Since retiring, I haven’t lived in an area where there are military bases, except one, which has two major headquarters in it….

I spent the last week on the road, and got back up into the Norfolk, VA area. Things have changed, boy, have they changed!

Of the five gates at Naval Amphibious Base, Little Creek, most were closed. Gate 3 has had the proscribed modifications for the security, and Gate 5 is closed, with barricades up around the massive construction. Inside the base gates, the number of ships, fro “the old days” is quite reduced.

Then I took a drive to the Naval Operating Base. I got a late start, having slept in from the long drive before, and making a few stops enroute. After a late lunch, I glanced at my watch and an involuntary shiver went up my spine, as the numbers 3:40PM stared back at me. OH, NO! BASE TRAFFIC! I decided to drive about the base anyhow, since I had other things to do later in the week. I turned into the massive gate at the “D&S Piers,” and began the drive west. There were no masts visible ahead of me, along the banks of the southern branch of the Elizabeth River. When I got about 3 blocks from the piers, and at the north and south ends of the piers, there were three CGs and four DDGs. When I drove closer, there were two subs.

The parking lot across from the piers, normally still overflowing at this time of day, was about 1/2 empty. I remember days when officers got tickets for parking in the CPO section, but enlisted in officer parking were left alone. It seems the base police were just about exclusively retired Chiefs…anyhow, it certainly made for some good sea stories and ribbing in the wardroom and/or the Goat Locker, but…no more.

The Carrier piers were similarly empty, but I did get a look at LPD-17, with it’s enclosed mast.

About 4:30PM, I drove over to the NEX complex and looked at Hampton Blvd. I saw two cars heading east to I-64.

I recall the days when Hampton Blvd from I-64 to the base was two lanes of construction and rush hour was every bit as heavy as any other major city. I also used to wait and work an extra hour on the ship, if I couldn’t get off the base by 1600, because I actually get home at about the same time, if I left about 1700.

In retrospect, the double strands of concertina on top of all the fences, the security measures at every gate, just made me think that the military members will be protected behind jersy barricades and pop up barriers, while those bases, when hardened, just push the adversary out to the places the general public will be, for those soft targets will still generate more publicity if they are attacked.

More on other stops of significance over the next few days.

Good MORNING, Bloggers!

So what’s new in your news? How about the “big boys” discover blogs?

Sun Micro Systems CEO, Jonathon Schwartz is the first Fortune 500 CEO to have his own blog….

I’m sure many of the other 499 will be following in his footsteps very soon….What about it, Bill Gates? It’s not like you haven’t “borrowed” an idea from Sun, Apple, etc some company or person before….

And, you, small time bloggers, thought you were behind the power curve….

A few posts back, I discussed the contrast between two of ship commanding officers, and how they handled being the best ship in the fleet.

This post will be a contrasting article, again between two commanding officers, and I submit, a discussion of how a good leader handles the days of their “watch.” In doing so, it tells a story of today’s political leadership. For the purposes of this discussion, know that references to “Captain A” refer to the same named character of “Act One,” the prior post linked above. “Captain B” here is not the same person discussed in the other post, but he is also someone I served with, so the details are accurate in the depiction.

Once again, the goal of the two captains was to be the best ship in the fleet, a great strategic statement of purpose. They differed on the tactics implemented to the get there.

Tactics:

Captain A: The Ship’s schedule was just that. It was not his schedule, nor his command period schedule. I came to work for him after he had been CO for a year, with a two year tour. Within a few days of relieving the prior XO, the CO asked me how the Plan of Action and Milestones (PO&M) for the upcoming major inspection was coming along. This was mid Oct, and the inspection was happening in mid-February. Quickly culling the on board databanks of very recently accumulated information, I could not recall that being a turnover item, so I said: “I’ll find out.” What I found out, when I asked the Department Heads, is…there wasn’t one. I relayed this to the CO, knowing my newness still was a shield. He took it in stride and had me get to work on it. On cracking the TYCOM instruction on this inspection, the dummy POA&M began with the line “-12 months.” I gulped and got to work.

Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t turn the TV on much, but last night late, I clicked on over to the Military Channel and they had a show on the Coast Guard in Combat in Vietnam. Good story, describing the development of their deployments and duites, early in the Me Cong Delta area, then later in the Rung Sat Special Zone.

How timely a bit of knowledge, given the NYT feels compelled to disclose another National Security program that is being used to keep their city from being attacked again. I maybe watch 20 minutes of TV a week, and there this story was when I fired up the tube….

One side light was about a LORAN-C Navigation System being put in place well from shore. The Chief Petty Officer who set it up was told it was to help with search and rescue efforts. The reality the Air Force had it put in so the bombers could more accurately bomb (stated as 50 YD error system). The project was named “Operation Tight Reign”.

In 1965, a New York Times reported visited the site, and later published an article saying the base was put in with the navigational system to support strategic bombing. The Chief’s boss called to chew him out, but the Chief never had a clue that’s what it was used for. It turns out someone in the Air Force, I believe at the Pentagon, leaked the information.

I think it’s time for a new marketing slogan for the NYT:

The New York Times: Contributing to the loss of America lives for over 40 years!

Interesting side note from the Tight Reign history document (link above): The C-123 began it’s life as a haevy assault glider. The engines were added later, but the design had no room for fuel tanks in the wings. All fuel was carried in external drop tanks…talk about re-use of engineering work!

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Outside the Beltway

Dear Former Vice President Gore:

My I present to you some pictures of natuarlly occuring phenomena that produce lots more problems in regard to the scariest thing ever in your mind:

Meet Mr. Sun. He lives in the sky and his insides are very, very hot. In fact, so hot, it blows all the way to Earth with the Solar Wind. The Solar Wind then rubs against our atmosphere and some of the really, really hot energy stays here, making it hotter.

Meet another friend of mine. I learned about Mr. Volcano in elementary school science classes. Mr. Volcano spews lots of hot air and ash into the sky, like you without the ash…

Take heart, though, Mr. Gore, it seems scientists have come up with a way to keep mankind from adding to the problem of greenhouse gases. Maybe you should eat some of these.

Update 06-23-2006: Massive Underwater Volcano Discovered! My hope is the US Congress can pass a law to prevent the eruption before it happens, but I’m not hopeful they can get it on the agenda before the next elections….

Update 07/19/2006: 25 reasons to ignore the rantings of a crazed politician (note: not a scientist) looking for a comeback. H/T: Outlaw Mike

Cross posted at:
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Don Suber

The purpose of the post is to discuss a similarity between our national leadership issues of the day and the manner in which I closely observed two men lead ships. The names will remain anonymous, but suffice it to say, I know them both well, as I served with both of them.

The President’s poll numbers go down and I suggest, that means something good. The left and the press think it’s bad, but…consider for a moment the coaches and teachers in your life. When you consider those that helped you not only pull yourself up by your bootstraps, but in reality (which you can only see now, many years separated from the days of your discontent) were the ones who lifted you so you could climb that awfully tall wall in front of you. That’s a metaphor for challenges you faced, mentally, physically or emotionally. I would wager that the times when you were saying “I just CAN’T DO IT!” to them, they put on their game face, got in yours and told you, in any of many ways, that yes, you can and not only that, I say you will. You had the feeling somewhere between mild dislike and hate just about then, but….look where that moment took you? Right now, “we” (using the polls published by the HBM/MSM) soundly dislike our President. My thesis is that will change.

In mulling over the topic the last few days, I think I have settled on the functional, short and to the point definitions of “strategy” and “tactics.” Strategy is what you want to do, and tactics are how you get that done. In the case of the national strategy, most people seems to agree. It’s how “we” do it that is the root of the political problem just this moment.

Two captains, two ships, same strategic goal, polar opposite tactics, kind of like America right now.

Goal: Be the best ship in the fleet.

Tactics:

Captain A: You achieve this goal by caring for the crew. You care for the crew by not letting them fail. You set them up for success.

Ok, sounds simple, but, you ask, “how did it look?” It looked like a lot of unhappy sailors and officers, who couldn’t understand why they had to stay aboard until 2000 while inport, re-doing every single damage control (DC) planned maintenance system (PMS) check on the entire ship. It also looked like, when the Board of Inspection and Survey (INSERV) Plan of Action and Milestones (POA&M) was written 4 months before the inspection, in the fall of the year (yep, two major holiday periods were between the POA&M and the INSURV), a whole bunch of upset people who all of a sudden had to make sure the maintenance (not the hard part) and administration of things that should have been taken care of daily, had to be checked and re-checked a few times. Sometimes publications, special tools or consumables had to be located and obtained, consisting of much hiking the piers and “begging.” It looked like drills, drills and drills in all areas of the ship’s required warfare areas beginning right after the INSURV and before heading to GTMO for 4 weeks of refresher training. You get the idea. Work to be done per the regs and tactical and tech manuals, and people, on the ship with the highest operational tempo on the entire coast the 12 months preceding this, who wanted some downtime to see their families. The result, was officers and sailors who would, as they walked the piers in search of “gouge” or stuff, would bad mouth the CO. He was, the spawn of the devil, and just here to make their life miserable.

Captain B: You achieve this goal by caring for the crew. You care for the crew by making sure they are happy and get to do what they ask to do, like seeing family, a lot. How did that look? It looked like a smiling crew that loved their CO, and knew he would make sure they got max time “on the beach.” Not much more to say about that.

Read the rest of this entry »

This link is the news report that indicates Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, TX and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, OR were not treated per the Geneva Conventions.

I’m sure the news is horribly upsetting for the families, and to every service member we have.

As the news broke today, I think I see something I hope does not become a trend. My thoughts (which I posted at Milblogs:

You know, this has been a long time coming. With all the whining and complaining about “GET OUT NOW!” and “SET A DEADLINE FOR WITHDRAWAL!” going on, the bad guys finally figured out a possible working tactic from 1993…

ala Black Hawk Down.

All that took for the “cut and run” to begin was to drag our troops dead bodies thru the streets while the locals desecrated the soldier’s remains. In this case, it appears the two men made it so they’d have to kill them, before they got yhem to a safe house and could do it in front of a video camera.

I think they figured out killing women and children, contractors and more recently, targeting jounalists wasn’t getting the buzz….so, they thought back on their own history of success and these two young men are the unfortunate ones. I bet they are hoping we will get out and do it in the next few weeks.

I think these guys don’t have a clue who they just messed with. Not that I think they will get the same as payback, but I think they’ll see people with “shoot in their eye” and who are focused like a laser beam on taking out the trash…and it just won’t be pretty for the bad guys.

Pray that strong stomachs and backbones prevail. To show a wave of national nausea at this point will just make more attempts at kidnapping the routine, until they can get the video taped for the world.

(End of my comments)

As the day went on and I was on the road, I recalled the name of a man who’s story has helped me realize my life is not so bad. I suspect these two enlisted troops but up a battle on the way to their end, much like Capt Lance Sijan, USAF, CMOH. Lance’s incredible story of a will that would not be broken is chronicled in “Into the Mouth of the Cat”. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it, for at the least, you’ll know for sure no matter how bad your day is, someone did have it worse.

On a night mission over Laos (as WSO), the bombs fuzed and exploded when they were relased, blowing the wings off the F-4C. His pilot didn’t survive, but Lance did. He was wounded badly (broken leg, dislocated shoulder and missing a part of his skull), yet managed to crawl through the Laotian jungle for 28 days, living off what he could find on the ground, before being found (and, yes, captured) by the NVA. They took him to a gaurd station along the Ho Chi Minh Trail and nursed him back to some degree of helath, whereupon, he took a rifle from his captor, beat him senseless, then took off into the jungle once more, using the rifle as a crutch. He was quickly captured, then sent by truck to Hanoi. He endured terrible beatings and torture, yet yelled back at his tormentors and refused to break. He died in captivity.

Between then and now: The NVA presented to the world that they treated our men graciously, war criminals that they were, an didn’t record for general worldwide viewing, the methods of torture used. Now, the Islamic terrorists try to show us such brutality that we will quit the fight, but I know you are aware of this.

I suspect Pfcs Menchaca and Tucker showed the same spirit to their captors. In this manner, I hope history has repeated itself.

Thanks to Mudville Gazette for the Open Post.

Flash News!

The upcoming Computer Shopper cover needed an update before it hits the store and newstand shelves:

It makes you wonder if it’s worth getting a bombproof laptop if you’re going keep the notes on all your peeps there, doesn’t it?

Note: Sometimes life is too funny. I didn’t make up the entire cover (as you can tell, I don’t have Photoshop – but if you do, feel free to do justice to the laptop screen) – it came in the mail a few days ago, as I’m a subscriber. It’s not in the stores yet, nor on the website…but…check one of those two places in the next few days….

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Unpaid Ad (for my own post): While you’re here: Captain B, of the USMC! (OOOORAH!) has a great idea….get a full page ad in a major newspaper for the 4th of July, supporting the troops. Details here!

I struggled last night to determine a way you label the type of information we now deal with on a more and more frequent basis. The “news” items, in the MSM and in more informal forums such as the ‘net, suddenly appear. The little flags in the back of your brain are rasied…something stinks about it, and then the Army of Davids comes out of the woodwork to discredit/disprove the presented “story.”

Examples (because I’m trying to discuss concepts here, at least a few examples are needed to connect the dots):

• Dan Ra^ther’s Texas Air National Guard memo in fall 2004 (C’mon…Word XP in the early 70s?)
• Murder charges leveled at 1st Lt Ilario Pantano, USMC
• The roving bands of murderers in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina
• The Duke Lacrosse Team rape case (allegations by the first women are not being supported by the original statements by the second woman to the police that nothing happened and the credit card and phone records for one of the suspects)
• Everyone’s very special friend, Jesse McBeth, the Special Forces Ranger (who served a total of a few days in the Army before being discharged)
• The supposed Israeli shelling of Palestinian families on the beach (Palestinian explosives laid to deter landings on the beach?)
• The faked massacre by US Army troops where MSM outlets used a photo of a group of civilians executed by Islamic terrorists, captioned as thought the Army had sent or had allowed the troops to do that.
• A Variant form, part truth, part lies, but plenty enought to poison the well: The Haji Girl song. It’s really about terrorists killing their own family in an effort to kill US troops, not about US troops indiscriminately killing innocent Arabs

Common thread: Stories, quickly “tossed” at the public in a shrill manner, or with highly energized words. Some have been proven to have been hoaxes, others are looking very much like they will meet the same end….but…not before they are widely circulated around the globe. They are, much like a flashbang grenade, designed to take over your senses to thoroughly and long enough that you do not see the others slipping into position to secure you, hence the title of the post.

In thinking this through, I realized that the blogging community, so powerful in bringing reality to the table in many of these cases, can only react to such a forcible attack on the truth. In the meantime, the horses have left the barn. we are doing a great job of telling how the horses got loose, and that we surveyed the area, assessed the situation and determined, with cold and unflapable logic, that the gate needed closing and we have done that. The good news: No more horses will get loose. On the other side of the issue, we’d have to become omnicient in order to have posts up in advance, and imbedded electronics just aren’t that capable yet.

Impact statement of such tactics:
In the case of the proven to be a fake Army Special Forces Ranger, I wondered how the words of Jesse McBeth, dicussing how they were told to massacre innocent men, women and children were echoed in the days leter major release of the Haditah story about a week ago. I dislike conspiracy theories, but could his video taped interview have been purposely “placed” to add credibility to the soon to some re-reporting of an indiscriminate rampage by American troops? You know, just another little weight on the scale.

Once it hit the street, particularly on YouTube, you can bet those who already believed this type of behavior was happening, and those who never thought about it, but could call it logical when asked, got their hands on the files of the interview, and then forwarded them on to other like minded people and organizations. Same with the Ra^ther TXANG memo. The blogosphere jumped up, within an hour (for the TXANG memo) and called the niche experts to arms, yet the enemy was already racing from the area, the false message, delivered from “credible sources,” was planted. Like the storeis of the anarchy in New Orleans, and the absense of any governmental forces, they placed a perception, taken as truth even now half a year later, in the minds of those who have come to demand instant delivery of everything in society. Our need for instant gratification has driven the methodolgy for the delivery systems (CNN, Fox, MSNBC, etc). This format is now the accepted style, so we extrapolate that all reported is correct, we quickly, feeling the need to be “included” in all discussions on all topics, make sweeping judgments, more often than not devoid of any personal understanding and there you have it: “I BELIEVE!”

Taking the deliverer to task is still necessary, but the masses have moved on beyond the Da Vinci Code contreversies, and now are worried about reacting to tropical storms as though they were Category 5 hurricanes, while a state governor declares he’d rather be overly prepared then not doing enough. He, too, is driven by not being “Nagined” an losing his political stature, at the expense of cajoling many millions to leave home, but not before they empty the grocery stores shelves and gas station’s tanks, to then have to use cold hard cash for hotels, camp ground, and the stuff you buy when you get to your friend/relative’s house on high ground, to make amends for your intrusion.

That’s it:

Background Noise: SMASH! “BANG!”
You: “I CAN”T SEE! I CAN”T SEE!” (said loudly over the ringing in the ears)
Reporter/Newscaster: “Don’t worry! We’re here from the MSM to tell you what’s happening while you are temporarily blinded!”
“MARINES MASSACRE IN INNOCENT IRAQIS IN COLD BLOOD”
You: “NO! NOT OUR GUYS!”
R/N: “OH, yes…I know you don’t want to believe it, but…Jesse McBeth said he did it with the Special Forces Rangers, as ordered by his superiors!”
Y: “Sounds fishy to me.”
R/N: “Nope, it’s true. Jack Murtha (who was highly decorated in Vietnam and don’t you dare question him on his patriotism) Said they are MURDERERS! and he was one of them once.”
Uncle Jimbo/Matt/Smash/Bill Roggio/Steve Shippert: “Hey! That R/N is full of crap and besides, we need to let the system run it’s course before we start yelling about firing squads.”
R/N: “Don’t listen to those whining bloggers. They just wish they got our salaries, so they’ll try to make us out as liars.”

I think you can extend and revise without objection where that type of discussion has gone in actual cases.

Some amount of mental energy will go into this this weekend, trying to see what the counter may be. I think a good start will be the full page ad in a major newpaper on July 4th. Putting forth the good done, and real “support the troops” messages will begin to push back, but I’m sure there’s more that can be done.

Comments anyone? (is this mic on?)

Welcome LGF Lizards….You may fire when ready (comments are open).

The comment is buried back in a post I did a while back titled “Survivors of the Battle of Coral Sea – USS NEOSHO.”, Jayna left her comment for information on her Grandfather.

Here’s her comment/request:

“I wish I could find out more on the USS Neosho (AO23). My grandfather died on the 68 man raft, less than 2 weeks before my father was born. If anyone knows of any survivors or has letters from the crew of the AO23, please contact me at [email protected]”

I tossing this up with a prayer that through the “six degrees,” someone reading this will be connected with someone who knows. Do you know a WWII Navy Vet? Pass it along, maybe collectively, the community of bloggers can pass her some valuable leads.