The “media” that is seen/heard by much of America and the world continues to pronounce doom and gloom in the Middle East. No longer “news” most of what I look at seem to be little more that editorializing at any opportunity. It bothers me.

Add to this that a common complaint from those who are defending us forward is “the story is not getting told.” I concur.

I was spurred on to write this after hearing the hearing the author of “Grace Under Fire,” Andrew Carroll, on the Laura Ingraham Show this morning. He has taken it upon himself to help preserve the letters of service members and family for history. He also has a list of troop support organizations up on his book’s site.

Here’s what I’m thinking: Make your blog available for the troops who would like to share their stories, but certainly don’t have time to set up and write a blog of their own. If have a blog that gets lots of such inputs, and can’t possibly get them all out in a timely fashion, find those who will volunteer their “space” and pass the inputs out, so they are spread far and wide. More possibility of exposure to those who might not otherwise get to read the story of the platoon that takes on the task of cleaning up/repairing and outfitting a school in Afghanistan, for instance.

I haven’t set up a blog roll, but I’m on several, so I suspect one would be useful and then the cross-pollinating would be extensive (if there were lots of blogs willing to chip in.

That’s idea number one….and it just might have some leverage in turning the tide of no news on the good news. Comments?

Idea #2: I have chosen to highlight the ValOUR-IT project the 11th of each month, just to be a friendly reminder that it’s not just Veteran’s Day when we should consider contributing to this wonderful program. The follow on to this idea is to either weekly or monthly, pick one of the troop support organizations (see my compiled list here), post their charter and find some testimonials to the success of the work they have done and spread the word that way….

Anyhow, I had been planning to blast this out to the Navy ValOUR-IT blogs (and I suspect I still might this weekend), to see about getting the ball rolling at the grass-roots level.

Anyone can help in this, particularly the second idea above.

If you have friends/family serving in the Sandbox, ask permission to get their stories and post them. Let them tell their stories.

Just think: Everyday bloggers helping to tell real stories that otherwise may have to wait years for historians, or be forever lost because “I didn’t think anyone cared.”

Fire away with modifications/ideas/etc.

What better way to be a servant, particularly in this week, than to support those who are supporting us.

Surfing about, I read Secretary Rice is making a trip to Libya and Sudan to discuss Darfur.

Sometimes it’s what isn’t going on that’s very important.

Lemme see….the Speaker of the House is in Syria and Saudi Arabia to undermine the US foreign policy on the War on Terror, and the SEC State is headed to Africa to try to end the genocide in Africa by TALKING TO THEM!

Did I miss something, or wasn’t it a large number of liberals, notably the Hollywood crowd, all hollering that we need to do something about the slaughter in the Darfur region? And they also demand we “talk to ‘them'” before using the military might of the nation?

Actions…they speak volumes. Guess who’s in it for the power, and who’s in it for the human race?

Victor David Hanson’s column today nails it….

[…]
What should we make of the Iranians’ behavior?

Namely that the country’s leadership is in deep political trouble. The Iranian government is desperate to provoke the West to win back friends in the Islamic world, and to quell growing unrest at home. Subsidizing food and gas, providing billions for terrorists and building nukes all cost money at a time when the state-run Iranian economy is in shambles.
[…]

It’s all about “showing off” and his contention is they want us to not just rattle the saber, but unsheathe it in their specific direction. More propaganda victories, even if it means many Iranian citizens take the bullet(s) for their President. If we do, then AMadDinnerJacket has propaganda out the wazoo and he’s still not with the 72 raisins. like some of his country men would be

Mark Steyn on Bill Bennett’s show this morning said “we need to quit handing them these little propaganda victories.” He was discussing the Birts backing down on the hostage situation, but he meant victories in plural. The pile of “little propaganda victories” is getting pretty tall in the last 5 years. At some point it will look like one big one to the Islamic world culture.

So…VDH says take your fingers off the pickle. Other things will do the job without giving them what they demand….go and find out what he says.

I was scrolling through the channels last night and settled on a documentary on the History Channel: “The First World War: Jihad”

It was about the British/ANZAC battles in the Mediterranean in WWI and it backtracked some of the ramp up situations.

It seems the Germans, with a “little” problem on their eastern border realized the Turks to the south, and Muslim in nature, also had a problem with the Russians. Solution to a really big nation? Gather overt allies, or….study the neighboring culture and fine a leverage point. They did. Guess what it was? “Jihad.” Heard of it?

To be brief, the show talked through the campaigns of the early days of WWI and also included some of the effect after the war, to include the problems the Brits had in the empire in the Middle East. It seems the jihad “reminder” placed by the Kaiser led to an emboldened Turkey and Muslim world, and it was on with the jihad even before WWII.

What a legacy. On the other hand, for some time, I thought this was a more recent phenomena, but it seems the Soviets got more than German rocket scientists at the end of WWII….

(it shows again 4/7-11-12-14. The link takes you to the schedule)

Check this out…..Who really did it?

I went back and did some more work at the end of the posting on the topic of the captured British service members, based on the announcement from Iran today saying they were “pardoned.”

In the background, I’m doing an email discussion with someone who has questions on shipboard operations, and I suspect he has some detailed knowledge. I’m looking forward to reading some details, but it already sounds like letting your small boats operate in the open waters of the Gulf 4 NM away is a recipe for disaster, or this kind, and possibly a physical one from the elements in “normal” circumstances.

More when that comes through. I did spend a few months patrolling the “NPG” (Northern Persian Gulf) in an FFG, but spent more time in the “SOHEPA” (Strait of Homuz/Eastern Patrol Area) doing tanker escort on that cruise. All that while filling the Navigator billet, too.

Update: Here’s the post from Red State’s blog. He’s done some good homework and has some good graphics/charts and info to links on the ROE….

EU Referendum has more (found in the comments section at Red State).

It seems the USS CHINOOK (PC-9) and WHIRLWIND (PC-11) were in the flotilla. CYCLONE Class patrol boats that could have dashed in a put a hurting on any Iranians eyeing the Brits with evil intent….

Tracked back @; Yankee Sailor (who is back up and posting after a majority of a year layoff)

It’s “that” day again. Post your posts if you have them!

“Sea Story” of the day:

On Monday, I blogged that it had been 30 years to the day since I reported aboard my first command for work, rather than school. It, however, was a Saturday night, so it doesn’t count as much as today, which was a Monday 30 years ago, and my first work day in the Fleet.

The routine when arriving at any command is to be noted in the Ship’s Deck Log and the taken to the Executive Officer to commence your check in. And so it was, early that day on USS MILWAUKEE (AOR-2), still moored at Pier 2 in Norfolk. It was that time when I met CDR David Martin, a Surface Line Officer, and second in command. Tall and reasonably thin for a man in his middle age period of life, it was then when he looked in my service record and made a comment discussed here.

I had been dropped from the skies on short notice aboard MILWAUKEE. I had visions of being a Diving and Salvage Officer, but a small issue of claustrophobia manged to help redetermine my career path. Just a few weeks before this day, I had sat with the Traing Officer at the Naval Diving and Salvage School, Anacostia Navy Yard, and told him I thought I would just decline to continue for fear of hazarding not only myself, but any diving buddies int he water. I was dispatched, not to a sleek “Greyhound of the Sea,” but to what, in my limited knowledge, was a dead end job for a young man with a desire to command a ship with many weapons, with a hope of playing a strong second to the legend of Lord Nelson, John Paul Jones and many others who had gone down to the sea before me.

On the advice of a family friend, who was responsible for advising one very well known and powerful senator, I had taken the orders. This man, who had served under Chester Nimitz, provide what was very sage advice: “I can get your orders changed, but just remember, there will be a very large stamp, unseen, but well known across the outside of your service record, saying “Political Influence. Take the orders, and if in a year you feel it’s not to your liking, call me and we’ll see what we can do.” I never picked up the phone, as I found I was enjoying my job far too much….

But, there I was, a whirlwind of a morning, taken to Admin, shuttled to the Captain’s cabin, introduced to my Department Head, LCDR Frank Mueller, and all sorts of other things, but, the one detail I remember clearly was shortly after lunch, I was in my newly assigned stateroom and there was a knock at the door. I tentatively opened the door and there stood two second class petty officers. Before I could say anything, the one with black curly hair, Navy “BC” glasses and a full beard shoved a manila folder in my direction and said “You’re our new Division Officer, sign this!”

Taken aback for a moment, I said: “No, I haven’t relieved ENS Ralston yet.” “Sir, he’s on leave and we need this signed. You’re our new Division Officer.” So I took the pen and signed the casualty report.

And so went my first meeting with ETR2 Mike Krutsch and ETN2 Craig Johnson, for I was, as they so clearly stated, their Division Officer….

And that is what I distinctly recall of my first real work day in the service of the taxpayers.

It shouldn’t have hit me out of the blue as it did, but yesterday I realized I first “went to work” 30 years ago today.

It was a saturday that year, and, having arrived in Norfolk from the DC area, I knew I needed to report in. It’s not like I hadn’t stepped on a Quarterdeck before and handed over a very think manila envelope to and Officer of the Deck, but this time was different. It was my first permanent duty assignment. After several schools (4 to be exact, over a 10 month period), it was time to earn my pay.

It was early evening, and after dinner. It was dark and the USS MILWAUKEE (AOR-2) was berthed starboard side to to Pier 2 at the Norfolk Operating Base (NOB). LTJG George Parrish, the Ship’s Navigator, was the Command Duty Officer. Tall and thin, sporting a mustache, he sat down with the spouse and I in the sitting area of the Wardroom and told me what time to be at work on Monday morning. I can still recall the scene, but not the words spoken. anyhow, it was done, I had just begun an assigned three year division officer tour, which ended up lasting two years, before I was assigned to a pre-commissioning unit.

I was assigned as the Combat Information Center Officer, with additional duty as the Electronic Material Officer (CIC/EMO), leading the OI and OE divisions in the Operations Department under LCDR Frank Mueller, the Operations Officer.

The Commanding Officer was CAPT Wright, a submariner, with about one month of his command tour left. CDR David Martin was the Executive Officer. The Engineer Officer was LCDR Carl Klein, who was not a Surface Line Officer, but and Engineering Duty Officer who had convinced the Navy that large plants needed the expert attention of those who had chosen a profession of being engineers above commanding warships. The 1st Lieutenant was LCDR Leo “Mike” Pivonka. LTJG Pat Wall was the 2nd Division Officer and ENS Harry Watkins III was the 3rd Division Officer. LT Randy Rice was the Communications Officer, with LTJG Clifford Barnes aboard as the Damage Control Assistant. Bos’n Eddie Watson was in Deck Department, and in Engineering, there was one CWO4 as the Main Propulsion Assistant and a CWO3 as the Electrical Officer. The assigned Medical Officer was an OB/GYN by professional background, but our “Doc” nonetheless. He and the Supply Officer once had had a contest to see who could stay “in the rack” the longest and they were both golfers. I don’t recall who won, but I know it was the call of nature, and not the will to win that was the tiebreaker in the situation. I think they both put up a good fight….

Aboard the “Old Mil,” I began an education that taught you about seamanship, engineering and logistics, unencumbered by the flashiness of modern (or just about any) weaponry.

More to come on this topic this coming Wednesday in the Ropeyarn Sunday and Open Trackbacks series, for 4/4/1977 was my first actual working day in the Navy.

The US Marines: Total Destruction within 30 minutes or the next one’s free”

I like it!

The enlisted service members of the Sea Service who wear the khaki like officers are a special breed. This day marks the 114th year of that this position has been in place as “the backbone of the Fleet.” From Navy News:

MCPON Reflects on 114 Years of Deckplate Leadership
Story Number: NNS070330-29
Release Date: 3/30/2007 1:34:00 PM
Top News Story – Editors should consider using these stories first in local publications.

Special from Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (SW/FMF) Joe R. Campa Jr.

WASHINGTON (NNS) — Following is a statement from Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (SW/FMF) Joe R. Campa Jr., commemorating the establishment of the rank of Chief Petty Officer (CPO) in 1893:

On April 1, all chief petty officers, active and retired, will celebrate 114 years of deckplate leadership. It’s important that on occasions like this we acknowledge the significant contributions of the generations of chiefs who made our mess what it is today.

Every chief in the Navy should pause a moment to reflect on the strong legacy of leadership that our mess is founded on. This is a time to reaffirm our commitment to our Navy, our Sailors and each other.

Our Mission, Vision and Guiding Principles were forged in a tradition of CPO leadership, a brand of leadership that is unique only to those of us who walk the deckplates as chiefs. Those principles are the time-honored values that have been the characteristics of chiefs since our inception in 1893.

They sustained our chiefs when they raised us, and they still serve as our heritage to this day. It is critical that we maintain that heritage as our conscience and the soul of our service.

Thank you chiefs. Through your leadership of our Sailors, you’re keeping that heritage alive. But we must continue to press forward. Look at your Sailors today and you’ll know how you stand as a chief and the impact you have on your command. It is through this lens that we can only truly see how successful we are as a Mess.

My first assigned Chief Petty Officer was OSC Michael P. McCaffery, USN, and I met him on April 4th, 1977.