"A Nice Piece of Gear"

We used to talk about new technology, weapons, sensors etc in God's Navy as "a nice piece of gear".  Here's one we'll be talking about for decades to come.

Cool Link

Many of you know that I wear hearing aids....some of it likely from hereditary conditions, much of it from my time in the Navy. For just a little sense of what it might have been, tune in here to the Maritime Mobile Service Network between noon and 10PM to hear what listening to High Frequency (HF) radios sound like. I spent YEARS with tight headphones clamped to my head trying to make out human voices amidst the dirty noise on HF freqs.....

And for those of you who miss the Navy a bit, tune in for the memory.....

A Captain Loses Her Command

Captain Holly Graf was removed from command of the cruiser USS COWPENS (CG 63) for "cruelty" and other charges last month, and the mainstream press is now picking up the story and running with it.

A couple of things:

1. I did not know Holly Graf--at all. But she and I knew "all the same people". I never once since hearing her name first in the mid 90's--heard ANYONE ever say ANYTHING nice about her.
2. She took over the USS WINSTON S. CHURCHILL (DDG 81) (COWPENS was her second command--a huge Navy mistake) from a great friend of mine, RDML Mike Franken (he was a Commander then). Franken was the commissioning CO and he built a great ship and crew. Graf relived him, and drove the ship into the ground. By the time another good friend (CDR Todd Leavitt) took over the ship, things had gotten so bad that at the change of command ceremony in which he relieved her, upon hearing Graf say the famous words "I stand relieved", the crew broke into applause. Leavitt brought the ship back from a nightmare.
3. There is absolutely nothing wrong with drag racing with one's ship. That she engaged in a good race is to be considered a mark in her favor. All the great ones do it.

(USS BULKELEY (DDG 84) kicking USS COLE (DDG 67) ass)

For Those of You Who Want More Navy Stuff...

Hammer---don't read this. It will bore you. I warn you in advance.

But for those who enjoy Navy stuff--here is a chain of posts on the Information Dissemination site--upon which I am a guest blogger.

In this one--I call for a fundamental re-evaluation of the Navy's Maritime Strategy, a document I had a large hand in creating.

Here, a fellow blogger feels otherwise.

In this one, a blogger vastly distorts my words and thoughts.

And here, I respond to his post.

If this strikes you as a bunch of nimrods contemplating angels and heads of pins, you are probably right.

A Ten-Year Old Nails What Being a Captain Is All About

A friend sent me this, written by a 10-year old boy and published in the newsletter of the Society of Marine Port Engineers.