No, really.

Despite what it looked like, the USS WISCONSIN (BB-64) has been at the Naticus Maritime Museum in Downtown Norfolk since April 2001 as a tourist attraction, but maintained in case she’d have to return to the fight.

No more. She’s a remembrance now.

Go and grab the operations notebook in CIC and make the following correction to the current operations order:

“DATES: 10/29/2007 – 11/11/2007”

CHANGE TO READ

“DATES: 10/29/2007 – 11/12/2007”

Annotate the change page when you’re done marking up the document.

Reason for the change: You have the Monday holiday in order to make your final contributions to the ValOUR-IT 2007 Fund Drive!Blue Velvet movie full

Sometimes you just gives, sometimes you gets…

Besides just laying out some hard earned money for the great feeling of helping to put lives back together, some people have volunteered to part with their “stuff” (for a price – name yours!) for the highest bidder.

Navy/Coast Guard’s own SteelJaw Scribe has a factory model of an F/A-18C up on the block for your collection.

Get over there and grab some stuff (and chip the bid price in towards more ValOUR-IT donations)!

Nice to have. A tangible memento and reminder of your commitment to supporting the troops. Also a conversation piece to have the opening to tell stories about what Soldier’s Angels does for our troops and their families..

Enough marketing. How, you ask? Details here. If you have a spare $25 (but thing more, WAY more) to donate…a coin can be yours, too! (Psst! Donate to Navy/Coast Guard!)

There is wonderful news coming out of Iraq these days. Charts show IEDs are down, attacks on Coalition bases are down, engagements with terrorists and insurgents are down, civilian deaths are down. Down, down, down. And all while there are more soldiers walking and living among the locals.

But there’s something hidden going on here that doesn’t make the headlines: the injured. For every loss of life among American soldiers, several others are usually wounded.

It is those publicly-uncounted wounded that Valour-IT serves. While their buddy is laid to rest, they are the ones fighting for their lives in a hospital bed. As the family of the fallen is carried in the arms of their friends and fellow military families, the wounded soldiers are wondering what their lives are going to be like with broken bodies that will never be the same again. As their buddy is being laid to rest with honors, the politicians make a quick sweep through wards filled with wounded that will still be there after the camera flashes stop. The families of the living struggle to put one foot in front of the other and the wounded wonder if the prosthetic feet are as good as everybody says. The fallen’s loved ones dream of the day it will stop feeling like a knife in their chest, and the wounded hope that when the haze of the painkillers lifts, the PTSD and TBI won’t be as bad as they seem right now.

Loved ones whose hearts are aching in loss reach out to those around them, express themselves, plan memorials for their fallen hero, bellow out the rage over what has been ripped from them, mourn the futures lost.

Not so for the warfighter, whose connectedness is dependent on who visits or calls that day, and who is now discovering that the greatest indignity of severed nerves, shattered bones, and amputated limbs is that the soldier who once walked the streets in confidence and power is now cared for like a baby until he can find a way to make things work again.

Give that soldier something he can do for himself now–a way to express himself, write about his fallen brother, blow out the rage over the violence done to his body and build the courage to face the future that seems so impossible for now. A laptop will do that–give him confidence, dignity, self-expression, connectedness with those who will help him find a new equilibrium in his world-turned-on-its-head.

Giving out from 30 to 100 laptops per month since June, Valour-IT is in more demand than ever. We literally scraped the bottom of the barrel with our last delivery of laptops, and Soldiers’ Angels has said they cannot allocate any more funds for us until March 2008. We are filling vital gap that the government has missed, but we cannot do it without funding.

Don’t turn your face away from this just because it’s easier to think things are getting better, or because it’s too uncomfortable to think of their suffering while you are whole. They don’t want your pity; just your support. What better way to support them, to show you believe in their recovery and their future than to give them a laptop that they can operate regardless of the depth of their injuries. Please, help us help them.

I know how much it means to the guys who are stuck lying on their backs, unable to use their hands to so much as scratch. Being fed, bathed, taken care of like an infant—not exactly a fitting role for a warrior who’s used to being the one who helps others. It sure as hell wasn’t a role that I wanted, although there were many people who came to see me who helped…At that time I had no use of either hand. I know how humbling it is, how humiliating it feels. And I know how much better I felt, how amazingly more functional I felt, after Soldiers’ Angels provided me with a laptop and a loyal reader provided me with the software. I can’t wait to do the same, to give that feeling to another soldier at Walter Reed.

—Chuck Ziegenfuss, inspiration for Valour-IT

The button is up top center to make a donation.  Little donations help, as do big ones.  Oh, and pass the word about this program.

Skippy San will add dollars to ValOUR-IT – Navy/Coast Guard Team if you guess something..

Check it out!

Come on, there are wounded troops counting on us!

The concept sprang forth last year, when a lady working for Flag Gazer decided to forgo the money owed her for a day of labor.

That’s pretty magnanimous. How about take a moment to click here and read the story yourself.

Lemme see….50 weeks/yr, 5 days/week…250 “working days” for the average American work year (math made easy for bean counters before computers and it persists). Take annual earnings and divide by 250. What’s the number? Can you see your way clear to place that sum so others can have a far better quality of life?

Have you ever been hopeless? Whether for a few minutes, or for maybe years on end, consider how you might feel when you awake missing the ability to function in life easily…it’s time to make a change in the lives that are there now.

The competition continues. BUT: It’s not so much a competition, as an opportunity to affect the lives of people who still can talk, but have been disabled in a such a way as to not be able to poke at a keyboard like so many of us can.

Would I like the Navy/Coast Guard Team to come out on top? Yep. So I ask you to consider chipping in a few bucks. Can you skip a cup of Starbucks over-caffeinated coffee today and put that 4 some dollars (heck, just round it to $5!) in the kitty to help someone keep in touch with family and friends, as well as to be a capable worker when they show up to be employed in the civilian sector?

At the end of the day (or the competition, in this case), it’s not about the Navy?Coast Guard bloggers getting bragging rights, it’s about men and women, who see a person walk into their room in the hospital and give them something to get them re-connected with life. Donate to some team, or no team, just donate.

Your contribution has the real possiblity of completely changing the course of some people’s lives, and not only the wounded ones, but those lives the are connected to: spouses, children, mothers, fathers, grandparents, etc, etc, etc. You get my “drift.” You are dispensing more than your hard earned bucks with the click of the mouse or the mailing of a check: You are donating HOPE!

Besides being able to just know your contribution did that, you might even find something on the auction block that is to your liking, particularly if it’s able to be personalized to you. Check the auction page out for details.

Also, up on eBay, there are some Vince Flynn books up to help the cause. If you win, they are autographed with your message!

And for the other teams:

Navy/CG came out of nowhere (well, to be factual, dead last) last year and overnight smoked across the finish line…don’t forget it…

First off, big time H/T to Mike the EE, who pointed me to the gouge for this post. Thanks, Mike!

Other news: Eagle1’s Sunday Ship History about making ships invisible…good read!

No pictures of this man, but his name is Lewis Heermann. Born in Germany August 3rd, 1779, he later ended up in the United States, and being commissioned as a Surgeon’s Mate in the newly formed US Navy on Feb 2nd, 1802. I would assume, that meant what we would refer to as a Physician’s Assistants today. I derived this from Section II of An Act to Provide a Naval Armament, March 18, 1794.

Below this point, there are edits. I wrote this this morning, using the net as the prime (ok, only) reference. It seems Lewis Heermann, besides being in a very famous naval battle across the sea from our shores, he also kept a journal that was used by Ian Toll in “Six Frigates, ” to fill in some details of the recapture and burning of the PHILADELPHIA.

What’ is Lewis Heermann’s claim to the US Navy’s history? He accompanied one Stephen Decatur to the vicinity of the harbor at Tripoli on Feb 16th, 1804, on the mission to burn the USS PHILADELPHIA, before that captured ship could be refitted and used by the Barbary Pirates. While Decatur and other sailors entered the harbor to actually recapture boarded the PHILADELPHIA, Heermann was left in command of the bomb ketch INTREPID, which was one of several the bomb ketches there in support of the operation that had slipped into the harbor with the boarding party, pretending to be a merchant. Quite an honor for a medical service corps officer to be put in command!

From Ian’s excellent documentary:

[…]
Catalano lost his nerve and shouted to Decatur to give the order to board. The lieutenant, seeing there was still a gap between the vessels, answered firmely: “No order to be obeyed but that of the Commanding Officer.” The crew restrained themselves for a few critical seconds as the INTREPID drifted closer. The guards seemed confused – some shouted that it was a trick, but others remained uncertain.When the ketch was directly alongside, just under the PHILDELPHIA’s forechains, Decatur shouted: “Board!”

“The effect was truly electric,” Surgeon’s Mate Lewsi Heermann later recalled. Not a man had been seen or heard tobreathe a moment before; at the next they hung on the ship’s side like cluster bees; and, in another instant, every man was aboard the frigate.”
[…]

After his service time in the Barbary Wars, Lewis Heermann took some time off to travel in Europe, but in 1808, returned and lobbied for better medical care for the sailors. His work resulted in Congress authorizing the construction of Naval Hospitals on several Naval Stations.

He later served in several posts in the Navy, including as the Fleet Surgeon to the Mediterranean Squadron in the 1830 time frame.

Lewis Heerman died in 1833.

One ship has been named in honor of Lewis Heermann: USS HEERMANN (DD-532) or the FLETCHER Class destroyers.from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships:

Heermann (DD-532) was launched 5 December 1942 by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Co. of San Francisco; sponsored by Mrs. Edward B. Briggs, wife of Lt. E. B. Briggs, USCGR, great grandson of the namesake; and commissioned 6 July 1943, Cmdr. Dwight M. Agnew, USN, in command.

After shakedown training out of San Diego, Heermann joined the 5th Fleet 21 October 1943 for the assault on the Gilbert Islands, the second major offensive thrust in the Navy’s conquest of Japan’s far-flung Pacific empire. She arrived off Tarawa in Rear Admiral Harry W. Hill’s Southern Attack Force 20 November. Her guns sank a small enemy craft inside the lagoon and the next 2 days powerfully assisted troops ashore with close-in fire support. With the island secured, she returned to Pearl Harbor for voyage repairs and training which ended 23 January when she sailed in the screen of an attack transport reserve force. The ships steamed east of Kwajalein while Rear Admiral Turner’s Joint Expeditionary Force landed on that atoll 31 January. In the ensuing 2 weeks Heermann patrolled off Kwajalein and operated in the screen of escort carriers which were launching strikes in support of troops ashore. Then she steamed to Eniwetok Atoll where she joined in the preinvasion bombardment of Japan and Parry Islands, gave close fire support to the troops once they were ashore, and then patrolled off the atoll during mop-up operations.

Heermann set course first for Majuro Lagoon and then Purvis Bay, Florida Island, Solomons and reported to Commander 3d Fleet and Task Force 39, 18 March 1944. For the next month she divided her time between protecting troop and resupply convoys which were occupying Emirau Island and hunting enemy supply barges along the coast of New Hanover.

Back in Port Purvis 3 June, Heermann participated in the bombardment of a tank farm on Fangelawa Bay, New Ireland, 11 June, and then searched for submarines along sealanes leading from the Solomons towards the Admiralties, the Carolines, and the Marshall Islands until 26 June. The summer of 1944 found Heermann busy escorting Navy and Merchant shipping to rendezvous where they joined convoys bound for various ports. This duty took her to Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides Islands and Noumea, New Caledonia Island.

Heermann cleared Port Purvis 6 September 1944 with Rear Admiral William D. Sample’s escort carrier force that provided air support during the invasion of the Palau Islands. After replenishing at Seeadler Harbor, Admiralty Islands, she sortied 12 October 1944 with a fire support group for the liberation of the Philippine Islands.
[…]

Sometime in this period, CDR Amos Hathaway, USN, assumed command of HEERMANN. Some details of this man’s actions are in a prior post here.

[…]Heermann screened transports and landing ships safely to the beaches of Leyte and then joined Rear Admiral Thomas L. Sprague’s Escort Carrier Group (Task Group 77.4) which was made up of three escort carrier task units, known as the “Three Taffies” because of their voice calls: “Taffy 1”, “Taffy 2”, and “Taffy 3”. Destroyers Hoel and Johnston joined her in screening Rear Admiral Clifton A. P. Sprague’s unit, “Taffy 3” which also included his flagship F.anshaw Bay (CVE-70) and three other escort carriers.

Dawn of 25 October 1944 found “Taffy 3” east of Samar steaming north as the -Northern Air Support Group. “Taffy 2” was in the central position patrolling off the entrance to Leyte Gulf, and “Taffy 1” covered the Southern approaches to the Gulf some 130 miles to the southeast of Heermann’s “Taffy 3”. At 0645 “Taffy 3’s” lookouts observed antiaircraft fire to the northward and within 3 minutes, were under heavy fire from Japanese Admiral Kurita’s powerful Center Force of four battleships, 6 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers, and 11 destroyers. The battle off Samar was thus joined.

The only chance for survival of the little group of light American ships lay in slowing the advances of the enemy warships while withdrawing toward Leyte Gulf and hoped-for assistance. The carriers promptly launched their planes to attack the Japanese vessels, and the escorts promptly set to work generating smoke to hide the American ships.

Heermann, in a position of comparative safety on the disengaged side of the carriers at the start of the fight, steamed into the action at flank speed through the formation of “baby flattops” who, after launching their last planes, formed a rough circle as they turned toward Leyte Gulf. Since smoke and intermittent rain squalls had reduced visibility to less than 100 yards, it took alert and skillful seamanship to avoid colliding with friendly ships during the dash to battle. She backed emergency full to avoid destroyer escort Samuel B. Roberts and repeated the maneuver to miss destroyer Hoel as Heermann formed column on the screen flagship in preparation for a torpedo attack.

As she began the run, dye from enemy shells daubed the water nearby with circles of brilliant red, yellow, and green. Heermann replied to this challenge by pumping her 5-inch shells at one heavy cruiser, Chikuma, as she directed seven torpedoes at another, Haguro. When the second of these “fish” had left the tube, Heermann changed course to engage a column of four battleships whose shells began churning the water nearby. She trained her guns on Kongo, the column’s leader, at whom she launched three torpedoes. Then she quickly closed Haruna, the target of her last three torpedoes, which were launched from only 4,400 yards. Believing that one of the “fish” had hit the battleship, she nimbly dodged the salvoes which splashed in her wake as she retired. Japanese records claim that the battleship successfully evaded all of Heermann’s torpedoes, but they were slowed down in their pursuit of the American carriers. The giant, Yamato, with her monstrous 18.1-inch guns, was even forced out of the action altogether when, caught between two spreads, she reversed course for almost 10 minutes to escape being hit.

Heermann sped to the starboard quarter of the carrier formation to lay more concealing smoke and then charged back into the fight a few minutes later, placing herself boldly between the escort carriers and the column of four enemy heavy cruisers. Here she engaged Japanese cruiser Chikuma in a duel Which seriously damaged both ships. A series of 8-inch hits flooded the forward part of the plucky destroyer, pulling her bow down so far that her anchors were dragging in the water. One of her guns was knocked out but the others continued to pour a deadly stream of 5-inch shells at the cruiser, which also carne under heavy air attack during the engagement. The combined effect of Heermann’s guns and the bombs, torpedoes, and strafing from carrier-based planes was too much for Chikuma who tried to withdraw but sank during her flight.

As Chikuma turned away, heavy cruiser Tone turned her guns on Heermann who replied shell for shell until she reached a position suitable to resume laying smoke for the carriers. At this point plants from Admiral Stump’s “Taffy 2” swooped in to sting Tone so severely that she too broke off action and fled. The courageous attacks of the destroyers and aircraft thus saved the outgunned task groups.

Heermann retired to Kossol Passage for temporary repairs before getting underway for Mare Island and overhaul which was completed 15 January 1945. She then returned to the Western Pacific to join fast carrier task forces in raids against the Japanese mainland which helped to demoralize the Japanese people and to prepare them for surrender. During the fighting to take Iwo Jima, Heermann supported operations ashore by radar and antisubmarine picket duty. On 20 March 1945 she sank a small surface vessel and rescued seven of her crew after she went down. Seven days later she took part in the night bombardment of Minamo Daito Jima. During the Okinawa campaign she took several enemy planes under fire as she guarded carriers which provided air support for troops ashore. On 18 April wifih the assistance destroyers Mertz, MoCord, Collett, and Uhlmann and planes from aircraft carrier Bataan, Heermann sank Japanese submarine 1-56, a carrier of the dreaded “kaitens”, human-guided suicide torpedoes. She continued to support carrier operations off Okinawa until retiring to Leyte Gulf for replenishment and voyage repairs late in June. On 1 July she helped to screen the fast carrier force which devoted the ensuing 5 weeks to almost continuous air strikes and bombardment.

On 15 August 1945 Heermann was on radar picket station some 200 miles southeast of Tokyo when, several hours after the announcement of the end of hostilities, a suicide plane emerged from a cloud bank and began to dive in Heermann’s direction only to be splashed by the destroyer’s alert gunners in one of the final naval actions of World War II. In the following weeks Heermann operated in the screen of the fast carrier task force providing air cover and air^sea rescue service while General MacArthur and Admiral Nimitz were preparing to occupy Japan. She entered Tokyo Bay 16 September 1945 and remained in the area to support the occupation forces until 7 October when she sailed for the United States. She decommissioned at San Diego 12 June 1946.

Heermann remained in reserve at San Diego until re-commissioning 12 September 1951. After training in local waters and upkeep in San Francisco, she departed San Diego 4 January 1952 for her new base, Newport, R.I., where she arrived 23 January. She spent the year 1952 training in waters stretching from the New England coast to the Virginia Capes, followed by intensive antisubmarine warfare and fleet problems during winter cruising in the Caribbean. She returned to Newport to resume operation along the Northeastern seaboard. After a voyage to Plymouth, England, in June and July 1953, she participated in antisubmarine manuvers between Newport and the Virginia capes.

Heermann departed on a world cruise 3 December 1953. First she sailed for Tokosuka, Japan, by way of the Panama Canal, San Diego, and the Hawaiian Islands. After a 2-day replenishment in Tokosuka, she set course for Okinawa where she acted as part of the escort for 3d Marine Division amphibious warfare landings and conducted barrier patrol in support of the exercise. After more maneuvers took her to Korea, Iwo Jima, and the South Coast of Japan, she returned to Yokosuka which she cleared 22 May 1954 to resume her world cruise, calling at Hong Kong and Singapore on her way to the Suez Canal. In the Mediterranean she visited Port Said, Naples, Villa Franche, and Barcelona before returning to Newport 17 July 1954.

For the next year and a half Heermann participated in training exercises along the Atlantic coast. On 1 February She sailed to join the 6th Fleet in exercises along the coast of Lebanon, Israel and Egypt. In April she was invited by Prince Ranier to be in port for his wedding to Miss Grace Kelly 19-24 April 1956. She furnished a 40-man honor guard for the occasion. From Monaco she joined the 6th Fleet off Greece, and then departed for Fall River, Mass., where she arrived 28 May 1956. Heermann operated out of Newport until 6 November when she sailed for the Mediterranean where she proved to be a first-rate antisubmarine ship in joint exercises with the Italian Navy. After revisiting Monaco at the invitation of Prince Ranier and Princess Grace, she returned to Fall River 20 February 1957. She served as gunnery school-ship out of Newport until 30 June when she joined Badger in the screen of antisubmarine warfare carrier Leyte for 2 weeks of air operations for the training of Academy midshipmen. She decommissioned at Boston 20 December 1957 and was assigned to the Boston Group of the U.S. Atlantic Reserve Fleet. On 14 August 1961 she was transferred on a loan basis to the government of Argentina under terms of the Military Assistance Program. She serves in the Argentine Navy under the name Brown (D-20).

In addition to the Presidential Unit Citation, Heermann received the Philippine Republic Unit Citation Badge and nine battle stars for World War II service.

One one level, it’s a cheap way for the Navy to horn in on the USAF contract for the purchase of the F-22 Raptor airframe.

At another level, it shows a disconnect between society and the understanding of our military.

But…its’ sorta like being able to “zap” an AF jet with the bad manners and planning to land on a Naval location, only we’re imprinting the youth of America with the right model of the real aviators!