The sailors of dock landing ship Comstock’s deck department think their cruise video is better than the cruiser Normandy’s. On Tuesday, we posted a video made by the sailors on Normandy that included go-pro video of small boat ops, a sweet F-18 flyby and 5-inch gun blasts. Two sailors from Comstock wrote in with links to their own deployment video, pieced together by the seamen and boatswain’s mates of OD Division, claiming superiority. The Comstock returned to San Diego in late February from a 7-month cruise. We checked it out and it definitely gives the Normandy a run for its money. V-22s,…
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Five-inch guns, crew-served weapons, Go-Pro small boat ops, MH-60 and fighter flybys: all set to dramatic music. The cruiser Normandy wants the folks back home to know they’ve got things covered in the Gulf. The video, posted on the command’s Facebook page, offers a glimpse into Navy life while deployed to the Middle East, minus the seemingly endless freshwater wash-downs. The ship is deployed with the Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group and is slated to return this fall. The Normandy will left Norfolk this Spring escorting the carrier Theodore Roosevelt to San Diego by way of the Middle East. Then the cruiser will continue on through…
A movie about one of the great maritime disasters of World War II had a little disaster of its own. A WWII-era Navy sea plane broke up during shooting for an upcoming movie about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis near the end of WWII. A PBY aircraft used to stage the rescue of survivors was being used for the shoot started leaking as it was floating on the surface of the water, said Elizabeth Wolfe, spokeswoman for the film “USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage.” The film crew had to evacuate the plane for safety reasons. The crew attempted to…
Sailors aboard the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford began testing the ship’s new electromagnetic aircraft launch system in Virginia’s James River on June 5, but before they can launch real aircraft, they have to practice. It’s not quite like a real, live flight deck, but it’s close. Gone are the cargo pants, brightly colored turtlenecks and helmets. Instead, a sailor in blueberries and a hard hat mimics the signals of a deck handler before the catapult launches a weight sled out over the river in a graceful swan dive. The slow motion impact with the water at the end is rather dramatic. EMALS testing began June 5, the latest step…
If you’re in the market for a one-of-a-kind 100-foot yacht at a bargain basement price, has Craigslist got a deal for you! This 1985 Naval Academy trawler that took generations of midshipmen on summer cruises, according to the seller’s description, sports one of the “best” hulls built in history, made from double-planked Alaskan cedar. In its former life, the yard patrol boat now billed as the “ultimate trawler yacht” was a training vessel for mids that went on umpteen cruises up and down the East coast, giving mids their first taste of at sea life and liberty ports. The academy is…
WASHINGTON — Cast members, producers, hundreds of sailors and even a few Coasties gathered here Wednesday night to attend the premiere of “The Last Ship,” a TV show in which the crew of the fictional destroyer Nathan James attempts to save the world from a deadly virus. The stars walked the blue carpet at the Newseum in downtown Washington, D.C., while sailors mingled at a reception in the lobby to music from a Navy band to celebrate the opening of a drama where the U.S. Navy is the world’s last, best hope. The Navy’s Office of Information-West played a key…
Sideways launch? Check. “Anchors Aweigh” in the background? Check. Big splash? Double check. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgjzbhJXANs[/youtube] The future littoral combat ship Milwaukee, what will be the Navy’s fifth LCS and the third Freedom-class variant, hit the water Wednesday in a ceremony at the Marinette Marine shipyard in Marinette, Wis. Sylvia Panetta, wife of former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, performed the christening honors prior to launch. The LCS will be the fifth Navy ship named for the largest city in Wisconsin, according to a Navy news release issued before the ceremony. The most recent, an oiler, was decommissioned in 1994; its crew was…
Former Chief Gunner’s Mate Kenneth Felt figures he shot his first deer when he was 13, walking home from grade school in Minnesota. That one didn’t get any media attention. But the one he bagged 80 years later, using a long gun that dates to the 1870s, has made him a bit of a celebrity. Felt, 93, has been the subject of multiple media reports since his Nov. 13 hunting trip with a .50 caliber Husqvarna with rolling block action — a favorite of George Custer, among others. Walking on the same 260 acres he bought after his return to…
It can hold 14 helicopters. It’s more than 800 feet long. It has a very flat top: It’s Japan’s largest warship since World War II — unveiled on the 68th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. But it’s not a carrier. The destroyer Izumo cost $1.2 billion and goes public amid territorial clashes between China and Japan (China, for its part, appears to be always ready). Japanese officials insist the Aug. 6 unveiling was coincidental and had more to do with favorable ocean tides than World War II history, according to this AFP report. They also insist the ship…
First, watch this trailer. Then, read on for some background on how a fictional destroyer will try to save the world next year: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Vng00SYRL0[/youtube] Wedged between signature special effects from Michael ( “Transformers”) Bay and close-ups of Capt. Tom Chandler (Eric “Dr. McSteamy” Dane) is the plot of “The Last Ship,” based loosely on the 1989 William Brinkley novel of the same name. In the TV version, which will air on TNT in the summer of 2014, the destroyer Nathan James ends four months of radio silence off Antarctica only to find out the world’s been ravaged by a global…
