Free Republic

"On this, the 82nd anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Sal Mercogliano - maritime historian at Campbell University (@campbelledu) and former merchant mariner - joins the US Naval History Podcast to discuss the Third Wave at Pearl Harbor, Fuel Logistics in World War Two, and the issues surrounding the closing of Red Hill today in a potential war against China."

China's government has passed new guidelines requiring civilian shipbuilders to ensure their vessels can be used by the military in the event of conflict, state-run media said on Thursday. The regulations require five categories of vessels including container ships to be modified to "serve national defence needs", the state-run China Daily newspaper said. The regulations "will enable China to convert the considerable potential of its civilian fleet into military strength", it said. The report said that China had about 172,000 civilian ships at the end of last year, suggesting the measure could be a major boost to China's navy. China's...

ARLINGTON, Va. — To hell with pirates: The Defense Department isn’t going to re-route ships to avoid the Gulf of Aden. "We’re not going around the Cape of Good Hope," Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said Wednesday. Several shipping companies this week announced they would do just that, in an effort to avoid pirates lurking in the waters off Somalia. But the U.S. government is not considering such an option for its ships. "Ultimately that’s not the solution to this," Morrell said. "And that, to me — in scenarios like that, the pirates win. And they should not be allowed...

WASHINGTON, March 26, 2008 – U.S. 5th Fleet officials today expressed regret for the death of an Egyptian citizen who died the night of March 24, an apparent result of warning shots fired at a small boat approaching a ship chartered by the U.S. Navy. “We express our deepest sympathies to the family of the deceased,” Vice Adm. Kevin J. Cosgriff, 5th Fleet commander. “We are greatly saddened by events that apparently resulted in this accidental death. This situation is tragic, and we will do our utmost to help take care of the family of the deceased.” The U.S. Navy’s...

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill., Nov. 30, 2007 – A commercial cargo ship carrying more than 100 mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles for troops in Iraq set sail this week from Naval Weapons Station Charleston, S.C. A mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle drives onto a commercial vessel at the Naval Weapons Station in Charleston, S.C. U.S. Transportation Command coordinated the transportation of more than 100 MRAPs to the U.S. Central Command area of operations, marking the first large-scale sealift movement of the life-saving vehicles. Photo by Senior Airman Micky M. Bazaldua, USAF  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The vehicles, known as MRAPS, are designed...

NORFOLK, Va. (NNS) -- The recovery and salvage ship USS Grasp (ARS 51) was decommissioned after 20 years of service and transferred to Military Sealift Command (MSC) in a ceremony at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek Jan. 19. Past and present crew members attended the 11 a.m. ceremony to say farewell to the ship. “There’s always a little bit of sadness at the end of a career,” said Grasp’s executive officer Lt. Cmdr. Andrew Chicoine, “at the same time, people are looking forward to the next part of their life.” As a U.S. Navy ship, Grasp had a crew of...

The U.S. Army wants to acquire a small fleet of high-speed catamarans, enough to ferry one of its new Stryker brigades. A chartered catamaran performed so well in the U.S. military's 2002 Millennium Challenge exercise that the Pentagon recently sent two of the 300-foot experimental vessels to support forces massing in the Arabian Gulf.The Army has included 12 such ships, which it has dubbed Theater Support Vessels, in its 2004-2009 Program Objective Memorandum (POM), the annual purchase plan it sends to Pentagon officials, Gen. Jack Keane, the Army's vice chief of staff, said Feb. 26 at the Association of the...

A New Dimension of Strength - Strategic Sealift Program Provides Outsized Capabilities for Future Conflicts By ANDRE MARAOUI The past decade has seen dramatic changes around the world. Throughout this period, the Strategic Sealift Program, under the Program Executive Office Ships, has quietly designed, built, and delivered the largest and most capable roll-on/roll-off (RO/RO) vessels in the world. These large, medium-speed, RO/ROs (LMSRs), whose conversion and construction were managed by the Strategic Sealift Program, are vital to carrying out the U.S.-led global war on terrorism and to the effort to remove weapons of mass destruction from the control of hostile...