Welcome, Lizards! If you aren’t too busy, and didn’t see it Friday, check out the Gathering of Eagles photo my friend took.

Well, first off…shouldn’t we be hollering “LOAD AND LOCK!”? Just a rhetorical question, but lookee what I found surfing about the net:

The picture is on the blog Calvey in Iraq, an Army National Guard Captain now “over there” who used to be an Oklahoma State Representative. Talk about someone who knows the political ropes!He left a comment on LCDR Smash’s (aka “Marches with Moonbats”) post about the anti-war demonstators in DC on 3/17/2007.I chased the link and found this worth a thousand words (of legislative printing) picture…

Tracked back @: Third World County, Dragon Lady’s World

Last post discussed the Explosives Handling Personal Qualification/Certification Program (EHPQCP) and how it came to be, as a component of the investigation of the incident aboard the USS SARATOGA (CV-60) in the Med.

Today, some beginning information on the Personnel Qualification System (PQS) and, as I continue, how it played into this incident.

One of my assigned team members, LCDR Don Diehl, wasn’t a big proponent of PQS. While he wore the “water wings” of a Surface Warfare Officer, he has spent much of his career aboard aircraft carriers, being assigned to the USS EISENHOWER (CV-69) in the Operations Department at the time of this assignment. At first, we locked horns many evenings, as we traveled the East Coast and all the way to the Red Sea over the need for this program. He eventually saw my point, as we cut through the standard standard objections fleet sailors like to put forward.

I intend to take the issue of how PQS works up in detail one day soon, as I ended up getting elbow deep in the program in the last half of my career, but the basics of PQS is to validate that training has been held and the knowledge from training retained by the person who will be “qualified” to stand watches of preform various duties aboard ships. In the aviation world, the analogous program is NATOPS. On submarines, they use some PQS, but then have another program in place to validate crew members can perform their duties.

Aboard the USS SARATOGA, the key players in the scenario were:

• Tactical Action Officer (TAO) (Navy Aviator LT (O-3)), Not qualified by PQS
• Ship’s Weapons Coordinator (SWC) (Navy Aviator LT (O-3)), Not qualified by PQS
• Target Acquisition System (TAS) Operator (FC2 (E-5)), Qualified by PQS
• Firing Officer Console (FOC) Operator (FC3 (E-4)), Not qualified by PQS

The TAO did have a letter of designation from the Commanding Officer, an essential piece of paper to allow someone other than the Commanding Officer of a vessel to employ the Ship’s weapons. This position came about during the Vietnam era, when the age of anti-ship cruise missiles rose into a real possibility, reducing reaction times dramatically from the days of gun fights at sea, where you generally had some notice before the first was joined. It is an job of great significance, as it requires a great degree of discretion and sound judgment under conditions requiring split second decision making skills with accuracy.

The path to qualification for the TAO required attending a shore based course (it was six weeks long during my career), where you are first given the “threat matrix,” massive lists of the weapon systems that we were likely to face and their technical capabilities. These were to be memorized, as the information must be readily available when sensors alert you to the inbound weapon, or presence of a threat platform.

Upon return from the school, and usually after some period of “under instruction (UI)” watchstanding, the Commanding Officer would convene a qualification board of the crew experts and you would be grilled on the ship’s specific processes, procedures, current operations orders, rule of engagement (ROE) and your knowledge of the friendly and enemy threat capabilities. If you passed muster, then you were given a letter of qualification, to be filed in your record and annotated on your fitness reports, and allowed to bear the responsibility of the authority to say “SHOOT!” and have people do what you say in a life and death situation.

Were is PQS in this? There was one, the 43304 series. Back then, it was either the B or C edition, but it is now up to the D edition. If it existed, then its use was required. Who says? Well, the Chief of Naval Operations, for one. From OPNAVINST 3500.34F, para. 4.F.:

4.F. PQS use is mandatory, except when suspended or canceled by the lead respective Type Commander (TYCOM). […]

It had that same paragraph for my time in service, therefore, unless Commander, Naval Air Forces Atlantic (COMNAVAIRLANT) had issued a directive to not use the PQS for TAO, it also had to be a part of the path to qualification for the TAO’s aboard SARATOGA. I say SARATOGA, but off all the PQS’ in use, I regularly had arguments with Commanding Officers on surface ships, saying the TAO qualification was up to them, and they didn’t think they needed to use PQS to qualify TAOs. I always figured 4 stars beat any oak leaf or eagle, but that might have just been a pet peeve with me….

There is/was PQS for the Mk-23 TAS Opertator, 43406 series, and also for the MK91 Fire Control/NATO Sea Sparrow Missile System Operators (43328 series). I didn’t regularly work aboard aircraft carriers, and I can’t find a listing for PQS for the Ship’s Weapons Coordinator for a CV Combat Direction Center (CDC), but I suspect it existed.

More later on the PQS issues and the incident….

A shipmate from USS FIRST SHIP was one of the many veterans standing tall on Saturday, 3/17/2007 in Washington, DC.

He sent this memento. The picture was taken early Saturday morning at the Lincoln Memorial:

(click on the picture for the larger, original photo)Lifted from “SITREP 01:”

The traitors couldn’t have numbered greater than a thousand or so while the vets surely had mustered three or four times that. In addition to the usual suspects, Cindy Sheehan, Jane Fonda, Cynthia McKinney, Maxine Waters, etc, there was a decidedly younger crowd, appearing in dress and demeanor as I recall the “flower-children” of the late 60’s. A few “brave” traitors ventured among us with their messages of peace and were met generally with disdain as indicated by the below clip from WJLA TVs (Wash DC) website.

and…from “SITREP 02:”

The “Eagles” arrived at 0600 and began milling about smartly. I snapped this photo with my cell phone as they unfurled one of the banners prior to any “traitor” arrivals. This was on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Fox news was the only network that accurately depicted our force strength at 3 to 4 times that of the moonbats.

Another bit of history from a Vet…

Tracked back @: Stop the ACLU, Stuck on Stupid, Big Dog’s Weblog, Is It Just Me?, stikNstein, Right Wing Nation, Third World County

Busy, busy, busy….

“Open trackbacks here! Get yer Open Trackbacks!” (That’s an invitation and a hint. After all, it is Wednesday.)

From the past writings: “How are we going to get that one?”, a short tale of the sea, 86 degree water, a volunteer, a “fat ship” and “unmanned aerial vehicles.”

Received via email:

The U.S. Navy Memorial has invited me to talk about <a href=”http://www.amazon.com/No-Higher-Honor-Roberts-Persian/dp/1591146615/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-7710835-5954261?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174321459&sr=8-1″>”No Higher Honor:
Saving the USS Samuel B. Roberts in the Persian Gulf”</a> (Naval Institute Press, 2006) at noon on Wednesday, March 21. The talk is open to the public, and I warmly invite you to come. The memorial is located at 701 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20004 (Map and
directions; web site: http://www.lonesailor.org).

“No Higher Honor” tells the story of the USS Samuel B. Roberts, a small warship dispatched to the Persian Gulf in 1988. Its crew shepherded oil tankers through the chaos of the Iran-Iraq War — until disaster struck. On 14 April, an Iranian mine ripped open the Roberts’ engineroom, ignited fires on four decks, and plunged the ship into darkness. With seawater rising around their boots, the crew fought fire and flooding into the night. Four days later, the U.S.
retaliated, sinking a half-dozen Iranian warships and boats in the biggest surface battle since World War II.

The book has received good reviews; the current issue of Military Officer magazine calls it “one of the most inspiring books about modern naval history.” Now in its second printing, the book has also inspired a History Channel documentary that is slated to air this fall.

Hope to see you on Wednesday.

Brad Peniston
————-
“No Higher Honor: Saving the USS Samuel B. Roberts in the Persian Gulf”
available in bookstores or via http://www.nohigherhonor.com.

My book report is here.

Sounds like a great lunch time activity to me…how about it, Steeljaw Scribe, Smash and Pinch?

Posted after action reports will be appreciated!

‘Jack Army’, the former Army recruiter and now member of the 25th Division and deployed to Iraq has begun an interesting project: He writes a story in chapters, and then each chapter goes to a different blogger to post, and then to be linked for your reading pleasure. The link here goes to my piece, which is Chapter 12. I have sent my link back to “Jack,” so he can pass it to the others on each side of my, and I hope to get similar data in soon, so I can connect the dots for the effort.

Great idea….share you story and share readership. I would suspect the posts will get much more visibility as a result….

The Valour-IT site has been updated and if you link there, please find some time (quickly) to update your blogrolls/sidebars/etc…

If you are unaware of what I’f talking about, it’s a project to get laptops with voice activated software into the hands of our injured troops at the major medical facilities, so they can continue to keep in touch with family, friends and their units.

The link is now: http://soldiersangels.org/index.php?page=project-valour-it

Get to work!

A chaptered story told on many blogs starts here and continues here:

Chapter 11

Chapter Twelve: Great Americans
We have a great team assembled at my FOB, which could be considered unusual. My commander didn’t get to hand-pick his team, whether the members that came from our parent unit or the various attachments, some of which came from within our brigade and others from Reserve units or even other branches. The guys here take their jobs seriously and many take the initiative to find ways to support the mission despite an occasional lack of support or other challenge that may keep us from using “conventional” means to get the job done.
I am excited to have had the opportunity to serve in this position. I have grown professionally because of it. More than I thought I would, which is an unexpected surprise. I am a lucky man in this respect.
I would like to thank the folks working here at FOB X with me. These are truly great Americans. I look at all these troops and am amazed, not only at the tremendous effort they put forth under crazy conditions sometimes, but also because these are people that could be doing anything but putting their lives on the line for Iraqis. And yet, here they are, volunteers each and every one, working hard, sweating, laughing, crying, sometimes bleeding for something that is beyond day-to-day comprehension, something that transcends the individual and actually makes a difference in our world. I am privileged and honored to serve with such selfless and open-hearted people.
The irony is not lost on me either, how we are ready to kill those that would threaten us but we are dedicated to making life better for normal Iraqis who just want a taste of what many Americans take for granted: freedom.

Guys weekend away coming up, listening to ear shattering noise and smelling burnt rubber and nitro fumes (from a distance)…

As a result, I’ll be “offline” and hoping the Army team makes the finals in all categories…they smoked everyone last year.

At dinner on the way back, we got to talk to “The Sarge” and he autographed one of the guys shirts. Last year and the year before, they also gave the oath of enlistment to a platoon sized unit of new soldiers, and the, of course, got a standing ovation…

See ya next week…

I found this on Little Green Footballs yesterday afternoon and see it has made it’s way to Cdr Salamander’s blog, too.

A Polish woman, Irena Sendler, saved 2,500 Jewish children between 1940 and 1943, before she was arrested by the Nazis and then tortured. She never gave up the names of the children. 2500. Think about it: 2500 lives snatched from the jaws of certain death, by a woman, who was not Jewish, and knew full well of the penalty for such rescue work. 2500 people, many of who, by basic demographics, have had generations flow from them, which would have otherwise been truncated forever. She is still alive and was honored in Warsaw by a ceremony the 93 year old woman was unable to attend. The Boston Herald has a detailed story of this woman’s heroism:

WARSAW, Poland – Irena Sendler saved nearly 2,500 Jewish children from the Nazis, organizing a ring of 20 Poles to smuggle them out of the Warsaw Ghetto in baskets and ambulances.

The Nazis arrested her, but she didn’t talk under torture. After she survived the war, she expressed regret – for doing too little.

Lawmakers in Poland’s Senate disagreed Wednesday, unanimously passing a resolution honoring her and the Polish underground’s Council for Assisting Jews, of which her ring of mostly Roman Catholics was a part.

Poland’s goverment-in-exile set up the secret organization in 1942 to help save Jews from the Nazi-established ghettoes and labor camps.

Anyone caught helping Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland risked being summarily shot, along with family members. The resolution honored Sendler for organizing the ”rescue of the most defenseless victims of the Nazi ideology: the Jewish children.”
[…]

It seems to me, as I have seen others commenting around the blogosphere, that she is the very kind of person who deserves to be held up as a role model, and not these bored little rich girls we see splashed about the media.

I, for one, have faith that this woman will most certainly be greeted with “Well done, my good and faithful servant” when she leaves this life on Earth.

Go, read, and have a renewing of the mind with this story.