"We must be ready to dare all for our country. For history does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid. We must acquire proficiency in defense and display stamina in purpose." - President Eisenhower, First Inaugural Address
Unrep
Saturday, December 21, 2024
Friday, December 20, 2024
Wednesday, December 18, 2024
Saturday, December 14, 2024
Friday, December 13, 2024
Thursday, December 12, 2024
U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report, 6 November - 4 December 2024
Saturday, December 07, 2024
Pearl Harbor 7 December 1941- Attack and Initial Response
U.S. total involvement in WWII is occasioned by an attack out of the blue:
The following day, 8 Dec, President Roosevelt goes before Congress:
Friday, December 06, 2024
Thursday, December 05, 2024
Saturday, November 30, 2024
Friday, November 29, 2024
Wednesday, November 27, 2024
U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report, 23 October - 20 November 2024
Saturday, November 23, 2024
Friday, November 22, 2024
Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Saturday, November 16, 2024
Friday, November 15, 2024
Monday, November 11, 2024
Sunday, November 10, 2024
Friday, November 08, 2024
Thursday, November 07, 2024
Saturday, November 02, 2024
Friday, November 01, 2024
Tuesday, October 29, 2024
U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report, 25 September - 23 October 2024
Saturday, October 26, 2024
Friday, October 25, 2024
Monday, October 21, 2024
U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report, 18 September - 16 October 2024
Saturday, October 19, 2024
Friday, October 18, 2024
Friday, October 11, 2024
Monday, October 07, 2024
U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report, 4 September - 2 October 2024
Saturday, October 05, 2024
Friday, October 04, 2024
Tuesday, October 01, 2024
Saturday, September 28, 2024
Friday, September 27, 2024
Monday, September 23, 2024
U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report, 21 August - 18 September 2024
Saturday, September 21, 2024
Saturday, September 14, 2024
Friday, September 13, 2024
Wednesday, September 11, 2024
Tuesday, September 10, 2024
Monday, September 09, 2024
U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report, 7 August - 4 September 2024
Saturday, September 07, 2024
Wednesday, September 04, 2024
Saturday, August 31, 2024
Friday, August 30, 2024
Monday, August 26, 2024
Saturday, August 24, 2024
Friday, August 23, 2024
Monday, August 19, 2024
Saturday, August 17, 2024
Friday, August 16, 2024
Friday Film: "Submarine Salvage" - Some Russians might want to see this.
U.S. Navy operates two rescue and salvage ship through the Military Seaflift Command - see here, capable of doing 14 knots which means going somewhere across the Pacific takes a few days. One ARS is based in Pearl Harbor, the other on the East Coast. Both ships are nearly 40 years old.
Saturday, August 10, 2024
Friday, August 09, 2024
Friday, August 02, 2024
Saturday Is Old Radio Day: Burns and Allen "Gracie Runs for President" (repeat from 2016)
From the more or less innocent days of 1940, when some candidates were more fun than others, here are a couple of hours of comedy genius which I think I have in the right order:
As noted here:
During the election year of 1940, Gracie represented the fictitious Surprise Party and advocated nonsense as part of her platform. The "campaign" was successful enough for Gracie to actually receive write-in votes on election day."Advocating nonsense" as part of a political party platform?
I guess things haven't really changed all that much in
Thursday, August 01, 2024
Remember the USS Forrestal Disaster 57 Years Ago
On 29 July 1967, Forrestal (CVA-59) experienced a severe fire while operating on Yankee
Station off Vietnam that killed 134 Sailors and aviators, injured 161, and destroyed 21 aircraft. This was (and remains) the second worst loss of life on a U.S. Navy ship since World War II. The disaster resulted in a very long list of lessons learned (many of which were “lessons forgotten” from carrier conflagrations during World War II), which transformed the U.S. Navy’s approach to firefighting, damage control, and ordnance handling in the decades since. In recent years, articles have appeared on the internet that are extremely inaccurate and generally intend to unfairly tarnish the reputation of Senator John S. McCain III, who survived the fire.At 1050, Forrestal commenced early launch of two KA-3B tankers, an EA-1, and an E-2A in preparation for an 1100 launch of a 24-plane Alpha Strike, the second of the day. At that time, a VF-11 F-4B (No. 110,) was spotted on the extreme starboard quarter of the flight deck. As the pilot of F-4B 110 shifted from external to internal power, multiple electrical malfunctions ignited one of the four 5-inch Mk-32 Zuni unguided rockets in a pod on external stores station 2 (port inboard station), which fired across the flight deck and struck VF-46 A-4E No. 405, piloted by LCDR Fred White, rupturing its fuel tank, igniting the fuel, and initiating the fire. Although the board of investigation reached the opinion that the Zuni rocket hit 405, there is some ambiguity in eyewitness accounts as to whether the rocket hit 405 or the plane next to it, 416, piloted by Lieutenant Commander John McCain. The rocket itself actually impacted the ocean beyond both aircraft. Regardless, shrapnel ripped into both aircraft, and both were immediately sprayed by fuel; a pool of fuel ignited between and under the two aircraft. Both pilots initially escaped from the flames around their aircraft.
The impact of the Zuni rocket dislodged at least one, probably two, 1,000-pound AN-M65A1 bombs, which fell into the flames. The outdated AN-M65s were being used because of an acute shortage of Mark 83 general-purpose 1,000-pound bombs resulting from the intense Navy bombing campaign in North Vietnam, which expended bombs faster than they could be produced. The AN-M65 bombs had been brought aboard the day before, were over a decade old, in very poor condition, considered an extreme safety hazard by the commanding officer of Forrestal, Captain John Beling, and, according to the ship’s ordnance officer, were an imminent danger to the ship and should be jettisoned overboard. Doing so, however, would have necessitated scrubbing that day’s combat mission over North Vietnam, so Captain Beling reluctantly accepted the risk.
While those old bombs did not cause the initiating event, they certainly exacerbated what followed. Of the many lessons learned from this horrendous fire, one point needs to be repeated: Old munitions can be very dangerous. Firefighting training and skill are vital for every sailor to master.
An excellent book on the fire is Sailors to the End.
And, in case you don't understand what the truth has always been, none of what happened was John McCain's responsibility.
Monday, July 29, 2024
U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report, 26 June - 24 July 2024
Saturday, July 27, 2024
Friday, July 26, 2024
Friday Films: "The American Navy in Vietnam" (1967), U.S. Coast Guard in Vietnam (1967), and "The U.S. Navy in the Vietnam War: The Ten Thousand Day War at Sea"
A reminder that the US Navy in and off Vietnam went on for about 6 years after this first film was made.
The second film, also from 1967, is about the U.S. Coast Guard serving in Vietnamese waters.
Finally, a later film "The U.S. Navy in the Vietnam War: The Ten Thousand Day War at Sea"
Monday, July 22, 2024
U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report, 19 June - 17 July 2024
Saturday, July 20, 2024
Monday, July 15, 2024
U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report, 12 June - 10 July 2024
Saturday, July 13, 2024
Tuesday, July 09, 2024
U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report, 5 June - 3 July 2024
Saturday, July 06, 2024
Monday, July 01, 2024
Saturday, June 29, 2024
Friday, June 28, 2024
Monday, June 24, 2024
U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report, 22 May - 19 June 2024
Saturday, June 22, 2024
Friday, June 21, 2024
Monday, June 17, 2024
Sunday, June 16, 2024
Father's Day
When I was in 4th grade we moved. We moved a bunch that year and I ended up attending 4 very different schools.
Somewhere along the way, the multiplication tables eluded me - to the extent I flunked math in my final school of that year.
My dad was an engineer and Air Force navigator and quite adept at things mathematical. He was not happy with my math status - not one bit. So over the summer he took on the challenge of tutoring me on those "times tables."
While I resisted, his quiet patience soon had me reciting the tables to his satisfaction. More than that, I got to know him in a different way. Over the years, I have come to look back on that summer as a very important part of my life. The discipline of sticking to things that seemed hard at the time, the idea that all things were possible with effort, the knowledge that he cared about me - those things I learned from my father that summer all of which carried me forward in life.
In fact, that math work helped me with learning to appreciate statistics and earning a National Science Foundation grant when I was an undergraduate. Math skills helped when I was a ship's navigator. Helped me when I got a Masters in Management. Later on, statistics helped by analyze risks in the corporate legal work I did. It also helps me appreciate the widespread misuse of statistics for exploitive purposes. Some of these things my dad knew about, and I hope that he knew how much that summer of re-direction meant in my life.
Dad during the Korean War |
For you, Dad, on this Father's Day - thanks again.
Saturday, June 15, 2024
Saturday Is Old Radio Day - "Guadalcanal Diary" (1944) Lux Radio Theatre
The WWII Japanese path to Australia ran through the Solomons. Stopping them in New Guinea and the Solomons was vital.
Friday, June 14, 2024
Friday Film: D-Day +11 "The Creation of the Artificial Harbors"
Monday, June 10, 2024
U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report, 8 May - 5 June 2024
Saturday, June 08, 2024
Friday, June 07, 2024
Monday, June 03, 2024
U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report, 1 to 29 May 2024
Saturday, June 01, 2024
Friday, May 31, 2024
Tuesday, May 28, 2024
Sunday, May 26, 2024
Memorial Day Films: "Trial by Fire" (1973) and "I Relieve Your, Sir" (1975)
Monday, May 20, 2024
U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report, 17 April to 15 May 2024
Saturday, May 18, 2024
Friday, May 17, 2024
Monday, May 13, 2024
Sunday, May 12, 2024
Saturday, May 11, 2024
Friday, May 10, 2024
Monday, May 06, 2024
Saturday, May 04, 2024
Next Generation Force Protection Boats
The days of creating patrol boats by outfitting general-use motorboats and fishing trawlers with machine guns and obsolete naval weapons are long gone. That was World War II.
Jump ahead 80 years, and patrol boats have evolved into platforms that have the latest navigation, communications, and propulsion systems while being designed and built with highly efficient hulls that move easily and rapidly through the water and can carry out multiple missions in locations across the globe.
Three cases in point: MetalCraft Marine is building 65 patrol boats that will mostly operate in foreign waters; a high-speed 35-footer from Moose Boats that’s outfitted with fire-fighting systems; and Inventech Marine Solutions’ 40' patrol boat for a sheriff’s department in Florida, which hits 72 mph.
Friday, May 03, 2024
Friday Films - Fighting Kamikaze Attacks "The Fleet that Came to Stay (1945)" "Death Awaits - Kamikaze in Color" (2001)
If you think people are expendable and the people involved think dying is an honor, then you get suicide planes, suicide vest wearers, and the like.
Monday, April 29, 2024
U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report, 27 March to 24 April 2024
Referenced MARAD advisory here
U.S.-flagged commercial vessels operating in these areas are advised to remain as far as possible from Yemen’s coastline without compromising navigational safety. Crewmembers should be especially vigilant when at anchor, operating in restricted maneuvering conditions, loitering, or proceeding at slow speeds.
U.S.-flagged commercial vessels should coordinate voyage planning with U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) Naval Cooperation and Guidance for Shipping (NCAGS) and consider their recommendations and guidance whenever possible. NAVCENT NCAGS stands a 24-hour watch and has the latest information on the current maritime security threats and the operational environment in this region.
Saturday, April 27, 2024
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Saturday, April 20, 2024
Friday, April 19, 2024
Friday Films; Navy Shipboard Firefighting Training - Old School 1960 and Today's Boot Camp and Beyond
Every U.S. Navy sailor should have firefighting training. Every single one.
Monday, April 15, 2024
U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report, 13 March to 10 April 2024
Saturday, April 13, 2024
Friday, April 12, 2024
Friday Films -" All About Naval Boilers"
Back before gas turbines and currently in some older large deck amphibs - long ago we all got trained on the operations of the steam plant.
Monday, April 08, 2024
U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report, 6 March to 3 April 2024
Saturday, April 06, 2024
Monday, April 01, 2024
When Does China's "Water Cannon" Weapon Use Become an Act of Armed Conflict?
Six days after China Coast Guard cutters blasted out the windows of a Philippine resupply ship with a water cannon, Manila is weighing whether a 70-year-old mutual defense pact could compel the U.S. military to defend Filipino forces in the South China Sea as a result.
***The attack, the ninth and most aggressive since Chinese cutters restarted a campaign blocking the monthly resupply runs to the World War II-era Sierra Madre, is prompting politicians, analysts and lawyers across the Pacific to weigh the U.S. obligation to come to Manila’s aid under a 1951 mutual defense pact.
Both the U.S. State and Defense departments issued statements this week pledging commitment to the treaty.
“The United States reaffirms that Article IV of the 1951 U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty extends to armed attacks on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft – including those of its Coast Guard – anywhere in the South China Sea,” reads the statement from Foggy Bottom.
While the worst-case scenario under the defense treaty could lead to open war with China, the agreement has options for the U.S. to support Manila diplomatically short of armed conflict. However, the 1951 treaty’s application in the 21st century raises questions about whether the Chinese use of water cannons constitutes an armed attack or if the resupply missions are categorized as civilian or military, opening up several legal interpretations.
Read the whole article.
The question of whether such use of water cannons by China constitutes an "armed" attack sufficient to trigger the defense pact has been frequently raised on our Midrats podcast. China's assertion of entitlement to vast areas of the South China Sea and its aggressive efforts to enforce those claims despite a lack of legal justification are an interesting test case in how close to a line it can walk before triggering similar counter activities or more. However, it is vital that the U.S. support, in every way possible, our allies and treaty partners in the region.