https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EypzUduBqiQ It’s an event years in the making: No, not the new Star Wars movie. The aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower is out of the yards! The ship officially emerged in late August, and as it prepares for its first deployment next summer after two years in a Norfolk dry-dock, the public affairs department released an anticipation-building video parody entitled, “Sea Wars: The Ike Awakens.” The video mirrors the “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” trailer, with a very startled petty officer third class on the flight deck, a rolling mop bucket beeping like R2-D2 and an F/A-18 Hornet battling an…
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[HTML1] The Walt Disney Company is looking to hire 1,000 veterans over the next three years. Company President and CEO Bob Iger announced the company wide initiative called “Heroes Work Here” on Tuesday, March 13th. There is much more to the new program than just hiring vets. Disney will hold career fairs, offer training and volunteer opportunities. And don’t think you have to head to Orlando just to work at Disney. The company owns ESPN and ABC. Here is a full list of the companies in the Disney family. Want to make your dreams come true? Check out the Disney…
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…
The fight is between blogger and Navy Mom Mary Brotherton and Capt. Brian “Lex” Luther, commanding officer of the carrier George H.W. Bush, a ship with ongoing commode problems. Brotherton has a blow-by-blow account of the head troubles on the carrier, complete with accounts from her son, a sailor onboard. It’s pretty thorough and includes details on how sailors handle widespread toilet outages, the clogs that cripple the toilet system and efforts to fix breakdowns. It was her work that tipped off a bunch of reporters on what’s happening on the ship. Not to be outdone, Capt. Luther has spoken up…
What’s wrong with this picture? Freedom, the first littoral combat ship, has been in service for only two and a half years. But it’s lost that new ship shine. Exhaust blackens the superstructure and the hull in this photo, taken June 7 while Freedom landed a helicopter as part of a joint maritime exercise. More exhaust is visible spewing from the stack. “The exhaust marks can be scrubbed off, but the closer you get to the orifice, the less it is soot and more it is actual burnt on charring,” a user named spek commented on the blog, Cdr Salamander.…
Adm. John Harvey learned about the controversial, four-year-old shipboard videos co-produced by Capt. Owen Honors on Dec. 31 — the day before they were published for the first time outside the skin of the carrier Enterprise — and “immediately ordered an investigation,” he says in a Jan. 7 post on his command blog. Harvey also says he reviewed the videotapes published online by Norfolk’s Virginian-Pilot newspaper that weekend and then made his controversial decision to fire Honors, who’d graduated from executive officer — his position when the sometimes-racy, meant-to-be-humorous short films were produced — to become the 49-year-old carrier’s commanding…
Those with a particularly British cultural literacy know the meaning of this great slang term, but for the rest of us (including yours truly), “gobsmacked” means “utterly astounded.” It also describes the reaction of Yeoman 2nd Class (SW) Lucien Gauthier, whose post to a U.S. Naval Institute blog recounts his amazement that a four-star fleet commander ended up attending his Nov. 30 re-enlistment ceremony. It started when Gauthier filled in a standard re-enlistment ceremony form’s question about “re-enlisting officer” with “Adm. Harvey.” As in, Adm. John Harvey, commander of Fleet Forces Command. Gauthier didn’t know Harvey but had posted to…
No, not a Halloween post — although Slide No. 4 in the Naval Safety Center’s “Signs of the Times” Vol. 6 contains elements of a good ol’, cheezy horror flick: Revenge of the Crocodilians! The slide show (http://safetycenter.navy.mil/ — midpage, “Signs of the Times #6, a PowerPoint doc) is a collection of similarly bad yet humorous or tongue-in-cheek signage that underlines the importance of labeling hazards clearly and effectively — and taking even official-looking warnings (at least, the civilian versions) with a grain of salt. It’ll take a few seconds to download with a good connection, but it’s worth it.
For you loyal Scoop Deck followers who feel the need to get muddy and fight the occasional land war, or if you just want to see what fun awaits you during your upcoming IA tour, Army Times has launched a new staff blog: Outside the Wire. Here’s the mission, according to alpha-blogger and friend of Scoop Deck Mike Hoffman: This blog is much more than a bunch of bureaucrats meeting inside the Beltway, though. We intend to cover everything from the new Multi-Cam uniform’s performance in Afghanistan to the best sights for your M-4 to Army leadership to the best…
Thanks to Joel “Bubblehead” Kennedy, who reminds us of the 50th anniversary of the commissioning of USS George Washington (SSBN 598), the first ballistic missile submarine. What must it have been like to be there July 20 1960, when the skipper sent a burner 1,100 miles downrange, then sent President Eisenhower the message: POLARIS — FROM OUT OF THE DEEP TO TARGET. PERFECT. I think Bubblehead says it best: Service in SSBNs might not be as glamorous and exciting as being on an attack boat, but the bottom line is that our strategic capability is the cornerstone of our national…
