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.
Canadian Navy: It’s Timmies or nothin’, eh?
November 4th, 2009 | Chow Foreign navies Life at Sea Morale | Posted by Phil Ewing
U.S. and Canadian airmen unloaded a mobile Tim Hortons from a C-17 at Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan. Tim Hortons coffee fuels Canada's military in the same way that F76 and JP-5 fuel the U.S. Navy // Canadian Forces
Why do Canadians love Tim Hortons so much? Good question. Why do boatswain’s mates wear those funny hard hats? These are mysteries to which there may never be good answers, but their effects are quite plain — especially that first one. Canadians love their “Timmies,” as they call it, in the same way they love power plays and those French fries with that weird gravy on them. Well indeed does Scoop Deck remember spotting a Tim Hortons, dispensing piping hot coffee, on a 115-degree afternoon at Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan.
The Canadian Forces needs its Timmies so bad that it has issued a solicitation for the coffee in Halifax by name. Starbucks, Peet’s, Gevalia — none need apply, the CBC reports:
“There shall be no acceptable substitute,” according to the tender issued Monday. “Tim Hortons has been determined by MARLANT” — the navy’s Maritime Forces Atlantic command — “as the product of choice based on expressed customer taste and preferences for boosting morale in Afghanistan, Sudan and Sierra Leone.”
You can’t get a much bigger endorsement than a nation’s military requesting your product to the exclusion of all those other hosers. Is there an equivalent coffee in the U.S. Navy? Or do you rely on command ingenuity to create a distinctive product — i.e. “boat coffee?”
H/T: Springbored (who praised the U.S. Navy’s decision to shed “fru-fru, gold-plated, 5th Generation stealth coffee.”)
Stand by for LPD 21 mania
October 30th, 2009 | Morale Ships | Posted by Phil Ewing
The amphibious transport dock New York will be the belle of the media world in the week leading up to commissioning in Manhattan on Nov. 7 // MC1 Shawn Graham
Navy-types, get ready to be blasted with an information fire hose. The amphibious transport dock New York has pulled away from Naval Station Norfolk, Va., bound for its namesake city and a week’s worth of frenzied attention in the media capital of the world before its commissioning Nov. 7.
The end of the JATO era
October 29th, 2009 | Aviation Morale Navy The greenside Video | Posted by Phil Ewing
The Blue Angels' beloved Marine-crewed C-130T, "Fat Albert," will do its last jet-assisted takeoff Nov. 14, to the dismay of males everywhere // Navy
A seldom-discussed but important rite of passage for every American boy is the first time he hears the story of “the JATO car,” the infamous station wagon whose owner augmented it with Jet Assisted Take Off rocket bottles. The cops found the wreckage of his car crashed into the side of a mountain, the story goes, clear evidence of a man who sacrificed his life to absurd speed-demonism. You can do insane, dangerous, awesome things in this world, the boy learns.
The rite is completed when that boy, perhaps by then a man, learns the story isn’t true. It never happened. And the chances it could ever happen are dwindling, because the world is running out of JATO rockets, according to this story by Scoop Deck shipmate Amy McCullough of Marine Corps Times. One of the last U.S. aircraft to regularly execute jet-assisted takeoffs — the Blue Angels’ beloved, Marine-crewed C-130T “Fat Albert” — will do its last one next month. The end of the “JATO car” legend can’t be far behind. Wrote McCullough:
“Everyone in the Fat Albert shop is really sad,” said Maj. Drew Hess, the Blue Angels’ senior C-130 pilot. “It is a significant chapter [in the team’s history] that unfortunately is being closed.”
To execute a JATO, Fat Albert uses eight solid-fuel rocket bottles, which supply enough momentum for the aircraft to leave the runway after traveling just 1,500 feet. Climbing at a 45-degree angle, it can reach 1,000 feet in just 15 seconds.
The [one-time use] fuel bottles, which weigh about 150 pounds when full, were designed to thrust C-130s skyward in austere conditions where traditional runways are unavailable, said 1st Lt. Craig Thomas, a Marine spokesman at the Pentagon. But the Corps hasn’t used JATO in combat since the Vietnam War, he said, and it’s unlikely to do so again, as newer KC-130Js have engines built to exert the same thrust as C-130Ts outfitted with rocket bottles.
Cruel, inescapable progress. Kind of like growing up.
Check out this motivational video of Fat Albert doing its thing:
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?
A spicy Fleet Week in the fleet city
October 16th, 2009 | Chow Life at Sea Morale | Posted by Phil Ewing
SH1 Cedric Avant, sailor of the quarter for the destroyer Nitze, dropped a puck to start a Norfolk Admirals hockey game Oct. 9. The week included other events in addition to puck-dropping // MC2 Santos Huante/ Navy
How do you tell when it’s Fleet Week in the city with the world’s largest naval base? Although every week is pretty much Fleet Week in Hampton Roads, Va., it has actually been Fleet Week there for the past few days, and the events will wrap up this weekend with an air show at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach.
But the jet blast from the air show won’t have been the only source of heat in the Tidewater this week — Navy commands from all over contributed submissions to this year’s chili cook-off, according to a Navy announcement.
The chili detachment from the fast attack submarine Scranton took the Big Dipper award for their dreaded Deep Dive Chili, for example: “Scranton sailors also sounded their dive alarm, the klaxon, to alert other crowd-goers of their presence.”
And then there were the other entries:
“We compared chili with the [Naval Support Activity] Northwest and Little Creek galleys,” said Culinary Specialist 1st Class (SW/AW) Shawn Shepherd, leading petty officer of the Naval Station Norfolk galley. “We were the only ones to have had ground bison in our chili. Both had a very unique taste with a lot of herbs and spices. Overall, this was a great event.”
Showmanship and judges’ choice first-place awards were awarded to the NSA Northwest Annex galley for their “Devil’s Spit chili” and Halloween-themed setting, with fake body-part props.
Yes, nothing awakens an appetite like prop limbs.
The Navy: 234 years young
October 13th, 2009 | Historical Morale The deckplates | Posted by Phil Ewing
Naval History and Heritage Command
The Navy wasn’t always a terrifying wall of steel coming straight at you from over the horizon. Back in the day — 234 years ago today, as a matter of fact — all the Continental Congress wanted was two wooden sailing ships, each crewed by about 80 sailors and armed with 10 guns apiece. It got that. And it got more than that, according to this year’s birthday message from Navy Secretary Ray Mabus:
From the raid on Nassau in 1776 to the Gulf of Aden and the mountains of Afghanistan today, the Navy has always been our nation’s away team, defending her interests abroad. You and your predecessors have served selflessly, without regard to personal sacrifice — enduring months or even years away from home and loved ones.
Navy commands all over the world are observing the service’s birthday today, some more extravagantly than others. At Camp Lemonier, Djibouti, for example, the service members stationed there enjoyed a “5-star quality meal” at a Navy Ball where the desert camouflage uniform took the place of black tie. Scoop Deck can just picture everyone making merry at 11 Degrees North, the camp’s saloon/pool hall/auditorium/sports bar/lecture hall, as the occasional French fighter jet screams overhead.
So how are you and your shipmates marking the Navy’s birthday today? Send us details and photos and we’ll be post them here on the Deck.
Who has the best mess in the Navy?
October 12th, 2009 | Chow Life at Sea Morale The deckplates | Posted by Phil Ewing
The galley aboard the destroyer O'Kane, seen here in 2005 on a first-class petty officer pizza night, is one of the 18 finalists for the Navy's best-mess award // Navy
Who do you think gets the best chow in the Navy? Scoop Deck has eaten really well on the guided-missile submarine Georgia; the amphibious assault ship Makin Island; and the cruiser Anzio, but there are many galleys out there and this is the kind of question about which people develop forceful opinions.
If it helps narrow the terms of the argument, check out Naval Supply Systems Command’s list of finalists for its yearly Ney Award, which recognizes the best galley in the fleet. There are 18 potential winners afloat and ashore, and each of them can expect a rigorous going-over that will determine who gets this year’s prize:
Achieve full military cleanliness with WASHEX 09
September 23rd, 2009 | Life at Sea Morale The deckplates Video Washington | Posted by Phil Ewing
Proper cleanliness is important, according to the Navy, from the barrel of a 5-inch gun to your own hands. A new video demonstrates how to wash them the Navy way // Navy
Navy work is dirty work. Whether you’re elbow-deep in a gas turbine or handling delicate china teacups at a black-tie embassy reception in Jakarta, it’s gonna get messy out there. That, presumably, is what spurred the creation of this video demonstrating how you should wash your hands — the Navy way. ‘Cause you’ve been doin’ it wrong, shipmate!
According to the Navy video, you should spend enough time working in the soap lather to hum “Anchors Aweigh,” and then treat every surface in the restroom like a mysophobiac: Don’t touch the faucet after you’ve rinsed! You’ll get germs! Get a paper towel, dry your hands, and then use the towel to turn off the water. Then, use the towel to open and close the door to the head. When you have exited, you are authorized to dispose of the towel.
The only problem with this technique is letting the water run during the time it takes you to obtain a paper towel, conduct hand-drying operations, and then secure the flow of water from the tap. Leaving the tap on uses at least 3 gallons of water per minute — imagine the amount of water that would be wasted if everyone in the Pentagon washed their hands this way.
And aboard a ship? That could mean everybody’s favorite words underway: Water hours.
Brace for impact: Reagan arrives in Phuket (updated)
September 22nd, 2009 | Carriers Liberty Life at Sea Morale The deckplates | Posted by Phil Ewing
An elephant ride, as enjoyed by these Essex sailors in February, is just one liberty option for sailors visiting Thailand. The carrier Reagan arrived in Phuket this week // MC2 Greg Johnson/ Navy
The Phuket Wan newspaper, of Phuket, Thailand, is quickly becoming an indispensable source for WestPac naval coverage — and you can’t help but like a newspaper that runs this headline:
US Warships Anchor! Phuket’s All Set to Rumble
So the fleet’s in, so to speak, and Phuket boosters are expecting a $1 million-per-day boost to the local economy from the wallets of the sailors during their visit. The ships are scheduled to be there until Sept. 27, and lest we forget, their crews have been warned about potential trouble with ladyboys.
Another local paper, the Observer, points out that no sailors will be spending time on Jet-Skis while in town. The penalty for doing so is apparently “severe.”