiar with the ceremony. On his first ship deployment aboard the cruiser Princeton, he brought along the cremains of his grandfather, an Army veteran of World War II. “I kept his remains in my stateroom for about a month” before the ceremony, a bit unnerving to his roommates, he recalled.
Still, the ceremony is a revered tradition, if not one of curiosity for the junior sailors going to sea for the first time. “We usually get a very positive reaction,” said Capt. Keith Shuley, the carrier’s command chaplain. “The sailors take it very seriously. They are honored to be able to do it,” said Shuley, a Catholic priest. “They know that they are doing something special for the families who have made a very special request.”
Support for Capt. Honors
January 3rd, 2011 | Aviation Carriers Facebook Fleet Forces Command leadership Life at Sea Morale Movies Navy Officers Video | Posted by Bill McMichael
The Navy didn’t mince words in its official reaction to Capt. Owen Honors’ role in the creation of what are viewed by many as overly suggestive or inappropriate videos — meant to be humorous — that were broadcast aboard the carrier Enterprise during his run as XO back in 2006-2007. “Those in command … are held accountable for setting the proper tone and upholding the standards of honor, courage and commitment that we expect sailors to exemplify,” said Cmdr. Chris Sims, spokesman for U.S. Fleet Forces Command.
You won’t find any such criticism on a Facebook page, “We Support Captain O.P. Honors!”, established on Jan. 1 — the same day the story was broken by Norfolk’s Virginian-Pilot newspaper — that describes itself as a “Support Group for a great Executive Officer and his extraordinarily funny XO Movie Night Skits.” It’s growing by the minute, with 1,230 members as of 12 noon EST Monday and nearly 600 posts, nearly all praising Honors, who now commands the ship as it prepares to deploy, and dismissing the videos as harmless fun meant to lighten the stress of shipboard life. Here are some examples:
“I used to be a sailor aboard the USS Enterprise and served while Capt Honors was both a XO and a CO,” one woman wrote. “I was aboard the ship while the videos under question were being filmed and watched them myself. The way the videos were reported to the world as `raunchy’ and `lewd’ is completely unrepresentative of the good-natured humor behind them. Capt Honors’ videos were always a highlight of the week.”
“I served with then-CDR Honors during the 2006 Deployment and know him to be an honorable man,” wrote one man. “The XO made the videos to address real shipboard issues in a comedic fashion. The crew always looked forward to them. Do not sacrifice this officer on the altar of political correctness.”
In the Tell Us What You Really Think Department, 0ne woman really let fly. “I pretty much hated EVERYTHING about being on the Enterprise EXCEPT for the people I worked with, and XO MOVIE NIGHT!,” she wrote. “Way to GO Capt. Honors! F*** EVERYONE ELSE that finds that s*** offensive….let them get back to their Lifetime Original Movies.”
The videos — you can see an edited version here — have generated national attention, with broadcast stories on every network. The videos include scenes of simulated same-sex showers and masturbation and a reference by one of Honors’ “alternate personalities” — a video trick — to another as “fag SWO boy,” leading some commentators to call the videos lewd, sexist and homophobic. Others raise questions about Honors’ leadership style. Sims said Fleet Forces has launched an investigation into the production of the videos.
What do you think?
Midnight poetry to ring in 2011
December 30th, 2010 | Life at Sea Navy | Posted by David Larter
As the clock turns midnight on Jan. 1, quartermasters on the bridges of Navy warships will scribble a new day entry in the deck log entry under a red-filtered desk lamp.
It’s an old Navy tradition to write the New Years new day entry in verse and, while it may not always be Shakespeare, it is at least creative. Below is the Jan. 1, 2004, new day entry for the destroyer Cole, which was on its first deployment after the 2001 attacks that killed 17 of its sailors, as posted on the Naval History and Heritage Command’s website:
Carl Vinson heads to sea
December 1st, 2010 | Aviation Carriers Life at Sea Navy Training | Posted by Chris Kelly
The carrier Carl Vinson left Naval Air Station North Island, Calif., on Tuesday for three weeks of training followed by a scheduled deployment.
Here are some photos the Navy took as sailors boarded the ship and got under way. (Click for high-resolution versions.)
Holiday cheer
November 26th, 2010 | Life at Sea North Korea Photos | Posted by David Larter
Culinary Specialist 1st Class Lemuel ManLogon from Stockton, Calif., prepares a traditional Thanksgiving feast on the aft mess decks aboard the carrier George Washington. // MC3 David Cox
The carrier George Washington had a special holiday surprise this year courtesy of North Korea. While the Navy says the carrier was scheduled to participate in exercises with Japan, the plan changed in the wake of North Korea’s bombardment of the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong. (That situation has become even more tense today.) So instead of celebrating a nice Thanksgiving at home, the George Washington headed to the Yellow Sea to flex our national biceps for North Korea.
Do you think they’ll be impressed?
But despite the less than ideal Thanksgiving circumstances, the culinary specialists tried their best to make it homey. Check out the spread!
This will be your life, cont’d
November 5th, 2010 | Life at Sea Navy The deckplates Video | Posted by David Larter
To follow up on a discussion from earlier in the week about Navy recruiting commercials, it seemed necessary to illustrate the point with this week’s bored sailor video.
Remember a few years ago when the Navy purchased the rights to Godsmack‘s then-hit song Awake? Despite the jokes about the commercials, the heavy guitar riff soon became not identified with the band’s hit single but with Navy recruiting efforts. In other words, whoever pushed to purchase the rights to the song for the Navy’s commercials had pulled off a stroke of marketing genius.
Godsmack’s star faded somewhat in the wake of the uproar. Some have suggested that Godsmack selling the song’s rights to the Navy showed it supported the unpopular Iraq war and that it contributed to their downfall from pop stardom. The band’s lead singer Sully Erna told the media at the time the band did not support the war but supported the troops. Read a 2006 interview during which Erna addresses the controversy here. The band has since made a resurgence and now sits at No. 6 on the Billboard rock charts.
One of the Scoop Deck faithful posted this video in the comments section, which shows junior sailors doing what junior sailors do best: manual labor. It also shows them having a little fun with the Navy’s recruiting spots, Godsmack and all. Observe:
Attention recruits: this will be your life
November 3rd, 2010 | Life at Sea Maintenance The deckplates | Posted by David Larter
Seaman Dagan Alexander, from St. Augustine Beach, Fla., accelerates his life. // MC2 Christopher Dollar
Navy recruiting ads are something of a running joke in the fleet, especially among junior enlisted personnel.
The commercials invariably show sailors performing the most exciting and extraordinary tasks they perform throughout the world every day. Often those commercials are backdropped by a soundtrack of either shredding guitar or Saving Private Ryan-esque rolling snare drums and blaring trumpets.
But what the commercials don’t show are the rather mundane and monotonous tasks sailors perform on a day-to-day basis, even though those tasks are every bit as vital as oft-used video clips of SEALs hitting the beach or DDGs test-firing SM3s.
They never show some poor operations specialist freezing his tail off, roaming the decks of his ship at 0230 while on M-14 rover watch in the dead of winter. They never show the hull maintenance technician cleaning up a foul CHT overflow in the operations department’s berthing head. Nor do they show line handlers being sprayed down by JP5 fuel when the probe unseats during an underway replenishment.
No, the commercials are strangely silent on the finer points of Navy living. But the service, to its credit, posted this picture on its website that shows a deck seaman needle-gunning a lifeline. Needle guns are a crucial piece of equipment in the process of chipping and painting, a function junior sailors become well-acquainted with during their early careers.
Cheer up, Seaman Dagan Alexander. Study hard and make rate, then you can pass down this fine Navy tradition to your underlings when you’re a second class.
Caramel macchiato pairs well with 0600-1200 watch
November 2nd, 2010 | Chiefs Life at Sea Navy | Posted by David Larter
Some carrier chiefs are filling their crusty chief's mugs with some high-class joe, trading in Navy sludge for bold Sumatra blend. // MC2 Peter Lawlor
Ace reporter and newest Center of Excellence fellow Sam Fellman last week blew the lid off of the burgeoning gourmet coffee dependence among thousands of carrier crew members.
The story, posted on the Navy Times website, exposed that carriers throughout the fleet were training SHs to run espresso machines, opening gourmet coffee shops and offering the highly addictive substance to sailors.
Well, the story blew up on our Facebook page and was soon being tweeted around the Twittersphere. The revelations have been drawing criticism from old salts.
“You have got to be sh****** me!” one Facebook commenter said.
Another said:
“Fancy coffee on a warship? We had to drink motor oil passed off as coffee in my day serving on the Independence. I hope sailors these days know how good they have it.”
Still another:
“If that’s their definition of Navy coffee, they’re not sailors.”
Sure, it’s easy to poke fun at the idea of a fancy-pants latte available on a United States capital warship. But should we really begrudge our sailors a pumpkin spice latte while they are underway for months at a time? Soldiers are chowing down on Whoppers in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Brits offer their sailors alcohol underway, for crying out loud.
At least one sailor voiced his approval on Facebook:
“Last week was my first time underway on the Bush. Love having the Starbucks coffee.”
What do you think?