Free Republic

<p>The Category 5 Hurricane Matthew continues moving across the Caribbean, and is scheduled to smash into the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by Tuesday evening.</p> <p>Hurricane Matthew reached Category 5 status in the early hours of Saturday morning, becoming the first to do so since Hurricane Felix in 2007. At its peak that day, Matthew’s 160 miles-per-hour winds were as powerful as Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, which is rated as “the most destructive storm in the U.S. modern history.”</p>

The commander of the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay on Saturday ordered the evacuation of families and other so-called “non-essential personnel” from the remote outpost in southeast Cuba ahead of Hurricane Matthew. “A mandatory evacuation has been called for all non-essential personnel,” said Guantánamo base spokeswoman Julie Ripley, in a statement issued just before 1 p.m. “The location will be announced once details are finalized. This includes dependents, school-aged children, special needs families, and their pets.”

replacing them with occupational specialty codes, as opposed to direct titles, effectively removing the word “man” from job titles in a roundabout way. According to Navy Times, what this decision means in practice is that “Fire Controlman 1st Class Joe Sailor…would be Petty Officer 1st Class Joe Sailor.” “We’re going to immediately do away with rating titles and address each other by just our rank as the other services do,” Chief of Naval Personnel Vice Adm. Robert Burke told Navy Times. “We recognize that’s going to be a large cultural change, it’s not going to happen overnight, but the direction...

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- Following the completion of its review earlier this year, the Navy announced Sept. 29, it will modernize all rating titles for Sailors with the establishment of a new classification system that will move towards occupational specialty codes similar to how the other services categorize skill sets. "In modernizing our enlisted rating system we are not only giving our Sailors increased opportunities within the Navy, such as a higher level of flexibility in training and detailing, but also increasing their opportunities when they transition out of the service. In aligning the descriptions of the work our Sailors do...

It’s been another stellar couple of weeks for what used to be the world’s greatest navy, but now is nothing more than a continual Carnival Cruise with weapons, all courtesy of Barack Obama, Ash Carter, Ray Mabus and the pusillanimous doormen who call themselves the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Over a week ago, it was reported that a female sailor, serving aboard the aircraft carrier, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, delivered a 7-pound baby girl. According to the Navy, the woman had no idea she was pregnant. Uh huh… If the concept of delivering babies aboard US ships of war isn’t...

Word quickly spread around the world this week that a sailor gave birth aboard an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf, and for good reason. Births aboard U.S. warships are rare. Births aboard a ship on a combat deployment are rarer still. But they’re not unheard of. The Navy does not keep statistics on the number of children born aboard its ships, but archived media reports show this is not the first time a sailor has had a baby at sea or aboard a ship in a combat zone. In one instance, a child died a day after being born...

On Saturday, a sailor on board the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower visited the aircraft carrier’s medical department, complaining of stomach pains. The ship’s doctors would soon discover why: The sailor was pregnant. Hours later, she gave birth to a 7-pound baby girl.... ...Urban would not say whether there are standard repercussions for a servicewoman failing to self-report a pregnancy.... Infant diapers, baby formula and an incubator were flown out to the carrier on the day of delivery,

Iran threatened to shoot down two US Navy surveillance aircraft flying close to Iranian territory in the Persian Gulf over the weekend, the latest in a series of recent provocations between Iran and the US military in the region, three US defense officials with knowledge of the incident told Fox News. On Sept. 10, a Navy P-8 Poseidon with a crew of nine and an EP-3 Eries with a crew of roughly 24, were flying a reconnaissance mission 13 miles off the coast of Iran, in the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman, according to officials. Iran’s territorial waters—like...

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — The Navy says a sailor who never reported being pregnant has given birth to a baby girl aboard an aircraft carrier at sea. U.S. Naval Forces Central Command spokesman Cmdr. Bill Urban told the Virginian-Pilot ( http://bit.ly/2cRnBmO ) the 7-pound infant was recently born on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Persian Gulf. Both mother and daughter are doing well and were airlifted to a shore-based hospital.

Greta Friedman, the woman in white kissed by a sailor in New York’s Times Square in a photograph symbolising the end of the second world war, has died aged 92. Her son, Joshua Friedman, said she died on Thursday in Virginia after suffering a series of ailments, including pneumonia, NBC News reported. CBS News said she would be laid to rest with her late husband, Mischa Elliot Friedman, at Arlington national cemetery in Virginia. Friedman, then a dental assistant on a break, was the woman in one of the most famous pictures of the 20th century, the moment Americans learned...

NEW YORK (AP) — The woman kissed by an ecstatic sailor in Times Square celebrating the end of World War II has died. Greta Zimmer Friedman's son says his mother died Thursday at a Richmond, Virginia, hospital of what he called complications from old age. She was 92. Friedman was a 21-year-old dental assistant in a nurse's uniform on Aug. 14, 1945. She went to Times Square amid reports that the war had ended. That's when she was kissed by George Mendonsa celebrating Japan's surrender.

The Navy gave a first look inside the stealthy and futuristic Zumwalt destroyer on Friday during the ship's first port stop at a Rhode Island naval station. The 610-foot-long warship has an angular shape to minimize its radar signature and cost more than $4.4 billion. It's the most expensive destroyer built for the Navy. It's headed from Naval Station Newport to Baltimore, where it will be commissioned in October before going to its homeport in San Diego. It was built at Bath Iron Works in Maine. During a tour, the Navy showed off the ship's bridge, weaponry and mission center....

<p>Donald Trump vowed Friday that if Iran inappropriately approached U.S. ships, they would be "shot out of the water."</p> <p>"And by the way, with Iran, when they circle our beautiful destroyers with their little boats and they make gestures that our people -- that they shouldn't be allowed to make, they will be shot out of the water," he said at a rally here.</p>

A sailor who refused to stand for morning colors may now face administrative action, Military.com reported late Wednesday. Naval Education and Training Command spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Kate Meadows did not detail the specific actions the Navy is taking against the young, African-American sailor. The young woman is training at the Naval Air Technical Training Center in Pensacola, Fla., and is expected to continue training with her class. She sailor posted an eight-minute video to Facebook late last month explaining why she was following in the footsteps of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick by not standing during the national anthem....

PARIS --- After spending billions of dollars, the US Navy has finally abandoned the Littoral Combat Ship concept, saying it will turn the first four LCSs into training ships and that all future vessels will be equipped for a single combat mission. Although deliberately worded to minimize its import, the US Navy statement below is a clear acknowledgement that the LCS concept has been an abysmal failure. But, even as it looks to mitigate the disastrous effects of having ordered a dozen LCS at once, before checking whether they performed as claimed (they have not), the Navy makes no mention...

A U.S. coastal patrol ship faced seven Iranian Republican Guard Corps Navy fast in-shore attack craft before swerving to avoid crashing into one on Sunday, according to a 5th Fleet spokesman. The incident is the latest in a series of interactions the Navy has called "dangerous and unprofessional" in a year that has seen more run-ins between U.S. and Iranian ships than in recent memory. Iranian vessels harassed destroyers and PCs in four incidents in late August, resulting in warning shots in one case.

A Russian fighter jet zoomed within just 10 feet of a U.S. Navy spy plane over the Black Sea on Wednesday, the latest in a string of daring maneuvers involving Russian aircraft and the U.S. military, a defense official with knowledge of the incident told Fox News. The Russian Su-27 Flanker jet flew dangerously close to a U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft used primarily for anti-submarine warfare while on routine patrol in international airspace, defense officials said. The Russian defense ministry accused the Navy plane of flying with its transponder—which emits an identifying signal—turned off. A U.S. defense official...

<p>The largest and most expensive destroyer ever built for the U.S. Navy once headed to sea in a snowstorm during builder trials. Now, it's heading into the remnants of a tropical storm as it leaves Maine for good.</p> <p>The skipper is watching the weather as the stealthy Zumwalt destroyer prepares to depart from Bath Iron Works on Wednesday en route to its commissioning in Baltimore, and then to its homeport in San Diego.</p>

...One of the small Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps watercraft stopped directly in the USS Firebolt’s path where it turned to face the American coastal patrol ship, said U.S. Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman. After several attempts at radio communication, the Firebolt was forced to maneuver to avoid a collision. The American ship came within about 100 yards of the boat...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Navy coastal patrol ship changed course after a fast-attack craft from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps came within 100 yards (91 meters) of it in the central Gulf on Sunday, two U.S. Defense Department officials told Reuters on Tuesday. It was at least the fourth such incident in less than a month. U.S. officials are concerned that these actions by Iran could lead to mistakes. Years of mutual animosity eased when Washington lifted sanctions on Tehran in January after a deal to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions. But serious differences still remain over Iran's ballistic missile...