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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A Navy admiral engaged in sexual relations in the White House in 1990 with a federal employee whom he falsely told he was a widower, according to a report released Friday by the Defense Department. In March, when the report was submitted to Pentagon officials, Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem was demoted and fired from his post as director of the Navy staff. Stufflebeem told investigators he couldn't remember the name of the woman he had an affair with. He also lied when he told investigators he did not engage in sexual relations with the woman, identified as...

LEMOORE NAVAL AIR STATION (CALIFORNIA): The race for a $10 billion Indian order for 126 fighters just got hotter with the US Navy enthusiastically batting for the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet, saying it was best suited for an Indian Air Force (IAF) requirement for a multi-role combat aircraft (MRCA). Such was the spirit with which UN Navy pilots put the jet through its paces at this sprawling air base in central California that it left no doubt it was making a strong pitch for the fighter that it assisted Boeing in developing. "The F/A-18 has delivered on all that it...

WASHINGTON (AP) - John McCain's Navy record boils down to a series of unadorned paragraphs that bestow upon him some of the nation's top military honors. The Navy recently released McCain's military record - most of it citations for medals during his Navy career - after a Freedom of Information Act request by The Associated Press. McCain was awarded a Silver Star Medal for resisting "extreme mental and physical cruelties" inflicted upon him by his captors from late October to early December 1967, the early months of his captivity, according to the citation. The North Vietnamese, according to the Navy,...

U.S. Frustrated By Elusive Justice Served to USS Cole Plotters May 04, 2008 It's been called "the forgotten attack" but it's one of the worst terrorist attacks in U.S. history. Eight years after the USS Cole was attacked by a motorboat packed with explosives, all of the six men convicted of the strike have escaped from prison, or been freed by Yemeni officials. Seventeen sailors were killed and 40 more wounded in the strike, blamed on Usama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. Jamal al-Badawi, who helped organize the Cole plot, has reportedly escaped from Yemeni prisons twice. He is supposedly...

Almost eight years after al-Qaeda nearly sank the USS Cole with an explosives-stuffed motorboat, killing 17 sailors, all the defendants convicted in the attack have escaped from prison or been freed by Yemeni officials. Jamal al-Badawi, a Yemeni who helped organize the plot to bomb the Cole as it refueled in this Yemeni port on Oct. 12, 2000, has broken out of prison twice. He was recaptured both times, but then secretly released by the government last fall. Yemeni authorities jailed him again after receiving complaints from Washington. But U.S. officials have so little faith that he's still in his...

Click Here For More News Links, Photos and a Re-Broadcast of the Commissioning Ceremony The USS North Carolina was Commissioned today at Wilmington, NC. Linda Bowman, who sponsored the submarine and christened it in April 2007, sent the crew running from the back of the audience onto the submarine. "You are a team and ready to go forth and defend this country," Bowman told the crew. "My hope is that she will sail in peace to keep us free. My assurance is that she will always be ready to defend that freedom whenever necessary. "Officers and crew of the...

TOMAHAWK MISSILES fired by a U.S. Navy ship demolished a house in central Somalia on Thursday and killed a vicious militia leader and al-Qaeda operative. It was a victory for the Bush administration's counterterrorism operations in Africa -- and a demonstration of the limits of a strategy based almost entirely on "over the horizon" military strikes. Aden Hashi Ayro, the man who was killed, deserved the label of "evildoer." As chief of the extremist al-Shabab militia, he supervised and probably participated in the murder of foreign aid workers, teachers, an Italian nun and a British journalist while directing al-Shabab's insurgency...

U.S. mulls Guantanamo closure as Bush term nears end Fri May 2, 2008 2:01pm EDT By Sue Pleming WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration could announce plans by the end of its term in January to close Guantanamo prison and an upcoming Supreme Court ruling might be the impetus for this, senior U.S. officials and experts say. The government is under international and domestic pressure to close the prison, which opened at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay on Cuba in January 2002 to house terrorism suspects caught after the invasion of Afghanistan. "A decision could be made in...

I have really tried to accept things, but I have finally reached my point. Disclaimer, Mods, please move this wherever necessary. I have been watching "Carrier" on PBS plus a few other documentaries lately on our military and I am embarrassed. When did our military people turn into baby machines looking for a reason out because of a child they should not have had? They teach new parent classes on a ship, how about a class on how not to be a parent when you can't be one? And don't whine when you get deployed because you miss your kids....

080428-N-7883G-683 SOUTH CHINA SEA (April 28, 2008) The aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) prepares to anchor in Hong Kong's Victoria Harbor. Hong Kong is Kitty Hawk's last scheduled overseas port visit before its return to the United States later this year. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Kyle D. Gahlau (Released)

JAKARTA (AFP) — The future of a major US Navy research laboratory in Indonesia is in doubt amid allegations, dismissed as "crazy" by US diplomats, of espionage and secret experiments. Negotiations between Washington and Jakarta over the renewal of the operating contract of US Naval Medical Research Unit-2, or Namru-2, have stalled over a range of issues including diplomatic immunity for its US staff. Established in Indonesia in 1970 and charged with researching infectious diseases of military importance, the facility employs 19 Americans and more than 100 Indonesians and is based in Indonesian health ministry grounds. Its operations have attracted...

MEXICO CITY, April 30, 2008 – The movement of a second aircraft carrier into the Persian Gulf this week doesn’t signal an escalation of the U.S. naval presence -- but could serve as a “reminder” of it to countries in the region, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said here last night. Gates did not specifically name Iran when responding to a reporter’s question about the arrival this week of USS Abraham Lincoln in the Gulf. “The size of our naval presence in the Gulf rises and falls constantly,” he said. “This deployment has been planned for a long time. I...

US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said Tuesday the deployment of a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf should be seen as a "reminder" of US military power in the region. But Gates flatly denied that the United States was preparing the ground for military strikes against Iran. "I don't think we'll have two carriers for a protracted period of time. So I don't see it as an escalation. I think it could be seen, though, as a reminder," Gates told reporters here during a visit with Mexican officials. The arrival of the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Gulf follows...

A second American aircraft carrier steamed into the Persian Gulf Tuesday as the Pentagon ordered military commanders to develop new options for attacking Iran. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports that the planning is being driven by what one officer called the "increasingly hostile role" Iran is playing in Iraq - smuggling weapons into Iraq for use against American troops.

The write ups on this event can be found at a number of newspaper websites - they are listed on Google.

NORFOLK The Navy will review maintenance and training across the surface fleet after a recent inspection found the Norfolk-based destroyer Stout unfit for sustained combat, a top admiral said Friday. Three months after the ship returned from a deployment to the Horn of Africa, inspectors found inoperable missile and close-in weapon systems, an unsafe flight deck and widespread corrosion. Rear Adm. Kevin Quinn, commander of the naval surface force, said the surface fleet will investigate whether the problems are widespread across all ship classes or limited to individual ships. A second ship, the Hawaii-based cruiser Chosin, also failed inspection. Jan...

Carrier launches are astonishing events. The plane is moved to within what seems like a bowling alley's length of the bow. A blast shield larger than any government building driveway Khomeini-flipper rises behind the fighter jet, and the jet's twin engines are cranked to maximum thrust. A slot-car slot runs down the middle of the bowling alley. The powered-up jet is held at the end of its slot by a steel shear pin smaller than a V-8 can. When the shear pin shears the jet is unleashed and so is a steam catapult that hurls the plane down the slot,...

CARRIER - Life aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz This is a heads up. Next Sunday, April 27, PBS will begin airing a 10 part series which will run 2 hrs a night thru May 1. (check local listings for time) I think it will be very interesting, but not without PBS bias. Hopefully, they'll limit the bias to a minimum so that it doesn't ruin the series. I'm looking forward to it. You can watch clips at the source link above.

An American warship attacked by suspected suicide terrorists in the Gulf is embedded in a British flotilla that begins exercises with the Indian Navy off Goa from Monday. The 12-day exercise is the third in the series of the Konkan drills between the Royal Navy and its Indian counterpart. A French ship, the Surcouf, will also participate in the war game that involves the Royal Navy carrier strike group led by the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious. The attack on the USS Cole on October 12, 2000, at the Yemen port of Aden by suspected al Qaida suicide bombers blew a...

EVERETT -- Eleven years ago, Sabrina M. Weiner graduated as a valedictorian at Kamiak High School near Everett. She was a National Merit Scholar, aiming for a bright future after earning a Navy ROTC scholarship to Stanford University. Two months ago, Weiner, 27, after seven years in the active and reserve duty during which she rose to the rank of lieutenant, forfeited her career. In a rare instance involving a commissioned officer, Weiner was arrested and given a choice between a court-martial or less-than-honorable discharge after refusing to serve in Iraq. Speaking publicly for the first time about it, Weiner...

EVERETT -- Eleven years ago, Sabrina M. Weiner graduated as a valedictorian at Kamiak High School near Everett. She was a National Merit Scholar, aiming for a bright future after earning a Navy ROTC scholarship to Stanford University. Two months ago, Weiner, 27, forfeited her Navy career after seven years on active and reserve duty, during which she rose to the rank of lieutenant. In a rare instance involving a commissioned officer, Weiner was arrested and given a choice between a court-martial or less-than-honorable discharge after refusing to serve in Iraq. Speaking publicly for the first time about it, Weiner...

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran denied a report that several of its boats taunted a U.S. Navy vessel in the Persian Gulf on Thursday night, according to IRNA, Iran's official news agency. A U.S. military official told CNN Friday that the USS Typhoon, a small patrol craft, was approached by three small Iranian boats in a "taunting manner." "There has been no confrontation between Iranian boats and the U.S. [Fifth] Fleet," IRNA quoted an unnamed Iranian source as saying.

Another source: http://cbs2chicago.com/national/iran.naval.confrontation.2.697662.html The Navy says a ship encountered a small Iranian high-speed boat in the central Persian Gulf and warned it away by firing a flare. Two other similar Iranian boats in the area did not come as close. The USS Typhoon tried unsuccessfully to establish radio contact with the Iranian boat after it came within an estimated 200 yards of the Typhoon on Thursday, outside Iranian territorial waters. A Navy official says the ship then fired the flare and continued on its way without incident. The official says there were no signs any boat was armed. It was...

Nothing followed.

Updates welcome. The story just showed up. Casus belli ?

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon, and welcome. The Medal of Honor is America's highest decoration for military valor. Over the years, many who have received the medal have given their lives in the action that earned it. The name of Petty Officer Michael Anthony Monsoor will now be among them. In September 2006, Michael laid down his life for his brothers in arms. Today, we remember the life of this faithful Navy SEAL. And on behalf of a grateful nation, we will present Michael Monsoor's family with the Medal of Honor that he earned. I welcome the Vice President. Secretary of...

NORFOLK When the George Washington ties up in Yokosuka, Japan, in August, it will become the first nuclear-powered carrier based in the only nation ever to be attacked by nuclear weapons. While its departure Monday from the East Coast brings both a sentimental and financial loss, its relocation to the Far East means the ship’s crew must bring along as much diplomacy as weaponry. “What people don’t understand they sometimes fear,” said Rear Adm. Philip Cullom, commander of the George Washington Strike Group. “Sometimes it’s a matter of articulating the story so that people understand it.” The carrier’s arrival in...

Pirates seized control of a French cruise ship Friday off the coast of Somalia, France's Foreign Ministry said. A ministry official said details about the attack were scarce, and it was not clear how many crew members were on board the ship or if there were any passengers. The ship is in the high seas in the Gulf of Aden, off the coast of Somalia in the Indian Ocean. The official declined to identify the vessel or its owner. The ministry has set up a crisis center to deal with the situation, said the official, who asked not to be...

Summary of Action Petty Officer Second Class (SEAL) Michael A. Monsoor For actions on Sept. 29, 2006 Petty Officer Michael A. Monsoor, United States Navy, distinguished himself through conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as a Combat Advisor and Automatic Weapons Gunner for Naval Special Warfare Task Group Arabian Peninsula in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom on 29 September 2006. He displayed great personal courage and exceptional bravery while conducting operations in enemy held territory at Ar Ramadi Iraq. During Operation Kentucky Jumper, a combined Coalition battalion clearance and...

NORFOLK The Navy could spend nearly $500 million to ready Mayport Naval Station in Florida for a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier - perhaps from Norfolk - by 2014. Or it could choose to make no changes in the base's operations. A draft report released Friday by the Navy proposed a range of options for the future of Mayport, the Jacksonville base that lost its only carrier, the John F. Kennedy, when the ship was decommissioned last year. The Navy's decision, expected early next year, could determine whether ships and perhaps thousands of sailors from Hampton Roads relocate to northern Florida. Mark...

WASHINGTON, March 26, 2008 – U.S. 5th Fleet officials today expressed regret for the death of an Egyptian citizen who died the night of March 24, an apparent result of warning shots fired at a small boat approaching a ship chartered by the U.S. Navy. “We express our deepest sympathies to the family of the deceased,” Vice Adm. Kevin J. Cosgriff, 5th Fleet commander. “We are greatly saddened by events that apparently resulted in this accidental death. This situation is tragic, and we will do our utmost to help take care of the family of the deceased.” The U.S. Navy’s...

ONE Egyptian was killed and two wounded when a US military ship about to cross the Suez Canal opened fire on barges of hawkers that approached their boat today, a security source said.

One Egyptian was killed and two wounded when a US military ship about to cross the Suez Canal opened fire on barges of hawkers that approached their boat on Monday, a security source told AFP. The ship, Global Patriot, was preparing to travel from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean when a group of Egyptians seeking to sell merchandise approached the boat on small barges, the source said. Americans on board told the barges to stop and opened fire when they continued to approach.

An American nuclear submarine has crossed the Suez Canal to join the US fleet stationed in the Persian Gulf, Egyptian sources say. Egyptian officials reported that the nuclear submarine crossed the canal along with a destroyer on Friday and Egyptian forces were put on high alert when the navy convoy was passing through the canal. An American destroyer recently left the Persian Gulf, heading towards the Mediterranean Sea; earlier Thursday, a US Navy rescue ship crossed the canal to enter the Red Sea. The deployment comes as recent reports allege that US Vice President Dick Cheney is seeking to rally...

NORFOLKA man thrown from the motorcycle he was operating after a high-speed wreck early today was pulled ashore by two Navy men who jumped into the Hampton Roads Channel to rescue him.A third sailor also assisted.The cyclist, identified as Brian Anthony Davis, 22, of Grand Rapids, Mich., also is in the Navy, stationed aboard the carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower.Davis remains in critical condition this afternoon at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.The wreck happened about 3:45 a.m. on the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, said Sgt. Michelle Cotten, a State Police spokeswoman.Davis was westbound on Interstate 64, allegedly “in excess of 100 mph,” Cotten said,...

Towing the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy to Philadelphia for storage has proved to be a complex ordeal. There's only a 20-minute window each day when it can be safely eased alongside Pier 4 in South Philadelphia, where it will be stored. That's the daylight high tide, when the swift current is slack. High winds kept the big ship at sea Thursday and yesterday, with its small crew of line handlers camped out on the vast empty and cold ship. The Kennedy was scheduled to enter the Delaware Bay at 9 last night and begin a slow 18-hour trek to...

The Grayback was to slip into North Vietnamese waters and let out several four-man SEAL teams in small, submersible vehicles just offshore on June 3. The teams were to rendezvous with the two prisoners – who had communicated their plans through a method that today remains secret – on an offshore island.

They called themselves "sand sailors," and they did their job well by reducing IED fatalities at their bases. Monthly U.S. troop deaths from IEDs have dropped since reaching a high of 90 in May to 17 last month, in part because of their efforts, the military said in awarding Bronze Stars to Dye and others.

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Naval Air Station Pensacola "The Cradle of Naval Aviation", NAS Pensacola is a United States Navy base located in Warrington, Florida, a community southwest of the Pensacola city limits. It is best known as the primary training base for all Navy and Marine aviators and Naval Flight Officers, the advanced training base for most Naval Flight Officers, and as the home base for the United States Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the precision-flying team known as the Blue Angels. The site now occupied by Naval Air Station Pensacola has a colorful historical...

A sailor on the Norfolk-based carrier Theodore Roosevelt died Saturday from a severe head injury sustained when the ship hit heavy seas off the coast of Florida, the Navy said Sunday. The sailor's name was not released pending family notification. -snip-

WASHINGTON, March 7, 2008 – Vice President Richard B. Cheney thanked recruits and sailors at Naval Station Great Lakes, Ill., today for choosing to serve a cause greater than themselves in the struggle against terrorism. Cheney talked with about 4,000 recruits and sailors at the center outside Chicago, where his own father trained for his Navy service during World War II. The vice president compared today’s military members who, like their World War II predecessors, put their own interests aside to serve “when the country needed you most.” “Your presence at Great Lakes proves that you understand the core Navy...

Russian bomber aircraft approached a US aircraft carrier off the Korean coast on Wednesday and was intercepted by American fighter jets -- the second such incident in less than a month, US defense officials said. According to the US officials, a Russian bomber came within three to five nautical miles and flew 2,000 feet above the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier and its accompanying ships. Two US F-18 fighters were launched to intercept the Russian aircraft and escort it out of the area, according to one defense official. (Reuters)

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - A former Navy sailor has been convicted of leaking details of ship movements to suspected terrorism supporters. Jurors were in their second day of deliberations when they convicted Hassan Abu-Jihaad of Phoenix of providing material support to terrorists and disclosing classified national defense information. Federal prosecutors had urged a jury to convict the 32-year-old of leaking ship movements to suspected terrorists, saying he sympathized with the enemy and admitted disclosing military intelligence. But his attorney said an investigation that spanned two continents over four years failed to turn up proof that Abu-Jihaad leaked details of ship...

"A former Navy sailor was convicted Wednesday of leaking details about ship movements to suspected terrorism supporters, an act that could have endangered his own crewmates.... ...The American-born Muslim convert formerly known as Paul R. Hall faces up to 25 years in federal prison when he is sentenced May 23."

WASHINGTON, March 4 (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy has replaced two ships it sent off the coast of Lebanon last week amid political deadlock there to send a signal to Syria, officials said on Tuesday. The cruiser USS Philippine Sea and the destroyer USS Ross replaced the destroyer USS Cole and a refueling ship over the past day, U.S. Navy officials said. Another refueling ship remained in place, meaning the United States continued to have three warships in the area, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity. The ships are not visible from the Lebanese coast but their presence...

A federal appeals court has ruled that the Navy must protect endangered whales from the potentially lethal effects of underwater sonar during anti-submarine training off the Southern California coast, rejecting President Bush's attempt to exempt the exercises from environmental laws. In a Friday night ruling rushed into print ahead of the next scheduled exercise on Monday, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld a federal judge's decision that no emergency existed that would justify Bush's intervention. The Navy is engaged in "long-planned, routine training exercises" and has had ample time to take the steps that the...

DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said Saturday that a U.S. Navy deployment off the coast of Lebanon threatens security in the region and warned the United States it cannot impose its own solution to the long-running political crisis in Lebanon. "There is a history of American fleet intervention in Lebanon. I think these experiences were not at all useful," al-Moallem said. The planned deployment of at least three warships, announced Thursday, appeared to be aimed at making an American show of strength at a time of increasing international frustration at the volatile political deadlock in Lebanon between...

WASHINGTON, March 1, 2008 – On what was described as a “fine Navy, Marine Corps day,” in New Orleans, Defense Department officials, servicemembers and distinguished guests gathered today to christen a tangible symbol of America’s mettle. “This is a special day for a magnificent ship that has a special place in the heart of every American,” Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England said during the christening ceremony for USS New York. Everyone in the country, he said, has felt a special connection with New York since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. “On the day the towers fell, all Americans...

A new U.S. Navy ship to be christened Saturday was built partly using steel from the 9/11 ruins of the World Trade Center. The company says on its Web site that the bow-stem of the ship, the seventh to be named "New York," includes 7.5 tons of steel from the World Trade Center.

Honolulu (AP) -- A federal judge has ordered the Navy to take additional precautions when conducting sonar exercises off Hawaii that environmentalists say can seriously injure or kill marine mammals. U.S. District Judge David Ezra said Friday the Navy cannot conduct exercises within 12 nautical miles, or 13.8 miles, of the shoreline, where species that are particularly sensitive to sonar, such as the beaked whale, are found. Among other requirements, the Navy must look for marine mammals for one hour each day before using sonar, employ three lookouts exclusively to spot the animals during sonar use and stop sonar transmission...