William has grciously showcased Valour-IT on a web site he works, The Carrier Page. To clarify, this is a site about aircraft carriers. For your aviation buffs….try a click!

Thanks, William!

Revillie, REVILLE! All hands heave out and trice up!

Today is a decision day. Yes, local and national seats are up for election, but the inertia imparted in that mess rolling downhill has been imparted and with minor exception, the die is cast. We will jst have to wait out today to see the results.

My directive of the day: Do something constructive and forget about chewing your fingernails down to the quick, trying to figure out which party will control the House and the Senate, or the 30+ governorships.

What to do? Get back on task, because, Sgt Hook told us a few days ago, there is a more important mission. Nothing like a crusty old senior enlisted, tempered in the fires of the school of hard knocks to get he “Os” back on focus.

Valour-IT. Huge success last year. Beth said “Goal of $22K.” The Type As among us took that to read “$22K per service team.” Wisely she kept her mouth shut and kept us in the dark until the end, then told us what she really meant, about $108K later. we didn’t have a lot of press coverage, we had bloggers contacting everyone they knew and posting about it. My point? This year, we’re not on the flight path for a smooth landing.

Smadanek’s blog has been tracking our progress, as a whole and as teams. Capt Lex, with all his years of staring at “ROGER, BALL!” on the blunt end of a big gray thing (called “Mother” and kept afloat by those unnamed heroes wearing black shoes), would, metaphorically see himself looking at a red lower half of a circle and be hearing a frantic Landing Signal Officer on the radio yelling “Power! POWER!” if his plane is where we are now.

It comes down to this: We need to consider the warrior pledge, where soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines know no one gets left behind. We can’t afford, after the sacrifices these wounded men and women have made, to psychologically leave them on that battlefield where their wounds reshaped their lives forever. we have the means to help them see they can be productive in the job market, and they are no less important than Steven Hawking. We can give them a voice to express their ideas, to write reports, to carry on conversations, to tell their stories, to rech out to others, to provide hope where there seems to be none.

Enough for now. get to the polls, cast your vote and get back on task. If you’re signed on as part of the Navy Team and you don’t have a lengthy email titled “A few days left” from me, get me your address, and I’ll forward it.

One idea has come in overnight worth sharing: Enrevanche says try matching funds. For those who can afford it, it may pull a few more dollars through the door.

The last thought: Make contacts, today and throught the end of this drive, like some service member”s future depends on you.

Update: 8/11/2006: More thoughts here.

Trackbacked to: Outside the Beltway, Sgt Hook.

I’m getting behind in comms with the team. For you Navy team members who aren’t be ing spammed by me, ship me in an email. I’m trying to pass around ideas to keep the funds on the upward trend.

For anyone who reads this: Keep contacting anyone you can. Sometimes those people you think aren’t interested, will know someone who is very interested.

Ask blogger you read to post for us. Some of the Navy Team has done that with positive responses.

Ok, here we go! I plan to showcase the Navy Team blogs here, because there’s some great stuff, some from new bloggers, to be seen.

Steeljaw Scribe. A retired Navy Captain, who spent the bulk of his career in E-2C Hawkeye Air Early Warning flying. Weekly Posts of “Flight Deck Friday,” discussing Naval Aviation History, usually covering an particular aircraft. He was in the Pentagon on 9/11/2001. He blogged that the few days before and up to 9/11/2006.

Bradley Penniston has offered two copies of his book, “No Higher Honor: Saving the USS Samuel B. Roberts in the Persian Gulf”. Details from Beth on how to get them auctioned in the works. If not soon, I may have to crawl on my knees on broken glass to get John of Op-For and the USAF, to see if his guy will also run the eBay auctions for us.

on this fantastic story of leadershaip. training, courage under fire (literally) and enginnering.

Thanks to The USMC Team’s site, Villanous Company, for the header picture of the moment!

Trackbacked at: Thrid World County

Update 7 Nov 2006: More up to date auction info here.

Part XII discussed my entry into graphics and sound editing. An interesting time, and…it helps to understand some of this when I do my headers (which I try to make somewhat topical for the significant posting of the moment.

So off to sea duty once more, aboard a small ship, basically equipped with one administrative computer: Shipboard Naval Administation Program (SNAP) II. It runs on a mini-computer (not to be confused with today’s min sized computers, but “mini” meaning it was smaller than a “mainframe” computer). Once more, the forward thinking of the Supply Corps is evident, as most of the functions on the computer deal with the supplies aboard, but there were also some basic functions like word processing and a “tickler” program (a “to do” list). Besides the tactical computers (AN/UYK-7s/43s) and the Engineering plant computers, not much else.

While I didn’t have to be the Navigator, as the new SURFLANT had recinded the directive requiring the XO to be Navigator, where the Navigator billet was less than O-4, but my CO was striaght forward and told me he was comfortable with that arrangement and he would keep it that way. ON a side note, he did point out he and I had more time in servie and time at sea than the rest of the Wardroom combined. It was a fact of the experience levels we just had to be mindful of.

One of the standard questions, for any ship stationed in Charleston was “what time should we get underway?” The tugs wouldn’t work if the current was over 1 Kt and the Cooper River did have a good cycling of the currents. I took my Mac SE and used HyperCard to make a “card” where I could put in a day’s tide and current data at the standard station (a reference point in the Harbor – all other locations then had a plus/minus time figure listed from that location), then select which other location in the harbor we were. The computer then drew me a chart of the currents, complete with horizontal lines on the graph at the plus/minus one KT “cut off.” I could set that up within a few moments, whenever we were given a schedule change to get underway. I’d printout the graph and sit down with the CO to pick the time, then we would get that info to the Operations Officer to submit the request to the Base Ops. One more time saving project from my hobby to make daily work easier.

The prior XO handed over the “tickler list,” done on the SNAP II computer, in the form of a sheet hanging on a clipboard in our stateroom. Being new at the XO position, it looked very complete to me, but….well, suffice it to say, it had left out several items of interest. That’s not so much a dig at Tom, as there is far too many administrative things to keep track of, even if you work hard at it. Tom detached and within a few weeks, there were a few “ADTAKEs” (Advise Action Taken) messages received, specifically asking (in the polite navy-ese way) where our response were. The Captain told me he wanted to never miss an action item again. He was a serious man, and I was new. I gave the proper “aye, aye, sir” and went to planning how to make this happen. I then began reviewing the tickler file to see where the missed items had been listed. Surprise! They weren’t on the list, or the older archived items in the database. I spent a little time trying to figure out how SNAP II functioned in this sub-program. NO one aboard, including the SNAP II Coordinator (an enlisted billet, with specific training) couldn’t answer my questions on how to get recurring items in, so I basically blew off the SNAP II system as a tool for this work. I learned much later, near the end of my tour, that the tickler program was pretty substantial in it’s abliity to handle the task, but none of the “experts” could tell me that when I needed it.

I was able to acquire a Z-248 computer and set it up in my room. I purchased a copy of the Ashton-Tate dBase III+ database manager and began a project in search of an acronym, that would keep my butt from being bitten by “adminis-trivia.” The first acronym was “Admin Warfare SHipboard Internal Ticker,” but I canned that one, selecting “Administrative Warfare SHipbOard Operational Tickler” (AW-SHOOT).

The program allowed me to enter any item needing attention, the date received, the date the response was required (internally), the primary and secondary department/collateral duty position responsible for the action and the reference for the requirement. I made the selection for responsibility standard items, easing the effort to keep things standard for report generation. I could have the total report, or select a few common time frames for printout, like 30, 60, 90 and 180 days in the future. I could printout reports by the departments (I placed collateral duty responsibilities within the departments the person was assigned to – more on that choice later). I could dump the entire database as well.

Items, such as regular reports, could be entered with their periodicity and you then entered how many far into the future you wanted them to propagate the entry out into the future. This was quite a handy feature, and I used it, in one scenario to enter the required officer career counseling (for retention purposes) and keyed them to each officer’s tour aboard the Ship. That helped us establish a mandated program (which I had not seen done anywhere in my prior 13 years of service).

It took several months, and the program evolved daily, but the “workflow” was: Up before breakfast, down to Radio Central, to the Wardroom for a cup of Coffee, back to the stateroom to scan the traffic and add any new items of interest. At the end of the entry process, I’d pull up the print menu. The normal printout menu dumped an all encompassing report for the time frame selected (normally 30 days, unless it was the first workday of a month, when all itmes would be printed), which would be put on my clipboard and hung near my door, for manual annotations, and then a report dumped for each of the departments and the Command Senior Chief (same time frames as mentioned above). I would, once the print porcess was confirmed to be functioning without the tractor feed mangling the paper, I’d head down to breakfast. After breakfast, I’d separate the reports and head for Officer’s Call.

Each report showed the items, along with the responsible parties and the “Line of Death,” (borrowed from my Ops off of Libya in ’86 experience) which crossed the page at the end of today’s items. If it was close to the top of your page, it meant a light day, if it was way down the page, you better be able to muster your “staff” or convince me you needed more time.

While at first, it wasn’t well received at first. I’ll admit, it did take a little while for acceptance, but….one day, the Combat Systems Officer (CSO), Mac, came and asked if I could give him his items on disk (this was after we got computers for all departments), so he could further distribute the tasking to his divsion officers. I did this at first by “hand,” and later modifed the program so you could install it and set up your own categories of tasking. I refined that version, then it had greater application. The Admin Office began using an installation for tracking their own work, as did the CS Department.

When my relief came, I had 24 months of known reports and all current action items in the program. I got a note from Starr about a year later, thanking me and commenting that early in his time aboard, if he wasn’t sure what the tasking was exactly, the “conventional wisdom” of the Department Heads to him was, if it’s on there, do it. He said he never got an ADTAKE, thanks to the program.

Besides the programming aspects, I became very good at checking all the publication/instruction/notice changes coming in and going right to the “Required Reports” section. I plwed “new” requirements in the program right away. A side effect was I found out there had been reports required that in my some of my earlier duties, I should have prepared and submitted. If I Saw a report in a new document like this, I’d ask for the prior copy, check the date, and look in it’s required report section. Sure enough, many times there was the same report as in the new version of the document…

On top of this part of the story, I used the program to pull off an incredible practical joke. PN1 (later PNC) Weber and I used to have regular conversations about projecting influence beyond your time aboard. What he didn’t know, is I had modified his program. I detached in early March and left from Bahrain. On 1 April, 1990, PNC Weber started the program to be greeted by a splash screen announcing there had been a security problem (it was login/password protected) and all files were being erased! The internal speaker played a siren type sound for about 20 seconds, then the next screen told the operator this was an April Fool’s joke and all data was intact. When the Ship got stateside, PNC Weber called me to concede I got him.

About a year later, I got a call from one of the former division officers (to remain unnamed, at his request),who said at first he “dislked the idea of AW-SHOOT,” but…he was now in charge of a school and would like copy. I sent one, after we had a good laugh and him swearing me to secrecy.

So ends the tale of AW-SHOOT.

Next episode: Automating the workforce and computer generated messages.

A few days ago, as the media’b’Allah was full of printed ‘shouts’ of “Tet! TET! TEEETTTT!!!!!,” I posted some of my thoughts on the similarities and differences of the analogy of the Tet Offensive in Vietnam and the War on Terror now. David of Third World County added to the analysis on his blog.

This morning, while scanning Town Hall, I came across this editorial from someone who comprehends the issue far better than I ever will, LtCol. Oliver North, USMC (Ret).

He was on the ground in that war, as an Marine Officer in an infantry company. I was still in High School, but we see the issue form a common view point:

The war in Vietnam wasn’t lost during “Tet ’68” no matter what Cronkite said. Rather, it was lost in the pages of America’s newspapers, on our televisions, our college campuses — and eventually in the corridors of power in Washington. We need to pray that this war isn’t lost the same way.

Amen, brother, amen!

Steeljaw Scribe commemorates the first arrested landing aboard ship on this day in 1922 with this post.

On October 26, 1922 LCDR Godfrey DeCourcelles Chevalier, USN made the first arrested landing aboard the USS Langley, a converted coal collier (ex-USS Jupiter) and the Navy’s first aircraft carrier, underway off Cape Henry, VA.
[…]

I’d call this the case of “arrested development,” but, it opened an entirely new era in warfare. Certainly, those present on the deck of the USS LANGLEY that day probably could not envison aircraft that could carry more ordnance weight than the gross weight of the aircraft landing and takeoff and land hands off.

A few days ago, I posted a rememberance of the first takeoff from a ship in this post.

Trackbacked at:
Steeljaw Scribe

Linkfest Haven

Oct 25th. No time for jovial stories, but a day of rememberance of the past.

My Oct 25, 2004 post on the Battle Off Samar

An Afternoon with Dick Rohde, a radioman on the USS SAMUEL B ROBERTS (DE-413) on October 25th, 1944.

My 60th anniversary post about Congressional Medal of Honor Winner Cpl Desmond T. Doss, a conscientious objector who refused to carry a weapon, but saved lives. What did his CMOH earned on Okinawa on May 5th, 1945 have to do with October 25th, 1944? He was ashore at Leyte Gulf that day. The heroic actions of “Taffy 3” saved that landing from being puished back into the sea. Not only that, at Leyte Gulf, Desmond Doss went out onto open ground to save a man shot by a sniper, despite the sniper not being located and killed. No shot was fired at him as he fearlessly went to aid a fallen brother.

Many heroic battles happened on October 25th.

Do you have anything to add? Please use the trackbacks to link to your writings!

I was a young, full of it, Fleet LT(JG) aboard a brand new greyhound of the seas, the USS LEFTWICH (DD-984). I was a plank owner (a member of the commissioning crew), and the Missile Officer. I had the responsibility of the NATO Sea Sparrow Missile (NSSMS) and Harpoon Weapons System (HWS). My Condition III watch station was that of the Ship’s Weapons Coordinator (SWC), where I sat the watch at the OJ-194 Console in the Combat Information Center (CIC), being the control point between the Captain or Tactical Action Officer (TAO) and the weapons systems for air and surface target engagements.

We commissioned in Aug 1979, and in late January, returned to Ingalls Ship Building and Drydock in Pascagoula, MI, for our post-shakedown availability (PSA – read warranty work by the builder after you take the ship out for 6 months of ops) and also for the Restricted Availability (RAV), which would install many upgrades not originally purchased for the hull during the intial Congressional funding. We had sailed from the shipyard on August 26th, 1979 with the NATO missile launcher installed, but the control consoles and some of the computer cabinets, as well as the cable runs, were not. None of the Harpoon system was initally installed, either. The RAV portion of our 5 months in Ingalls would put both of these systems into service.

One day, I was informed that some people would be coming aboard to discuss human factors for some of the weapons systems, one of which would be the Harpoon Weapons System. So, I went about my work until the appointed time, then went to CIC to await the visitors. An older gentleman in regular civilian clothes came in and introduced himself, then asked me if I had any suggestions on the controls for the HWS. I sat in the SWC chair and proceeded to demonstrate one design flaw I particularly thought was stupid. The AN/SWG-1 Harpoon Shipboard Control Launch Control System (HSCLCS) was mounted perpendicular to the SWC console, so you had to turn to your left in the SWC chair to operate the controls. That wasn’t the issue. The power switch was located on the upper left of the console, but underneath a cover plate that had a screw to hold it closed. Still not bad. The procedure for launching included powering the system up (duh!), then securing the cover over the power switch, and you would go about entering the aim point and cell(s) for launching. On the command to shoot, you would rotate the ITL (intend to launch) switch handle (on the lower right of the console) clockwise about 45 degrees and hold it there. At this point, your first visual check was to see if the indicator light for the boosters went from “Safe” to “Arm.” Herein comes the rub. Along with some maintenace lights and switches, the Booster Safe/Armed indicator was also in the well that held the power switch. The cover plate, which was also anodized aluminum, was, quite obviously opaque. So, when you were shooting the bird(s), the first indication to validate was the safe/arm light and it was now obscured.

My sage comment to the visitor, while I sat with my torso twisted markedly to the left: “Whoever invented this was a real bonehead” I stated with the confidence of a fully SWO qualified hot runner, while I demonstrated the problem with now having to open the cover plate to do the job. His very polite (and possibly amused) response: “That was me.”

Ok, so now I find out he’s a retired admiral, now working for Boeing, conducting this human factors/ergonomics survey, and…he had been the first Harpoon Program Manager. Well, that was a moment to pause and shut up and dig no deeper. He was gracious and, as he scribbled on his note pad, he said something like “You’re right, we need to fix that.”

Lesson learned: Just be professional.

Moving right along from Part IX, I advance to the later part of 1986, where I not only played with computers, but also managaed to stand watches in the Med from Jan to May, while we bombed Libya from north of the “Line of Death.” Details of that story are in the series “A Journey Into History” (Part I is here). One of the other details not previously discussed in either series, is I began “offline blogging” back in those days, as I began to write “Life Between the Catapults or What I did on My Indian Ocean Cruise.” Unfortunately, I have lost the 5 1/4″ floppies that contained my musings, but, I do recall it was a daily writing effort for while. At some point, some of those adventures will become part of the the weekly (on Wednesdays) Ropeyarn Sunday “Sea Stories” and Open Trackback postings, like the story of USS FAKEFISH.

We returned from that cruise and were tasked with some tactical R&D effort for the Tomahawk Anti-Ship Missile (TASM). Rather than retype it all here, click over to this post and see how I used the Mac 512K to take the edge off the rather extensive data reduction and report writing. It was Apple that saved the world (notice how Apple computers are prominent in so many movies these days, many of them about hi-tech stuff and svaing the world?)

Apple Mac SE

From that job, I headed to school in Newport. While enroute, I found out my sister’s company that sold lab equipment had added the Mac SE to their line, and that she would purchase one for me. I got settled in in Newport and the SE arrived. When I unboxed it and plugged it in, the supplied keyboard didn’t work. That turned out to not be a problem, as using the mouse and a Apple Menu item named “Key Caps,” I was able to click on a graphical keyboard, then select the typed text and copy and paste it. I set up the entire system, including several layers of folders using the mouse alone. A few days later, a new keyboard arrived and thigs were great.

The Mac SE was my first system with the “ADB” (Apple Desktop Bus). This was a serial interface that allowed you to “daisy chain” items, such as the mouse and keyboard and other input devices, in line. Sounds familiar? That was 1987. Now we see it in the form os the “USB” interface, but, once more, Apple enigineers were out ahead of the pack. I out the SE to good use for the later part of 1987, and into early 1988. It was very handy when doing those class papers, and I could graphically maneuver the page margins and font size to make my paper fit the magical 8 page standard. It was great if you were short on what to say, and also if you had too much to say.

We formed an Mac club and also succeeded in converting most of the local Apple ][ users group to Mac users, because we could. I tried my hand at editing a newsletter for club. I used Aldus PageMaker and one of the other page layout programs, and I learned about kerning and leading and linking columns across pages. I learned a lot more, too.

Once more, I pulled Excel out and developed two logistical problems we had to solve. It took 20 hours over the weekend, but I’m sure it would have taken much, much longer by hand. I brought it into class, and passed out the handouts. The Air Force Col, who was one of our moderators flipped through the spreadsheet and said: “I’m not going to ask any questions because you’ll probably point at one of these numbers and make me feel stupid.” Well, it was a good briefing and I have to admit I gained a lot of respect for the “loggies” as I spend the time at home trying to figure out how to get a few divisions and fighter wings, along with all their equipment loads, into Kuwait very quickly (this was in late 1987).

Next time: Mac IIs, 256 colors, 8 bit sound editing and color business cards.