Category: Navy

MikeM sends us a link to another story about another sailor who won’t stand for the National Anthem. We talked about one earlier this month, but Janaye Ervin wants to join her;

Military.com reports that the Navy has published guidance on the subject;

A message directed at active-duty sailors and reserve personnel on active duty cites Navy Regulation 1205, which mandates that personnel in uniform must stand at attention and face the flag when the national anthem is played. It also notes that a Navy administrative message published in 2009 requires Navy active-duty personnel in civilian clothes to face the flag, stand at attention, and place their right hand over their heart.

“Additionally, Sailors receive training on the appropriate usage of social media, and must not use it to discredit the Naval Service, and should be reminded it could potentially be used as evidence against them,” the guidance continues, a message apparently directed at the two sailors who published posts on Facebook about their protests.

Failure to comply with these regulations, the message said, is punishable under Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and constitutes commission of a serious offense — grounds for administrative separation from the service.

The Navy Secretary, Ray Mabus, has made it his life’s purpose to piss off as many veterans as he can by passing over the names of real heroes for the Navy’s newest vessels for less likely social justice warriors instead. The Associated Press asked him about that;

“I have named ships after presidents. I have named ships after members of Congress who have been forceful advocates for the Navy and Marine Corps,” Mabus said in a recent interview. “But I think you have to represent all the values that we hold as Americans, that we hold as a country. And so that’s why I’ve named ships the Medgar Evers, Cesar Chavez, John Lewis, the Harvey Milk. Because these are American heroes too, just in a different arena.”

Medgar Evers served in the Army, Cesar Chavez said that his time in the Navy was “the worst two years of my life”, John Lewis and Gabby Giffords never spent a day in any service.

“He has made some, what people would consider exceptions to the rules, because in his view it was the right thing to do to reach out to different communities in the country,” said David Winkler, of the Naval Historical Foundation.

Because “community out reach” is more important than honoring actual service.

A large number of people sent us this link to the story of Navy Commander John Michael Neuhart II, the commander of a Navy helicopter squadron who flew 36 combat missions in Iraq. He has been accused of rape in San Diego;

Cmdr. John Michael Neuhart II was arrested Monday after police received a call about 3 a.m. from the victim’s neighbor who heard screams coming from the house. According to police, Neuhart ran from the home and was arrested in a nearby canyon.

[…]

Police say the victim is also in the Navy and was an acquaintance of Neuhart’s. According to police, the victim was with friends at a downtown hotel earlier in the evening when they ran into Neuhart. She later went home with him, police say. The victim fought off Neuhart and screamed, prompting the neighbor to come to the home, according to investigators.

I’m sure that more Sexual Harassment/Assault Response & Prevention (SHARP) training for lower enlisted folks will cure this problem in the service.

Lieutenant David Natker, the commander of the boats which were seized by Iran earlier this year thinks that he should be praised for saving his crew rather than fired for being an incompetent boob, according to Foreign Policy.

Speaking publicly for the first time about the case, Nartker last week offered an alternative narrative to the one painted by the U.S. Navy, which has reprimanded him for “dereliction of duty.”

[…]

Nartker considered the possibility of aiming his M4 assault rifle at a Iranian gunner only about 10 feet away.

“I know I could have hit that guy and killed him. There was eye contact,” Nartker said.

If he had taken the shot, his boats could have tried to make a run for it, he said. The Americans would have had to race about eight to ten nautical miles to make it to international waters — but within the potential range of two machine guns on the Iranian boats.

Nartker ruled it out. “I was thinking, ‘I am not going to kill this guy right now over a bullshit navigation mistake,’” he said.

“There would be a dead Iranian in Iranian waters. And there was no way to claim it was international waters.”

Yeah, well, that’s not what he was being punished for – according to everything I’ve read on the incident, it was a goat-screw from the beginning of the planning stage. CNN quotes from the Navy’s investigation of the incident;

“This incident was the result of failed leadership at multiple levels from the tactical to the operational,” investigators wrote in the detailed, partially redacted, report.

The report found the crews were poorly prepared, their boats not properly maintained, communication almost entirely lacking, and their conduct after being captured by the Iranians wasn’t up to military standards.

In a stunning finding, the report said the sailors veered off course almost immediately after heading out to sea and had no idea where they were when a mechanical failure struck one of the boats.

“The boat crews could visually see Farsi Island, but were not concerned as they were unaware that it was Iranian or that they were in Iranian waters,” the report said.

In other words, LT Nartker, it doesn’t matter what you did when the Iranians showed up – that doesn’t make up for you being lost and off-course to begin with. If Nartker had been doing even a half-assed job of supervising the operation, it never would have happened.

Nartker said he believed the fallout from the video turned him into a scapegoat. “I embarrassed the Navy, and therefore they punished me,” he said.

No, sorry, you are an incompetent boob who shouldn’t lead troops in combat, so adios, Dave.

Thanks to Bobo for the link.

Stop everything! A sailor engaged in the war against terror just delivered a baby, according to the Navy Times;

The carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower’s crew proved Sunday that they can simultaneously deliver ISIS air strikes and babies.

A third class petty officer from Carrier Air Wing 3 checked into the carrier’s medical clinic after stomach pains Saturday. Nine hours later, in the early hours of Sept. 11, she gave birth to a healthy 7-pound baby girl, according to an internal memo on the incident obtained by Navy Times.

“Both the mother and the baby are healthy and are doing well,” 5th Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Bill Urban said of the new family on the carrier in the Persian Gulf.

Despite all of the science available to the Navy, no one, including the mother, knew that the woman was pregnant until she went into labor. The Navy insists that she wouldn’t have deployed if they’d known.

Reuters reports that Iranian patrol craft spent some time buzzing the USS Firebolt in the Persian Gulf on Sunday.

Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said the Iranian vessel sailed directly in front of the USS Firebolt, forcing the 174-foot (53-metre) U.S. ship to change course.

The incident began when seven Iranian ships “harassed” the Firebolt, Davis said.

A U.S. Defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the interaction was “unsafe and unprofessional due to lack of communications and the close-range harassing maneuvering,” adding that uncovered and manned weapons were seen on the Iranian vessel.

The U.S. ship tried to communicate with the Iranian ship by radio three times but received no response.

The U.S. official said there have been 31 similar interactions with Iranian ships this year, almost double the amount from the same period last year.

Maybe John Kerry and James Taylor can straighten this all out. I’m sure all the mullahs need is a good old folk concert. I’m thinking that the Firebolt can handle themselves. According to Wiki;

Her armament includes two Mk38 chain guns, two Mk19 automatic grenade launchers, and two .50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns, as well as six Stinger missiles.

OC sends us a link from Fox News about 98-year-old Ernest Thompson, a survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor. On that dark day in our history, Thompson was among the crew of the battleship USS Tennessee (BB-43) which was damaged during the attack but rebuilt and modernized and took part in the War in the Pacific. Thompson made it a habit to visit USS Iowa which is a museum near his home in Southern California to revisit his youth.

Health issues have interfered in his almost daily visits to the museum, so this happened according to KTLA;

With the help of volunteer coordinators, the chief selects from the Fleet Anti-Submarine Warfare Training Center visited Thompson’s home and sang the Navy’s march song, “Anchors Aweigh” in the middle of his residential street.

While the singing went on, Thompson stood and saluted, “inspiring those around him,” the release stated.

The remarkable thing, according to a spokesman for the museum, is that Thompson had a fall earlier this year and had not been able to walk or stand since then.

After the singing concluded, the chief selects walked one-by-one up to Thompson on the veteran’s porch to shake his hand.

“My grandfather told me that it was one of the best days of his life,” Williams wrote on Facebook.

Here’s the video;