Free Republic

In the Persian Gulf there are rumors that one of Iran's Ghadir mini-subs sank while practicing tactics for attacking an American Nimitz class carrier. It was believed that a recently built two-thirds replica of an American Nimitz class aircraft carrier would be towed out so the Ghadir could get some experience in how to approach such a large ship and launch torpedoes at it. The rumored loss of a Ghadir was accompanied by talk of some new stealth technology on the Ghadir. That is probably just rumor as the small size of the Ghadir already confers a substantial amount of...

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Cardinal John J. O'Connor, who as archbishop of New York cultivated and cherished his strong ties with the Jewish community, was born of a mother who was born Jewish. It is not known whether he knew that his mother, Dorothy Gumple O'Connor, was born Jewish. She converted to Catholicism before she met and married Thomas O'Connor, the late cardinal's father. Mary O'Connor Ward, the cardinal's sister, told Catholic New York, newspaper of the New York Archdiocese, that her mother never spoke about having belonged to another faith. The fact that Dorothy O'Connor was Jewish by birth...

The United State Navy announced via official press release that Master-At-Arms 2nd Class Mark Mayo will be posthumously award the Navy and Marine Corp Medal at his burial this Friday. Petty Officer Mayo died in the line of duty protecting his ship, the U.S.S. Mahan, on March 24th, 2014, after a civilian intruder boarded the Mahan, disarmed the Petty Officer of the Watch, and engaged in a shootout with Petty Officer Mayo and other responding sailors.

A high-definition video of U.S. Navy fighter pilots swooping between snowy mountains and skimming the western Pacific Ocean has gained more than 135,000 hits since being posted four days ago. The VFA-27 Royal Maces, based at Naval Air Facility Atsugi in Japan, shot the footage from their cockpits while flying F/A18-E aircraft at various locations in the Pacific theater. Much of the footage comes from recent patrols while deployed with the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, pilot Lt. Kyle Matson said. Footage includes trips along the Australian coast and various parts of Japan. Some of the most dramatic footage shows...

A mini-sub hunting for Malaysian jet MH370 was Tuesday set for a second sweep of the remote Indian Ocean seabed, after aborting its first search when it encountered water deeper than its operating limits. The unmanned submarine loaded with sonar deployed Monday night from the Australian ship Ocean Shield which has spearheaded the hunt for the Boeing 777 that vanished on March 8. "After completing around six hours of its mission, Bluefin-21 exceeded its operating depth limit of 4,500 metres (15,000 feet) and its built in safety feature returned it to the surface," Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Centre said. "The...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Russian fighter jet made multiple, close-range passes near an American warship in the Black Sea for more than 90 minutes Saturday amid escalating tensions in the region, U.S. military officials said Monday. In the first public account of the incident, the officials said the Russian Fencer made 12 passes, and flew within 1,000 yards of the USS Donald Cook, a Navy destroyer, at about 500 feet above sea level. The U.S. warship issued several radio queries and warnings using international emergency circuits, but the Russian aircraft did not respond.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Russian fighter jet made multiple, close-range passes near an American warship in the Black Sea for more than 90 minutes Saturday amid escalating tensions in the region, U.S. military officials said Monday. In the first public account of the incident, the officials said the Russian Fencer made 12 passes, and flew within 1,000 yards of the USS Donald Cook, a Navy destroyer, at about 500 feet above sea level. The U.S. warship issued several radio queries and warnings using international emergency circuits, but the Russian aircraft did not respond. "This provocative and unprofessional Russian action is...

The U.S. Navy on Saturday christened the first ship of its newest class of destroyers, a more than $3 billion, 610-foot-long warship sporting advanced technology and a stealthy shape designed to minimize its visibility on enemy radar and reduce the size of its crew. ... Among the 15,000-ton warship's cutting-edge features are a composite deckhouse with hidden radar and sensors and an angular shape that officials say will allow it to be confused for a small fishing boat on radars. It also sports wave-piercing hull designed to reduce the ship's wake. It's the first U.S. ship to use electric propulsion...

SAN DIEGO (KGO) -- There is now an estimate on how much it cost to rescue a San Diego family with a sick child off the coast of Mexico. A San Diego newspaper crunched the numbers and says the price for the joint effort between the Coast Guard, Navy and National Guard came to $663,000 and could go higher. The family arrived back on shore Wednesday. The parents have taken some heat for taking their children on a yearlong sailing trip.

The aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower was finally in sight. The pilot of the F/A-18 Super Hornet hurriedly flipped switches and pushed levers. The aviator in the backseat leaned forward, straining to see the flight deck floating in the distance. The jet’s right engine had locked up, its landing gear jammed, the main fuel tank almost empty.(snip) The pilot made some quick calculations. He had 15,500 pounds of fuel in his tanks, enough to return to the Eisenhower and make six passes at the ship. Landing in nearby Kandahar was a more prudent option, but that would likely have meant...

This is weird. This was posted April 4 on the Diego Garcia Passenger Facebook Page. Via RedFlagNews:Malaysian news reported MH370 Captain Zaharie Shah’s homemade flight simulator had five runways programmed into the system.The runways included:** Three airports in India and Sri Lanka** One airport in Maldives** One US military base in Diego GarciaThe Malaysian pilot on missing flight MH370 was reportedly a political fanatic who attended the trial of the country’s opposition leader hours before the flight.The Daily Mail reported:

Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Robert Papp said that in 2010 Obama told U.S. military leaders to accept his push for gays in the military, and that if they didn't, they could take the "opportunity to resign [their] commissions." Papp said these things in a video BuzzFeed obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. The video shows a speech Papp delivered to Coast Guard Academy cadets during which he was asked how he would deal with enforcing an order with which he didn't agree. He used the story of his 2010 meeting with Obama as an example of how service...

The U.S. Navy is sending a destroyer into the Black Sea in the coming days as a symbolic gesture of support for Ukraine and other allies in the region, according to two senior defense officials. The USS Donald Cook, a guided missile destroyer based in Rota, Spain, and will travel to the Black Sea "in the next week or so," according to one senior defense official. The ship will take part in to-be-scheduled exercises with allies in the region — most likely pass exercises, where ships from different nations pass one another while at sea — and the Donald Cook...

When the periscope of the USS Montpelier rose from the water during training off the coast of Florida on Oct. 13, 2012, the submarine crew saw a Navy cruiser approaching a mere 100 to 200 yards away. The cruiser USS San Jacinto tried to reverse, but it was too late. The Montpelier-San Jacinto collision was one of 906 submarine accidents from late 2004 through 2013, according to data obtained from the Naval Safety Center by The Day through a Freedom of Information Act request. The submarine's commanding officer was relieved of duty, and the costly mistake also led to changes...

The man who drove a semi-truck onto Norfolk Naval Station before killing a sailor received his transportation worker credential within the past few months, a source close to the investigation said Friday. The detail comes a day after the Navy identified Jeffrey Tyrone Savage as the man at the center of its investigation into the shooting aboard the guided missile destroyer Mahan on Monday. Savage, 35, has a long criminal record, including convictions for selling drugs and manslaughter, but family members said they believed the man who grew up in Portsmouth had finally begun to turn his life around after...

Defense Spending: Two more weapons systems, including the Navy's premier attack missile, have been targeted for elimination by the administration years before their usefulness ends or replacements are ready. How ironic that Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Barack Obama used the Tomahawk missile he now seeks to scrap as his weapon of choice when on March 19, 2011, he launched Operation Odyssey Dawn and fired 112 Tomahawks at Libyan targets to enforce a U.N.-backed no fly-zone in support of Libyan rebels fighting Moammar Gadhafi. Future presidents will not be able to carry such a big stick. Along with the Hellfire air-to-ground...

The sailor who was slain during a shootout aboard a guided-missile destroyer at a Virginia base saved another sailor's life by jumping between her and a civilian gunman who was trying to board the ship, Navy officials said Wednesday. (snip) He parked his tractor-trailer cab near Pier 1, was able to walk onto the pier and began heading up a ramp toward the USS Mahan when he was confronted by Navy security, said Mario Palomino, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service special agent in charge of the Norfolk field office. The man then got into an altercation with a female petty...

A Navy F-18 fighter pilot and former Top Gun instructor is publicly warning admirals that retention is beginning to suffer from the military’s relentless social conditioning programs. Cmdr. Guy Snodgrass, until recently a Pentagon speech writer for the chief of naval operations, Adm. Jonathan Greenert, said sailors are becoming fed-up with the constant emphasis on social issues — an apparent reference to gays in the military, women in combat and ending sexual harassment. “Sailors continue to cite the over-focus on social issues by senior leadership, above and beyond discussions on war fighting — a fact that demoralizes junior and mid-grade...

A civilian fatally shot a sailor aboard a docked U.S. Navy destroyer in Virginia on Monday night before he was shot dead by security forces, officials said. The suspect had authorized access to Naval Station Norfolk, the world's largest naval base, where he was able to wrestle a handgun from a security guard, U.S. Navy officials told NBC News. He shot dead a sailor aboard USS Mahan, which was docked at Pier 1, before being fatally gunned down by security forces, the officials said. Both the victim and suspect were male. The shooting happened at about 11:30 p.m. and the...

Let’s start with a simple question. What happens when a soldier runs out of ammunition during a firefight? First, he either retreats, or he quickly becomes killed, wounded or captured. Second, his tactical position converts from active to indefensible which imperils the strategic array of the entire battlefield. What do you call a submarine that runs out of torpedoes? Missing in action. That’s an old Navy joke that dates back to WWII. However the fundamental military concept remains true: without the ability to attack your enemy and inflict serious damage, you’re unable to influence any subsequent events on the battlefield....