This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Navy

  • Navy helicopter crewman killed in North Island accident

    hh60 seahawk

    The Navy Times reports the sad news of a helicopter crewman killed last week in a fuel tank accident at Naval Air Station North Island in California.

    Naval Helicopter Aircrewman 1st Class Jonathan Richard Clement was declared dead on July 31 at the UC San Diego Medical Center in Hillcrest, a day after an auxiliary fuel tank detached from an HH-60H Seahawk helicopter and struck him and a fellow petty officer.

    The other sailor was treated and released from the hospital after suffering what officials at Naval Air Forces described as “minor injuries.”

    Both sailors were assigned to the “Firehawks” of North Island-based Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 85.

    The Naval Safety Center reported the mishap on the morning of Aug. 6, indicating only that the helicopter crew had been conducting “hot seat” training at the sprawling air base when the accident occurred.

    There but for the grace of God, go I. Hot crew swaps and hot refueling were a routine event back in my Helo days. If the ship was so configured, we didn’t even land for gas, a HIFR (Helo In-Flight Refueling) was performed.

    hifr

    Fair winds and following seas, AW1 Clement. Training can be just as dangerous as combat.

  • Another Navy Officer Faces Court-Martial After Fitzgerald Collision

    fitz damage

    Military Times reports a second officer who served aboard USS Fitzgerald during a fatal 2017 accident that left seven sailors dead, is headed to a general court-martial. Lt. Natalie Combs, the guided-missile destroyer Fitzgerald’s former Tactical Action Officer (TAO), has been charged with dereliction of duty through neglect resulting in death and improper hazarding of a vessel.

    “She did not enter a plea during her arraignment Monday at Washington Navy Yard, but may opt to do so at a later time,” said Patty Babb, a spokeswoman for the Office of the Judge Advocate General of the Navy.

    According to her charge sheet, Combs had a duty to communicate safe speed and maneuvering recommendations to the Officer of the Deck (OOD) and impose efficient watchstanding principles. On the night of June 17, 2017, the lieutenant “negligently failed to comply” with her commanding officer’s orders and regulation manuals, the charges allege. That dereliction of duty resulted in the deaths of seven sailors when the destroyer collided with a container ship off the coast of Japan, the charge sheet states.

    Her court-martial is set for Feb. 25.

    “Charges against the accused are only allegations; the accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty,” Lt. Christina Sears, a Navy spokeswoman at the Pentagon, said in a statement.

    Combs is the second Fitz officer to be formally charged this month following the fatal collision. Cmdr. Bryce Benson, the ship’s former commanding officer, has also been referred to a general court-martial after he was charged with violating the same two articles of the Uniform Code of Military Justice as Combs: 92 and 110.

    Benson pleaded not guilty to the charges during his July 10 arraignment.

    In a shockingly similar case, the commander of USS John S. McCain when it collided with a commercial tanker last year in the Straits of Singapore, pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty and acknowledged his role in the deaths of 10 sailors. Cmdr. Alfredo Sanchez, as part an agreement, will retire from Naval Service. If so sentenced, he could face a letter of reprimand and forfeiture of a portion of his pay for three months.

    Since I have nothing productive to add, I’ll just stop here.

  • Scott Douglass Weaver confronts SEALs

    Scott Douglass Weaver confronts SEALs

    The San Diego Tribune tells the story of that time local resident 47-year-old Scott Douglass Weaver decided that he was going to shoot at some Navy SEALs with his pellet rifle;

    Around 10:30 p.m., Navy SEAL instructors and trainees were conducting a nighttime qualification dive when Scott Douglass Weaver, 47, confronted them near the Halsey Road bridge at Liberty Station, authorities said.

    At one point, the man began firing a pellet gun at the divers. A Navy spokesman said that’s when the SEALs called the police.

    San Diego Police arrested Weaver for assault with a deadly weapon, threats, brandishing a replica firearm and obstruction, a police spokesman said.

    The Navy said no military personnel were injured.

  • Alene Duerk passes

    Alene Duerk passes

    The Naval History and Heritage Command passes on the sad news that Alene Duerk, the first female admiral of the US Navy has passed at the age of 98 years on July 21, 2018;

    Her first tours of duty included ward nurse at Naval Hospital Portsmouth in Virginia, Naval Hospital Bethesda in Maryland, and sea service aboard the Navy hospital ship, USS Benevolence (AH 13), in 1945. While anchored off the coast of Eniwetok, Duerk and the crew of the Benevolence would attend to the sick and wounded being brought back from the Third Fleet’s operations against Japan.

    Upon cessation of hostilities on Sept. 2, 1945, Duerk and the Benevolence crew took on the task of repatriating liberated Allied prisoners of war, an endeavor that solidified her commitment to nursing and patient care.

    Years later, when asked about her service for the Library of Congress’ Veteran’s History Project, Duerk said, “The time I was aboard the hospital ship and we took the prisoners of war, that was something I will never forget . . . that was the most exciting experience of my whole career.”

    Thereafter, Duerk was assigned to Naval Hospital Great Lakes until being released from active service in 1946.

    In 1951, Duerk returned to active duty serving as a nursing instructor at the Naval Hospital Corps School in Portsmouth, Va. and later as inter-service education coordinator at the Naval Hospital Philadelphia, Penn.

    Her skills in ward management, surgical nursing and mentoring would be put to use over the next two decades while serving at hospitals in San Diego; and Yokosuka, Japan; at the Recruiting Station in Chicago; and in Wash., D.C.

    In May 1970, following assignments as assistant for Nurse Recruitment in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) and assistant head of Medical Placement Liaison (Nurse Corps) at the Bureau of Naval Personnel, Duerk was appointed director of the Navy Nurse Corps.

    Over the next five years, Duerk provided direction for the Nurse Corps, updating policies affecting Navy Medicine and expanding the sphere of nursing into ambulatory care, anesthesia, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology.

    Her selection to the rank of rear admiral was approved by President Richard Nixon on April 26, 1972. The first woman to be selected for flag rank, she was advanced on June 1, 1972.

    Rear Adm. Duerk retired in 1975, but remained a strong advocate for Navy nursing through the remainder of her life.

  • Navy Commander Adolph Garza busted

    According to Stars & Stripes, US Navy Commander Adolph Garza pleaded guilty in a San Diego federal courtroom yesterday to charges that he had bought drugs over the dark web;

    The San Diego resident admitted using the dark web to make multiple purchases of ecstasy, ketamine, cocaine, amphetamine and other controlled substances over an 18-month period from August 2016 to March of this year.

    Garza was arrested during a March 7 raid at his Hillcrest condo, according to Sherri Walker Hobson, an assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California.

    While serving the search warrant at Garza’s residence, inspectors from the U.S. Postal Service and special agents from Homeland Security Investigations and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service seized ecstasy, cocaine, ketamine, amphetamine and other controlled substances. They also discovered sealers, packaging and mailing materials, including DVD cases that were used to conceal what was being shipped.

    Postal inspectors discovered the illicit shipments.

    From the Times of San Diego;

    According to his plea agreement, Garza, a 23-year Navy veteran, used multiple dark web market places to order controlled substances for distribution in San Diego and beyond.

    Garza admitted that on at least 15 occasions, the drugs he ordered were the same ones seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at airports in San Francisco, New York and Chicago; and by U.S. Postal Inspectors and Homeland Security Investigations agents in San Diego.

    From the San Diego Tribune;

    Garza is set to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Cynthia Bashant. While he faces up to 20 years in federal custody, prosecutors agreed in a plea deal to recommend “the low end of the advisory guideline,” though it’s not yet clear what the advisory guideline will be.

    Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 10.

  • Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 25 rescues a Chinese mariner

    According to Stars & Stripes, a call went out from the Belgian cargo ship Wangaratta that a crewman was desperately ill and needed medical attention.

    [Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 25 (HSC-25)] crewmembers, including aircraft commander Lt. Samantha Telles-Goins, headed for the ship about 120 miles west of Guam. They then brought the distressed mariner aboard for an airlift evacuation.

    “This was my first lifesaving Medical Evacuation as a member of HSC-25,” Telles-Goins said in the statement. “Seeing all of my training pay off successfully was a very rewarding experience.”

    The sailors took the mariner to Naval Hospital Guam, and he was later transferred to Guam Memorial Hospital for treatment, according to the Navy statement.

    I guess the Navy is a force for good in the world. They should make a commercial.

  • Tyrone Krause joins the Navy

    Tyrone Krause joins the Navy

    Tyrone Krause was sworn into the Navy by his daughter, Laura, an ensign on board USS Ramage in Norfolk, Virginia, according to the Virginian-Pilot;

    At 63, the heart surgeon from Skillman, N.J., joined the Navy after receiving a waiver that permitted him to enter the Reserves a year past the typical age limit because people with his skills are in demand.

    “Sometimes I say to myself, ‘How did I get into this? Why don’t I just relax and sit in my backyard and drink some beer?’ But that’s not my style. I’ve always been on the move. And hopefully I’ll always be on the move,” Krause said.

    “I feel, surgically, I’m in my prime. I could still operate very well, and if I can give back and help some of our young men and women in the military, that’s what I want to do.”

    Krause was commissioned as a commander [pay grade O-5] Friday aboard the destroyer USS Ramage, where his 27-year-old daughter, Laura, is an ensign and performed the ceremony.

    Thanks to Mick for the link.

  • Navy Ensign Sarah Mitchell dies in Red Sea operations

    Navy Ensign Sarah Mitchell dies in Red Sea operations

    VT Woody sends us the sad news that US Navy Ensign Sarah Mitchell was killed while involved in small boat operations in the Red Sea;

    A Sailor assigned to the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Jason Dunham (DDG 109) died from injuries sustained while conducting small boat training July 8.

    Ensign Sarah Mitchell, 23, of Feasterville, Pennsylvania, was medically
    evacuated to a hospital in Aqaba, Jordan, and was pronounced dead at 12:45
    p.m., local time.

    From USNI;

    Mitchell graduated from Virginia Tech in May of 2017 and reported to the destroyer on June 5, 2017, according to her biography.

    Dunham is currently assigned to the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group and departed its homeport at Naval Station Norfolk, Va. on June 2. The ship transited the Suez Canal on June 28 and entered the Red Sea. Earlier this month, the ship conducted operations with the Egyptian Navy.

    Training for war can be as deadly as war. Be safe out there.