Love and the Navy
February 9th, 2012 | Blues Liberty Navy Valentine's Day | Posted by Bill McMichael
This year’s Valentine’s Day will be particularly special for all the couples reunited in Norfolk this week after the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group’s return from that insanely long 10 1/2-month deployment. But since it falls on a Tuesday, those with duty, as well as many of us working stiffs, are more likely to take our significant other out for that romantic dinner on Saturday night, and perhaps follow up with some (overpriced, but you gotta do it, right?) flowers on the Big Day.
It won’t be so great for those whose loved ones are still deployed. Veteran Navy couples know how to stay in touch and keep the fires burning. But for those newbies in need of a suggestion or two, here are some great tips. It’s Navy wife-oriented, but there are some solid ideas for husbands on the home front too. Just use the ol’ imagination.
In another time and place, most of the Navy was not married. And thinking about sailors and lovers brought to mind the best-ever blues song — couldn’t recall another, actually — about sailors and lovers in one of those other times and places. It was written and recorded in 1932 by Lonnie Johnson. Great tune, sad ending. But hey — it’s the blues!
The lyrics:
Boys, you ever heard that tale ’bout Winnie the Wailer?
She fell in love with that redhead sailor.
Boy, he made her fall, and she fell hard.
Then he left poor Winnie flat in the navy yard.
Cryin’ boo hoo hoo,
She said, “Boo hoo hoo.”
Now she moaned all day,
And she wailed all night.
Because that sailor man didn’t do her right.
Yeah man. [spoken]
Then she traveled ’round,
From ‘Frisco to China.
She met a guy way over in Asia Minor.
He got a kiss on that very first trip.
He promised her that ride on that battle ship.
She cried, “Boo hoo hoo,
I’ll get even with you.
She says, “Now you may smile,
Then you may frown,
But I can’t let you keep poor Winnie down.”
Do it again. [spoken]
Then she met sailor man named Popeye the Skipper.
When she was mean, boy how he used to whip her.
He loved ta fight ‘n, and she was tough.
He had to leave her ’cause she plays too rough.
Ship ahoy,
Ah, ship ahoy.
She knows her Qs,
And she knows her Ps.
Now poor Winnie sails them seven seas.
Ah, swing it. [spoken]
I do believe. [spoken words]
Now then she met a sailor man, he knowed the ocean.
He fell in love with her, give her his devotion.
He says, “I put a many a gal on the spot,
Ah, but Minnie you got me tied in that sailor’s knot.”
I said, “I’ll get even with you,
Ah, I’ll get even with you.”
Now boy one day the hearse stop,
At poor Winnie’s door,
And now she can’t wail no more.
Brrrrrrrr…..it’s cold out there
February 6th, 2012 | 7th Fleet Entertainment Navy | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
Members of the brass section of the 7th Fleet Band perform in front of a massive ice sculpture during the Sapporo Snow Festival in Japan. // Navy MC2 Kenneth R. Hendrix photos
When temperatures go below freezing, perhaps the last place you’d want to place your lips is anything made of metal. Anyone who’s ever played in a marching or military band for an outdoor performance knows that the show must go on, regardless of Mother Nature’s moods. That’s just what some members of the U.S. 7th Fleet Band did this past weekend, enduring snow and icy conditions to entertain the crowd in Sapporo, Japan. The northern Japan city on Hokkaido island, which hosted the 1972 Winter Olympics, is famous for its annual Sapporo Snow Festival attended by some 2 million visitors who don wool caps and thick layers of clothing to enjoy the region’s wintry landscape and an impressive array of sculptures and statues. The festival runs through Feb. 12.
The 7th Fleet band played tunes on stage Feb. 6 as part of the kickoff for the 63rd annual festival, performing for the crowd in front of a massive sculpture featuring some of the ocean’s most popular residents, including a walrus, gray whale, bottlenose dolphin and sea turtle. Meanwhile, sailors aboard fleet command ship Blue Ridge visited the nearby port city of Tomokodai and joined in that city’s annual ice festival.
A massive sculpture of sea life serves as the backdrop for the 7th Fleet Band's performance in Sapporo, Japan.
And not to be outdone, this year a team of sailors from Misawa Naval Air Facility in Japan battled the cold over three days to shape their own homage to sea service. The result is a sharp looking sculpture (below) that honors the Navy’s “Lone Sailor” statue. And after several days making something out of a chunky block of icy snow, the end result is, according to the Misawa folks, ”finally is within U.S. Navy body fat standards.” You can see more pictures of other sculptures here.
The "Lone Sailor" sculpture at this year's Sapporo Snow Festival. // NAF Misawa Facebook photo
Rough day at Bold Alligator
February 6th, 2012 | Amphibious operations Bold Alligator Navy Photos Training | Posted by Bill McMichael
Between rolling blackouts and very limited connectivity, the press gaggle I was with out on Wasp and Kearsarge this weekend had a devil of a time getting on line long enough to transmit stories back to land. Timing is everything. I finally managed to get one sent Sunday night from Kearsarge that was posted Monday morning.
It was a pretty blustery day out there Sunday — so much so that flight operations were practically non-existent. But as the story notes, it was fun watching the topsiders track some “bad guys” who disembarked early afternoon into a small boat or two.
Master-at-Arms 1st Class (SW) Erwin Piper (left) scans the seas for possible enemy contacts while Master-at-Arms 3rd Class Evan Richardson makes a logbook entry Sunday aboard the amphibious assault ship Kearsarge, underway off the North Carolina coast during exercise Bold Alligator. // Photo by Bill McMichael, Navy Times
It also gave me a renewed appreciation for just how hard it is to spot small objects out on the water when there is any sort of inclement weather. The cloud ceiling was low and sometimes, what was visible disappeared into the fog.
Here’s a late-morning view of a choppy day at sea, looking aft, from the top of the Kearsarge’s well deck:
That's the dock landing ship Oak Hill trailing the Kearsarge Sunday and, we're pretty sure, the cruiser Anzio in the distance, as the six-ship group (and another in front of it) simulates a strait transit. // Photo by Bill McMichael, Navy Times.
Operation Bold Alligator 2012 underway
February 5th, 2012 | Admirals Amphibious operations Amphibious Ready Group Bold Alligator Gator Navy Navy | Posted by Dan Lamothe
ABOARD THE AMPHIBIOUS ASSAULT SHIP WASP — Greetings from the Atlantic Ocean, where we’re covering the largest amphibious exercise on the East Coast since the beginning of the Iraq war.
Rear Adm. Kevin D. Scott briefs reporters aboard the amphibious assault ship Wasp on Saturday on Operation Bold Alligator 2012. (Mike Morones / Staff)
Bold Alligator 2012 involves at least 14,000 personnel from the U.S., France, Great Britain and other countries, and at least 25 ships. The majority of them are American, but Canada and France have both chipped in with their own hardware, as well.
Conceptually, the forces at sea are currently in the early stages of planning an attack on enemy forces from the fictional country of Garnet, a common enemy in what military officers call the “Treasure Coast” scenario. A mechanized Garnetian division has invaded the neighboring country of Amber, and is pushing north toward Amberland, which has asked for coalition assistance to stop advance. Garnet already has mined several harbors and established anti-ship missiles on the coastline, military officials said.
In reality, Bold Alligator will require naval officers to think on their feet to develop strategy and defeat their fictional enemy. They’ll be tested on how they do, and be forced to adapt to real-world changes ranging from scheduling mishaps to bad weather. An amphibious raid will be launched from several ships and coordinated from the Wasp over the next couple of days.
Exploring the ship, it’s clear that many of the Marines on board have been to sea only a few times until Bold Alligator, if ever. For example, Sgt. Michael McDaniel told me that he deployed with 2nd Assault Amphibian Battalion, out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., to Iraq for both the initial push to Baghdad in 2003 and urban combat in Fallujah in 2004-05. He’s still with the unit, and has never participated in an amphibious exercise on this scale.
“We’re down here for quite a few hours every day doing maintenance,” he said in Wasp’s well deck, over the clanks, scrapes and groans of Marines moving and cleaning vehicles and weapons. “As long as we stay on top of maintenance, everything should be pretty good.”
Bold Alligator has significant attention from some of the top officers in the Navy and Marine Corps. On board Saturday was Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the chief of naval operations; Gen. Joseph Dunford, the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps; Lt. Gen. John Paxton, commanding general of II Marine Expeditionary Force; and Lt. Gen. Dennis Hejlik, commander of Marine Corps Forces Command; and Vice Adm. David Buss, deputy commander of Fleet Forces Command. That’s in addition to Rear Adm. Kevin Scott and Brig. Gen. Christopher Owens, who are leading the exercise from the Wasp.
The exercise also has attracted attention in Congress. At least four members of the House were here Saturday, including Rep. Buck McKeon, R.-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
To the extent possible, photographer Mike Morones and I will keep posting updates from the exercise, which we’ll be covering for the next several days. As you might expect at sea, Internet service has been spotty. However, a “Super Bowl Bash” is listed on the ship’s plan of the day Sunday. As a Massachusetts native and Patriots fan, that suits me just fine.
Bold Alligator
February 2nd, 2012 | Amphibious operations Bold Alligator Navy Training | Posted by Bill McMichael
I’m spending Friday AM cruising south to MCAS Cherry Point, N.C., where I’m to take a noon hop out to the Wasp to begin Navy Times’ coverage of a certain gi-normous amphibious training exercise you may have heard of by now. Bold Alligator is the biggest Navy-Marine Corps at-sea training exercise in some 10 years.
As part of Bold Alligator, Marines with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit prepare to board an MV-22 Osprey Jan. 31 to depart from the amphibious dock landing ship Gunston Hall during a Certification Exercise, the final qualification before their scheduled spring deployment. // U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Lauren G. Randall
Wasp is sort of the exercise mothership, so that’s where we’ll get our senior leader interviews and exercise briefings. On Saturday, I’m slated to fly over to Kearsarge and begin covering the training itself, as the Navy-Marine Corps team prepares to launch an amphibious assault that will take place sometime over the following few days.
Connectivity at sea can be dicey, as many of you know. I’ll do my best to keep you posted on the goings-on here and on our web site.
Meanwhile, looks like a Super Bowl XLVI party at sea. The last time I watched the Super Bowl away from someone’s living room, I was in a tent with an Army air defense artillery unit outside Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, where the air strikes for the first Gulf War were underway; the launch of the huge armored assault and the famous “left hook” was three weeks away. The Giants won that one 20-19 when the Bills’ Scott Norwood missed a last-second field goal wide right.
Who are you picking this Sunday? Seems to me the Giants are rolling at the right time.
Hand is an amazing, yet creepy, Navy development
February 2nd, 2012 | Facebook Health Medical Navy | Posted by Joshua Stewart
The Navy has developed one of the most realistic prosthetic limbs ever. Creepily realistic.
The Navy has developed an incredibly realistic prosthetic limb. When finished it better not be so scary or nobody will want to use it. // Navy Photo
The picture appeared on the Navy’s Facebook page but it didn’t include many details. What is clear is that it’s part of the Navy’s ongoing work to make wounded service members as whole as possible. Needless to say, this is an amazing piece of equipment that will hopefully improve somebody’s life in immeasurable ways.
But until then, it seems unnaturally lifelike and kind of reminds the Scoop Deck of this:
We should all live so long — and well
January 31st, 2012 | Amphibious operations Historical Marine Corps Navy Photos Seabees SEALs SURFLANT World War II | Posted by Bill McMichael
Reaching 100 years of age is remarkable enough. But the Navy made it extra special for a former Navy Seabee Dec. 2.
Retired Capt. James R. Mims, the nation’s oldest living Seabee, was made an honorary member of Amphibious Construction Battalion 2 by the unit’s top sailor, Command Master Chief (SCW) Johnny DeSarro, during Mims’ 100th birthday party, held at the Oaks Country Club in Richmond, Va.. Mims also received a U.S. flag flown over the Capitol building, a birthday greeting from President Obama and a very cool commemorative paddle.
Retired Capt. James R. Mims stands with Command Master Chief (SCW) Johnny DeSarro (left) and Senior Chief Builder John Woolston, PHIBCB 2 Operations Chief, at his 100th birthday party after receiving a commemorative paddle custom-designed by Woolston. // U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class (SW/AW) Jonathan Pankau
Mims has experienced some remarkable moments in his life. In DeSarro’s words, Mims “served at Okinawa during World War II, swore in the first 25 frogmen, known today as Navy SEALs, and met and spoke with Adm. Ben Moreell” — the father of the Seabees.
DeSarro wanted to hear more about all that, so he returned to Richmond Dec. 19 to meet Mims at his hangout — a local restaurant called Joe’s Inn, where Mims goes every Friday for a meeting of the Bon Air Rotary Club — where he has a 56-year perfect attendance record.
Amphibious Construction Battalion 2 Command Master Chief (SCW) Johnny DeSarro and retired Navy Capt. James R. Mims sits down for breakfast at Joe's Inn, a local Richmond restaurant, during a Dec. 19 meeting discuss his history and experiences as the world's oldest Seabee. // U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class (SW/AW) Jonathan Pankau
Naval Surface Force Atlantic released the Mims story on the day after the start of Bold Alligator, the largest Navy-Marine Corps amphibious exercise in a decade. The timing was splendid because Mims had some stories to tell about one of the biggest amphibious assaults in history.
Mims was a Civil Engineer Corps cargo officer during that mission and his task that day was to rendezvous with the main Seabee camp, according to the story, by SURFLANT Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class (SW/AW) Jonathan Pankau.
“We rode on a (Landing Ship Tank) from Saipan to Okinawa in 1945 on an Easter Sunday morning,” Mims told Pankau. “There were 1,400 ships in that operation and we had some Marines in an Army DUKW (a six-wheel-drive amphibious truck used for transporting goods and troops over land and water and for use approaching and crossing beaches in amphibious attacks) heading for the east side of the island,” said Mims.
Their mission was to trick the enemy by drawing fire to their location on the eastern coast of Okinawa and to delay Japanese reserve troops, according to Pankau. The main landing force assaulted the beach on the western coast that Easter Sunday, supported by the 2nd Marine Battalion’s effective decoy tactics.
“About halfway to the shore we started drawing fire so the LST driver turned around to lay down a smoke screen,” Mims told Pankau. “We repeated this several times to draw the fire away from the west. The Army guy driving the LST wouldn’t go all the way to the beach so we had to jump out and wade through the water while the enemy was laying down strafing fire by us.”
Exhaustion set in after two days of combat without sleep and Mims found an abandoned fox hole to take shelter in. As he looked up from his fox hole, a formation of Japanese fighter planes passed overhead.
“I don’t know whether they were kamikazes or what but they flew so low I could see the first pilot’s face. I’ll never forget the smile on his face,” Mims told Pankau.
Earlier, Mims had a brush with another seminal moment in naval history: The forming of the Navy SEALs.
Today’s SEALs trace their lineage to a group of volunteers selected from the Seabees in the spring of 1943, according to Naval Special Warfare Command. Mims was the enlisting officer for the first 25 frogmen, according to the story.
“I was at Camp Perry at the time and a lieutenant said to me ‘I want you to go out there and swear in those frogmen.’ And so, as a junior lieutenant, I went out there and swore them in and then I said, ‘What’s a frogman?’ Turns out they were the beginning of the SEALs.”
Mims had no idea that he swore in the original 25 frogmen until he saw a familiar name in an obituary in the Richmond paper naming one of the first frogmen. He later saw them in action and described the night operation he witnessed, where the frogmen pulled onto the beach in rubber rafts. They performed reconnaissance missions and set up targets for bombing and troop placements. Mims laughed, Pankau wrote, as he recalled the sign they left up for the Marines that said, “What kept you?”
DeSarro said that making a Mims an honorary member of the unit was special.
“We (Seabees) are fiercely proud of our heritage and we are very protective of anything that ties us to our history,” DeSarro said. “Making the paddle for him ties us back, in a big way, to our legacy and our heritage.
“Everything we do as Seabees, we do to live up to the expectations of our predecessors,” he said. “We bear the burden of carrying on the Seabee tradition that men like Capt. Mims laid out before us.”
A public apology for barfing on the COD
January 30th, 2012 | Aviation Carrier On-Board Delivery plane Carriers Chow COMPTUEX Enterprise Life at Sea Naval aviation Navy | Posted by Joshua Stewart
Dear VRC-40 “The Rawhides,”
I’m just writing to apologize for getting airsick in your C-2A Greyhound. It was certainly unintentional. You handled the plane with steady hands as we flew from Naval Air Station Mayport, Fla., to the carrier Enterprise last week. We even had weather on our side, allowing for a particularly calm flight.
If only my stomach was able to manage my breakfast as well as you flew the COD.
Usually I handle flights pretty well, but the combination of the smell of aviation fuel, the lack of windows, the heat and the sheer grittiness of the Navy’s draft horse airplane was more than I could manage. I didn’t even make it halfway through our quick flight. By the time we were headed into our approach, I wasn’t as excited about going from 100 to zero mph in less than two seconds as much as I was excited about just getting out of that torture chamber.
This C-2A Greyhound lands on the carrier Enterprise with a reporter who is very sorry he got airsick. // Navy
Please don’t think anything less of me for this; better-known reporters have handled it just as poorly (one former SWO who took a COD with a certain cable news star told me “Wolf ralphed” during a flight to the carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower). And please don’t forget that I cleaned up after myself. I just wish I had had an airsick bag
While I’m feeling contrite, I should also apologize to the cooks who made breakfast before our flight back at Mayport … that was your banana muffin with green apple syrup that ended up in the seat next to me. This was not a commentary on your culinary skills; it was certainly delicious on the way down.
And to everyone else on the carrier who heard about my illness, from the chief medical officer who gave me a motion sickness patch (if you’re curious, they certainly work and I’m available for paid endorsements) to the three people who provided me with stacks of airsick bags for my return flight (I thankfully didn’t need to use them for their intended purposes, but I’ll hold onto them to carry lunches through the year), I appreciate all of your help.
Once again, I apologize for my faux pas and I hope I can one day fly with you again.
Sincerely,
Josh Stewart
Rudy’s one-liners
January 27th, 2012 | Don't ask Historical Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek - Fort Story Naval special warfare Navy Photos Retired Navy SEAL Team 2 SEALs Traditions | Posted by Bill McMichael
Retired Master Chief Rudy Boesch earned more than a few laughs Friday during his remarks at the East Coast SEALs’ celebration of the SEALs’ 50th anniversary (the West Coast SEALs marked it two weeks ago), both centered around his post-SEAL Team 2 days.
The 1986 Goldwater-Nichols Defense Reorganization Act helped spark the 1987 formation of U.S. Special Operations Command. That same year, Boesch, coming up on 26 years as a member of SEAL Team 2, was one of three senior military enlisteds called to Coronado to interview with Gen. James Lindsay, the command’s first commander-in-chief — as the position was then known – to become the command’s first senior enlisted adviser.
Retired Master Chief Rudy Boesch at the East Coast SEALs' 50th anniversary celebration Jan. 27 at Joint Expeditionary Base - Little Creek. //U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Meranda Keller
“People were telling me that I would have to study ’cause I might get asked questions like, `Who was the president of Zimbabwe?’” He paused for effect and then added, offhandedly, “To this day, I don’t know who it is.” After the laughter subsided, he added, ”I wasn’t going to study to find out.”
When Boesch’s turn came to be interviewed, he said, “The general asked me how the hell I managed to stay in the military for so long. At that time, I had 42 years in it. Since I had a few more years in the service than he did, I told him that if he hired me, he would find out because he was going to have to do the paperwork to keep me in the service.”
After the laughter subsided, Boesch said, “He thumped me in the chest and hired me right on the spot.”
Boesch’s closing one-liner also drew laughs, but not for a joke the Navy would be pleased to hear expressed in a year following the reversal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” ban on gays in the military.
“In 2000, I tried out for the first Survivor series on TV, and the rest is history,” Boesch told the crowd. “Some of the people in here have been asking me if I keep in touch with anybody in the Survivor [series].” He paused. “I don’t write to queers. ” He made it clear that he was talking about “homosexuals.”
Naval Academy’s ‘South Pacific’ is a secret
January 24th, 2012 | Naval Academy Navy The Pacific World War II | Posted by Jenn Rafael
The Naval Academy Glee Club is putting on Rodgers and Hammerstein's "South Pacific," but apparently isn't allowed to say so. // Amazon.com
Next month, Naval Academy midshipmen will perform possibly the most nautical musical ever to hit Broadway — but you wouldn’t know it by reading the school’s announcement of tickets for the winter musical.
It’s South Pacific, but “licensing restrictions prohibit releasing the name of the production in this announcement.”
The story is set on a South Pacific island during World War II, featuring two love stories threatened by prejudice and war. Nellie, a spunky nurse from Arkansas, falls in love with a French planter, while Lt. Joe Cable finds himself denying his love for an island native.
The songs are familiar: “There Is Nothin’ Like a Dame” and “Some Enchanted Evening,” “Younger Than Springtime” and “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair.”
“The performance will be a fully realized Rodgers and Hammerstein production, complete with dancing, costumes, and a live pit orchestra made up of midshipmen musicians,” according to the news release.
The show will be performed Feb. 24, 25, and 26 and March 2, 3, and 4 in Mahan Hall. Performances are at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays. Tickets go on sale Jan. 24 and can be purchased online, by calling the Music and Theatre Box Office at 410-293-8497 or at the door.