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In early November, retired Senior Chief Jeffrey Sparenberg was the guest of honor at military heritage day in Delaware. Sparenberg spent 23 years in the Navy, including time on the destroyer Cole, and he was at Fort DuPont State Park that day to donate a flag that he said flew over the Cole shortly after it was attacked nine years ago. The flag, he hoped, would be put on view at the planned Delaware Military Museum. A photograph from the ceremony shows Sparenberg on the steps of a shuttered brick building. The left side of his chest is covered with...

The commanding officer and top enlisted sailor serving on the Norfolk-based destroyer James E. Williams were relieved of command today after numerous cases of fraternization among the crew and allegations of sexual assault. Cmdr. Paul Marquis, skipper of the Williams, was assigned to administrative duty by Capt. Robert C. Barwis, the commander of Destroyer Squadron 26, according to a Navy spokesman. Master Chief Timothy Youell, who served as the command master chief on the Williams, also has been reassigned to an administrative job. The actions come in the wake of nine fraternization cases between senior and junior enlisted personnel on...

I created a web site that focuses on the brand new classes of warships that the US Navy is currently building for the 21st century. It includes a lot of specifications, history, and good pictures of each class. The logo and links to the various ship classes are included below. (Picture intesive links) Just click on each of the Pictures or names of the vessels and they will take you to the page for that vessel at the site : http://www.jeffhead.com/usn21 These vessels are critical to our ability to maintain our unassailable edge in the near to mid-term future. Other...

Navy officials handed a career-ending letter of censure yesterday to the chief who oversaw the prolonged hazing and sexual taunting of members of a Navy dog-handling unit in Bahrain. Senior Chief Petty Officer Michael Toussaint was removed from supervisory duties overseas with the Naval Special Warfare Command and will work in an administrative post at a base in Norfolk, Va., until his forced retirement in January, said Cmdr. Elissa Smith, a Navy spokeswoman. Toussaint is on leave and has refused all interview requests, said Cmdr. Greg Geisen, a spokesman for the Coronado-based Naval Special Warfare Command. The Navy began investigating...

President Barack Obama has shot down a little-known provision in a massive Pentagon policy bill that would have greatly benefited House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s district. Pelosi (D-Calif.) is among dozens of lawmakers pressing for language in the House version of the 2010 defense authorization bill that would transfer closed military bases, at no cost, to local authorities for economic development. But the White House is opposed to the provision, saying it would provide “potential windfalls” for private developers. Responding on behalf of Obama to letters from several senators who support the House legislation, Dorothy Robyn, the deputy undersecretary of Defense...

Stealthy Italian submarine will train with U.S. Navy The ITS Scire is paying a visit to Mayport to take part in a Joint Task Force Exercise. By Timothy J. Gibbons From its high-tech fuel cell engine to its automated torpedo loading system, the ITS Scire proudly shows off the advanced technology crammed into its narrow body. But being on the crew of a cutting-edge fighting vessel doesn't mean one has to ignore the comforts of life - which perhaps is why cans of extra virgin olive oil manage to find a corner amid the fearsome torpedoes. From the espresso machine...

WASHINGTON — While Republicans are calling a Department of Veterans Affairs health planning booklet a "death book" that encourages veterans to kill themselves or forgo care, ethicists and legal and medical experts say it's a reasonable attempt to help America's veterans plan for the end of their lives. Jim Towey, the former director of President George W. Bush's White House office of faith-based initiatives, wrote in The Wall Street Journal last month that the VA's "Your Life, Your Choices" booklet encourages veterans to "hurry up and die." Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele added in a television interview that the...

A British computer specialist has been indicted formally in the US on charges that he used websites to recruit and finance Taliban fighters. Babar Ahmad, 30, was arrested in London in August and has been held in the UK pending the outcome of extradition proceedings. Ahmad allegedly ran the site azzam.com, which investigators say was used to funnel money to terrorists. "Azzam Publications has been set up to propagate the call for jihad ... to incite the believers and also, secondly, to raise some money for the brothers," the website allegedly said. Donors were encouraged to smuggle cash into Pakistan...

It’s time to return some sanity to the way ships are named.  Why?  Because the silliness is upon us once again:111th CONGRESS 1st Session H. CON. RES. 83Expressing the sense of Congress that a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier of the Navy, either the aircraft carrier designated as CVN-79 or the aircraft carrier designated as CVN-80, should be named the U.S.S. Barry M. Goldwater.Bill information and status here  The nonsense began with CVN-70  and reached the height of historical blindness with the Truman (honestly, naming a carrier for a president who tried his hardest to kill naval aviation and oversaw the death...

RAND study: Now China wins Taiwan Straits air war Nearly 10 years after a RAND study predicted the US side easily beats China in an air war over the Taiwan Straits, the think-tank has published a new monograph online today that reverses its former opinion. Now, a People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) bristling with a newly acquired arsenal -- including Su-27 and J-10 fighters, AA-12 and PL-12 missiles, and short-range ballistic missiles -- defeats the US side. Moreover, the PLAAF defeats the US side with or without F-22s, with or without access to Kadena Air Base in Okinawa and...

<p>WASHINGTON (Aug. 2) - Navy pilot Capt. Michael "Scott" Speicher was shot down over the Iraq desert on the first night of the Gulf War in 1991 and it was there he apparently was buried by Bedouins, hidden in the sand from the world's mightiest military all these years.</p>

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is eyeing treasure in a massive Pentagon bill that could benefit her district greatly. Pelosi is among dozens of House lawmakers pressing for a little-known provision in the defense policy bill that would speed up the transfer of military bases to private developers. One of those shuttered bases has been the subject of years of failed negotiations between San Francisco, the city Pelosi represents, and the Navy. The two parties have been at a stalemate over Treasure Island, a Navy base that closed in 1993 and sits atop a man-made island in the San Francisco...

F-35C meets US Navy's single-engine derision By Stephen Trimble When Lockheed Martin rolls out the F-35C on July 28, US Navy pilots will be one step closer to operating a single-engine fighter off a carrier deck. The DEW Line contributor Dave Majumdar explores this issue with an active F/A-18 pilot with more than 1,700 flying hours, who asked to remain anonymous. If there is any doubt that the US Navy aviation community will accept a single-engine fighter, such as the F-35C, one pilot has a clear answer: That "decision has been made" already and, after all, "the Navy is not...

Please join us in the campaign to show Gratitude to our US Military. Go the following link to the Gratitude Campaign and email the link to everyone you know: THE GRATITUDE FOR OUR MILITARY CAMPAIGNLet's show our military how grateful we are for their service all over this country. It's a neat video you can download to distribute in emails, thumbdrives, and any other way you can too. Thank you.

The U.S. Navy found cracks in two of its older F-18A/B/C/D series of aircraft. The apparent cause was a missing fastener. But to be on the safe side, all 622 of these F-18s are being inspected. The navy has been watching its F-18 carefully, because as aircraft age, they develop unexpected cracks. And the F-18 fleet has been aging fast. Over the last decade, the U.S. Navy found that their older F-18C Hornet fighters were wearing out faster than planned for. This was sort of expected with the F-18Cs, which entered service during the late 1970s and early 80s. These...

Enlisted sailors with more than 20 years of service may find themselves out of a job by June, according to a Navy message Monday. Performance-based continuation boards, the Navy’s latest end-strength shaping effort, are scheduled to kick off this September and will determine if a sailor is going to be recommended for continuation in service or forced to retire. The program is focusing on sailors in the ranks of E-7 to E-9 with more than 20 years of active service. According to the Navy Personnel Command Web site, high-year tenure is currently 24 years for chief petty officers (E-7), 26...

VIRGINIA BEACH What started in J.C. "Tip" Tipton's garage 40 years ago has morphed into one of the best live-action shows in town. Trouble is, it's not open to the public. Tipton was the first president of the UDT-SEAL Association, a support group for members and veterans of the Navy's underwater demolition and sea-air-land commando teams. The group has been celebrating its 40th anniversary this weekend during its annual East Coast reunion at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base, where 4,000 active and retired SEALs, their families and guests saw a dramatic display of the clandestine warriors' skills and equipment Saturday....

Tomahawk may get ship-killer role By Enric Volante ARIZONA DAILY STAR A U.S. Navy missile that cruises hundreds of miles over land to blow up buildings is being redesigned in Tucson to chase down moving targets. Raytheon Missile Systems wants to turn its land-attack Tomahawk missile into a ship killer that can do something never done before: Hit a cruising warship from a thousand miles away. On Friday, the Defense Department announced a $12.8 million contract for Raytheon to engineer and test a new warhead system for the Tomahawk Block IV cruise missile. Ninety percent of the work would be...

YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — Petty Officer 3rd Class Chad Kahl never suffered from a lack of open space while growing up in North Dakota. When he told friends and family there that he had volunteered to live aboard a 350-foot-long metal tube underneath hundreds of feet of water, they thought he was crazy. Kahl had done his homework on the submarine lifestyle. But as he prepared to get under way for the first time, he wondered if his friends may have had a point. "I think everyone that goes doesn’t really know what they’re getting into," said Kahl of...

Fast Boat Threat Faces Hail of Hellfires Posted by Graham Warwick at 6/26/2009 2:48 PM CDT Faced with the threat from swarms of small boats. the US Navy is looking to equip the sensor turrets of its shipborne helicopters with the ability to designate multiple targets for simultaneous attack by laser-guided missiles like Hellfire. Photo: US Navy A new Office of Naval Research project, called Multi-Target Track and Terminate (MT3), aims to demonstrate a prototype multi-target laser designator on an MH-60 - including at least six simultaneous launches against maritime targets in realistic conditions - within 60 months of contract...

The Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead announced in Annapolis recently that "diversity is the number one priority" at the Naval Academy. The Naval Academy superintendent, Vice Adm. Jeffrey Fowler, echoed him. Everyone understands that "diversity" here means nonwhite skins. Fowler insisted recently that we needed to have Annapolis graduates who "looked like" the Fleet, where enlisted people are about 42 percent nonwhite, largely African American and Hispanic. The stunning revelation last week was that the Naval Academy had an incoming class that was "more diverse" than ever before: 35 percent minority. Sounds good, only this comes with a...

On June 8, 1967, US Navy intelligence ship USS Liberty was suddenly and brutally attacked on the high seas in international waters by the air and naval forces of Israel. The Israeli forces attacked with full knowledge that this was an American ship and lied about it. Survivors have been forbidden for 40 years to tell their story under oath to the American public. The USS Liberty Memorial web site tells their story and is dedicated to the memory of the 34 brave men who died.

VIRGINIA BEACH A few years ago at a reunion for Navy sailors and airmen, Clarence Cooper met two men he'd seen just once - Sept. 14, 1968. It was a hot and humid afternoon when North Vietnamese troops ambushed Cooper's supply ship on the river outside Vinh Long. Rockets streamed from the bank, blasted through bulkheads and drove shrapnel into the small crew. The sailors unloaded on the entrenched enemy lines. The deck was covered with smoke and fire and cartridge cases and two rocket-propelled grenades that somehow didn't explode. The fight culminated with a helicopter rescue of a gravely...

Story Number: NNS090523-06 Release Date: 5/23/2009 10:46:00 AM By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Erin Oberholtzer, USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) Public Affairs. NEWPORT NEWS (NNS) -- A USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) officer has broken stereotypes in the Navy across all ranks during the past 22 years. Cmdr. Muhammad Khan, Air Department's Head of Department emigrated from Karachi, Pakistan in 1981, to earn a bachelor's degree in Computer Science at North Texas State University. Later, fascinated with Naval Aviation after watching the movie Top Gun, he enlisted in the Navy in 1987. "He is a great guy and a...

Dripping water like a heavy sponge and riddled with quagga mussels, a World War II-era dive bomber was pulled from a channel off Waukegan Harbor Friday morning, some 65 years after being lost to Lake Michigan

RICHMOND Nearly nine years after 17 sailors were killed in a terrorist attack on the USS Cole, a judge has ordered New York banks to release $13.4 million in frozen Sudanese accounts to family members of the victims. U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood issued the order last week, ending a six-year quest by 59 spouses, parents and children of the victims to hold the Sudanese government accountable for the deaths. “I’m so excited,� said Lorrie Triplett of Suffolk, whose 31-year-old husband, Andrew, was killed in the Oct. 12, 2000 attack. “I just know Andrew was saying halleluiah for me and...

US Navy snipers killed three Somali pirates who had been holding an American merchant skipper on a lifeboat last night, rescuing the hostage unharmed. The US Navy Seals opened fire from about 25 metres away under standing orders from President Obama when they saw one of the pirates pointing an AK47 at Captain Richard Phillips’s back, putting his life in imminent danger. All three pirates were killed. A fourth, who had come aboard a nearby US warship to negotiate, was taken into custody. He was reported to be as young as 16. Captain Phillips, a former Boston taxi driver who...

BREMERTON — The USS San Francisco wrapped up its 3 1/2-year stay in Puget Sound on Tuesday morning. The Los Angeles-class submarine, which arrived at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in September 2005 after sustaining damage in a crash with an undersea mountain, ferried out of Puget Sound waters with a tug escort for the last time. The crew of roughly 140 is taking the vessel, with its transplanted bow, to its new homeport in San Diego. The vessel was formerly homeported in Guam. The submarine stalled not far from the Bremerton ferry terminal on its way out of Sinclair Inlet...

Both the amphibious assault ship USS Essex and the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis held burial-at-sea ceremonies over the past week. The Essex held a ceremony Sunday and the carrier crew buried six retired chief petty officers on April 1. The solemn memorials are a tradition that predates the U.S. Navy and reaches back to man’s earliest sea voyages, according to the Naval Historical Center. The Navy holds the ceremonies under strict, detailed guidelines. Up until World War II, the practice arose out of necessity as ships often embarked for long periods. But since then, many servicemembers, veterans and...

Harpoon Torpedoed ... First of Many Expected Kills to Come Posted by Amy Butler at 4/3/2009 5:14 PM CDT The Navy is expected to kill the Harpoon Block III upgrade program next week owing to poor performance on developing a Rockwell Collins datalink. That datalink was to be GFE to Boeing, which was to integrate it onto the Harpoon anti-ship missile. Neither company commented, and the Navy said it was "predecisional" and couldn't yet discuss the issue. The termination is expected to happen Monday or Tuesday. Navy officials had cited some slippage in the program late last year, but there...

In one of his last moves before leaving office March 13, then-Navy Secretary Donald Winter quietly awarded 19-term Democratic congressman John Murtha (Pa.) with the service's highest civilian honor. Citing Murtha's "courageous leadership, vision, and loyalty to the men and women of the Department of the Navy," Winter presented the influential chairman of the House Appropriations Committee's defense panel with the Navy's Distinguished Public Service Award, an honor bestowed in "those extraordinary cases where individuals have demonstrated exceptionally outstanding service of substantial and long term benefit to the Navy, Marine Corps, or the Department of the Navy as a whole,"...

American Top Gun fighter pilot academy set up by British The American Top Gun fighter pilot academy was inspired by the Royal Navy elite flying instructors, a new book has revealed. By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent Despite the all-American hero imagery of the film starring Tom Cruise, the US Navy's expertise was in large part due to their instruction by aviators from the Fleet Air Arm. When British pilots arrived at Miramar airbase in California in the early 1960s the Americans were losing a large number of dogfights in their multi-million Phantom fighters to the enemy's relatively "cheap" MiG 21s....

Just having fun now! God Bless!

MANAMA, Bahrain, March 9, 2009 – U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Boutwell left Karachi, Pakistan, today after a four-day port visit to participate in the international naval exercise Aman 2009, marking the first time a U.S. ship has pulled into Pakistan since May. The 10-day exercise, which began March 5, focuses on air, surface and maritime security training. It includes representatives from 38 countries, as well as ships from 11 nations that include the United States, United Kingdom, Pakistan and Australia. The at-sea portion of the exercise is being conducted primarily in the North Arabian Sea, off the coast of Pakistan....

With the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan dominating the military news for the last seven years, most Americans have little or no idea what their Navy does in a day. In an effort to provide background for the Navy’s leaders to use in their interactions with the media and public, the Navy’s Chief Of Information has been producing monthly “snapshots� documenting the Navy’s key activities on one day a month. This month, CHINFO chose February 19th, and it gives a great overview of the Maritime Strategy in action. Here are the key bullets: 331,676 Active Duty Officers, Sailors and Midshipmen;...

Navalizing the F-22 Raptor Restoring America's Maritime Air Dominance 07:36 GMT, February 23, 2009 May 7th, 1942, during the Battle of the Coral Sea, was the day when naval warfare changed forever. This was the first fleet action in which aircraft carriers engaged each other. It was also history’s first naval battle in which neither side's ships sighted or fired directly upon each other. Although technically a win for the Japanese Navy, its forces were sufficiently weakened that in the subsequent Battle of Midway, the United States Navy convincingly defeated the Imperial Japanese Navy. Since then, the USN has never...

On the flight deck of the amphibious ship Bataan, the hybrid aircraft known as the V-22 Osprey has taken roost. Lined up on the deck with its wings folded, the tilt-rotor aircraft hides its unique gift - it lifts off and hovers like a helicopter and flies like a plane.Almost 20 years after its first test flight, and a decade since two fatal crashes grounded it, the Osprey is poised for its first full deployment with a Navy amphibious group.Marines and sailors are now training with about 10 Ospreys aboard the Norfolk-based Bataan, off the coast of North Carolina, doing...

US Navy's SLAM ER turns corner on mobile targets By Stephen Trimble Boeing's AGM-84H SLAM-ER missile has demonstrated a new ability to strike mobile, land-based targets, such as missile launchers, using targeting data supplied by a third party. The missile on 12 January acquired and scored a direct hit against a target moving at about 10kt (19km/h) amid a "cluttered desert environment". Boeing released few details about the test conditions, but US Navy officials previously described plans to engage a moving ground target as it turned along a 90° bend in the road. The target was first acquired by an...

TIJUANA, Mexico -- Two U.S. sailors have been charged with the murder of a prostitute and the attempted murder of another in this northern border city, Mexican state prosecutors said. Witnesses and a hotel camera place the two men at the same hotel where a 19-year-old prostitute was smothered to death on Jan. 17, the prosecutors said Tuesday. On Feb. 4, police found the men in a bloodstained hotel room with a prostitute and a hotel employee, both of whom had suffered stab wounds, prosecutors said. The sailors were taken into custody and charged with attempted murder. They later found...

USS Port Royal Gronding Thread from US Naval Institute

Here is video of a mother of one of the sailors killed in the terrorist attack on the USS Cole in 2000 speaking out today against President Obama for his decision to drop the charges against the mastermind of the attack. She refused to meet with Obama today at the White House, and says he is letting down America's guard against Terrorists. Very powerful statements. . . . (Watch Video)

More calm than I would be.

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Naval Station Norfolk Naval Station Norfolk, in Norfolk, Virginia, is a base of the United States Navy, supporting naval forces operating in the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, and Indian Ocean. NS Norfolk, also known as the Norfolk Navy Base, occupies about four miles of waterfront space and seven miles of pier and wharf space of the Hampton Roads peninsula known as Sewell's Point. The land on which the naval station is located was originally the site of the 1907 Jamestown Exposition. During this exposition, high-ranking naval officers agreed that this site...

Sunrise over Naval Base San Diego, California, on 23 October 2007 -- the view from the sea. Photographer Cdr. Jane Campbell, United States Navy CourtesiesGallery of Sunrises and Sunsets, http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-200702.htm (photo no. 81, medium, large) http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=51976

Welcome on board the USS Ronald Reagan as we slip out to sea past the skyline of San Diego. And you might well be asking what does an aircraft carrier have to do with America’s Heartland, with a show about agriculture. Well, a couple of things quickly come to mind. One, many of the men and women on this ship have their roots and values buried deep in the heartland. They come from the ranches, the farms and the small farming communities.

TOKYO — A ship commander and executive officer at Sasebo Naval Base were relieved of command due to a loss of confidence, the Navy announced Friday. Cmdr. John Zuhowski was relieved Thursday of command of the USS Tortuga, an amphibious assault ship, by Rear Adm. Richard Landolt, of Commander Task Force 76, according to a news release. Lt. Cmdr. Dennis Burke, the ship’s executive officer, was also relieved, the statement said. Both Zuhowski and Burke remain on active duty and face no loss of rank or punishment, according to Lt. Denver Applehans, spokesman for the task force. Applehans said he...

This week the Coast Guard and the Air Force announced an increase, while the Army, Navy and Marine Corps announced a decrease.  The net collective result is 1,551 more reservists activated since last week.               At any given time, services may activate some units and individuals while deactivating others, making it possible for these figures to either increase or decrease.  The total number currently on active duty from the Army National Guard and Army Reserve is 96,803; Navy Reserve, 5,910; Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve, 12,420; Marine Corps Reserve, 8,253; and the Coast Guard Reserve, 906. This brings...

Tugboats will pull the George H.W. Bush, the 10th and final aircraft carrier in the Nimitz class, to its January commissioning, the Navy and Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding said Thursday. The big carrier should have sailed under its own power from the Newport News shipyard to Norfolk Naval Station for the Jan. 10 ceremony. It is not ready for delivery, said Margaret Mitchell-Jones, a Northrop Grumman spokeswoman. In the past, the Navy has delayed the ceremony, which marks the ship's official entry into the Navy fleet. But not this time. Navy Secretary Donald Winter set the date earlier this year, and...

Japan has launched a surprise attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and has declared war on Britain and the United States. The US president, Franklin D Roosevelt, has mobilised all his forces and is poised to declare war on Japan. Details of the attack in Hawaii are scarce but initial reports say Japanese bombers and torpedo-carrying planes targeted warships, aircraft and military installations in Pearl Harbor, on Oahu, the third largest and chief island of Hawaii. News of the daring raid has shocked members of Congress at a time when Japanese officials in Washington were...

TARAWA, Kiribati — Master Sgt. James M. Fawcett got on his knees and gently mixed his father’s ashes with sand on the Pacific beach where the elder Fawcett fought his way ashore 65 years ago. Maj. James L. Fawcett died in September at the age of 89. He wanted his ashes taken to the spot where half of the men in his 50-man platoon were killed during the first two hours of the Battle of Tarawa, one of World War II’s most brutal battles. "What a great way to end a great life," the younger Fawcett said Thursday after he...