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.

Had enough with a media that trashes everything, even the good done by the US Military?

Captain B of One Marine’s View wants to take out a FULL PAGE AD in a major newspaper for this coming 4th of July, in support of our troops.

Had Enough?” is here….

He’s still open for which paper and what to say in the ad, but…it’s all premised on getting the funds together to pay the freight.

He has a donate button on the right sidebar of his blog, labeled “Donate cigars for troops here!” It will do the job…

Think about it….what better way than to proclaim we believe in the goodness and sacrifice of those young (and not so young in some cases) men and women who are forging the future for not only us, but humanity.

Dadmanly has a post on the recent discussions on the roll over problems with the Up Armored HMVEEs. It is one of many, which I will use for a jumping off point for the discussion of “we’ve been here before.”

Asa recap, it wasn’t all that long ago the MSM was lambasting the Military for not having “enough” armor on HMVEEs, which, were never intended to be patrol vehicles by design. They were cargo carriers to get supplies to the front, but…that’s another entire story in how equipment is developed and fielded by the US Armed Forces, as a function of Defense Analysis, brought to the Pentagon in the early 60s, by a gentleman you may recall named Robert McNamera.

Be that as it may, after the sceeching from the front pages of major papers, and in other forms of media communications, the Pentagon lept into action and got armor on the HMMVVs, sometimes, and at first, by troops scrounging for steel plates and getting out the trusty welding torches. Troops with skills are not always a bad thing, but there are times that well intentioned “local” efforts cause some consequences that can’t be forseen. Conversely, sometimes the “shore based” or stateside development organizations are too stuck in traditional thought to see a good idea, or, they are more often constrained by budget allocations from doing more. That also leads to another discussion, where too much money spet, when it is working to save lives (which is hard to quantify) ends up an issue in the media, where the demands are made to call people on the carpet to explain their “excessive and unnecessary” expeditures. So, once more good, hard working, thoughtful and intelligent people, in uniform, as civil servants, and as contractors, get caught trying to tip toe through a minefield.

On December 10th, 1941, the British battleship HMS PRINCE OF WALES and battlecruiser HMS REPULSE were sunk in the South China Sea by a Japanese air attack. Within a few short days, the Japanese Navy forever changed the face of war at sea. Proving the capability of aircraft launching and attacking from long range as the effective method of projecting power. The sun set on the era of the large captial gunship that day.

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Note: Our wounded service members need some help…see details on Valour-IT funding laptops with voice recognition software here.

Thanks for your considertaion of this great project!

The devil is in the details. While some still are wondering why Osma bin Laden wasn’t a target of greater priority, a guest post at Black Five by the resident retired SEAL pointed me to an Army Times article that has some real detail to it.

Thank, Froggy, for cluing me in.

To begin with, it was the SEALs who were having the party for the ZarqMan, bu the DELTA boys had been hot on the trail and the article discusses the near miss of capturing Zarqawi by DELTA, supported by Rangers in a Tom Clancy style read. I bet the Ranger LT is sitting in his quarters, kicking himself in the butt for not letting the M240 gunner do his job, So much for that medal for you, LT….

On the other hand, I’d say when the end did come for Zarqawi, he was well aware that the boys from the Great Satan’s neighborhoods and cities were dead set on being the ones to help him to the hereafter.

Once you get past the story of the capture and the three suicide bombers, then the article discusses Zarqawi’s operational emphasis towards creating a force with the ability to conduct standing maneuver type operations, not merely terrorist style attacks here nad there. The hint that he was soliciting more foreign help and personnel from Iran, particularly at this point in time, is scary indeed. It does indicate he was doing reasonably well as keeping the insurgency alive, and had the possibility of growing it, but….not without caling for resources from outside Iraq. The good news in that is he had lost the support of the Iraqis.

Since the early morning hours of 6/8/2006, the world, and Iraq, are much safer places as a result. How did we get al-Zarqawi? We all did…

Cross posted at: It’s That Time Again, Boys And Girls – OTA

Ships have “Breakaway” music and flags. These are used at the end of an alongside replenishment, when, as soon as all lines connecting the ships are cleared, the throttles are advanced and the replenished ship moves ahead of the one it replenished from, on the same course, at first. This is when the Officer of the Deck usually yells into the pilot house for the Boatswain’s Mate of the Watch (BMOW) to hold the 1MC (General Announcing system) mike to a cassette player (and I’m sure now a CD player), to play the music over the weather deck (topside) speakers. Simultaneously, the Signalmen “break” the breakaway flag on the side towards the other ship.

For all my 20 years in, this was done as a matter of routine. I began my career on a replenishment ship, so I saw many ship depart from alongside, and heard a variety of music played. For the most part, many ships had their theme music, and almost exclusively played that. A few ship were the song of the moment types, and would just play something appropriate.

For my first deployment, our ship would be accompanied by USS CONYNGHAM (DDG-17), and ADAMS Class guided missile destroyer, with 2 5″/54 Mk 42 guns, and a MK 13 Missile launcher, loaded with SM-1(MR) weapons. That class of DDGs are impressive to watch slicing through the water, with a narrow beam and an elevated bow that gracefully sweeps upwards. They were the picture of the front line guided missile “tin cans” from the 50s and 60s.

CONYNGHAM had a great crew and a CO that made them do it right and fast. From the outside, professionalism oozed out of everything they did. Their ship handling was smart and they were on time and on target. Their breakaway flag white background, with a large green shamrock. Their theme music was the Star Wars title track. When they completed an UNREP (Underway Replenishment), the crew would stand at attention until they cleared our side, then they would move like aggravated ants to prepare the ship for the next evolution. The horsepower generated by their four 1200 PSI boilers and twin shafts could get them up to speed quickly and on their way to their next evolution. Being a “shoe” on a “fat ship,” I longer to be a destroyerman, so I would watch, as much as my duties would allow the destroyers that had come alongside. I was always impressed with the seamanship of the CONYNGHAM’s crew. Departing with the Star Wars music playing impressed me every time.

Later the USS SPRUANCE (DD-963) was added to our battle force. She was a few years old now, but because she was the first of the class, she was the proof of concept for the 29 (and later 30) hulls like her to follow in her footsteps. In any case, assigned to our battle group, she would be making her maiden overseas deployment. Unlike previous destroyers, she was powered by 4 GE LM-2500 Marine Gas Turbines. 20,000 horsepower each, with two shafts, and throttles were usually controlled directly by the watchstanders on the bridge.

SRPUANCE’s theme song was, you guessed it, Star Wars. Their breakaway flag was a large yellow background, with large block red letters saying “BEWARE JET BLAST.” this mimicked the warning seen painted on the island of an aircraft carrier.

One day, the SPRUANCE was alongside before CONYNGHAM. At the completion of refueling, lines cleared, the music came on, the flag was broken, the turbine whine ramped up in seconds and she seemed shoot ahead of us. The CONYNGHAM followed her into station alongside us on the same side. Somehow, it was never the same for me to watch the proud, but aging DDG, play Star Wars and display her flag, as she steamed out ahead of us. No matter how professional, the SPRUANCE had her hands down on performance.

Years later, I was driving one, and the thrill is quite excellent.

Over at The Cool Blue Blog there is a first person story of the days leading up to and on the invasion day aboard the Navy’s oldest battleship.

Omaha Beach and the USS ARKANSAS. It’s a good read…

May 22nd, 1968 – USS SCORPION (SSN-589) was lost at sea, off the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean, with a loss of all hands.

The submariner community knows all too well, regardless of the nationality of those who have put to sea in undersea craft, from the TURTLE and the HUNLEY to the USS THRESHER (SSN-593) and the USS SCORPION (SSN-589), know that an accident at sea more than likely does not bless them with any survivors.

A former Army officer and business consultant, Jack Yoest, posted a personal story about his connection to the family of one of the men who never came home, QMCS Frank Patsy Mazzuchi.

Thanks to Mudville Gazette for the Open Post.

I was in the Staff Office early that morning, as I was Duty Officer. I hadn’t been in the door but a few minutes when the phone rang. The voice was all too familiar, barking orders as soon as I said my name into the phone. Capt Wes Jordan, Chief of Staff at COMNAVSURFLANT began ordering me to pull all the MEFEX (Middle East Force Exercise) training records from the previous summer.
He told me the news of the STARK being attacked, in his to the point manner, and told me to get the files down to his office right away. This order, while not from my current Commodore, was easily interpreted as one of priority.

Capt Jordan, no longer the DESRON 32 Commodore, retained a tremendous amount of info on just about everything, including the record keeping he had required when we had sailed on our work up exercises for a Med deployment. The USS STARK (FFG-31) had tagged along with the battle group to get her training in, as there wasn’t a dedicated fleet exercise for those few ships then deploying to the Middle East force AOR. That being the case, we had her daily exercise completion reports filed along with those of the rest of the ships on the FLTEX.

I opened one of the classified safes and began retrieving the thick folders of exercise messages. As I Was involved in this process, the Commodore, Capt Joe Lopez, and the Chief Staff Officer, CDR Dewey Collier arrived. I recall turning around from the tall stand up safe and telling them about the phone call. Capt Lopez’s expression was one that indicated he wasn’t too happy with the chain of command being jumped over (about three steps to be exact) and then he told me to get the files and get them down to SURFLANT.

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I received a comment on my A Journey into History – Part IX that discussed my participation in Operation El Dorado Canyon 20 years ago.

The author of an upcoming book about the mining of the USS SAMUEL B ROBERTS (FFG-58), Bradley Peniston, left me a note indicating that 18 years ago today, the retaliation for the attack on the ROBERTS was conducted. That was Operation Praying Mantis.

Brad’s book, No Higher Honor, tells the story of the crew of the ROBERTS, led by the Captain, CDR Paul X. Rinn, in their efforts that saved the ship from sinking, despite having a broken keel. The book is due out in June of this year.

Excerpt:

At twenty-five knots, the sea came on quickly. Its surface, wrinkled and opaque, rushed toward the warship, split against the steel prow, and became a fleeting trail of foam pointing back toward Kuwait.

Four decks above the waterline, Seaman Bobby F. Gibson leaned over the forecastle rail and twisted the focus knob on his binoculars. His metal chair, bolted to the main deck just behind the bow, afforded a panoramic view of the central Persian Gulf. The 19-year-old from Walkertown, N.C., took in the scene one small circle at a time.

Looks like a pretty well written beginning…

Part I, Part II, Part III,Part IV, Part V, Part VI,
Part VII, Part VIII

As you might imagine from the previous posts, we were busy. For this set of ops, each CVBG would handle one target each, so deconfliction would be pretty easy. Having been in the Med since January and assigned to chase a subsurface threat that never materialized, this time the ASW Commander’s Intentions message speculated there would be no opposition in that area. Not only did the Libyan’s show little interest in coming out to sea to try to get a torpedo off at us, the Soviet subs had largely been replaced with surface ships over the last month, which we assumed was a strategic move to limit the possibility of one of their subs being engaged. Not only did the SOVREMNNEY DDG and KARA CG become our “tattletales,” they had made it a point to stay on the north side of the formations, but always within visual range of the carrier.

Our CVBG had been in the western Med, at port visits. We had gotten underway and directed to steam to the north of Sicily. We “parked” up there, and then in the late day of the 13th, we were ordered to plan for a modified EMCON “A” transit of the Strait of Messina, that narrow passge between the boot of Italy and the island of Sicily. we would have to proceed single file, and with all our military radios and radars off. We would keep our navigational lights on.

THe Strait of Messina is a challenge, even in the daylight, because there is a ferry to the island and the captains decided they have the right of way over all others. There is plenty of other traffic, such as vessels coming from Naples and heading south and east, and then throw in the fishermen. Now, envision this all happening on a dark night, with a low, solid overcast, so any moonlight is eliminated as an aid to the lookouts and bridge watch teams.

In amongst all this planning, we heard the USAF was going to participate. The air wing weaponeers then had to shift their work to set up a two carrier strike on Benghazi, while the Air Force would take out the targets in Tripoli. Side note: The Libyans have renamed their city to Tarabulus from Tripoli. Thankfully, my staff didn’t need to be flexible over this issue, so we settled in to set up planning the screening ship stations for the transit.

I don’t recall what time we departed our staion north of Sicily, but it was well into the night. We took off at high speed fro the Strait of Maessina, and I was thankful that I would be able to sit back and watch my SWO counterparts in the BIDDLE’s ship’s company sweat out this exciting transit of the Strait. To the east, the glow of Mt Vesuvius could be seen in the night sky. The surface traffic of many types of commerical and private vessels in the vicinity was quite dense and I’m sure the conversations between the bridges, lookouts and CICs were all too busy that night.

Successfully transiting the Strait, our battle group reformed on itself and headed into the Ionian Sea (central Med). I swear it almost was like a cartoon, as we rushed at top speed down there, then put on the brakes hard, as the strike package began the launch. The operations were going as planned, at least from where I was able to listen, and now it was time to settle back and let the aviators do what they had been trained to do best.

Different from the previous operations in this series of showing the flag to Col Khadaffi, we had believed there would be subsurface activity. When we pronounced that, based on intelligence estimates, there were plenty of reported “goblins.” The confidence in these contacts was usually the lowest confidence, but we still needed track them. We used DRT tracing paper over the charts of the Med, in addition to recording position reports in JOTS, and we constantly analyzed “time, speed and distance,” to check and see if the postion was a new contact, or continuation of a prior ASW prosecution. This time, no one reported any subsurface contacts at all.

I made this observation about this night: Everything anyone did, who I had contact with, whether it be the radio communications or face to face discussions, was absolutley professional. Proper radio-telephone (R/T) and internal communications were crisp, and properly formatted. Call signs and codewords were used exclusively. Conversations were not any longer than necessary. We had the strike frequency put up in our CIC Flag module, so we could hear what was going on miles to our south. The data links were running exactly as they taught you in the school house and team training. Somehow the focus on conducting real world ops against a real enemy really focused the entire battle force.

Since I don’t directly recall, I’ll rely on the Operation El Dorado Canyon entry at Wikipedia, which says the strike happened at 2AM local time. I recall the “feet dry” call from the Navy Strike leader, and then it was dead silent a few minutes later as the planes cleared the beach and headed back to us, taking their nose count as soon as they called “feet wet.” We heard each plane answer up. We then listened to the Air Force go feet wet and check for all planes. The count went well for a while, then when one number was called, there was no response. They called the pilot several times, then announced one plane was not with them. It was a sinking feeling.

Anyhow, the deed was done, 20 years ago tonite. I was there. It is my only claim to combat operations, and I had a seat near the head tables for all of it. One day I’ll wrap this all up with some of the tactical things I observed/learned. I guess the most interesting thing for me in having participated was when I later went to the Naval War College Command and Staff course in Newport, RI, was how the Maritime Ops
trimester focused almost exclusively on this operation. There was an EA-6B backseater named Ed in the same class with me, and we were the only two who had bragging rights about being in there. Many times, the class would get asked a question about operations and they alluded to situations/conditions/ops that were highlighted by the Gulf of Sidra ops, and we felt like kids who had been given answers to the test at the beginning of the school year. On the other hand, we’d answer questions with real world solutions we had seen, and we would be told “that’s not doctrine!”

One day, I was asked to model the operational chain of command for a three CVBG, with a USAF component. I went to the chalkboard and commenced to begin drawing the “who would work for who diagram. Our moderator keot commenting from the back of the room, where he had gone as I went forward, “that’s not in accrodance with DOCTRINE!” I finally looked at the Navy Capt and said “Well, sir, it worked fine for Adm Jerimiah!” then I turned around and went back to drawing.

Anyhow, suffice it to say, it was an experience!