If you thought your earplugs felt comfortable in your ears, how do you think they’ll feel underfoot or as a seat? Moonmats are the leftovers of the earplug manufacturing process that have been re-purposed as large cushions for picnics, concerts, sleeping pads and other events where you may want a soft spot to take a load off. Like the ear-pro, they’re that unmistakable combo of aqua marine and neon orange. “Green or Orange? It’s whichever you choose. but no matter where you go when your flyin’ high don’t forget your favorite crazy MoonMat to sit on the ground and enjoy…
Author Joshua Stewart
It’s been a good couple of months for HM1 (SW) Maria Decena-Taylor. In July she became the 2012 Sailor of the Year for Navy Times, and on Tuesday she found out that she made chief. She’s the leading petty officer for the Directorate of Nursing Services at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, Va. and of her many responsibilities she’s in charge of getting young corpsmen at the hospital in track early in their career. She has 19 years in, and this round was her last chance to pick up rank. If things didn’t work out, she would have been forced out…
An F/A-18 D Hornet with unmanned aircraft software on board took over the plane’s controls like a zombie virus seizing the undead. With the plane in its clutches, it safely landed the Hornet on the carrier Harry S. Truman. It essentially amounted to a hands free landing. The trap wasn’t as nefarious as a zombie invasion, but it may gobble up aviation billets – it was the latest test of the Navy’s drone technology used by the Navy’s Unmanned Combat Air Demonstration program. The technology was a version of the code that’s used on the X-47B that’s been reconfigured for…
The kicker to this week’s SITREP is an article I wrote about berthing space on the upcoming Gerald R. Ford class aircraft carriers. The video focuses heavily one one issue: the heads, specifically that the Ford and subsequent carriers are the first designed without urinals in an effort to create gender-neutral living space. But there’s more, so much more to the story. It’s in the issue on newstands now, and you can pick it up and see the nitty-gritty details on the next generation of carrier berthing, everything from what the racks will be like to where the heads are…
In order to apologize and reconcile, it helps to acknowledge your past transgressions before you atone. In that spirit, Navy officials from the United States and Great Britain had to talk about the animosity that predated their current friendship. And, of course, that animosity involved huge fires and lost lives. Speaking at Fort McHenry in a ceremony to commemorate the 200th anniversary of when President James Madison signed the declaration that launched the War of 1812, those awkward moments created by history had to be brought up. “In all my Pentagon meetings with the First Sea Lord of Britain, Adm.…
Once again, Northrop Grumman’s X-47B is facing an identity crisis. It seems that whenever one of the unmanned planes gets strapped to the back of a flatbed truck and shipped across the country people driving along highways confuse it with a UFO and freak out. Last time, it was a scare in Kansas; this time, it was the Capital Beltway while en route to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. To prevent a War of the Worlds style panic, here’s a cheat sheet to help everyone keep things straight. This is a UFO: And…
How do you make the Navy’s budget hilarious? Give it the Taiwanese digital animation treatment. Next Media Animation takes a shot at the Navy’s budget and acquisition habits in a cartoon released on YouTube today. “US Navy spends money like a drunken sailor,” it begins, before showing Uncle Sam water-skiing behind a destroyer (or, at least that’s what it appears to say, we have to trust the translators here). Hey, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus did say that alcohol was a factor in too many skipper firings. There are shots at the F-35C Lightning II, which in one segment is shot…
The Navy’s website has been redesigned, complete with a new template that places a greater emphasis on multimedia content while replacing the blue color scheme with the cold grey hue that dominates the fleet. The redesigned site has the same content as the old one, but the new version is multitudes more interactive and plays up digital media much more than before. For example, both websites show photos of the Navy in action, but the new one plays them bigger and, with one click, brings you to a slideshow instead of the gallery found in the old version. Additionally, video…
Battleship director Peter Berg dropped the S-bomb. Unfortunately, he dropped the wrong one. In a promotional clip, he twice referred to sailors as “soldiers,” a major gaff since nobody in the Navy identifies as a soldier. He said his affinity for the service created a good relationship with the Navy and got his movie the access it needed. “They know that I love soldiers and that I respect the warrior spirit of any soldier,” Berg said in a clip clogged with both actors and sailors running around in NWUs. “As a result they opened up their doors to us.” It’s…
The government is getting rid of the Navy’s experimental Sea Shadow stealth boat. And if you got the goods, this sweet ride could be yours. But there’s a catch: you have to scrap the boat. The 164-foot-long craft is up for auction by the General Services Administration and has a $10,000 minimum bid, that, as of noon Monday, had not been met. Act fast, the auction ends May 4 at 5 p.m. CST. But wait, there’s more. If you’re the winning bidder, you’ll also receive the Hughes Mining Barge, which has the Sea Shadow inside, like the world’s most awesome…
