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Navy Secretary Donald C. Winter has announced that the newest Zumwalt class destroyer will be named the Michael Monsoor for a SEAL who died in Iraq when he threw himself on a grenade to save two teammates. Winter made the announcement last night at a Navy SEAL Warrior Fund benefit gala in New York City, according to a Department of Defense news release. Monsoor was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor earlier this year for his actions in Ramadi, Iraq in September 2006. “Michael Monsoor’s name will now be linked with one of our nation’s most visible examples of military...

The US Navy has issued a safety bulletin requiring inspections for all 636 F/A-18A-Ds within the next 15 hours after discovering fatigue cracks on outboard aileron hinges. The safety issue comes as the navy seeks to extend the life of its oldest fighters to limit the impact of a projected strike aircraft shortfall across the next decade. USN officials issued the bulletin after finding cracks in the aluminium outer wing components of 15 F/A-18s, a USN spokesman said. All of the inspections are expected to take place over the next two weeks, he added. Aircraft that fail the inspection must...

The destroyer Barry ran aground Thursday as it was preparing to dock at a port in the Black Sea, the Navy confirmed Friday. The incident happened at about 10:30 a.m. local time, as the Norfolk-based ship was entering the Turkish port of Samsun. The ship ran aground in silt as it was maneuvering in the port’s turning basin, about 200 yards from the pier. A harbor pilot was on board at the time, a Navy official said. Tugs were able to free the ship with assistance from Turkish coast guard divers, and the vessel is currently moored at a Samsun...

PEARL HARBOR (NNS) -- Commander, Submarine Forces Pacific Fleet (COMSUBPAC), Rear Adm. Douglas McAneny announced today that a sunken vessel off the coast of the Aleutian Islands is in fact the World War II submarine USS Grunion (SS 216). "I am honored to announce that, with records and information provided by the Abele family and assistance from the Naval Historical Center, USS Grunion has been located," said McAneny. "We are very grateful to the family of Grunion's Commanding Officer Lt. Cmdr. Mannert L. Abele for providing the underwater video footage and pictures that allowed us to make this determination. We...

The sunken wreckage of a U.S. submarine lost with all hands during the Second World War has been located off an island in the Aleutian chain, the U.S. Navy said Friday. The USS Grunion disappeared July 30, 1942 with 70 crew members after conducting operations against Japanese forces who had seized the Aleutian island of Kiska. Acting on a tip, sons of the submarine's commander, Lt.-Cmdr. Mannert Abele, mounted two expeditions to find the missing submarine and located it at a depth of 3,200 feet off Kiska. "It's like we won the lottery 10 times in a row," Bruce Abele,...

China's submarine fleet projects Beijing's power Jonathan Manthorpe Vancouver Sun Friday, September 26, 2008 Soon after dawn two weeks ago the captain of the Japanese destroyer Atago was on the bridge of his ship cruising within territorial waters off southwestern Japan when he saw something in the water about a kilometre away. "Isn't that a periscope?" he asked. Crew detected the target with the ship's state-of-the-art sonar. They then "pinged" what they took to be a submarine with their targeting sonar. Under the rules of the sea the submarine should then have surfaced and displayed its national flag or faced...

A sailor who died Saturday after he was injured aboard the ballistic-missile submarine Nebraska had become “entangled and pinned” in the rudder ram during a cleaning evolution, according to the Naval Safety Center’s Web site. The Navy was notifying the sailor’s next-of-kin and, as of Tuesday afternoon, had not yet released the victim’s name. The safety center Web site identified him as a third-class machinist’s mate. Navy officials have not provided any details about the “apparent accident” as the boomer was operating off Oahu on Saturday. “There was no damage to the submarine,” Lt. Cmdr. Dave Benham, a spokesman for...

SOUDA BAY, Greece, Sept. 21, 2008 - Loaded bow to stern with 26 combat aircraft and ready to deliver up to 1,800 Marines ashore on demand, USS Iwo Jima has a lot to bowl over a first-time visitor. But Navy Capt. Robert M. Irelan, Iwo Jima's commanding officer, said he has little doubt the civilian leaders who visited today were as wowed by the ship's crewmembers as by its technology and combat power. "It's not the steel," Irelan told participants in the Defense Department's Joint Civilian Orientation Conference of Iwo Jima, one of the Navy's largest amphibious assault ships that...

By Kate Wiltrout The Virginian-Pilot September 18, 2008 By Kate Wiltrout The Virginian-Pilot Carl Brashear was a man with unwavering determination to serve as a Navy diver - and to return to the water even after losing a leg. Thursday in San Diego, the Navy's top officials gathered to honor Brashear at the christening and launch of a supply ship bearing his name. Also in the crowd was Senior Chief Petty Officer John Allen, a diver from Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base. Several years ago, he spent just a few minutes with Brashear, but it made a big impression. Brashear...

Fleet Week 2008 Press Releases FLEET WEEK HAS A STELLAR LINE UP The Blue Angels Return along with the Canadian Snowbirds SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Sept. 2, 2008 -- Fleet week is proud to announce that the Navy’s Blue Angels will be returning to the skies of San Francisco. Fleet week makes its 28th annual appearance, October 9-14, 2008 -- attracting an estimated one million spectators along the San Francisco waterfront. The show will be bigger and better this year with the Canadian Snowbirds joining the Blue Angels. The Snowbirds’ performance features nine jets showcasing remarkable tactical aviation. Their show...

The Freeper Canteen Presents The USS New York (LPD-21) Commissioning Unit New York (LPD-21), the fifth ship in the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock, is the sixth ship of the United States Navy to be named for the state of New York. The ship was designed to deliver a fully-equipped battalion of 700 Marines. The ship is the first to be fully designed from the CAD-screen up to support all three of the Marines' primary mobility capabilities—Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV), Landing Craft, Landing Craft Air Cushioned vehicle and the MV-22 Osprey. This photo was taken shortly after the Christening...

BOSASSO, Somalia (Reuters) - An unidentified warship off pirate-ridden Somali waters captured 14 pirates and destroyed their boat, a minister of the northern Puntland region said on Sunday. Abdulqadir Muse Yusuf, fisheries minister for the semi-autonomous region said the pirate vessel met a warship "that we think could be American" and all the pirates on board were captured and their boat destroyed. However, the U.S. Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, said there was no American involvement in the operation.

When Ralph McClintock boarded the USS Pueblo in January 1968, he was planning for a three-week mission. Instead, the 24-year-old communications technician became a prisoner of war, a pawn in the Cold War sideshow that began with North Korea's capture of the Navy spy ship and imprisonment of its 82 crew members. Forty years later, as McClintock and the other survivors of the Pueblo prepare for a reunion, he's proud of his service and the bonds he made with his crew mates during 11 months in captivity. But the pride is tinged with bitterness. "We were treated as heroes when...

40 Years After Capture, USS Pueblo Crew Reunites JERICHO, Vt. — Ralph McClintock expected only a three-week mission when he boarded the USS Pueblo in January 1968. Instead, he and his shipmates became pawns in a Cold War sideshow when North Korea captured the Navy spy ship and imprisoned its 82 crew members. Some still suffer the physical effects of torture or malnutrition they suffered in 11 months of captivity. McClintock is proud of his service as a 24-year-old communications technician and the bonds he made with his crew mates, but that pride is tinged with bitterness. "We were treated...

A US Navy flagship carrying humanitarian aid yesterday steamed into a Georgian port where Russian troops are still stationed, stoking tensions once again in the tinderbox Caucasus region. A previous trip by US warships was cancelled at the last minute a week ago amid fears that an armed stand-off could intensify in the Black Sea port of Poti. The arrival of the USS Mount Whitney, flagship of the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean, came as Moscow accused Dick Cheney, the hawkish US Vice-President, of stoking tensions during a visit to Tbilisi this week. After meeting President Saakashvili, Mr Cheney vowed...

A US warship anchored at the disputed Georgian port of Poti as Russia declared it would not challenge Nato vessels bringing relief to the beleaguered democracy through the Black Sea. The USS Whitney, flagship of America's Mediterranean Sixth Fleet, arrived in the port which was bombed and occupied by Russian forces during the incursion into Georgia last month. A small Russian detachment remains dug in on the outskirts of the town. America had previously aborted an attempt to dock the guided-missile destroyer USS McFaul at the port, fearing an accidental clash with the Russians. Russia said it would not authorise...

SIERRA VISTA — Fon B. Huffman, the last survivor from the international Panay Incident of 1937, died Thursday, his family announced. Huffman, born in 1913, celebrated his 95th birthday on Aug. 19. He died peacefully in his sleep at noon in Hacienda Rehabilitation and Care Center. His daughter, Nancy Ferguson, was by his side. The Iowa farm boy who joined the Navy at age 16 was a 24-year-old sailor aboard the USS Panay when it was attacked near Nanking, China, on Dec. 12, 1937, by Imperial Japanese warplanes. In those days, the American gunboat, part of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet,...

A US navy flagship has steamed into a Georgian port where Russian troops are still stationed, stoking tensions once again in the tinderbox Caucasus region. A previous trip by American warships was cancelled at the last minute a week ago amid fears that an armed stand off could erupt in the Black Sea port of Poti. The arrival of the USS Mount Whitney came as Moscow accused Dick Cheney, the hawkish US vice-president, of stoking tensions during a visit to Tbilisi yesterday, in which he vowed to bring Georgia into the Nato alliance. Russia sees any such move as a...

The waters in the Caribbean and around Latin America for a long time have provided a path for illicit drugs to flow into the United States, but the U.S. Navy has increased its patrols in the region now looking for something else – Hezbollah terrorists, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin. The Navy, in trolling for mini-submarines sometimes used to transport drugs, has discovered that some of them apparently are being operated by Hezbollah. The mini-subs are small semi-submersibles, made of fiberglass and capable of carrying up to four people plus a payload. They are popular with...

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of three U.S. servicemen, missing from World War II, have been identified and will be returned to their families for burial with full military honors. They are Ensign Irvin A.R. Thompson, of Hudson County, N.J.; Ensign Eldon P. Wyman, of Portland, Ore.; and Fireman 2nd Class Lawrence A. Boxrucker, of Dorchester, Wis.; all U.S. Navy. Boxrucker will be buried on Sept. 6 in Dorchester, and the funerals for Thompson and Wyman are being set by their families. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941, the...

Cold War tension rises as Putin talks of Black Sea confrontation Russia has criticised the US for using naval ships to deliver aid to Georgia Michael Evans, Defence Editor A new Cold War between Russia and the West grew steadily closer yesterday after the Kremlin gave a warning about “direct confrontation” between American and Russian warships in the Black Sea. Dmitri Peskov, a spokesman for Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister, declared that Russia was taking “measures of precaution” against American and Nato naval ships. “Let’s hope we do not see any direct confrontation in that,” he said. Any attempt by...

BATUMI, Georgia - A U.S. military ship carrying humanitarian aid docked at the Georgian Black Sea port of Batumi on Wednesday, avoiding the port of Poti, which is still controlled by Russian forces. The move came amid escalating tensions between Russia and Georgia's Western allies. Batumi, where the Coast Guard cutter Dallas docked, is well south of the zone of fighting in this month's war between Russia and Georgia. The United States and European nations have assailed Russia's recognition of two Georgian territories as separate nations Tuesday, and Moscow has also criticized the United States for bringing humanitarian aid into...

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TBILISI, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Two U.S. warships will deliver humanitarian supplies on Wednesday to the Georgian Black Sea port of Poti where Russian troops have been mounting patrols, the U.S. embassy in Tbilisi said on Tuesday.

BATUMI, Georgia (Reuters) - A U.S. navy warship arrived in Georgia's main Black Sea port of Batumi on Sunday with humanitarian aid as Russia ignored Western demands to remove its remaining troops from Georgia's heartland. Russia says the residual troops are peacekeepers needed to avert further bloodshed and to protect the people of Georgia's separatist, pro-Moscow provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia two days after Moscow said it had wrapped up its withdrawal. On Georgia's main east-west rail line, a fuel train exploded on Sunday after apparently hitting a landmine. The conflict erupted on August 7-8 when Georgia tried to...

BATUMI, Georgia (Reuters) - The first U.S. warship to bring aid to Georgia arrived in the country's main Black Sea port of Batumi on Sunday, in a strong gesture of support for the ex-Soviet republic in its conflict with Russia. The USS McFaul, a guided missile destroyer, is loaded with humanitarian aid including beds and food for the tens of thousands displaced by the confrontation that erupted on Aug 7-8 over Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia region. GEORGIA COMNFLICT 2008

Us warship arrives in Georgia

NATO warships, which passed through Istanbul's Bosporus Strait Thursday, entered the Black Sea for long-planned exercises and routine visits to ports in Romania and Bulgaria, the alliance said. A U.S. Navy warship entered Turkey's Dardanel Strait on Friday taking relief supplies to Georgia. Three warships - from Spain, Germany and Poland - sailed into the Black Sea on Thursday. The move is not linked to the tensions over Russia's invasion of Georgia, which lies on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, about 900 kilometers (550 miles) from the Romanian coast, said officials at NATO's military command in southern Belgium....

9/11 steel poured for USS SomersetBy KIRK SWAUGER Published: August 06, 2008 11:35 pm SOMERSET — The old draglines that towered above the reclaimed strip mine where Flight 93 crashed near Shanks-ville almost seven years ago are gone. But their symbolic significance to the day average Americans fought back against terror will not be lost. Twenty-two tons of steel from one of the large cranes was melted and poured Wednesday for the stemhold of the USS Somerset, a Navy vessel being constructed in honor of Flight 93’s passengers and crew. “We’re going to be cutting the water for that ship...

A New York man was sentenced today to 18 months in federal prison after a jury convicted him of stealing submarine parts from the Navy and selling them for scrap.Frank E. Spaulding, 37, also known as Khalif Immanuel Bey, confessed to stealing submarine acoustic domes in December 2006 after the parts had been removed from the Hampton, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.Spaulding sold the parts, worth $21,000, to a local scrap yard for about $2,000, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Ships from Canada, US, Poland to Enter Black Sea Waters: Deputy Chief of Russian General Staff 19.08.08 16:39 Russia, Moscow, 19 August/ TrendNews, corr R. Agayev/ The ships from Canada, US and Poland are expected to enter the Black Sea waters by the end of August to carry out a peacekeeping mission, Noqovitsin, deputy chief of the Russian General Staff said to in a briefing in Moscow. At the night of 8 August, large-scale military operations were launched in the self-declared South Ossetia republic. The Georgian troops entered Tskhinvali. Later the Russian troops entered the city and drove the Georgian...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- It was September 1967, and Lt. Cmdr. John McCain was back from Vietnam on home leave. He invited Chuck Larson over for dinner, and during a late night game of bridge, McCain pulled his buddy from the U.S. Naval Academy and flight school aside. Larson recalls being stunned at what he heard. "You know Chuck, I might have to get out of the Navy," McCain told him. "And I said, 'Why is that John?' and he said, 'Well I want to be a serious naval officer. And when I go places now, people tend to not take...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 15, 2008 – Coast Guardsmen soon will be training to join Navy SEAL teams, a senior Coast Guard officer said today. Rear Adm. Thomas F. Atkin, commander of the Coast Guard’s deployable operations group, said four Coast Guardsmen -- two officers and two enlisted sailors -- will be selected to begin basic underwater demolition school later this year. If they graduate, the admiral said, they will become full-fledged members of Navy SEAL teams and deploy with those teams worldwide. Atkins called the development the beginning of an exciting new era in the Coast Guard. “Certainly this is historic,...

SAN FRANCISCO—The U.S. Navy agreed in a settlement approved Tuesday to limit where it operates certain sonar systems criticized by environmentalists as a threat to whales and other marine mammals. The settlement approved Tuesday by a federal judge in San Francisco restricts the Navy's use of low-frequency sonar to specific military training areas near Hawaii and in the western Pacific Ocean.

Two additional United States naval aircraft carriers are heading to the Gulf and the Red Sea, according to the Kuwaiti newspaper Kuwait Times. Kuwait began finalizing its "emergency war plan" on being told the vessels were bound for the region. The US Navy will neither confirm nor deny that carriers are currently en route. US Fifth Fleet Combined Maritime Command located in Bahrain said it could not comment because of what a spokesman termed "force-protection policy." While the Kuwaiti daily did not name the ships it believes are heading for the Middle East, The Media Line's defense analyst said they...

July 25, 2008 - At Sea, USS Bonhomme Richard The "Red Devils" of A Company, 1st Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry gather in front of a CH-53 Delta helicopter for a group photo on the deck of USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) during the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) maritime exercise in the Hawaiian operating areas. The Red Devils were training alongside the U.S. Marines and are very proud to be referred to as Canadian Marines by the U.S. Marines. The Canadian Army sent a company of soldiers from Edmonton to RIMPAC to further their training for non-combatant evacuation...

TOKYO - JAPANESE Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura berated his subordinates on Saturday for failing to notify him of a radioactive leak from a US nuclear submarine, saying he learnt of the incident on television." The communication glitch came the same day that Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda installed a new cabinet to revive sagging public support for his government. 'This (Saturday) morning I was watching CNN, and even if I don't understand English that well I saw that something strange was going on', Mr Komura, who retained the post in the new cabinet, told a news conference. 'I therefore contacted (his...

SAN DIEGO, July 31 (UPI) -- A $70 million fire on the nuclear-powered U.S. aircraft carrier George Washington left its top two officers stripped of their duties, officials said Wednesday. Adm. Robert F. Willard, commander of the Navy's Pacific Fleet, directed the skipper, Capt. David C. Cykhoff, and his executive officer, Capt. David M. Dober, be relieved of their command, Navy Times reported. Dykhoff was fired for "loss of confidence in his ability to command and his failure to meet mission requirements and readiness standards," Navy officials said in a statement. Dober was ousted for "substandard performance." Two months ago,...

TOKYO: A U.S. nuclear-powered submarine may have leaked a small amount of radiation as it stopped by Japan in the spring and was then deployed throughout the Pacific Ocean, the Japanese government said Saturday. The Japanese government said that it was informed Friday by the U.S. Navy that the submarine, the USS Houston, may have discharged an amount of radiation that was too small to be considered harmful. The chief government spokesman, Nobutaka Machimura, said at a news conference that the radioactive amount - estimated at less than half a microcurie - was too insignificant to "affect the human body...

NAVAL STATION NORTH ISLAND, Calif. (NNS) -- Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet, Adm. Robert F. Willard, issued a final endorsement to the investigation of a fire that occurred aboard USS George Washington (CVN 73) on May 22. As directed by Adm. Willard, Commander, Naval Air Forces Pacific, Vice Adm. Thomas J. Kilcline, Jr., relieved the Commanding Officer of USS George Washington (CVN 73), Capt. David C. Dykhoff, today due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command and his failure to meet mission requirements and readiness standards. As directed, Kilcline also relieved the George Washington Executive Officer, Capt. David...

SAN DIEGO – The skipper of the San Diego-based Pearl Harbor has been relieved of command after the amphibious landing-dock ship ran aground last week in the Persian Gulf, Navy officials said Monday. Cmdr. Xavier Valverde has been reassigned to the staff of the Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain while the July 21 incident is investigated. The Pearl Harbor apparently hit a shoal while conducting a well-deck drill off the coast of Kuwait, a Navy spokeswoman said. The ship backed off the sand bar without sustaining damage. Valverde, a 26-year Navy veteran, took command of the Pearl Harbor in...

AN Australian submarine - HMAS Waller - has used a new super torpedo - the Mark 48 - to sink an American warship off Hawaii. The HMAS Waller fired the heavyweight Mark 48 torpedo, which the US and Australian navies say is the world's deadliest, during war games this week. Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said the torpedo had been jointly developed by Australia and the United States. The firing occurred during the Rim of the Pacific 2008 (RIMPAC 08) exercise, involving multiple navies off the coast of Hawaii. "This controlled exercise resulted in the planned sinking of a retired US...

The last bastion of male dominance in the US Navy is about to be swept into history. While the eyes of the nation are focused on the first woman to have a shot at winning her party's nomination for President, the Department of the Navy has unveiled a project underway since last summer that will put women in submarines. "This is way overdue," insists Lt. Hanne Bright, an up and coming naval officer. She is among 340 female officers and chiefs who have been selected to initiate an abrupt change in Navy policy; the manning of submarines by women. Women...

080722-N-7571S-001 ATLANTIC OCEAN (July 22, 2008) A French F-2 Rafale launches from the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) during the first integrated U.S. and French carrier qualifications aboard a U.S. aircraft carrier. The Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group is participating in Joint Task Force Exercise "Operation Brimstone" off the Atlantic coast. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jonathan Snyder/Released) 080721-N-7241L-009 ATLANTIC OCEAN (July 21, 2008) A French Rafale M prepares to land aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) during combined French and American carrier qualifications. This event marks the first...

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Operational Brimstone, starting Monday, July 21, aimed at giving military teeth to the two-week ultimatum the six world powers gave Iran in Geneva Saturday to accept the suspension of uranium enrichment or face harsh sanctions and isolation. The penalty of withholding refined oil products from Iran would be exercised by means of a partial international naval blockade of its Gulf ports. Taking part in the 10-day exercise in the Atlantic Ocean are more than a dozen ships, including the US carrier strike group Theodore Roosevelt and expeditionary strike group Iwo Jima; the French submarine Amethyste,...

As predicted by The Nav Log, the Navy has finally admitted that the new, gigantic (14,000 ton) DDG-1000 guided missile destroyer and CGN-X new guided missile cruiser are just too expensive and technically problematic to build as replacements for the existing Burke DDGs and Ticonderoga CGs. The Navy is reportedly in the process of dropping both programs. Latest estimates per copy of the DDG-1000 are $5 billion + each per the Congressional Budget Office. Ouch. A dozen Spruance-class destroyers – built in the 70s and 80s and dogged by a reputation as being difficult to sail and maintain – were...

USS Abraham Lincoln in Arabian Sea to support Afghan operations By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes Mideast edition, Wednesday, July 9, 2008 ARLINGTON, Va. — The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln has moved from the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea to support operations in Afghanistan. NBC News first reported Monday night that the carrier has been moved because of the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, where a suicide bomber killed more than 40 people Monday outside the Indian Embassy in Kabul. A spokesman for 5th Fleet confirmed the move Tuesday. "Conditions are worsening on the ground in Afghanistan and commanders...

Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards began military maneuvers on Monday, news agencies said, the same day the U.S. Navy said it was carrying out an exercise in the Gulf.

The U.S. Navy said on Monday it was carrying out an exercise in the Gulf, days after vowing that Iran will not be allowed to block the waterway which carries crude from the world's largest oil-exporting region. "The aim of Exercise Stake Net is to practice the tactics and procedures of protecting maritime infrastructure such as gas and oil installations," Commodore Peter Hudson said in a U.S. Fifth Fleet statement.

This blood libel of Israel, Jews, and John McCain’s father is sanctioned by Barack Obama’s official campaign It has been established [http://husaria.wordpress.com/2008/06/29/obama-campaign-sanctioned-anti-semitic-and-other-hate-speech/] that Barack Obama’s official campaign site exercises editorial control over the content of my.barackobama.com, and is capable of finding and removing “offensive” and “disrespectful” material within two days. The following has been online for almost three weeks. It accuses Israel of deliberatly murdering the crew of the U.S.S. Liberty, American Jews with divided loyalties of complicity, and John McCain’s father of complicity in a cover up. The following entry is sanctioned (tolerated) by Barack Obama’s official campaign... Now,...