Yes! We all learned Thursday morning that the fall active petty officer advancement results would be released online Friday morning at 8 a.m. and posted on the Navy Advancement Center’s Facebook page a couple hours after. The happy comments rolled in as sailors (and people who cared about sailors) crossed their fingers for some good news. Then came this downer: “Due to some technical difficulties we have to retract the statement of when the results will be published. Hopefully, NAC will have the problems resolved as soon as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience but Navy leadership is trying to…
Author Dave Brown
OK, folks. Scoop Deck doesn’t want to get into a whole thing here, but there’s something we have to say. Now that littoral combat ships are getting named, launching, deploying and being celebrated at baseball games, it’s time to get used to the word “littoral.” It’s pronounced “literal,” not “lit-TOR-al.” So the next time you see, say, an admiral saying it wrong, do the right thing and correct him or her. OK, maybe that’s not a good idea. You could, however, tell the admiral’s aide. Give the two of them something fun to talk about in the back of the…
It’s gotta be at least a little frustrating. You’re just wrapping up a highly successful deployment and you’ve finally got a whole mess of reporters who want to talk to you about it. But they don’t. They want to talk about that. You know. That guy you buried at sea and now utterly defines your ship, crew and deployment, at least until the next big thing happens. You are no longer the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson. You are The Carrier That Buried Osama Bin Laden, and it’s sticking with you, no matter how tangential the story. Check out these…
An eagle-eyed reader named “Mike” wrote us over the weekend to make an interesting point about the Navy’s photo illustration released the day the Navy announced that the second Gerald R. Ford-class carrier will be named in honor of John F. Kennedy. His point? That ain’t no Ford. “There’s plenty of renderings of the Ford Class available for use, and with the differences between classes you might as well be showing a picture of the Forrestal.” Right you are. The carrier below JFK’s head is actually the Abraham Lincoln. The image was shot March 2 as the ship made its…
This one’s making the rounds. Hat tip: Galrahn
Remember in the ’80s when sitcoms did Very Special episodes? Who will ever forget Jessie’s freak out when she took caffeine pills? Or the time Urkel got drunk and almost died? And don’t get Scoop Deck started on the time Brad got high, or on Uncle Ned’s drinking problem. The sailors up at the Naval Submarine School in Groton, Conn., are reliving those glory days with “Spiced.” It’s a Very Special episode that naturally features puppets named “Josh” and “Greg” and the latter’s struggle with a very real problem in today’s Navy. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4SkJv-ne6w[/youtube] Spice and other designer drugs are scary stuff.…
We were more than a little concerned here at the Navy Times Center of Excellence when we learned that everyone’s favorite sugary shipmate, Cap’n Crunch, had been relieved of command. What could the reason be, we wondered? Mustache out of regs? A “loss of crunchiness in his ability to be delicious?” We did our due diligence, got his releasables from Millington, found appropriate file photos and carved out some space in Monday’s book. A dark day for the good captain indeed. So it was with great relief that we learned he was staying put. “Thanks to everyone who was asking…
Let’s face it: Taped messages can be kinda lame. You’re at boot camp, you’re tired and confused, and someone wheels in a TV to give you a mini-speech by someone you’ve never heard of. Then Scoop Deck saw this: a video of astronaut Capt. Scott Kelly that was posted on the U.S. Navy’s Facebook page. Kelly addresses recruits from the International Space Station, traveling 17,000 miles per hour and 220 miles above the Earth’s surface. No matter what he has to say, it’s more than a little cool to get a message like that. And be sure to check out…
Thankfully, this battle is more semantic than deadly. Thursday morning, the popular-yet-normally-benign Facebook page for the U.S. Navy was hit by cyber activists demanding that a certain body of water be referred to as the “Persian Gulf.” The Navy, as you know, calls it the “Arabian Gulf,” although not always. The moderator of the Navy site has since struck a conciliatory tone, welcoming the new fans and inviting regulars to share their favorite Navy acronyms and jargon. Although too much alphabet soup could get them into hot water as well. Oh, and Persian Gulf folks: Don’t bother doing the same…
Petty officers are likable folks. You name it, they’ve got it: Bravery, work ethic, patriotism — even lovely singing voices. Now there’s even a Facebook page to prove it. As of this writing, the group dedicated to “liking” petty officers has north of 14,000 “likers,” with the goal of hitting a cool million. As for the similarly goaled naval officer group? Only 999,993 to go!
