I want to get this post of thanks started. Laughing Wolf, a guest poster at Black Five had put up a short post on how much money he wasn’t spending at Hilton corporate properties, as fall out of how the DC Hilton mis-treated the owners of Fran O’Briens.

I commented that it would be great if someone would create a website where those protesting the action to close down a restaurant that served meals to our wounded veterans would show graphically the mounting lost revenues. The mind of any human loves graphics….I like computers, but I’m not up to the integration of data to a website, so I figured posting the thought might get someone’s attention.

In just short of one hour and 56 minutes, MSchienle popsted he had registered the domain of Perish Hilton and just happened to make a living taking data, formatting it and posting in in web based formats. I followed the link to the website Custom Visuals, LLC and I’d say this poster is up to the task.

For your readers, if you’re upset about the decision to shut down Fran O’Briens in DC, and you travel, shunning putting money in Hilton’s cash register, check out this method of making your feelings known. I have no idea on how this will come off, but…keep checking to see when the site comes up and any directions for submitting receipts for adding to the accumulating data.

BZ to MSchienle for supporting our troops!

For a short history lesson, Fuzzybear Lioness broke the story earlier this year about Hilton, just two months before the end of the lease for the restaurant in the basement of the DC Hilton, that they had decided not to renew. John of Castle Argggh! picked the story up (he has a much bigger readership) and the rest is history. It certainly was a main point of discussion at the MilBloggers Conference in April, 2006, as we met there Friday night before the conference to support Fran O’Brians.

Part II

I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but it seems something is very wrong in the world of international relations….

Summary of my confussion:

Hezbollah (translated “The Party of Allah”), a military on a shoestring style organization, dedicated to the extermination of those humans of Jewish descent, has conducted cross international boundry incursions to kidnap citizens of another country and susbequently has been launching unguided rockets from Lebanon (a soverign nation, with defined borders), into Israel (a soverign nation, with defined borders – sorry for the repetition, but I want to make sure my assumptions and quandry are understood). Israel, as a recognized nation by United Nations mandate in 1948, responds in an act of self defense to recover the kidnapped citizen (soldiers) and to cause the cessation of the offensive actions of Hezbollah, and thereby keep the rest of their citizen safe from harm.

I understood, maybe falsely, from my education in Civics/Government over the many years, that the purpose of a government was, at the top level, to defend their citizens, where every they may be, and to control those lines in the sand, earth and water, called borders.

The majority of the world leaders chastise the attacked country and tell them to stop protecting their citizens.

The nation from where the attacks eminate from first claims impotence, then (today), says they will send their Army in to assure the peace, if the attackee ceases and desists. The really important answer I need is whether the Lebanese Army is inept, incapable, impotent (in the most derogatory of meanings) or up to the task of taking on an entrenched organization, that has managed to obtain and transport into a soverign nation, heavy military anti-aircraft and -tank and rocket type artillery pieces, as well as standard light infantry rifles and crew served weapons….

The world is upside down and the precedent here is the same situation could now happen across any borders and we will then have a model of how the world is to respond: Praise the attacker (who, via massive media campaigns, claims they have been wronged since time long passed, in this case in point, thousands of years), and pressure the defender to stop defending themselves.

Read the rest of this entry »

Capt Lex tries to convince us he has brain lock. Not a chance for the master poet/author and philospher of all things Naval Aviation related….

I, on the other hand, sometimes think like that, yet, via the magic of the net (invented by Al Gore), lo and behold, things of interest just appear….

For example: Last night while looking for pictures of ships, I came across a poem, in hand written an illustrated form, that speaks to the fine life of the legendary destroyerman. A creature of iron constitution, a stomach that can handle greasy food in a hurricane/typhoon, eagle eyes (correctable to 20/20 and not color blind, but possibly partly deaf from too many gun shoots or years as the MPA/CHENG/DCA/ELECO/AUXO/B DIV, etc), and a sense of dark humor of their own.

The larger version is here, but difficult to read.

Fear not, my few readers….Here it is in more legible form, even if it lacks the character of the original graphics.

Destroyer Life
by Berton Braley

There’s a roll and a pitch a heave and a hitch
to the nautical gait they take,
For they’re used to the cant of decks aslant
as the white toothed breakers break,
On the sides that thrum like a beaten drum
to the thrill of the turbines might,
As the knife-bow leaps thru the yeasty deeps
with the speed of a shell in flight.

Oh their scorn is quick for the crews that stick
to a battleship steady “floor,”
And they love the lurch of their own frail perch
at thirty five knots or more.
They don’t get much of the drill and such that battleship sailors do,
But sail the seas in their dungarees,
a grimy destroyer crew.

They needn’t climb at sleeping time
it to a hammock that sways and bumps,
Don’t leap, Kerplunk! In a cozy bunk
that quivers and bucks and jumps.
They hear the sound of seas that pound
on the quarter inch plates of steel,
And close their eyes to the lull abyes
of creaking sides and steel.

They’re a husky crowd and vastly proud
of the slim grey craft they drive.
Of the roaring flues and hammering screws
that make her a thing alive.
They love the lunge of the surge and plunge
and the mark of her smoke screens, too
As they sail the seas in their dungarees,
a grimy destroyer crew.

Back to Neptunus Lex for a moment and some analysis:

After he made his rhetorical post, he made two more and has already made three today. Go figure.

August 2nd, 1943:

John F. Kennedy’s PT boat was run over while patroling the Ferguson and Blackett Straits near the islands of Kolumbangara, Gizo, and Vella-Lavella.

And, as an aside, it seems the great ship finder, Robert Ballard found the wreckage in 2002.

From Black Five, a post about a project to have each of the 2996 victims from 9/11/2001 to have a blogger each post a tribute (on 9/11, of course).

This link will get you there. Take a few moments, fellow bloggers, to sign up, and then connect your life with one that was cut short.

The cost involved is your time and your compassion, nothing more. There only to the 1100s….so there are plenty of names left.

A few days ago, I blogged out loud about the muddled assumptions. One comment I made was I didn’t think we had faced a situation where we had had a populace with a significant number of citzens who held an allegiance to something above the nation itself. I wrote that before the shooting in Seattle at the Jewish Federation Building, but the behavior of the man who entered the building, using a hostage to get in the door is exactly the mindset that is so troubling:

Amy Wasser-Simpson, the federation’s vice president, told the Seattle Times that Haq got past security at the building and shouted, “I’m a Muslim American; I’m angry at Israel,” before he began shooting.

I’ve rethought the issue, and we have had a situation like this before. It began on Dec 7th, 1941, but the outcome is not the same. Back then, the response from the Japanese-American community, was to send forth the 442nd Regimental Combat Team:

On December 7, 1941, the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was attacked by Japan. This act thrust the United States into World War II. All men who were eligible for military duty were called upon to fight, except Japanese Americans. Shortly after Pearl Harbor, Japanese American men were catagorized 4C, non-draftable. Moreover, they and their families were placed into concetration camps by the United States Government. However, on February 1, 1943, the government reversed its decision on Japanese Americans serving in the armed forces and announced the formation of the 442nd Infantry Regimental Combat Team.
The 442nd initially consisted of Japanese American volunteers from the mainland United States and the Hawaiian Islands. There were many different reasons why these young men volunteered. Despite the rampant racism towards Japanese Americans during this period, many volunteers felt that if there was to be any future for Japanese in the United States, they had to demonstrate their loyalty by fighting for their country.

The majority of volunteers from Hawaii and the mainland were sent to Camp Shelby in Mississippi. Initially, tension existed between the Hawaiians and the mainlanders. The mainlanders often degraded the Hawaiians for their poor speech and “barbaric” aggressive manners, thus causing them to feel inferior. Due to the excessive fighting and dissension among the troops, the commanding officers were ready to terminate the training. However, a suggestion was made to have the Hawaiians and mainlanders visit relocation camps. After Hawaiian Japanese Americans visited some of the camps, they realized the hardships mainlanders had gone through and a new sense of respect developed for each other. One Japanese American remembers, “the regiment was not formed when we volunteered, nor when we arrived in Camp Shelpby, but rather, it was formed after this (relocation camp) visit” (Matsuo, Boyhood to War. 73)

When this unified unit arrived in Europe, they still had to prove their competence, as well as their loyalty to white soldiers and commanding officers. However, after liberating the small town of Bruyeres in Southern France and rescuing the “Lost Battalion” (141st), Japanese American soldiers gained the respect of their fellow soldiers, the townspeople of Bruyeres, and particularily the members of the “Lost Battalion.” For their performance, the 442nd has been recognized as the most decorated unit in United States history. 18,000 total awards were bestowed upon the 442nd, including 9,500 Purple Hearts, 52 Distinguished Service Crosses, Seven Distinguished Unit Citations, but only one Congressional Medal of Honor (Crost, Honor by Fire. 179). Although their impeccable service earned the 442nd the respect of their fellow soldiers, they were not perceived in the same way by American society when they returned to the West Coast.

Immediately following their return, the 442nd realized that the attitudes of many Americans had not changed. World War II veterans of Japanese ancestry were welcomed home by signs that read, “No Japs Allowed,” and “No Japs Wanted.” In many cases, veterans were denied service in local shops and restaurants, and their homes and property were often vandalized or set on fire.

Joe Byrne
Kyle Higuchi
Jason Opdyke
Mario Sani

Notice the mentality shift. In 1941, those oj Japanese descent felt they owned it to their new nation, and the rest of the citizens, to demonstrated in a courageous manner, their loyalty. Their nickname: “Go For Broke.” we know what that means and that’s how they fought, becoming the most decorated regiment in the US Army.

Get a load of this:

The 442nd Regimental Combat Team was the most decorated unit for its size and length of service, in the entire history of the U.S. Military. The 4,000 men who initially came in April 1943 had to be replaced nearly 3.5 times. In total, about 14,000 men served, ultimately earning 9,486 Purple Hearts , 21 Medals of Honor and an unprecedented eight Presidential Unit Citations.

Anyone who questions service like that has lived in a hole their entire lives. They, like the units comprised of African-Americans, such as the USS MASON (DE-529) and the 761st Tank Battalion, were accepted at the front lines as fighting men, equal to the challenge of combat.

The situation of the day, vs the time of the reloaction camps of the 1940’s are opposite in how communities of non-native Americans handled the decision of loyalty.

I also think, having found the very consise history of the 442nd I quoted above, that is it interesting to observe how the rest of the population reacted. Once again, it is from oppostie ends of the spectrum: At the end of the war, the Japanese-Americans (and African-Americans) who stepped up to the plate and shed their blood for “the Man,” suffered cruelty and assaults from those who they had defended. In this day, while the Muslim-Americans don’t stand and proclaim their alliegance to the nation that affords them freedom, and, most notable, does not relocate them into camps, which conficating their money, personal property and businesses to divide between the Americans in their communities, we also go out of our way to make sure no one is offended by the words in print or on TV, nor any action taken by law enforcement that might be looked upon as “profiling.”

One group showed us they were with us, while the military members from the land of their ancestors, pilaged, raped and murdered their way across China and the Pacific Islands and Rim before cannibalizing our aviators at Chi Chi Jima.

Today, those who have come to us from the Islamic countries openly condem us when we discuss taking action to secure the freedom of all of our citizens, to include them. It’s a world upside down.

To the men of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, I salute you and the legacy you gave your new nation. To the Islamic-Americans, I challenge you to read their history and decide your response.

Update 8/01/2006: CDR Salamander has a post regarding this topic…

It’s a day late, but BMCM(MDV) Carl M. Brashear, USN (Ret), is worth a few moments.

*****
Update 07/31/2006: Neptunus Lex has posted a report of BMCM(MDV) Brashear’s funeral.

Link to the Navy News article on the funeral.

Update 08/03/2006: Military.com’s discussions on the article they have about Master Chief’s funeral. A few people who commented served with, or met the Master Chief.
*****

I can’t comment on his life, other than I heard of him when I was commissioned. He was the legend we know of by then. He passed away Tuesday. I Would like to take you a little way into the world Carl Brashear worked in, so you might appreciate, all the more, what a heroic man he was

This is the insignia Boatswain’s Mate Master Chief Brashear wore. It is silver anodized in color, not to be mistaken as the Diving Officer’s insignia that is gold. The MDV insignia is far more prestegious. A master diver has come through all the salvage diving training, and is also a supervisor, not just someone who has been a SCUBA diver, 2nd and 1st Class diver, but also a Saturation diver. Along the way, the Master Diver will have learned an incredible amount of diving medicine to augment the skills gained as a salvor. The Master Diver is the real person in charge of the technical work on a dive. The Diving Officer present, is the one responsible for the work.

Until sometime in the 80’s, the Navy used the MK V diving gear to make salvage dives. Carl Brashear, missing one leg, dove in this equipment through out his Naval career. I spent two months in the salavge officer pipeline at the beginning of my time in the Navy, but found out it wasn’t my calling.

I mde my first indoc dive in one of these in Jan 77 at NAB Little Creek. I followed that one dive (which was a check off item to be able to go to diving school) with three weeks of MK V dives at Anacostia Naval Shipyard, Washington, DC, beginning in February 77. I recall the data like it was yesterday:

Rubberized cotton suit: 18#
Spun copper helmet and breastplate: 54#
Boots: 38#
Weight belt: 98#
Total: 210#

Do the math. Except for the weight of the boots, most all of that is positioned above the knees, where Master Chief has his amputation. So take the 40# off the 210# total and do walk around a rolling, heaving deck, getting to the water, and coming out. It is work, without a handicap of a stump scrapping in a prosthesis.

My diving officer training wouldn’t have included saturation diving, which BMCM Brashear may have also been qualified. I can’t recall it exactly, but it seems the extra equipment, part of which is the cannister of CO2 scrubbing chemicals attached to the back of the helmet that took the total weight of the suited up diver up 300 lbs.

It is a physically demanding duty to be a salvage diver, but these days, they have markedly improved equipment, and are now using the MK 12 rigs, witch can be used for several types of diving.

So there’s a little history to help you connect with the persistnet spirit that we know as BMCM(MDV) Carl Brashear.

Oh, and if you have one of these laying around you don’t want, send me an email…I’ll gladly pay the shipping!

Thanks to Mudville Gazette for the Open Post!

After reading “No Higher Honor,” I found Brad Peniston had written another book, “Around the World with the US Navy.”

Published in 1999, the book is a travelog of just about every Navy community, short the SEABEES and the SEALS. Brad spent about 2 years covering the story, with a period in the summer of 1998 where he and his crew spend about 2 months observing the world of Navy units, traveling between Navy commands, ashore, afloat and in the air. The meat of the book are the statements made of the sailors and officers in a Navy that was seeing the shortages that came as a result of the rapid drawdowns when it was clear the Cold War had ended.

The beauty of this read is the straight forward, no nonsense descriptions of life in the Navy, with Brad’s added talent to paint a word picture of the living envirnment, physically and emotionally. from boot Seamen to senior admirals, Brad captured wonderfully illuminating insights, as well as the detail of life at sea, in the air, or under the waves.

I recognized several names of former ship and schoolmates, and found out some of the performance of Admiral Boorda’s Smart Ship Program, which I managed to sit in a meeting to get my command a seat at the table in the very beginnings of the USS YORKTOWN’s recreation.

Even with my interaction with some of the communities mentioned, which included the Special Boat Units and the VR Naval Air Logistics Operations (NALO) units, I gained a greater understanding of some of the non-Surface Warfare related communities.

Maybe it’s time for Book II of the series, with Brad and his photgraphers heading out again to sample the fleet in the wake of the major strikes conducted in support of OIF and OEF.

If you would like to get a detailed glimpse of what it’s like to be a sialor maintianing a carrier’s arresting gear, on being on a Visit Boarding & Search crew, or life beneatht he waves as you sit in the control room and dive the “boat” upon clearing the shallow water, or if you always wondered what a P-3C Orion crew did, thinking they were just there for the per diem check, this is the book for you.

From a historical perspective, it’s a documentary of the strains on the manpower of the Navy during some difficult years and worth hearing what real operators had to say about the work they did to keep things going.

Maybe you’ll find some of your old shipmates in there, too.

I picked up this link to Mahmood’s Den blog from Chapomatic, who’s broad reach provides many interesting links, and his own excellent commentary and analysis, when he (Chap) gets rolling.

Here is the point, from near the end of Mahmood’s post that I think is particularly notable:

Regarding the deafening Arab silence in condemning Israel, I think it demonstrates several important factors:

[…]

5. Nothing, absolutely nothing demonstrates the tribalism of Arabs more than wars and conflicts, even on a micro level, let alone this “huge” conflict we have on our hands now. These events crystalizes positions – unfortunately – without much thought beyond the family, tribe, sect, country. The brain ceases to function beyond those things, and of course logic has left the building quite a while ago, and if – and that’s a big if – one declares a position slightly out of those drawn and accepted lines, then that person is immediately vilified, attacked verbally and possibly physically, labeled a traitor and a sell-out, and ostracized. A lot of these people who do question accepted norms more often than not answer with their lives.

Violence, you see, is something that is built into our psyche as Arabs, if the situation does not yet demand the use of fists, then at least the floor belongs to that person who shouts loudest. [CSA emphasis added] Most definitely not to that person who is trying to reason and look at alternate points of view to arrive at a conclusive solution.

It is this trait, I think, more than any other that has succeeded for centuries in cowing us, in forcing us to happily accept tyrants, and has allowed us to regress rather than progress. And we really have only ourselves to blame.

One of my friend Mohammed’s conclusions is that this situation will breed more terrorists. Mohammed I agree with you; this will most certainly rub some passions raw and someone will take it upon themselves to “avenge” the Arab honour. After all, Hizballah’s birth was another Israeli incursion into Lebanon, Al-Qa’idah’s birth was the mountains of Afghanistan in response to Soviet intervention, Zarqawi et al is the result of the American insurrection in Iraq, so it is safe to assume that this conflict too will give birth to some more “freedom fighters” who will continue to perpetuate and wreak havoc in the world.

By the same token, and in the continued absence of proper educational systems in the Arab and Muslim worlds [CSA emphasis], one that values critical thinking rather than learning by rote, there is no doubt in my mind, that someone, somewhere, out of 250 millions of my Arab brothers and sisters, and the more than 1.3 billion Muslims around the world, will have read part of this post and have already decided that I too, should be ostracized for my views… Simply for asking the “wrong” questions.

So…what does Plato have to do with this?

“Man, as we say, is a tame and civilized animal; nevertheless, he requires proper instruction and a fortunate nature, and then of all animals he becomes the most divine and most civilized; but if he be insufficiently or ill educated he is the most savage of earthly creature.” – Plato

I do believe there may be a connection between studying a single set of writings as the sum total of wisdom and the outcome discussed above by Mahmood.

With the Middle East issues coming to blows, and the Naval Academy courts-martialing a Midshipman, I’m thinking it’s time to sort through our box of paradigms and toss out the old ones, and then get the new ones, which, more than likely will cost us some amount of effort, but…I think it’s necessary.

In a microcosm, the current Israeli-Hizbollah-Lebanon conflict provides a model of a new form of warfare. It’s not that other hadn’t thought of this, but it’s more that Hizbollah is showing you can run a military force (in conventional terms), without the overhead. Think about it: No uniforms to issue, then have to haggle with some lobbyists from the textile industry every few years and have to buy everyone (or cause them to buy) new stuff to wear. As far as base infrastructure, if you’re using someone’s house, they are paying the utility bills and doing the routine upkeep. You may have to help out if you plan to dig a tunnel through the area, but…it’s still on the cheap.

Like the VC, they stash weapons and ammo around, in a warehouse here, a home there, maybe hit up the local imam to use the utility room at the mosque, too. From a soldiers point of view, it’s not like they have to memorize their weapon serial number and have to account for it. In this case, the loss of capital assets has to be a bigger expense than the US Congress would allow, on a percentage basis…anyhow, Hizbollah is the proxy for Iran, which helps out on costs for the Iranians. I’m sure they aren’t putting money aside for their retirement.

Confusing…but, not if you think about it for a while. It does require that we (the rest of the world) re-look at international law and the (recently much misunderstood) Geneva Conventions. For that matter, I think the SCOTUS staff anf leadership need some serious back to school work about what constitutes a “treaty,” particularly in the INternational arean. It seems like not all that long ago, several of them thought using foreign law would be good for the us (another reason the re-evaluate how you think about the seating of judges), yet they seem to have completely missed the point on International Law.

Anyhow…and what about midshipman? Well, CDR Salamander has the lead, but a blog, The Countervailing Force, he found has blow by blow reports of the Courts-martial of Lamar Owens. Sick at the core. The woman gets immunity and spills her guts about a long list of behaviors, any ONE of which would roast you and your career as a Naval Officer, and the male is headed for possibly a Conduct Unbecoming and Officer charge, which….also gets you the boot from the officer corps. It appears when she said “no” after she had asked him to “come on down,” he did the right thing: He got up and left. So…picture a career down the tubes for two people raging hormones, which has come to be acceptable behavior in about every venue of civilian and military life, but one party took the directions and left, but the other party may still assume the office of the leader of young men and women in the Marine Corps.

It reminds me about a line from “Ghost Busters” about dogs lying down with cats, etc, etc, etc…