Ah, we are living in interesting times.

The President says we need to help secure the Iraqi borders, so foreign fighters don’t come in….

The President, and the Congress (for the most part) says it’s too hard to secure our borders, so we should just accept those here…

Am I missing some thread of consistency here?

Either we take the easy way out in Iraq and commit no more resources to control the Iraqi borders, because, as the Democrats will say it’s not effective and too hard…or we put the effort in over there and OVER HERE!

Anyhow, I think there is a dynamic of both the Republican and Democratic parties being in a turf war over the prospect of new voters to fill their ranks. It’s like Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts fighting it out to control the market. It’s all about power.

Forget the sports analogy, we need some people brave enough to throw themselves on the political hand grenades, or man the Ma-Duece in the face of about 100 people “eying you with bad intent” so that the rest of us survive, even if it means your political life ends. Yes, I prefer the military service model, thank you Mr. Arkin.

Which ever party looks the “most magnanimous” believes they will get the voters to enter and swell their base. We “extra curricular politics” (speaking as one of “those”) aren’t the issue in their mind, but we just may be come the very next election…

Fess up, someone. Who forgot to invite William Arkin of the Los Angeles Times?

That’s what it’s all about. Step forward and apologize…then everything will be alright. In the meantime, some commentary and opinion editorializing:

While bemoaning the job security competition milbloggers in his article “If Only War Reporting Were More Like Sports Reporting”, William Arkin makes a blatant falsehood a pivot point for his discussion:

[…]
I’ve been wanting to write about the 2nd Annual MilBlog conference (I wasn’t invited),…
[…]

I suspect he may not have been graced with a gold foil engraved, leather invitation, secured with a silk ribbon, but then again, I didn’t get one either.

On top of that, he’s way behind the power curve in trying to say something that makes me believe he all of a sudden had equated the conduct of baseball to the conduct of war. I blogged about it some time ago, on several occasions, and I still like my analysis much better.

Soldier’s Dad has already chimed in and was the first to reply to Mr. Arkin at the WAPO site.

I left my version, too..something to do with how the registration was open for almost 6 weeks and at the bargain price of $40. I further went on to say his mis-stating of facts was exactly what makes people distrust them and his article further hurt the “cause.”

I’ve often thought if we could cover the military like sports, with transparency and intimate knowledge and a play-by-play that was both affectionate and unsparingly critical, we’d have a healthier debate. Interest and knowledge on the part of the typical American in foreign affairs and national security would actually increase.

This would go over much better is most people in the US actually had military experience, but even more importantly, an education that thought them how to critically think about such issues. Then, yes, we could have that rewarding debate Mr. Arkin desires.

But alas, it is the military, and whether it is the death of Pat Tillman or a war plan, the impulse of the institution is strategic defense. Secrecy, of course, is always justified on OPSEC grounds.

I’m guessing Mr. Arkin has not spent anytime being the potential target of an enemy, be they German, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Russian, Soviet, Vietnamese, or many nationalities of Islamic jihadis. If so, he would not make such a flippant remark.

Using absolute words can absolutely get you into trouble now, or later, or maybe for a long time, like the rest of your life, when you make sweeping statements. People hang onto absolutes, because they are rare….or should be, but we cry “all” or “nothing” way too much anymore, just to get the gaze shifted to whoever wants attention.

And side note: Yep…OPSEC is the thing we do because stuff is secret.

Anyhow, it’s ironic, isn’t it, that a writer/editorialist can’t move his body around the country in order to even be a fly on the wall, let alone possible meet some MilBloggers in person and sit and chat. Think about it: There we were, in one place, at an appointed time slot on two sequential days. Good thing we haven’t had any attacks in country since 9/11….but, a wide range of bloggers filled the room and that’s only an annual event right now. Perfect timing for anyone who wants to save a lot of funding to get a lot of interviews. I’m sure his Editor would have sprung for the airfare and hotel bill, just on the hopes of a lot of out of context remarks they could quote later on.

And then, he makes it “our” fault for not letting him come to a conference that was open to everyone who wanted to sign up, up to 200 people.

H/T: Milblogs via Mrs Greyhawk

Open trackbacks! Post your Open Trackbacks!

The XO’s work day while deployed. Maybe not much fun, but the stuff that makes the Navy run.

Up at 0500. Roll out of the rack and crank out a bunch of push ups. Do it quietly, for on and FFG, you have a roommate.

Save, shower and dress. “Wash” khakis with long sleeve shirt, sleeves rolled up (down for a ‘bad” day to prevent flash burns). Cotton sweat socks, combat boots. Check for obligatory Buck knife on belt, securely in it’s case. Chief Mac said you need to be ready to be over the side. Wise thought.

Head forward, push several buttons on the door to Radio Central’s cypher lock, step in, scan the space for the smiling faces of the radiomen on watch. Listen for “normal” nosies. Grab large mass of paper in the XO’s message box. Leave Radio, aft a few feet to the ladder, down a deck to the Wardroom. Get a cup of coffee, sit down at the table and begin sorting traffic into the piles for level of priority. Pen action dates and action position on the messages as necessary.

Get up, retreat to the stateroom, turn on the Z-248, start up the AW-SHOOT program and enter items of importance into the database. Select “print” and watch the print outs for “ALL” (mine), OPS, CSO, Supply, ENG and AIR spew forth. Separate them and hang the “ALL” one on my clipboard. Punch and file the action messages in the tickler notebook.

Head down to the Wardroom to eat breakfast. It’s about 0630 by now. Finish eating, take a walk to the Bridge and see how the day is shaping up. Check with the Quartermaster of the Watch and ask the Officer of the Deck how things have been going.

Back to the stateroom to grab the clipboard of all things important. Hear “Quarters. All hands to quarters for muster, inspection and instruction! Fair weather parade!” be passed. Head down to the main deck, then forward to Combat Systems berthing. Walk through, visually noting the general cleanliness of the space. Make notes for Officer’s Call as necessary. Continue the tour of the other berthing spaces, for and aft, repeating the process. Head forward and up to get to the Bridge and then aft of the Pilot House.

“Officer’s Call!” The department heads, or their available fill in, report, with a salute (if we’re covered) “All hands present or accounted for” in turn. Hand out department specific tickler sheets produced by the much maligned management tool. Ask status of items below the “Line of Death.” determine if arbitration or harsh, one way conversation is necessary, depending on how ling the action item has languished below the appointed date of achievement. Scan the Plan of the Day, discuss work or operational issues of importance. Dismiss the department heads and the Command Senior Chief.

Head below two decks, knock on the CO’s Cabin door and enter. Report all hands present or accounted for from the departments. Inform the CO fo the days plan, and discuss any messages that had come in over night needing action. Let him know when the draft responses to any “P4s” (“Personal For” the captain message traffic) might be ready for his review. Spend a little time discussing other scheduling matters. Request he not use the entire small arms ammunition training allowance today, so I might get a chance to fire a few rounds off the Bridge Wing.

Head back to the Stateroom, commence pretending to do paperwork, knowing they will soon (if they haven’t already, stacked up at my door) arrive with all manner of questions to be answered. Make sure the “Memo from the XO” paper hanging on the cork board on the Stateroom door is not too out of date with the “Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun” saying of the day. If it is, grab the book off the desk and copy a new one for posting. If not, get to work digging through the “IN” basket.

At 1000, “XO’s Messing and Berthing Inspection!” is passed. Get up, head to one of the berthing compartments and review the cleanliness with the petty officer in charge of the compartments. Make sure the head area is cleaned well, looking around behind things, in things and using a mirror to inspect those out of the way areas. Make sure the laundry is being taken care of, and ask if there are any hinderances to getting the deep cleaning done. After checking the berthing areas, inspect the Mess Decks, Galley and Scullery areas for proper sanitation. Check the temperatures of the scullery equipment on the final rinse section to make sure the eating utensils will be safe for the next meal.

By now it’s getting close to lunch (1130). Spend the few free minutes wandering the far ends of the ship, making sure things are stowed and cleaned up.

Lunch time. Enjoy a little conversation, check watch for upcoming “local apparent noon” time. excuse myself to shoot a sun line at “LAN.” Invite the officer who have yet to have completed their Surface Warfare Officer PQS to come along. Hear one say “I’ll be up in a few minutes, XO!” knowing he doesn’t get it yet….

ON the Bridge Wing, watch the Sun in the sextant rise, rise, rise, then hang in place and then just begin to move down. Call “MARK!” to the Quartermaster of the Watch. Plot the sun line on the chart, stow the sextant in the Chart Room and head back to Radio to get another handful of traffic. Back to the Stateroom to review and sort the new stack of paper. File as necessary.

At 1300, “Turn To!” is announced to get the Ship’s company back to work. Continue on for me.

And that’s the first 8 hours of the day. More next week.

The “Snipes.” They work all the time. I didn’t understand this until I became the pretend leader of 75 professional engineers.

From the 5/22/2007 CENTCOM News Release:

Engineering Department Keeps Shreveport Running

22 May 2007
By Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Seth Clarke

USS SHREVEPORT, At Sea – In the main machinery rooms of USS Shreveport (LPD 12), an Austin-class amphibious docking ship, earplugs are mandatory. The spaces are loud and hot, and without the continued attention of the crew, the ship simply would not go anywhere.

The Sailors on the bridge may run the ship, but they perform their jobs thanks to their shipmates several decks below—the Sailors that make the ship run.

Photo: Machinist’s Mate 3rd Class Junior Liverpool stands watch below decks in main machinery room one aboard USS Shreveport (LPD 12). The engineering department on board maintains the boilers, desalinizes seawater into potable drinking water, controls electricity generators, and speeds up or slows down the throttle of the ship.

“The main spaces are basically the heart of the ship,” said Master Chief Machinist Mate Donald N. Duffy, Shreveport’s engineering department leading chief petty officer. “If they don’t work, we don’t go anywhere. We don’t have heat, air conditioning or water. We have no way to cook food, no lights to see with and no electricity to run equipment on the ship.”

Sailors working in the belly of Shreveport pull more than their own weight. A lean crew, the engineering staff sometimes stand six-and-six watches: Six hours on, six off, and six on again. That makes for plenty of long workdays.

Duffy said the hard work continues when the ship pulls into port, and most of the crew departs for liberty.

“When we’re in different ports, no matter where we go in the world, one of the plants has to stay up so we can have electricity and air conditioning,” said Duffy. “Other divisions and other departments can secure their equipment, and everybody can go on liberty. We have to maintain a full watchbill.”
[…]

Read it all

I enjoy reading the hisotry of military things, with an emphasis on Naval matters. Between several of the Navy bloggers, there’s plenty to do. EagleSpeak, CDR Salamander and SteelJaw Scribe all have great regularly scheduled posts on history.

I have been pondering covering ship classes for a while now, but recently began reading “Six Frigates” and have run across a laundry list of names that I have heard ships named after. I knew the history of some of modern day names ships have been named after, but never paid attention to those from a few centuries ago. I think it’s time, supported by the wonderful story Ian Toll tells, to connect those who put our Navy to sea in the 1790’s, and fought our first battles to the issues they faced in a new nation to the ships that were named in their honor. My pastor regularly says “Context is everything.” Here is a case in which this applies.

I’m not sure if I’ll make it “Ship History Saturday” or just pick a day and go for it, but watch for it soon.

Heads up from Flag Gazer via email:

Sgt. Rafael Peralta: Act of Honor
This Saturday, May 19, 2007, at 6:00/7:00 p.m., Act of Honor about the hero Sgt. Rafael Peralta.

The History Channel’s summary:

On November 15, 2004, Sgt. Rafael Peralta died while fighting to secure a key insurgent stronghold in Iraq. Peralta and fellow Marines were ambushed by guerillas who then lobbed a grenade at them. Already seriously wounded, Peralta shielded his companions by covering the explosive device with his body, saving their lives and sacrificing his own. Watch Peralta’s extraordinary journey from Tijuana, Mexico to San Diego to the streets of Iraq. Included are interviews with his widowed mother and three siblings in San Diego. I urge you to watch and learn about a true hero, a Marine, an American.

For more information see my posts which include many comments by
Sgt. Rafael Peralta’s family and friends:
Sgt. Rafael Peralta – New Photos
HERO: Sgt. Rafael Peralta
[This is a reprint of my most recent blog post: Sgt. Rafael Peralta:
Act of Honor
*This email is a one time ever mailing to all of my Gmail contacts. If you don’t know me, don’t worry, you will never receive another
message from me. I apologize for any inconvenience. Thank you.
Don Danz
http://www.DanzFamily.com

We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
– John F. Kennedy, 9/12/1962 at Rice University

I know it was about the moon, but it is about the greater purpose we have in all our endeavors, and this one, the issue of illegal immigration, is no different.

First: I have not read the text of the elite group of senators and the illegal immigration support groups done is a closed meeting, circumventing the manner in which the business of the people has been done for a long time. News reports began at “380 pages” and as of last night, it was “1000 pages.” Some of what I write may prove to be off the mark, but some, I predict, will remain as factually analysis of the situation we’re facing.

Update: Some details listed here.

Second: I have a complaint for this group, who would be able to find time in their busy schedules to hammer out such a long document, while our troops are still waiting for the fund to continue the prosecution of national security affairs. Shame on them. I’m sure at least a few service members and their families share my wonderment at the ability of these senators to take time from a pressing issue, to rapidly address and issue they have been largely ignoring since they did something like this in 1986.

On to my regularly planned comments on this bill:

The overall “feel” I get from the elected special people is “It’s too hard, so we just have to throw our hands up and surrender.”
This, I submit sounds exactly like the calls to pull out of Iraq, and also ties into the title of this post. Just as lawyers are forcing us to a risk adverse society (except for not trying to take the one thing that kills about 40K Americans annually away), Congress, and the will of the people is shifting to not wanting to take on the long, hard, uphill effort that complex issues require. Bad trend.

What are these guys thinking? A 1000 page bill, not even published for review by we “extra-curricular” types of people. let alone the many lobbyists, and they want to take it to the floor the following Monday? For a few months, while working on my Master’s I had to read 600 pages of history a week, plus write a paper, plus attended classes (Monday – Thursday 0900-1500). It was a challenge to not just skim through the reading, and to actually absorb the information well, and that was with the help of the Dick Cavet speed reading course they offered for free. I would submit the 100 pages of information will be difficult for any outsider to read and comprehend fully in the time alloted before we need to be able to intelligently comment and inform our representatives of our thoughts.

I know one talk show host told his interns they would each have to read 20 pages (wow, that’s a lot of interns!). I don’t think that will do it either. Why? Simple. The many processes and procedures listed will have to intertwine significantly. While I may comprehend the 20 pages I read and provide an adequate “book report” to the boss, the dead ends and illogical connections that will abound in the document will be missed, some of which, unless someone catches, may need major rewriting, before they become law.

I say this because, in order to not make bad decisions, I got pretty good at making myself chase references to other parts of government writings, or the other documents linked to. I was constantly amazed at the problems that surfaced, while each document had been written in good faith for success. What does that mean? Several smart people need to get their coffee, donuts and pizza orders placed, and get a comfortable, but no to much so, chair, a few highlighters and note paper. Not only will they have to read the work from one end to the other, but be ready to chase each and every rabbit trail presented, ensuring the consistency and continuity is there. Not only will associated/referenced documents need to be read, but they must be checked for their currency.

It is in this type of review that the “unintended consequences” will be uncovered. While the document was most likely written by many, only in the reading by individuals will uncover the flaws.

From an implementation standpoint, the details I so far understand are for the illegals to come forward and identify themselves. AT this point, they will have background checks run to see if the meet some standard of “lawfulness” and allowed or not to stay n the country. This check will only indicate their criminal history while they have been in the US. What about the history they may have had in their countries of origin? I’m sure the proposed legislation will cover this, but I’m also suspecting it will assume other nations have such interconnected crime databases as we do (which, by many accounts, are still lacking all the details for issues noted within our borders), which, I believe is a bad assumption across the board.

As far as asking the illegals to “step into the light” and sign in, please, consider our own internal attempts to register and track the residences of sex offenders in the country. The numbers do not even come close to 12M people and there are regular reports of how a number of them have not met the requirements to report and register and law enforcement has a difficult time devoting the assets to this chase. How much better do you think this will be when we at this task? Not only is it a time consuming effort, there are funds, currently unbudgeted, I’d guess, for the man hours to just do this, let along the requirements for office space, vehicles, computer resources, databases storage and connectivity, creation of the tamper-proof IDs (I have priced printers to make ID cards for a job I once worked – they are above $1K just for plain old ID cards), etc, etc, etc. Besides the trauma of all of a sudden dealing with the added burden on the social welfare payment system, what about the extra cost for enforcement and the administration? Maybe that’s why the Dems want the war ended, so they can shift the funds to getting the new voter base in place for 2008…but maybe I’m just cynical.

Once more I will bring up the need for all of us, born or legally documented citizens to soon have the same biometric data card the “illegals” will have. In the risk adverse society we have been indoctrinated into by the legal caste, employers, subject to monetary penalties beginning at $5000, and moving up from there, will not want to risk their business by having unknowingly having an illegal working for them. The bill, I’m sure, will state they have to have knowledge of the illegal status as a part of the offense, but think about this: The defense of any charges will still cost the owners time and money to keep from being fined. The result? They won’t hire us, unless we have the same untamperable evidence to present to them. Once more, they lawyers feather their own nest by making sure an entirely new set of crimes can be added to the list of defenses they can provide. I’m sure it will become another legal specialty, and the Yellow Pages of communities everywhere will need to have this section added soon.

I’m not liking the tenor of the message from those elected to serve us, not the speed at which this is all happening, especially when we aren’t able to take care of the “wolf closest to the sled”, let alone our increasing inability to take on the hard things we encounter in our time.

And in ending, two thoughts for Senator McCain:

– My experience in government is that when things are non-controversial and beautifully coordinated, there is not much going on.

– In the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding on the back of the tiger ended up inside.
– John F. Kennedy

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Click on the book cover to get your copy!What if someone wrote a book on how to write a book? Someone has! After muscling her way through her first book, Jessi Williams decided to document the process, so other might be able to go down that path to publishing theirs, learning from her experience!So, now it’s time and the last excuse of “I don’t know how” is eliminated because “How to Write Your First Book” will walk you through the process.

Click the link, get the book and get to compiling your work into a book!

Tracked back @: Yankee Sailor

Scanning the net before work, Lex’s post reminded me of the incident that shaped a variety of things in the days afterwards. The things not so obvious in the the story of a ship attacked and damaged with lives lost…..”Battle Orders” became a standard item in the daily underway routine. In addition to the long used “Night Orders” that laid out the Captain’s wishes for the hours when he would be getting that most valuable commodity, sleep. “Battle Orders” reflected the settings of the Combat System of the ship, and any anticipated changes in readiness already planned, that the watches in the night could operate on, without waking the CO.Damage control changed. New pieces of equipment were rapidly fielded: “FFE,” the fire fighting ensemble, the “NFTI,” an infrared detection device, exothermic torches to allow cutting of aluminum bulkheads and decks, and the Jaws of Life were the major ones. Along with those came training changes in the “train the way you fight” methodology.Lectures were held in the school houses discussing the issues of crew fatigue in the long effort, in a hot, smoky environment. New discussions were earnestly held about “what condition do you place the CIWS (Mk-15 Close in Weapons System) in and when? “Auto/Auto?” Much more was talked on.Last year, here’s what I posted about my arrival at work in regards to my part of involvement in this day in history.I’ve not only walked the decks of a sister ship for 18 months, and sailed in the same waters, doing the same mission as the STARK a little over two years after the incident, but earlier in my career, I ran the office that trained the FFG-7 (Flight I and II) Pre-Commissioning Combat Systems teams. STARK was one of the crews my shop worked with for 4 weeks in the FFG-7 Combat Systems Operational Team Training Course at Fleet Combat Training Center, Atlantic. It was an interesting journey across twenty years that kept interacting with the little ships that did so much, for such a bargain basement price. Brad Peniston’s book, “No Higher Honor” about the USS SAMUEL B ROBERTS (FFG-58) mine hit also covers the history of the acquisition and design decisions of the OLIVER HAZARD PERRY Class Guided Missile Frigates. I’d recommend the book again, to help frame some of the issues the STARK faced as a result of the work done in getting that class of ship to the building ways and to sea.A few more years later, and I think 10 years ago this month, I reported to the NAVSURFLANT Combat Systems Mobile Training Team as the Combat Systems Assessment Officer. On those hundreds of inspections I did over three years, I regularly walked up to talk with the lookouts during the Detect-to-Engage (DTE) exercise and asked them where the “threat” (usually a contracted Learjet) for the scenario. Most every time they hadn’t been clued in by the CIC team as to what was happening, let alone where to look. I’d spend a few minutes letting them know they were important eyes for the ship and how little time they were likely to have when a cruise missile came over the horizon at them, but it was maybe their only chance…..The STARK hit affected quite a lot of the “business as usual” conditions.Update: CDR Wm Boulay, USN (Ret), the XO of USS CONYNGHAM (DDG-17) left this comment today, but on the post from last year:

Thank you for this post. I was the XO of the Conyngham that you referred to. I am so very pleased to see that the contributions of the “Gus Boat” crew mentioned. I also drafted the message you read, using the immediate observation of my chiefs and officers for the body. Today is the 20th anniversary and as I do every May 17, I say my prayers for the men we left behind, and search the ever dwindling news stories for mentions of the anniversary. That is how I found this post and the absolutely correct summary of our message. I will finish with the observation that a few years later, Surface program Director under the watch of Joe Taussig, the Deputy Undersecretary of the Navy for Safety and Survivability, I helped make good on those words by deploying COTS solutions for the most serious material deficiencies and later, at the Office of Naval Research, helped develop a fire research program EX-USS Shadwell in Mobile Alabama. On her we can simulate the 2000 degree fire that almost took the Stark and from what we learned and continue to learn there, our fire fighting posture is vastly improved.

Tracked back @: Yankee Sailor

For the longest time now, the SWO (‘”‘Shoe”) community had a backchannel place to vent or trade barbs at Sailor Bob.

Sailor Bob, being the gracious guy he is, helped the depth challenged and now there is Rigged for Dive to provide the same spirit of camaraderie and silence (the the rest of us) for the Slient Serviceâ„¢.

Spread the word….but for you sub bloggers, don’t write it in there and not share with us….