Category: Navy

The real deal SEALs at Military Phonies discovered the above grave marker in their hunt for phony SEALs. They couldn’t find a listing for Siri Dharma Singh in their BUD/S database. A search in genealogical records told them that Siri Dharma Singh had changed his name from Dennis Leroy Franks whose name did appear in the database. So they ordered his FOIA;

The grave marker says that Franks earned a Silver Star Medal, but there is no record of a Silver Star Medal in his records except the Silver Service Star on his Vietnam Service Medal (which denotes participation in five campaigns of that war).

Unfortunately, it looks like the name change was necessitated by Franks’ arrest for an attempted rape in 1970.

Jerry920 sends us a link to the story of NASCAR driver and Navy Lieutenant Jesse Iwuji who rescued a family from their burning mini-van;

He was cruising through the Grapevine, California, area on Interstate 5 and noticed a minivan stopped on the side of the road. He noticed the family. He noticed a “small little fire, like a couple of candles or so” coming from underneath.

Something seemed ominous, especially when Iwuji noticed the slight smoke starting to rise. And Iwuji, with 38 combined starts in the K&N Pro Series East and West, has been around race cars enough to know about combustibility.

“As I was walking toward them I noticed that fire underneath was getting just a little bit bigger,” Iwuji said. “Just being around race cars and things that can catch on fire, I knew that something like this just doesn’t slowly become a big fire.

“It can quickly ignite and become a bad situation really quick.”

Iwuji ushered the family – parents, and two children – away from the van. He said he had to practically pull the father out, who was trying to get every item out of the vehicle that he could.

“We got away and just right after that, the engine just burst into flames,” Iwuji said. “From there, it then went into the front seat, then into the back seat, then it got to the fuel cell area and the whole thing erupted.”

[…]

“Don’t be a passerby,” Iwuji said. “Go help if you see something wrong. Don’t just drive by with your cell phone and record it; stop and help. That was the main reason, to really show people that you can do your small part. It has nothing to do with trying to be a hero or anything like that. You just do the right thing.

Little Mikey Weinstein and his misnamed Military Religious Freedom Foundation have set their sights on U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa’s “Missing Man” table display which happens to contain a bible, according to Stars & Stripes;

The dispute over the display began when a group of sailors, Marines and Department of Defense civilian employees stationed on Okinawa reached out to MRFF, asking for help get the Bible removed, according to Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the MRFF.

“A group”, huh? Yeah, I believe Mikey-poo.

MRFF lawyers then sent a complaint to [Rear Adm. Paul Pearigen, Navy Medicine West commander], citing the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. The lawyers argued that the First Amendment not only forbids the government from establishing an official religion but also prohibits government actions that favor one religion over another. They also cited DOD and Navy regulations.

Pearigen refused to remove the book. Weinstein and MRFF asked that Pearigen reconsider and asked that holy books of other religions be displayed.

The official Navy or Defense Department stance on Bibles being included in POW/MIA “Missing Man” table displays remains unclear. However, a report on the Navy’s website from 2014 describes the Bible as being an official part of the display.

I’m waiting for Mikey to explain how “religious freedom” means interfering with some folks’ expression of their faith.

Stars & Stripes reports that Navy Lt. Christopher Carey Short was killed in a crash of an A-29 Super Tucano light-attack aircraft Friday. Lieutenant Short was a native of Canandaigua, New York.

Short had been participating in the Air Force’s Light Attack Experiment testing the capabilities of the A-29 and the AT-6B Wolverine.

The statement announcing his death did not mention the other crewmember who, according to the Air Force, suffered minor injuries and was airlifted to a local hospital.

Red Rio Bombing Range is the U.S. military’s largest open-air test range at 196,000 acres and part of the Army’s White Sands Missile Range, about 65 miles north of Holloman.

The other day we talked about Master Chief of the Navy Steven Giordano as the subject of a Navy Inspector General’s investigation. Stars & Stripes reports that he decided to retire;

“I have informed the chief of naval operations [Adm. John Richardson] that I intend to step aside and submit my retirement request, in order to allow the CNO, our [enlisted leadership], and our sailors to continue to move forward with the initiatives we have begun,” Master Chief of the Navy Steven Giordano wrote Thursday afternoon in a message posted on the Navy’s Facebook page. “The success of our Navy is not about one person or one individual, but rather the collective fighting spirit that has defined us over the last 242 years. It has been an honor to have been part of that team.”

That’s not suspicious timing at all.

According to Stars & Stripes, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Steven Giordano, the senior-most enlisted sailor in the entire Navy, is being investigated by the Navy’s Inspector General in regards to unspecified allegations of misconduct;

The probe was initiated following a formal complaint by a sailor working for Giordano, alleging he created a toxic work environment and belittled people who worked for him, often demanding they perform menial tasks, according to a report from Navy Times. The report cites more than a dozen unnamed sailors who worked for Giordano during the last two years.

A spokesman for Giordano did not respond to a request for comment about the allegations.

Giordano, who enlisted in 1989, is the 14th master chief petty officer of the Navy, according to his official biography. He is a native of Baltimore, Md.

I guess someone didn’t like police call and cleaning their room.