The folks at Jalopnik get credit for this discovery. Stay tuned until the final frame: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkO6VmnZqJk[/youtube] Sure, the special warfare combatant-craft crewman recruiting ad’s got the traditional blazing guns and the rousing soundtrack, but what’s your take on the twist? Too silly for a serious riverine outfit, or a memorable image suited for what’s becoming a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it youth culture? Also, how long until the request-for-proposals goes out for the AquaKiller 3000 Automated Networked Geosynchronous Lightweight Ergonomic Ray (ANGLER)? At some point, you have to take the fight to the fish. The video went up Friday on YouTube and already has…
Author Kevin Lilley
[HTML1] Navy Secretary Ray Mabus spent about five minutes with Stephen Colbert on Thursday, but the two entertainment icons — one’s taking over for David Letterman next year, the other had a role in “Battleship” — packed a lot of big issues into one quick interview. A sampling: Post-service careers: Colbert asked Mabus, who left uniformed Navy service as a lieutenant junior grade, whether he ever wished he could go back in time to his former self and say, “Hang in their, buddy — you get to boss these people around later.” Recruiting and retention: Mabus offered his favorite recruiting poster…
An elite team of Ukrainian special operators will help Russian forces find explosives on the bottom of the Black Sea, a state-run Russian news agency reported. The reason for the defection isn’t clear: Team members aren’t talking, and it’s tough to get inside the head of what RIA Novosti calls “Crimean combat dolphins.” In 2012, Scoop Deck brought you the story of 10 dolphins being trained by the Ukrainian navy to attack human combat swimmers, possibly using knives and guns strapped to their heads. The program resurrected training efforts that dated back to the Soviet Union and had operated under…
The 2014 Naval Academy football team began its spring practice earlier this week. Judging from the short clip below, the Mids will be ready for all comers — including a zombie horde: [HTML1] If the music doesn’t cause a bit of a jump in your blood pressure, you’re probably not a devotee of the most-watched program on cable television: [HTML2] The regular season starts Aug. 30 against Ohio State in Baltimore. It’ll end there, too — Dec. 13 against Army, when the Mids will be going for a 13th-straight win over the Black Knights. Insert your own “Walking Dead” jokes…
Start with a Cold War-era novel. Replace the nuclear missiles with a deadly pathogen. Have the man behind the “Transformers” movie franchise toss in action sequences with snowmobiles and helicopters. Add aquaflage, and you’ll get something like this: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKmwX2BUH-0[/youtube] TNT announced last week that “The Last Ship,” a drama following the crew of the fictional destroyer Nathan James as they rush to save the planet from a deadly outbreak, will premiere June 22 at 9 p.m. Eastern. Michael Bay will produce the series, which stars Eric Dane (“Grey’s Anatomy”) as the ship’s captain. See more about the show and the…
Tens of thousands of Iraqis served as translators for coalition forces during the Iraq War. But only one was deemed a “bad ass” by America’s deadliest sniper. “Code Name: Johnny Walker,” the story of that translator’s journey — catching on with U.S. forces as a way to feed his family, serving alongside Navy SEALs, and beating the odds (click the link above) to reach the U.S. — will be turned into a movie, according to multiple reports. The book, co-written by “Walker” and Jim DeFelice, is on the tail end of the New York Times best-seller list for hardcover nonfiction. DeFelice…
When Naval History and Heritage Command ran a contest last year asking sailors and civilians alike to submit ideas for a new logo, command officials were careful to make clear that the winning logo wouldn’t actually be the NHHC logo, but it would influence the final design. The contest winner’s design focused heavily on the frigate Constitution, with a compass rose in the background. The runner-up’s work involved a quill, symbolizing how the sea service recorded its important information in the days before multiple databases, dozens of logins and passwords, and the occasional moth. So it should come as no…
World War II history buffs should set aside a good part of Monday for some light reading. Maybe some of Tuesday. In fact, don’t make any plans the rest of the month. The “Gray Book,” a collection of communications from Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz that range from the Pearl Harbor attack to the days before Japan’s surrender, has been digitized and will be unveiled Monday as part of a live web program on the Navy’s official blog. The document — brittle from long-term storage and classified until 1972 — had been scanned previously, but better, searchable scans will offer easier…
The Navy’s collection of wartime art has almost skipped a generation — a problem you can help solve. Art curators with Naval History and Heritage Command have plenty of pieces from World War II and the Korean War — everything from paintings by official Navy artists to cartoons drawn on notebook paper. Vietnam and Desert Storm are well-represented in the Navy Art Collection, as well, but there are few works from current sailors. So, do you fill your downtime with doodles? When the ship needs a mural, does everyone in the room turn to you? Do you hope the characters…
For most media outlets outside the Annapolis, Md., area, intense coverage of the Naval Academy athletic program begins sometime in early December and ends immediately after the ritual gridiron-based thumping of a rival service academy of note. But a promotion by the school’s athletics-marketing arm has earned national attention in recent days: Fans who beat the school mascot, Bill the Goat, at rock-paper-scissors before a Feb. 5 men’s basketball game against Boston University will earn free admission. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. Fans can throw hands with the mascot from 6:15 to 6:45 for the chance to win a…
