The Discomfort of Thought

ND's 08 Season is sunk already

2007-01-11T11:43:00.000-05:00

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*Deep Breath*
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sign of the Apocalypse

2007-01-09T13:40:00.000-05:00

So, while the US is bombing the snot out of a country that we were seemingly ignoring last week, what is the lead story on whatever news channel was on in the break room for the 10 minutes I was in there?

Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, talking about Johnny Cash and Christopher Reeve, apparently because wildfires are near her house.

Whiskey.Tango.Foxtrot.

Thoughts During the Sugar Bowl

2007-01-03T22:26:00.000-05:00

We haven't finished a season right since the 1994 Cotton Bowl. Please?

Went for it on fourth down in the 1st quarter? There is aggressive playcalling, and there is showing zero faith in your defense. This stinks of the latter.

Zenon, a guy named Zenon is hurting us like this?

Clearly it is because he is from the future, that is how he knew when to go for the interception. Disqualify her, er, him!

Dude, when did Bubba Smith get reincarnated as a quarterback? Sheesh, that guy is huge...

Halftime - not as bad as I feared, so far... Coach Weis has not been exactly firing the team up at halftime - Let's see if he can pull a Holtz and come from behind...

Apparently, Brady Quinn -likes- passing into double coverage. Sure it looks cool when it works, but more often than not - ugliness.

The Admiral totally called me out - as I was yelling about some coaching call or another, she said, "You shout, but your heart just isn't in it." Yup, like the team, I am just flat - no fire after the half. They are watching it slip away, and don't seem to be fighting it. As I feared, not exactly a come-from-behind team.

*sigh* The 9 mo old mini-PBS decided she could not sleep. Missed pretty much all of the 4th qtr. But, hooray for DVR, I can rewind. ... And dern, there is really nothing in the 4th worth seeing. So, fast forward to make sure there is nothing ... nope. Again, hooray for DVR.

I can not say I am surprised at the outcome... but I will don my mourning ribbon anyway:

Dilbert watches BSG!

2006-12-08T12:44:00.000-05:00

Apollo-bert?

Dec 7, 1941

2006-12-07T09:23:00.000-05:00

If anyone should think to despair in this day and age, remeber, we have overcome worse:

Continued here and here.

PS.
John at Castle Argghhh! apparently got the same image series sent to him that I did.

Much worse

2006-12-07T09:21:00.000-05:00

More, because blogger doesn't like pic-heavy posts:

Beginning here, summary here.

Even More

2006-12-07T09:20:00.000-05:00

Beginning of the post series here, next post here

2,335 military and 68 civilians killed,
1,143 military and 35 civilians wounded,
4 battleships sunk,
4 battleships damaged,
3 cruisers damaged,
3 destroyers sunk,
2 other ships sunk,
188 planes destroyed,
155 planes damaged

Bleeding He11

2006-11-13T09:59:00.000-05:00

So, if you can not tell by the date on my previous post, something is amiss here at The D.o.T. Please standby until I get my posting technical issues sorted out - assuming that this post even makes it up there. *grumble grumble*

Election Day

2006-11-10T01:22:00.000-05:00

Vote today. Vote vote vote.

<rant>

If you don’t like the way things are running, chances are that there is an election that affects whatever it is you have an issue with.

If you do like how things are going, show your support by voting for those who help the issues you like.

If you think your vote doesn’t matter, consider this:

Sure, in presidential elections, your vote is filtered by the electoral college middle-man, meaning that your vote may count for less than someone’s vote in a small state, or not at all if you are in a clear minority in your state, as most states commit their electoral college votes en masse. HOWEVER, these elections are direct – no middle-man. Besides, the only way for the president to execute policy effectively is with Congress. You can significantly affect policy with votes on off years like this, especially in a year like this where things are tight.

Besides, you might think that you have little say in presidential candidates, but consider – presidential candidates have to come from somewhere, and how they perform during the lower level elections greatly determines who ends up running for the big office. Help decide now who will run in two year.

Just VOTE dammit.

It is the only way democracy works.

</rant>

Where is it?

2006-09-29T16:42:00.000-04:00

I was bemoaning the deliberate lack of detail in the overhead imagery available of U.S. sub bases (checking out old haunts), when I had a brainwave - might as well check out of country locales, as well. So, standby for random map searches, but one of interest.

First up, a softball, who can guess where this one is? (Dern cloud cover is somewhat obscuring)

Don't know? Check the comments for the answer ;-)

Maintaining a Good Sound Silencing Program

2006-09-14T06:25:00.000-04:00

So, a visitor reminded me, in a tangential way, of one of my more entertaining duty days.

We had just finished up an upkeep period, and were getting ready to get back to sea. We had gotten a lot of little things identified and corrected while in port, which was good, seeing as how we were going to get ridden by squadron and evaluated. This included some tactical evals, material inspections, and sound cuts. Sound cuts were useful for several reasons. 1) They told us just how quiet we really were. 688's are not uniform in their stealth, so figuring out just how noisy you were let you know just how you could be employed. 2) A noisy boat is a poorly maintained boat. Therefore, sound cuts were a way of judging just how well the crew was taking care of their boat.

Our boat had an excellent sound silencing program, one which had been commended by our squadron multiple times. So, we weren't sweating the sound cuts too much.

That is, until a couple sonarmen came to visit me at the beginning of my duty day. Now, I don't know about the rest of the fleet, but our sonarmen, while excellent watchstanders and great about telling other divisions what was too nosy, didn't like having to actually deal with such things themselves. Probably because they weren't very good at it - turning the wrench, writing the work package, or ordering the parts. The setback that brought the sonarmen to see me that particular duty day was, in fact, ordering parts.

You see, several of the doorknobs on the boat had broken internal springs. This meant that the doors would not latch properly. So, anytime the boat took any kind of angle or roll, a bunch of doors would simultaneously slam open and then shut. Not good for sound silencing.

As it turned out, the doorknobs were given to the Sonar division to fix. Unfortunately, they had forgotten to order new doorknobs to replace the old. So, when the “Replace broken doorknobs” tasker came due, they found themselves somewhat out of luck.

And so they came to me on my duty day, hoping I might have a suggestion. We were getting underway in less than a week, so we had to solve the issue ASAP. The parts were finally on order, but wouldn’t arrive for weeks – too late for us. We could try and cannibalize the parts from another boat, and pay them back with our new doorknobs when they arrived. However, previous experience with that particular tactic had proven to me what a fight that would turn into. No boat wanted to give up perfectly good parts to another boat.

So, with an overly developed sense of urgency, and not coming up with any good alternatives, we put our plan into motion. First, we went to control, where a SSSU (Submarine Squadron Support Unit – although they are called something else now I believe) team was helping us install a new periscope. When they weren’t looking, we snagged a couple of their ballcaps. Then, with a pat on the back and a sincere, “Don’t get caught!” I sent my two intrepid sonarmen to then next pier. They walked on board the boat, mumbling to the topside watch about some work belowdecks they were assisting with.

They then proceeded to switch out EVERY SINGLE DOORKNOB on the other boat with ours.

So we got underway, all our doorknobs in perfect functioning order. We did quite well on our sound cuts. And I sent an email to a power school buddy of mine on the affected boat, informing him, in a totally non-mocking way of course, that the slamming of his stateroom door would be fixed in a few weeks, when spare parts, erroneously labeled for us, but actually intended for his boat, would arrive on base.

It's like Scott Adams has a camera in my office

2006-09-13T06:24:00.000-04:00

Yeah, feels familiar:

*sigh*

A Tree Hugger I can get behind

2006-09-12T16:44:00.000-04:00

My disdain for the overly simplistic cries of alarm regarding our environment have been discussed here before. However, proving that if you wait long enough, everything possible will occur, I have found an environmentalist, a PROMINENT environmentalist and "planetary diagnostician" I can cheer.

Dr. James E. Lovelock, winner of the Blue Planet Prize, inventor of the electron capture detector, which measures dispersed traces of pesticides and chlorofluorocarbons, proponent of the Gaia concept of ecology, has proposed a solution to help stem "global heating".

Nuclear Power

Yup, you read that right. An environmentalist who *doesn't* get excessively lathered up at the mere mention of splitting uranium (or plutonium, if you are a wild and crazy frenchman or indian). I am immediately fascinated by any enviro-type who says, "We live in a nuclear-powered universe. We’re the oddballs by getting energy from burning carbon."

Fascinating.

Groton, CT, 11 Sept 2001

2006-09-11T09:46:00.000-04:00

There is nothing like rolling out of bed around 0430. Typical for a duty day. It was bound to be a busy day, though. We were in upkeep, more equipment had been ripped out of the forward part of the boat than I care to recollect, and the engineering spaces were in a shambles as we prepped to conduct a dual media discharge (of our primary coolant ion exchanger and primary cooler filter for the non-nuclear among us).

All this added up to be a lot on my plate for the upcoming 24 hours. Why did it all concern me? Well, I was the oncoming Ship’s Duty Officer, so I would be overseeing the work on all the tactical systems, I was the Main Propulsion Assistant, so I was responsible for training up the Engineering Department for the DMD (and the boat who had just gone through this evolution had a few, ahhh, difficulties with it, so we *knew* we would be under the microscope), and the Engineer was med down with a 104 degree fever, so, as the senior Eng. Dept. JO, I was acting Eng as well. Fun fun.

Just before 0800, I got relieved by our Navigator, so that I could conduct section training on the working barge for the Engineering department. Making this training anything other than deadly dull is hard, but I was doing well, helped in part by pelting guys who were zoning out with candy and reminding them all of the difficulties faced by our brothers who had screwed this up.

About an hour into the two scheduled hours of the training, LT K, one of my compatriots on the boat, stuck his head into the training area and said, “LT PBS, get everyone back to the boat, ASAP.” I was annoyed. This training had to get done, and LT K was, well, not helpful on a good day, and with the weight of responsibility on my shoulders, I wanted no hitches, including my training getting screwed up.

“P (he almost never used my first name), the country has been attacked. Get back to the boat.” I vaguely remember hustling the guys back to the boat. We got down to crew’s mess just in time to see the second plane hit.

Read the rest of the day's events in the Full Post

I ran up to control, to reassume the duty and do anything to try and not feel quite so impotent as I currently did. I found the Weps (bless him, almost always on the ball, even if his temper sometimes got the best of him) yelling at the Nav to start increasing the readiness of the boat and do what we could to get underway. The Nav simply looked dumbfounded.

“Do you want me to take back the duty?” I asked the two of them. The Weps said, “I need you to be Eng. Go back aft and see what you can do to get the plant steaming, ASAP. Half the boats in port are already on their way out. The Duty Chief is arming the watchteam, make sure the guys back aft understand why they are armed, and get them moving.” I nodded and headed aft.

I got aft to Maneuvering and found Ltjg C, the Engineering Duty Officer, and pelted him with questions: “What do we have to do to get the plant steaming? Have you made preparations to start an OP-8 (precritical checks for reactor startup, back when we still did ‘em)? Have you briefed on the possibility of doing an emergency reactor startup?” He shot me a blank stare. “C, why aren’t you armed yet?” He raised his arm, and showed me the 9mm in its belt, dangling from his hand. “Do you have a handle on this?” He replied, “No.” I remember being angry that he seemed so lost. Looking back, I am glad he was at least honest about it.

I took the duty and called in the Engineering Duty Petty Officer. Thankfully, it was the Machinery division Leading Petty Officer, MM1(SS) P. He was as wide as he was tall, but he knew the plant backwards and forwards, and was as strong in both theory and practical knowledge as anyone on the boat. We quickly put our heads together to figure out what would keep us from getting the boat to sea. The outlook was not good.

Weeks before, the boat had put the plant into Cold Wet Layup. Since it was assumed that we would be shutdown for weeks, due to the pending DMD, parts that could not normally be removed, due to their necessity while the plant was steaming, had been taken out for maintenance. Only the Port Turbine Generator could be brought up for power, or the Starboard Main Engine. We could not, however, bring up both due to various gauges being removed.

We called in the Electrical Division Chief and LPO. The E-div CPO was a good guy, and absolutely by the book. It was a running joke in the Eng Dept. that if it weren’t for the heads having procedures for use posted nearby, he would die of constipation. He informed us that it would be possible to take some of the needed gauges from the port side, and get the starboard side turbine generator operational, so we could steam the whole starboard side of the engineroom. However, doing so would require securing power to a major electrical bus, so we would have to wait a few hours to perform the work.

The reason for the potential several hour delay was because of what was happening in the forward end of the boat. Squadron had come to the realization that, even if we did get to sea, with the boat torn down to parade rest, we would not be able to get anywhere useful quickly, and, once we got there, we wouldn’t be able to fire anything other than small arms. So they had decided to pull all our Tomahawk missiles off us and give them to potential shooters. In order to index and move those missiles off the boat, though, our power had to stay on. However, they still wanted us to get to sea ASAP, as the news of the Pentagon getting hit had now arrived, and the prospect of this being larger than a single attack was looming, and having nuclear reactors just sitting in port waiting to be hit was not a comforting one.

So we had a dilemma. We could not delay the missile indexing, but we had to get the engineroom up in some capacity so that we could get to sea. The E-div CPO advised me to tell the Captain we would just have to wait until they were done with the weapons. I nodded sadly, and then told him they were having problems with a breaker constantly tripping up forward, and it was slowing down the weapons work. I requested that he take one of his EM2’s and see if he could help. He agreed and headed forward. As soon as he left, I turned to the E-div LPO, and asked, “Ok, so how quickly can we get this done?” “Do we have C.O.’s permission to work on energized gear?” “Assume we do.” “30, 40 minutes tops.” “Very well, switch the gauges.” “Switch the gauges, aye sir.”

I headed forward to let the C.O. know our status, and get his permission for the work I had just authorized in his name. I had a little trouble getting through the watertight door, due to the 12ga. I had been issued during my time back aft – no one was quite sure how we should arm the watchstanders, but everyone was quite sure that if we had weapons remaining in the weapons locker, we were doing something wrong. I passed the 12ga. Off to the offgoing belowdecks watch, as he was quick reaction force, and would, if the worst happened, need it more than I.

I got to the wardroom and found not only the C.O., but the X.O., Weps, Nav (still the Duty Officer), and the Squadron Deputy (who also happened to be our old C.O.). They were discussing our timeline for getting out of port, and the operational details, such as sortie areas, and the few-hours old requirement to now be escorted out by armed escorts from the nearby Coast Guard station (collocated with the Coast Guard Academy across the river).

Since I came into the wardroom through the scullery, I walked in right behind the C.O.’s chair, and right into the spotlight. Ooops. Quickly, the Squadron Deputy asked, “So, LT PBS, are you going to be able to bring up the engineroom at all?” Apparently, he had been briefed on what our status had been this morning. That was, however, hours ago. “Yes sir. Capt.,” I said, turning to the C.O., “Request permission to perform an OP-8 precritical checkoff. The engineroom will be ready to steam the starboard side in half an hour.” The deputy cocked his head, “How did you manage that?” “We simply handled it, sir.” The deputy, who had called me one of the sleaziest, but effective, JO’s on the waterfront when he had been our C.O., smiled, and said, “I understand.” The CAPT then told me to call him once the engineroom was ready, and then we would discuss the OP-8.

E-div, working quickly and efficiently for the one and only time I can remember, had the engineroom ready to steam in the promised 30 minutes. However, when I called the CAPT, he informed me that, even with the engineroom ready to go, and the holes in our sail patched with steel plates, squadron did not want to risk sending us to see barely seaworthy. We were to be one of two subs left in port, the other one being in drydock. It was crushing. No one in the military wants to stand idle in a crisis, even if the action you are taking does not contribute to the immediate solution, at least you are doing *something*.

Some of our crew did get tapped to replace crewmen on other boats who were either med down or unable to get on base due to the security lockdown. However, the majority of us had to stay in port. I relieved the Nav of Duty Officer, but spent the rest of the evening with Ltjg C, who was once again Engineering Duty Officer, helping him put the engineroom back into a shutdown condition.

The only excitement that remained came around 2100, when I got a panicked call from the topside watch. I went topside, and he pointed me towards the Auxiliary Security Force that had been hastily stationed at the end of every pier. I went down to see what the ruckus was, only to hear it had been a false alarm. One of the locals had headed up river first thing in the morning to get some fishing or crabbing in, and had headed back down the river once the sun set. However, as he got near the base, the new, and very jumpy, Coast Guard patrol boats had swooped in with spotlights and M-60’s to stop this unexpected intruder. Apparently they had almost given the poor man a coronary.

So, in the end, there was much running about, a lot of confusion, and in the end, we were left behind, waiting to do our part. It would not come immediately, but it did come eventually. But that bit is for a different time.

Lex, Castle Argghhh!, Blackfive, and Eagle1, commemorate the 2996 dead.

CDR Salamander ensures we do not forget.

Steeljaw Scribe gives a firsthand account of the attack on the Pentagon. Just click there and keep scrolling.

Ugliest.Cat.Ever

2006-07-28T08:29:00.000-04:00

Milo, our cat, has been with us since before we were married. We got him as a wee kitten, and at that time he was adorable. Granted, he does not play with blankets or do anything set to music, but he was ours. Ah, but then his poor genetics kicked in, and some really awful physical defects changed him from a cute little kitten into:

The Cat Who is Dead Inside

But at least he got his 15 seconds of fame out of it. (And yes, the “Health and Happiness” tiki is something we picked up in Hawaii a while back…)

Separated at Birth?

2006-07-27T18:01:00.000-04:00

Go figure, with gas prices skipping merrily past $3/gallon, Exxon posts massive profits again. Not that they can do anything about it, oh no.

Just a thought, though, doesn’t this guy:

Look a lot like this guy?

Just sayin’.

His buttocks are so firm!

2006-07-26T08:46:00.000-04:00

I love the Aussies. Really, truly I do.

They would discover the best, and funniest, way to deal with the execrable Fred Phelps. Someone should get a camera crew and try and do this everywhere he tries to go. Worst case, they assault you, and you have a hell of a lawsuit. Wheee.

(H/T Fark Videos)

A Bleg

2006-07-26T00:51:00.000-04:00

Update: Yeah, I moved it to the top. Really, please, any thoughts, please leave them. Looking for any advice I can get.

I have been getting quite a bit of correspondence lately. One, however, has been weighing on my mind, and I have decided to lay out my questions here, on the off-chance that someone might be able to give me some extra info, or at least point me in the right direction.

The letter I got was from Millington:

Yes, I got it over a month ago, but I have been mulling its ramifications for a while. A brief rundown follows, or, if you care to read the whole thing, the content of the letter is here: Page 1, Page 2.

So, basically, my obligation to the Navy is up. Finished. I can happily go my own way as a full-on civilian. The problem is, I am not sure I want to. Don’t get me wrong here, I have no plans on going back to a boat. As much as I am convinced that was the best job I have ever had, or will ever have, frankly, kids trump job. I had a somewhat absent father, and it sucked, so I decided, after coming back from my last deployment, that I would not do that to my kids. This decision was aided by the reactions of my boys to my return: PBS V2.1 (3 at the time) refused to talk to me for weeks, as he was mad that I had left him; and PBS V2.2 (1 at the time) would only cry or scream when I came near, as I had only been around for about 7 weeks of his first year – he didn’t recognize me.

Why then the conflict? Was it not yours truly who skipped happily off ustafish on his last day? (Well, no – my last day was in Souda Bay, Crete, and, well, the going away party the night before in Xania was apparently quite the party. I couldn’t tell you for sure, though – as I remember only the first 45 minutes or so). Why the turnaround?

The truth is, I *like* feeling that I could still contribute if I was needed. Being in the IRR suited me OK – if things really hit the fan, I was available, but otherwise, I got on with my life. Now, however, that is not really an option. I am currently Standby Reserve – Inactive (USNR-S2), but that is only a temporary thing. So I have to choose – do I join the no-kidding reserves, or do I finally bid the Naval Service a fond farewell?

Complicating matters is the fact that I miss it. There, I admitted it. I miss being in uniform, I miss feeling that I am actually doing something worthwhile, no matter how small. I miss being of use to something greater than myself, something that I value very much. So yeah, I am seriously considering giving that pesky Reserve recruiter a call (Heh, we parted terms on our last call on not the best terms. He admitted he had been an ELT before going officer. I couldn’t help it, I exclaimed, “You were a SMAG?!” The conversation pretty much ended there. Touchy touchy).

I haven’t yet, though. The reason is, there are a few complications that I would like to try and get a handle on before I open myself up to his pestering again. This is where the bleg comes in.

Question 1) I am currently working as a DoD civilian, a very nice deal, as my 7 years active duty count towards my civilian retirement. Which plays into my question: If I got reserves, how does the reserve retirement deal interact or interfere with my civilian retirement? I am assuming I cannot take credit for those 7 years for both my civilian and reserve retirements, yes? So do I start over from scratch? And if so, do I get to chose how those years get applied (I really do not want to loose my time in grade on the civilian side, it actually means more there)? Anyone ever served as a DoD civ and reservist at the same time who might have some insight?

Question 2) I understand that the DoD offers military leave to those civilians who also serve in the reserves, as a separate category from annual leave and sick leave. What I can not determine via the OPM websites is what exactly military leave entails. Do I continue to draw civilian pay while on mil leave, or is it basically leave without pay while I draw my military paycheck? (That would actually mean a pay cut for me, as I have gotten a few raises since I became a civ)

Question 3) This one is rather minor compared to the other two, but it is still non-trivial. How do I find out if I can get stationed at the base which I work on as a civ? I know, vaguely, that there are paid and non-paid billets, but, frankly, I know nothing about billets other than that. The Reserve recruiter at SEPS was rather vague about that, as he was doing his best to paint a happy picture.

So, there you have it. My dilemma boiled down to three questions. Any insight anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Not My Concern, Idjit

2006-07-25T06:34:00.000-04:00

Consider, if you will, the wonderful, overbudget, bloated, barely operating Dept. of the Navy IT infrastructure known as NMCI (Navy-Marine Corps Internet). In order to keep these thousands of computers updated, the Navy IT team and EDS use a system of pushing software fixes to the computers remotely. So that this somewhat processor-intensive process does not disrput work too noticeably, these pushes are scheduled to take place at night. For this to work, however, computers must be restarted at the end of the work day, not powered off. This way, if a push is executed at night, the computers are ready to receive it. And thus it happens - or, at least, it happens this way between 50-75% of the time. The rest of the time the push fails, and retries when you log on in the morning, locking your computer up for a seemingly unending upgrade, or simply just executes randomly during the day, with similar results.

But wait - didn't the DoD agree to try out the conservation thing? Doesn't leaving thousands of computers running all night just in case they need to be updated contravene this? Apparently, the powers that be thought so, for not too long ago another software push came down from the IT folks. This one would allow a computer to be turned on remotely if a push was needed. Success! Now the computers can be turned off, and the Navy can take one more step towards being good stewards.

There is more, however. On every push announcement, the IT team appends a little note about proper use of one's computer, which contains the advice to restart the computer at the end of the day. Now that this new push has been implemented, that advice will change, yes? You guessed it - that advice remains.

Confused, your friend, the confused PBS, emails the IT team, asking them to clear up thisapparent paradox. Surely, now that the capability exists, we should be turning our computers off at night?

The reply, parsed for space and admin-speak:
No, restart your computer every night. That auto-on update? It was just to keep the enviromental office off our backs. Sure, now we could have everyone shut down at night and save the energy, but, frankly, it is just easier for us if the don't. So, while we can do it, we won't. Hopefully no one will notice. Now be quiet, or we'll crash your laptop.

Ok, so I made that last bit up, but you get the idea.

NMCI - always looking out for, well...

We (all) get Letters!

2006-07-21T18:32:00.000-04:00

Oh, how nice, Saddam has sent the American people a letter. I have never been very good about correspondence, but I hope he will accept my reply:

~~Dear~~ Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti-

Enjoy Jahannam.

Sincerely,
PigBoatSailor

Health Survey?

2006-07-21T16:57:00.000-04:00

I am glad this isn’t going on where I live. I don’t care if you are offering me $45, I ain’t giving up blood to a door-to-door nurse, or even letting ‘em rope and choke me. Helk, I hated getting poked by corpsmen, but at least I knew they were sticking me in a clean facility.

TAD Lessons Learned

2006-07-21T16:52:00.000-04:00

So, my absence may or may not have been noticed. If you care, I was in Texas on TDY. It is a small part of a much larger program, but it is my little slice, so there.

Things learned while there:
If a Person of Importance is agreeing with your main points, even if they are doing so for reasons that are not actually factual, one should not try and correct them in a large meeting. It is best to shut up, let them back you up, and fix them later.

If a contractor agrees with you in private concerning improving practices for quality of work reasons, they are simply doing it to get you to leave them alone. They will disavow any knowledge of said agreement in public.

Just because the guy across the table from you is also a government employee as well does not mean he is on your side. He may very well be more concerned with looking out for #1 rather than the sailor who has to take this system to sea.

*sigh*

In which I Jump to Conclusions

2006-07-21T16:42:00.000-04:00

When I saw the title of this link:
Disaster drill preps Los Angeles for the inevitable
All I could think was, “Oh great, more defeatism – they are practicing for the *inevitable* terrorist attack.” Whoops, I was wrong. Just practicing for the next big earthquake. That’s all right then – hope it carries off most of the state (save bo and some of my relatives who are out there).

Apparently, I am infected

2006-07-05T13:01:00.000-04:00

Apparently, patriotic pride is an epidemic.

I would argue that it is one of the main reasons that, when push comes to shove, we will not be dhimmis, while others, well….

Mocking and Belittling: Hunger Strikers

2006-07-05T12:50:00.000-04:00

Before I provide the link, I must point out a few things. The article, if read carefully, explains what involvement the most highly touted members of this “protest” will have. Apparently, they have the dedication and self-discipline of another famous practitioner of this form of protest.

Yes, the “rolling fast”, where you just don’t eat for a day, and get to feel quite virtuous about it. Most folks would call it a quick crash diet, I call it a bad underway day, where you might have maneuvering watch, followed by regular watch, followed by a quick drill set, followed by another watch. Can I retroactively apply that to whatever lame-ass cause I want to quasi-support, just to make me feel better about it all?

That is right, folks, celebrity hunger strikes, they are not what they are cracked up to be.

To provide new Guards for their future security

2006-07-04T06:40:00.000-04:00

Today we celebrate our Independence, and those who made it possible. And while we often praise and remember the military members who help secure our freedom and independence, and rightly so, today we should also remember the courage of another group. Politicians, who truly believed that this was the right and moral course of action, said to each other and to the world, "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." This was no small decision, but carried with it a fair degree of danger, for as Benjamin Franklin said at the signing, "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately."

Yes, politicians with guts, who were willing to lay not only their honor, but their lives on the line for a decision they believed in. Perhaps one day we will see such men (or women) on the national stage again. I hope so.

Forgetting One's Beginnings

2006-07-03T07:20:00.000-04:00

First off – he of all people should realize there is a purpose and procedure behind classifying documents – we don’t generally do it willy-nilly.

Secondly – he wants our laws to be more in line with international standards? Is he kidding?

Thirdly – I cannot believe he used to be a submariner and yet is advocating quicker disclosure of classified government data.

Sheesh.

This is it

2006-06-29T23:26:00.000-04:00

So I asked. I even poked a blogger of the right rating. But no. So, what is this thing?

Well, to truly appreciate just how detailed you can get with this identification, and to truly comprehend how totally the submarine fleet has abandoned configuration control, read the Full Post. If you just want to know what the dern thing is, click on the Full Post and scroll to the bottom ;-)

Read the Full Post

So, the switch box in question has 5 selectable positions and a whole lot of spares. The key is the first 4, for Unit 4001 and Unit 4002. The reason each has two stations is for their upper and lower displays. That's right, campers, it is a display switch. But for what, you ask?

Well, for those of you who spent a decent number of time in the cone underway probably remember the ASVDU (Auxiliary SONAR Visual Display Unit) that the OOD could use the keep an eye on the goings on in the SONAR shack. Well, recently the sub fleet has been upgrading its SONAR systems with something called A-RCI (Acoustic Rapid COTS [Commercial Off The Shelf] Insertion). Yeah, an acronym within an acronym, isn't the military grand? Well, A-RCI, being an evolutionary program, is not a one-shot and you are done kind of deal. It has multiple phases, and multiple hardware and software builds. It is the different phases that are the key here.
Phase I: This is just an add-on cabinet that did Towed Array Processing. It was basically a proof of concept for COTS SONAR processing.
Phase II: Two of the stacks in the SONAR shack are replaced with COTS stacks, which are for Towed Array Processing. (basically)
Phase III: All the stacks in the SONAR shack are replaced with COTS racks, and they handle Sphere, Hull Array, and Towed Array Handling
Phase IV: This is the High Freq. COTS upgrade, but for BSY-1 and BSY-2 only. The BQQ-5 guys are out of luck here. It replaces the HF unit in control with a COTS rack, and adds a different HF sail array.

Ahhh, but think back to the ASVDU. It was for monitoring the legacy SONAR system. So how would the intrepid OOD keep track of those SONAR techs hiding out in the shack? Well, A-RCI gave the OOD a nice flat panel (or a couple, depending on the phase and hardware build) with which he could check up on the A-RCI systems inthe shack. For Phase II it just monitored the two COTS stacks (Units 4001 and 4002), while the ASVDU continued to monitor the legacy stacks. That is why the switch had 10 slots on it, though - so it could monitor the four stacks in control plus two other aux sonar displays if it was used on a Phase III boat. However, on a Phase II boat, it had a lot of spare slots, like the one pictured.

So, the switch box above is for the A-RCI conn display on an A-RCI Phase II boat. As a side note, it would be completely against work practices and drawing specs to rig up that box so that the spare slots could be used to disaply Fire Control displays. Plus it would really tick off a SONAR LCPO that dirty Fire Control data might be displayed on his equipment. However, an OOD might appreciate such a sailor-alt, since then to see Fire Control solutions when the conn is rigged for black he would not have to stick his head out from behind the curtains and stare at the too-bright Fire Control displays, but could instead check them on a nice, properly dimmed flat panel. Not that any boat would ever rig something like this up. Nuh-uh. That would be just *wrong*

Stolen Laptop Recovered, but...

2006-06-29T13:26:00.000-04:00

...Yeah, there is a but. Sure, the laptop containing millions upon millions of vets and Active Duty guy's ID's has been recovered.

Now if they will just bother telling the 16,000 folks who had their data lost in May in Indianapolis that they are (or still are) at risk. Oh wait, you didn't hear about that one? Yeah, a data tape was lost or stolen. Who knows. I am forced to wonder what happenned to:

Out of an abundance of caution, however, VA is taking all possible steps to protect and inform our veterans.

and

We at the VA believe it is important for you to be fully informed of any potential risk resulting from this incident.

Feh.

H/T to Castle Argghhh!!!

Whazzit?

2006-06-27T05:01:00.000-04:00

UPDATE:
Oh, all right, here is the full unit. Everything you need is visible, save the nameplate. Guesses?

If you really want to see the other views of the thing, they are below the fold in the Full Post. So, bubbleheads, what is it? Bonus points if you can tell me from what flavor of system it is from. Older bubbas will probably have a hard time with this one, but certain coners (yeah, I am looking at you, sonarman) should be able to get this one.

Read the Full Post!

Because trivia is easier than a real post (although, I do have a real post bouncing about, just needs some editing, really), I present:

Another view:

And since there was a 120Hz whine, below is a further hint:

Everyone OUT of the Pool

2006-06-26T12:20:00.000-04:00

There is a steel shark in the water:

Hey, he started it. Besides, I told you me being nice wouldn't last.

Predicting No Dedication

2006-06-22T15:04:00.000-04:00

UPDATE 6/23:
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Wow, Saddam is getting more pathetic. This time it only took missing ONE MEAL for him to end his "hunger strike". He must have had the munchies something fierce.

Saddam has apparently gone on hunger strike again, to protest his lawyer’s death. I wonder how long it will take him to get hungry this time?

In Praise of the Rest of the Naval Service

2006-06-22T12:44:00.000-04:00

It has been inferred, oh, ok outright claimed, that we submariners are arrogant pricks.  As is obvious from my previous dispatches, bubbleheads rejoice in needling our surface brethren, if for no other reason than to see how quickly we can spin them to mode 7.  And while patrician aviators click their tongues at our churlishness, they will not hesitate to shoot a few barbs as well.

So, before our fellow services think that we squids are nothing but brawling, unruly siblings, let me first explain our appearance of churlishness, and then drop my submarine devotion (for just a moment or two, mind you!) to give the rest of the Naval services the praise they richly deserve.

Then back to the hectoring.

To understand the mentality of a submariner… well, some might say it is impossible to fully understand us, as we are crazy.  I mean, we seal ourselves into a steel tube, drop down to unmentionable depths in it for months at a time, all the while straddling a nuclear reactor, fergoshsakes.  I will, however, attempt to lift the veil shrouding our rather warped outlook at least somewhat.

Submariners are an exacting lot.  We demand absolute excellence, and tolerate incompetence poorly.  Now, the same can be said of any other branch, true, but we have an almost religious devotion to it.  Why, you might ask?  Rickover?  Partly.  Nerd snobbishness?  Maybe, but not really.  The true underlying reason is pounded into every nub once he comes on board.  A mistake can be fatal, not just for him, but the entire boat.  This has been proved time and again, tragically.  228 souls are on eternal patrol from two accidents alone, the two most recent and catastrophic since the end of WWII, and they are not alone, but in good company.  I would hazard a guess that the sub fleet has lost a higher percentage of sailors during peacetime to accidents and mishaps than any other branch of the service.  It was the same in wartime, and we constantly remind ourselves that survival depends on constant attention to detail.  And so we train.  Constantly.  We have an insanely long training pipeline before we even get to a boat, and then, once we are there, we start all over.  And then the drilling and inspecting continues.  We never stop, because we never want it to happen again.  And even so, sometimes fate deals us a losing hand, and we lose a shipmate.  How do you keep people going in such conditions?  You tell them that to even be selected to such a service makes them elite, and the constant training makes them even more so.  And so we become confident, because we have to be.  Second guessing ourselves can be almost as dangerous as incompetence (almost, but not quite).  To some, that confidence seems to be arrogance.  But I will never tell my brothers to not think that way.  We have to.

But why do we so roundly, and joyously, abuse our fellows, both on the boat, or in other parts of the service?  Well, campers, it has to do with that low tolerance for stupidity I mentioned, plus our knowledge that we cannot suffer those who would freeze in a crisis.  And so we test each other.  Brutally.  If you have never been underway on a sub, and see the crew let down the façade they put on for PR purposes, let me tell you, it is an eye opening experience.  It is almost non-stop harassment, some in good fun, some not.  It allows us to see who knows what he is doing, who can handle pressure, and who does not.  And woe to the sailor who shows even the slightest hesitation or weakness.  Once exposed, his brethren will gang up to constantly poke into this unexplored territory, until the offender fixes himself or collapses.  It is often said that the submarine force eats its young, and this is not entirely untrue.  It has its purpose, though – it is hard, friends, to dismiss someone from the submarine service.  It is much easier to convince those that can not handle the stress that they would rather be elsewhere, and, as the sub service is strictly volunteer service within the service, if they should strongly express a desire to leave us, we will generally accommodate them.  Thus we enact Darwin’s rules among ourselves.  Is there a better way of handling such personnel in our ranks?  Probably.  But this is our way, it is tradition, and in a service so devoted to its tradition, changing it is hard.

So that explains why we are so hard on each other.  But why on other sailors, or other branches?  Well, we make a game of abuse underway, when we abuse our fellows.  We come to find the humor in it.  So, when we are ashore, and among the more civilized members of our society, we tend to forget that our humor has a rather nasty tone to some.  To us, well, it is in good fun.  Even more so than usual, since exposing a sore spot on others and poking at it mercilessly does not mean we might be ruining a crewmember.  So, yes, we abuse.  Consider it flattery, though.  We feel you, the objects of our abuse, are worth the effort – you are enough of a brother to earn our attention, and therefore, our friendly abuse.  The problems arise when others do not realize there is meant to be friendliness there.

So, before I finish up, let me dispel rumors that, as a submariner, I am an elitist prig.  I do truly value every other member of the Naval service, and here is why:

Skimmers – They truly fulfill every mission of the Navy.  Perhaps some do some missions better, but none do as many.  They do things other navies only dream about, they do really cool things, and some really boring things.  But the point is, they do them.  And without them, we submariners would be in the hurt locker.

Flyboys – They define forward presence.  Sure, we can project power with ships and big guns and missiles, but bringing the equivalent of another country’s entire air force into play just off their coast?  That is an undeniable attention getter.  Sure, they are often at their own level, far above us lowly 33 knot minds (good luck getting there without that 33 knot mover, though), but they make up for it often enough.

To this day, one of my most enjoyable experiences underway was vectoring in a surface ship to harass another unit we had found, and when it tried to hide, revectoring the skimmer, and then hearing it bring in a P-3 to join in the harassment.  Naval unity in action.

So, in the interest of continuing this theme of Naval unity, let me toss out a few gems I am sure we can all agree on:

Jarheads, despite what they may say, are our junior service, and, well, really freakin’ odd.

Army boys are, well, just silly (although they do manage to point out the best charities).

Zoomies are part of the military?  Really?

And because I cannot be all hugs and backslaps, one last point of dialogue:
ROTC clearly produces superior officers to the Academies.  Discuss.

Heh.

Skimmer Bashing!

2006-06-20T10:03:00.000-04:00

Who would have thought, that a little, hoo-ya posting by Bubblehead over at Milblogs would have led to a skimmer / bubblehead showdown? But it did. And yours truly *loves* sniping, so you know I went in swinging.

Any time you can work in spoofing skimmer SONAR, green flares, run to enable, and Dolphin Codes, you know you are in a good thread ;-)

In the Interest of Jointness...

2006-06-16T06:26:00.000-04:00

“In an effort to run more efficiently, [the Navy] is sending its admirals back to school to learn how to think more like entrepreneurs. … A dozen admirals and a handful of other Naval leaders completed a week of executive education classes at Babson College.”

Ok, not a bad idea, as perennial acquisition process hates Chap and CDR Salamander would, hopefully, agree. Honestly, anything to make the acquisition process more efficient is good – there are no unlimited lines of funding anymore. Additionally, the Admirals learned something else:

“They ditched their uniforms in exchange for khakis and casual sweaters and dispensed with formal titles to call each other by nicknames like "Sully" and "Arch." ”
Yup, they learned to act like the Air Force…

H/T Kat

We Get Letters!

2006-06-14T11:07:00.000-04:00

Yesterday the ADM. and I both got our letters from the VA informing us that yes, as we may have guessed, our information could have been compromised. Sadly, this letter made me, in turns, angry and amused. So much so that I was going to scan it and fisk it for any who were interested. However, it turns out that a copy of it is available online, along with the only marginally helpful FAQ.

Now, for everyone’s clarification, here is a timeline based on VA press releases and media reporting, of what exactly happened:

Click on the Pic for a larger view.

Keep this in mind as I relate the parts of the letter that really got to me.

First:

Out of an abundance of caution, however, VA is taking all possible steps to protect and inform our veterans.

All possible steps to inform us, eh? Then how come you, Mr. Secretary, waited until the week after you were informed of this to make an announcement? 10 days after the VA Inspector General had launched an investigation? Almost 3 weeks after the theft? All possible steps my bleeding arse. The leisurely pace of informing the chain of command at each level in the VA bespeaks an utter disregard for the seriousness of the incident.

Second:

We at the VA believe it is important for you to be fully informed of any potential risk resulting from this incident.

Well, maybe not fully informed, at least not in a timely manner, as it took over two weeks AFTER the belated public announcement for the full scope of the data loss to come to light. Just trust the VA, they will tell you if they think you have to know. Really.

Third:

We have no evidence that your protected data has been misused.

Of course, there is one possible case of identity theft, but we are dragging our feet on that and trying to keep it out of the public view. So shush.

And lastly, regarding using the IRS to forward the letters:

The IRS has not disclosed your address or any other tax information to us.

Because they figured you would just lose that info, too.

If you would like some GOOD information on precautionary steps to take, head over to John Donovan’s place at the Castle Argghhh!!! to read his much more helpful thoughts.

Yikes

2006-06-13T13:08:00.000-04:00

When, in the balance of privacy vs. security, a government official says that three to four hours worth of legwork is too much, and in the “balance between privacy and police authority” this causes the situation to be “weighted too far on the side of privacy,” I shudder.

Read that again. Three hours of work is simply too much for the RI police to do to ensure that the rights of citizens’ are protected, by talking to a judge.

Why this haste? Because they are tracking down a terrorist training camp that is likely to move? Because they are trying to find a kidnapped child who is in imminent danger? No, three hours is too much work to determine who pays for an internet account. Oh, and by the way, in order to figure that out, they are going to open up all your electronic records without a warrant as well. Because three hours is just too much time to take to ensure that our rights are safeguarded.

Any comment Lubber?

Extra Geek Bonus Points...

2006-06-12T16:26:00.000-04:00

…If you read this and thought, “They met in Canada? I thought they met at a secret country mansion in Colorado, known as The Meadows.”

Two Irish Football Players are Two Sport Terrors

2006-06-12T15:03:00.000-04:00

Fightin’ Irish Strong Safety Tom Zbikowski (6’0”, 208lbs) had a strong professional debut this weekend. What? He went pro? Not to worry – his professional debut was in the boxing ring, and he destroyed his competition in 49 seconds. Read about it here, or go to ND Nation and watch the video of the fight.

On a slightly scarier note, Jeff Samardzija, ND’s standout wide receiver with a name even more difficult to pronounce than Zbi’s, has the chance to go pro. Again, not in football. This time, the sport is baseball, as apparently the always sad Cubbies are ready to sign Jeff as a pitcher, despite his status as a football standout. Bo knows Samardz…i…something?

UPDATE:
This article on Zbi is even better - the stuff about Ohio state: classic!
This article even addresses both of the player's recent acheivments, and also underscores what I said all last season - Jeff S. is a class act (both of 'em, actually).

A Decidedly Non-Trivial Lawsuit

2006-06-05T16:21:00.000-04:00

The father of the deceased Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder is suing Fred Phelps’ foul flock for invasion of privacy based on their abhorrent protests outside his son’s funeral.

Sadly, I will venture a guess that this probably won’t fly, as the Phelps crew, being peopled by a large percentage of lawyers, was probably on public property and therefore will more than likely be safe from the invasion of privacy charge. However, if ever I wanted to be proven wrong, this is definitely one of those times. Even if he loses, I hope he ties up plenty of the Phelps’ time and money defending themselves.

I wonder if there is a legal fund to contribute to for his assistance?

Whatzis?

2006-06-05T06:42:00.000-04:00

This little quotation found its way onto my desk, courtesy of a coworker. So which one of you has an idea as to its meaning?

(click for a larger version)
As I don't read cyrillic, much less read Russian, I am not overly sure myself - although I have a hunch. Anyone out there with translating or Googling skills that outmatch my own?

And oh yes, I am fairly certain it is a sub-realted quote.

Being Sun Wise

2006-06-04T14:22:00.000-04:00

Supposedly, “sunscreens were originally developed by Navy researchers seeking to create a product that would allow sailors to remain on duty longer.”  While it makes for a good story, there seems to be little backing to it.  However, being of a rather pale lot, as is the rest of my home squadron, we are all very interested in the most effective sunscreen now available.  Being a nuke and an engineer, I researched.  So, for those of you who might find this useful (which should be everyone for reasons of health), I present what I have dug up, just in time for summer:

As you may or may not know, the sun damages us with ultraviolet radiation.  The UV rays are broken down into three categories, based on wavelength:  UVA (320nm – 400nm), UVB (290nm – 320nm), and UVC (200nm – 290nm).  UVC, with its short wavelength and higher energy, is very deadly.  Luckily, it is blocked by atmospheric ozone, so we don’t have to worry about it.  Sunburn is caused by UVB, so that is what most sunscreen was developed to block.  SPF is based on the UVB blocking ability of sunscreen.

However, recent research has shown that UVA is much more dangerous than we gave it credit for.  With its longer wavelength, it penetrates the outer layer of our skin and can damage deeper tissue.  It is also 90-95% of the UV radiation that reaches us.  It is thought that it is a major player in the development of melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer.  As this is still relatively new knowledge, not many sunscreens are effective at protecting us from UVA.

There are two primary ways to protect us from UVA, with organic chemical blockers or physical inorganic blockers.

Organic Chemical Protection:
Chemical sunscreens work by providing a larger cross-section of absorption, thus preferentially absorbing UV radiation and thus keeping our skin from absorbing it (ha, and you nukes thought that knowledge wouldn’t be applicable to real life!).

Parsol 1789 – This widely available compound is found in many sunscreens, both from well-known manufacturers and as an off-brand.  It is a decent UVA blocker, although in longer UVA wavelengths it is not as effective, and it is not overly stable, and can break down too quickly once exposed to UV radiation to provide the necessary UVA protection needed.  It also possibly has some ill-effects in some individuals.  Under certain circumstances, it might not be helpful.  Some could be allergic to it.  As it is solely for blocking UVA, it is always paired with a UVB blocker as well.

Mexoryl - Stabilized version of Parsol 1789.  It is only available outside of the US, and only from L’Oreal, who holds the patent.  You can get in on-line, however.  Research provided to the NIH says it is safe, and it works, as advertised, mice testing indicates it is safe and effective, and reduces dimers, even if FDA is not yet ready to approve it (which is why it is only available outside the US).

Helioplex – Also a stabilized version of Parsol 1789, available in the US.  It should have similar properties to Mexoryl.

An important note is that, as all of the above products are chemical blockers, they have to be applied at least 30 minutes prior to sun exposure so that they are properly absorbed by the skin.

Inorganic Blockers:
Inorganic blockers, instead of absorbing UV radiation, reflect it, so that it never reaches our skin to damage it.  There are two primary compounds used as blockers, zinc oxide and titanium dioxide.  Now, when you hear zinc, if you think the big colored stripes folks used to put on themselves from back in the 80’s, you aren’t far off.  It used to be, in order for there to be enough zinc to be an effective reflector, the sunscreen would end up being opaque.  However, advances in producing smaller particles of zinc have changed that.  Additionally, since these inorganics are reflectors, they protect against the whole spectrum of UV radiation.

Z-Cote – The brand name for an inorganic blocker, micronized zinc oxide.  It can be expensive.  Research provided to the NIH backs it as broad spectrum blocker, though.

There are other micronized Zinc Oxide brands, however, they just require a little more hunting – for example, Blue Lizard, which has zinc and titanium in high percentages; really anything with mirconized zinc oxide > 6% is good, but 8-10% is preferred.  The micronized zinc is usually, but not always, called Z-Cote as well.

Another benefit of the inorganic blockers is that since they do not need to be absorbed, you need only apply them to dry skin, no prior to sun-exposure time limit.

Conclusion:
So what will we be using?  There is no clear-cut winner, so here is my answer with the reasoning behind it:
All of us have fairly sensitive skin, as well as being obscenely pale, and with rambunctious kids getting them gooped up 30 minutes before they run out the door is often difficult.  So, we will be buying the Blue Lizard in the one gallon option.  It has very few potentially problematic organics in it, it gives great broad spectrum protection, and quite good water resistance and overall durability.
However, it does have the texture of sunscreen – something that some folks would rather avoid.  If this is true for you, I would encourage you to consider the Neutrogena with Helioplex.  It should feel like moisturizer rather than sunscreen, and should also provide quite good UVA and UVB protection.

Oh by the way:
While doing my sunscreen research, I found Heliocare – it is a dietary supplement in daily pill form that may help boost the skin’s resistance to UV radiation.  Independent studies available on their website seem to indicate it is helpful, but to what degree I am not sure.  I will probably continue to look into this, as I am terrible about remembering to slather myself with sunscreen, but I could just take this with my daily multivitamin.

Tragedy Distorted

2006-05-31T17:08:00.000-04:00

The latest “outrage” in Iraq being reported by the media contains is, at face value, a true tragedy, but also, in its reporting, an egregious misrepresentation by the media of the incident.

The facts:
-There are multiple observation posts and checkpoints in Samarra, and access towards them is strictly controlled.  The one in question has existed for two weeks – it is nothing too new.
-A vehicle was driven at high speed towards this checkpoint.
-Despite repeated visual and auditory warnings, the car continued to speed through the checkpoint.
-US service members fired at the car to disable to vehicle.
-Regrettably, two passengers in the car were killed.  More regrettably, one of them was pregnant.

However, the article does not stop there.  Oh no, first, we have to mention Haditha:

He [the pregnant woman's brother] said the killings, like those in Haditha, were examples of random killings faced by Iraqis every day.

Abu Ghraib also gets mentioned.  This is of course because the US troops here obviously took inappropriate action.  Car bombs are simply not a problem in Iraq (2nd and 3rd items; 3rd item; respectively).  Especially suicide car bombs near US checkpoints.

The article goes on to allow our troops to be painted as ravening savages:

"There must be a level of discipline imposed on the American troops and change of mentality which seems to think that Iraqi lives are expendable," said Pachachi, a member of parliament.

Strangely, this lady might disagree with that assessment, as a quick, recent example.  We all know where many, many other examples to the contrary can be found.

The most element of this sad tale that is really supposed to draw us in is the dead lady’s pregnancy.  While it is a tragedy that this happened, especially to a woman in her condition, there are two points that have to be addressed here, as well:

The troops did not know she was pregnant – she was in a car. As for the reasoning behind shooting at a car speeding at you, see the links above.

Even if they had been able to see her condition, that would not and should not change their actions. Pregnant women, and those that appear to be so, can and have still attacked innocents.

Overall, this is sad all around. Sad that the woman and her child are dead. Sad that the soldiers are undoubtedly being harder on themselves than most anyone else will ever be. Sad that the media continues to try and misrepresent our troops.

Warriors On Screen

2006-05-30T15:42:00.000-04:00

If you happened to peruse the CNN homepage this weekend, and saw the link to the Entertainment Weekly story concerning their pick for the 10 best movies about the veteran's experience, I am sorry. If you didn’t stumble across the aforementioned link, don’t bother. Suffice it to say, only movies about broken, bitter men made the list. I am not saying that these movies are without merit, and indeed, in many ways we need movies like Born on the Fourth of July, but to compile a list of all of them, and portray them as the best compilation of a veteran’s experience is insulting.

Instead, I will point you, friends, towards Greyhawks’ post about The 300, and his ruminations about the warrior ethos, and with these thoughts in mind, ask you what movies you would place on that worthy list? The movies he mentions specifically are all excellent examples, to which I would add Braveheart (Mel Gibson often seems to get it).

So, friends, what movies would you add to this estimable list?

Memorial Day

2006-05-29T01:01:00.000-04:00

I was going to write something concerning Memorial Day, but nothing I can write will compare to what you can read over at Castle Argghhh! Go read it, and the following posts he is planning on posting throughout the weekend.

It pays to read the comments

2006-05-25T16:58:00.000-04:00

Bo has bestowed upon us a classic submariner story. It is in the comments here. I would give it its own post, but it is slightly, ahhh, salty ;-) Oh, just go read it!

Expanding My Horizons

2006-05-25T08:50:00.000-04:00

I will never understand art. But, in an attempt to be a more modern, sensitive man, I will at least try and actively appreciate it. With the Cannes film festival in the news, I have decided to try and expand my decidedly plebeian tastes with exposure to the artsier side of the cinema.

The film that seems to be mentioned the most is “Shortbus” – a film that uses “radical images” to “challenge the mainstream.” Sounds sufficiently artsy. So what part of the mainstream is it challenging? De-mystifying pornography by filming real on-screen sex! YES! I can get into this artsy-fartsy stuff after all!

So, to delve a little deeper, the most reported scene in the movie is the “particularly provocative scene” in which the participants in an orgy sing the “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Mmmm-kay. As the director said, ““I really believe our country specifically needs to take a look at that stuff.”

So, in the interest of expanding my horizons, and because certainly a movie director is well informed on how to help our country advance culturally, I have decided to no only take a look at that stuff, as he suggested, but to do so publicly, as he did. So here goes:

Sometimes I sing, “I Am Woman” during … wait, what do you mean that is not what he intended? Whoops, I just shared too much, didn’t I?

Milblogger TV??

2006-05-24T21:30:00.000-04:00

I assume plenty of others got this email, but I will pass it on anyway, with relevant details redacted. I would caution, however, that anyone considering it should take care with what you submit. I know nothing about this guy, and who knows what type of spin he will try and put on our brave servicemen and women.

From: Jake Klim <xxxxxx@yyyyy.com>
To: PigBoatSlr@hotmail.com
Subject: Milblogger TV
Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 11:16:07 -0700 (PDT)

Hello,

I am a television producer who just finished working on a documentary series for the (Discovery) Military Channel called BATTLEFIELD DIARIES. Three of the 10 hours have highlighted various aspects of the Iraq War � a Kiowa crash rescue in September 2004, the USMC drive towards Baghdad in April 2003 and the 724^th Transportation Company Ambush of April 2004.

I am currently developing an exciting new television project for another major cable network that will utilize images personally shot by the troops and some text from various MilBlogs. So I am looking for personal videos and stills of our servicemen & women in Iraq, shot by those same servicemen & women. I'm especially looking for soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines talking INTO the camera...video diaries, having fun, being creative, interviewing one another, explaining what life is like in Iraq and/or Afghanistan, down time, training, explaining what happened to them that day, music videos, etc. Nothing is out of bounds! The good, the bad, or the ugly. Action, down time, fun time, helping Iraqi communities, interacting with Iraqi civilians/children/police/military...anything that has little a story to it or is visually interesting. If you know of anyone that kept a video diary while deployed; or did some "interviews" with his comrades in arms, please ask them to contact me. Any format is probably workable. (CD, DVD, cassette, etc.) All originals will be returned at my expense. If you have some ideas about how I should go about trying to get some footage together, I'm open to suggestions? Are there a couple of websites I should post my footage request on? Also, can you help me by passing the word around to other units? I need to act quickly as I must show the network some sample footage in 8 weeks. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Please pass this email to ANYONE you think might be able to assist with either footage or their experiences as a MilBlogger!

D.o.T. Exclusive!

2006-05-24T10:44:00.000-04:00

Recently, there has been significant noise made about a certain Democratic Legislator who apparently accepted bribes in exchange for official influence. In fact, this corruption can seemingly be traced back to highly placed people in Nigeria.

It is with great pride that I share with you all an intercepted email which kicked this whole scandal off. Yes, here is the opening exchange in this dirty relationship:

From: "Omar El-Dagash"
To: William Jefferson
Subject: Confidential Investment Proposal

First, I must solicit your confidence in this transaction, this is by virtue of its nature as being utterly CONFIDENTIAL and TOP SECRET. Though I know that a transaction of this magnitude will make any one apprehensive and worried, but I am assuring you that all will be well at the end of the day. We have decided to contact you by e-mail due to the urgency of this transaction.
Let me start by first introdusing myself properly to you. I am Mr. Omar El-Dagash, a Manager at the Union Bank Nigeria PLC, Lagos. I came to know of you in my private search for a reliable and reputable person to handle a very confidential transaction which involves the transfer of a huge sum of money to a foreign account requiring maximum confidence...

Travel Log

2006-05-19T16:16:00.000-04:00

So, after completing my third trip in as many weeks to DC, I offer the following short missives for your perusal:

-First Class is verrrrr nice. I finally was able to schedule flights that were on something other than a puddle jumper, and such I was able to take advantage of my frequent flyer miles. Dude, they even get better snacks up there!

-I know that we sailors are now allowed to (gasp) carry a pack or briefcase over our shoulder now (left shoulder only, only if black) and to wear a gadget on our belt (only one, take your pick, cell, blackberry, pager), but I must have missed the part in the regs that allows us to wear a FANNY PACK in uniform. It looks particularly silly if you happen to wear this insignia on your chest. Imposing warrior indeed…

-Whilst in Union Station for lunch this Thursday (only place I know of in DC to get fast food Tikka Masala) I noticed a fellow wearing a USS BARBEL ship’s ballcap. Then someone wearing one from the BONEFISH (that sub’s name still makes me shudder with fear of fire). And suddenly, it was if the floodgates had opened, and there were bedecked bubbleheads everywhere. Upon asking one of these veteran steely-eyed killers of the deep why they had suddenly all descended on Union Station, I was told they were there as part of a tour, and that a Sub Memorial was getting dedicated. So I attempted to find out when and where, as I felt it to be a good opportunity and, frankly, duty, to attend such an event, seeing as how it would be occurring, according to my informant, that afternoon, and my flight was not until the evening. However, I researched to no avail. Anyone hear anything about such an event?

-Since I had an unexpected afternoon free in DC (less the time it took me to discover nothing about the aforementioned memorial service), I thought I might look up some deck logs in the National Archives – specifically, those of the ship my Grandfather served on. Now, if any of you want to consider doing something similar, let me offer a few suggestions in “The Full Post,” but, the most important being, “Plan ahead! This is not something you can do on a whim!” Sigh.

So, for those of you intrepid enough to read the full thing, I will assume you are genuinely interested in researching some deck logs. Here is the procedure I found to conduct such research at the National Archives (very helpfully NOT on the National Archives website):

Deck Logs: Location
Held by The National Archives
Deck logs of commissioned U.S. Navy ships from the earliest times through 1940 are in the Old Military and Civil Records Branch, National Archives and Records Administration, 700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20408 [telephone (202) 357-5444. Logs from 1941 through those that are 30 years old or older are in the Modern Military Branch, National Archives, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park MD 20740-6001 [telephone (301) 837-3510]. These logs are open for research. Requests for research appointments, and inquiries concerning log information, should go to the National Archives office holding logs from the time period of interest.

Research in Deck Logs at the Ships History Branch
The Ships History Deck Logs Section staff consists of one person. Given the number of inquiries received, the staff cannot read hundreds of pages in response to any one inquiry. Thus the Ships History Deck Logs Section is unable to do extensive research in response to queries. Questions must be specific, and must be narrowed down to a particular time and/or place.
If a requestor wishes to search a log, this can be done at the Naval Historical Center (microfiched logs) or at the Washington National Records Center (paper logs). To arrange this, write to the Ships Deck Logs Section, at the address given above, at least two weeks in advance. Specify the ship(s) and time periods (month/year to month/year) involved and the date of the proposed visit.

Duplication of Deck Logs
Researchers using logs at the National Archives, or at the Washington National Records Center, can arrange to have pages copied there at the time they do their research.
The Naval Historical Center has no in-house capacity to do extensive copying. Small numbers of microfiche can be duplicated, and limited numbers of paper log pages can be copied on an office copier which is also used for other work. The "Fee Schedule" for the duplication of a large number of deck logs is 30 cents a page. Deck logs will scanned and placed on CD-ROM in Adobe Acrobat format. A copy of the CD-ROM will be made available to the requestor. The cost to duplicate deck logs on microfiche is $1.20 per fiche. Most of the deck logs for the period 1979 to 1993 are on microfiche and the paper copy of the deck logs do not exist. The Ships History Branch will provide a price quote upon request.

Read the Full Post

US Navy Whale Site

2006-05-19T14:47:00.000-04:00

I am slack, I know. I have about three long posts waiting in the wings. However, until I get them pumped out, check out this site:
US Navy - Whales and SONAR
At first blush, it looks to be pretty straightforward. I will dig through it (mostly because, well, I have to) and let y’all know if I find any BS.

A Nuclear Iran When?!?

2006-04-13T15:13:00.000-04:00

How’s this for confusing -

Compare this analysis:
Western nuclear analysts said yesterday that Tehran lacked the skills, materials and equipment to make good on its immediate nuclear ambitions

To this one (h/t GVH):
Iran ... may be capable of making a nuclear bomb within 16 days, a U.S. State Department official said.

Confused?  How could two learned bodies disagree so completely?  For a thourough explanation, look no further than the Captain’s Quarters.  However for a quick and dirty (how I like it) rundown, I will sum up.

It all has to do with centrifuges.  Currently, Iran has a few, which they obtained very secretly, to enrich uranium.  However, they claim they will immediately increase the number they have by at least twenty-fold, and soon have more than 330 TIMES the number of centrifuges than they currently have.  How can they do that if it was so much trouble just to obtain a few?  Well, now that they have them, they have learned to make them on their own.  Whoops, good way to control dangerous, dual-use technology, folks.

The first estimate is based largely on the small number of centrifuges Iran currently has.  The second estimate is assuming they already have the 330 fold increase.  So, PBS’s bet?  They can probably jump to the intermediate number of centrifuges pretty quickly, and that means they could be pumping out nuclear weapons, a few a month, in 9 or ten months.  And if they keep working on their industrial base while they do so, that number will continue to go down as the manufacture weapons.  So, next Valentine’s Day, then?  Until then, maybe CDR Salamander can pour us all a few drinks.

Watching South Park so You Don't Have To

2006-04-13T10:23:00.000-04:00

OK, I’ll admit it, I grew tired of South Park a long time ago. However, I felt compelled to watch the “Cartoon Wars” eps, if for no other reason than to see what might kick off a new round of Islamo-silliness (yay riots!). However, as I am sure you already know, no image of Mohammed was shown. Was it Comedy Central or South Park that edited out the image of Mohammed? Based on the tone of the episode, I’d have to say it was Stone and Parker, the creators of South Park, who did the cutting. It seemed in line with the painful point-making of the two part arc – basically, I came away thinking, “Well, they are ticked that Comedy Central isn’t showing a couple of their episodes anymore, aren’t they?” While some may debate my conclusion, I am fairly comfortable with it.

So, in the interest of fairness (I mean, they showed Jesus rather crudely [as usual] in the episode), here is what Mohammed would have looked like, from their fifth season:
Snagged from Wikipedia
And here:
From a Google Image Search

And here is what I think they were upset about getting pulled by Comedy Central:

Lifted from the Jawa Report
Or was it this one:
Another from Wiki

All in all, I found the eps rather tiresome. Nope, I sure won’t be going out of my way to watch more. I got my fill of Cartman, Kyle, Stan, and Kenny a long time ago.

UPDATE: Mea Culpa
It turns out it *was* Comedy Central that did the censoring. Grrr. Pathetic. So apparently, it is true, "Comedy Central has refused to broadcast an image of Mohammed on their network." So will the previously mentioned episode, Super Best Friends, not be shown anymore? And why is it ok to show images of other religious icons, including in THAT SHOW, in an even worse light, such as here, where Jesus defecates on, and is defecated upon by, multiple people?

So, Comedy Central has set the bar - as long as you can bring a credible threat of violence, they will bow to your demands. Way to go, dhimmis.

(H/T Malkin and Captain's Quarters)

You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting

2006-04-12T16:43:00.000-04:00

So, work is grand [/sarcasm]

CDR Salamander captures my mood fairly well. Nothing like being told you need to broaden your experience beyond the almost pure-engineer you are branded as, and then have the same person telling you that immediately turn around and tell you you won’t be able to do something that would broaden your experience because you are so engineering focused that this opportunity does not play to your strengths.

Where have I been?

2006-04-12T16:35:00.000-04:00

Despite what everyone may think, I am not dead. Granted, I have been relatively quiet of late, aside from a few snarks on other people’s sites, but that was due to real life intruding, not due to any muzzling, as Vig may have feared.

What real life, you may ask? Well, first and foremost, I am again a proud papa, and my better half now deserves a promotion to Admiral. Our new wee one was born on the 21st, and, despite some last minute drama from the Admiral’s OB, everything went amazingly well. So now I have 4 mini-PBS’s:
V2.1 – Son, age 6
V2.2 – Son, age 4
V2.3 – Daughter, age 2
V2.4 – Daughter, just commissioned

Now, you may be wondering how that explains such a long absence. The truth is, it doesn’t. No, in order to keep our karma balanced, before we got our wonderful latest (and last) bundle of joy, we got hit with a series of waterfalling disasters. If you really want to hear our tale of woe that preceded V2.4’s birthday, click on “Read the Full Post”. However, if you want just the bottom line: Disasters are, well, if not over, at least being managed, and baby is here and gorgeous, and the Admiral is recovering. So, I should be back pretty much regularly from here on out.

The series of disasters started about 3 weeks ago. V2.1 brought home a virulent little stomach bug from school. He and I both went down hard with the virus. A few days later, V2.2 and V2.3 both got it, as well as the ADM, oh, and V2.1 relapsed and got sick again. Luckily it was over a weekend, so I was at least around to tend to the sick masses. The bad news is we didn’t have nearly enough buckets for every person who was consistently losing any food or water they ingested. Needless to say, after several days of this, I was beat. It was around 5:30 in the morning several days into this that began to spiral out of control. I had just stripped V2.3’s bed and replaced the bedding, as she had booted all over her sheets (again), and took the soiled linens downstairs to wash (a constant process what with the kiddos beds constantly needing changing what with all the puking). Once I got the sheets started washing, I decided to crash for a few hours on the couch, so I could hear the kiddos should they start erupting again. Around 8:00, V2.1 woke me up with the following line,

“Daddy, why is the floor all wet?”

Apparently, the washing machine, after getting moved by the Navy a half a dozen times or so, decided its life had been simply too rough, and gave up the ghost. In so doing, however, it had been continuously dumping water from its time of death to the time my son woke me up. Needless to say, our entire ground floor was flooded. The rest of the day was spent frantically pulling up carpet to prevent subfloor damage, while trying to simultaneously tend to the sickies.

Sadly, several hours of unchecked spillage meant that every room on the ground floor was affected save the closet in the master bedroom. So now we know the details of working with Servpro (downside: one of the dehumidifiers they set up leaked all over the dining room the first night in operation. *sigh*; upside: very professional, and very friendly group where we live, went a long way to make us forget that slip up from the first night), our insurance company (downside: No local representatives, so everything is done via phone, and only when we can get a hold of our agent; upside: No local representative, so I haven’t gone to jail for murder yet), and the adjuster (downside: first guy who was contracted via our insurance company just stopped returning calls, never showed up; upside: second guy who was contracted for the job has worked with this Servpro team before, so his estimate and theirs were identical – so no whining from the insurance company).

Now, six weeks later, our flooring and drywall is just starting to get replaced. Again, *sigh*. And, as all this floor replacement has required much furniture moving, the cable modem got moved, shoved in an out of the way place that I could not locate, and hence, no blogging from me, save the random snarking I was able to do from work.

So, the long and the short of it – I am back baby, and with another baby to increase the squadron’s numbers!
Read the Full Post

Boo-Yah Baby

2006-02-28T08:40:00.000-05:00

I just finished going over an informational brief on the VA-class SONAR systems, and I must say, “Mmmm, Baby.” Yeah, it makes me happy – however, I did not go and tell any co-workers and subordinates how joyous it made me – and that, my friends, is what separates me from a USNA instructor…

No Dedication

2006-02-27T13:34:00.000-05:00

According to his lawyers, Saddam “maintained his hunger strike for 11 days but was forced to end it for health reasons.” Reasons like he was, you know, hungry.

Vatican to Islam: ‹^›‹(ò¿ó)›‹^›

2006-02-27T09:48:00.000-05:00

There is a civil war brewing, and it has global implications.

No, I am not talking about Iraq. I am talking about Nigeria, and, frankly, not enough other people are talking about it as well, I believe.

A brief background:
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, is also becoming one of its success stories. “Following nearly 16 years of military rule, a new constitution was adopted in 1999, and a peaceful transition to civilian government was completed.” [World Fact Book]
“Although the April 2003 elections were marred by some irregularities, Nigeria is currently experiencing its longest period of civilian rule since independence.” [ibid]
“Oil-rich Nigeria, long hobbled by political instability, corruption, inadequate infrastructure, and poor macroeconomic management, is undertaking some reforms under a new reform-minded administration.” [ibid]
“In the last year the government has begun showing the political will to implement the market-oriented reforms urged by the IMF, such as to modernize the banking system, to curb inflation by blocking excessive wage demands, and to resolve regional disputes over the distribution of earnings from the oil industry. In 2003 the government began deregulating fuel prices, announced the privatization of the country's four oil refineries, and instituted the National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy, a domestically designed and run program modeled on the IMF's Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility for fiscal and monetary management. GDP rose strongly in 2005, based largely on increased oil exports and high global crude prices. In November 2005, Abuja won Paris Club approval for an historic debt relief deal that by March 2006 should eliminate $30 billion worth of Nigeria's total $36 billion external debt.” [ibid]

So, Nigeria is struggling but pulling itself up. Good, right? The kind of thing we want to see, a country righting itself, with a reform-based democratic government.

Now the tensions:
-Nigeria’s population is split between a Muslim north and a Christian south, with significant minorities of each both north and south. The population totals 50% Muslim and 40% or so Christian.
-Nigeria’s current, Christian, President is in his second, and by their constitution, last term. However, there is a growing movement to change the constitution to allow three terms.
-Nigeria’s Muslim population has been imposing sharia law in areas in the North, even on non-Muslims.

And this brings us to recent events:
-In the North, Muslims began protesting, yes, those Danish Mohammed cartoons. Their reason? Well, the Christians were fairly sure they knew why. However, in the course of protesting the cartoons published by a bunch of far off Europeans, the adherents of the religion of peace burned at least 30 churches and killed, often brutally, at least 45 local Christians. Because of the Danes.
-Nigeria’s Anglican bishop immediately issued a statement that said, among many other things, “May we at this stage remind our Muslim brothers that they do not have the monopoly of violence in this nation … [we] may no longer be able to contain our restive youths should this ugly trend continue.” As a note, the entire statement is breathtaking and damning. Really, read it. This clergyman has had enough, and says so quite effectively.
-Nigeria’s Christian youth then proved the bishop correct by no longer being constrained, and began their own slaughter of what Muslims they could corner. The latest reports I could find put the death toll estimate at about 150, comprising both Muslim and Christian.
-Following this outbreak, Reuters reported that Pope Benedict “signaled his concern on Monday when he told the new Moroccan ambassador to the Vatican that peace can only be assured by "respect for the religious convictions and practices of others, in a reciprocal way in all societies." ” Additionally, other Vatican leaders expanded on the Pope’s message by saying, "If we tell our people they have no right to offend, we have to tell the others they have no right to destroy us," [Vatican Secretary of State], and also, “The West has had relations with the Arab countries for half a century, mostly for oil, and has not been able to get the slightest concession on human rights,” and “Enough now with this turning the other cheek! It's our duty to protect ourselves.” [Secretary of the Vatican Supreme Court]

Go ahead, read that last part again. Enough turning the other cheek. Says a Vatican official. Yikes.

So a clash of cultures moves one step closer, and both the Anglican and Catholic Churches have come firmly down against appeasement. No wonder this was splashed all over the headlines. Oh wait…

UPDATE:
Yeah, ninme beat me to it, by days... She runs down more on the actual details of the violence on each side, for those of you so inclined.

EEFI 03

2006-02-27T07:29:00.000-05:00

I know it is not classified, and, as the article states, it is indeed probable that “intelligence officers regularly run down their check lists.” However, it does not calm my disquiet to see this list published in such an easily accessible medium, all organized and easy to track.

The Twelfth Imam

2006-02-27T07:07:00.000-05:00

A few months back I, in my rather superficial and antagonistic way, beat the drum about the warm and cuddly President of Iran. However, if you would like a more in depth, and, frankly, scary look at the man and his beliefs, head on over to Chap’s and read his usual thoughtful and in depth analysis. And have a beer at hand, for knowing that guy is soon to have nukes at his disposal is, to put it lightly, scary.

Must Read

2006-02-24T11:52:00.000-05:00

How do you say, “Be careful what you wish for,” to Europe? I am not sure, but CDR Salamander has made an absolutely outstanding stab at it. So much so that I will not diminish it by merely quoting bits and pieces. Go read the whole thing. Really.

Sitemeter vs. Gov discrepancy

2006-02-24T11:51:00.000-05:00

For the past few days, I could not check my sitemeter stats while at work (yes, I am pathetic, I know), which I found odd, but NMCI being what it is, sometimes its connections are spotty, so I thought nothing of it. Until I checked my sitemeter logs from home last night and realized that my normal daily visitors from .mil and .gov sites (me, Army Signals Command [making sure I am still behaving I guess], a few Navsea and USMC hits) no longer show up at all. So it appears a gov-wide block on sitemeter of all things has been put in place (although Halliburton still shows up ;-} ).

My point? If you like tracking your stats at all, and you get mostly .mil or .gov traffic (like many milblogs), your sitemeter stats will no longer be even close to accurate. Time to look into other ways to track activity…

UPDATE: (2/25/06)
It looks as if Army.mil sites do show at (or at least some), but navy.mil and usmc.mil (thanks NMCI) are not showing up, and all sitemeter pages are still blocked via the NMCI firewall. So, my warning still holds for those who get a lot of Navy and Marine hits...

Mea Culpa

2006-02-23T17:29:00.000-05:00

*sigh*

I hate having to admit when I am wrong, but I was wrong. Or, at least, it appears I was.

When it was first reported that a fisherman claimed a sub got entangled on his nets, and that a nearby sub was unhelpful and overall the Navy was secretive about any possible involvement, I mocked.

Now, however, the Navy has paid the man for the damage to his boat, although the “Navy did not give … any information about what it found during its investigation of the incident.”

So, it appears that either the boat did indeed snag a sub, or that the Navy found it simply easier to pay this man to make this story go away. Either way, I still stand by the rest of my previous mocking.

New Recruiting Scheme for Sub Dept. Heads?

2006-02-17T15:15:00.000-05:00

This may just be scuttlebutt, however I have heard it from two different sources now, so here it is:

For those of you still in or recently out of the sub fleet, recall the two options for officers after their initial commitment is up:
-They can stay in without committing to any period of time, and get a reasonable nuke bonus (rent-a-nuke), or;
-They can sign a multi-year (and lucrative) contract to remain in the Navy for at least another three years (buy-a-nuke).

The Buy-a-Nuke option is very tempting because of the money involved.  However, because it was three years, it meant the JO signing the contract was committed to one of two options:
-Serve a two year shore tour, then a one year “Super JO” tour as a JO on a soon-to-deploy boat or a kinda-Department Head on a shipyard boat, or;
-Serve a two-year shore tour, and then go to Sub. Officer’s Advanced Course, and agree to another multi-year deal to be a full-on Department Head.

Well, it seems as if that Super-JO option has gone away.  As I said, I have heard from two different sources now that if you have signed a contract, you will either go to SOAC, or, buh-bye, off to Afghanistan or Iraq.  What do they use Submariners for on the ground?  I could not say, the guys I know all changed their plans and went to SOAC.  I guess there is still a manpower crunch on the ground in the GWOT.  However, I have to worry about the quality of DH’s we are going to get by essentially pressing them into SOAC under the threat of being ground-pounders instead.

Myself – Helk, I probably would have gone to Iraq.  I am feeling rather useless in the immediate scheme of things as it is…  Yeah yeah, big talk for an IRR guy, I know.

Freedom of Speech

2006-02-14T16:23:00.000-05:00

Why is it that the press cries "Freedom of Speech" when it reports on national security matters and the government objects (NSA *cough cough*), but not when some stupid illustrations are published and a group of crazies obects? (Yes, crazies. They burned Ronald McDonald, man, Ronald!)

And so, some mediocre photoshopping, because I am in a foul mood:

This doesn't matter:

But this does:
(original here)

Knocking the Wind Outta My Sails

2006-02-14T11:14:00.000-05:00

My father is a physician, and as many physicians, feels that his opinion ~~is more important than other people’s~~ should be given a certain weight. He called me this morning to let me know that he just finished a grand rounds session on autistic spectrum disorders. Based on what he heard, and the time he has spent with my family, he thinks my second son, mini-PBS V2.0 Mod 2, should get screened. Not that he thinks he has any severe issues, for, obviously, those would already have been noticed, but for “developmental gaps” he thinks may be an issue.

My second son is quiet, true, he doesn’t talk nearly as much as his more ebullient older brother did at this age. In fact, he talks about as frequently as his little sister. But I think that when he talks he is relatively clear about it – he used to have a bit of a pronunciation problem (for which we had hearing screenings done – and the professional-types told us he was perfectly normal in hearing and speech development, no worries). He enjoys playing by himself as much as with his siblings, whereas the other two hate solo-play. But autism?

I think I shall go throw up now, and not mention this to Mrs. PBS until well after mod 4 is born. Ooof.

Out of Touch Friends, but Friends None the Less

2006-02-14T11:05:00.000-05:00

Every time I think I am getting used to my current situation, someone has to remind me of earlier times.  This time it is our SOPA, Lex, who reminds me that, “the world is painted in more faded hues than it used to be.”

Yes, I miss the boat.  I admit it, the wardroom teased me, claiming I would forget the lack of sleep, the bitterness with the slow-moving and sometimes illogical and infuriating wheels of the military bureaucracy, and would end up only seeing the old times through rose colored glasses.  Well, I still remember the mordant, acerbic young man I was while on the boat.  But I also remember the crew whose whims and habits I knew as a gestalt, and those individual members I knew on a much more personal level, with whom I needed only a few spare words to convey volumes to, with whom I was so attuned that trust was like breathing.  There were a select few who were even closer than that, and chief among them was K.  He and I reported a few weeks apart, we roomed together our entire tour on the boat, and we pushed each other, always trying to outperform each other in professional proficiency, even as we mutually sneered at the ridiculous chain of command we were burdened with (ah youth!).  We competed in all things, from Fast Recovery Startup times (he still holds the ustafish record for one of his where everything just clicked), to shortest valid Periscope Depth evolutions (must clear the ZBO and at least call ‘No close contacts’ – I still hold the ustafish record to this day, 23 seconds, baby!  Let’s here it for radio clearing the ZBO via VERDIN before the scope even breaks the surface!), to passing the PRT (no comment – we both always passed, though).  He was the guy that, if something happened in the Engineroom, I wanted as my Casualty Assistance Engineering Officer of the Watch.  Words were not necessary then, and we both gave the orders we knew were appropriate without having to consult with the other, and the watchteam knew that one always spoke with the authority of the other.  And we were lords of our domain.

As our time on board progressed, our paths diverged somewhat.  He, a nuke engineering major from Penn State, loved the reactor like a child, and so he became über-nook, and his knowledge of all things engineering became encyclopedic.  I, who had always dreamed of driving the boat, became in my time the default Officer of the Deck, for all things from battlestations to maneuvering watch to TREs (Tactical Readiness Exams) and POM (Preparation for Overseas Movement – the final checkout before a boat is sent on extended deployment).  As such, we often ended up standing watch together, one driving, one pushing, and again, pure synergy.  On the rare occasions one asked something stupid of the other, one of the following exchanges would take place over the MJ phone:
K:  “Who Run Shantytown?”
PBS:  “Master Blaster runs shantytown.”
or
PBS:  “Have your laptop online?”
K:  “Yeah”
PBS:  “Look at the Fusion plot and ask me that again.”
K:  “Ooops.”
Yeah, I had to say the Tina Turner line when I screwed up, and my reminder to him wasn’t nearly so amusing, but you get the point.

After our boat-time was ended, we ended up getting stationed at different stations, and our communications waned a bit.  And yet, a year after we had parted ways, he called me up to ask me to be his best man.  Because, frankly, we were still closer than brothers.  Even though I have not talked to him in months, I know that if I asked, he would be out here tomorrow, just as I know that if he asked, I would be on the road in under an hour, with a shovel to help hide the body.  And I do not doubt that I will never again have a friend or coworker about whom I will feel the same.

Now if people would just stop reminding me of that fact…

2006-02-10T14:23:00.000-05:00

Global Warming Fear-Mongering

Once again, scare-tactics, hand-wringing, and bad science rule the day when it comes to reporting on Global Warming. The ‘Hockey Stick’ diagram is again being trotted around to ‘prove’ that we are in a crisis.

I was going to put together a whole post pointing out the fallacies of this assumption, and that this is all based on the fact that we have been in the process of emerging from an ice age during the only window of time these studies examine, as I have done before, but instead I will point you to a site that does it much more completely than I, a mere amateur, could hope to describe. As a preview, though, compare the above, relative “short-term” and badly derived graph to the one below, based on hard evidence, and not different sources grafted together.

All I will add is that one must remember, the climate is not a static thing, it will change, and there are massive energies involved. Our contributions to climate change border on insignificant.

2006-02-10T14:10:00.000-05:00

DoD Contractor Stats

The Defense Industry Daily has posted a comparison of last year’s vs. this year’s total sales and net profits for the largest defense contractors – it is a good follow-up to the listing of who was on top for this year. It should not come as any surprise that the big guys all had major increases in both sales and profits.

More Mohammed Cartoon Looniness

2006-02-07T10:33:00.000-05:00

Let’s see if I can make this work from the airport:
Decent roundup of the current violence from CNN, albeit somewhat downplaying the Muslim reaction.

Russia thumbs its nose at all kinds of religious fundamentalism, this time the Islamist type. In a museum, no less.

But at least we now know why the cartoons were published. It is because of the Joooooooooos. (UPDATE: Especially funny, because, as someone on Fark points out, "Iran apparently suspects Israel of stockpiling DeLoreans, publishing cartoons in September in reaction to Hamas victory last week.") And the furor Iran is whipping up inside its own borders over the cartoons has absolutely, positively, nothing to do with this.

Buy Danish! (Anyone know if any other countries are complaining about boycott affects yet?)

Got a Parka Handy?

2006-02-07T10:32:00.000-05:00

Global Warming? Heh, or not. Remember folks, almost all the energy in the system we call Earth comes from one source, and as it changes, so do we. And yes, it is normal, if not a happy occurrence for us.

2006-02-07T07:10:00.000-05:00

Nothing like a last minute trip to beautiful DC. Not sure if I will have connectivity (my NMCI laptop only works when -it- chooses to), but until then, I highly recommend this comparison by Varifrank, showing the lunacy behind the Mohammed cartoon protests. The only things he doesn't account for (because the comparison is a few days old) are the peaceful, respectful Muslims burning and attacking embassies (Austrian too? Really? Sheesh). [H/T Bo]

Don't forget to check out Draw Mohammed Week!

And Buy Danish! (Oooh, BRIO is Danish too? Mini-PBS V1.0 and 2.0 have a Thomas the Train set that could use some expanding. Yup, I have already started ordering - gotta have cool bridges for the trains)

Numa Numa

2006-02-01T19:27:00.000-05:00

UPDATE:
Apparently, Google took this video down. Not sure if that was an independant decision or at the request of the Navy or the creators. If the Navy took it down, well, bad show - that could have actually been a decent recruiting tool, despite the fatbodies ;-) However, fear not, the video is still out there. The Freepers found a link to another site that has it, and, if you don't feel like trolling their threads to find it, let me know, I have an email-able copy as well.

Wow, we did some odd stuff when we got bored on deployment, but these guys take it to a whole new level...

Color me Surprised

2006-02-01T13:26:00.000-05:00

The Germans and the French have jumped on board the Freedom of Speech train, republishing the “controversial” caricatures of Mohammed. If Muslims are so worried about images, maybe they should consider this. Or if it is humor that is disrespectful, try cleaning up your own house, first. Oh, and they should probably stop adding much more offensive images of their own to the list to try and stir people up, that is just a little too transparent.

However, it looks like the EU is deciding that certain rights are important and worth standing up for. Good for them! Let’s see if the boycott gets extended to their products, too. But for now, do not forget to Buy Danish!

Unsurprisingly, Michelle Malkin is there.

Buy Danish!

2006-02-01T10:24:00.000-05:00

If you care to buy Danish, here are some good starting points:
The Danish Deli
Order Danish food online
Mmm, good cheeses and such from Igourmet
Who knew? LEGO is Danish.

For more, check the History News Network – although they are a little laggy – They are getting a lot of traffic.

For more Free Speech type images like the one above, check CDR Salamander’s new site, Draw Mohammed Week. Gotta love it, find a sore spot and then commence poking it, hard and repeatedly. Just like a sailor.

Oh, and that Quran quote? Here it is.

Random Rounds

2006-01-31T15:48:00.000-05:00

All of these deserve more than just a few lines. I will follow up if I have the time later:

A soon-to-be submariner has come out of the closet to the Sub School Chain of Command (via the New London Day – annoying registration required). He claims it was not a political stunt, despite the fact that “prior to enlistment [he] worked on Democratic political campaigns, including Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean's bid for the presidential nomination.” Nope, no politics here, he just “resent[ed] not being allowed to be honest about his sexuality, especially when honesty was a major military virtue.”
Hmmm, major military virtue, eh? How about your enlistment contract:

9. FOR ALL ENLISTEES OR REENLISTEES: Many laws, regulations, and military
customs will govern my conduct and require me to do things a civilian does not
have to do. The following statements are not promises or guarantees of any kind.
They explain some of the present laws affecting the Armed Forces which I cannot
change but which Congress can change at any time.

a. My enlistment is more than an employment agreement. As a member of the Armed Forces of the United States, I will be:
(1) Required to obey all lawful orders and perform all assigned duties.
(2) Subject to separation during or at the end of my enlistment. If my behavior fails to meet acceptable military standards, I may be discharged and given a certificate for less than honorable service, which may hurt my future job opportunities and my claim for veteran's benefits.
(3) Subject to the military justice system, which means, among other things, that I may be tried by military courts-martial.

Or his enlistment oath:

I, <state your name>, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.

Emphasis on both mine. Guess what, buddy? DADT is a terrible rule, but disobeying orders will get you tossed. Every time. Plenty of others have tried it this way. Don’t get me wrong here – I have no problem with gays in the military, I have served with my share. And yeah, some shot the breeze about it (midwatch, man, conversations range all over), and some kept it quiet. As long as they did their job, though, no one really cared. So yeah, I call BS. Please make you point in a more effective and less grandstanding manner, if you truly want to affect change.

The explosion at Unison in Florida – I have very little to add except to ask, “When will the media learn the difference between radiation and contamination?” *Sigh* Sadly, I know the answer, “But ‘radiation’ just sounds scarier.”

Indonesia is looking to buy 12 more subs. That will certainly shoot them towards the top of the list I put together here. If twelve sounds like a lot, it is – especially considering where they are located – the straits of Malacca are a key navigational chokepoint. One or two conventional subs could shut it down. Twelve makes them a big player in the Pacific, at least in their theater. Now we’ll just have to see if the sale actually goes through, and what type of boats they buy if it does happen. I’ll speculate on what they might buy in a later post.

Buy Danish. Like from here, for example. Why? Because we should be able to joke about what we want without threats of economic embargoes. Especially when the so-called offended parties can tolerate jokes from people who share their faith.

Another $1.1B for the VA-class might sound like spiraling costs, but not if it is the planned increment for the next bit of sub building. Electric boat gets a big chunk of it for their portion of the new construction (0.5 subs a year - *sigh*), but they are took such a hard hit from other losses that they are still moving forward with their plan to lay off 2,400 workers, or over 20% of their workforce (NL Day registration again, H/T The Sub Report).

As we all already know, Exxon had a record profit. But have you heard their explanation? Really, it isn’t do to arbitrary price jacking, but because they “identify world-class projects” and have a “disciplined approach – riiiight. It has nothing at all to do with this:

Oh, and the comparison that they only have half the profit margin that pharmaceuticals do is bogus. When was the last time an oil company had to sink most of their profits into R&D to develop the next big thing?

UPDATE:
Yes! The guys at Silent Running rule! Buy Danish indeed.

Thanks for pointing it out, CDR Salamander.

Introducing Your Military-Industrial Complex

2006-01-30T16:52:00.000-05:00

Just in case you were wondering where the DoD Budget all goes, here is a major source:

The Top 10 DoD Contractors: (Amt in contracts this year, in Billions)
10. Computer Sciences Corp. ($2.8)
9.  L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. ($4.7)
8.  United Technologies Corp ($5)
7.  BAE Systems ($5.6)
6.  Halliburton Co. ($5.8)
5.  Raytheon Co.  ($9.1)
4.  General Dynamics ($10.6)
3.  Northop Grumman ($13.5)
2.  Boeing Co. ($18.3)
1.  Lockheed Martin ($19.4)

Total, the DoD contracted out $269.2 billion worth of work, $38.5 billion more than 2004.  The top ten comprises $94.8B of that – so there is still a decent amount of contracting to smaller companies, before anyone thinks that the contracting process is totally broken.

But what's this, Halliburton didn't even crack the top 5?  Geez, so much for Cheney taking care of his old buds.

The article goes on to say that Lockheed is making strides in recasting itself as an "integrator", the guys who make other contractors systems play nice with each other and the military-specific equipment, and they have definitely done so, at least in my arena of SONAR.  This has the added benefit for them of ensuring they have a finger in every pot, and are up to speed on every development any other contractor brings to the table.  Clever, really.

No respect

2006-01-28T10:31:00.000-05:00

The Commodore gave me a jar to open, because, as she often reminds me, opening jars and getting things off high shelves are my most useful functions.

The jar was rather tight.

PBS: "Aaarrrr! There, it is open."

Comm: "What was that?"

PBS: "The jar required my barbaric yawp in order to get it open."

Comm: "I was just worried your barbaric yawp was about to be followed by a barbaric aneurysm"

*sigh*

I give up...

2006-01-27T14:02:00.000-05:00

… I will never understand Germany.

A minister resigned after saying something that various Catholics have said for years, *not* for promoting an attack on a foreign head of state? Because of the political fallout? Apparently, threatening to kill the US President causes nary a ripple there. Imagine if the “non-offending” statement were made on this side of the pond. Oh the outrage…

Look out! It's Nook-yoo-lar!

2006-01-25T16:42:00.000-05:00

This report sounds like a nuclear-boogeyman story. Ok, there was a tritium leak – bad. But what is tritium, you might ask? Basically, water. Water with a few H2O's that have heave H's. Not that dangerous, actually. Helk, nuke-urban-legend even has Hyman Rickover drinking a glass of it in front of Congress to prove it is safe. But it is still abnormal, so therefore worrisome, right? Well, levels outside the facility were well below EPA standards – so we are now, what, going to be more stringent than the experts say we should be? Hmmm, in that case, let’s take another look at pollution from coal plants. However, I could be way off base – I suppose we’ll have to wait and see if any other info pops up. (H/T Drudge)

Just a Question

2006-01-25T16:33:00.000-05:00

So do you buy a radioactive cookie with radioactive dollars?

The All-Lockheed post

2006-01-25T14:47:00.000-05:00

Some LCS notes:  Lockheed recently was awarded another $144M for the ADS system that will be deployed on the LCS, bringing the total for this system up to $243M (On a contract originally slated for $21M).  The ADS system sounds spiffy – a bunch of acoustic arrays on the ocean floor that then process and transmit their data to the nearby LCS, making them a portable, little brother to SOSUS.  Disregarding the enormous technical hurdles, though, I am left to wonder – when was the last time *you* got good contact info from SOSUS?
Lockheed (again) also reports that their version of the LCS is still on cost and schedule for a Feb 2007 debut.  However, they list the cost for a LCS hull at $220M – no doubt to promote the “faster cheaper” that the Navy is pushing.  However, I am left to wonder if that is just the hull cost?  It seems probable, in which case this figure is deceptive, as one needs to consider the cost of the modules that the LCS will need to have available to meet its ever-growing mission requirements.  These include not only the ADS module mentioned above, but also the minehunting module ($200M [at the moment – overall additional $10M-$15M per pod, so $20M-$30M per hull] for the Airborne Laser Mine Detection Systems – although it will not be quite as capable as one would like to base the choppers that will carry this system [as discussed in the link]; $55M for Low-Rate Initial Production of the AQS-20 system [final cost = ??]; and the WLD-1 UUV to carry it all [$55M for LRIP, final cost per unit = ??] ), and the SUW and Land Attack modules (can’t find a cost for these, but they are using piece parts of the Lockheed designed NETFIRES system, another project for which I cannot find public info on the cost – although it is a little out of my wheelhouse – it is part of the Army’s FCS), not to mention the module integration effort ($159M for something you would think would be a requirement for the module design teams – make sure this works with the ship).  So what is the true cost of the LCS?  Good question.

On a different note, Lockheed is bidding on a contract to run the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which is up for bid following a string of security breaches there and at Los Alamos.  The Los Alamos contract, as you may or may not recall, was recently awarded to the University of California, the original manager of the labs in question during the security issues, in conjunction with Bechtel.  UC also managed to hold on to its contract to run Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Lastly, This report, if true, is potentially quite disturbing.  Large contractor costs, especially after the initial contract has been let, is an often overlooked, and ugly truth in government acquisitions.  I am not to the point of seeing a conspiracy, but a ticked off superior smacking an employee who went over his head the first chance he gets sounds likely.  Oh, and the contractor this guy blew the whistle on?  Yeah, Lockheed.

Hopefully, it will be just as helpful...

2006-01-23T02:59:00.000-05:00

So Syria got a KFC. Whoopee. Lebanon already had a quite visible one, thankfully.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Fixed Today's Dilbert

2006-01-13T09:17:00.000-05:00

Ok, so maybe "unsupervised" is a bit strong. But still...

Who has Midwatch in the Prison Yard?

2006-01-12T13:45:00.000-05:00

I vaguely recall, some months back, finding an article on how prisoners in Britain were getting stress relieving massages, and used it to wryly note that the oft-lamented boat truism that prison had a better quality of life than a submarine might just be true.

…And then comes news that prisoners just might have to hot-rack. Heh. Oh the hardship.

News from Abroad

2006-01-11T11:44:00.000-05:00

Yup, it is still a coalition, and although their contingent is small, the Czech’s are looking to double its size. Oh, and they were helping out in Pakistan, too.

They may have withdrawn their troops, but at least Spain is still fighting the good fight on the homefront.

Chart Geekiness

2006-01-11T11:37:00.000-05:00

This may have been online for a while, I am not sure (I really don’t go looking for charts all that often, really), but I admit, there is just something about seeing the “going home” chart that still makes me happy. Especially seeing The Race, The Thames and Ledge Light, and pier Norwich, where we always seemed fated to tie up. Ah, sweet frustration, to spend how long prepping charts just to have the OOD’s ignore the planned track and come in based on the Nautilus and that house’s flagpole? But no one cared, as long as we tied up. Hard to get ticked off on homecoming day…

Unofficial Afterparty

2006-01-11T10:44:00.000-05:00

I can’t help it, when I read the phrase,
“Officials participating in the opening ceremony included: Rear Adm. Charles B. Young, Director, U.S. Navy Strategic Systems Programs; U.S. Representative Dave Weldon (FL-15th District); Brig. Gen. Mark Owen, Commander, 45th Space Wing, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station; and Capt. Jeff Gernand, Naval Ordnance Test Unit.”
From this press release about Lockheed’s new boomer bullet facility, I cannot help but append the sentence,
”Afterwards, the officials retired to Lido’s to celebrate.”

I am so wrong.

News From Afar, Yet Close to Home

2006-01-10T15:49:00.000-05:00

We are, a nation defined by our unum, not our pluribus. The nation's great seal, proclaiming e pluribus unum, was adopted in 1782, five years before the Constitution was written and six years after the Declaration of Independence, with its declaration of equality of rights, made us, as Lincoln was to say at Gettysburg, a nation dedicated to a proposition.
George Will

A news article I spied today repeated what I have heard several times in various parts of the blogosphere with respect to integrating different cultures into a cohesive unit, this time focusing on the barrier of language:
At a more philosophical level, can there ever really be a "Community" let alone a "Union" when its supposed citizens actually speak only to others of their own nationality?
What is most interesting about this sentiment is not that it is being expressed.  As I said, I have heard it often before.  This time, however, it is the Europeans (Hungary in this case) who are continuing their path to understanding that a melting pot is much more harmonious than a salad bowl (as I delve back to 5th grade social studies).

Not only are they realizing that to be economically viable they have to integrate more, with the understanding that “the biggest barrier to the EU Single Market is language,” but that they really have no choice, as “Europe's language is emerging in a resoundingly "bottom up" way, through voluntary choices in school, media and exchange programs.”  For, while “English does not replace, but complements European mother tongues,” it “inexorably becomes Europe's lingua franca,” with “all the new member states preferring English, some 70-80% of EU documents are now produced in that funny language.”

Language standardization may seem trivial when the full scope of cultural integration and assimilation is considered, but it is still quite significant.  With a common language, even if it is not the only language, you can break down some of the communications barriers that would otherwise so easily isolate different segments of society.

On a slightly different note, still out of Budapest (yes, I enjoy surfing other nation’s news sources):

-The US is not the only country that is lawsuit happy.  US$94,000 for a successful surgery?

-Look, the US military is doing good things all over!  At least some media outlets report it.

From One Box to Another

2006-01-10T15:47:00.000-05:00

One of the downsides to civilian life that I rediscover every day is the Dilbert-esque cubeville I currently reside in.  What with half a dozen conversations audible from my desk at any one time, it is easy to get distracted.  I actually remembered with fondness my cramped little desk in my stateroom, quiet and free of disturbance.

Several of my coworkers listen to music to try and block out the cacophony, but I quickly discovered that I can not use this method.  One can unintentionally start quietly singing on humming along only so many times before your coworkers get really annoyed.

But ah, finally, a solution, and it is because of my reveries concerning the boat.  I was in the lab area of my workplace when one of the ventilation fans stopped, which made me glance upwards as it often did (but at least I don’t hop up to head aft anymore when equipment suddenly loses power).  This of course sparked the recurring conversation one of the retired Senior Chiefs and I often have, that of combating casualties on board ship, always trying to one-up each other on who has seen worse.  Later, however, as I thought of the fans, I realized that it wasn’t that the boat was that quiet (The Eng’s snores could be used for echo-location), but that it had a nice, soft background noise that evened everything out.

So, after doing a little bit of searching, I realized that I wasn’t really looking for white noise, but something more along the lines of pink noise or brown noise (no, not the sound the Chop in his rack after a bean-heavy meal).  So now, I have software from this company running on my computer (it was free, and it works on my NMCI box, my two biggest requirements), and by playing a mix of pink, brown, and various quiet nature-like sounds (surf, rain, etc) I get a nice full-spectrum noise without it being so repetitive as to be hypnotic.  And I descend one level further into old-fart-ness as I try and recreate the boat in my cubicle.

Google THIS!

2006-01-10T04:21:00.000-05:00

Gotta love the search engines:

- I am #17 (and the first listen blog, nyeh) for the search “SRC rescue procedure submarine” – Ok, that makes sense.

- #10 (again, first blog) for “Admiral Donald NAVSEA” and #2 and #3 for “peo submarines hilarides” – Again, makes sense, I blog about work a lot.

- #7 for “access blocked hotmail dod” – Ok… come on now, didn’t anyone else notice access get restricted?

- But I am #1, for “navsea fraternization policy.” Really, #1??? Ewwwwwww. It couldn’t have been something cool, oh no. Some NAVSEA engineering hot monkey love curiosity ranks me as the top source for information. Sheesh.

Ok, done navel-gazing now.

Acquisition Training

2006-01-09T15:20:00.000-05:00

I love it when the DoD doesn’t update their courseware for a long time.

The course says:
Another DoD program that has successfully implemented the CAIV strategy is the Space Based Infrared Systems (SBIRS) program. CAIV was implemented on the SBIRS program through a user-led Integrated Product Team (IPT). This team identified the major cost drivers and evaluated the user utility associated with each cost driver
…
Approval cycles have been reduced and the EMD RFP was reduced from the expected 1000+ pages to 60 pages. The net result of these actions has been a reduction of the cost estimate by about $300 million.

So is the program still chugging along at a high speed and low cost? Let’s see:
The troubled Space Based Infrared System High program, which has suffered at least a $2 billion overrun during 2002. Under the December 2002 draft of program decision memorandum for the fiscal year 2004/2009 budget, the program would receive more than $1 billion. However, the document also proposed slipping the launch of the third, fourth and fifth satellites by about two years, further delaying the program already mired in financial disarray. As of September 2002, the first geosynchronous SBIRS satellite was scheduled to launch in October 2006 and the second a year later.
…
On November 18, 2003 the Department of Defense released details on major defense acquisition program cost and schedule changes since the June 2003 reporting period. The Selected Acquisition Report (SAR) submitted reported schedule slips of nine months (from May 2003 to February 2004) for [the first iteration of the SBIR] Delivery and 10 months (from November 2004 to September 2005) for the [next step]. [The first iteration] has slipped due to a series of design deficiencies, technical issues identified during final performance testing, and problems meeting the Electromagnetic Interference specification.
[Edited for some measure of clarity, and emphasis mine]

Yeah, and this is the example the DoD acquisition workforce is being given as a successful cost-controlled program. Ahhh, irony.

I ain't going out like that

2006-01-09T13:35:00.000-05:00

So, I hope neither of the two people who actually read this finds me too annoying. Because I plan on staying anonymous, and frankly, I do not plan on going to jail for it. Stupid, stupid lawmakers….

In reality, they were just trying to criminalize cyberstalking, but they did it clumsily, by just amending the Communications Act of 1934, that’s right, 1934. Does it not fall under current stalking laws? I do not know. However, I am disappointed to see the small-government party piling restrictions onto a bill without careful deliberation.

UCMJ Bingo!

2006-01-07T18:44:00.000-05:00

Ok, so Bubblehead got me thinking about the UCMJ, and all the different ways it can be violated.  So, accordingly, I present my entry into UCMJ bingo, concentrating only on Article 134 offenses:

-Assault - indecent (Witnessed, not participated.  Oh what awful things people will do to others coffee, etc.)
-Bribery and Graft (Ok, I admit it!  I agreed to sit the MS's qual board after he assured me pizza and cookies would be available!)
-False or unauthorized pass offenses (Did you know that pre-9/11 that to get on base, all you needed was a base sticker on your car and to wave your ID in the window.  Interestingly enough, an AMEX card looks a lot like an old green ID.)
-False pretenses, obtaining services under (No, I did not tell that yardbird that his supervisor had ok'd putting extra LAN drops in the wardroom.  He must have misheard me.)
-Fraternization (I think almost all of NavOps and a goodly number of Engineering was at my going away in Xania.  The upside - I didn't pay for a single drink.  And I don't remember much after the first 90 minutes... But I am told it was a hell of a party)
-Gambling with subordinate (I invariably bet on Notre Dame, and almost always lost)
-Impersonating ... official (Lesse, over the phone I have been the Weps, Eng, XO and CO.  Over SATHICOM I have been the CO [Ok, he told me to], and in person, with a different ball cap on, I have been from the Squadron, to name a few.  And, no, despite what my XO claimed, my last name was not McHale)
-Indecent exposure (No comment)
-Indecent Language (I would just laugh this one off, too, but a certain bilge rat, err, LCDR, actually tried to get the XO to start an XOI because of this charge, among others.  The XO, thankfully, laughed him out of his stateroom.)
-Indecent acts with another (The explanation says, "“Indecent” signifies that form of immorality relating to sexual impurity which is not only grossly vulgar, obscene, and repugnant to common propriety, but tends to excite lust and deprave the morals with respect to sexual relations."  Hmm, most midwatches a majority of the watchteam could be charged with this.)
-Jumping from vessel into the water (Swimcall?  Oh, wait, the elements include, "That such act by the accused was wrongful and intentional."  Well, the divers always went nekkid during swimcall, and that was just wrong...)
-Misprision of serious offense (Hmm, well, let's just say that while it was not a good thing that this shipmate did, it allowed us to undock on time, and it did not endanger anyone or damage anything...)
-Straggling (Don't have submariners PT with Marines is all I am saying)
-Threat, communicating (I submit that saying "I should donkey punch you," does not express "a present determination or intent to wrongfully injure the person")
-Unauthorized Insignia... (The uniform regs kinda went out the window back aft on deployment.  Unfortunately, I only got back there twice a month to maintain proficiency).

Found Links

2006-01-06T14:08:00.000-05:00

Just as a point of interest, found a former bubblehead's site. Doesn't look like it has been updated in a while, but it does have a few sea stories and some Tautog info. The site is here:

http://www.georgetoft.com/index.shtml

He also had the list comparing McDonald's to sub life, which I remember making the rounds on the boat:

http://georgetoft.com/sublife/sub900.html

It's a Small Fleet

2006-01-06T08:58:00.000-05:00

I admit it - I am terrible at keeping up with people once they or I move. So I often hear about how folks are doing from unlikely sources, rather than the horse's mouth. For example, I found out that my old A-Gang MMCS, after having left the boat to head up a recruiting station and from there to supposedly retire, as he was told he would need at least one more sea tour before even being considered for a COB billet, is back on the boat. Yup, not only back at sea, but on the Ustafish. And how did I find that out? The Day ran an article on the Ustafish's last deployment, and his picture was in the article. That triggered some of the worst nostalgia I have had in a while. And now The Day reports that another old shipmate is the P.O. of the month for the Sub base. In addition to the accomplishments the paper lists, I have one more: He was one of the best dam helmsman to sit the chair in my time on the boat. Congrats ET2(SS) Baptiste.

-And here is the body of the article, as it will expire on The Day soon:

Published on 1/1/2006
Groton— Lordnell Baptiste Jr., a Electronics
Technician Second Class, has been selected as Service Person of the Month of
December.
Baptiste, who enlisted in the Navy on Aug. 18, 1999, reported to
Naval Submarine Support Center in September 2004. He attended William E. Grady
Technical Vocational High School and Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn.
Baptiste has coordinated more than 450 submarine arrivals and departures to
the submarine base, His diligence in maintaining the Port Operations database
ensured the submarine movements to and from Groton submarine base are conducted
with the utmost professionalism.

Nuclear Ooopsies - Be more careful Hugo!

2006-01-05T23:46:00.000-05:00

I was recently reminded of the worst radioactive contamination accident the Americas have ever seen, second only to Chernobyl. Three Mile Island? No. Goiania. Never heard of it? Not surprising. It is a town in the south-central interior of Brazil. At an abandoned cancer clinic, scrap metal scavengers took apart a mistakenly abandoned radiotherapy machine. About a week later, the contamination spread came to light. A week after that, 4 people were dead and approximately 34,000 people had to be decontaminated (partially due to sloppy measurement and decon practices. So much for just rubbing the hands together, eh?), with 250 suffering various affects from the contamination. Why did this come to mind? Because a news article today actually mentioned it in passing, because “thieves in Venezuela have stolen equipment containing radioactive material used in the oil industry.” This was the fourth such theft in Venezuela in the last nine months or so. Yet the general public insists that reactors are the most dangerous source of radiation and contamination. I doubt this news will change that view, because it is much more comfortable to think that the danger comes from the large, strange buildings, rather than more “common and everyday” sources like medical equipment and test equipment. Ah well, someday, perhaps, we will figure it out and stop painting nuclear power as the boogeyman, while simultaneously being more careful with the other sources that are out there. And on that day Howard Dean and Rush Limbaugh will go golfing together and share a friendly drink afterwards, and I will have trouble sitting down due to the monkeys flying out of my backside.

Where have I been?

2006-01-05T09:58:00.000-05:00

So, just in case anyone was wondering, I am, in fact, still alive. The truth is, a couple of things have interfered mightily in the time I usually used to post here.

The first impediment was the sudden resurgance of NMCI vigilance, which cut me off from the hotmail account I use as the primary email address for this blog. So, no more posting on my lunch break. To simplify posting and admin from home, I am thinking of setting up a more easily accessible email address, because, honestly, using Thunderbird for all my email accounts *except* my blog account pretty much guarantees that I hardly ever check my blog account. So, new email address will have to happen.

The second drain on my time is a much happier development. There is a new mini-PBS in NewCon. Pretty soon we are going to go from a squadron to a full on SubGru. (My wife, by the way, grits her teeth every time I start up like this. It is a miracle she has not damaged me yet.) Here is the wee one.

Baby was shy during the sonogram, so we don't know the gender, but around St. Patrick's day we should find out =) As you might imagine, though, my domestic duties have increased, especially since the wife was ordered by the OB to stay off her feet as much as possible. This is new territory for me (the kids are learning to like Thai food for dinner, though. Ok, no they aren't, but at least they don't all start bawling when they smell me cooking it anymore), so my blog-time at home has taken a serious hit.

Thirdly (yes, they are starting to pile up), I got busted. As some of you may or may not have noticed, I have tried to remain anonymous to the general public. However, there are only so many former bubblehead officers working in my office (2, to be exact), only so many with three kids (just one), who attended ND (again, just one), etc... As I work for Team Sub at NAVSEA, it means there are plenty of people that like their work enough to read blogs that relate to it. So, it was bound to happen, someone figured out who I was. Thankfully, it was a friend, but it made me think twice about posting again. There is no specific policy that I know of, and I try to be very concious of classification and business sensitive stuff. Even so, I was worried. So I took some time to rethink it all. Obviously, I feel like I am morally and legally in the clear, so I will continue. I am not going to trumpet who I am (why advertise?), but I am a little less concerned about being secretive about my identity. So, in that vein, how about a boat pic? It is the JOs just before they started making pizza (we tried to do it at least once an underway - once a month if we were underway that long). Can you guess which one PBS is? Bonus points if you can identify the insignia on the collar of the guy in the foreground. For answers, click on Read the Full Post.

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And here are your answers:

In reverse order of asking. A - A mid from the Merchant Marine Academy was riding us for this run. He couldn't believe how clean our engineroom was, and kept commenting on how dirty the MM enginerooms were - they never field day'd. Many nukes considered trying to transfer.
B - No, the devil horns are not me. The guy in question had just gotten his orders for his shore tour - NAVSEA(08). I got him the horns so he would fit in at his new job.
C - Yup, that is your intrepid PBS, showing affection for his sea dad. Notice the big smile on sea dad - he seems to be enjoying it. Well, we had been underway for many weeks at that point.
Read the Full Post

A grim anniversary

2005-11-04T08:34:00.000-05:00

Today seems to be an appropriate day to congratulate Iran’s new president, Mahmud Ahmadinejad, on his first 90 or so days in office. Not because he is delicately handling their relations with their neighbors. Oh no, for the anniversary of one of his earlier achievements.

On November 4, amid another chaotic occupation of the grounds, a mob of around 500 Iranian students calling themselves the Imam's Disciples (although reported numbers vary from 300 to 2000) seized the main US embassy building in Tehran. 66 hostages were taken and held for 444 days. Hostages were often shown blindfolded to local crowds and television cameras. There were some hostages that were beaten after escape attempts and psychological torture was used on others throughout the 444 days. Some spent extended periods in solitary confinement.

What does this have to do with the new president of Iran? It seems that he was there. And not just as a bystander, according to multiple accounts from former hostages.

Alleged photo of Ahmadinejad during the hostage crisis.

This is what happens when terrorists grow up.

President Ahmadinejad attending an anti-Israel rally.

Just remember, terrorism is not a new problem. Recent times are different only because we have had the will to confront it directly.
We did not start this, but we will surely end it.

ND vs USC

2005-10-14T23:58:00.000-05:00

Usually we would hear from ND coaches past and present at this time. But from what I understand, they are together at the place below...