Sticking to tradition
May 9th, 2012 | Carriers Congress Enterprise Gerald R. Ford Navy Navy secretary Ships Traditions | Posted by Charles Hoskinson
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus — under fire for some of his past ship-naming choices — is winning praise from even his toughest critics for the latest one: The USS Thomas Hudner, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer for which the Navy awarded a construction contract in February.
Medal of Honor recipient retired Capt. Thomas Hudner salutes while taps is played during the Centennial of Naval Aviation wreath laying ceremony at the United States Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C. Navy photo.
Hudner, 87, was a Navy aviator patrolling near the Chosin Reservoir in December 1950 when his wingman, Ensign Jesse Brown, was shot down in combat. Hudner crash-landed his plane near Brown’s and tried to save his fellow sailor, the first African-American naval aviator to fly in combat. Brown died, but Hudner earned the Medal of Honor for his efforts.
“Now THIS is how you name a warship,” wrote blogger CDR Salamander, one of those who have criticized Mabus’ past choices.
Naming the latest DDG after Hudner is one in a series of apparently safe choices by Mabus in recent months after a string of decisions that have been criticized as political in nature and at odds with the Navy’s conventions for naming ships. The most recent batch of DDG names previously released were all named after past heroes in keeping with tradition, including one in honor of Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta, whose case had been championed by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), one of Mabus’ key critics on this front. Even the name chosen for the last Zumwalt-class DDG, Lyndon B. Johnson, technically met the convention because the former president had both worn the uniform and received the Silver Star during World War II.
But the controversy already had gotten so bad that it’s put at risk the centuries-old prerogative of the Navy secretary to choose ship names. Congress — at the prodding of some conservatives — in December required the Defense Department to review the service’s ship-naming practices. A report is due by this summer.
Meanwhile, among the high-profile naming opportunities coming up is the next Ford-class aircraft carrier, which by convention would be named after a former president. But there are a lot of people lobbying to transfer the name from the soon-to-be decommissioned carrier Enterprise — which politically would be a safer choice than the USS Richard M. Nixon or the USS Bill Clinton.
Let’s see how Mabus navigates that minefield.
LGBT leaders push for next ship to be named Harvey Milk
April 24th, 2012 | Don't ask don't tell Navy Navy secretary | Posted by Jacqueline Klimas
An upcoming addition to the Navy’s fleet may be the USS Harvey Milk if Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., and other San Diego gay rights leaders have their way about it.
The GLBT Historic Task Force of San Diego County and Filner sent letters to Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta last week asking for Harvey Milk to be considered as a name for a submarine, carrier or other appropriate vessel, according to a PR Newswire press release.
Milk, a late civil rights icon, was a Navy veteran who served aboard the submarine rescue ship Kittiwake as a diving officer during the Korean War. He went on to be a diving instructor at Naval Station San Diego. Milk, whose parents both also served in the Navy, was honorably discharged at the rank of lieutenant junior grade.
In his letter, Rep. Filner wrote “this action would be a fitting tribute to Mr. Milk’s support for equality, an ideal exemplified in the military’s recent repeal of its former Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy,” according to the press release.
The request comes after a series of controversial namings, such as the littoral combat ship Gabrielle Giffords or destroyer Lyndon B. Johnson, that have caused Congress to ask Mabus for a report due in June detailing the process that Navy uses to name ships.
Navy League jumps into debate over fleet size
March 20th, 2012 | Budget China Congress Navy Navy secretary Ships The Pacific | Posted by Charles Hoskinson
The Navy League of the United States has jumped into the fleet size debate, saying in its annual Maritime Policy Statement that a minimum of 305 ships are needed “to continue to deliver disaster aid and humanitarian assistance, deter aggression, maintain freedom of the seas and, if necessary, win wars. These are the capabilities upon which the global community has come to depend.”
The statement puts the group at odds with Navy leaders, who have proposed a five-year budget plan that includes early retirements of seven Ticonderoga-class cruisers and two amphibious ships, along with shipbuilding delays that will bring the fleet down below the current level of 282 ships. The cuts are part of the Defense Department’s plan to shrink its budget by $259 billion through fiscal year 2017, as mandated by law.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus told the Senate Armed Services Committee last week that the Navy would “again cross the threshold of 300 ships” by 2019 under the service’s budget plans.
Republicans in Congress oppose shrinking the size of the fleet, saying it’s inconsistent with the focus on Asia in the Obama administration’s new national security strategy. Navy League Executive Director Dale Lumme echoed that concern, saying: “In light of the new national defense strategy’s emphasis on the Asia-Pacific and continued presence in the Middle East, the need for maritime forces that are forward deployed, forward engaged and ever-ready to respond is more critical now than ever before.”
A flight deck, transformed
November 11th, 2011 | Basketball Carrier Classic Carriers Navy Navy secretary Veterans Day | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
The Tar Heels of North Carolina hit the court to practice on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson on Thursday in preparations for Friday's Carrier Classic basketball game.//Gidget Fuentes
Organizers of the Quicken Loans Carrier Classic game and ESPN were thrilled Thursday that a Pacific storm might hold off any rain until well beyond the basketball game’s tip-off at 4:15 p.m. Pacific time Friday on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson in San Diego. A rainy forecast had threatened to force the season opener between Michigan State and the University of North Carolina to the hangar deck below.
But by midday Thursday, throngs of journalists converged on the flight deck on a comfortably balmy day for pregame activities that included a press conference with team officials and organizers and the first practice by both teams on the pristine but outdoor hardwood surface. In recent days, workers assembled the basketball court and surrounded it by bleachers lined with green plastic seats. Bright lights and a pair of huge high-definition screens flanked the makeshift arena built atop the hardened steel deck that’s launched and recovered thousands of fighter jets and combat aircraft over the ship’s nearly 30-year career.
Half of Carl Vinson’s sailors off the ship and away for scheduled leave, and fewer than 800 of ship’s company got the free tickets to attend the game, said the skipper, Capt. Bruce Lindsey. “It’s been a very busy…two years,” Lindsey told a packed press conference held in a tent near the ship’s bow. “We are preparing to go on our third deployment in three years.”
But preparations for the game, and its accompanying festivities for the teams, dignitaries and fans, haven’t interfered “one iota” with the ship’s training or operations, Lindsey said. In fact, he said, it’s provided real training for some members of his crew, including those in supply.
Vinson's flight deck is the host court for the UNC-Michigan State game that will air Friday, Veterans Day, on ESPN. (MCSA Dean M. Cates/Navy)
Still, the transformation of such a formidable warship into a sports arena was something to marvel.
“It makes it look much smaller,” said Chief Aviation Boatswain’s Mate-Equipment (AW/SW) Robert Sanders, who joined other sailors in the bleachers for a break to watch the teams practice. Just off in the distance, beyond the ship’s waist, lights dotted the San Diego city skyline as dusk neared. “Honestly, if the island wasn’t here, it would seem like we’re sitting in an arena,” he said.
Sanders, a 16½ year veteran, was among the initial skeptics among the crew when they first heard that their ship would host an NCAA basketball game. “You heard about it, but you’re like, it won’t happen,” he said. Aviation Boatswain’s Mate-Equipment 3rd Class (AW) Blas Manzanares couldn’t quite picture “going from flight operations to a basketball game.”
Both sailors plan to attend the game. Sanders will bring his wife. “My wife is real excited. She’s a huge basketball fan, he said. “She just wants to be in the same realm as the president.” That’s where Manzanares hopes he will find himself. “I’m going to try to get his handshake,” he said, quite confidently.
Aviation Boatswain’s Mate-Equipment 3rd Class (AW) Josh McNeese sat with them in the bleachers and just took in the whole scenery. McNeese has a ticket and is excited for the game to begin. “This is actually going to be my first big event,” he said.
For other fans, like Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, the game marks a new forum to commemorate “a celebration of service.”
“It’s about honoring the people who have served and are serving today,” said Mabus, who visited the ship Thursday afternoon. He will be there in the crowd for the game Friday during his three-day visit to San Diego that will include the Saturday christening of the Navy’s newest resupply ship Medgar Evers, which is being built across the bay at the General Dynamics NASSCO shipyard. Carl Vinson’s role as the host for a nationally-televised game honoring veterans also puts the big spotlight on the naval service. “This is America’s ‘away’ team,” said Mabus.
Crowston comes out
September 21st, 2011 | Anti-gay slurs Commanding officers don't tell leadership Navy Navy secretary Officers Photos | Posted by Bill McMichael
Proposing call signs like “Fagmeister” and “Gay Boy” — and the winner, “Romo’s bitch” — one can only assume that at least a few of Lt. Steve Crowston’s fellow officers in Strike Fighter Squadron 136 felt pretty sure the unit’s administrative/legal officer and avid Dallas Cowboys fan was a homosexual. But Crowston, who filed multiple inspector general complaints over what he regarded as anti-gay hazing in the unit, had steadfastly refused to acknowledge his sexual preference, saying it was irrelevant and that his concern was over inappropriate workplace hazing.Tuesday evening, on the 6 p.m. newscast of Norfolk’s WAVY-TV, with the Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy no longer in effect, Crowston came out. “I’ve been in 17 years, livin’ a lie, hiding who I really am, said Crowston (1:52 on the video), interviewed at a downtown Norfolk celebration of the end of the policy’s demise Tuesday. “People have suspected through the years, but I couldn’t come out. Now, I have that choice, without losing my career over it.”
Crowston’s complaints, first voiced following an August 2009 call sign meeting attended by his CO and XO, eventually found their mark. In July, the Navy announced that the very recently retired Cmdr. Liam Bruen, the former CO, had been censured by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus — this after being removed from his post-command job as operations officer on the carrier John C. Stennis. The former XO and current CO, Cmdr. Damien Christopher, wasn’t cited by Mabus but received two formal counselings from senior commanders and an unspecified letter of admonition. He was allowed to remain in command, with officials citing superior performance while in command.
Bruen and Christopher both took issue with the punishments. Bruen said he felt the Naval IG interpreted the Navy’s Equal Opportunity policy too broadly in saying he’d condoned hazing by allowing the call sign meeting to continue, even though he called a subsequent all-officers meeting at which he vowed to provide a command environment “free from hostility and marginalization.” Christopher said the IG used “flawed legal analysis” to impose a “new standard” under the Navy’s hazing policy upon him. Christopher also told Navy Times that the Naval IG’s findings are under review by the Department of Defense IG.
Crowston, now the administrative officer for the Naval Ocean Processing Facility at Dam Neck Annex, told Navy Times Wednesday night that he feels a great sense of relief that the policy has been eliminated and that he’s no longer in the position of “living a lie.”
“It’s such a relief to know that the silent knife that could stab you at any moment and cause you to lose your career in the military is no longer there!” he wrote. But while the policy is gone, there are battles ahead within the ranks, he told WAVY-TV.
“There’s still gonna be homophobia,” Crowston said. “There’s still gonna be bigots. There’s still gonna be people who, you know, are gonna judge you, now that you can declare who you are.”
Mabus makes good on winning pitch
September 14th, 2011 | Baseball Littoral Combat Ship Navy secretary Photos Ships | Posted by Bill McMichael
The Navy’s top official visited the National League Central Division’s top team Tuesday as Navy Secretary Ray Mabus threw out a ceremonial first pitch before a baseball game at Miller Park, part of a day-long celebration of Littoral Combat Ship 5 being given the name Milwaukee. The original announcement was made March 18.
The Navy didn’t supply a pic of Mabus rifling a fastball off the Miller Park mound. But it did snap the secretary chatting on the field with former not-so-great-but-he-admits-it baseball player Bob Uecker, the longtime and beloved Brewers radio broadcaster who graced the movie “Major League” with lines such as, “Heywood leads the league in most offensive categories, including nose hair. When this guy sneezes, he looks like a party favor. ”
Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus gives Bob Uecker a USS Milwaukee ballcap before throwing the ceremonial first pitch at the Sept. 13 Brewers-Rockies game at Miller Park in Milwaukee. // U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Sam Shavers
We like baseball at The Scoop Deck, so here’s a priceless line from Uecker that a screenwriter didn’t write: “I led the league in `Go get ‘em next time’.”
Back to the action: Mabus also met with Brewers players and, out on the field, introduced the crowd to a graphic of the future USS Milwaukee, displayed on the park’s Jumbotron screen. Earlier in the day, Mabus took part in other activities around the city, including the hosting of an event at Discovery World for Navy supporters, sailors and local officials.
No word on whether Mabus stuck around for the end of the game but if he did, he saw joy in Mudville: the Brewers beat the Rockies 2-1 on a walk-off home run by slugger Ryan Braun leading off the bottom of the 11th.
Ray Mabus, swashbuckler sympathizer?
May 10th, 2011 | Navy Navy secretary | Posted by Joshua Stewart
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus delivers the commencement address to East Carolina University's 2011 graduating class May 6. // MC2 Kevin S. O'Brien/Navy
To be clear, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus did nothing improper. But sometimes, his job requires him to make certain compromises, including tributes to pirates.
“Now, I’m secretary of the Navy, and in the real world, the Navy takes out pirates, so I’m doubly grateful that you invited me to speak. And this is probably the only time you’ll hear me say it: Go Pirates, Arrrr!”
Pee Dee the Pirate // East Carolina University
No, Mabus wasn’t siding with criminals from East Africa who have caused problems in the Indian Ocean. He was the commencement speaker at East Carolina University, and he was paying tribute to the school’s mascot, Pee Dee the Pirate.
In his address Friday, he called on students to go into service, be it in uniform, as a medical caregiver, business leader or, as he described it, the most frightening career he could think of.
“Within a few months, hundreds of you will be standing alone and unafraid in front of the scariest thing I can imagine – junior high school or high school students,” he said.
And he recalled the story of Jack Lucas, a 14-year-old who lied to get into the Marines during World War II. He made it through boot camp before he was kicked out, but became a stowaway before ending up in Japan. It was too late to kick Lucas out again, so he ended up seeing combat at Iwo Jima. While under attack, two grenades went his way. He picked them up and jammed them into the sand as they went off. He was hurt but survived and recovered and was awarded the Medal of Honor.
“Then he went back home and started the ninth grade,” Mabus said.
UAVs and fantasy flights
April 12th, 2011 | Naval aviation Navy Navy secretary Sea Air Space | Posted by Joshua Stewart
Unmanned aerial vehicles made an appearance at the Sea Air Space Expo. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said the next UAV milestone will be deployment on a carrier. // Photos by Joshua Stewart
Unmanned aerial vehicles aren’t brand-spanking new to naval aviation; UAVs the Navy uses include the rotary-wing Fire Scout and the RQ-2A Pioneer. But the next big thing in unmanned flight at sea will be an aircraft that can take off from and land on a carrier. Several companies are in the process of making that happen.
The big names in flight are displaying wares that they hope become the backbone of the Navy’s collection of UAVs at the Sea Air Space Expo at the Gaylord National Resort Hotel and Convention Center in National Harbor, Md.
Look at the pictures above. At left is Northrop Grumman’s X-47B, a UAV that made its first flight in February. The one on the right is Boeing’s X-45C. The one in the center, while not labeled, is almost certainly the X-47B — it’s at the Huntington Ingalls Industries display; HII is a Northrop Grumman spin-off, and the airframe has the same shape as the X-47B UCAS. It’s tough to tell in this picture, but it’s shown positioned on the flight deck of the carrier Gerald R. Ford, a ship being built in Newport News, Va.
The HII picture merits another look because, well, the whole thing is a mock up of what may someday be the face of unmanned naval aviation on the flight deck a non-existent ship. Sitting nearby the now hypothetical UAV is an F-35C Lightning II joint strike fighter. In case you’re keeping track, that’s an aircraft that had not joined the fleet sitting on the flight deck of a carrier that’s under construction near an another plane that’s currently being tested. Like flying cars and undersea bubble cities, it’s all fantasy, for now at least.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus emphasized during his luncheon speech Monday that unmanned craft will play a prominent role in the Navy’s future.
“Over the next decade, we will move aggressively to develop a family of unmanned systems including underwater systems that will be able to operate for a extended periods of time in support of our ships, our expeditionary units and our special warfare teams, and a low-observable, carrier-based intelligence surveillance reconnaissance strike unmanned air system,” he said.
‘XO Movie Night’ videos are out … all of them
March 4th, 2011 | Admirals Carriers Enterprise Fleet Forces Command Investigation JAGMAN leadership Navy Navy secretary Officers Personnel Video | Posted by Bill McMichael
As you probably know by now, Adm. John Harvey of Fleet Forces Command on Thursday unveiled the results of his investigation into the controversial “XO Movie Night” video skits aired on the carrier Enterprise from 2005 to 2007, recommending that secretarial letters of censure be issued to two admirals and two of the carrier’s former executive officers — including Capt. Owen Honors, who as XO played a primary role in most of the questionable productions.
If you haven’t read about the findings yet, here’s our short version. For those with a LOT of time on their hands, and perhaps curious about the 22 previously unleaked/unreleased videos containing what Harvey decided was objectionable material, go here. (Warning: Make sure you’re on a computer with a lot of juice and some volume control …)
There must be more than meets the eye
February 7th, 2011 | Abusive leadership Chief of naval operations Chiefs JAGMAN Military dog handling Navy secretary Retirement eligibility Retirement Grade Determination Board | Posted by Bill McMichael
Senior Chief Master-at-Arms Michael Toussaint had an anniversary of sorts Feb. 5: It marked one year since his Retirement Grade Determination Board met in Norfolk, Va., to decide which grade he would take into forced retirement after having his re-enlistment request denied by Adm. Gary Roughead, the chief of naval operations, and being censured by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus in the fall of 2009 over alleged abusive leadership practiced while serving as the top sailor at Bahrain’s military dog division in 2005 and 2006. Yet Toussaint, who passed the 20-year mark for retirement eligibility in January 2010, a couple of weeks before the board met, has hung on for more 12 months.
The Navy will say only that the three-member Norfolk board’s grade recommendation to allow Toussaint to retire as a senior chief “is still being reviewed.” It won’t say where the review stands in that process. Or whether it has reached the desk of Juan Garcia, assistant secretary of the Navy for manpower and reserve affairs, who is the “final adjudicating authority” for such cases, according to Lt. Justin Cole, a Navy spokesman.
That’s the same thing the Navy told us in November.
Toussaint’s case sounds sensational. And given the actions Roughead and Mabus have already taken, some sort of discipline would appear on its face to be a given. A 2007 command investigation uncovered more than 90 instances of gambling, consorting with prostitutes, hazing and abuse of junior sailors took place on the 2004-2006 watch of the former military dog kennel chief in Bahrain.
He and his lawyers denied the most serious claims at the two-day determination board hearing, however, with Toussaint telling the board that his other actions had been misconstrued, the Virginian-Pilot newspaper reported.
Meanwhile, Toussaint remains in uniform — assigned to the ultra-secretive Naval Special Warfare Development Group, headquartered at Oceana Naval Air Station’s Dam Neck Annex.