Disney looking to hire veterans
March 15th, 2012 | Blogs Entertainment Industry Navy Veterans Video | Posted by Blair Tomlinson
The Walt Disney Company is looking to hire 1,000 veterans over the next three years. Company President and CEO Bob Iger announced the company wide initiative called “Heroes Work Here” on Tuesday, March 13th.
There is much more to the new program than just hiring vets. Disney will hold career fairs, offer training and volunteer opportunities.
And don’t think you have to head to Orlando just to work at Disney. The company owns ESPN and ABC. Here is a full list of the companies in the Disney family.
Want to make your dreams come true? Check out the Disney Careers website.
Deployed sailor: It’s OK to be gay
January 23rd, 2012 | Afghanistan Don't ask Navy Video | Posted by Sam Fellman
With the end of the ban on gays serving openly last year, sailors have been coming forward about their sexual identity in ways large and small to their shipmates. Now, deployed soldiers — and one sailor — at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan have filmed a message that it’s OK to be gay.
“It’s hard being different when you’re young and even when you’re old,” says Aviation Electronics Technician 2nd Class Erin Jones in the video posted Friday. “But it won’t get better until you accept yourself for who you are.”
The video — uploaded to YouTube by the account intheNarmynow — joins a host of others on the website It Gets Better, which collects video messages of hope for gay and lesbian teens struggling with their identity.
“Bravo!!!” one reviewer wrote.
A Christmas tale, submarine-version
December 21st, 2011 | Submarines Video | Posted by Sam Fellman
“ ‘Twas the night before Christmas and what no one could see / The men with dolphins were under the sea.”
So begins the epic 8-minute Christmas video from the submarine force, with sailors from Kings Bay, Ga., to Yokosuka, Japan, reciting verses of “ ‘Twas the night before Christmas — Submarine Style.”
In the the tale — written by former Interior Communications Technician 2nd Class (SS) Sean Keck, who left the service in the early 1980s — a navigator spots a certain reindeer-pulled sleigh through the periscope, but is laughed at by the crew. The sub dives. Then a message arrives in radio.
“Along with the gifts I’ll take to your kin,” Santa tells the submerged sailors in the message, “I’ll visit their dreams and leave word within.”
What do you think? Has the sub force overtaken all other Navy holiday videos?
A gay sailor tells viewers: “It gets better”
October 31st, 2011 | Don't ask Navy Video | Posted by Sam Fellman
A gay sailor tells his personal story as part of a campaign to bolster the self-confidence of gay youth. // Youtube
“Being in the Navy actually has helped me a lot with getting comfortable with who I am,” says Electronics Technician 3rd Class Taylor Short, a 21-year-old sailor who posted videos online this month about being gay in the Navy.
Since the ban on gays serving openly ended on Sept. 19, gay sailors are finding a variety of ways, large and small, to come forward about themselves. A lieutenant married his long-time partner at the stroke of midnight when the law lifted; a seaman posted “I’m gay” on her Facebook page.
Short said in a video that he was already out to many of his shipmates before repeal, adding that, at the time, “no one really cared.” His video was inspired by the It Gets Better project, which showcases testimonial videos that remind gay youths it’s OK to be themselves.
“Don’t be scared to tell people,” Short told his viewers. “People who I never thought I would really be friends with are now my closest friends.”
Sneak peek of a CG-themed reality show
October 12th, 2011 | Coast Guard Navy Reality TV Video | Posted by Jill Laster
We wrote in July about a new reality show featuring Coast Guardsmen from Air Station Kodiak, Alaska. The trailer for the Weather Channel show – which debuts Nov. 9 – is now online. Check out the trailer here:
You can read more about the show – and learn about the Coasties featured on “Coast Guard Alaska” – at the Weather Channel’s website for the show.
Very close call
October 5th, 2011 | Carriers Navy Safety Video | Posted by Joshua Stewart
You could just as easily be reading an article about two George Washington sailors who were killed on the carrier’s flight deck.
While there was certainly a few sky-high heart rates and a couple of strings of profanity, everything turned out fine after the sailors wandered onto the deck as an F/A-18 Hornet approached for landing. Whoever decided to wave the plane off undoubtedly went to bed knowing that they earned their pay.
The video is from Sept. 25 while GW was on scheduled patrol in the Pacific.
2,000 Tomahawks and counting
August 5th, 2011 | Combat Navy Norfolk Naval Station Photos Royal Navy Ships Submarines Tomahawk Video | Posted by Bill McMichael
The Navy today commemorated its 2,000th Tomahawk cruise missile combat launch during a ceremony at Naval Station Norfolk aboard the destroyer Barry, which took part in the March air strikes on Libyan military facilities in support of U.N. Resolution 1973 and was credited with the 2,000th launch. Check this great pic of a launch from Barry the night the milestone was reached:
The destroyer Barry launches a Tomahawk missile in support of Operation Odyssey Dawn on March 19, 2011. This was one of approximately 110 cruise missiles fired from U.S. and British ships and submarines that targeted about 20 radar and anti-aircraft sites along Libya's Mediterranean coast. // U.S. Navy photo by Interior Communications Electrician Fireman Roderick Eubanks
We don’t know if that is THE 2,000th or not, but you get the idea. Even better: Check the video.
The commemoration honored the Barry crew members for their role in the milestone launch.
Tomahawks have been around for more than 30 years and have been used in every major U.S. combat operation since the first Gulf War in 1991. It can be launched from Navy ships and submarines, as well as Air Force bombers. It’s also used by the Royal Navy.
Here’s a Tomahawk close-up:
A Tomahawk cruise missile launches from the forward missile deck aboard the destroyer Farragut during a 2009 training exercise. // U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Leah Stiles
Airplane trip
August 3rd, 2011 | Aviation Navy spice Video | Posted by Joshua Stewart
Have you ever slowed down to really take your time and think about how how an airplane flies? Like really thought about it? Like looked through the airplane and thought about it, man?
No need to spark up a pipe loaded with spice, Liz Matzelle is giving you that chance with an errie web video. In her clip she shows helicopters and planes flying at incredible speeds, but with their motions played back at a sluggish pace. She captured the footage at an extremely high number of frames-per-second but then played them back at a normal speed. The effect: extremely smooth, slow motion video.
Creating this type of super-slo-mo video may have been an obvious decision for Matzelle — besides scores of videos about airplanes she has several clips of aquatic snails and sea creatures, some of which, of course, have been sped up to unnatural speeds. So kudos to her from the Scoop Deck, where we have yet to even master stop-and-go animation with Legos.
So click away and watch:
Details of flight that are usually invisilbe at normal speeds pop out in slow motion. // Screengrab from Liz Matzelle.
NAS Whidbey Airshow from Liz Matzelle on Vimeo.
Back where it belongs … in the water
May 20th, 2011 | Carriers Navy Newport News Shipbuilding Photos Refueling and Complex Overhaul Ships Shipyard Video | Posted by Bill McMichael
Twenty months in dry dock will end Saturday, May 21, when the carrier Theodore Roosevelt checks out of Dry Dock 11 at Newport News Shipbuilding (so nice to be able to use the simple name again, though we should note that the yard is a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries …) to a pierside location for the remainder of its 39-month refueling complex overhaul.
The Theodore Roosevelt's XO, Capt. Douglas C. Verissimo (left) stands by the ship's commanding officer, Capt. Billy Hart, to watch the initial stage of flooding the dry dock. // Navy photo by Mass Communications Seaman John Kotara
The hull actually got wet again beginning on May 16, when the shipyard flooded the dock for testing.
When the ship actually becomes fully afloat Saturday, the short trip to the pier will be TR’s first “underway” since it entered the shipyard in August 2009.
Since then, the Navy says the ship’s shafts, propellers, rudders, anchors, catapults and arresting gear machinery have been replaced or refurbished.
“Team Theodore Roosevelt has shown exemplary dedication in preparingthis ship for its return to the water,” said Capt. Billy Hart, TR’s commanding officer. “As we rebuild TR space by space and restore function to every system, sailors will shape the ship to serve the nation for 25 more years to come.”
So far, TR sailors have put in a ton of work. They’ve completed more than4,500 individual refurbishing and rehabilitation tasks and expended more than 1.15 million man-hours of labor, according to TR Chief Engineer Cmdr. Gunter Braun.
The crew is scheduled to move back aboard next year.
Another XO video — but this one’s G-rated
April 15th, 2011 | Carriers Morale Navy Newport News Photos Refueling and Complex Overhaul Shipyard Video | Posted by Bill McMichael
The executive officer of the carrier Theodore Roosevelt has narrated a new ship-produced video that has popped up on YouTube. The Navy’s probably happier with this video than some other recent ones.
Narrated by the XO, Capt. Douglas Verissimo, and featuring his CO, Capt. William Hart, in a walk-on part, the video touts the carrier’s ongoing Refueling and Complex Overhaul at Newport News Shipbuilding.
Verissimo supplies dramatic narration over images of sailors wielding welding torches and needle guns, all working “to prepare for another 25 years of vital missions to come.”
“Join us as we prepare to return to the fleet,” says Hart at the video’s conclusion. “Theodore Roosevelt’s getting ready.”
The aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt departs Naval Station Norfolk Sept. 29, 2009, and begins a towing operation to Newport News Shipbuilding for a Refueling and Complex Overhaul. // Photo courtesy of U.S. Navy
The video is meant “to inform and inspire the ship’s prospective crew members, current TR Sailors and the nation of the momentous efforts involved in rebuilding the ship and returning her to the fleet,” according to a press release.
“We have a very strong crew, doing great things every day, and we are rightfully very proud of our efforts to return this battle-tested carrier back to operations in the fleet,” said Hart. “This video is our way of reminding the nation and our sailors we are in an extended overhaul right now, but we’ll be back even stronger and more ready than we were when we came into the yards.”