Free Republic

The decommissioning schedule for the U.S. Navy’s remaining 13 Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruisers has been set. Next to leave service will be the Vicksburg (CG 69) in June 2024, followed by the Cowpens (CG 63) in August, Antietam (CG 54) and Leyte Gulf (CG 55) in September. Overall, the last two cruisers will likely be Chosin (CG 65) and Cape St. George (CG 71), both to be decommissioned in fiscal 2027. The close of their careers will bring an end to the service life of the class, the world’s first to be equipped with the Aegis combat system.

Presumably, loyal cruisegoers were overjoyed to learn of Royal Caribbean’s impending July restart of U.S. operations, but it seems that pandemic-era sailing is going to be an even more complex affair than was originally imagined. A political tug-of-war, Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis’ lawsuit against the CDC for its “coercive” cruise line vaccine guidance, and new legislation in Florida and Texas that prohibits operators from requiring that customers be vaccinated in order to cruise caused Royal Caribbean to reverse its original requirement that passengers be fully COVID-19 vaccinated before boarding its vessels. Now, the company’s guest guidelines merely state, "We strongly...

The Navy – both in this current budget cycle and in previous years – has received criticism over its repeated strategy of wanting to divest legacy capabilities to invest in new technology and platforms. Both Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.), a former nuclear-qualified surface warfare officer, and Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) today expressed skepticism about the Navy’s divest to invest approach in the recent budget request. They argued the Navy has more immediate threats to address in the Indo-Pacific region.Luria, who during her career in the Navy served as the executive officer of Anzio, has been a vocal opponent of decommissioning...

I'm dancing on the top deck with a 71-year-old feminist and psychotherapist whom I've come to think of as the Twirler. We've spent two days attending seminars on The Nation magazine's Alaska cruise; we've talked about the Bush presidency and prison reform and single-payer health care. Now, at almost midnight, my fiercely intelligent and opinionated new friend is putting all the heady political talk behind her by bodily twirling. "If I start to get dizzy, then I twirl in the opposite direction," Charlotte tells me as the live band revs up its throbbing Motown beat. "I won't fall." "Good, please...