The Fleet Reserve Association today announced that it has established scholarships for the children of enlisted Navy medics. The Colonel Hazel Elizabeth Benn Scholarship Fund provides a $2,000 scholarship “to an unmarried, dependent child of those who have served or are now serving” in the Navy “as enlisted medical personnel with the U.S. Marine Corps. ” The Benn Scholarship is available to “qualified applicants” entering their freshman or sophomore year of college. The Benn Scholarship is open to all such children regardless of their parents’ affiliation with FRA, according to a press release. Other FRA Education Foundation scholarships are available…
Author Bill McMichael
Bill McMichael
Hampton Roads Bureau Chief
U.S. Transportation Command wants reservists trained in the planning and execution of joint military operations to apply to work at its Joint Planning Support Element, headquartered in Norfolk, Va. The JPSE has recently expanded following the 2011 disestablishment of U.S. Joint Forces Command and its Standing Joint Force Headquarters and is expecting “an increase in operational tempo,” according to a March 5 press release. JPSE, which falls under TRANSCOM’s Joint Enabling Capabilities Command or JECC, provides “tailored, ready joint capability packages” aimed at rapidly establishing joint force headquarters. Personnel assigned to JPSE will deploy “to assist joint force commanders in…
Pepper spray “familiarization” is old hat for master-at-arms sailors. But I’m guessing that not all those who volunteer for security department duty know what they’re getting into when they raise their right hand. At some point during the training, it looks something like this: Given the message on the shirt, Chapman knew what was coming on this particular day. Looks like someone didn’t take his advice.
Every four years, Leap Year adds one day to the calendar to keep our timekeeping in alignment with the Earth’s revolutions around the sun. I thought it’d be neat to find an event in naval history to highlight and mark the unusual day. Unfortunately, there aren’t any of those major anniversaries that one would normally note — say, one of the World War II island assaults. A web search yielded nothing. Nada. The Navy agrees. According to navy.mil, “There is no Navy historical data noted at this time for Leap Day (Feb. 29).” The Navy’s reference is to the big…
A welcome compromise was reached Monday in federal court in Roanoke, Va., when prosecutors agreed that a Navy veteran of the Persian Gulf War who called a suicide hotline last year and threatened to kill himself with a homemade gun would not be prosecuted if he completes mandatory counseling. The Washington Post story points out three elements of the case that have angered many, particularly veterans’ groups. First, what was the government doing prosecuting a veteran, Sean Duvall, who was reaching out for help — especially at a time when the government is at the same time urging combat veterans…
Fleet Forces Command chief Adm. John Harvey sure raised eyebrows with his Thursday post on the command blog when he chastised those posting comments about “potential mismanagement of Navy projects and funds.” Harvey said he wants to know about potential problems — and he’s been one to solicit feedback in the past — but a blog, he said, is not the place to voice serious allegations that, if unresolvable by the chain of command, might be better directed to an inspector general. Harvey appears to be referring specifically to five comments posted at the tail of Feb. 9 post providing…
A euphemism is “the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant,” according to Merriam-Webster. An example might be couching a near-$1 billion increase in the cost of the most expensive ship ever in the most innocuous terms possible. My colleague Chris Cavas has a fine explainer story in the print version of this week’s Defense News on the soaring cost of CVN 78, the Gerald R. Ford. Chris notes that the Navy’s recently unveiled fiscal year 2013 budget request asks Congress for another $811 million atop a total price tag of…
This year’s Valentine’s Day will be particularly special for all the couples reunited in Norfolk this week after the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group’s return from that insanely long 10 1/2-month deployment. But since it falls on a Tuesday, those with duty, as well as many of us working stiffs, are more likely to take our significant other out for that romantic dinner on Saturday night, and perhaps follow up with some (overpriced, but you gotta do it, right?) flowers on the Big Day. It won’t be so great for those whose loved ones are still deployed. Veteran Navy couples know…
Between rolling blackouts and very limited connectivity, the press gaggle I was with out on Wasp and Kearsarge this weekend had a devil of a time getting on line long enough to transmit stories back to land. Timing is everything. I finally managed to get one sent Sunday night from Kearsarge that was posted Monday morning. It was a pretty blustery day out there Sunday — so much so that flight operations were practically non-existent. But as the story notes, it was fun watching the topsiders track some “bad guys” who disembarked early afternoon into a small boat or two.…
I’m spending Friday AM cruising south to MCAS Cherry Point, N.C., where I’m to take a noon hop out to the Wasp to begin Navy Times’ coverage of a certain gi-normous amphibious training exercise you may have heard of by now. Bold Alligator is the biggest Navy-Marine Corps at-sea training exercise in some 10 years. Wasp is sort of the exercise mothership, so that’s where we’ll get our senior leader interviews and exercise briefings. On Saturday, I’m slated to fly over to Kearsarge and begin covering the training itself, as the Navy-Marine Corps team prepares to launch an amphibious assault…
