I'm sorry you're missing this, baby!
This was the angle I liked the best of all the stories I've seen so far.
Red Sox Roll, Make Date With the Rockies
By Dave SheininWashington Post Staff Writer Monday, October 22, 2007; Page E01
BOSTON, Oct. 21 -- They will tell the story of 2007 for generations in New England, along with all the others, the great Game 7s in Boston Red Sox lore -- 2004, 1986, 1975, 1967 and on down the line, some wins, most losses. They will tell of the way Fenway Park bulged and creaked beneath all the drama Sunday night, the way the players gladly performed duties beyond their normal calls, and the way all those blessed rookies, too young even to remember most of the previous Game 7s, took to this grand stage, sent the Red Sox to the World Series and became part of the never-ending story.
Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched five innings, Hideki Okajima added two. Dustin Pedroia had the night's biggest hit, a two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh inning, scoring Jacoby Ellsbury ahead of him. Matsuzaka, Okajima, Pedroia, Ellsbury -- rookies, every one.
Read the rest here.....
Monday, October 22, 2007
Sunday, October 21, 2007
This Is Difficult
Can you keep a secret?
I am watching the Sox, but I am flipping over to the Republican debate.
My bad boyfriend got a standing ovation.
Don't tell Jennifer.
I couldn't stand for the ovation.
I've been drinking. Jen drove me home.
I am watching the Sox, but I am flipping over to the Republican debate.
My bad boyfriend got a standing ovation.
Don't tell Jennifer.
I couldn't stand for the ovation.
I've been drinking. Jen drove me home.
USS Constitution
...in 1797, USS Constitution was launched in Boston. It took three attempts to set the immense ship, reinforced with heavy diagonal planking and copper sheathing, afloat. Shipyard officials warned townspeople to be prepared for a great wave when the boat was finally launched, but none appeared. Her greatest moment came during the War of 1812, when in less than 20 minutes her guns turned a British warship into a hulk, not worth towing to port. When British cannonballs appeared to bounce off her thick wooden hull, a sailor exclaimed, "Huzzah, her sides are made of iron!" Ever since, people have referred to the ship by her affectionate nickname "Old Ironsides." Berthed at the Boston Navy Yard, she is the oldest commissioned warship in the world. Read more.....
If you visit Boston, and you should, you can still climb aboard "Old Ironsides" dow in the Navy Yard. There is also a Museum that is definitely worth the visit, very family friendly.
This pic is from my favorite CPO's visit during CPO Heritage Week, 2007.
If you visit Boston, and you should, you can still climb aboard "Old Ironsides" dow in the Navy Yard. There is also a Museum that is definitely worth the visit, very family friendly.
This pic is from my favorite CPO's visit during CPO Heritage Week, 2007.Saturday, October 20, 2007
The Weather Suits The Mood
I am off to drive to the top of New Hampshire for a memorial service. Maureen was a lovely woman and when she lived near me we had lots of laughs. I loved all her children too.
This actually wasn't so bad! Sure we cried, but we laughed a lot too. Maureen lived a good life and a few of her children, two of her in-laws and even her hospice worker got up and spoke and it was really nice. My favorite part was that no one tried to make her out to be what she wasn't. They all explained she was crazy. She was! She was that kind of crazy where everyone was just excited to be around her. I'm sure she had sad moments, but they never showed. She said and did crazy things. She would write me letters that were just like she was in the room and when she was in the room it was usually like a stand up routine.
She had 8 kids ranging from 5 years older to 9 years younger than me. I was closest to Paul. Even after the family sold the cottage, Paul came around regularly and stayed at my house. When Tommy and Frankie were little he and my ex redid the bathroom. I explained that the part I liked best was that of all the people who ever worked on the house (not that many, it's falling down) Paul was the one who listened to me. Most people listened to what I had to say and then explained why they couldn't do it. Paul listened and said "OK".
Anyway, Paul met me outside and walked in with me to his Dad. His Dad faintly made the connection between me and the cottage, I hadn't seen him in 20 years. Then on to his youngest sister, Jennifer who didn't remember me at all. I told her that was fine, I was much older. His brother John remembered my ex, I think I only met him once. Then onto Dave who I saw frequently, and I had to completely explain who I was before I got my bear hug. I have changed, it's gratifying. LOL Then onto Doug. He ran with my sister Jen's crowd there were several summers where my house was packed every weekend with their friends. Again, the polite smile and the nodding and then - "Oh my God, you're beautiful! How did that happen?" I laughed. His sister Jen who hadn't recognized me asked "You remember her?" He replied of course he had lived in my house for a couple of summers. He turned to me again and said "When you get old, you are supposed to get ugly." I laughed and told him it was on the inside like the portrait of Dorian Gray, I got meaner. He asked how that was possible.
I told Grace later about all this. When I got to the part where Doug said I was beautiful, she said "Well it was the top of New Hampshire. they're like hillbillies."
If my ego ever gets too big.......I have Grace. I made the mistake of telling Jen while she was driving. We could have been killed - she nearly drove off the road.
This actually wasn't so bad! Sure we cried, but we laughed a lot too. Maureen lived a good life and a few of her children, two of her in-laws and even her hospice worker got up and spoke and it was really nice. My favorite part was that no one tried to make her out to be what she wasn't. They all explained she was crazy. She was! She was that kind of crazy where everyone was just excited to be around her. I'm sure she had sad moments, but they never showed. She said and did crazy things. She would write me letters that were just like she was in the room and when she was in the room it was usually like a stand up routine.
She had 8 kids ranging from 5 years older to 9 years younger than me. I was closest to Paul. Even after the family sold the cottage, Paul came around regularly and stayed at my house. When Tommy and Frankie were little he and my ex redid the bathroom. I explained that the part I liked best was that of all the people who ever worked on the house (not that many, it's falling down) Paul was the one who listened to me. Most people listened to what I had to say and then explained why they couldn't do it. Paul listened and said "OK".
Anyway, Paul met me outside and walked in with me to his Dad. His Dad faintly made the connection between me and the cottage, I hadn't seen him in 20 years. Then on to his youngest sister, Jennifer who didn't remember me at all. I told her that was fine, I was much older. His brother John remembered my ex, I think I only met him once. Then onto Dave who I saw frequently, and I had to completely explain who I was before I got my bear hug. I have changed, it's gratifying. LOL Then onto Doug. He ran with my sister Jen's crowd there were several summers where my house was packed every weekend with their friends. Again, the polite smile and the nodding and then - "Oh my God, you're beautiful! How did that happen?" I laughed. His sister Jen who hadn't recognized me asked "You remember her?" He replied of course he had lived in my house for a couple of summers. He turned to me again and said "When you get old, you are supposed to get ugly." I laughed and told him it was on the inside like the portrait of Dorian Gray, I got meaner. He asked how that was possible.
I told Grace later about all this. When I got to the part where Doug said I was beautiful, she said "Well it was the top of New Hampshire. they're like hillbillies."
If my ego ever gets too big.......I have Grace. I made the mistake of telling Jen while she was driving. We could have been killed - she nearly drove off the road.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Admiral Crowe
Former JCS chairman Crowe dies at 82By Philip Ewing - Staff writer Posted : Thursday Oct 18, 2007 14:21:53 EDT
Adm. William J. Crowe, a naval officer whose long career included stints as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. ambassador to England and even an appearance on the TV show “Cheers,” died early Thursday, the U.S. Navy Memorial announced. He was 82.
Crowe died of cardiac arrest at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., said Navy Memorial CEO retired Rear Adm. Rick Buchanan. Crowe was being treated for pulmonary disease.
“He was an outstanding man, a dedicated naval officer, a wonderful American, a scholar and a teacher. He will be missed,” Buchanan said. Crowe was chairman of the Navy Memorial’s board.
A 1947 Naval Academy graduate and a submariner, Crowe served as an assistant to President Eisenhower’s naval aide, as executive officer of the Tang-class diesel/electric submarine Wahoo, captain of another Tang-class boat, the Trout, and then a string of other command and staff assignments, culminating with his appointment in 1980 to be commander in chief of allied forces in Southern Europe and his appointment in 1983 to be commander in chief of U.S. Pacific Command.
President Reagan tapped him to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1985, a position in which he served until 1989. During his tenure Congress passed the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986, a sweeping measure that unified many aspects of a then-disconnected military and formally made Crowe, as Joint Chiefs chairman, the senior-most U.S. military officer.
On March 16, 1989, he appeared as himself in an episode of “Cheers” that took place on the USS Constitution in Boston Harbor.
After Crowe endorsed then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton during his presidential run in 1992, President Clinton asked Crowe to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, and he served until 1997. In 2000, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the highest U.S. civilian medals. That same year, he became chairman of the Navy Memorial board, taking over from Adm. Elmo “Bud” Zumwalt.
Crowe is survived by his wife, Shirley Grinel, and their three children. According to Buchanan, a funeral has tentatively been scheduled for Oct. 31 at the Naval Academy.
Adm. William J. Crowe, a naval officer whose long career included stints as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. ambassador to England and even an appearance on the TV show “Cheers,” died early Thursday, the U.S. Navy Memorial announced. He was 82.
Crowe died of cardiac arrest at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., said Navy Memorial CEO retired Rear Adm. Rick Buchanan. Crowe was being treated for pulmonary disease.
“He was an outstanding man, a dedicated naval officer, a wonderful American, a scholar and a teacher. He will be missed,” Buchanan said. Crowe was chairman of the Navy Memorial’s board.
A 1947 Naval Academy graduate and a submariner, Crowe served as an assistant to President Eisenhower’s naval aide, as executive officer of the Tang-class diesel/electric submarine Wahoo, captain of another Tang-class boat, the Trout, and then a string of other command and staff assignments, culminating with his appointment in 1980 to be commander in chief of allied forces in Southern Europe and his appointment in 1983 to be commander in chief of U.S. Pacific Command.
President Reagan tapped him to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1985, a position in which he served until 1989. During his tenure Congress passed the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986, a sweeping measure that unified many aspects of a then-disconnected military and formally made Crowe, as Joint Chiefs chairman, the senior-most U.S. military officer.
On March 16, 1989, he appeared as himself in an episode of “Cheers” that took place on the USS Constitution in Boston Harbor.
After Crowe endorsed then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton during his presidential run in 1992, President Clinton asked Crowe to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, and he served until 1997. In 2000, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the highest U.S. civilian medals. That same year, he became chairman of the Navy Memorial board, taking over from Adm. Elmo “Bud” Zumwalt.
Crowe is survived by his wife, Shirley Grinel, and their three children. According to Buchanan, a funeral has tentatively been scheduled for Oct. 31 at the Naval Academy.
He's Gone
Richard Lovelace
TELL me not, Sweet, I am unkind,
That from the nunnery
Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind
To war and arms I fly.
True, a new mistress now I chase,
The first foe in the field;
And with a stronger faith embrace
A sword, a horse, a shield.
Yet this inconstancy is such
As thou too shalt adore;
I could not love thee, Dear, so much
Loved I not Honour more.
Of course, you must substitute a sidearm, a small boat and kevlar for "a sword, a horse, a shield."
But, I'm fine. I'm never alone. Every bed you are in is mine, even if it's a bag.....even if it's a bunk. You are with me and I am with you. I am never alone.
Fair winds and following seas, my love, and safe home to me.
Of Course!
So last night I take the new Maritime Strategy to the gym and read the first 10 of 20 pages on the treadmill. I didn't have a cigar or whisky.
Then, this morning the Phibian says don't bother with the first 9 pages.
Of course!
LOL, I did need to read them though, my only hope of coming close to keeping up is to read everything. Fortunately Galrahn's got all kinds of helpful links posted.
Then, this morning the Phibian says don't bother with the first 9 pages.
Of course!
LOL, I did need to read them though, my only hope of coming close to keeping up is to read everything. Fortunately Galrahn's got all kinds of helpful links posted.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower
So, if you were also skipped on the list of invitees for this symposium, you can go here and download the first day's presentation.
Why Wasn't I Invited?
So Monday night was a fabulous adventure in Groton. I got no sleep and had to make up for it last night (12 hours). So now I sit here catching up on emails to find the CNO is in Newport (a hop, skip and a jump for me). I've missed watching him live on the webcast but it will be rebroadcast on the Pentagon Channel at 2000. He will be discussing the new Maritime Strategy which fits nicely with the current discussion over at the Phibian's place on the 1986 Maritime strategy. Of course, I am drowning over there and said so.
Anyway, I've strayed from my point. Admiral Roughead is in Newport this morning.
Why wasn't I invited?
********UPDATE - In case you don't read comments, I'm pulling up the one left by SJS. If you go to his site you can get the new Maritime Strategy. I have printed mine and will read it at the gym tonight while I'm on the treadmill.*****
*******Another Update******this comment was left by some troublemaker
"As I was lunching with Gary today at the O Club he asked me to tell you "Hello"
"
My response?
VERY FUNNY, SMARTASS!
Anyway, I've strayed from my point. Admiral Roughead is in Newport this morning.
Why wasn't I invited?
********UPDATE - In case you don't read comments, I'm pulling up the one left by SJS. If you go to his site you can get the new Maritime Strategy. I have printed mine and will read it at the gym tonight while I'm on the treadmill.*****
*******Another Update******this comment was left by some troublemaker
"As I was lunching with Gary today at the O Club he asked me to tell you "Hello"
"
My response?
VERY FUNNY, SMARTASS!
Monday, October 15, 2007
The Impertinence!
Honestly, I don't know where some people get the nerve!
There is some hooligan, who, on occasion feeds me information. Everyone in my orbit must provide a service.
I hadn't heard from him in a couple of days, so today I email him.
"Clearly I am being ignored! I thought for sure I would get some kind of comment on the job I did with the Navy's 232nd birthday this past weekend.
Fine, fine........no time for me..........needs of the Navy and all that.
Humph!
Maggie"
This is the incredibly impudent reply.
"Such a chick. In need of constant affirmation. Fine! I'll look. Just sec...."
To which I fire off:
"Chick? Chick! I am so much more fabulous than a chick! What impertinence! You would never make it in the Rotation!
I wrote "needs of the Navy" because I wanted to convey that I do understand that "the needs of the Navy" come ahead of paying attention to me."
The Hooligan's comeback?
"LOL..."needs of the Navy" is a phrase used in so many situations, always to the Chief's advantage. And what the heck is the Rotation?"
Oh? Nice. Be disrespectful and then want something? It's not that easy! I send:
"What do you care? You can't make it anyway. LOL"
I get back a little pleading.....I love it when they beg!
"Dammit!!! Now you've got me curious. C'mon..."
Trying to get on my good side......like I have one!
But I'm having a good day, sooooo......
"Well, normally I am described as a cruel and despotic wench........however, just this once.........I'll take pity on you and direct you here."
I don't know if it helped him though. In a subsequent email he made the suggestion that I be flexible. LOL Flexible? I don't think so.
There is some hooligan, who, on occasion feeds me information. Everyone in my orbit must provide a service.
I hadn't heard from him in a couple of days, so today I email him.
"Clearly I am being ignored! I thought for sure I would get some kind of comment on the job I did with the Navy's 232nd birthday this past weekend.
Fine, fine........no time for me..........needs of the Navy and all that.
Humph!
Maggie"
This is the incredibly impudent reply.
"Such a chick. In need of constant affirmation. Fine! I'll look. Just sec...."
To which I fire off:
"Chick? Chick! I am so much more fabulous than a chick! What impertinence! You would never make it in the Rotation!
I wrote "needs of the Navy" because I wanted to convey that I do understand that "the needs of the Navy" come ahead of paying attention to me."
The Hooligan's comeback?
"LOL..."needs of the Navy" is a phrase used in so many situations, always to the Chief's advantage. And what the heck is the Rotation?"
Oh? Nice. Be disrespectful and then want something? It's not that easy! I send:
"What do you care? You can't make it anyway. LOL"
I get back a little pleading.....I love it when they beg!
"Dammit!!! Now you've got me curious. C'mon..."
Trying to get on my good side......like I have one!
But I'm having a good day, sooooo......
"Well, normally I am described as a cruel and despotic wench........however, just this once.........I'll take pity on you and direct you here."
I don't know if it helped him though. In a subsequent email he made the suggestion that I be flexible. LOL Flexible? I don't think so.
Dear Maggie :There are less than 30 hours left in the campaign and I need your help NOW! Sign up to volunteer by calling my HQ at (978) 269-5080 or by emailing Peter Towey at Peter@JimOgonowski.com.
Before this weekend, we all knew that Niki Tsongas supported amnesty for illegals and in-state tuition for illegals, but I can't tell you how surprised I was to learn from the Boston Herald on Sunday morning that Niki supports giving driver's licenses to illegals.
I strongly oppose giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants - it makes it too easy for them to board our planes or gain access to our financial institutions. That's why my campaign is now airing a new Radio Advertisement - "Illegal Immigrants," which you can listen to by going to my blog.
I believe that true immigration reform does not include giving amnesty, in-state tuition or driver's licenses for illegal immigrants. As the descendant of legal immigrants, I believe we must reafirm our legal pathways to citizenship, secure our borders, and enforce the existing immigration laws.
GET THE WORD OUT! Tell the people of the 5th District that you don't want to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. Let people know the truth by calling in to radio shows and talking to your friends:
Call WRKO-AM 680 at (617) 266-6868
Call WTKK-FM 96.9 at (617)822-1969
To Learn More about Niki's radical positions on Immigration, check out these sources:
Red State
The Boston Herald
The Everyday Republican
FortHardKnox.com
I will be pounding the pavement over the next day to get out the vote. I ask you to join me and my team. Call our HQ at (978) 269-5080 or email Peter@JimOgonowski.com and sign up to volunteer. Whether it's knocking on doors or making phone calls, every voter you contact can make a difference. If you have a few minutes, please read this story about the final push I am making to get out every last vote.
Sincerely,
Jim Ogonowski
Just the Facts...
NIKI SUPPORTS GIVING DRIVERS LICENSES FOR ILLEGALS: “Immigration: supports driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants and a ‘path to citizenship’ for illegal immigrants.” (“5th District Candidates All Fired Up”, The Boston Herald, 10/14/07)
NIKI SUPPORTS GIVING IN-STATE TUITION TO ILLEGALS: “Ogonowski said he opposes in-state tuition rates for children of illegal immigrants - something the Legislature failed to pass last year. Tsongas, a dean at Middlesex Community College, said making school affordable would help those children become productive taxpayers.” (“Bush’s health care veto, Iraq war dominate 5th District debate.”, Eagle-Tribune, 10/6/07)
Video on YouTube of Niki On NECN - Says We Are “Punishing American Citizens.”
NIKI SUPPORTS THE BUSH AMNESTY PLAN: “Tsongas favors a plan similar to one endorsed by Bush, which would include allowing undocumented immigrants in the country to earn citizenship” (“Fifth District candidates stuff mailboxes as election looms”, The Boston Globe, 10/11/07)
NIKI WON’T HOWEVER, SUPPORT CALLING IT LIKE IT IS! REFUSES TO REFER TO LAWBREAKERS AS “ILLEGAL” PREFERS “UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS” AND “FAMILY”: “Speaking about immigration this week with WBZ radio host Dan Rea, Democratic congressional hopeful Niki Tsongas reinforced her illegal-coddling platform. During the segment, Tsongas defended using the term ‘undocumented workers’ to describe illegal immigrants. Pressed by Rea as to what she considers an illegal who doesn’t work, she responded: ‘family.’ And as everyone knows, family comes first.” (“Pols & Politics”, The Boston Herald, 10/14/07)
Video on YouTube: Undocumented Non-Workers Are “Family”
Want a Live, Up to the Minute View of the Campaign? Check out our Blog
ADM Ulrich Pops Up
10.15.07(Eastern Times)
1000 - Pentagon Briefing: ADM Harry Ulrich, Commander of US Naval Forces Europe, and GEN Kip Ward, Commanding General of US Africa Command, speak with reporters at the Pentagon, announcing the Africa Partnership Station Initiative. (Live, VoD, Podcast)
Encore presentation at 1800hrs
If I actually make a concerted effort to get in the shower now, I can be at my desk for this one...........
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Happy Birthday To The United States Navy!
So clearly today will be all Navy, 24/7! You understand, I'm sure.
Today is the 232nd birthday of the United States Navy.
"On Friday, October 13, 1775,
meeting in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress voted to fit out two sailing vessels, armed with ten carriage guns, as well as swivel guns, and manned by crews of eighty, and to send them out on a cruise of three months to intercept transports carrying munitions and stores to the British army in America. This was the original legislation out of which the Continental Navy grew and as such constitutes the birth certificate of the navy."
U.S. Navy Band Celebrates the 232nd Navy Birthday
CNO's Birthday Message to the Fleet
MCPON Birthday Message to the Fleet
From Navy Times "Happy birthday, Navy!"
Today is the 232nd birthday of the United States Navy.
"On Friday, October 13, 1775,
meeting in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress voted to fit out two sailing vessels, armed with ten carriage guns, as well as swivel guns, and manned by crews of eighty, and to send them out on a cruise of three months to intercept transports carrying munitions and stores to the British army in America. This was the original legislation out of which the Continental Navy grew and as such constitutes the birth certificate of the navy."U.S. Navy Band Celebrates the 232nd Navy Birthday
CNO's Birthday Message to the Fleet
MCPON Birthday Message to the Fleet
From Navy Times "Happy birthday, Navy!"
And Some Fun On The Water...........
071012-N-6710M-009 OKINAWA, Japan (Oct. 12, 2007) - A landing craft utility prepares to enter the well deck of dock landing ship USS Tortuga (LSD 46) while transiting equipment. Tortuga serves under Commander Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) 7/Task Force 76, the Navy’s only permanently forward-deployed amphibious force. ESG 7/Task Force 76 is headquartered at White Beach Naval Facility, Okinawa, Japan, with an operating detachment in Sasebo, Japan. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Brandon Myrick (RELEASED)
What's A Birthday Without A Cake?
071012-N-8704K-134 ATLANTIC (Oct. 12, 2007) - From left, Capt. Bruce Boynton, commanding officer of hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) medical treatment facility and oldest crew member, Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Gary Roughead, and Fire Controlman Seaman Christian Demarzio, the youngest crew member, celebrate the Navy's 232nd birthday with an traditional cake-cutting ceremony on the ship’s mess decks, Oct. 12. CNO was aboard Comfort to congratulate the crew after completing a four-month humanitarian deployment to Latin America and the Caribbean providing medical treatment to patients in a dozen countries. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Joshua Karsten (RELEASED)The Navy on Wall Street
071011-O-2529G-001 NEW YORK (Oct. 11, 2007) - Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (MCPON) Joe R. Campa Jr. and Rear Adm. Michael A. LeFever, director of Military Personnel Plans and Policy Division, ring the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange in celebration of the Navy's 232nd birthday. Sailors from the Bronx Naval Operational Support Center joined Campa and LaFever for the closing bell. Photo courtesy of New York Stock Exchange Media Relations (RELEASED)Admiral Roughead Assumes Office as 29th Chief of Naval Operations
Admiral Roughead Assumes Office as 29th Chief of Naval OperationsAdm. Gary Roughead assumed office as the 29th Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) during a ceremony held at Leutze Park aboard Washington Navy Yard Oct. 11.
A “Thank You” From the CNO
A “Thank You” From the CNO
Story Number: NNS070928-239/28/2007
From Adm. Mike Mullen, Chief of Naval Operations
WASHINGTON (NNS) --
Hello everyone. I wanted to simply say thanks. Thanks to all our great Sailors and to your families.
You are the best I’ve ever seen in my four decades of service, and we simply wouldn’t be the Navy we are today without you.I’ve been asked by several people over the last couple of weeks what it is I will miss most about this job and about the Navy. I tell them pretty simply, it’s the people. It’s all of you.
It’s people like Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Morgan B. Bradley.
I met Bradley back in January of 2006, when I was on a tour of the Haditha Dam in northern Iraq.
While serving with the Mobile Assault Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment in the fight for Fallujah in November 2004, Bradley had repeatedly braved enemy fire to care for his wounded Marines.
At one point in the firefight, he sprinted more than 50 yards out in the open, fully exposed to reach two Marines wounded by snipers. He pulled them to safety behind a covered position and calmly treated their wounds.
It happened in an instant. But everyone who witnessed it agreed it was an act of incredible courage not uncommon for the young man from Sacramento. Bradley himself was a little less sure about all that.
“I was just doing my job,” was all he would say.
Just doing my job.
If I've heard that once, I’ve heard it a thousand times since becoming CNO. And, it hasn't just come from Sailors like Bradley, though I’ve certainly pinned many medals on the chests of deserving hospital corpsmen.
It came from Seabees as they worked to dig out Gulfport, Miss., in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Most of their own homes had been obliterated, their own families evacuated, and yet they rolled up their sleeves, picked up their hammers and helped put that town back together. It was just like something out of a John Wayne movie.
I heard it from a group of ombudsmen there as well.
Many of them had lost absolutely everything. They were hurting, barely getting by, and yet there they were at the Fleet and Family Support Center looking for ways to help other Navy families. And, in so many ways families have made a difference in these last couple of years. The support of our families has been at the highest level I’ve ever seen it. I and my wife Deborah are incredibly appreciative of that support.
I’ve heard it from Sailors and Marines stationed far away from home in Japan, Korea, Guam, who know their presence in that vital region helps preserve the peace.
“Just doing my job” is what the Navy security personnel who assist the Iraqis guarding the oil platforms in the Persian Gulf told me.
I heard it from explosive ordnance technicians working hard to find and disarm those IEDs, which are killing our other men and women in uniform.
From the men and women of Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa, who know that setting the conditions for security there is vital to eliminating the threat of terrorism. And, from some of our finest young naval officers commanding Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Afghanistan.
They will all tell you they are just doing their jobs.
Many of them, in the places I just mentioned, are individual augmentees. Some 50,000 or so, over the last several of years from the Navy -- individual augmentees. Their families, and supporting them, is a critical mission for all of us, and they have performed at an exceptionally high level. Many of them tell me that’s the best year they have ever had in their Navy career.
Doing incredible jobs, like the doctors and nurses aboard our hospital ships USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) and USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) or the crew of USS Peleliu (LHA 5), which just returned last week from a four-month Pacific Partnership mission during which they helped provide care to more than 31,000 people.
Speaking of doctors and patients, I ran into a Navy doctor by the name of Saleem Khan during another trip to Iraq. Khan is a reservist. He was 59 years old at the time, with 18 years in the Navy.
Raised in Pakistan, he can read Arabic and speak Persian. He was on his fifth tour in Iraq.
On the day I visited him he was trying to save the life of an insurgent who only an hour or so before had been trying to kill our Marines. Khan said it was his job to save that life, and he was proud to do it.
A reporter who was traveling with us asked him why he joined the Navy at age 40.
He said, and I quote: “I never wanted anybody to look at me and say, ‘Hey, you came over here and made a lot of money and you didn’t pay your dues. My kids were born in the United States. I want them to know their father paid his dues."
He was, he believed, just doing his job.
I’m convinced it’s more than modesty, though it certainly reflects a good deal of that. It’s a quiet, resolute pride that all of you harbor deep within, pride in doing what this nation has called you to do -- pride in service and duty and honor.
For my part, I want you to know how proud I am, incredibly proud, to have had the opportunity to serve with you these past two years and to watch you at work, just doing your jobs -- active, reserve, civilians.
It’s been inspiring to me and to my wife, Deborah.
My tour as your CNO may be getting cut a little short, but my gratitude for all that you and your families do, every day, will endure the rest of my life.
Thank you for doing your jobs so well. Thank you for your service. And God bless.
Story Number: NNS070928-239/28/2007
From Adm. Mike Mullen, Chief of Naval Operations
WASHINGTON (NNS) --
Hello everyone. I wanted to simply say thanks. Thanks to all our great Sailors and to your families.
You are the best I’ve ever seen in my four decades of service, and we simply wouldn’t be the Navy we are today without you.I’ve been asked by several people over the last couple of weeks what it is I will miss most about this job and about the Navy. I tell them pretty simply, it’s the people. It’s all of you.It’s people like Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Morgan B. Bradley.
I met Bradley back in January of 2006, when I was on a tour of the Haditha Dam in northern Iraq.
While serving with the Mobile Assault Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment in the fight for Fallujah in November 2004, Bradley had repeatedly braved enemy fire to care for his wounded Marines.
At one point in the firefight, he sprinted more than 50 yards out in the open, fully exposed to reach two Marines wounded by snipers. He pulled them to safety behind a covered position and calmly treated their wounds.
It happened in an instant. But everyone who witnessed it agreed it was an act of incredible courage not uncommon for the young man from Sacramento. Bradley himself was a little less sure about all that.
“I was just doing my job,” was all he would say.
Just doing my job.
If I've heard that once, I’ve heard it a thousand times since becoming CNO. And, it hasn't just come from Sailors like Bradley, though I’ve certainly pinned many medals on the chests of deserving hospital corpsmen.
It came from Seabees as they worked to dig out Gulfport, Miss., in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Most of their own homes had been obliterated, their own families evacuated, and yet they rolled up their sleeves, picked up their hammers and helped put that town back together. It was just like something out of a John Wayne movie.
I heard it from a group of ombudsmen there as well.
Many of them had lost absolutely everything. They were hurting, barely getting by, and yet there they were at the Fleet and Family Support Center looking for ways to help other Navy families. And, in so many ways families have made a difference in these last couple of years. The support of our families has been at the highest level I’ve ever seen it. I and my wife Deborah are incredibly appreciative of that support.
I’ve heard it from Sailors and Marines stationed far away from home in Japan, Korea, Guam, who know their presence in that vital region helps preserve the peace.
“Just doing my job” is what the Navy security personnel who assist the Iraqis guarding the oil platforms in the Persian Gulf told me.
I heard it from explosive ordnance technicians working hard to find and disarm those IEDs, which are killing our other men and women in uniform.
From the men and women of Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa, who know that setting the conditions for security there is vital to eliminating the threat of terrorism. And, from some of our finest young naval officers commanding Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Afghanistan.
They will all tell you they are just doing their jobs.
Many of them, in the places I just mentioned, are individual augmentees. Some 50,000 or so, over the last several of years from the Navy -- individual augmentees. Their families, and supporting them, is a critical mission for all of us, and they have performed at an exceptionally high level. Many of them tell me that’s the best year they have ever had in their Navy career.
Doing incredible jobs, like the doctors and nurses aboard our hospital ships USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) and USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) or the crew of USS Peleliu (LHA 5), which just returned last week from a four-month Pacific Partnership mission during which they helped provide care to more than 31,000 people.
Speaking of doctors and patients, I ran into a Navy doctor by the name of Saleem Khan during another trip to Iraq. Khan is a reservist. He was 59 years old at the time, with 18 years in the Navy.
Raised in Pakistan, he can read Arabic and speak Persian. He was on his fifth tour in Iraq.
On the day I visited him he was trying to save the life of an insurgent who only an hour or so before had been trying to kill our Marines. Khan said it was his job to save that life, and he was proud to do it.
A reporter who was traveling with us asked him why he joined the Navy at age 40.
He said, and I quote: “I never wanted anybody to look at me and say, ‘Hey, you came over here and made a lot of money and you didn’t pay your dues. My kids were born in the United States. I want them to know their father paid his dues."
He was, he believed, just doing his job.
I’m convinced it’s more than modesty, though it certainly reflects a good deal of that. It’s a quiet, resolute pride that all of you harbor deep within, pride in doing what this nation has called you to do -- pride in service and duty and honor.
For my part, I want you to know how proud I am, incredibly proud, to have had the opportunity to serve with you these past two years and to watch you at work, just doing your jobs -- active, reserve, civilians.
It’s been inspiring to me and to my wife, Deborah.
My tour as your CNO may be getting cut a little short, but my gratitude for all that you and your families do, every day, will endure the rest of my life.
Thank you for doing your jobs so well. Thank you for your service. And God bless.
Friday, October 12, 2007
DETERMINED WARRIOR
I know sometimes certain phrases can seem overused, like "Never Forget", but for the USS Cole DDG 67, it fits.
I really can't write anything better than what I wrote last year.
*******I did forget one thing
God Bless CDR Lippold!
For The Love Of God!!!!!!!
Gore, U.N. Body Win Nobel Peace Prize
Although considering 1994, 2002 and 2005.........I don't know why I am surprised and disappointed.
I know, I beefed last year and no one cared then either.
SB actually laughed at me.
I put this in the H&I Fires at The Castle.....they will laugh at me too.
Well, I suppose not every year can be 1979, 1964 or 1953.
Although considering 1994, 2002 and 2005.........I don't know why I am surprised and disappointed.
I know, I beefed last year and no one cared then either.
SB actually laughed at me.
I put this in the H&I Fires at The Castle.....they will laugh at me too.
Well, I suppose not every year can be 1979, 1964 or 1953.
Lt. Michael P. Murphy, USN
Go over to Chuck's place and read his very well written tribute to this American hero.*****UPDATE******The picture I put up originally was the Army's version of the MOH. Pogue, (former squid and current National Guard pogue) sent me the correct, Navy version. Thanks, Pogue.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Former Rep. Chester Atkins
I have been reading in several places (Hub Politics especially) about the low, base, contemptible statements made by former Massachusetts representative Chet Atkins regarding Jim Ogonowski.
Ex-Rep. says Ogonowski strays from brother’s immigration legacy
BOSTON - Former Rep. Chester G. Atkins, who once held the congressional seat being sought by Republican Jim Ogonowski, said today the candidate is tarnishing the legacy of his late brother, John, with a stance against illegal immigration that borders on racist.
Jim Ogonowski responded by calling the charge "a new low in politics," while Peg Ogonowski, the widow of John Ogonowski, said she was never aware her late husband had met Atkins.
Atkins, a Concord Democrat who lost his 1992 re-election campaign in part because of a backlash over his support for Cambodian refugees resettling in his Merrimack Valley district, said John Ogonowski was an avid backer of his efforts because of his family’s heritage as Polish immigrants.
John Ogonowski later supported a program in which he let Cambodians use a plot of his own farmland to grow specialty crops for Asian markets.
You can read the rest here.
Suffice to say that:
a) Chet Atkins forgets himself. You do not use a man's dead brother against him in a campaign. I don't care how many times Jim mentions John......his opponents don't get to, period.
b) Like most Democrats, Atkins can't distinguish between "legal" and "illegal" immigrants.
c) Playing the "pig fucker" card worked for Lyndon Johnson and you, Mr. Atkins, are no Lyndon Johnson. So I hope that you calling Jim a racist comes right back and smacks you in the ass.
d) Mr. Atkins says that he lost his seat because of his support of the Cambodian refugees, lol, good one. That fairy tale is shredded here.
I think the Wikipedia entry for Mr. Atkins tells you everything you need to know -
Atkins ran and was successfully elected as a Democrat to the 99th Congress in 1984. He served there for four succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1985–January 3, 1993). In his 1990 reelection bid, Atkins won by a surprisingly thin margin for the heavily Democratic 5th district, and as a result, in 1992, Democrats backed Democratic challenger Martin T. Meehan, fearing the seat could fall to the Republicans. His last campaign was riddled with accusations of check-bouncing and mis-managing his own finances.
That's right, even the Democrats wouldn't back him. Niki, I know politics makes for strange bedfellows.......but how desperate are you? I thought the Emily's List commercials were low for being misleading......but this is much worse.
Ex-Rep. says Ogonowski strays from brother’s immigration legacy
BOSTON - Former Rep. Chester G. Atkins, who once held the congressional seat being sought by Republican Jim Ogonowski, said today the candidate is tarnishing the legacy of his late brother, John, with a stance against illegal immigration that borders on racist.
Jim Ogonowski responded by calling the charge "a new low in politics," while Peg Ogonowski, the widow of John Ogonowski, said she was never aware her late husband had met Atkins.
Atkins, a Concord Democrat who lost his 1992 re-election campaign in part because of a backlash over his support for Cambodian refugees resettling in his Merrimack Valley district, said John Ogonowski was an avid backer of his efforts because of his family’s heritage as Polish immigrants.
John Ogonowski later supported a program in which he let Cambodians use a plot of his own farmland to grow specialty crops for Asian markets.
You can read the rest here.
Suffice to say that:
a) Chet Atkins forgets himself. You do not use a man's dead brother against him in a campaign. I don't care how many times Jim mentions John......his opponents don't get to, period.
b) Like most Democrats, Atkins can't distinguish between "legal" and "illegal" immigrants.
c) Playing the "pig fucker" card worked for Lyndon Johnson and you, Mr. Atkins, are no Lyndon Johnson. So I hope that you calling Jim a racist comes right back and smacks you in the ass.
d) Mr. Atkins says that he lost his seat because of his support of the Cambodian refugees, lol, good one. That fairy tale is shredded here.
I think the Wikipedia entry for Mr. Atkins tells you everything you need to know -
Atkins ran and was successfully elected as a Democrat to the 99th Congress in 1984. He served there for four succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1985–January 3, 1993). In his 1990 reelection bid, Atkins won by a surprisingly thin margin for the heavily Democratic 5th district, and as a result, in 1992, Democrats backed Democratic challenger Martin T. Meehan, fearing the seat could fall to the Republicans. His last campaign was riddled with accusations of check-bouncing and mis-managing his own finances.
That's right, even the Democrats wouldn't back him. Niki, I know politics makes for strange bedfellows.......but how desperate are you? I thought the Emily's List commercials were low for being misleading......but this is much worse.
Jim Ogonowski
I don't live in this district, but if I did, this would be my guy. Not just because he's a Republican, because he's a stand up guy based on everything I've read and heard. If you live in this Congressional district I strongly encourage you to go and vote for Jim.
The district is comprised of the following municipalities:
Andover, Haverill, Lawrence and Methuen in Essex county.
Acton, Ayer, Billerica, Boxborough, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Concord, Dracut, Dunstable, Groton, Hudson, Littleton, Lowell, Maynard, Shirley, Stow, Sudbury, Tewksbury, Tyngsborough, Wayland and Westford in Middlesex county.
Berlin, Bolton, Harvard and Lancaster in Worcester county.
OK, this was the nice post. It was positive. The other post won't be.
The district is comprised of the following municipalities:
Andover, Haverill, Lawrence and Methuen in Essex county.
Acton, Ayer, Billerica, Boxborough, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Concord, Dracut, Dunstable, Groton, Hudson, Littleton, Lowell, Maynard, Shirley, Stow, Sudbury, Tewksbury, Tyngsborough, Wayland and Westford in Middlesex county.
Berlin, Bolton, Harvard and Lancaster in Worcester county.
OK, this was the nice post. It was positive. The other post won't be.
MCPON Birthday Message to the Fleet
A little birdie sent me an advance copy, lol. Apparently he understands how competitive and immature I am. The message was "You have a scoop."
MCPON Birthday Message to the Fleet
Our birthday is a celebration of our rich heritage and of the men and women who proudly call themselves United States Sailors. Our Navy was born on the crest of a wave. We have changed much over 232 years, but the spirit of those who serve our nation at sea remains strong, proud and forever connected to those who have served before us.
October 13th we celebrate our customs, traditions and a culture unique to those of us who leave the comforts of home for the challenges of sea. There is a character to the United States Sailor, a language all our own and a shared sense of pride in being part of a crew.
Our leaders must impress upon our youngest Sailors that wearing this uniform has always been more than just a reflection of what we do. I don’t believe you can be an effective leader without understanding who we are, and who we are is tied directly to our heritage.
We have branched out into other capabilities. We’re leveraging your creativity and your ingenuity and providing your abilities to combatant commanders around the world. But we will always be, first and foremost, a maritime service. Sailors will be forever identified by their courage in the face of danger and the moral conviction to stand up for what’s right. The term “ship, shipmate, self” was created at sea. To a United States Sailor, there is no better description of our culture and our character.
When I consider our Navy heritage, I think of Sailors working in the harsh environments of our world’s oceans just as we’ve done for 232 years. You’re making the same sacrifices, serving our nation at sea. It is the common bond we share with those who have gone before us. Our history was forged at sea and every one of our separate communities has contributed to that legacy.
On our birthday we will recall the sacrifices of our forefathers. It will be a day to search out a veteran from World War II or Korea or Vietnam who still remembers every face and every name of his shipmates lost in battle. Those veterans will tell you that their ties to the Navy have never been stronger, that the pride they feel in what you do fortifies them.
Like the rest of the nation, our veterans are grateful for the blanket of protection you provide this country. On our Navy’s birthday I join them and all of America in thanking you for what you do, and thanking your families for the support they provide us all.
You are all members of the greatest Navy the world has ever known and it’s an honor to serve with each of you.
Happy birthday Shipmates.
*******************
I know that the favorite Naval consort is an officer, but Princess Crabby loves allllllll Sailors! LOL After all, my Dad was QM2 and really...he's the favorite!
MCPON Birthday Message to the Fleet
Our birthday is a celebration of our rich heritage and of the men and women who proudly call themselves United States Sailors. Our Navy was born on the crest of a wave. We have changed much over 232 years, but the spirit of those who serve our nation at sea remains strong, proud and forever connected to those who have served before us.
October 13th we celebrate our customs, traditions and a culture unique to those of us who leave the comforts of home for the challenges of sea. There is a character to the United States Sailor, a language all our own and a shared sense of pride in being part of a crew.
Our leaders must impress upon our youngest Sailors that wearing this uniform has always been more than just a reflection of what we do. I don’t believe you can be an effective leader without understanding who we are, and who we are is tied directly to our heritage.
We have branched out into other capabilities. We’re leveraging your creativity and your ingenuity and providing your abilities to combatant commanders around the world. But we will always be, first and foremost, a maritime service. Sailors will be forever identified by their courage in the face of danger and the moral conviction to stand up for what’s right. The term “ship, shipmate, self” was created at sea. To a United States Sailor, there is no better description of our culture and our character.
When I consider our Navy heritage, I think of Sailors working in the harsh environments of our world’s oceans just as we’ve done for 232 years. You’re making the same sacrifices, serving our nation at sea. It is the common bond we share with those who have gone before us. Our history was forged at sea and every one of our separate communities has contributed to that legacy.
On our birthday we will recall the sacrifices of our forefathers. It will be a day to search out a veteran from World War II or Korea or Vietnam who still remembers every face and every name of his shipmates lost in battle. Those veterans will tell you that their ties to the Navy have never been stronger, that the pride they feel in what you do fortifies them.
Like the rest of the nation, our veterans are grateful for the blanket of protection you provide this country. On our Navy’s birthday I join them and all of America in thanking you for what you do, and thanking your families for the support they provide us all.
You are all members of the greatest Navy the world has ever known and it’s an honor to serve with each of you.
Happy birthday Shipmates.
*******************
I know that the favorite Naval consort is an officer, but Princess Crabby loves allllllll Sailors! LOL After all, my Dad was QM2 and really...he's the favorite!
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Again
I was disgustingly good today.
Laundry & dishes - check
Worked more than 8 hours - check 
Stuck with Atkins - check 
Was on time for my hair appointment - check 
Picked up everything on the shopping list at Walmart - check 
Did my time at the gym - check 
Did you know that Nadler spits when he talks? I watched him on CSpan as he spoke on the FISA thing. 
What do I have to show for it? I had to call ahead to the house so Frankie and his friends could come out and unload the car. There was no way I was going to be able to lift the jug of Tide. 
I'm going to bed now.
Laundry & dishes - check
Worked more than 8 hours - check Stuck with Atkins - check Was on time for my hair appointment - check Picked up everything on the shopping list at Walmart - check Did my time at the gym - check Did you know that Nadler spits when he talks? I watched him on CSpan as he spoke on the FISA thing. What do I have to show for it? I had to call ahead to the house so Frankie and his friends could come out and unload the car. There was no way I was going to be able to lift the jug of Tide. I'm going to bed now.Tuesday, October 09, 2007
My Tuesday Night
I worked late. I love when everyone leaves and I can really focus. Loud music. No phones. No questions.
After work I headed over to the gym. I love this new gym. I popped on the treadmill and turned on CSpan. Guess who was on? My bad boyfriend. I smiled the whole time.
Then it was into the yoga room where I breathed in the good energy and exhaled the bad. Well.........at least until I had to stop because I had a terrific charlie horse in the arch of my foot. LOL
Now I am home and I am going to eat my cheeseburger (sans roll) and watch "Desperate Housewives". MMMMMM decadence.........
Laundry is rolling. Dishes are washed. I feel pretty virtuous. Of course, I've been good before, as Trias reminds me in the comments here.
600 feet huh. Sounds like the Aussie tradition of driving to your neighbours.Good to hear you've found a nice gym. You were doing this for a while already?
My answer?
Yeah....I do this all the time! I go on the diet, I join the gym.......I fall off the wagon. The last time I lost a serious amount of weight, the favorite Naval consort was in the ME. He's headed there again. If this works, I may have to make him stay in the ME! LOL
After work I headed over to the gym. I love this new gym. I popped on the treadmill and turned on CSpan. Guess who was on? My bad boyfriend. I smiled the whole time.
Then it was into the yoga room where I breathed in the good energy and exhaled the bad. Well.........at least until I had to stop because I had a terrific charlie horse in the arch of my foot. LOL
Now I am home and I am going to eat my cheeseburger (sans roll) and watch "Desperate Housewives". MMMMMM decadence.........
Laundry is rolling. Dishes are washed. I feel pretty virtuous. Of course, I've been good before, as Trias reminds me in the comments here.
600 feet huh. Sounds like the Aussie tradition of driving to your neighbours.Good to hear you've found a nice gym. You were doing this for a while already?
My answer?
Yeah....I do this all the time! I go on the diet, I join the gym.......I fall off the wagon. The last time I lost a serious amount of weight, the favorite Naval consort was in the ME. He's headed there again. If this works, I may have to make him stay in the ME! LOL
You're always looking for a reason to go back to Dubai, right?
That's the subject line of an email I got from Ry (in the Castle dungeon).
Maybe we can talk John into springing for this, you know, you being Castle Correspondent at the conference and all. ;)
ry
Guess it's true confession time here......Dubai was fabulous, but it was the favorite Naval consort that was always the real draw. So.........my sites will be set elsewhere in the near future. Anyone know a good place to stay in Bahrain? How about Kuwait? That's where Tommy's next deployment will be.
Maybe we can talk John into springing for this, you know, you being Castle Correspondent at the conference and all. ;)
ry
Guess it's true confession time here......Dubai was fabulous, but it was the favorite Naval consort that was always the real draw. So.........my sites will be set elsewhere in the near future. Anyone know a good place to stay in Bahrain? How about Kuwait? That's where Tommy's next deployment will be.
October 9.........
1934, today's "This Day In History" is very personal for me...........
Today is my Dad's birthday. I will call later but we are not celebrating it tonight. That will come when everyone can get together at once. But here's something that SB emailed me for my Dad that I printed out and gave him (can't email it to him, my mother won't let the internet in the house).
I like the Navy.
I like standing on the bridge wing at sunrise with salt spray in my face and clean ocean winds blowing in from the four quarters of the globe - the ship beneath me feeling like a living being as her engines drive her through the sea.
I like the sounds of the Navy - the piercing trill of the boatswains pipe, the syncopated clangor of the ships bell on the quarterdeck, the harsh squawk of the 1MC and the strong language and laughter of Sailors at work.
I like ships of the Navy - nervous darting destroyers, plodding fleet auxiliaries, sleek submarines, powerful cruisers and steady solid carriers.
I like the proud sonorous names of Navy capital ships: Midway, Lexington, Saratoga, Coral Sea - memorials of great battles fought.
I like the lean angular names of Navy "tin cans": Barney, Dahlgren, Mullinix, McCloy - mementos of heroes who went before us.
I like the tempo of a Navy band blaring through the topside speakers as we pull away from the oiler after refueling at sea.
I like liberty call and the spicy scent of a foreign port.
I even like all hands working parties as my ship fills herself with the multitude of supplies both mundane and exotic which she needs to cut her ties to the land and carry out her mission anywhere on the globe there is water to float her.
I like Sailors, men and women from all parts of the land, farms of the Midwest, small towns of New England, from the cities, the mountains and the prairies, from all walks of life. I trust and depend on them as they trust and depend on me - for professional competence, for comradeship, for courage. In a word, they are "shipmates".
I like the surge of adventure in my heart when the word is passed "Now station the special sea and anchor detail - all hands to quarters for leaving port", and I like the infectious thrill of sighting homeport again, with the waving hands of welcome from family and friends waiting pierside.
The work is hard and dangerous, the going rough at times, the parting from loved ones painful, but the companionship of robust Navy laughter,
the "all for one and one for all" philosophy of the sea is ever present.
I like the serenity of the sea after a day of hard ship's work, as flying fish flit across the wave tops and sunset gives way to night.
I like the feel of the Navy in the darkness - the masthead lights, the red and green navigation lights and stern light, the pulsating phosphorescence of radar repeaters - they cut through the dusk and join with the mirror of the stars overhead.
And I Iike drifting off to sleep lulled by the myriad noises, large and small that tell me my ship is alive and well, and that my shipmates on watch will keep me safe. I like quiet mid-watches with the aroma of strong coffee - the lifeblood of the Navy - permeating everywhere.
And I like hectic watches when the exacting minuet of haze gray shapes racing at flank speed keeps all hands on a razor edge of alertness.
I like the sudden electricity of "General quarters, general quarters, all hands man your battle stations", followed by the hurried clamor of running feet on ladders and the resounding thump of watertight doors as the ship transforms herself in a brief few seconds from a peaceful wokplace to a weapon of war - ready for anything. And I like the sight of space age equipment manned by youngsters clad in dungarees and sound powered phones that their grandfathers would still recognize.
I like the traditions of the Navy and the men and women who made them.
I like the proud names of Navy heroes: Nimitz, Halsey, Perry, Farragut, Spruance, John Paul Jones.
A Sailor can find much in the Navy: comrades in arms, pride in self and country, mastery of the seaman's trade. An adolescent can find adulthood. In years to come, when Sailors are home from the sea, they will still remember with fondness and respect the ocean in all its moods - the impossible shimmering mirror calm and the storm tossed green water surging over the bow. And then there will come again a faint
whiff of stack gas, a faint echo of engine and rudder orders, a vision of the bright bunting of signal flags snapping at the yardarm, a refrain of hearty laughter in the wardroom and Chief's quarters and messdecks.
Gone ashore for good they will grow wistful about their Navy days, when the seas belonged to them and a new port was ever over the horizon.
Remembering this, they will stand taller and say:
"I WAS A SAILOR. I WAS PART OF THE NAVY AND THE NAVY WILL ALWAYS BE A PART OF ME!"
Just the other night, SB said "Well, I'm not as sentimental as you are, Maggie." Yeah. Okay, boyo! If you say so.
My father read this and exclaimed over how it really captured his experience years ago. He said it had to have been written by someone on a destroyer like his. He loved it. But he's not sentimental either.
But of course, that's why they are both so special. My unsentimental Navy men.
Monday, October 08, 2007
What A Disaster!
Jen had to drive me home. Do you understand we are talking about a maximum distance of 600 feet? I am so carbed out I didn't think I could make it up the hill and carry the leftovers back to the boys. I am headed to bed momentarily. I popped out to check email.
Today was more food but no booze. We took them to our favorite breakfast place which was great except for the new waitress. Lot's of reaching and leaning and I could have done without that. But the chocolate chip pancakes make it worthwhile.
Then we hit the Cranberry Festival at Edaville Railroad. There weren't many crafters (it was the last day and it was rainy) and that was fine with me because I am not the crafty person. Plus, my mum wasn't up for a lot of walking. The was some girl singing under a tent and we joked about the next act being "POP!" which was a joke from last night's movie.
We watched a really good movie called "Sweet Land". There was supposed to be a game of hearts, but Mum was coaching Jen on some new crocheting thing. Did I mention I wasn't crafty?
We finished off the night with Prison Break and a pizza. She swears we will be good tomorrow. LOL We swear a lot! But seriously, I have a new motivation. Next summer there will be something special for SB and I have to look devastating. I have eight or nine months. If this weekend is the end of carb binging for a while, I should be able to do it. I love the new gym and it couldn't be closer to work.
I bought myself a consolation prize.........
What? You didn't think I'd buy something crafty, didja? I bought something for Grace and something for Jen and something for Deb. I thought I was getting something for my Mum, but upon closer inspection, I passed. Of course, she could care less. LOL My parents are at that stage where when they want something, they just go get it. There is no wish list. Oh well.
Today was more food but no booze. We took them to our favorite breakfast place which was great except for the new waitress. Lot's of reaching and leaning and I could have done without that. But the chocolate chip pancakes make it worthwhile.
Then we hit the Cranberry Festival at Edaville Railroad. There weren't many crafters (it was the last day and it was rainy) and that was fine with me because I am not the crafty person. Plus, my mum wasn't up for a lot of walking. The was some girl singing under a tent and we joked about the next act being "POP!" which was a joke from last night's movie.
We watched a really good movie called "Sweet Land". There was supposed to be a game of hearts, but Mum was coaching Jen on some new crocheting thing. Did I mention I wasn't crafty?
We finished off the night with Prison Break and a pizza. She swears we will be good tomorrow. LOL We swear a lot! But seriously, I have a new motivation. Next summer there will be something special for SB and I have to look devastating. I have eight or nine months. If this weekend is the end of carb binging for a while, I should be able to do it. I love the new gym and it couldn't be closer to work.
I bought myself a consolation prize.........
What? You didn't think I'd buy something crafty, didja? I bought something for Grace and something for Jen and something for Deb. I thought I was getting something for my Mum, but upon closer inspection, I passed. Of course, she could care less. LOL My parents are at that stage where when they want something, they just go get it. There is no wish list. Oh well.
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Girl's Weekend
My mother........sisters.....niece and I are hanging for "Girl's Weekend". What is "Girl's Weekend"? Well, there is shopping, because it is always right before my father's birthday. There is eating out. We went to Red Robin and had awesome burgers. There is bad food...chocolate.....Fritos....popcorn. Movies....we watched "Music & Lyrics". Not a redemming thing about that one. 90 minutes of my life I'll never get back. I voted for "Disturbia" but my mother had veto power that can not be overidden.
And....liquor..........Cape Codders for me......wine for Grace and Mum......Sam's Summer for Jen.
Scratch tickets........we are always losers. We throw money in the pot, buy the tickets and scratch and turn in tickets for more tickets until we are losers. We are always losers.
You know, I have been so good on Atkins this past two weeks. I went to the gym and did my time..........and now...........it's blown.
And....liquor..........Cape Codders for me......wine for Grace and Mum......Sam's Summer for Jen.
Scratch tickets........we are always losers. We throw money in the pot, buy the tickets and scratch and turn in tickets for more tickets until we are losers. We are always losers.
You know, I have been so good on Atkins this past two weeks. I went to the gym and did my time..........and now...........it's blown.
Saturday, October 06, 2007
Paul Cahill
Here's why it is colossally stupid to believe that Paul Cahill had a blood alcohol of .27 at the time of his death.......
Paul couldn't have been doing his job, drunk as a skunk and not been noticed. I am well aware that the scene would have been chaotic. However, you are talking about a man being stumbling drunk. Hard to miss, no matter what else is going on. And while we would be overwhelmed at that scene, this is what the BFD train for. His fellow firefighters would have been focused and they would not have missed it.
Anytime someone makes a charge like this, I say "Why?" and "How?". Is anyone asking these questions? Not that I have heard. Not seriously.
Please tell me why the other guys from that house would take a guy who was so drunk to a fire? I have heard many say in recent days that they were "covering" for him. What nonsense! That's not covering. That's lunacy. "Covering" is leaving him at the firehouse to sleep it off. "Covering" is leaving him in the truck. "Covering" is not sticking a hose in his hand and following him into a burning building.
I am a good friend. I am there for my friends. But I would not follow my friend into a life-threatening situation to save their job. Especially not when there are lots of other ways to save their job....none of which involve endangering my life or theirs.
If you are sober and your friend is drunk, do you let him drive you home? But if you take his keys people will know he is drunk! See the lack of logic in this argument?
I have friends and family for whom I would lay down my life................but I wouldn't throw it away. Well, that's what you have to believe if you buy this story. You have to believe that rather than embarrass Paul Cahill................rather than cost him a rip with the higher-ups.......rather than have him be written up and sent to a drug and alcohol abuse program, the men of Engine 30 and Ladder 25 instead chose to put a nozzle in his hands and send him into a fire. Not just send him, mind you...........but follow him.
Cut it out.
Paul couldn't have been doing his job, drunk as a skunk and not been noticed. I am well aware that the scene would have been chaotic. However, you are talking about a man being stumbling drunk. Hard to miss, no matter what else is going on. And while we would be overwhelmed at that scene, this is what the BFD train for. His fellow firefighters would have been focused and they would not have missed it.
Anytime someone makes a charge like this, I say "Why?" and "How?". Is anyone asking these questions? Not that I have heard. Not seriously.
Please tell me why the other guys from that house would take a guy who was so drunk to a fire? I have heard many say in recent days that they were "covering" for him. What nonsense! That's not covering. That's lunacy. "Covering" is leaving him at the firehouse to sleep it off. "Covering" is leaving him in the truck. "Covering" is not sticking a hose in his hand and following him into a burning building.
I am a good friend. I am there for my friends. But I would not follow my friend into a life-threatening situation to save their job. Especially not when there are lots of other ways to save their job....none of which involve endangering my life or theirs.
If you are sober and your friend is drunk, do you let him drive you home? But if you take his keys people will know he is drunk! See the lack of logic in this argument?
I have friends and family for whom I would lay down my life................but I wouldn't throw it away. Well, that's what you have to believe if you buy this story. You have to believe that rather than embarrass Paul Cahill................rather than cost him a rip with the higher-ups.......rather than have him be written up and sent to a drug and alcohol abuse program, the men of Engine 30 and Ladder 25 instead chose to put a nozzle in his hands and send him into a fire. Not just send him, mind you...........but follow him.
Cut it out.
Friday, October 05, 2007
They Miss Me....I Miss Them
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Thursday, October 04, 2007
Side Note
Tonight I got to do something I have wanted to do for a long time. Between my adventures in Falmouth on Saturday, my new coin last night and dinner tonight........it's been a really great week.
Do Not Rush To Judgement on fallen Boston Firefighters
The Boston papers and TV and radio stations are full of stories. That's all they are.....stories. Before you judge, before you drag their names through the mud, you make sure you are right.
There are plenty of facts yet to come out.
“It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.”
Mark Twain
There are plenty of facts yet to come out.
“It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.”
Mark Twain
Paul Cahill and Warren Payne are HEROES!
Paul Cahill, Warren Payne and every Boston firefighter that puts his life on the line is a hero.
Anyone who wants to say differently can meet me down Montego Bay tonight or the dark alley of your choosing.
Bear in mind, you will be crawling out.....if you are lucky.
Anyone who wants to say differently can meet me down Montego Bay tonight or the dark alley of your choosing.
Bear in mind, you will be crawling out.....if you are lucky.
October 3, 1993
I was remiss yesterday in not posting about this. Please go to Anthony's place and read there too.
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
SB Requests
When the favorite Naval Consort requests something.....Princess Crabby, Swabbie Doxie extrordinaire, must comply. Otherwise, I would not be the best damn bedwarmer issued to the best damn SWO in the Navy, would I?
SB forwarded an email with the note "MGEN Kelly's Speech should go in your blog."
So, here it is! It's hugely long and it's already been posted over at BlackFive. But I must do as asked. And besides.........Kelly's a Boston guy, so where else should he be!
I want to open by offering LtGen Mattis’ apologies for missing this event. Until recently he certainly looked forward to being here, but an unexpected change in a three and four star executive offsite in Washington prevents him from joining you today. I am his recently joined deputy at the First Marine Expeditionary Force at Pendleton, and will have the honor of taking the next Marine rotation to Iraq early next year. I was also General Mattis’ deputy once before when he commanded the 1st Marine Division on the march to Baghdad, Tikrit and beyond four years ago, and when we went back into Iraq in March 2004 relieving the 82nd Airborne in Al Anbar Province. I am just two months out of the Pentagon where I served as the Commandant’s Legislative Advisor, and deputy advisor to the SECNAV, so I know the Congress and the Secretary’s and Commandant’s Hill agendas pretty well. I’ll be glad to speak to amphibious ship requirements, V-22 Ospreys, VSTOL Joint Strike fighters, a Marine Corps growing by 27,000 or anything else for that matter during the Q+A.
I left Iraq three years ago last month. I returned a week ago after a two week visit of getting the lay of the land for my upcoming deployment. It is still a dangerous and foreboding
land, but what I experienced personally was amazing and remarkable—we are winning, we are really winning. No one told me to say that, I saw it for myself. The higher command in Baghdad told us four years ago when we first took responsibility for the Al Anbar not to worry about victory, as no one—military or civilian—thought it possible. That thirty years from now when the rest of Iraq was a functioning democracy, Al Anbar would still be a festering cancer within. Our success, so we were told, would be in containing violence, not defeating the Al Qaeda and other foreign born terrorists that were deeply entrenched in the Province. The reality is that today the incidents of attack in Al Anbar—mostly by Al Qaeda—are down by over 80% in the last six months—that translates to dozens and dozens everyday then, to perhaps three or four today.
Since the spring local inhabitants and their sheik leadership, are now joined with us at the shoulder in fighting the extremists that plague their country. Three weeks ago I went to a
gathering of sheiks from the Province outside of Ramadi that numbered over 300 of the most influential men in the west. Three years ago my entire days and nights were devoted to tracking many of these same men down, and capturing or killing them, which is exactly what they were trying to do to me. However, by relentless pursuit by a bunch of fearless 19 year olds with guns who never flinched or gave an inch, while at the same time holding out the carrot of economic development, they have seen the light and know AQ can’t win against such men. By staying in the fight, and remaining true to our word, and our honor, AQ today can’t spend more than a few hours in Fallujah, Ramadi, or the Al Anbar in general, without being IDed by the locals and killed by the increasingly competent Iraqi Army, or by Marines. That’s the way it is today in this war, but it is also the way it has been since the birth of our nation.
Since our Declaration of Independence 42 million Americans have claimed the honor of having served the nation in its military forces. Since that time over a million have lost their lives serving the colors, with millions more wounded. Since George Washington first took command of the Continentals besieging Boston, America’s warriors have stepped forward and endured horrors unimaginable to most Americans, and saw it all with their young eyes so those safe at home would never have to. With all this service and loss of life, we as Americans can be proud of the kind of people we are as we have never retained a square foot of any country we have defeated. We possess no empire. No man or woman call us master, as we have never subjugated any society. On the contrary, billions across the planet —and billions more yet unborn—are today free and increasingly prosperous because America took a stand; but it has always fallen on the shoulders of our soldiers, sailors, airmen Coast Guardsmen, and Marines that the task fell to…and they have never wavered. Never, with the exception of World War II, has it been particularly crowded at the recruiting offices, and in recent years it’s an increasingly slim slice of the American public who believe in this country enough to put life and limb on the line particularly in the Army and Marine Corps to serve without qualification, and without personal gain. Yet still for whatever reason they come—even though there is great pressure from our society to sit it out and not get involved.
The reality was that when many in this room grew up, and I know I am showing my age here, we were surrounded by men, real men, who had gladly worn the country’s cloth in wars against fascism and communism. The earliest memories we had as kids back then were of comic books and paper backs that honored the sacrifices of the super heroes of those conflicts. It was a time when little boys could play guns, and weren’t considered at risk to be psychopaths. To stand up when the national anthem was played or say the pledge of allegiance and a prayer to any God you worshiped before school, wasn’t considered offensive to the sensitivities of the nation’s selfproclaimed intellectual elite. Places like Guadalcanal, Coral Sea, Normandy, Iwo Jima, the Chosen Reservoir, and Hue City, were real to us then, and we knew without thinking that we owed the nation a debt.
We live in a very different world today, and we have indeed lost something of quality over the years. We don’t always see that same selfless devotion to something bigger than self the lucky among us learned from past generations. Today, unfortunately, to most it’s about quick gratification, and what’s in it for me. Memorial and Veteran’s Day are more about a day off to take advantage of the big sales at the malls, or fighting the traffic to get a long weekend at the seashore. But we should not forget that as we stand here today we are at war, and a new Greatest Generation is fighting a merciless enemy on our behalf in the terrible heat of Iraq, and mountains of Afghanistan. Like it or not America is engaged in—and winning—a war today against an enemy that is savage, offers no quarter, whose only objectives are to either kill every one of us here in our homeland, or enslave us with a sick form of extremism that serves no God or purpose that rational men and women can ever understand. Given the opportunity to do another 9/11, our vicious enemy would do it today, tomorrow, and everyday thereafter. In addition to killing thousands of innocent victims that day, they also killed hundreds of heroes: police, firefighters, and first responders of every sort that were not victims in their deaths, but the first fallen warriors of this generation’s war. Given nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons—and the experts bet they will get them—these extremists would use these terror weapons against our cities, and smile.
I don’t know why they hate us, and I frankly don’t care and they can all go to hell, but they do hate us and they are driven irrationally to our destruction. The best way to fight them is
somewhere else, and for whatever reason they want to destroy our way of life I thank God we still have enough, just enough, young people in American today willing to take up the fight and defend us all.
This fight is today, not against some potential peer competitor that might emerge 30 years from now, and will be with us for another generation or more. Our enemy is on a 100 year
campaign to victory, and believes without question that he is winning. We, on the other hand, look out two years at best and seem to be wavering and looking for a way to rationalize our way out. The problem is our enemy is not willing to let us go. Regardless of how much we wish this bad dream would go away, he will stay with us until he hurts us so badly we surrender, or we kill him first. To him this is not about jobs, economic opportunity, or solving social problems in the Middle East. It is about way of life, about everyman’s and every woman’s worth and equality in the eyes of the law, about the God given rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. He doesn’t believe in these cherished concepts—we do. Our positions are irreconcilable.
The good news is our service members are as good today, as their fathers were in Vietnam, and their grandfathers were in Korea and World War II. In my two tours in Iraq as an infantry officer with the 1st Marine Division I never saw an American hesitate, or do anything other than lean into the fire and with no apparent fear of death or injury take the fight to our enemies. As anyone who has ever experienced combat knows, when it starts, when the explosions and tracers are everywhere and the calls for the Corpsman or medic are screamed from the throats of men who know they are dying—when seconds seem like hours and it all becomes slow motion and fast forward at the same time—everything in one’s survival instinct says stop, get down, save yourself —yet they don’t. When no one would call them coward for cowering behind a wall or in a hole looking to their own self preservation, none of them do. It doesn’t matter if it’s an IED, a suicide bomber, mortar attack, fighting in an up stairs room of a house, or all of it at once; they talk, swagger, and, most importantly, fight today in the same way our young warriors have since the Revolution. They also know whose shoulders they stand on, and would die before anyone of them shamed any veteran of any service, living or dead.
You should see them. They have a look in their eye and a way of walking that marks them as warriors as good as any that have ever marched to the guns, but they are not born killers. They are, on the contrary, good and decent youngsters mostly from the neighborhoods of our cities, and small towns across America. Almost all are from “salt of the earth” working class homes, and more often than not are the sons and daughters of cops and firemen, factory workers and farmers. Kids who once delivered your papers, stocked shelves in the grocery store, played Little League, and served Mass on Sunday morning. They were athletes, as well as “couch potatoes,” drove their cars and motorcycles too fast, and blasted their music a bit louder than they should. They are ordinary young people, performing remarkable acts of bravery and selfless acts of devotion to a cause bigger than themselves. They could have done something more self serving, but chose to serve knowing full well Iraq and Afghanistan was in their future. They did not avoid the most basic and cherished responsibility of a citizen, on the contrary they welcomed it. They did not fail in school and without prospects, as the chattering class believe is why they are in the military and fighting and dying for the nation, but rather are the best our nation has to offer and have put every one of us above their own self interest. They are all heroes, but they know and understand fear in a way that few Americans do. It is not as much the fear of death or maiming they think about, but, rather, they are most terrified of letting their buddies down…but they never do.
Ladies and Gentlemen I had a unique experience a few years ago when serving as the Assistant Division Commander, of the 1st Marine Division. We were just south of Iraq along the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border, and poised to launch an attack that would take us over the next three weeks 650 miles into the guts of Iraq, far beyond Baghdad and indeed to Saddam’s hometown palace in Tikrit. When the artillery fires commenced just as the sun went down, and the evening sky above us was one endless formation of Marine, Navy and Air Force fighter aircraft speeding north to smash targets deep in Saddam’s vitals, I was sitting taking it all in with my driver Cpl Dave Hardin from Dallas, and with a reporter from the Los Angeles Times. The reporter asked me a question that I’d never considered in my entire 36 years in the Marine Corps as both enlisted man and officer before the asking, but one I took up in my mind when he did. He pointed out the size and capability of the Iraqi forces in front of us that was many, many times bigger than we were in men, tanks, and artillery. He emphasized much to my discomfort the massive supplies of chemical weapons Saddam was thought to have, and the multiple means he had to rain their terrible kind of death upon us. He asked if I’d ever contemplated defeat. If it was even possible?
My thoughts immediately took me back to trips I’d made to Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Inchon Korea, and Vietnam, and the conversations I’d had with veterans of those battles, mostly old men now. They tell of friends who made it, and many who didn’t. About the good times, and the bad, but mostly about the good as is typical of our veterans. My response to the reporter was something like: “hell these are Marines. Men like them held Guadalcanal and took Iwo Jima, Baghdad ain’t shit.” This same sentiment could, and does, apply to any American serviceman or woman. We who serve, who are sent to fight wars and have nothing whatsoever to do with starting them, have never known defeat on the battlefield. When we have lost, we lost at home, and others declared defeat—not us.
America’s Armed Forces today know the price of being the finest men and women this nation has to offer, and pay it they do everyday in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over four-thousand one hundred all services have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, over a thousand of this number Marines, and Sailors serving with Marines—our precious Docs. And the sacrifice continues as XXX Americans have gone to God since we all went to bed last night and slept free and protected. Their mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, wives and husbands, aunts, uncles, cousins and fiancés have only just learned of their deaths and begun to deal with the unimaginable pain that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Thousands more have suffered wounds since it all started, but like firefighters and cops who fall protecting us here in America, they are not victims as they knew what they were about, and were doing what they wanted to do. Many of today’s pundits and media commentators want to make them and their families out to be victims but they are wrong, and this only detracts from the decision these patriots made to step forward and protect the country that has given so much to all of us. We who are serving, and have served, will have none of that. Those with less of a sense of service to the nation never understand it when strong men and women stand tall and firm against the our enemies, just as they can’t begin to understand the price paid so they and their families can sleep safe and free at night—the protected never do. What they are missing, what they will also never understand, is the sense of commitment, joy, and honor, of serving our country in its uniform, but every American veteran, and their loved ones who supported them and feared for them everyday, do.
It’s been my distinct honor to have had the opportunity to be here today with. Rest assured, my fellow citizens, the nation you are a part of, this young experiment in democracy
called America started just over two centuries ago, will forever remain the “land of the free and home of the brave” so long as we never run out of tough young Americans willing to look beyond their own self interest and comfortable lives, and go into the darkest and most dangerous places on earth to hunt down, and kill, those who would do us harm.
Semper Fidelis
Brigadier General John F. Kelly (major general select) was a guest speaker at the San Diego Military Advisory Council (SDMAC)
SB forwarded an email with the note "MGEN Kelly's Speech should go in your blog."
So, here it is! It's hugely long and it's already been posted over at BlackFive. But I must do as asked. And besides.........Kelly's a Boston guy, so where else should he be!
I want to open by offering LtGen Mattis’ apologies for missing this event. Until recently he certainly looked forward to being here, but an unexpected change in a three and four star executive offsite in Washington prevents him from joining you today. I am his recently joined deputy at the First Marine Expeditionary Force at Pendleton, and will have the honor of taking the next Marine rotation to Iraq early next year. I was also General Mattis’ deputy once before when he commanded the 1st Marine Division on the march to Baghdad, Tikrit and beyond four years ago, and when we went back into Iraq in March 2004 relieving the 82nd Airborne in Al Anbar Province. I am just two months out of the Pentagon where I served as the Commandant’s Legislative Advisor, and deputy advisor to the SECNAV, so I know the Congress and the Secretary’s and Commandant’s Hill agendas pretty well. I’ll be glad to speak to amphibious ship requirements, V-22 Ospreys, VSTOL Joint Strike fighters, a Marine Corps growing by 27,000 or anything else for that matter during the Q+A.
I left Iraq three years ago last month. I returned a week ago after a two week visit of getting the lay of the land for my upcoming deployment. It is still a dangerous and foreboding
land, but what I experienced personally was amazing and remarkable—we are winning, we are really winning. No one told me to say that, I saw it for myself. The higher command in Baghdad told us four years ago when we first took responsibility for the Al Anbar not to worry about victory, as no one—military or civilian—thought it possible. That thirty years from now when the rest of Iraq was a functioning democracy, Al Anbar would still be a festering cancer within. Our success, so we were told, would be in containing violence, not defeating the Al Qaeda and other foreign born terrorists that were deeply entrenched in the Province. The reality is that today the incidents of attack in Al Anbar—mostly by Al Qaeda—are down by over 80% in the last six months—that translates to dozens and dozens everyday then, to perhaps three or four today.
Since the spring local inhabitants and their sheik leadership, are now joined with us at the shoulder in fighting the extremists that plague their country. Three weeks ago I went to a
gathering of sheiks from the Province outside of Ramadi that numbered over 300 of the most influential men in the west. Three years ago my entire days and nights were devoted to tracking many of these same men down, and capturing or killing them, which is exactly what they were trying to do to me. However, by relentless pursuit by a bunch of fearless 19 year olds with guns who never flinched or gave an inch, while at the same time holding out the carrot of economic development, they have seen the light and know AQ can’t win against such men. By staying in the fight, and remaining true to our word, and our honor, AQ today can’t spend more than a few hours in Fallujah, Ramadi, or the Al Anbar in general, without being IDed by the locals and killed by the increasingly competent Iraqi Army, or by Marines. That’s the way it is today in this war, but it is also the way it has been since the birth of our nation.
Since our Declaration of Independence 42 million Americans have claimed the honor of having served the nation in its military forces. Since that time over a million have lost their lives serving the colors, with millions more wounded. Since George Washington first took command of the Continentals besieging Boston, America’s warriors have stepped forward and endured horrors unimaginable to most Americans, and saw it all with their young eyes so those safe at home would never have to. With all this service and loss of life, we as Americans can be proud of the kind of people we are as we have never retained a square foot of any country we have defeated. We possess no empire. No man or woman call us master, as we have never subjugated any society. On the contrary, billions across the planet —and billions more yet unborn—are today free and increasingly prosperous because America took a stand; but it has always fallen on the shoulders of our soldiers, sailors, airmen Coast Guardsmen, and Marines that the task fell to…and they have never wavered. Never, with the exception of World War II, has it been particularly crowded at the recruiting offices, and in recent years it’s an increasingly slim slice of the American public who believe in this country enough to put life and limb on the line particularly in the Army and Marine Corps to serve without qualification, and without personal gain. Yet still for whatever reason they come—even though there is great pressure from our society to sit it out and not get involved.
The reality was that when many in this room grew up, and I know I am showing my age here, we were surrounded by men, real men, who had gladly worn the country’s cloth in wars against fascism and communism. The earliest memories we had as kids back then were of comic books and paper backs that honored the sacrifices of the super heroes of those conflicts. It was a time when little boys could play guns, and weren’t considered at risk to be psychopaths. To stand up when the national anthem was played or say the pledge of allegiance and a prayer to any God you worshiped before school, wasn’t considered offensive to the sensitivities of the nation’s selfproclaimed intellectual elite. Places like Guadalcanal, Coral Sea, Normandy, Iwo Jima, the Chosen Reservoir, and Hue City, were real to us then, and we knew without thinking that we owed the nation a debt.
We live in a very different world today, and we have indeed lost something of quality over the years. We don’t always see that same selfless devotion to something bigger than self the lucky among us learned from past generations. Today, unfortunately, to most it’s about quick gratification, and what’s in it for me. Memorial and Veteran’s Day are more about a day off to take advantage of the big sales at the malls, or fighting the traffic to get a long weekend at the seashore. But we should not forget that as we stand here today we are at war, and a new Greatest Generation is fighting a merciless enemy on our behalf in the terrible heat of Iraq, and mountains of Afghanistan. Like it or not America is engaged in—and winning—a war today against an enemy that is savage, offers no quarter, whose only objectives are to either kill every one of us here in our homeland, or enslave us with a sick form of extremism that serves no God or purpose that rational men and women can ever understand. Given the opportunity to do another 9/11, our vicious enemy would do it today, tomorrow, and everyday thereafter. In addition to killing thousands of innocent victims that day, they also killed hundreds of heroes: police, firefighters, and first responders of every sort that were not victims in their deaths, but the first fallen warriors of this generation’s war. Given nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons—and the experts bet they will get them—these extremists would use these terror weapons against our cities, and smile.
I don’t know why they hate us, and I frankly don’t care and they can all go to hell, but they do hate us and they are driven irrationally to our destruction. The best way to fight them is
somewhere else, and for whatever reason they want to destroy our way of life I thank God we still have enough, just enough, young people in American today willing to take up the fight and defend us all.
This fight is today, not against some potential peer competitor that might emerge 30 years from now, and will be with us for another generation or more. Our enemy is on a 100 year
campaign to victory, and believes without question that he is winning. We, on the other hand, look out two years at best and seem to be wavering and looking for a way to rationalize our way out. The problem is our enemy is not willing to let us go. Regardless of how much we wish this bad dream would go away, he will stay with us until he hurts us so badly we surrender, or we kill him first. To him this is not about jobs, economic opportunity, or solving social problems in the Middle East. It is about way of life, about everyman’s and every woman’s worth and equality in the eyes of the law, about the God given rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. He doesn’t believe in these cherished concepts—we do. Our positions are irreconcilable.
The good news is our service members are as good today, as their fathers were in Vietnam, and their grandfathers were in Korea and World War II. In my two tours in Iraq as an infantry officer with the 1st Marine Division I never saw an American hesitate, or do anything other than lean into the fire and with no apparent fear of death or injury take the fight to our enemies. As anyone who has ever experienced combat knows, when it starts, when the explosions and tracers are everywhere and the calls for the Corpsman or medic are screamed from the throats of men who know they are dying—when seconds seem like hours and it all becomes slow motion and fast forward at the same time—everything in one’s survival instinct says stop, get down, save yourself —yet they don’t. When no one would call them coward for cowering behind a wall or in a hole looking to their own self preservation, none of them do. It doesn’t matter if it’s an IED, a suicide bomber, mortar attack, fighting in an up stairs room of a house, or all of it at once; they talk, swagger, and, most importantly, fight today in the same way our young warriors have since the Revolution. They also know whose shoulders they stand on, and would die before anyone of them shamed any veteran of any service, living or dead.
You should see them. They have a look in their eye and a way of walking that marks them as warriors as good as any that have ever marched to the guns, but they are not born killers. They are, on the contrary, good and decent youngsters mostly from the neighborhoods of our cities, and small towns across America. Almost all are from “salt of the earth” working class homes, and more often than not are the sons and daughters of cops and firemen, factory workers and farmers. Kids who once delivered your papers, stocked shelves in the grocery store, played Little League, and served Mass on Sunday morning. They were athletes, as well as “couch potatoes,” drove their cars and motorcycles too fast, and blasted their music a bit louder than they should. They are ordinary young people, performing remarkable acts of bravery and selfless acts of devotion to a cause bigger than themselves. They could have done something more self serving, but chose to serve knowing full well Iraq and Afghanistan was in their future. They did not avoid the most basic and cherished responsibility of a citizen, on the contrary they welcomed it. They did not fail in school and without prospects, as the chattering class believe is why they are in the military and fighting and dying for the nation, but rather are the best our nation has to offer and have put every one of us above their own self interest. They are all heroes, but they know and understand fear in a way that few Americans do. It is not as much the fear of death or maiming they think about, but, rather, they are most terrified of letting their buddies down…but they never do.
Ladies and Gentlemen I had a unique experience a few years ago when serving as the Assistant Division Commander, of the 1st Marine Division. We were just south of Iraq along the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border, and poised to launch an attack that would take us over the next three weeks 650 miles into the guts of Iraq, far beyond Baghdad and indeed to Saddam’s hometown palace in Tikrit. When the artillery fires commenced just as the sun went down, and the evening sky above us was one endless formation of Marine, Navy and Air Force fighter aircraft speeding north to smash targets deep in Saddam’s vitals, I was sitting taking it all in with my driver Cpl Dave Hardin from Dallas, and with a reporter from the Los Angeles Times. The reporter asked me a question that I’d never considered in my entire 36 years in the Marine Corps as both enlisted man and officer before the asking, but one I took up in my mind when he did. He pointed out the size and capability of the Iraqi forces in front of us that was many, many times bigger than we were in men, tanks, and artillery. He emphasized much to my discomfort the massive supplies of chemical weapons Saddam was thought to have, and the multiple means he had to rain their terrible kind of death upon us. He asked if I’d ever contemplated defeat. If it was even possible?
My thoughts immediately took me back to trips I’d made to Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Inchon Korea, and Vietnam, and the conversations I’d had with veterans of those battles, mostly old men now. They tell of friends who made it, and many who didn’t. About the good times, and the bad, but mostly about the good as is typical of our veterans. My response to the reporter was something like: “hell these are Marines. Men like them held Guadalcanal and took Iwo Jima, Baghdad ain’t shit.” This same sentiment could, and does, apply to any American serviceman or woman. We who serve, who are sent to fight wars and have nothing whatsoever to do with starting them, have never known defeat on the battlefield. When we have lost, we lost at home, and others declared defeat—not us.
America’s Armed Forces today know the price of being the finest men and women this nation has to offer, and pay it they do everyday in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over four-thousand one hundred all services have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, over a thousand of this number Marines, and Sailors serving with Marines—our precious Docs. And the sacrifice continues as XXX Americans have gone to God since we all went to bed last night and slept free and protected. Their mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, wives and husbands, aunts, uncles, cousins and fiancés have only just learned of their deaths and begun to deal with the unimaginable pain that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Thousands more have suffered wounds since it all started, but like firefighters and cops who fall protecting us here in America, they are not victims as they knew what they were about, and were doing what they wanted to do. Many of today’s pundits and media commentators want to make them and their families out to be victims but they are wrong, and this only detracts from the decision these patriots made to step forward and protect the country that has given so much to all of us. We who are serving, and have served, will have none of that. Those with less of a sense of service to the nation never understand it when strong men and women stand tall and firm against the our enemies, just as they can’t begin to understand the price paid so they and their families can sleep safe and free at night—the protected never do. What they are missing, what they will also never understand, is the sense of commitment, joy, and honor, of serving our country in its uniform, but every American veteran, and their loved ones who supported them and feared for them everyday, do.
It’s been my distinct honor to have had the opportunity to be here today with. Rest assured, my fellow citizens, the nation you are a part of, this young experiment in democracy
called America started just over two centuries ago, will forever remain the “land of the free and home of the brave” so long as we never run out of tough young Americans willing to look beyond their own self interest and comfortable lives, and go into the darkest and most dangerous places on earth to hunt down, and kill, those who would do us harm.
Semper Fidelis
Brigadier General John F. Kelly (major general select) was a guest speaker at the San Diego Military Advisory Council (SDMAC)
Monday, October 01, 2007
Hehehe! How Did I Miss This?
That idiot, John Edwards, went and put his foot in it again! Does he do this just for my amusement?
Here is a link to the MTV "Presidential Dialogue". In this clip a young woman asks Edwards what he would do about inner city violence. He repsonse?
"We start with the president of the United States saying to America we cannot build enough prisons to solve this problem and the idea that we're just going to keep incarcerating, keep incarcerating, pretty soon we're not going to have a young African-American male population in America. They're all going to be in prison or dead, one of the two."
LOL! What? YGTBFKM!
Here is a link to the MTV "Presidential Dialogue". In this clip a young woman asks Edwards what he would do about inner city violence. He repsonse?
"We start with the president of the United States saying to America we cannot build enough prisons to solve this problem and the idea that we're just going to keep incarcerating, keep incarcerating, pretty soon we're not going to have a young African-American male population in America. They're all going to be in prison or dead, one of the two."
LOL! What? YGTBFKM!
A "Maggie" Story!
So, Saturday was a picture perfect day here in New England. It was warm and sunny....not a cloud in the sky. I had the day off and a few options. I chose lunch on the Cape with my sisters. The drive down was easier than one could hope for, very light traffic and I was there in half the time suggested by Google. So I was crazy early. Terribly unusual for me. People who know me are rolling their eyes right now. Did you ever have a friend who was tardy soooooooo often that you lie to them about when they need to be somewhere? I am that friend. My alarm clock is wound forward, people are always calling "You won't be late, will you?". I drive my father mad!
It turns out that this was one of those days for my sisters. They have told me 1:15 or so when they mean 1:45. Then, they have a delay........
It turns out that this was one of those days for my sisters. They have told me 1:15 or so when they mean 1:45. Then, they have a delay........
So, let's review, I'm early........I have been misled......they have been delayed. Result? Time on my hands.
Normally I am prepared for this, but it was really too beautiful to sit in my car and read. What to do? Well, how about a little recon? I figured I'd check out this place, since I'd never been there before. It's really is lovely, right on the harbor.
What do I spy? A dozen guys in desert camis.......they get closer...... How did they know I needed to be entertained? LOL Of course I start talking to them.
I told Jen and Grace later when they got there that I had talked to them. That was met with a look of disbelief, then much laughter. Jen said "Well, she has been talking to strangers her whole life!"
So, let me take this opportunity to thank the Department of Defense for providing me with some entertainment!
ADM GARY ROUGHEAD, CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS
Ahhhhhh................it feels so good. Mmmmmmmm Don't mind me, I'm just savoring victory. It's like having a mouthful of M&Ms melting on my tongue, as I sink into the jacuzzi at the Spa in Foxwoods while I wait for my body polish........it feels good.
This was in my inbox this morning, with a note "Let the bragging begin!"
FM CNO WASHINGTON DC//N00//
TO NAVADMIN
UNCLAS//N05060//
NAVADMIN 248/07
MSGID/GENADMIN/CNO WASHINGTON DC/N00/SEP// SUBJ/CNO MESSAGE TO THEFLEET// GENTEXT/REMARKS/
1. THE OPPORTUNITY TO CONTINUE TO SERVE AND TOLEAD OUR NAVY IS THE HIGHEST HONOR FOR ANY NAVAL OFFICER. ASSUMING THELEADERSHIP OF OUR NAVY FROM ADMIRAL MIKE MULLEN IS A GREAT PRIVILEGE.HIS VISION, DRIVE, AND COMMITMENT TO THOSE WHO SERVE HAVE POSITIONED USWELL TODAY AND FOR TOMORROW. I KNOW ALL OF YOU JOIN ME IN WISHING HIMAND DEBORAH EVERY SUCCESS AS HE TAKES UP HIS NEW RESPONSIBILITIES ASCHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF.
2. I AM OF THE FLEET. IT IS WHERE I BEGAN AND WHERE, FOR THE PAST FOURYEARS, IN THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC, I HAVE HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF LEADINGOUR OPERATIONAL FORCES, NAVY AND JOINT. I HAVE WATCHED OUR SAILORSPERFORM MAGNIFICENTLY FROM THE HIGH END OF WARFARE TO THE MOST EXTENSIVEHUMANITARIAN OPERATION EVER UNDERTAKEN BY OUR MILITARY. I AM INSPIREDBY OUR INDIVIDUAL AUGMENTEES AND OTHERS ON THE GROUND. THEY ARE A NEWDIMENSION OF OUR NAVY AND ONE IN WHICH WE CAN ALL TAKE PRIDE. WE ARETRULY A READY, AGILE, AND GLOBAL NAVY.
3. MY PRIORITIES HAVE BEEN AND WILL REMAIN, MAINTAINING OUR CURRENTREADINESS, BUILDING A NAVY FOR TOMORROW, AND THAT WHICH UNDERPINS ALL WEDO, OUR PEOPLE ? OUR SAILORS, OUR CIVILIANS AND OUR VERY SPECIALFAMILIES, WHOSE HALLMARKS ARE SACRIFICE AND SELF-RELIANCE.A. CURRENT READINESS. MAINTAINING OUR WARFIGHTING READINESS WILLENSURE WE ARE AN AGILE, CAPABLE, AND READY FORCE. WE ARE CONTINUALLYGENERATING FORCES FOR THE CURRENT FIGHT AND ARE DEPLOYING AND EMPLOYINGOUR NAVY MUCH DIFFERENTLY THAN IN YEARS PAST. WE ARE SIMULTANEOUSLYPROVIDING READY NAVAL FORCES AND PERSONNEL FOR JOINT FORCE COMMANDERS,SUSTAINING FORWARD PRESENCE, FULFILLING COMMITMENTS TO ALLIES, ANDRESPONDING TO INCREASING DEMANDS IN REGIONS WHERE WE HAVE NOT ROUTINELYOPERATED, SPECIFICALLY SOUTH AMERICA AND AFRICA. OUR GLOBAL BLUE-WATERNAVY, CENTERED AROUND CARRIER STRIKE GROUPS, EXPEDITIONARY STRIKEGROUPS, AND SUBMARINES IS UNMATCHED, AND WILL CONTINUE TO BE OURCORNERSTONE. OUR FLEET RESPONSE PLAN WILL INCREASE OUR OPERATIONALAVAILABILITY AND ALLOW US TO OPERATE WITH MORE FLEXIBILITY.B. A NAVY FOR TOMORROW. THE MEANS AND METHODS OF CONFLICT AND THESECURITY ENVIRONMENT UNDERGO CONSTANT CHANGE. TECHNOLOGY AND NEWAPPROACHES ARE ADVANCING RAPIDLY. OUR SHIPS, SUBMARINES, AIRCRAFT,WEAPONS, AND NETWORKS MUST OUTPACE POTENTIAL ADVERSARIES. THE COST OFFUTURE SYSTEMS AND THE ABILITY OF OUR OVERALL ACQUISITION PROCESSES TOPACE THE SPEED OF TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION WILL CHALLENGE OUR ABILITY TODELIVER A BALANCED FORCE. ACCORDINGLY, WE MUST BE EXACTING INDEVELOPING REQUIREMENTS, MINDFUL OF THE FACTORS THAT INCREASE COST, ANDDISCIPLINED IN OUR PROCESS TO BE EFFECTIVE, EFFICIENT, AND TIMELY INDELIVERING FUTURE CAPABILITY.C. PEOPLE. OUR PEOPLE ARE THE FOUNDATION FOR ALL WE DO. ALL WEACQUIRE IS OF LITTLE WORTH WITHOUT THE PEOPLE WHO GIVE IT VALUE. OURPOLICIES AND PRACTICES MUST ENABLE US TO ATTRACT, RECRUIT, RETAIN ANDFULFILL THE MEN AND WOMEN OF AMERICA, AND OUR NAVY MUST REFLECT THEDIVERSITY OF OUR NATION. THE DEMOGRAPHICS, ATTITUDES, AND EXPECTATIONSOF OUR POPULATION ARE CHANGING AND WE MUST UNDERSTAND THAT DYNAMIC. OURPOLICIES MUST ADVANTAGE US AND ADDRESS THE MANY REWARDS OF SERVICE, ANDWE MUST BE UNWAVERING IN OUR OBLIGATION TO TAKE CARE OF THOSE WHO SERVEIN OUR NAVY AND THE FAMILIES WHO SUPPORT THEM. THIS IS PARTICULARLYIMPORTANT TODAY FOR THOSE SERVING IN INDIVIDUAL AUGMENTATIONASSIGNMENTS.
4. THOSE ARE MY PRIORITIES, BUT THERE IS ANOTHER DIMENSION TO OURFUTURE. WE HAVE A UNIQUE HISTORICAL, ORGANIZATIONAL, AND OPERATIONALRELATIONSHIP WITH THE U.S. MARINE CORPS. OUR FORCES TRAIN, DEPLOY, ANDFIGHT TOGETHER. OUR CAPABILITIES, PROGRAMS AND PERSONNEL ISSUES AREINEXTRICABLY LINKED. I AM COMMITTED TO THE NAVY AND MARINE CORPSPARTNERSHIP AND TO MAKING IT EVEN STRONGER AND MORE RELEVANT FOR THEFUTURE. WE CAN DO MUCH FOR OUR COUNTRY AS A NAVY-MARINE CORPS TEAM.
5. ALTHOUGH WE ARE AT WAR, I SEE MORE OPPORTUNITY THAN CHALLENGE ANDMORE IN OUR FUTURE THAN IN OUR PAST. I LOOK FORWARD TO LEADING OURNAVY. I AM EAGER TO MEET ALL THAT IS BEFORE US, AND TO SERVING WITH YOUAS WE FACE THE FUTURE AND SEIZE THE OPPORTUNITIES AHEAD.
6. RELEASED BY ADM GARY ROUGHEAD, CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS.//
Bravo Zulu, sir! Congratulations from the Swabbie Doxie who won the CNO Pool.
This was in my inbox this morning, with a note "Let the bragging begin!"
FM CNO WASHINGTON DC//N00//
TO NAVADMIN
UNCLAS//N05060//
NAVADMIN 248/07
MSGID/GENADMIN/CNO WASHINGTON DC/N00/SEP// SUBJ/CNO MESSAGE TO THEFLEET// GENTEXT/REMARKS/
1. THE OPPORTUNITY TO CONTINUE TO SERVE AND TOLEAD OUR NAVY IS THE HIGHEST HONOR FOR ANY NAVAL OFFICER. ASSUMING THELEADERSHIP OF OUR NAVY FROM ADMIRAL MIKE MULLEN IS A GREAT PRIVILEGE.HIS VISION, DRIVE, AND COMMITMENT TO THOSE WHO SERVE HAVE POSITIONED USWELL TODAY AND FOR TOMORROW. I KNOW ALL OF YOU JOIN ME IN WISHING HIMAND DEBORAH EVERY SUCCESS AS HE TAKES UP HIS NEW RESPONSIBILITIES ASCHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF.
2. I AM OF THE FLEET. IT IS WHERE I BEGAN AND WHERE, FOR THE PAST FOURYEARS, IN THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC, I HAVE HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF LEADINGOUR OPERATIONAL FORCES, NAVY AND JOINT. I HAVE WATCHED OUR SAILORSPERFORM MAGNIFICENTLY FROM THE HIGH END OF WARFARE TO THE MOST EXTENSIVEHUMANITARIAN OPERATION EVER UNDERTAKEN BY OUR MILITARY. I AM INSPIREDBY OUR INDIVIDUAL AUGMENTEES AND OTHERS ON THE GROUND. THEY ARE A NEWDIMENSION OF OUR NAVY AND ONE IN WHICH WE CAN ALL TAKE PRIDE. WE ARETRULY A READY, AGILE, AND GLOBAL NAVY.
3. MY PRIORITIES HAVE BEEN AND WILL REMAIN, MAINTAINING OUR CURRENTREADINESS, BUILDING A NAVY FOR TOMORROW, AND THAT WHICH UNDERPINS ALL WEDO, OUR PEOPLE ? OUR SAILORS, OUR CIVILIANS AND OUR VERY SPECIALFAMILIES, WHOSE HALLMARKS ARE SACRIFICE AND SELF-RELIANCE.A. CURRENT READINESS. MAINTAINING OUR WARFIGHTING READINESS WILLENSURE WE ARE AN AGILE, CAPABLE, AND READY FORCE. WE ARE CONTINUALLYGENERATING FORCES FOR THE CURRENT FIGHT AND ARE DEPLOYING AND EMPLOYINGOUR NAVY MUCH DIFFERENTLY THAN IN YEARS PAST. WE ARE SIMULTANEOUSLYPROVIDING READY NAVAL FORCES AND PERSONNEL FOR JOINT FORCE COMMANDERS,SUSTAINING FORWARD PRESENCE, FULFILLING COMMITMENTS TO ALLIES, ANDRESPONDING TO INCREASING DEMANDS IN REGIONS WHERE WE HAVE NOT ROUTINELYOPERATED, SPECIFICALLY SOUTH AMERICA AND AFRICA. OUR GLOBAL BLUE-WATERNAVY, CENTERED AROUND CARRIER STRIKE GROUPS, EXPEDITIONARY STRIKEGROUPS, AND SUBMARINES IS UNMATCHED, AND WILL CONTINUE TO BE OURCORNERSTONE. OUR FLEET RESPONSE PLAN WILL INCREASE OUR OPERATIONALAVAILABILITY AND ALLOW US TO OPERATE WITH MORE FLEXIBILITY.B. A NAVY FOR TOMORROW. THE MEANS AND METHODS OF CONFLICT AND THESECURITY ENVIRONMENT UNDERGO CONSTANT CHANGE. TECHNOLOGY AND NEWAPPROACHES ARE ADVANCING RAPIDLY. OUR SHIPS, SUBMARINES, AIRCRAFT,WEAPONS, AND NETWORKS MUST OUTPACE POTENTIAL ADVERSARIES. THE COST OFFUTURE SYSTEMS AND THE ABILITY OF OUR OVERALL ACQUISITION PROCESSES TOPACE THE SPEED OF TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION WILL CHALLENGE OUR ABILITY TODELIVER A BALANCED FORCE. ACCORDINGLY, WE MUST BE EXACTING INDEVELOPING REQUIREMENTS, MINDFUL OF THE FACTORS THAT INCREASE COST, ANDDISCIPLINED IN OUR PROCESS TO BE EFFECTIVE, EFFICIENT, AND TIMELY INDELIVERING FUTURE CAPABILITY.C. PEOPLE. OUR PEOPLE ARE THE FOUNDATION FOR ALL WE DO. ALL WEACQUIRE IS OF LITTLE WORTH WITHOUT THE PEOPLE WHO GIVE IT VALUE. OURPOLICIES AND PRACTICES MUST ENABLE US TO ATTRACT, RECRUIT, RETAIN ANDFULFILL THE MEN AND WOMEN OF AMERICA, AND OUR NAVY MUST REFLECT THEDIVERSITY OF OUR NATION. THE DEMOGRAPHICS, ATTITUDES, AND EXPECTATIONSOF OUR POPULATION ARE CHANGING AND WE MUST UNDERSTAND THAT DYNAMIC. OURPOLICIES MUST ADVANTAGE US AND ADDRESS THE MANY REWARDS OF SERVICE, ANDWE MUST BE UNWAVERING IN OUR OBLIGATION TO TAKE CARE OF THOSE WHO SERVEIN OUR NAVY AND THE FAMILIES WHO SUPPORT THEM. THIS IS PARTICULARLYIMPORTANT TODAY FOR THOSE SERVING IN INDIVIDUAL AUGMENTATIONASSIGNMENTS.
4. THOSE ARE MY PRIORITIES, BUT THERE IS ANOTHER DIMENSION TO OURFUTURE. WE HAVE A UNIQUE HISTORICAL, ORGANIZATIONAL, AND OPERATIONALRELATIONSHIP WITH THE U.S. MARINE CORPS. OUR FORCES TRAIN, DEPLOY, ANDFIGHT TOGETHER. OUR CAPABILITIES, PROGRAMS AND PERSONNEL ISSUES AREINEXTRICABLY LINKED. I AM COMMITTED TO THE NAVY AND MARINE CORPSPARTNERSHIP AND TO MAKING IT EVEN STRONGER AND MORE RELEVANT FOR THEFUTURE. WE CAN DO MUCH FOR OUR COUNTRY AS A NAVY-MARINE CORPS TEAM.
5. ALTHOUGH WE ARE AT WAR, I SEE MORE OPPORTUNITY THAN CHALLENGE ANDMORE IN OUR FUTURE THAN IN OUR PAST. I LOOK FORWARD TO LEADING OURNAVY. I AM EAGER TO MEET ALL THAT IS BEFORE US, AND TO SERVING WITH YOUAS WE FACE THE FUTURE AND SEIZE THE OPPORTUNITIES AHEAD.
6. RELEASED BY ADM GARY ROUGHEAD, CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS.//
Bravo Zulu, sir! Congratulations from the Swabbie Doxie who won the CNO Pool.
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