Free Republic

The USS Medgar Evers? The USS John Murtha? The USS Cesar Chavez? Our Navy Secretary, Ray Mabus, has this diversity thing down cold. Each one of those ships was in a class that previous names of their sister ships had nothing to do with civil rights, or corrupt Democratic politicians. Ships are usually named after states, cities, even famous explorers and war heroes. But Mabus has injected partisanship into this tradition, naming another ship for Democrat Gabriel Giffords, who has shown courage in her recovery from an assassination attempt but had expressed little interest in the military during her career...

Iran has built up its naval forces in the Gulf and prepared boats that could be used in suicide attacks, but the U.S. Navy can prevent it from blocking the Strait of Hormuz, the commander of U.S. naval forces in the region said on Sunday. Iran has made a series of threats in recent weeks to disrupt shipping in the Gulf or strike U.S. forces in retaliation if its oil trade is shut down by sanctions, or if its disputed nuclear program comes under attack. "They have increased the number of submarines ... they increased the number of fast attack...

..WASHINGTON (AP) — The Navy has named a ship for Gabrielle Giffords, the recently retired congresswoman from Arizona who is recovering from a gunshot wound to the head received in January 2011. In a ceremony at the Pentagon, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus unveiled an artist's rendering of the USS Gabrielle Giffords. The littoral combat ship is among the Navy's most versatile and can operate in shallower coastal waters than larger ships. Mabus said: "God bless the USS Gabrielle Giffords and all who sail in her." Mabus also announced that the ship's "sponsor" is Roxanna Green. She's the mother of Christina-Taylor...

The Secretary of the Navy announced on Friday that a new littoral combat ship will be named after former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). The announcement comes the same day that President Obama signed the last piece of legislation sponsored by Giffords, a bill aimed at reducing drug trafficking along the American borders with Canada and Mexico. Giffords, who recently stepped down from office, was the target of a shooting rampage in early January 2011. “The name this ship bears and the story represented by that name will inspire all those who come in contact with her,” said Navy Secretary Ray...

The dramatic rescue of an American aid worker and her Danish colleague in Somalia by Navy commandos was a terrific encore to the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan nine months ago. However, all the White House-driven publicity for both events has helped turn the once-secret SEAL Team 6 into a household term, with likely negative consequences. Although SEAL Team 6 and its official successor, the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, have been around since the 1980s, their missions always were kept secret to shield their members’ identities and protect operational security. Every president since the team’s founding has...

...In a statement sent to NBC News and other media, Obama says that he authorized the operation to rescue Buchanan. "Thanks to the extraordinary courage and capabilities of our Special Operations Forces, yesterday Jessica Buchanan was rescued and she is on her way home," he says. "As Commander-in-Chief, I could not be prouder of the troops who carried out this mission, and the dedicated professionals who supported their efforts." Obama, who spoke to Buchanan's father Tuesday night, says she was "selflessly serving her fellow human beings when she was taken hostage by criminals and pirates who showed no regard for...

Underscoring its desire to keep U.S. aircraft carriers from the Persian Gulf, a senior Iranian military commander today announced his possible plan to ambush the American fleet. Chalk this one up to more bluster, or part of a mounting back and forth rhetoric headed nowhere good, either way - Tehran plans to rely on its subs. Lieutenant Commander of the Iranian Army's Self-Sufficiency Jihad, Rear Admiral Farhad Amiri told Fars that Iran has the finest electic diesel submarines in the world, and that while the U.S. has focused on Tehran's "astonishing surface capabilities," it has forgotten about the underwater threat....

For the third time this month, the U.S. Navy has come to the rescue of distressed Iranian fishermen -- at the same time Iran has threatened to disrupt a key oil route off its coast. Guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey rendered aid to the crew of a sinking Iranian fishing dhow in the central Arabian Sea, according to a Navy press release. A helicopter from the Maritime Strike Squadron 71 spotted the fishing boat Wednesday morning reportedly with one person on board. "Our first priority was to make sure that all of the crew (of the fishing vessel) was safe," Lt....

Iranian ships recently taunted two U.S. Navy vessels as part of escalating tensions in and around the Persian Gulf's Strait of Hormuz. The incidents in the strait, one of the world's most important oil routes, occurred last week and involved the USS New Orleans, an amphibious transport dock, and the Coast Guard Cutter Adak, the military said Friday in releasing videos of the incidents. Iranian speed boats are seen in one of the videos approaching the USS New Orleans within about 500 yards last Friday. "The Iranian boats did not respond to whistle signal or voice queries from the New...

The carrier, along with the Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group, reaches the region as tensions are rising with Iran. Deployed San Diego-based ships in the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and Makin Island groups are now in the Middle East, the U.S. Fifth Fleet and Central Command has announced. The sailors, Marines and airmen aboard the ships arrive after Iranian officials recent threat to close the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for the world's oil supply, and warned a departing U.S. aircraft carrier, the USS John C. Stennis, not to return to the Persian Gulf.

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: NAS Whidbey Island, Washington Naval Air Station Whidbey Island is a naval air station located in two sections around Oak Harbor, Washington, USA. It was commissioned as an active U.S. Navy installation on 21 September 1942.In all, there are 19 active duty squadrons and two reserve squadrons currently based at NAS Whidbey Island. The air station also maintains a Search and Rescue Unit, flying the UH-3H Sea King helicopter, as well as two UC-12 Huron aircraft for operational support airlift and fleet logistic support. Over 50 tenant commands are also located...

Iran has the ability to temporarily block the Strait of Hormuz but the U.S. “would take action and reopen” it, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Martin Dempsey said Sunday, making clear to Iran that in threatening to close the straits, it is literally playing with fire. . “They’ve invested in capabilities that could, in fact, for a period of time block the Strait of Hormuz,” Dempsey said in an interview for CBS's “Face the Nation." “We’ve invested in capabilities to ensure that if that happens, we can defeat that.” Blocking the strategic shipping lane linking the Gulf of Oman...

(CNN) -- U.S. sailors from a carrier strike group whose recent presence in the Persian Gulf drew the ire of Iranian military officials have rescued 13 of the Middle Eastern country's sailors from a hijacked fishing boat, a military spokesman said Friday. The destroyer USS Kidd came to the aid of the ship Thursday in the North Arabian sea, near the crucial Strait of Hormuz, according to the Navy. The rescue prompted the captain of the freed ship to offer his "sincere gratitude," according to Josh Schminky, a Navy Criminal Investigative Service agent aboard the Kidd.

SAN DIEGO — San Diego County investigators trying to determine a motive behind a New Year's Day murder-suicide involving two Navy pilots and two other people are looking at whether jealousy may have played a role. Sheriff's Capt. Duncan Fraser said Thursday investigators are looking at all aspects, including whether there was a relationship between one of the pilot's sisters who was also killed and the Navy pilot who committed suicide. John Robert Reeves, 25, shot himself in the head, and the three others with him were murdered, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department said, citing autopsy results. Fellow Navy...

A shooting in Coronado, Calif., that left four people dead, including two Navy pilots and one of their sisters, is being investigated as an apparent murder-suicide. The New Year's Day shooting in a condo there claimed the lives of siblings David and Karen Reis, 25 and 24, respectively, as well as David's roommate, John Reeves, 25, and a fourth unknown man. David Reis and Reeves were both pilots in the Navy, and shared the condo home in Coronado, sources told ABC affiliate KGTV. The other dead man is a 31-year-old civilian who lives in Chula Vista, according to the county...

(CNN) -- The U.S. Navy said Iran's threat to block the strategically and economically important Strait of Hormuz is unacceptable. "The free flow of goods and services through the Strait of Hormuz is vital to regional and global prosperity," Navy 5th Fleet in Bahrain spokeswoman Cmdr. Amy Derrick Frost told reporters on Wednesday. "Anyone who threatens to disrupt freedom of navigation in an international strait is clearly outside the community of nations; any disruption will not be tolerated." The 34-mile-wide shipping channel leads in and out of the Persian Gulf between Iran and Oman. It is strategically important because tankers...

Navy jet takes off from U.S.S. Ronald Reagan. (U.S. Navy photo) (CNSNews.com) – The Obama administration’s deal to buy 450,000 gallons of biofuel for Navy jets comes at a cost of up to nine times higher than regular fuel, a spokesman for Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said, coming at a time when the U.S. military is already facing deep budget cuts. Inhofe, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and former chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, has supported biofuel projects in the past, but has problems with a program the U.S. Department of Agriculture...

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) -- A Navy tradition has caught up with the repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" rule on gays serving openly in the U.S. military. The Navy said two women shared the coveted "first kiss" Wednesday when the USS Oak Hill returned home to its Virginia base. Marissa Gaeta of Pacerville, Calif., descended from the ship and shared a quick kiss with her partner, Citlalic (SEET-lah-leek) Snell of Los Angeles. The crowd screamed and waved Navy flags around them. Both women are fire controlmen in the Navy. They met at training school and have been dating...

SASEBO NAVAL BASE, Japan — The commanding officer of a Navy squadron attached to the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson became the 22nd Navy skipper fired this year after Navy officials lost confidence in his ability to command, the service announced. Cmdr. Jonathan Jackson, commanding officer of Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 134, was fired Thursday by Rear Adm. Thomas Shannon, commander of Carrier Strike Group 1, after an investigation revealed Jackson had violated the Navy’s sexual harassment policy by “creating and condoning an intimidating, hostile and offensive work environment,” according to a Navy news release.

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: NAS Oceana, Virginia Naval Air Station Oceana or NAS Oceana is a military airport located in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and is a United States Navy Master Jet Base. It is also known as Apollo Soucek Field, named after Lieutenant (later Admiral) Apollo Soucek, who was a Navy Test Pilot and world record altitude holder in 1930, having flown a Curtiss "Hawk" biplane to an altitude of 43,166 feet. Home to eighteen strike fighter squadrons of F/A-18 Hornets and F/A-18 Super Hornets, the base is the sole East Coast Master Jet Base...

The Senate wants the Navy to explain how it selects names for new ships in the wake of controversy over the naming of a ship in memory of labor leader Cesar Chavez. A little-noticed provision of a defense bill that passed the Senate last week would direct the Navy to submit a report to Congress on its naming of vessels. The provision was sought by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who told reporters in a conference call last week that in light of recent controversies over ship namings, the Navy should seek "more input and think more carefully about who we’re...

<p>PENSACOLA NAVAL AIR STATION, Fla. — The Navy's Blue Angels have been thrilling audiences for more than six decades with their acrobatic flying in fighter planes, but a new era of federal budget worries and proposed deficit cutting has some inside and outside the military raising questions about the millions it costs to produce their shows.</p>

TEHRAN (FNA) - Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari on Saturday reiterated Tehran's plan to deploy naval vessels near the maritime borders of the United States, and said Americans are not entitled to opposition as all nations have the right of voyage in international waters. Speaking to FNA here in Tehran on Saturday, Admiral Sayyari said Iran is serious about deployment near the United States maritime borders and this rigidness has worried the US officials. "Americans are worried about themselves. The Iranian army is present in free waters and will continue its presence," he said. He said international rules...

AP Can't excerpt see link.

VT Halter Marine launches first of 4 vessels for Egyptian navy PASCAGOULA, Mississippi -- VT Halter Marine's Pascagoula yard launched the first of four Egyptian navy fast missile craft Thursday, marking a milestone in the ship's construction. The four-vessel contract represents an $807 million deal for the local shipbuilder. "It's clearly a great day," Halter Marine CEO Bill Skinner said. "This is the first of four, and it's been a great program for us, one that's provided hundreds of jobs." Skinner said the first vessel is on track for a fourth-quarter delivery next year. The fast missile craft is designed...

WASHINGTON — Could the USS George Washington be sunk by budget cuts? A report in Defense News on Thursday, citing anonymous sources, said naval officials are considering decommissioning the nuclear aircraft carrier decades before the end of its scheduled lifespan. That’s the second time this week the 25-year-old behemoth has been mentioned as a potential fiscal casualty. In budget analysis released Tuesday, officials from the Center for New American Security, a Washington, D.C. think tank with close ties to President Barack Obama, listed the early decommissioning of the ship as a way to save up to $7 billion over the...

TEHRAN (FNA) - Senior Iranian commanders revealed on Friday that the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy and the US navy ships have entered several armed clashes and confrontations in the Persian Gulf since 1986. "During the 8-year long sacred defense (against the Iraqi invasion from 1980 to 1988) we were defending against the Iraqis who were the endpoint of the arrow of the world arrogance (the US), but in the last one and a half years of the war, we were in vast and direct confrontation with the Americans in the Persian Gulf," IRGC Navy Commander General Ali Fadavi...

NEW YORK - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday called on NATO naval forces to withdraw from the Gulf, calling them a threat to security.

The Navy’s former top civilian has rocked the service in a military journal article by accusing officials of sinking the storied naval air branch into a sea of political correctness. Former Navy Secretary John Lehman, himself a former carrier-based aviator, wrote that the swagger and daring of yesterday’s culture has given way to a focus on integrating women and, this year, gays.

The Navy’s former top civilian has rocked the service in a military journal article by accusing officials of sinking the storied naval air branch into a sea of political correctness. Former Navy Secretary John Lehman, himself an ex-carrier-based aviator, wrote that the swagger and daring of yesterday’s culture has given way to a focus on integrating women and, this year, gays. Pilots constantly worry about anonymous complaints about salty language, while squadron commanders are awash in bureaucratic requirements for reports and statistics, he added. “Those attributes of naval aviators — willingness to take intelligent calculated risk, self-confidence, even a certain...

A tough week is nearly over. It's been pouring nonstop in the East, floods are inundating the northeast, GOP presidential candidates are hectoring one another, fires are racing across Texas, President Obama's pleading for work from Congress, and someone turned the lights out in San Diego. Just thank God you're not Commander Mark Olson, U.S. Navy, who until Wednesday commanded the guided missile destroyer USS The Sullivans: Olson was in command on Aug. 17 when the ship was conducting a gunnery exercise at the Cherry Point Operating Range Area, off the North Carolina coast. During the exercise, The Sullivans mistook...

If it's true the Navy has been shooting down scud missiles over Libya from sea, and for whatever reason Navy information never reported this, it's time to cut the Navy Information budget by 75%.

CLICK HERE TO PETITION TO NAME THE 3rd FORD CLASS CARRIER THE USS ENTERPRISECLICK HERE for the Petition to name the next Ford Class nuclear aircraft carrier USS Enterprise [Click on the small images for a larger, higher resolution image of each] The current USS Enterprise, CVN-65 will be decommissioned when CVN-78, the USS Gerald R. Ford is commissioned into the fleet. This will leave the high seas without a US aircraft carrier named Enterprise. The Big-E has been plowing the waves of the high seas for the last fifty and more years in defense of US National interests,...

We join the Libyan people in gratefulness as we hear of Col. Gaddafi’s defeat. The fall of a tyrant and sponsor of terrorism is a great day for freedom-loving people around the world. But the path to democracy in Libya is not complete, and we must make wise choices to ensure that our national interests are protected.

When the coffins of the fallen Navy SEALS came back to US soil, the Pentagon and the White House closed the event to the press.That's understandable. After all, the Bush administration made similar restrictions for such ceremonies, although Obama overturned the policy.The press complied as well, but when the White House released a photo yesterday of President Obama saluting the coffins at the ceremony, they raised their eyebrows.When Associated Press reporter Ben Feller asked about the photo today at the White House Press briefing, Carney answered:

If you went to Ground Zero or Times Square or anywhere else to cheer and chant "U.S.A.! U.S.A.!" after Navy SEAL Team Six brought justice to Osama Bin Laden, go back there Sunday. Go back and offer a moment of silence for the 22 men from SEAL Team Six and all the others aboard the helicopter that was shot down in Afghanistan yesterday. SEAL Team Six is divided into four squadrons and the one aboard the helicopter was not the one that actually got Bin Laden, but it had long been part of the effort to track him down. And,...

Tip: ... "Almost immediately, after news of the crash began to spread, we were placed in an internet and phone blackout. This means communication with family, friends and "others" back home, in real time, is prevented until further notice. ... One of confirmed details they have been discussing is that the chinook shot down belonged to a National Guard unit. Which is causing people to whisper in astonishment, "why were some of the most elite of America's military, in such large numbers, tooling around on a National Guard aircraft?" ... ... Hollywood Pic Commissioned Yep. Published this very day, written...

U.S. soldiers from the 2nd Brigade, 87th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division, secure the area after existing a Chinoonk helicopter, Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan, in this Sunday, June 18, 2006 file photo. Insurgents apparently shot down a U.S. military helicopter Saturday Aug. 6, 2011 similar to this one shown during fighting in eastern Afghanistan, killing 30 Americans, most of them belonging to the same elite Navy SEALs unit that killed Usama bin Laden, as well as seven Afghan commandos, U.S. officials said. An Afghan official says there is fighting in the area where a U.S. Army Chinook helicopter was apparently...

KABUL, Afghanistan — In the deadliest day for American forces in the nearly decade-long war in Afghanistan, insurgents shot down a Chinook transport helicopter on Saturday, killing 30 Americans, including some Navy Seal commandos from the unit that killed Osama bin Laden, as well as 8 Afghans, American and Afghan officials said.

KABUL, Afghanistan — Insurgents shot down a NATO Chinook helicopter during an overnight operation in eastern Afghanistan, killing 37 people on board, a military official said on Saturday.

HARTFORD, Conn. ---- For Ensign Peggy LeGrand, the biggest concern about serving on a submarine is not spending weeks at a time in tight quarters with an entirely male crew. What worries her is the scrutiny that comes with breaking one of the last gender barriers in the U.S. military. "I have a feeling more people will be focused on us. Our mistakes and successes will be magnified more than they deserve," said LeGrand, 25, a Naval Academy graduate from Amarillo, Texas. LeGrand is among a small group of female officers who are training at sites including Groton, Conn., to...

Lisa Nowak, a former NASA astronaut whose 2007 arrest made national news, has officially retired from the U.S. Navy with an "other than honorable" discharge, officials said Thursday. In a statement, Assistant Secretary of Navy Juan Garcia said that Nowak "demonstrated a complete disregard for the well-being" of romantic rival Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman. Authorities said Nowak drove nonstop from Texas to Orlando, confronting Shipman, then the girlfriend of Nowak's former lover, at Orlando International Airport on Feb. 5, 2007.

FORMER NAVY PROSECTOR IN NOWAK CASE GETS 10 YEARS IN PRISON ON CHILD PORN CHARGES - LCDR MARK TILFORD CAUGHT WITH PEVERTED IMAGES ON HOME COMPUTER PLEADED GUILTY TO RECEIVING AND DISTRIBUTING SICKO PORN - JAG OFFICER HAD SERVED 16 YEARS IN THE NAVY © 2011 MilitaryCorruption.com A Navy JAG officer who helped prosecute Lisa ("Houston, we have a problem") Nowak, the diaper-wearing spurned lover who totaled her military career over a jerk boyfriend, is going to jail for a long time. LCDR Mark Tilford was sentenced By Judge Janis Graham in Corpus Christi, Tex. federal court to ten years...

According to the USS Enterprise's website the ship is the eighth to bear this name, and it is the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. It is also the world's largest active warship.

Piracy in the Indian Ocean is hampering the efforts of climate change researchers to the point where they have had to call in the Australian Navy. Pirate activity off the coast of Somalia has increased dramatically over recent years, so much so that a quarter of the Indian Ocean is now considered a "no-go" area. ... "They're ranging so far up from Somalia that we're having difficulties getting instruments into that area so it's a good quarter of the Indian Ocean [that] is a no-go area. Dr Thresher says research vessels have been pursued by pirates on a number of...

US, Vietnam to hold joint Navy drill Vietnam announced on Thursday that its navy will hold a joint exercise with the US Navy. Vietnamese foreign ministry spokesperson, Nguyen Phuong Nga told reporters that US Navy ships will call at a Vietnamese port and hold a joint naval rescue drill with the Vietnamese navy. She said the drill will promote friendship between the 2 navies. The joint exercise is expected to be held for several days off of central Vietnam in late July. The navies conducted a similar drill last August. In May, warning shots were fired from Chinese ships at...

Provoked by renewed daylight NATO bombing of his capital, Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy raged against the alliance yesterday, screaming his message and daring Western forces to keep it up. Khadafy spoke in a telephone call that was piped through loudspeakers to a few thousand people demonstrating in Tripoli’s Green Square at the end of a day when NATO intensified bombing runs across the capital. State television carried the Khadafy message live, then repeated it a few minutes later. “NATO will be defeated,’’ he yelled in a hoarse, agitated voice. “They will pull out in defeat.’’ The sound of automatic weapons...

Navy relieves No. 2 officer on aircraft carrier – Mon Jun 6, 4:03 pm ET NORFOLK, Va. – The Navy says the second in command of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower has been relieved of his command following an investigation into an improper relationship. Capt. Robert Gamberg was removed from the post by Rear Adm. Ted Branch on Monday. In an administrative proceeding known as an Admiral's Mast, Gamberg was cited for conduct unbecoming an officer and for failure to obey an order or regulation.

During A.M. excersises, I was pleased to view the U.S.S. IWO JIMA #7 steam down Hudson River and away from N.Y.C. She sailed quite close to Jersey side before correcting path back to center of channel and you could easily see all hands on deck gazing westerly towards me. (Isn't this the same U.S.S. IWO JIMA that 'deep-sixed OBL recently?) Anyway, big cheers and a rolling wave of my 'METS' cap was heartily given. (My effort to 'SIGN' them all "JOB WELL DONE--NOW-- LET'S ROLL!"

More than two centuries after they died off the coast of present-day Libya, the remains of the first 13 Navy commandos in U.S. history — in the words of one supporter, the “earliest Navy SEALs” — are one step closer to coming home after the U.S. House voted last week to insist the Pentagon get them back. Brushing off prior opposition from the Pentagon, House lawmakers attached the directive to the annual defense policy bill that cleared the chamber on Thursday, with backers saying it was time to honor the daring men as fallen heroes. “The United States has an...