Looking for new job … and country?
January 12th, 2012 | Australia Navy Photos Recruiting | Posted by Bill McMichael
The U.S. Navy is obviously downsizing and by many accounts losing some darn good sailors in the convoluted process — all due to the ongoing economic downturn and pressure on overall defense spending. Staunch ally Great Britain is facing the same sorts of pressures and trimming its forces.
Meanwhile, the military of another strong ally, Australia, is struggling to recruit enough able bodies — so much so that according to this report, the Royal Australian Navy has sent a delegation to Britain to hunt for engineers and submariners who’ve been cut from the force. One study cites a need for as many as 200 engineers — specialists being lost to private industry — and crew members for destroyers and landing ships.
According to the report — spotted on the U.S. Naval Institute blog — the Aussies are looking elsewhere, too: the U.S., Canada and New Zealand.
The Aussie Navy wants officers in the fields of surface warfare, submarines, engineering and medicine. Submarine sailors are needed in Cryptologic Systems and Electronic Warfare; also needed are Marine Technicians and Electronics Technicians. Surface fleet sailors are needed in multiple areas. Check the possibilities out here.
Able Seaman Liam Bateman conducts his tasks in the operation hub on board the Royal Australian Navy frigate Parramatta while deployed in the Middle East. // Photo by Sgt. Mick Davis, 1st Joint Public Affairs Unit
If you qualify, however, there’s a big catch: You have to apply for a permanent resident visa before traveling to Australia, and make a written promise to apply for Australian citizenship as soon as eligible. This normally takes two years but military expatriates will become eligible after three months’ service.
Navy Week in the City of Industry
August 31st, 2010 | Aviation Recruiting | Posted by Phil Ewing
It's tricky to bring deep draft warships to Cleveland for Navy Week, but the fleet has other, louder, flashier options. // MC1 Roger Duncan / Navy
Quick personal essay: Way back in the year 2003, I spent an idyllic late-summer afternoon in downtown Cleveland seeing both the sights, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Terminal Tower. While walking back to the car under a brilliant, ceiling-and-visibility-unlimited blue sky, I heard a deafening, unmistakable roar — the kind of roar that you only get from a Navy Flight Demonstration Team. Completely by accident, as a random pedestrian, I had stumbled into a front-row seat for the Blue Angels, starting their ballet half above the city and half above Lake Erie. Awesome.
I initially wanted to crack wise about Navy Week in Cleveland, which is taking place even as we speak, and make some kind of joke about how even a Navy of 330,729 people couldn’t fill the void left by The NBA Player Whose Name We Dare Not Speak, but then I thought, hey — take it easy on old Cleveland. Unlike Baltimore, which also is having its Navy Week right now, you can’t bring a sweet Aegis cruiser to the Cleveland lakefront (not that there’s a cruiser in Baltimore either, but it did get two warships) and, to its credit, Cleveland is assembling its own respectable collection of museum ships.
So instead of cool warships, the Navy has to get creative: There’s a column in The Plain Dealer; a special shout-out scheduled for tonight’s Tribe game; and performances by the Fleet Forces Command band, Four Star Edition. And, oh yes, the Blue Angels are coming back, too.
That flag is made of people
June 15th, 2010 | Photos Recruiting | Posted by Phil Ewing
GSEC David Smith / Navy
More than 7,400 people at Naval Station Great Lakes, Ill., formed a giant human flag this week in honor of Flag Day, combining the Navy’s iconic white uniform with its new “tactical blueberry,” aka the “aquaflage.” But could the success of this project spur commanders to develop a new red uniform so future human-flag formations are more accurate?
The PT is virtual, but the sweat is real
May 26th, 2010 | Recruiting Science and technology The deckplates | Posted by Phil Ewing
HM1 Guy Duke helped ET3 Joshua Benedict attempt the tree position -- or vrksasana, to purists -- in Wii Fit yoga. The Navy may consider adding Wii Fit, or video games like it, for boot camp classes. // MM3 Juan Pinalez / Navy
The Navy’s top medial officer, Vice Adm. Adam Robinson, isn’t personally acquainted with the video games these kids play today — your crazy golfing games, or your yoga things they have now, and such — but he said last week he could see the Navy using them to help new recruits get into shape.
Robinson was good enough to spend some time here at the Center of Excellence for a meeting with Military Times reporters and editors to talk about a wide range of health-in-the-force issues, and you can get the full accounting, including stories and an extended transcript, in the print edition of Navy Times now on newsstands. But in a special blog sneak preview, you can check out his video game ideas right now.
One thing we wondered about is whether the Navy would use existing software and hardware, or develop its own custom equipment to train recruits. For example, the Navy could design a game using the “Dance Dance Revolution” gamepad in which you accidentally found yourself in blue-tile country, and you had to run away as an angry officer chased you back to your berthing spaces. Or you could use a Wii remote to check tank levels in the machinery spaces — the old fashioned way.
How would you use video games to help Navy newcomers get into shape?
Seven in Seven
April 22nd, 2010 | Aviation Carriers Congress Environment Foreign navies Maritime operations Military Sealift Command Navy NECC ordnance Recruiting SEALs Ships Submarines The deckplates The greenside The Middle East The Pacific Washington | Posted by Lance Bacon
The Navy nabbed a lot of headlines again this week. Leading the way is news that the Green Hornet on Thursday took to flight – the fighter jet, not the super hero. The F/A-18E/F Super Hornet was powered by a 50/50 blend of biofuel and JP-5.
That same day, a U.S. military jury cleared a Navy SEAL of failing to prevent the beating of an Iraqi prisoner suspected of masterminding a 2004 attack that killed four American security contractors. Two others will soon have their day in court.
And on Wednesday, the Navy implemented its first change in 17 years to the Defense Department’s much-debated “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.
Here’s seven stories in seven minutes from the past seven days that you may not have seen, but are worthy of notice:
Hoo-ya, U.S. water polo-playing community
March 16th, 2010 | Recruiting SEALs Sports | Posted by Phil Ewing
If you enjoy water polo, the Navy thinks you'll also enjoy submerging yourself in freezing water in Alaska, among other pursuits. // MC2 Erika Manzano / Navy
All right, let’s get right to the heart of this thing: Water polo. Does anyone have any idea what it is? Until an hour ago the answer would likely have been no. But today is your lucky day, water polo, because according to this story, you just became the stairway to Naval Special Warfare.
The Navy spent half a million dollars last year on a study that concluded water polo players are the best candidates to become SEAL special operators, given that they spend their days splashing around in pools and also have an understanding about rules of engagement like this:
If a defensive player commits a foul inside of the 5-meter line, which prevents a “probable goal,” the defensive player is charged with a penalty (personal) foul and the opposing team is awarded a penalty throw (a “5-meter”). If an offensive player is fouled outside of the 5-meter line, the offensive player may pick up the ball and take an immediate shot at the opponent’s goal (i.e., two players do not have to touch the ball before a goal can be scored).
Accordingly, SEAL recruiters are now targeting America’s high school water-polo players. Safety advocates will be relieved in the change of strategy from their showing-guns-to-kids initiative:
MCC Robert Fluegel / Navy
Navy to take on alien bad guys in “Battleship”
December 4th, 2009 | Blogs Life at Sea Recruiting Ships | Posted by Phil Ewing
The hero of the movie "Battleship" will be the captain of a destroyer -- perhaps the captain of the Sterett -- and will fight aliens, according to the latest reports // Gregg Smith / Navy
In these dark times, what America really needs is an awesome Navy movie with lots of fleet action and battles and explosions and stuff — like “The Hunt For Red October” plus “Top Gun,” and a little “Down Periscope” sprinkled on top, for the kids. Problem is, there’s nothing that promising on the horizon, especially given the new details emerging about director Peter Berg’s big-movie version of “Battleship,” which you learned about awhile ago here on the Deck .
According to an interview, Berg says that in “Battleship” the Navy will fight alien invaders who, at some point, take on the game’s familiar five-ship armada. The movie will include the line “You sunk my battleship,” he confirmed. These science-fiction elements immediately sounded disappointing, although because Berg did his interview aboard the destroyer Sterett, in San Diego, it sounds as though the real-life Navy will be cooperating with the flick:
The hero of the film is the commanding officer of a destroyer. The destroyer is the main ship in the film, and during the tour of the Sterett, Berg told us (and the Sterett’s CO confirmed) that battleships are mostly sidelined in today’s Navy.
“Mostly sidelined!” Although maybe the Navy should bring back the battleships — initiate flame war!
Berg’s actual picture doesn’t sound as good as the one that culture blog Vulture spit-balled a few months ago when the world learned that many flicks based on childhood games were in the works. That got us to thinking: What should “Battleship” have been about? We’ll be blocking out our own treatment — leave yours in the comments.
SEALs, subs, carriers, DDGs save day. No dolphins, though
December 1st, 2009 | Aviation Carriers Maritime operations Recruiting SEALs Ships Video | Posted by Phil Ewing
Part of being a global force for good, according to the Navy, is makin' things go boom // Air Force
In case you haven’t seen it, the Navy has released the second commercial in its new “Global Force For Good” campaign — sort of. The video is for display online only, according to Navy Recruiting Command, and it covers the “kinetic” side (as they say in the Pentagon) of global good-doing. In the spot, SEAL special operators, F/A-18 Hornets and Tomahawk missiles fired from a pair of destroyers all converge on a MacGyver-style bad-guy compound somewhere on a remote desert island. Presumably, the evil Gen. Zaroff is inside, hatching his latest dastardly plot. If only there were some kind of global force that could take him out!
The SEALs are there to paint the target with a laser designator for the ordnance from one of the Hornets (which appears to be an AGM-65 Maverick missile) and, just to make sure Zaroff gets extra dead, the two Tomahawks streak in to liquefy him at the same time. Boo-yah! The U.S. Navy pwns another villain and Raytheon shareholders get a nice little dividend besides. Check out the commercial here.
If you’re curious, we wrote about the origins of the “Global Force For Good” brand after meeting with Recruiting Command and the Navy’s advertiser, Campbell-Ewald, and even learned the slogans the Navy decided not to pick. So now that “Global Force” has had some time in the marketplace… what do you think? What would you have picked for a new Navy advertising campaign?