Today is “Pork Chops” for lunch and Sea Stories. Oh, post your trackbacks here. Not at Yankee Sailor…You guys are overloading his blog.

So, there are “pork chops” and plain ol’ “chops” and sometime just “lamb chops.”I spent 9 months in Newport getting my “PME” (Professional Military Education), courtesy of the Goldwater-Nichols Act, passed in 1986. One of my fellow students was a Supply Officer named Diane. She was pretty bright and we both were headed to Charleston after our school. I promised I’d give her a tour of the frigate, as she was going to the USS SIERRA (AD-18), which was, despite it’s important mission, not very “warlike.”

My two “chops,” LT Wayne Aiken and the “lamb chop,” LTJG Reich, were both excellent officers and the type of chops who knew their only reason for being was to keep us in parts and groceries. They were good at it and also good to the Supply Corps Manuals, so they kept us straight. They lacked one thing to “round them out,” that being the newly approved warfare “pin” for their staff corps community, the Surface Warfare Supply Corps Officer (“SWSCO” – called “swiss-co”).

I regularly asked the two men how far along they were in their completion of their qualifications. The “regularly” given answer was “XO, we’re too busy for that!”

Then, when I had been aboard for the better part of a year, Diane finally called to take me up on my offer of the tour of the ship. I obliged, seeing the opportunity. The day she was to come over and have lunch and then get her tour was when the Captain was on leave. That day at lunch, I sat at the head of the table, with my guest, the LCDR Supply Officer from the destroyer tender, sitting next to me, while the two supply officers sat at the other end of the all too short table for this day, as Diane had completed her qualifications, and was wearing her SWSCO pin on her working uniform. I certainly made a point of complimenting her on her accomplishment and noted how I believed it would be a big plus for her career, while Wayne and Jim sat quietly eating. They did, however, renew their interest in making progress towards getting their SWSCO done after that day.

Well, maybe you had to be there, back in the day of male dominated combatant wardrooms, to fully appreciate the foil I was using that day.

Tracked back @: Yankee Sailor

Keep Cash is a daily compilation of deals around the net. Not just for computer stuff, but there’s plenty of that there, too!

A day of blog silence is planned as a memorial for the Virginia Tech shootings on 30 April, 2007.

Click the picture to get to the blog established.

I posted a few days ago about the Navy Together We Served portal and mentioned there was a Marine version that had led the way.

Since that post, my site meter is full of hits with the search words for TWS, and many of them “modified” to include “Army” or “Air Force,” so I sent an email to the N-TWS admin address saying there seemed to be a lot of activity. The response is that they are working the Air Force Together We Served site now, and there will be an Army Together We Served site following that.

So, be patient! Your time is near, non-sea service personnel!

Update 4/21/2007: The Admin at TWS says the set up for the sites for the USAF and Army will take time to get the databases together. Yep, that sounds right, but says the sites should be up this year. He said they would be getting the addresses to the sites up soon, at least with a banner to welcome you and let you know those other two services will be around.

Keep checking for an airforce.togetherweserved.com and army.togetherweserved.com to arrive on the net!

In researching a little bit of info today for a post, I bumped across the WikiProject Military History page. It seems the Wiki community recognizes there is lots of open ground here and are asking for inputs. Maybe you MilBloggers (or soon to be MilBloggers) have some things to contribute, so that there is some online content from fthe first person perspective, without having to write and publish your own book!

It looks like 600+ people are actively working the project now, with a list of inactive members, too.

Hey! Go for it!

Tracked back @: < ahref="http://www.yankeesailor.us">Ynakee Sailor

Living in the “i” World as we are, I have decided we need to add a vocabulary word: “iPert.”

The definition should be essentially self-discovered: “Those people who declare themselves experts on subject matter due to the use of Internet search engines to support their self-proclamation of the truth of their statements; written, spoken, or electronic in form.”

The horrible news of the Virginia Tech shootings will bring the iPerts out in many forms. I’m not saying that everyone with an opinion should be labeled one of these creatures, but some should be and their conclusions or forthright statements be taken with a grain of iSalt. In some cases, it makes sense to correct their perceived understanding with real expertise.

I predict the iPerts will come in large numbers, calling to paper over this situation with more legal dictates, which, as the standing “gun free zone” ordinance, will mostly be ignored by those wishing harm on society. That statement provides a springboard for discussion on the excessive creation of paper pulp to allow law makers to justify their paychecks, now and in the future. I’ll leave that for another day, most likely for a posting at The Wide Awakes.

iPerts are not a new phenomena, but the concept of them just came to me, helping to me grasp how the massive amounts of information on the Internet is there, yet many times, such as in the case of conspiracy theory supporters like the “9/11 Truthers,” there is so much information on a subject that just scanning a few web pages on what ever came back from the query, cannot adequately prepare you to be an “expert” in any one area.

Anyhow, feel free to propagate the use of “iPert,” and the plural form “iPerts” as it may fit your discussions. Consider, when you are the on station iPert, to identify yourself as such, proudly proclaiming your knowledge of the subject matter is merely based on scanning the first few pages you found via a web search engine.

In the meantime, pray for those who will personally suffer from the events of yesterday.

Just a few thoughts in the aftermath of the VA Tech shootings this morning:

• The phone call could have been different. Thankfully, it was “I’m fine.”
• The press wants to know how we can prevent this from happening AGAIN. So would the rest of us, but I’m not about to go to a police state society
• Someone is gonna have to answer some hard questions about why the warning email too about 2 hours to be sent out
• Someone else will have harder questions to answer as to why a shooting could occur (even if just random shots at the wall) in a dorm and it took so long for the law enforcement to show up
• Some will ask: Could a law abiding citizen properly authorized to carry a concealed weapon have diminished the carnage?
• Some will ask: Why is anyone allowed to have weapons?

We remain a reactionary society. Regardless of the questioning voices, we will most likely not be able to prevent every single scenario to come down the pike. Some will demand it, but they are not living in a real world, nor would they actually accept the response to their demands to make all people safe from all things at all times….

In case you missed it in your paper today:

Click on the picture for a larger version

Note: Welcome to the blog! If you’re here on 5/5/2007, check out the live feed to the MilBlogging Conference in Arlington, VA via this link! Thanks…

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Navy – Together We Served Portal.

Maybe not brand new, but I’ve been there a few months after a shipmates invited me there. The is also a USMC versionI have already been connected with several people I was on ships with and look forward to finding more. The organization of the site lends itself to easily posting your assignments, but dates and ranks for those commands, and then has search tools that allow you to slice and dice the query to see who else is there.Update 4/18/2007: There’s hope for you Air Force and Army vets…Update 4/21/2007: The Admin at TWS says the set up for the sites for the USAF and Army will take time to get the databases together. Yep, that sounds right, but says the sites should be up this year. He said they would be getting the addresses to the sites up soon, at least with a banner to welcome you and let you know those other two services will be around.Keep checking for an airforce.togetherweserved.com and army.togetherweserved.com to arrive on the net!

While you’re visiting, check out my post on the rescue of the USS BONEFISH on 4/24/1988.

Tracked back @: Yankee Sailor

Link chasing…see what comes up?

Update 4/13/2007: There is history on this issue and a MilBlogger, Yankee Sailor began working on this sort of issue to introduce civility and OPSEC self-policing concepts in place. He has a new post up here, but the “long version” of the, showing his proposal is here. Join the MilBlogs ROE Project at this post. As far as staking a claim to a good idea, he had had this in the works before the 2006 MilBlogs Conference (link to the 2007 Conference Site), held April 2006.
End of update.

Tim O’Reilly of Reilly’s Radar is working on a bloggers Code of Conduct.

Given the nature of interactions these days, might be worth looking into….

Here’s the first draft:

We celebrate the blogosphere because it embraces frank and open conversation. But frankness does not have to mean lack of civility. We present this Blogger Code of Conduct in hopes that it helps create a culture that encourages both personal expression and constructive conversation.

1. We take responsibility for our own words and for the comments we allow on our blog.

We are committed to the “Civility Enforced” standard: we will not post unacceptable content, and we’ll delete comments that contain it.

We define unacceptable content as anything included or linked to that:
– is being used to abuse, harass, stalk, or threaten others
– is libelous, knowingly false, ad-hominem, or misrepresents another person,
– infringes upon a copyright or trademark
– violates an obligation of confidentiality
– violates the privacy of others

We define and determine what is “unacceptable content” on a case-by-case basis, and our definitions are not limited to this list. If we delete a comment or link, we will say so and explain why. [We reserve the right to change these standards at any time with no notice.]

2. We won’t say anything online that we wouldn’t say in person.

3. We connect privately before we respond publicly.

When we encounter conflicts and misrepresentation in the blogosphere, we make every effort to talk privately and directly to the person(s) involved–or find an intermediary who can do so–before we publish any posts or comments about the issue.

4. When we believe someone is unfairly attacking another, we take action.

When someone who is publishing comments or blog postings that are offensive, we’ll tell them so (privately, if possible–see above) and ask them to publicly make amends.
If those published comments could be construed as a threat, and the perpetrator doesn’t withdraw them and apologize, we will cooperate with law enforcement to protect the target of the threat.

5. We do not allow anonymous comments.

We require commenters to supply a valid email address before they can post, though we allow commenters to identify themselves with an alias, rather than their real name.

6. We ignore the trolls.

We prefer not to respond to nasty comments about us or our blog, as long as they don’t veer into abuse or libel. We believe that feeding the trolls only encourages them–“Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty, but the pig likes it.” Ignoring public attacks is often the best way to contain them.

More in his post. Looks like a “bloggingcode.org” exists as the planned resting place for this initiative. Even more in the trackbacks/comments. Not like its going to be easy sledding, but then it’s all about debate, isn’t it?