Fun from the poster generator:

Yeah, it gives me a headache, too, even after all these years…

Ah, the Terminator Babe….

1781 – French Fleet defeats the Britsh Navy at Yorktown, VA.

Thanks to Comte de Grasse. later honored by the naming of the USS COMTE DE GRASSE (DD-974), was an integral player.

Capt Lex, enroute a permanent appointment with CIVPAC/LANT/Wherever, is up to his eyeballs in real world work (building resume entries).

He issues this tasking:

Insanely busy. Irrationally so. Firing on all synapses. Every sinew a-twitch.

Busy.

So. Talk amongst yourselves. As though you needed any encouragement from me.

Suggested topic: Close Air Support. How very hard it can be to deliver warheads on foreheads when those forehead are in close proximity to other foreheads whom you are actually trying to protect. And who need it bad, or else they wouldn’t be asking for you to drop 500 pound bombs over the top of them, because really, who needs the stress?

But only they’re locked in mortal combat, like. In the beatin’ zone, but with the roles of beater and beatee not yet clearly defined. But whose situation is not improved if in fact you mid-ID the target or otherwise drop short.

It made me connect two stories of my life from 20 years ago and almost 20 years ago now. Lots of details, but at the end of the real world operations in 86 off Libya, and as a result of playing out tactics later the same year, we (my staff) forwarded our report up the chain in early ’87. I know now, in the aftermath of all of that, the Tomahawk Anti-Ship Missile (TASM) began a fairly quick exit from bag of weaponry for the Surface Warfare community.

It revolved around the same points as Lex asked us to discuss in his moment of high focus regarding Close Air Support during a “Danger Close” (more like “Danger ‘Coz We’re Grappling with Each Other”).

If you need to catch up, I talked about the operations in the vicinity of Libya (an how I never got to have a beer on DGAR) back in “A Journey Into History” series. Part I is here, and it has links to walk you to the end of the posts on the subject.

That group of posts highlighted a particular incident in March ’86, which was the outcome of the volumes of civilian (“White”) shipping that cluttered our surface picture. We didn’t have any TASM equipped units in any of the three battle groups that made up Battle Force “Z,” but we often talked among ourselves in the staff watch space, of how wonderful it would be to have the new “wonder weapon” at our disposal, how more mighty we would be on the bounding main….

This, too, was at the time I first met Adm Harry Harris, now of Guantanamo Bay and Detainee fame. I came to know LCDR Harry Harris, of the USS SARATOGA (CV-60) Operations Department, when he stopped a briefing to Adm David Jerimiah I was giving and said: “We can’t do that!” Me: Why not? Him: “We can’t have aircraft flying on an alerted target!” Me:… That, readers, is fodder for tomorrow’s Ropeyarn Sunday “Sea Stories” and Open Trackbacks. Now, back to my regularly scheduled ramblings:

Read the rest of this entry »

Got lucky last night and my friend couldn’t go and see the free preview, so I got his tickets…

Well done movie, and they made it a point to hire good advisors for the film. I’m a reality based guy, so detail makes it better in my opinion.

Quick overview: You’ll find yourself immersed in the story and feel like you’re in the bird or on the hoist during the action scenes. If’ you’ve been to a military school, you probably will feel some old feelings coming back and maybe identify with those students or instructors in the movie.

The story line is not unlike many of us have seen. Elite school, hard to get into, with young hotshot who’s already decided to tear up the world in the style of “Maverick” eyeballing the other pilots and the TOPGUN trophy during the CO’s welcome message. IN this case, the guy who holds the records is standing in the back of the room.

The movie begins with a rescue on a storm swept night int he Bering Sea that doesn’t go well. Very badly, as you might imagine, and Senior Chief Randall gets home alive, but badly shaken, so they send him off to the Rescue swimmer school to work things out. AN Ficher is the kid with the attitude, and can back up his ability in the water, but, of course, lacks the understanding that it’s not some sometime game he’s getting into and Kevin Costner (Randall), via a tough mentoring program, brings him along.

The school scenes are believeable, complete with an Instructor insurrection, when “their way” is modified by the new SCPO shows up and puts a dose of reality into the methods of training. I’ve seen this before in the real world, too.

The story line is great, the photography stunning and the scenes during the flights will keep you pumped up, as the Jayhawks skim the boiling seas under nasty, dark, cloud filled skies.

It’s a 2:15 long movie and go easy on the large cokes, so you don’t have to miss any of the action, but if you need a break, skip the “squid” bar scene and dno’t miss the rest.

I’ll say this, it sure helps you gain a better appreciation of what our young men and women in the Coast Guard face when they make it throught that school and head out to the CG Stations worldwide as lifesavers.

More data here on the history of the USCG Rescue Swimmers from the USCG website here.