Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche
"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier
"Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas
"Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex
Because you can never underestimate the threat 32nd Street poses to our ships and sailors…
I missed the reference… must be a left coast thing….
Oops, sorry Joe; NAVSTA San Diego is at the foot of 32nd Street in San Diego, ergo, despite many people using name changes, enterprises, etc. ad infinitum as FITREP bragging points, to this day the surface ships all tie up and are based at what on the Pac Fleet side is still known as “32nd Street.”
VR,
Comjam (and how does a $%^&ing airdale know that?)
“on the Pac Fleet side is still known as “32nd Street.””
I think it’s a syllable thing–3 vs. 5. It also helps to call it that when newbies start telling you they’re looking for “The Naval Station/base” and you’ve got 5 (six, technically) within a half-hour drive–half the time they actually mean North Island.
Okay, I can’t count! Obviously that first sentence is now inoperable.
I have NO idea why I thought it was three syllables… *faux blonde slinks quietly away*
I’m still trying to get the caption, “And the ship’s crew got lei’d!” out of my head.
Not having much success. Might have to find some bourbon.
– Max
Someone finally got smart.
Yahoos coming close aboard in small craft are not unusual in U.S. waters. Not all jihadis live in Yemen, or places like that.
After the Cole, every skipper better be thinking that is is easier to justify lighting up a small craft with a burst of .50 BMG rounds that is getting close than to explain why terrorists were able to pull off another USS Cole type attack.
The really sad part is that we have to even sail our own inland waterways as though we were in the combat zone….
My experience has been that vessels coming in to port in places like San Diego generally have an escort or two to shoo the local boaters away. Sometimes folks just want a good look at a ship, and sometimes they are just idiots. But I can see why the Navy feels the need to implement force protection measures.
Actually the lei-looking thing is the latest in point defense tech.
Murthaleis Sea Security, LLC, of Penna buys hundreds of dollars worth of salt resistant fabric, sews ‘em up to look like leis, applies a secret industrial process that, a: benefits the voters of Pennsylvania, b: has nothing to do with graft or corruption, and c: is completely ethical by any reasonable standard; then sells ‘em to the Navy for several millions. Never tested in battle, but according to Congressional sources it is quite effective.
When my son’s ship docked in Norfolk last March I cried like a baby…
Being the FPO he wasn’t off duty until someone else took command of the ship’s security even in Norfolk.
Welcome to the new reality.
I like it!
A man-o’-war is a still a warship, be it on the high seas or merely entering a port foreign or domestic – and even her homeport. It should not be necessary nor allowed to change spots and totally emasculate a ship at the buoy #1-SD channel entrance.
Over many years we have had too many occasions of empty security magazines, a low level of readiness, and conditioned complacency. Those days both unfortunately yet thankfully are over. Be armed and ready wherever and whenever.
A warship is not a cruise ship. While leis are fine and homecomings are and should be joyous and colorful, don’t ever trade all that for what the ship was design for – until she is securely berthed. Otherwise, you waste her expensive and important designed purpose just for pomp. When that is done, it invites trouble when you
[edit] …. are most vulnerable.
Vulnerable in Norfolk Harbor? Causing 200 sailors to delay their shore leave Flit?
Do we live on Mars or,should Norfolk be a safe berth?
Delay shore leave? Are you kidding? It takes about as much time to vacate a gun mount as it does to vacate a “welcome home banner.”
But I’ll tell you what delays 5,000 sailors, and not a mere 200 sailors from meeting their families after nine months……
A 24-hour delay steaming in circles off the SoCal coast within smelling distance of San Diego and loved ones, after a 9-month cruise, just so Bush could make a John Wayne photo-op entrance aboard the USS Lincoln, and proclaim “Mission Accomplished.”
http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/04/30/bush.carrier.landing/index.html
And if you think Norfolk, or San Diego are such safe berths, perhaps you should tell the harbor police, naval security, Coast Guard, and a few other entities, sub/surface/air/and other sources that they are wasting their time. That they all should stand down their massive and 23/7 efforts to keep our ports safe…… because “Babs said so.”
More leftist folklore. Your CNN story had no reference to any unnecessary delay. Bush hating publications were nuts with this stuff, but obviously had no experience with ship homecomings. If you will read the story, Lincoln was ahead of PIM — “Lincoln reached the Naval Air Station dock at about the scheduled time, and that ships routinely wait outside their home ports so final tasks can be completed, and tugs and pier services will be ready.”
Ships delaying arrivals to make PIM happens all the time, despite attempts by haters to make political hay out of nothing.
On top of that, there is a lot of logistics involved in getting a ship to the pier…and the larger the vessel, the more work. Having been a navigator, and also having worked for a CO who knew the MOVREP system inside and out, we could get somewhere before we were supposed to be there, but the services ashore for cranes, water, sewage, phones, electricity, tugs, pilots and brows were all planned for what our LOGREQs had to say to keep the smiling face on “we really are going to break the SOA speed limit.” So, when we had to wiat sometimes, the sailors were still pissed and complained (happy sailors!) and the net result was we got home before we had been scheduled, but not 10 seconds after we arrived.
Flit: As far as abandoning a gun mount taking only seconds, you contradict your own discussion about keeping a warship a warship at all times for security’s sake. It takes some time to haul the M2 or M-60 and the ammo back to the lockers and magazines, and to complete the paperwork to log the items back in. Sounds like a “hey, it’s so easy a cave man could do it” but you’re tossing out strawmen again. The proper operations take time and effort, especially when you’re handling arms and ammo, or any pilferage, expensive, dangerous, taxpayer funded equipment. Doing it wrong is career ending. Had do do a few investigations as a result and it wasn’t pretty for those who took short cuts.
“Do we live on Mars?” Indeed a sad commentary, isn’t it, babs? But it’s been a long, long time coming. I think I told the story once before that when razor wire was first invented (as the improved version of barbed wire) it was regarded as so viciously effective that it was generally held suitable for use only by the armed services in war zones and not used in civilian life or even at military installations within CONUS. Imagine my surprise when I returned from SEA in late 68 (after the tumultuous summer, the riots at the Chicago Dems convention,etc.) and, while laying over at LAX waiting for a flt out to New Orleans and casually gazing out a concourse window I noticed the chain link fencing surrounding the rent-a-car lots topped by razor wire: “So it’s come to this, has it?” I thought to myself as I felt that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach and a feeling of deep sorrow overtaking me. Little did I know what a truly long way down the trip would ultimately be–and it’s unfortunately not over yet–accelerating in fact. I really, really all joking aside, do honestly and truly weep for our future…I am not optimistic at all in the slightest…..everywhere one looks–the educational system, the proliferation of terrorism in general and the open-ended possibilities of cyber-terrorism, our economic and financial travails, out of control immigration–both illegal AND legal, the quality of our political leadership (especially THAT) and the multiplication of the sort of people that vote such people in office, the gaining momentum of our foreign advsaries, the coming loss of Europe to Islam–you name it–the trend lines are NOT good….
“Do we live on Mars?” Indeed a sad commentary, isn’t it, babs? But it’s been a long, long time coming. I think I told the story once before that when razor wire was first invented (as the improved version of barbed wire) it was regarded as so viciously effective that it was generally held suitable for use only by the armed services in war zones and not used in civilian life or even at military installations within CONUS. Imagine my surprise when I returned from SEA in late 68 (after the tumultuous summer, the riots at the Chicago Dems convention,etc.) and, while laying over at LAX waiting for a flt out to New Orleans and casually gazing out a concourse window I noticed the chain link fencing surrounding the rent-a-car lots topped by razor wire: “So it’s come to this, has it?” I thought to myself as I felt that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach and a feeling of deep sorrow overtaking me. Little did I know what a truly long way down the trip would ultimately be–and it’s unfortunately not over yet–accelerating in fact. I really, really all joking aside, do honestly and truly weep for our future…I am not optimistic at all in the slightest…..everywhere one looks–the educational system, the proliferation of terrorism in general and the open-ended possibilities of cyber-terrorism, our economic and financial travails, out of control immigration–both illegal AND legal, the quality of our political leadership (especially THAT) and the multiplication of the sort of people that vote such people in office, the gaining momentum of our foreign adversaries, the coming loss of Europe to Islam–you name it–the trend lines are NOT good….
Flit/
Yes, you’re certainly right about the need for security, but I think you miss babs’ point. What she is bemoaning is the fact that it’s come to a pretty pass when we are not even secure at military installations in our own country. That we should fear another “Cole” sort of event in our OWN country–as opposed to foreign waters–is a sad commentary not only on the times but also about our inability to control access to this nation by those who who would kill us all if only they had the means. We don’t just NOT try our utmost to seek out and kill the vipers in our midst, we seem to go out of our way to nourish them…
If you need a .50 cal to get lei’d, you’re doing it wrong.