The Navy nabbed a lot of headlines again this week. Leading the way is news that the Navy’s 10th San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock will be named for Rep. John Murtha – a story first reported by Scoop Deck’s own Phillip Ewing. An unfortunate T-39 crash killed four in Georgia also made headlines, as did the Thursday announcement that changes were coming to the performance evaluation system and advancement policy (check Monday’s Navy Times for more on that). And the president also reaffirmed his 2011 Afghan withdrawal plan this week. Here’s seven stories in seven minutes from the past seven…
Browsing: Personnel
Scoop Deck blogger Lance M. Bacon just completed a 24-hour embark aboard the carrier Harry S Truman. This is the play-by-play. Brown shirts and officers from the HS-7 Dusty Dogs prepare their Seahawks for service in anticipation of a busy day. (Photos by Lance M. Bacon) 0830 Scoop Deck is hanging out on Vulture’s Row, watching the crew ramp up for the day’s business before we catch the COD. Though we’ve spent only a few short hours with this crew, it is not hard to understand why they are back-to-back Battle E winners. These sailors and officers will soon cover…
Scoop Deck blogger Lance M. Bacon just completed a 24-hour embark aboard the carrier Harry S Truman. This is the play-by-play. 2130 Walking through Truman’s passageways, it’s not hard to see that today’s Navy is fit. The hanger bay’s dozen treadmills are in constant use. The “seaside gym” has a dozen other machines in near-constant motion. In the medical department, the ship’s physical therapist combined the push for fitness with a cultural hit and challenged the sailors to be Truman’s “Biggest Loser.” Cmdr. Denise Milton launched the program Dec. 5 – just in time for the holiday crunch. It…
Scoop Deck blogger Lance M. Bacon just completed a 24-hour embark aboard the carrier Harry S Truman. This is the play-by-play. Truman’s XO knows it’s the sailors who make the difference, and he has some strong initiatives to take care of them, their families and their Navy. (Photo by Lance M. Bacon) 2030 Fresh out of the metal shop, we sat down for a one-on-one with the XO, Capt. John “Oscar” Meier. Most of our discussion will be used in a forthcoming story, so keep an eye on Navy Times. But Scoop Deck can tell you this: Meier is someone…
Scoop Deck blogger Lance M. Bacon took a day trip with Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead this week. This is the play-by-play report. 1440 We’ve left Georgia and arrived in South Carolina. The scenery is much the same. The humidity is much the same. The bugs look a little bigger. But the biggest difference is the base – make that, the fort. There is no open water for miles, yet no shortage of sailors here at Fort Jackson. We are at the Armed Forces Chaplaincy Training Center. The school used to be in Rhode Island, but the ever…
It seems fake SEALs, POWs and medal recipients are spreading like a virus. The latest is Steven Douglas Burton, who showed up at his 20-year high school reunion as a Marine Corps lieutenant colonel – and sporting a Navy Cross. You can read about it here. Navy Times certainly has covered its share of fakers in recent months:
The 11th semi-annual Fleet Diversity Council will be held April 7 in sunny San Diego. The event is part of the Navy’s diversity initiatives. It is open for all interested military government personnel, with a strong emphasis on regional naval bases such as Point Loma, San Diego, Coronado, NAS North Island and Balboa medical center. Command managed equal opportunity officers and equal opportunity advisors are strongly encouraged to attend. And here’s the best part: Command funded travel from other areas is authorized and encouraged, according to NavAdmin 089/10. The day will include two identical sessions. The first runs from 8…
True to the nature of the sailors and officers who comprise the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command, the fourth annual Naval Expeditionary Forces Symposium and Expo opened Tuesday morning in Virginia Beach with the announcement that two key speakers would be absent. They had been called away to meet emerging tasks – but two replacements were prepped and ready before attendees ever knew there was an issue. Discussions were somewhat bitter sweet. While speakers noted how current operations in the war zone and humanitarian missions such as the one in Haiti have validated the need for NECC, there remained an undercurrent…
Scoop Deck just spent an awesome week with the hard-working staff at Navy Personnel Command in Millington, Tenn. You’ll be seeing the fruit of this visit in coming editions of Navy Times. In the meantime, here are a few comments that really caught our attention: “We receive and process 7 million record updates annually.” – Dwight Stanton, deputy, Personnel Info Management Department. (For the record, that’s more than 19,000 letters every day. The personnel bubbas told me this mail alone weighs in at 130,000 pounds annually. That weight is equal to 356 links of anchor chain, 52 Humvees, three pre-boneyard…
Some friends of a fired CO are rallying support online. Check out this Facebook page named “Support Capt. John Titus,” in honor of the commanding officer of the Navy Supply Corps School who was relieved of command on Jan. 8. The page creators want people to send letters of endorsement to the chief of naval personnel to consider along with Titus’ detached for cause package. Michael Aldrich, a supply officer with a Facebook page, posts on the wall “CAPT Titus ROCKS!!!!” That’s the fired CO himself up there (second from the left) in a photo from the groundbreaking for the new supply…
