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The carrier Carl Vinson, destroyer Gridley , cruiser Bunker Hill, and Malaysian frigate KD Lekir steaming through the South China Sea in May. (Credit: Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class John Philip Wagner)

PACOM boss: China’s South China Sea claims ‘preposterous’

By David Larter on May 28, 2015 China, Uncategorized

Incoming U.S. Pacific Command head Adm. Harry Harris slammed China’s claims in the South China Sea as “outrageous” and “preposterous” in a recent TIME Magazine interview. China has established a pattern of deliberately provocative actions in recent months and has been unclear about its claims to vast swathes of the South China Sea, Harris said, accusing China of destabilizing the region. “I have been critical of China for a pattern of provocative actions that they’ve begun in the recent past. Like unilaterally declaring an air-defense identification zone over the East China Sea, parking a mobile oil platform off the Vietnam…

Video: Herndon climb, in 2 minutes, with music

By Meghann Myers on May 21, 2015 Naval Academy

Most people think of the Naval Academy’s annual Herndon climb as a hot, sweaty, smelly slog up a greased obelisk that can last for hours as mids climb up and tumble down. But it really depends on what kind of music you set it to. The Naval Academy put this video together of Monday’s climb, set to a jaunty instrumental number. The class of 2018 went from plebes to midshipmen after one hour and 38 minutes scrambling up the Herndon monument. In the end, Midshipman 4th Class Javarri Beachum, a 19-year-old Florida native, put an end to it all when he nudged a…

#USSJasonDunham's flight deck crew prepares an MH-60R Seahawk helicopter, assigned to “Grandmasters” of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 46 for take off. You can help this video take off by clicking the share button.
Posted by U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. Sixth Fleet on Sunday, May 3, 2015

Flight Quarters, courtesy of GoPro

By David Larter on May 4, 2015 Uncategorized

The flight deck on a surface combatant is a dangerous, fast-paced and loud environment, but it’s also exhilarating. Sailors deployed around the world conduct hundreds of hours of flight hours each day, performing search and rescue, surveillance and resupply missions among others. This morning, Naval Forces Europe posted a GoPro video on its Facebook page of the chock and chain crew on board the destroyer Jason Dunham clearing an MH-60 for takeoff. If you have a case of the Mondays and need some motivations, put your headphones on and crank the volume for this bad-ass video. Green deck.

Navy SEAL laughs at Islamic State’s special ops video

By Meghann Myers on April 29, 2015 Amphibious operations, Diving, Entertainment, Fitness, Naval special warfare, Navy, Physical training, SEAL, SEALs, Shooting, Uncategorized, Video

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…

Big exercise underway, with Russians on the sidelines

By Lance Bacon on April 20, 2015 6th Fleet, Uncategorized

Exercise Joint Warrior hit its halfway point over the weekend, and shows no sign of letting up. Plenty of challenges, from mine countermeasures to subhunting and amphibious assault, still lay ahead for the NATO and allied ships in one of Europe’s largest military exercises, led by the United Kingdom. And they’re not the only ones paying attention. News reports say a number of Russian ships have taken position on the periphery, and military inspectors from Moscow are keeping close watch. And with good reason: NATO nations have touted this as a show of strength to deter Russian aggression, and there has been plenty of…

Meet Bleck, NAS Pax River’s furriest guardian

By Meghann Myers on April 15, 2015 Dog handling, Master-at-arms, Military dog handling, Navy, Navy Region Mid-Atlantic, Sea Air Space, Uncategorized

Intruders beware: When this 80-pound German Shepherd isn’t patrolling Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, he’s training to take trespassers down at the drop of a command. Bleck, a 6-year-old German Shepherd, is assigned to Navy Installations Command as a member of Pax River’s force protection team along with his handler, Master-at-Arms 2nd Class Evan Desrosiers. Desrosiers knew when he joined the Navy more than a decade ago that he wanted to be a dog handler, he told Navy Times Tuesday, but he had to spend some time in the fleet as an MA before he could get orders for training at…

Tips to help you lock down your social media privacy

By Meghann Myers on April 10, 2015 Entertainment, Facebook, Personnel, Photos, Science and technology, Uncategorized

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…

The Navy’s duck drone swims and flies

By Lance Bacon on April 3, 2015 Aviation, Unmanned systems

What’s that in the sky? It’s not a bird, or a plane, it’s … a flying submarine?! Meet the Flimmer. That’s short for “flying swimmer,” and comes from the “what will the Naval Research Laboratory dream up next?” category. It’s hard to argue with the logic behind what some have dubbed the “duck drone.” Covering vast distances is far easier in the air than underwater. In addition, an air-delivered unmanned underwater vehicles can operate in areas that lack easy access. Yet the challenges are many, as aerodynamics and hydrodynamics require far different designs. For example, weight is bad for a thin-skinned aircraft,…

Video: Coast Guard gives rescued manatee a lift home

By Meghann Myers on April 3, 2015 Coast Guard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k92hcUzEBc Last winter, a Florida manatee found himself lost and alone off the coast of Texas. In February, he finally got to return home, with help from a Coast Guard HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircraft and some Coast Guard aviators from the Aviation Training Center in Mobile, Alabama. A sheriff’s deputy found the manatee, dubbed Trinidad, a Tampa Bay native found in the cold waters of an energy plant’s outflow near Houston, Texas back in November. He was transported to Sea World San Antonio for rehab, where researchers determined he was a known Gulf Coast manatee who’d been first observed in 2001.…

The Big Stick invades England

By David Larter on March 31, 2015 6th Fleet, Carriers

The Big Stick hit the shores of merry old England last week. The presence of the 100,000-ton carrier Theodore Roosevelt, on an eight-month deployment, created huge Buzz in Great Britain when it anchored off Portsmouth March 22 for a five-day port visit along with the destroyer Winston S. Churchill. The British papers went bananas, spectators lined the shores to catch a glimpse of the 1,100-foot-long warship and businesses hung American flags to welcome 5,000 sailors to the land of America’s one-time imperial overlords. Portsmouth’s local paper, The News, reported that the Roosevelt “stunned onlookers on Southsea seafront as she dwarfed…