Free Republic

Unreal… Team Obama Leaves Americans Stranded in Libya; Military STILL on Standby Posted by Jim Hoft on Thursday, February 24, 2011, 5:07 PM The Obama Administration won’t send the military to rescue US citizens in Libya. They don’t want to look like war-mongers. Stranded: An estimated 600 U.S. citizens are stuck on board the Maria Dolores (pictured) in Tripoli, and won’t leave until at least Friday (Daily Mail)The Obama Administration is STILL grappling with whether or not to send the military into Libya to rescue US citizens.CNN reported, via HotAir: The senior U.S. official also said the “prudent planning” for...

Is it actually possible that, as you read this, the United States Navy has only one supercarrier battle group at sea? Read on - and be amazed. Look no farther than these two news items, both from today's Sunday Times of London, to see the effect of two decades of shrinkage in the size of the United States Navy and the retreat of the Royal Navy from the high seas: • For the first time in two centuries, British businessmen and others have formed a private navy to protect shipping off the pirate-ridden coast of Somali on the Horn of...

CORONADO, Calif. (NNS) -- The first Special Warfare Combatant Craft (SWCC) class for the new rates of Special Warfare Boat Operator (SB) and Special Warfare Operator (SO) graduated during a commencement ceremony at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado Nov. 9 The new ratings replace previous source ratings, which had been used to distinguish SEALs (Sea, Air, Land) and SWCC by job classifications, and will allow SEALs and SWCC to take advancement exams relating to their own rating. All active-duty graduates of Basic Underwater Demolition School and Basic Crew Member School officially became SOs and SBs Oct. 1. The changes for Navy...

A Senate committee has refused to approve a promotion to admiral for a Navy officer who, as a young fighter pilot during a training mission, deliberately shot down an Air Force plane whose flier has suffered a life of pain from his forced ejection. The Senate Armed Services Committee took no confirmation vote on the nomination of Capt. Tiimothy W. Dorsey as the 112th Congress ended. Because the Senate did not act, the nomination goes back to the White House. The Navy has the option of trying to resubmit his nomination during the 113t Congress, which convened Thursday.

Why China’s Tu-22 bombers would represent a serious threat to U.S. Navy aircraft carriers As already happened in the past for other posts published on this blog, one the most interesting comment to The Aviationist’s recent article on China’s alleged purchase of the entire Tu-22 production line from Russia, has come from Aviationintel.com‘s Tyler Rogoway. Tyler has analyzed the controversial news for his excellent site and given his permission to share his perspective here for The Aviationist’s readers. Why China’s Tu-22 bombers would represent a serious threat to U.S. Navy aircraft carriers If, and I stress the if, this report...

Commander John W Price, 42, oversaw SEAL Team Four, which was training Afghan police in Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan Father of a young daughter Jillian, 9, is also survived by his wife Stephanie SEALs have suffered heavy casualties in Afghanistan The leader of Navy SEAL Team Four, one of the most senior commanders in the elite world of special operations, has died after apparently committing suicide in Afghanistan, it was reported today. Commander John W Price, 42, was found dead in his quarters with a gunshot wound on Saturday - just three days before Christmas. Cmdr Price was based in Naval...

US Navy SEAL commander dies in Afghanistan AAP December 24, 2012 8:51AM A SAILOR identified by US media as the commanding officer of US Navy SEAL Team 4 has died in Afghanistan, military officials say. The Pentagon said Commander Job Price, 42, did not die in combat, and that his death was under investigation. Price, of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, died on Saturday of a "non-combat related injury while supporting stability operations in (central) Uruzgan province, Afghanistan," a Defence Department statement said. It said Price was assigned to a Naval Special Warfare unit in Virginia Beach, Virginia. NBC News reported that Price...

NAVY DOLPHINS’ WORK WILL BE OUTSOURCED Robots to pick up animals’ tasks, like some detection of mines Like the factory worker and travel agent before them, some Navy dolphins trained to hunt down mines are scheduled to be replaced by computers in five years. However, the Navy’s marine mammals aren’t going away. Military-trained dolphins and sea lions will continue to be used for port security and retrieving objects from the sea floor — jobs they are still better at than machines. The Navy’s $28 million marine mammal program, headquartered in San Diego, uses 80 bottlenose dolphins and 40 California sea...

Internal Military Emails Reveal Details On bin Laden's Burial November 21, 2012 WASHINGTON – Internal emails among senior U.S. military officers indicate that no sailors watched Usama bin Laden's burial at sea from the USS Carl Vinson and traditional Islamic procedures were followed during the ceremony. The emails, obtained by The Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act, are heavily blacked out, but are the first public disclosure of government information about the Al Qaeda leader's death. The emails were released Wednesday by the Defense Department. Bin Laden was killed on May 1, 2011, by a Navy SEAL team...

As more information comes to the light about the Obama administration's Benghazi cover-up, a former Navy SEAL officer who once took a military detachment to Libya suggests President Barack Obama was either AWOL -- essentially an "empty chair" -- or deliberately denied Americans under siege in Benghazi the aid they needed by not authorizing "cross-border authority," without which rescue operations could have taken place. Matt Bracken, the former SEAL, writes "only the president can give the order for our military to cross a nation’s border without that nation’s permission." He notes that Obama granted "cross-border authority" for Americans to enter...

WASHINGTON — After half a century on the high seas, the oldest warship in the American fleet, the USS Enterprise, will return to port Sunday for the last time. From the Cuban Missile Crisis to the war in Afghanistan, the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier has played a part in every conflict involving the United States since she was commissioned in 1961. But when the massive vessel glides into the US naval base in Norfolk, Virginia on Sunday morning, with sailors in white uniforms standing on deck, it will mark the end of her 25th and final deployment after an...

A Mississippi man flying to visit his wife in Japan on Monday was detained during a stop in Hawaii and has been barred from reboarding his flight - or any other flight - because his name came up on the U.S. No-Fly List, leaving him stranded on the island. Gulfport resident Wade Hicks, Jr., boarded a military jet at Travis Air Force Base in San Francisco so he could spend time with his newlywed wife, a U.S. Navy lieutenant stationed in Okinawa, Japan, the Canada Free Press reports.

The Navy’s New Class of Warships: Big Bucks, Little Bang The Navy’s new Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) is not only staggeringly overpriced and chronically unreliable but — even if it were to work perfectly — cannot match the combat power of similar sized foreign warships costing only a fraction as much. Let’s take a deep dive and try to figure out why. The story so far: – Congress has funded the LCS program since February 2002. Its publically stated purpose was to create a new generation of surface combatants able to operate in dangerous shallow water and near-shore environments. –...

Navy Bets On Arleigh Burkes To Sail Until 2072; 40 Years Afloat For Some Tomorrow morning, at Manhattan's Pier 88, the Navy will commission its newest destroyer, DDG-112. The USS Michael Murphy's namesake was uncompromisingly heroic, a Navy SEAL who died earning the Medal of Honor in Afghanistan. The ship itself, however, embodies a series of cost-conscious compromises that will keep the Navy sailing a 1980s design -- albeit much upgraded --until at least 2072. These destroyers are and will long remain the Navy's mainstay. The Arleigh Burke class to which the Murphy belongs is built to carry the Aegis...

Big U.S. Fleet Nears Disputed Islands, But What For? By Kirk Spitzer | September 30, 2012 TOKYO – It’s probably just a coincidence; no need to worry yet. But the U.S. has quietly assembled a powerful air, land and sea armada not far from where Japan and China are squaring off over disputed islands in the East China Sea. Two Navy aircraft carrier battle groups and a Marine Corps air-ground task force have begun operating in the Western Pacific, within easy reach of the Senkaku Islands. That’s where Japanese and Chinese patrol boats are engaged in an increasingly tense standoff.

In 1979, Adolph Dubs, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, was kidnapped in Kabul by Muslim extremists and killed in a shootout between his abductors and police. Lieutenant Commander Adolph Dubs ,United States Navy Foreign Service Officer(1920-1979) of Maryland. Born in Chicago, Illinois, August 4, 1920. Served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II; U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, 1978-79. Assassinated in Afghanistan, February 14, 1979. Interment at Arlington National Cemetery.

Barack Obama has always been known for his silken words, soaring rhetoric and ability to use language to his advantage. Lately, however, the president seems to be losing command of the details. In a speech at a fundraiser in New York on Wednesday night, he took aim at Todd Akin, the political punch bag du jour on both sides of the political aisle. ‘Recently, some of you have been paying attention to the commentary of the Senator of Missouri, Mr Akin, who - the interesting thing here is that this is an individual who sits on the House Committee on...

Former Navy SEAL Carl Higbie wrote a book effectively showing how politics have infiltrated at high levels of the Military. I say "effectively" because the Pentagon refused to vet the book, meaning that Higbie had to choose: continue his career as a Navy SEAL, in which he had 9 years invested, or leave and publish what he believes is information Americans need to know: politics have invaded Military and there must be a battle for the home front, on the home front. Military procedure is that the Pentagon must review the book and sanction it before publishing. In Higbie's case,...

Proposed US Military buildup under a conservative U.S. Administration circa 2012-2024 CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL ARTICLE The following plan is based on a major US economic turnaround based on sound Free Market principles geared to US interests, energy independendece, a balanced budget, stabilization of Social Security & Medicare & eliminating unessary and wasteful entitlements & entire federal agencies. It is also based,under a conservative leadership in Washington, on adopting lower corporate and individual income taxes so the revenue to the treasury expands and increases significantly which will fuel the buildup necessary to remain technologically superior by two generations...

Senior official raises F/A-XX doubts while retired USMC Generals question USN’s F-35 commitment A senior US Department of Defense official is questioning how the US Navy will fund a next-generation replacement for the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. Meanwhile, retired US Marine Corps flag-officers say that the USN's nascent F/A-XX effort demonstrates the service's lack of commitment to the carrier-variant of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). The US Navy has issued a request for information (RFI) for a new F/A-XX fighter that would start to replace the Super Hornet in the 2030s--effectively starting the search for that aircraft's...