We just passed an anniversary: January 12

I realized that I had missed a big anniversary in my naval career. On January 12, 1977, I was a rather old ensign, assigned to the CIC on the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CV-42). We were on the ship's last "Med Cruise", although we did not know that at the time. I was generally either on watch or asleep when we were at sea. We were in rotating watches. I would stand a watch on the bridge as JOOD (Junior Officer of the Deck) and then would walk up the ladder to the flag bridge, where I stood a watch as CIC Surface Watch Officer. Often, during the day, we would have drills that would keep me up, as I would need to participate. They way the cycle worked, I could go 26 hours without sleeping or else have four hours in the middle of a 52 hour stretch. We "dogged the watches" around dinner time, meaning that we would split the four hours into two two hour watches. Supposedly, after being on watch for 8 hours I would have 8 hours off to sleep or relax. The schedule often impinged on that time. The big event of January 12th, was that the Roosevelt collided with the Liberian freighter Oceanus, while heading for the Straits of Messina about 10pm on a clear but windy night. I had intended to write this in one blog post, but I will be stretching this out over multiple posts, as there is too much that I want to say.

65 years ago today

65 years ago, today, my wife's aunt and uncle were living in Hawaii. Her uncle had been a machinist in the navy, on a battleship. When he was ready to get out, the navy offered him a job as a machinist at Pearl Harbor. My wife's uncle had an enduring interest in mechanical devices and aviation. He worked at Ford Island, doing machining jobs for PBYs and other aircraft. Early on Sunday morning of December 7, 1941, they looked out and saw trouble at Pearl Harbor. My wife's uncle Jim and his neighbor, who also worked on the base, went to the base, after the attack, to help clean up afterward.

Back in Detroit, on December 7, my Dad resolved to enlist in the Navy. My grandfather had fought in France in 1918 and had been gassed and concussed. He counseled my dad to look at the Navy, "to stay away from the mud". On December 8, my Dad enlisted and was sent to Great Lakes for boot camp. He got very sick with Catarrhal Fever. He survived and went to Indianapolis for radio school, after boot camp. From there, he was sent to New England, where PC-470 was completing. They worked up and were sent to Key West, to run convoys to Panama, Cuba, and South America. He did that until 1944, when PC-470 was sent to the West Coast, to be fitted out for service in the invasion of the Philippines. My Dad left PC-470 in San Diego. He eventually was sent to the Pacific Northwest to meet YF-720 being sent out to the Western Pacific by way of Pearl Harbor. At Pearl, he saw the USS Franklin, as she passed through on her way to the battles in the Western Pacific, as well. He also saw her towed back, a twisted wreck. From Pearl, the YF was eventually towed out to Leyte Gulf, after the battle, to supply warships, as a YF was a floating warehouse. At the end of the war, my Dad, and everyone else, fired off all their pyrotechnics to celebrate. After the war, he went to the University of Michigan on the GI Bill. Both my grandfathers had graduated from there after the Great War, in the 1920s.

How about remembering the young guys who enlisted after Pearl Harbour?

In a burst of patriotism, my father enlisted in the Navy on 8 December 1941, when he was 19 years old. He was sent to Great Lakes for boot camp, and contracted Catharral Fever. He recovered and was sent to "Radio School" at Indianapolis. He met his ship on the East coast, PC-470, and they spent the rest of 1942 and up to 1944 running between Key West and Cuba, Panama, and South America. The PC's were not named until much later. The page about the PC-470 says that she was commissioned on 31 July 1942 and that she was on convoy duty until June 1944. My Dad left the ship at that point.

Both of my uncles (husbands of my mother's sisters) served in WWII, as well. One uncle was a "tech-sergeant" in the Army and did typing. My other uncle was a Marine and was wounded at Guadalcanal. He spent much of the time on landing craft, ferrying dead bodies off the island (so I hear).

A feature of WWII was that military service was almost universal. My present late father-in-law was 38 in 1941 and had a family. He was also working on his inlaws' chicken ranch. My late former father-in-law was 41 in 1941, and he spent the war as a farmer in Michigan. Everyone younger served, if they were able-bodied, and that was a unifying experience. Large numbers of them went to college, "after the war", and that was another unifying experience. My parents' friends at the "veterans' project" in Willow Run (for the University of Michigan) all were veterans. One was a B-29 pilot. He eventually saw his plane destroyed on the ground on a Pacific island by a Japanese raid, which he saw on the television series "Air Power". My father would meet other veterans. One of the salesmen he had worked with had been a P-51 pilot. Later, he met a PT boat crewmember. Even my mother had worked at "the Ford bomber plant" at Willow Run, doing radio-related drafting.

The Viet Nam experience ruined the possibility of universal military service in any case short of all-out hot war. We can "thank" our "leftist buddies" for that.

In the last two weeks, I have seen many more new Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury cars on the road

I have been reporting on the scarcity of new Ford cars on the roads in Dallas, but hat seems to be changing. In the last two weeks, I have started seeing many more Ford Five Hundreds, as I had been seeing at least as many Mercury Montegos as Ford Five Hundreds. I have seen a few Fusions, as well as the Mercury and Lincoln versions of the Fusion. Tonight, for example, while I was driving south on the North Dallas Tollway, I saw two Ford Five Hundreds very close together. One was navy blue and the other was silver. I saw at least one, this morning. On Mockingbird, just east of the tollroad, I saw a black Fusion. Overall, it is a good thing that Ford is selling something besides trucks.

US guided missile submarine conversions

The US has been fairly quietly converting Trident ballistic missile submarines to launch Tomahawk, or Tactical Tomahawk, land attack guided missiles. DefenceTalk.com has an article on the subject. The Ohio, Michigan, Florida, and Georgia are the submarines being converted. Florida actually launched a test missile on 14 January 2003, from the Gulf of Mexico. The submarines are also equipped to carry special forces (SEAL) and have some advanced systems for getting them ashore. The converted ships are also able to perform the traditional attack submarine role, as a secondary capability.

A song that I learned from my father, when I was small

My father had served in WWII as a signalman in the Navy. He spent 1942 to 1944 on PC-470, running between Key West, Panama, Cuba, and South America. He spent the latter part of 1944 and 1945 on a YF. He saw the USS Franklin leave Pearl Harbour, looking brand new, and he saw the wreck towed back, after she was almost lost. He finished the war in Leyte Gulf, where they fired off every piece of pyrotechnic they had.

One of the things he brought home from the war was this song: "A Capital Ship for an Ocean Trip...". I was exploring, with Google, links to the lyrics and the story.

The Confederate Yankee, on Sheep, Sheep Dogs, and Wolves

The Confederate Yankee blogger has a piece called "The Sheepdog's War". This is "good stuff". My background in the service comes forward in my consciousness, due to what he has to say. For example, I was in Norfolk when they loaded the minesweeping helicopters onto the C5A's at the naval air station. They were used in the abortive attempt to rescue the hostages in Iran. I was a Lieutenant, USN, on active duty at the time, working at the Atlantic Command. One morning, when I took my son to swim team practice, the retired Navy captain who cleaned the pool for the team told me that they had made the rescue attempt and failed. I must admit that I wept at the news. It was in the spring of 1988 when I met an ex-Marine who had been in Recon. He had been part of the team that went into the Iranian desert to reconnoiter the landing zone. He had bad words to describe how things were (dis)organized. They were only fixed once President Reagan took over command. This Marine had also been an on a recon mission in Lebanon, before anyone knew that we had Marines there. My last ship, the USS Nashville (LPD-13) was involved in the whole Lebanon mess, after I left active duty and had gone into the reserves. The Carter presidency, an unmitigated disaster, moved me to the right. Had grown up as Center-Left, and by the early 1980's, I had moved further to the right, in response to the excesses of those on the Left.

The Confederate Yankee writes:

Conflict with Iran should be avoided if possible, but not at all costs, and it appears the point of no return is approaching with breathtaking speed.

Iran is dominated by a radical sect of Shi'a Islam that seeks to bring about the end of this world as an immediate shortcut to their eternal salvation. Mutually-Assured Destruction that has been so repellant to secular nations for the past 60 years does not apply to Iran. This is not the desire of the bulk of Iran's people. The Mullahs believe that a blinding flash and momentary pain is all that separates them from an eternity in Paradise.

Iran is building up both their technology and their rhetoric at a time that their current President thinks he speaks directly with their Messiah. There need be no clearer message, one simply has to listen, and the sheep will adamantly refuse.

It is a suicidal path the Sheep have taken, but to acknowledge any other possibility is to acknowledge the failure of their own ideology, an ideology they adhere to with no less fervor than that of Mullahs that would set alight the world.

Sheep and Wolf, predator and prey, they are both blinded to facts by their fanaticism. As Whittle defined the Pinks before:

...nothing is forbidden, convention is fossilized insanity and everybody gets to do their own thing without regard to consequences, reality, or natural law.

The consequences of the Mullah's eschatology and the denial of the Sheep are a recipe for the End of Days, an orgasm of Pink philosophies conspiring to obliterate millions in a blinding flash. Only the Sheepdogs stand in the way.

This is the Sheepdog's war to fight, and fight they must. That is the reality that has presented itself to us. As Sheepdogs and as Greys this is not a war we would choose, but one that has been thrust upon us by the overly tolerant of the West and overly intolerant of the Middle East. Iran's Mullah's would have nuclear weapons, and they have promised over and over again to use them, potentially triggering the deaths of millions.

This must not stand. Iran must not have nuclear weapons, nor nuclear facilities that can enrich nuclear materials to create these weapons. Any and all reasonable options should be on the table to prevent this eventuality, conventional and unconventional alike.

Let the Sheep bleat if the bombs must fall. At the very least, their noise shows that their throats have not been ripped out by the Wolves.

February 2nd

February 2nd is a significant day for me. On February 2, 1970, I arrived at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center. They told us that the windchill was 69 degrees below zero. It seemed cold enough that it might have been true

I had enlisted in the Navy in September 1969 to keep from going to Viet Nam as a draftee. My younger brother was probably on his way home by then. He had enlisted in the Marines in the Spring of 1968, and spent 17 months in country, almost all of it in the north, near the DMZ.

When I arrived, I had a rookie Company Commander (recruit trainer). He made the mistake of making me the RPOC (pronounced "Are-Pock"), because I had college. That was quickly corrected, and I ended up getting sick with a 104 temperature that set me back two weeks. I ended in in BTCS Biby's company, which was a very good thing. I sailed through the rest of Boot Camp, under his experienced control.

After Boot Camp, I went to "Beep School" (Basic Electricity and Electronics). I started to prosper, and went on the the Electronics Technician "A School", as an ETN, picking up "Third Class" after the first portion. While there, I applied for the NESEP program. When I finished, I was shipped off to Greenbury Point, across the river from the Naval Academy. In the Spring of 1972, I found out that I had been selected for NESEP. The people I worked with were amazed, as I was struggling as a technician. My chief petty officer, after hearing of my selection, told me that I could "fall into a pig pen and come out smelling like rose" (or words to that effect).

I eventually got through Purdue and went to OCS in Newport, RI. I was commissioned and then sent to Surface Warfare Officers School. From there, I was sent to the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CV-42). You might have shaved with a piece of the Roosevelt, as she was decommissioned and broken up in the latter 1970's.

I eventually picked up Lieutenant on active duty and then Lieutenant-Commander in the reserves, before I bailed. I am not sorry that I had the experience, as I grew and prospered in the process.

I found Jeff's story very moving

I found Jeff Harrell's story about his journey from a 17-year old Socialist to a conservative quite moving. I was an Anarchist at 17. I was a Liberal Republican up until 1984. Jimmy Carter had helped the process along, and I had been very disturbed about the failed Iranian hostage rescue attempt. I was a Lieutenant in the Navy (a Mustang) at the time. Jeff writes:

I have friends who’ve been Republicans all their lives. I think we all know people like that, people who inherited their political opinions from their parents and never wavered. I had to strike out on my own and experience a sort of philosophical Wanderjahr before I was ready to come back to the values I learned from my parents.

Does that make my political opinions any more valid than anyone else’s? Of course not. But it does make them complicated. I believe that personal responsibility is a cardinal virtue, but I believe that society must sometimes protect us from ourselves. I believe that free markets solve problems better than governments, but I believe that public education is too important to leave to the invisible hand. I believe that sometimes war is the inevitable extension of a strong foreign policy, but I believe that the state has no business executing prisoners. I’m a swarming, teeming mass of political contradictions, and as such I fit in perfectly with no political party.

But I think that’s how American politics is supposed to work. I think American political parties are supposed to be made up of smart, dedicated people who disagree about practically everything but who find enough common ground to work together. I think that American politics is the politics of persuasion, and that people with strong convictions have a responsibility to get out there and start persuading others to see things their way.

And I believe that strong-willed people who disagree with each other can change the world for the better. Because I think that those are the only people who ever have.

I think that many good people walked away from the Democratic Party after September 11th, 2001. Those that are left are way to the left, or not knowledgable about the facts. My mother was a Liberal Republican who has moved to the Democratic Party, because the Religious Right in the Republican Party were too much for her. I have friends in that category, but they were part of what drove a wedge between the Republicans and a certain youngish man, to whom we are close, who is an Objectivist and an Atheist, who is militantly Pro-Choice.

The Bear-F in Indian service

The Indians operate a small fleet of TU142 Bears, including the Bear-F, which they use for maritime reconnaissance. James Dunnigan's site mentioned this aircraft and then I found a link to an Indian page with details, using the Google image search. The hot scoop from Dunnigan's site is that Indian Bear-F's were tracking Russian Kilo class submarines being shipped to China. In case you might have thought otherwise, our Chinese buddies are not benign.

The inflation calculator is pretty interesting, if disquieting

I had an idea that the IT job market in Dallas was depressed, but I had not really comes to grips with just how far it has fallen. I was using this inflation calculator to compare my present salary to what I was making in 1981, just out of the navy with an MS in Computer Science. I am making $49 per year more than I was making then. In other words, I'm making the same salary. I am hoping that others are doing better than I am, and that this reflects my being out of state from 2001 to 2004.

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor was a defining moment for my parents. My Dad had worked for a year to be able to attend the University of Michigan, and my Mom had just started, as well. She is a year younger. My parents were radio people, and they may have shaped my life along those lines, as well. I grew up listening to the radio, which was constantly on, before we had television. We lived in a trailer (temporary housing for veterans) when I was very small. I can remember hearing the radio, that a P-51 had been shot down over Korea (that's what I rememeber, at least). In any case, my parents heard the news about Pearl Harbor on the radio. My dad enlisted in the navy the next day. My mom attended school for a while longer, but it was stressful for her. She finally worked as a draftsman at Willow Run, working on radio-related work on the B-24 built there by Ford. Being a veteran, my Dad was able to finish college and almost finish a Master's degree, at Government expense (GI Bill). My Mom and Dad were both better prepared for life by the experiences they had during the war. And it was not only them, but a whole generation who had this common experience. Everywhere my Dad would go, he would meet another veteran. There was the PT boat sailor, and there was the P-51 pilot. My Uncle Chet was wounded at Guadalcanal, as a Marine. My Uncle Joe was a Tech Sargeant, whose weapon was a typewriter.

Our leftist buddies

The shrillness of our leftist buddies' rhetoric since last Tuesday has increased. That was a predictable result, given the general looniness that we have come to expect from the left. There seems to be a high correlation between family and ethnic background, locality, and political orientation. The family, and our reaction to that upbringing, is probably the most inportant factor. Any change that occurs is likely to be gradual. For example, I was raised as a liberal Republican from Southwestern Michigan. Being in the Navy and experiencing the Carter and Reagan presidencies caused my move to the right. Even in the latter 1980's, I was pretty liberal. After having run around with my friends from Georgia for a decade and hearing many people talk about politics and life in a way with which I could relate, I have moved more to the right (I would call myself "center-right").

Morale and competence in the Democratic Party

I recently wrote about "Morale and Compentence in the Restoration Navy" and noted the propensity for these sudden and devastating morale collapses that occurred on several occasions. I speculated that the reasons might involve the morale climate established by Charles II and the Duke of York. They had been radicalized by their father's death at the hand of Cromwell, and had few behavioral limits. The only thing that you could be assured was that they would do anything to advance the cause of the English navy. Otherwise, they carried on outrageously, and everyone knew it.

When I write the words, they remind me of the Clinton years. John Kerry seems to have had a somewhat different slant than President Clinton. The only thing you could count on with President Clinton was that he would govern from the right, as that was the only way to get elected. He would talk to the left, just a bit, to keep the lefties happy. He would wink and nod, and they were fooled. John Kerry was afraid to admit what his true tendencies were, but he could be relied upon to be true to them, when the time came to be counted. That is why he refused President Clinton's advice to find a way to be in favor of banning Gay marriage. President Clinton was very consistent with the loose morals of the Restoration. John Kerry was not so loose, but was still the wealthy elitist. I should say, he was the extreme-leftist, wealthy elitist. The Democrat crew talked a good fight, but they collapsed when confronted in a good fight. They lacked the moral basis for living. They liked how they lived, but might just have been a bit ashamed about it.

Climate change and "the hockey stick"

I was very interested to read an article at Tech Central Station about "the hockey stick" and climate change. There is an paper being published that refutes the Mann, Bradley and Hughes "Hockey Stick" model for the climate. What really caught my eye was a graph showing northern hemisphere temperatures from a the ECHO-G computer model. I am a naval historian and specialize in the 17th century naval history surrounding the Dutch navy. The graph shows a low point for temperatures right before 1700. What we know from 16th and 17th century naval history is that this was period of late season severe storms that may or may not have been hurricanes. The peak was "The Great Storm" ion 1703 that devastated the British Isles and Channel region. 1588 was during very low temperature point, as well. The storm that destroyed a significant portion of the Spanish Armada happened during one of these low temperature points. High temperature points may cause more storms, but the very low temperature points are at least as worse, if not much worse. During the First Anglo-Dutch War, storms devastated the Dutch navy. One was during a voyage to the Shetlands to convoy returning East Indiamen in August 1652. Another was in early November 1653, when the Dutch navy lost more warships in a great storm while escorting home merchantships that had been sheltering in Norwegian waters. Storms during periods of "global cooling" can be quite severe.

After panicking, I realized that we have accomplished adults running the country

I have been in somewhat of a panic over the prospect of what the Democrats have in mind for November 3rd (seemingly after losing the election). I was reminded, yesterday, that "our guys" understand what is happening and are ready to deal with Kerry and Democrat shenanigens. We have adults running the country and who are ready to deal with the unruly children on the Democrat side, if they get out of line.

I'm reminded of a story that a Navy pilot told me in 1976 about the Naval Academy. He was a Naval Academy grad and a pilot, and he was allowed to joke about it. The question is: "What is the difference between the Naval Academy and a Boy Scout camp?". The answer is: "At at Boy Scout camp, they have adult supervision". Our Democrat buddies need some adult supervision.

John Kerry's discharge from the Navy

I shouldn't have been surprised at this story, but I just had not "put two-and-two together" on my own. Apparently, John Kerry's original discharge was "under less than honorable conditions". Because John Kerry has not released all of his records, we don't know the details. Later, during Jimmy Carter's reign, they rewrote history and gave John Kerry an honorable discharge. Scott Johnson, at Powerline, has the story as we know it. As a former enlisted man and officer in the Navy, I believe that this had to do with John Kerry's activities in 1970 to 1972, where he seems to have broken the law. The most obvious case was his meetings with the Viet Nam Communists in Paris.

Kerry supporters assume that the Swift Boat Veterans charges are false

There is a great divide in the country: between supporters of John Kerry who are angry about the Swift Boat Veterans' charges and assume they aren't true and those who are opposed to John Kerry, who assume that they are true. The latest advertisement will be harder to deal with, in that much of the ad is John Kerry speaking in 1971.

When I was in the Navy in 1971, and I heard John Kerry's testimony in the Senate, I was angered. We were still fighting in Viet Nam. My brother was recently returned from 17 months in the North of Viet Nam, fighting as a Marine. Here was this guy who was an anti-war protestor, who was running around with Jane Fonda, and he was saying things about our people that were totally unsupported by any proof. All we had was his word, and it turns out that he had no direct experience. His goal was to sabotage our war against the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese, and he eventually succeeded.

Now, all we have is John Kerry's word, and it turns out that when we try to fact check him, his compelling stories often don't stand up to scrutiny. The Swift Boat Veterans stand up and complain about his exaggerations of his role in combat and total fiction like the "Christmas in Cambodia", and John Kerry's reaction is to try and smear them, and get their book banned by booksellers. He might be able to influence brick and mortar booksellers, but the book is a number one best seller with Amazon.com.

John Kerry is a total schmuck. He and is minions can't stand being fact-checked, so they react to try to discredit and ruin anyone who would oppose them.

More about David Alston and John Kerry

More people are researching this story now, so that we know more details. Apparently, David Alston returned to PCF-94 for about a week, right before John Kerry left the boat. That was in March. PCF-94's previous commander, Lt. Ted Peck and David Alston were both wounded in an action on January 29, 1969. Lt(jg) John Kerry replaced Ted Peck in command, as John Kerry's crew for PCF-44 were all rotated home. It was a convenient swap, as Ted Peck was not going to return. David Alston was convalescing for just over a month, recovering from his head wound. During the time he was gone, Fred Short took his place as gunner. Fred Short was present for the action in which John Kerry was awarded his Silver Star (February 28, 1969). Fred Short was on board from February 18 (his birthday) until about March 4. David Alston apparently returned about then. The Special Forces Lieutenant rescued by John Kerry, in the action on March 13, 1969, was named Jim Rassman. I had seen a similar but different name "Jim Rasmussen". Apparently, Rassman is the correct spelling. They sound similar, but Rasmussen is incorrect. John Kerry was wounded, for a third time, in the action on March 13, and that allowed him to leave PCF-94 and Viet Nam. John Kerry had reportedly told the enlisted men who served under him that he was going to be the next "JFK", emulating President Kennedy's career in the Navy and politics.

Sandy Berger's situation

The technical term for where Sandy Berger (otherwise known as Samuel Berger) is "Deep s***". As we would say in the Navy, this would seem to have "ruined his whole day". We had such great terminology, when I was working around this sort of environment. Apparently, for some political purpose, Sandy Berger stole highly classified documents and may have destroyed some. You might suppose that they either were embarrassing for Democrats or else exonerated Republicans. That is how these guys work. They are really great. It is sad, however, that someone who has been so highly trusted would betray that trust.