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SAN DIEGO - The U.S. Navy released Christopher Dorner's service record early Thursday afternoon to Team 10. Dorner, a suspect wanted in connection to three slayings and several shootings, joined the service in 2002. His loss date was Feb. 1, 2013, just days before the shootings began. Dorner was stationed at several locations throughout his service years, including San Diego, Bahrain, Nevada, and the mobile inshore undersea warfare unit. He has several awards and decorations, including medals for National Defense Service, the Iraq Campaign , Sea Service Deployment, and pistol expertise. He also has honors for rifle marksmanship. Dorner's full...

I recently read the new biography of Trotsky by Oxford don Robert Service, published in 2009 by Pan Books. It is well-written and surprisingly interesting. The book does a great public service in describing the life of the actual Trotsky, whose previous “biographies” were little more than hagiographies written by his toady worshippers (people like Isaac Deutscher). The last time that I had taken any interest in Trotsky was when I was a teenager and had fleeting delusions of believing in “socialism.” Reading the new book as an adult and as an economist, I found it a useful opportunity to...

What the Secret Service could learn from drunken sailors Roberto Loiederman, a merchant seaman from 1966 to 1974, is a writer in California. He co-authored “The Eagle Mutiny,” an account of the 1970 mutiny on a U.S. vessel. What happened in Cartagena, Colombia, with the Secret Service seems unsavory to me, but not for the reasons you might think. I make no judgments about men spending a night with escorts. As far as I’m concerned, those who take a holier-than-thou attitude about this are like Inspector Renault in “Casablanca” when he says he’s “shocked, shocked” to discover there is gambling...

A Lesbian couple have become the first to share in the US Navy tradition of the 'first kiss' since the repeal of the American military's "don't ask, don't tell" rule. (Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta (L) kisses her girlfriend of two years, Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek in Virginia Beach Photo: AP)Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta of Placerville, California, descended from the USS Oak Hill amphibious landing ship and shared a quick kiss in the rain with her partner, Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell of Los Angeles. Gaeta, 23, wore...

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) -- A Navy tradition has caught up with the repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" rule on gays serving openly in the U.S. military. The Navy said two women shared the coveted "first kiss" Wednesday when the USS Oak Hill returned home to its Virginia base. Marissa Gaeta of Pacerville, Calif., descended from the ship and shared a quick kiss with her partner, Citlalic (SEET-lah-leek) Snell of Los Angeles. The crowd screamed and waved Navy flags around them. Both women are fire controlmen in the Navy. They met at training school and have been dating...

Rescue ships are racing to save a Russian crew who have taken to lifeboats after their fishing ship hit an iceberg taking on water. The crew of the stricken Sparta, which is listing at 13 degrees, are trying to empty water from the ship as it slowly sinks in the Ross Sea near Antarctica with a 5ft hole in the hull below the water line. But vessels speeding towards it are being hampered by heavy sea ice and are unlikely to reach the the area - about 2,000 nautical miles south east of New Zealand - for four to five...

SAN DIEGO -- Imagine joining the Navy ten years ago with a career in mind. Now, sailors with that career plan are getting pink slips as the military looks for places to save money. Since June, 16,000 mid-career sailors have been waiting to find out if they will be forced out early. Last week, the Navy began its layoffs when the first of two rounds of personnel cuts were announced. Read the original story at nbcsandiego.com "Nobody ever wants to pass this sort of bad news to somebody," said Captain Winton Smith, Naval Station San Diego's commanding officer. "It's a...

Forbes writer Rick Ungar is getting some attention for a piece arguing that history shows that John Adams supported a strong Federal role in health care. Ungar argues that Adams even championed an early measure utilizing the concept behind the individual mandate, which Tea Partyers say is unconsittutional. I just ran this theory past a professor of history who specializes in the early republic, and he said there's actually something to it. Short version: There's no proof from the historical record that Adams would have backed the idea behind the individual mandate in particular. But it is fair to conclude,...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12, 2010 – Navy officials, current and former crew members and families of the fallen gathered today at Norfolk Naval Station, Va., to remember the 17 sailors killed and 39 others wounded in the al-Qaida attack on the USS Cole 10 years ago today. Suicide bombers launched the surprise Oct. 12, 2000, attack on the Arleigh Burke-class, Aegis-equipped guided missile destroyer as it was anchored in Aden, Yemen, for a routine refueling stop. The attackers detonated an explosive-laden boat against the ship’s port side, tearing a 40-by-40-foot hole in the hull and sending seawater gushing into the engineering...

SAN DIEGO, California (Reuters) – For sailors aboard the USS Higgins docked in San Diego, a popular question for visiting Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday was how the austerity drive he announced this week would affect them. "We are fighting two wars and so the budget is a huge deal for us," said Naval Petty Officer Michael Allen after Gates gave him and the rest of the crew aboard the guided-missile destroyer a commemorative coin. "On our level there are things we can do (to cut costs) but we don't make the decisions about it," Allen said. Gates was...

PLANTATION — He kissed and told. She kissed and said it was him. Then she wasn't sure. They drifted apart. Over the years, the memory of a shared national moment bound them. And now she is gone. Edith Shain, 91, the nurse in the iconic "kissing sailor" photograph, the Times Square clinch marking the end of World War II, died Sunday at her home in Los Angeles. Carl Muscarello, 83, a retired New York police detective who lives in Plantation, says he remembers that day well, and not just for its historic significance.

The human battleship that is spearheading the Navy's latest recruitment drive. Picture: Andreas Smetana DESPERATE to attract new recruits, the Navy has spent $53,000 on a photo shoot of a "ship" made from 100 sailors. Top fashion and advertising photographer Andreas Smetana was paid $42,000 for two days' work to snap the image at the HMAS Albatross base at Jervis Bay on the NSW south coast. Defence Force Recruiting also invested $11,000 on a "making of " video showing the 100 sailors from Albatross and Fleet Base East in Sydney making the human ship. Staff costs for the sailors would...

SEOUL, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Friday's Navy ship sinking might be caused by mine explosion, South Korean media YTN quoted Cheong Wa Dae sources as saying on Saturday. But both the government and the military authorities said the exact cause of the incident cannot be pinpointed yet. South Korean officials are narrowing down the possibilities that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is involved in the incident. "It is hard to say for sure now, but chances appear to be slim that North (DPRK) was related," a senior official told Yonhap on the condition of anonymity. There has been...

Push for integrating women into the submarine service and expect the language to get a little ... salty.

ABOARD THE USS CARL VINSON — Helicopters sit ready to go from this US aircraft carrier off Haiti, but there's a problem: after a day of frantic aid runs there is simply nothing left to deliver. Aboard the warship some 3,500 US military personnel have been coordinating the flights of 19 US helicopters carrying aid since early morning. SNIP In less than 12 hours, helicopters from the USS Carl Vinson made some 20 trips to scout the ravaged landscape and deliver items that were originally intended for the ship's crew. Among the supplies dropped off were thousands of bottles of...

NORFOLK Thousands of Hampton Roads sailors received orders this morning to prepare to deploy to Haiti as part of a massive U.S. effort to deliver humanitarian assistance in the wake of Tuesday’s devastating earthquake. At least four Norfolk-based ships are getting ready to leave for the impoverished country, said Ted Brown, a spokesman with Norfolk’s Fleet Forces Command. The amphibious assault ship Bataan, the guided missile cruiser Normandy and the dock landing ships Fort McHenry and Carter Hall will likely leave port by Friday, the Navy said. Expeditionary forces based at the Little Creek campus of the Joint Expeditionary Base...

KABUL, Jan. 8, 2010 – The Navy’s top officer and top enlisted sailor visited sailors assigned to the international joint command here yesterday. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead eats lunch with sailors assigned to International Security Assistance Force Joint Command in Kabul, Afghanistan, Jan. 7, 2010. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Master Sgt. Jon Nicolussi  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Adm. Gary Roughead, chief of naval operations, and Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Rick D. West are traveling throughout the country, meeting with sailors and senior leadership. Roughead met with Army Lt. Gen. David...

BATH, Maine – Cruising through the darkness in rough seas, the USS Ross encountered a rogue wave that smashed into the destroyer's bow, sending a shudder along the entire ship that knocked sleeping crew out of their bunks and damaged the sonar housing. As alarms sounded, sleepy sailors scrambled to shore up the leak. "We cracked the hull and kept on going like it was nothing,"...

Sailor Who Survived USS Cole Attack Dies At 31 Family believes he died from a panic attack while he slept HOMESTEAD, Fla. - A survivor of the suicide bombing on the USS Cole in Yemen 10 years ago has died at his Florida home. U.S. Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Johann Gokool was found dead in his bed last Wednesday, a week after his 31st birthday. His sister, Natala Gokool, says her brother suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and had frequent, violent panic attacks. Natala Gokool said her brother never recovered from the attack. "He didn't like to be in...

SILVERDALE, Wash. – This is one 21st birthday to forget. A 21-year-old man stationed at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor has been arrested after getting into multiple altercations on what one of his friends told law enforcement was the man's 21st birthday. The man was kicked out of the Old Town Bistro early Saturday morning, the first in a series of events. The Kitsap Sun reports about 12:15 a.m. a witness said the man approached him and started a conversation. The man said he was in the Marines, while the witness replied he was in the Navy. The suspect shook his hand...