The details remain foggy, but Osama bin Laden’s death early Monday local time began with a fleet of four helicopters slicing through the night skies over Pakistan from a U.S. base in northern Afghanistan. The mission, approved by President Obama on Friday, had been set for early Sunday local time but had to be delayed because of poor …
Navy
Panetta’s Challenge
When the President announced his new national security team last week most of the attention focused on David Petraeus at CIA and the problem of winding down the war in Afghanistan. Leon Panetta’s nomination as Secretary of Defense went almost unnoticed, by comparison.
But Panetta has the bigger challenge: how to manage a build down in …
Navy Fires Third C.O. — This Week!
The Navy is on a tear: it has just relieved its third commanding officer this week. That makes 10 so far this year, putting it well ahead of 2010, when 17 were canned over the entire year. The latest man overboard (the ninth, in fact, was a woman, relieved last Saturday) is Commander Jay Wylie, captain of the destroyer …
Military Exercises
Those SEAL commandos — their nickname represents their prowess on SEa, Air and Land — are a tough bunch. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus was out at their training school in Coronado, Calif., recently. He says he was amazed by the strength of even those just beginning the rigorous regimen to become a member of the Navy’s special-ops …
China: Behold the Flying Shark
The Chinese have released new photographs of their J-15 Flying Shark jet fighter, supposedly designed to fly off Beijing’s yet-to-sail aircraft carrier. This is part of a long-standing great-power game of fan-dancing a new capability, in hopes it will instill fear (and perhaps bankruptcy) in potential foes, while helping to keep …
Time Sails On…
Last week, the Navy decommissioned the USS Jarrett, a guided-missile frigate. Time spent at sea sears memories, and I well recall the several days I spent aboard Jarrett in 2000, shadowing Commander Kathleen McGrath, the captain …
Top Two Officers Overboard
…once again, the Navy has relieved the top two officers on a warship — in this case the USS Ponce — for poor performance. The ship recently participated in the attacks on Libya.
These stories are always distressing, but it’s also bracing to see the service hold senior leaders accountable. Something we don’t see a lot of any more.
A “Bodacious” Reef
Turning warships into reefs on the bottom of the ocean – when done so voluntarily – seems a strange fate for a destroyer like the USS Arthur W. Radford. Named in honor of the first Navy officer ever to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, it will be the largest vessel ever sunk in the Atlantic – off the coast of …
On Seabees…And Building a New Blog
Seabees Caleb Baker and Seaman Eric Hofmans, of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 74, take a recent break as they finish building a school in Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa. Their sense of pride comes through loud and clear. It reminds me of my late father-in-law, who was a Seabee for 42 years. He too built stuff all over the …
Hot Stuff
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Always impressive to see young Americans responding to an emergency, like this engine fire Monday aboard an F-18 during a touch-and-go exercise on the USS Carl Vinson.
The Navy's Ultimate Pointer
The Navy — sometimes — moves at the speed of light. That’s how fast it went from announcing it had ignited a boat on fire with a baseball-sized laser beam to hints that this new class of weapon could be a key tool in the frustrating fight against Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean.
A tip of the sailor’s cap to the Office of Naval …