Eric Dane isn’t a SWO. He just plays one on TV. But his late father, William Melvin, was an aviation boatswain’s mate in the Vietnam War era. To honor his service, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus presented Dane with a shadow box of his awards June 12 at the season 2 premiere “The Last Ship” in Washington, D.C., attended by sailors in the area. On the show, Dane plays Cmdr. Tom Chandler, skipper of the destroyer Nathan James and more or less humanity’s last hope of survival against an apocalyptic virus. “I’m here because I love Washington, I love the Navy and…
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The Islamic State group is trying to work on its special forces prowess. Well, they’ve got their work cut out for them, according to combat vets that viewed a recently released promotional video by the extremist group. The video, first posted by news site Vocativ, features a dozen scenes of training, door breaching and amphibious sneak attacks. There are countless reasons why this whole thing is a giant soup sandwich, a former Navy SEAL told Navy Times in a Wednesday interview. Starting with: Why kind of special ops mission happens in broad daylight? “Well, the only thing that they had…
The Navy’s operational security program is making a big push for sailors and and their families to lock down their social media presence lately, in the wake of a list of service members posted to an Islamic State group supporter’s website last month. Though no imminent threats have been made against sailors, officials urged personnel to tighten the privacy settings on their social media accounts by making them private or unsearchable, and removing any military affiliation from their accounts. But the internet is a labyrinth of accessible personal information and confusing privacy settings, so the experts at Navy Information Operations…
Calling all San Diego sailors: If you’ve got some free time Tuesday evening, TV network TNT is holding an open casting call for extras for its Navy-themed show “The Last Ship,” according to a Monday post on the Naval Base San Diego Facebook page. From 2 p.m. to 8 p.m., sailors are invited to drop in to Building 45 at the Recreation Center NBSD, in the Blue and Gold Conference rooms. Applicants must bring an I-9 form (downloadable here) and written permission from their chain of command to participate. Also, you have to be on authorized leave or liberty, so don’t…
[HTML1] WARNING: Drinking and swearing ahead. As it turns out, actors playing sailors sometimes get up to just as many shenanigans as their real-life counterparts. Following the season 1 finale of the The Last Ship, Jocko “Lt. Dalton Burk” Sims posted this video to his YouTube account. On the show, he plays a member of a destroyer crew who activates comms four months into an Arctic deployment, only to find out that 80 percent of the world’s population is dead or dying of an virus with no known cure. Yet. But off camera, the crew knows how to let loose.…
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…
[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…
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…
What started as a Navy-themed TV drama with an impressive Hollywood pedigree slowly became a show without a ship, without a star — and, eventually, without a chance. “Wild Blue,” an aircraft carrier-based pilot pitched to Fox but delayed when producers couldn’t land a flattop to film on, won’t be shot after all, according to multiple reports. Both The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline.com said the show’s stumbles weren’t limited to finding a carrier; in fact, plans called for filming to commence without a flattop to accommodate the schedule of potential leading man Tim McGraw — country music superstar, “Friday Night…
