Archive for September, 2006
Happened across this pic:
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A port bow view of the USS SARATOGA (CV-60), flight deck partially removed, being scraped in a dry dock at the Sparrows Point Extension Yard of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation.
Location: BALTIMORE, MARYLAND (MD) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (USA) 23 Mar 1994
The pic needed to be flipped. Even a cursory glance tells us it’s not the Saratoga, even if we didn’t know that the Saratoga is still in reserve. But which ship is it? It appears to be the USS Coral Sea (CV 43).
Air Force plans aerial tanker award in 2007
This means the first tankers may be delivered in 2011 or 2012.
Meanwhile:
777 to be Boeing’s alternative proposal for tanker
At an Air Force Association conference today in Washington, D.C., Boeing will make public for the first time a proposed U.S. Air Force refueling tanker based on its very large 777 commercial passenger jet — a potential alternative to a midsize 767 tanker.
According to a draft request for proposal (RFP) the Air Force issued Monday, the government requires a tanker that can double as a troop carrier and supply plane.
The proposed 777 tanker would have a much larger capacity for fuel, troops or cargo than either the currently offered 767 tanker or a rival offer based on the Airbus A330.
Boeing said a 777 tanker would have a maximum fuel capacity of “more than 350,000 pounds,” though a company source indicated it could stretch to more than 400,000 pounds of fuel. The Airbus tanker has a maximum fuel capacity of 250,000 pounds.
Boeing tanker spokesman Bill Barksdale said unveiling the 777 option is intended to convince observers the company is serious about providing an alternative to the original 767 tanker if the Air Force wants a bigger airplane.
The first 767 tanker, already delivered to the Italian Air Force, is still in testing. It sure would be nice to get some real-world information on how the thing performs.
Here are some stories on Saturday’s event:
Navy retires F-14, the coolest of cold warriors
Navy’s ‘Top Gun’ Tomcat Fighter Jet Makes Ceremonial Final Flight
F-14 Tomcat takes sunset flight
The F-14 Tomcat Roars Off Into The Sunset
F-14 Tomcat Makes Its Final Flight
FAREWELL, TOMCATS: F-14 officially retires
A shot of an Independence Tomcat back in the day:
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A flight deck crewman prepares to signal the pilot of an F-14 Tomcat aircraft for takeoff from the aircraft carrier USS INDEPENDENCE (CV 62), during operations off the coast of Beirut, Lebanon. 6 Dec 1983
And Tom’s old friends the Rooskies:
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An air-to-air right side view of a[n] F-14 Tomcat aircraft from Fighter Squadron 51 (VF-51) as it intercepts a Soviet Tu-95 Bear-A/B aircraft. 15 Oct 1979
A car commercial proclaiming a jihad on the U.S. auto market and offering “Fatwa Fridays” with free swords for the kids is offensive and should not be aired, Muslim leaders said on Sunday.
The radio advertisement for the Dennis Mitsubishi car dealership in Columbus, Ohio, has “a whole jihad theme,” said Adnan Mirza, director of the Columbus office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
“They are planning on launching a jihad on the automotive market and their representatives would be wearing burqas … ,” Mirza said. “They mentioned the pope in there and also about giving rubber swords out to the kiddies — really just reprehensible-type comments.”
Several radio stations have already refused to run the ad and the dealership has apparently given up on this particular marketing campaign.
First Littoral Combat Ship Christened
MARINETTE, Wis. (NNS) — Thousands looked on Sept. 24 as the Navy christened and launched the nation’s first littoral combat ship, Freedom (LCS-1), at the Marinette Marine shipyard.
“Just a little more than three years ago she was just an idea, now Freedom stands before us. And on this morning, we christen her, send her down the ways and get her ready to join the fleet next year,” said Adm. Mike Mullen, Chief of Naval Operations. “It comes none too soon, because there are tough challenges out there that only she can handle.”
The 377-foot Freedom is capable of speeds in excess of 40 knots and can operate in water less than 20 feet deep. The ship will act as a platform for launch and recovery of manned and unmanned vehicles. Its modular design will support interchangeable mission packages, allowing the ship to be reconfigured for antisubmarine warfare, mine warfare, or surface warfare missions on an as-needed basis.
LCS 1 and LCS 3 will use a standard hull. LCS 2 and LCS 4 will be trimarans.
For more info and pics, see Navy.mil.
How Many Embedded Reporters Cover the Iraq War?
After last spring’s Milblogger Conference, I rubbed a few of my fellow bloggers the wrong way when I wrote that milbloggers would never be the ones who got the “real story” out to the masses. While milbloggers are important (even critical) components of the effort to inform the public about what’s really going on, the honest truth is that they simply do not have the reach and the audience to effect real change. The vast majority of those who read blogs are those who already largely agree with what the blogger in question is saying. If you don’t like it, you just find a different blog.
As pathetic as mainstream media is when it comes to covering the military, if they aren’t reporting it, it won’t register on the public’s radar.
I wrote:
We’re all aware that during the early weeks of the campaign in Iraq the American public was solidly behind the invasion, at least according to opinion polls. Much of this has been attributed to the presence of quite a few embedded reporters among the troops. The reports sent back by the likes of Greg Kelly were invaluable to the general populace to glimpse what was going on and to witness our guys in action.
Since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, however, the number of embedded reporters has dwindled to virtually nothing. Sometimes we’ll see reporters from smaller newspapers covering local troops deployed to Iraq, but the overwhelming majority of reports come from reporters tucked away in the hotels of the Green Zone in Baghdad. They get their news from DoD releases (which are generally ignored) and from their army of stringers. The stringers, of course, know what sort of news gets coverage, and no doubt do their best to get it.
As poll results favoring the invasion and reconstruction of Iraq have slumped, we’re left to wonder how much of the support evaporated when the news from embedded reporters on the evening news, cable stations, and major newspapers vanished.
So how many embeds are currently in Iraq? Apparently, the number is nine.
Unbelievable. This means one of two things:
A) Iraq isn’t newsworthy enough to warrant adequate news coverage.
or
B) It’s easier to tell the story you want to tell when facts are in short supply.
What do you think? A or B? (via Instapundit)
Peter Rabbit Tank Killer
“You may all play in the wood if you wish, but, Peter, you and your naughty cousin Benjamin Bunny are not to antagonize Mr. McGregor nor blow up any Panzer tanks today”
FOB Tacoma – Military news from the Forward Operating Base of Destiny
Michael Gilbert, one of the best Stryker reporters out there, is blogging.
Sunday Ship History: Q-ships
EagleSpeak on the naval wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing.
Drawing the Battlelines in Anbar
Bill Roggio says the reports of the “loss of Anbar” are, um, inaccurate.
Iraqi Tribes Turn on al Qaeda
Also in Anbar, tribes have agreed to raise a 30,000 man force to combat terrorists and foreign fighters.
Read the rest of this entry »
President Pervez Musharraf has claimed that Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage threatened to bomb Pakistan “back to the Stone Age” if it didn’t cooperate with the United States after 9/11.
Armitage denies he ever said that and President Bush says he knows nothing of it.
Musharraf made the claim in an interview that will air on 60 Minutes Sunday evening.
Here’s an interesting tidbit from today’s MSNBC.com story:
Musharraf said he could not comment because of a contract for a book to be published on Monday. [emphasis Murdoc's]
Coincidental timing, I’m sure.
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Looks interesting:
+ Did America win its independence because British generals were too busy canoodling with their mistresses?
+ Should America have annexed Mexico–all of it–and Cuba too?
+ Did 1776 justify Southern secession in the nineteenth century?
+ Should Patton have been promoted over Eisenhower?
+ Did the U.S. military win–and Congress lose–the Vietnam War?
+ Was it right to depose Saddam Hussein–and is it wrong to worry about a possible Iraqi civil war?
The answer to these questions is a resounding yes, says author H. W. Crocker III in this stirring and contrarian new book.
In Don’t Tread on Me, Crocker unfolds four hundred years of American military history, revealing how Americans were born Indian fighters whose military prowess carved out first a continental and then a global empire–a Pax Americana that has been a benefit to the world.
From the seventeenth century on, he argues, Americans have shown a jealous regard for their freedom–and have backed it up with an unheralded skill in small-unit combat operations, a tradition that includes Rogers’ Rangers, Merrill’s Marauders, and today’s Special Forces.
He shows that Americans were born to the foam too, with a mastery of naval gunnery and tactics that allowed America’s Navy, even in its infancy, to defeat French and British warships and expand American commerce on the seas.
Most of all, Crocker highlights the courage of the dogface infantry, the fighting leathernecks, and the daring sailors and airmen who have turned the tide of battle again and again.
In Don’t Tread on Me, still forests are suddenly pierced by the Rebel Yell and a surge of grey. Teddy Roosevelt’s spectacles flash in the sunlight as he leads his Rough Riders charging up San Juan Hill. American doughboys rip into close-quarters combat against the Germans. Marines drive the Japanese out of their island fortresses using flamethrowers, grenades, and guts. GIs slug their way into Hitler’s Germany. The long twilight struggle against communism is fought in the snows of Korea and the steaming jungles of Vietnam. And today, U.S. Navy SEALs and U.S. Army Rangers battle Islamist terrorists in the bleak mountains of Afghanistan, just as their forebears fought Barbary pirates two hundred years ago.
Fast-paced and riveting, Don’t Tread on Me is a bold look at the history of America at war.
I’m hoping to start this as soon as I finish what I’m in the middle of right now.
