Browsing: Admirals

Adm. Bill McRaven is a bad-ass — and fount of good advice. Head of the Joint U.S. Special Operations Command, he is a 36-year SEAL who has been at the tip of the spear in the war on terror since 2001. He has commanded a squadron in the fabled Naval Special Warfare Development Group, better known as SEAL Team Six, and he oversaw planning and execution of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. He is also the most mysterious and guarded Navy four-star. While Admirals Greenert, Gortney, Locklear and company frequently appear in the media and before Congress, McRaven shies…

Former Vice Adm. Joe Sestak has more than enough qualifications to discuss the government shutdown on a cable news network: He served two terms in the House of Representatives, representing a suburban Philadelphia district. He ran for Senate in 2010 and might run again in 2016. He spent more than three decades in the Navy, serving as the deputy chief of naval operations for warfare requirements and programs before being removed from that post by newly minted Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Mullen in 2005. He’s got a pulse (Seriously, cable will talk to anybody). Sestak’s Wednesday appearance on…

[HTML1] Vice Adm. Bill Moran took command Aug. 2 as your new chief of naval personnel. He’s taking the reins at an uneasy time for Navy manpower. In a short video posted today, Moran acknowledges as much to sailors: “We are in the midst of a challenging operational and fiscal environment,” Moran says. “And as I take the watch, my staff and I are determined to communicate with you, hear what we know, and in some cases, what we don’t know.” Unfortunately, there are a lot of those unknowns right now. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, successfully raised eyebrows last week…

Frank Munger’s Atomic City Underground, a blog by our sister paper the Knoxville News Sentinel, uncovered some previously undiscovered photos of then-Capt. Hyman Rickover, before he became father of the nuclear Navy. The paper obtained the photo at left, likely taken in fall of 1946, from Tim Gawne, who found it in the archives of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Munger writes that most surviving photos of Rickover were taken after the launching of the first nuclear-powered submarine Nautilus in 1954. This rare photo, which escaped being destroyed with a batch of others, was taken while Rickover was the senior officer stationed…

A flag officer who has led the effort to supply all aircraft carriers with Torah scrolls just got nominated for a second star. Rear Adm. Herman Shelanski is commander of Carrier Strike Group 10. Shelanski also will receive the Jewish Military Leadership Award at the JCCs of North America Biennial in May 7. In its announcement, the organization noted Shelanski’s support for Torah for Our Troops, a Jewish Welfare Board/Jewish Chaplains Council initiative to commission lightweight Torah scrolls for chaplains to use in the field and as they move throughout the fleet. The Torah is Judaism’s holy book. The Torah…

He may have retired in September, but retired Adm. Mike Mullen’s legacy lives. An auditorium was dedicated in his name March 1 before a graduation ceremony at Surface Warfare Officers School in Newport, R.I. In speaking to Department Head Class 215, Mullen reflected on his own department head graduation and the training he received throughout his career, according to a Navy news release. Mullen, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs and former chief of naval operations, also had kind words for the school: “Newport has always been a great Navy town and a big part of our family’s life.…

ABOARD THE AMPHIBIOUS ASSAULT SHIP WASP — Greetings from the Atlantic Ocean, where we’re covering the largest amphibious exercise on the East Coast since the beginning of the Iraq war. Bold Alligator 2012 involves at least 14,000 personnel from the U.S., France, Great Britain and other countries, and at least 25 ships. The majority of them are American, but Canada and France have both chipped in with their own hardware, as well. Conceptually, the forces at sea are currently in the early stages of planning an attack on enemy forces from the fictional country of Garnet, a common enemy in…

Despite trash-talk from Iran, the John C. Stennis Carrier Strike Group is keeping its cool. After practicing blockading the Strait of Hormuz, a highway for about 20 percent of the world’s oil supply, Iranian Army chief Ataollah Salehi pledged consequences if a U.S. aircraft carrier entered the Persian Golf. “I advise, recommend and warn them over the return of this carrier to the Persian Gulf because we are not in the habit of warning more than once,” Salehi said. Days earlier, one of his country’s aircraft captured footage of the Stennis as it operated in the Gulf. Iranian officials claimed…

A Canadian security firm has added the former commander of Navy Region Mid-Atlantic to its board of directors. On Jan. 3, security and identity management company Route1 Inc. announced the appointment of Rear Adm. Mark S. Boensel, who retired Jan. 1 after more than 33 years of service. Boensel, who spent his last four years of active service at Mid-Atlantic Region, had an exceedingly diverse career that included years as a naval flight officer and flight instructor — he accumulated more than 3,200 flight hours and more than 600 carrier arrested landings — as a military assistant in the office…

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