Vectors. Found, and lost.
October 27th, 2009 | Personnel Science and technology Submarines | Posted by Andrew Scutro
Some things are just motivating, like the last few words of the Star Spangled Banner, sacks of cash, hot steak sandwiches and of course, the Five Vector Model. The Scoop Deck staff is on an eternal search for reliable sightings of the Five Vector Model and yes, we found another one, pictured above. It was in Groton. Here is one example we keep in the archive, a sighting from the Navy’s Birthday in 2006, somewhere in the Pacific. If you see a 5VM, in any form, please send in a photo. Probably the most prized example would be a “5VM” vanity license plate. Or a tattoo. That would be sweet.
Fun Fact for the kids: note the difference in vector type and amount between the above example from Groton and the one from the Essex in 2006.
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?
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?
Talk to the chairman. Just not from your work PC
August 21st, 2009 | Blogs Personnel The deckplates Video Washington | Posted by Phil Ewing
"A toast to all the people following me on Twitter!" //MC1 Chad McNeeley/Navy
Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen is all about making connections on the inter-tubes — he’s on Twitter, he’s on the new Defense.gov, he’s on Facebook – he’s the onlineiest chairman in the history of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. His latest initiative is a kind of virtual all-hands call, for which he wants you — yes, YOU — to submit a video question on YouTube that’ll go into the hopper of questions he will address in his own YouTube responses.
The only problem is, if you’re at work and on the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet or many other Defense Department computer systems, you probably can’t access YouTube. It’s blocked. Maybe that’s something worth asking Mullen about.
If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the pitch for you to submit your question, complete with Mullen’s rockin’, feel-good theme:
Fleet Forces wants to hear from you on manning. So do we
August 18th, 2009 | Blogs Personnel The deckplates | Posted by Phil Ewing
MC2 Joshua Wahl/Navy
Looks like Adm. John Harvey, head of Fleet Forces Command, wasn’t kidding when he blogged about wanting to hear from sailors about the Navy’s big issues: He’s asking how many people you think your command needs, as compared to the number it has now.
Manning is one of the top questions in today’s fleet — do ships go to sea with enough people to tackle all their missions, keep their gear in working order and not break everyone’s back in the process?
In his blog post, Harvey cautioned that even with a new discussion about manning in the fleet, the Navy probably won’t be able to make major changes any time soon:
… [A]s I have remarked on elsewhere, the resources the nation will be able to devote to the services in the future will not continue the pattern of the past eight years where service budgets and contingency funding steadily increased. Our overall operations tempo, with the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq entering new phases, is likely to remain high. The challenges associated with recapitalizing the fleet are daunting. Very tough choices lie ahead for us at every level in the chain-of-command. Accordingly, simply asking for more people won’t work — what we must do is ensure the people we do have are serving where we most need them and that they receive the necessary training en route and on the job once they report aboard.
So how about it — do you feel like your command has enough people to do the job and not wear everybody down? What should the Navy change about manning in today’s fleet?
August is Snipe Month
August 14th, 2009 | Historical Navy Personnel Ratings Ships The deckplates | Posted by Mark Faram
If you are a Navy snipe, then August is your month.
That’s because on Aug. 31, 1842, the first enlisted engineering ratings — fireman and coal heaver — were created.
Steam technology was in its early days at sea when the Navy built it’s second steam ship, the Fulton II, in 1837. And sailors would be needed to operate and maintain the boilers.
With the commissioning of the second Fulton, steam had entered the fleet to stay -- note the paddle-wheel -- a design that would dominate early sea going steam ships.
To man these new ships, Congress passed a law on on Aug. 31, 1842, establishing the two ratings. Those already skilled in steam and machinery skills would be enlisted as firemen. Those with no skills could join as a coal heaver.
Navy regulations dated Aug. 1, 1847, stated that no one would be enlisted as a fireman or coal heaver until he has passed a medical exam that attests to his “health and vigor” for the job.
Prospective firemen would also have to pass a practical exam given by “one or more engineer officers of the Navy upon their ability to manage fires properly with different kinds of fuel, and to use skillfully smiths tools in the repair and preservation of steam machinery and boilers.”
This establishment marked the beginning of enlisted engineering careers as sailors could enlist with no experience as coal heaver and progress to become firemen and eventually qualify as a third assistant engineer — the equivalent of a warrant officer position today.
Try not to breathe the air
August 2nd, 2009 | Morale Personnel Shore duty The Middle East The deckplates | Posted by Phil Ewing
CAMP LEMONIER, DJIBOUTI – A putrid haze is settling over the base tonight, making an already uncomfortably humid evening all the worse. Djibouti City’s landfill is just over a wall adjacent to the camp, and Djiboutian sanitation officials have evidently deemed it their policy to burn the city’s garbage every night, apparently in open pits. Service members at this post, who come from all four services, complained to Scoop Deck that the poison smog robs them of one of their few forms of recreation – running.
Maybe the chief ate all five vectors
July 23rd, 2009 | Chow Morale Personnel | Posted by Andrew Scutro
//U.S. Navy
It used to be that you couldn’t swing a dead cat and not hit a Five Vector Model. But it’s been a few years without a single dead cat/5vM mishap. Once everywhere, now vapor. Once always in arm’s reach, now gone on a midnight train to Georgia.
Above please find one of the last confirmed sightings of a 5vM, appearing in the form of a festive and frosted cake aboard the amphibious assault ship Essex on the occasion of the Navy’s 231st birthday.
Two questions about the 5vM (not the cake).
1. Where did it go?
2. We know what it was. Do you?
A pregnant midshipman graduates: What do you think?
July 21st, 2009 | Naval Academy Officers Personnel Washington | Posted by Phil Ewing
A pregnant midshipman was granted a rare waiver in May and permitted to graduate and accept her commission. What do you think? // Navy
People on and off the web are talking about this Naval Academy story from last week: A midshipman was granted a waiver to graduate in May and be commissioned as an ensign, even though she was pregnant at the time.
That’s normally against the rules: No midshipman is permitted to be married or be responsible for a child — including men — during their time in Annapolis. But the midshipman in question applied for and was granted a waiver to graduate May 22, and is now serving in the fleet. Navy officials say the Academy pregnancy policy stands, that this woman was a unique case.
We want to know what you think: Can the Naval Academy continue its no-pregnancies regulation after granting this exception? Should the exception have been granted? What should the Navy have done differently?
Fireman 3rd Class John Dillinger
July 6th, 2009 | Historical Personnel | Posted by Phil Ewing
John Dillinger was not reformed by Navy discipline or shipboard life //NNDB.com
John Dillinger, the cop-murdering, bank-robbing sociopath who stole America’s heart, is back in the public consciousness thanks to Johnny Depp’s mesmerizing performance as Dillinger in Michael Mann’s new movie “Public Enemies.”
In addition to a hardscrabble upbringing and an early predilection for rebellion, one of the major factors that made Dillinger into the super-criminal he became was his brief service in the Navy. Although he only served for a few months, military discipline and shipboard life didn’t quite agree with young Fireman 3rd Class Dillinger.
See the whole story on Dillinger’s Navy career after the jump.