It’s the 11th of the month. Do you know how the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who have been wounded and can’t type are doing?

You don’t have to specifically know, but you know what the news is saying and this post is to remind you that the V(oice)A(ctivated)L(aptops) for OUR-I(njured)T(roops) program surely can use a few dollars to get laptops into the major military medical facilities for their use. The laptops help bring them back into communicating with family, friends and their units. It’s a blessing all around.

Here’s the link No excuses, huh? Get to it!

Tracked back @: Yankee Sailor

Sea stories? You want “sea stories?”

Once upon a midwatch clear….(to be continued later today). The topic? VERY large formations doing “TIC TACs.”

In the meantime, link your best, current, or currently best posts!

There we were, the leadership of the ship massed on the bridge, late in the evening, on a clear (on the surface), but moonless night. A Carrier Battle Group (CVBG) comprised of us and escorts and the USS SARATOGA (CV-60), if memory serves me well, had “joined up” with the Standing Naval Forces, Atlantic (STANAVFORLANT), consisting of several frigates and destroyers from the Continent, and one of our ships so assigned as her deployment) and their supporting oiler, in this cycle, courtesy of the Royal Navy.

For what ever reason, the British Admiral of STANAVFORLANT was in tactical command of us all and had ordered us into a large circular formation, of three concentric circular ranges. We, being a Fat Ship (USS MILWAUKEE (AOR-2)), in company with one carrier and at least one other oiler (the Brit) were assigned a “point” station (a fixed bearing and range from the guide ship of the formation) and were on our way through traffic to get there.

Shortly before arriving on station, the, as we called it back the, PRITAC (primary tactical) radio crackled to life and a very long coded signal was clearly sounded out in all its phonetic glory from ATP-1, a standard signal book used by we and our allied nations. I can’t tell you what it was, but it had a change of station component, followed by the alteration of the axis of the formation, followed by a course change. The signal was passed as a “delayed executive” type, meaning a separate command would be sent to execute the directions at a future time.

As Officer of the Deck (OOD), I diligently plotted the new changes on a Maneuvering Board, calculated our course and speed to the new station assignment and showed it to the CO. He concurred and I briefed my Junior Officer of the Deck (who was conning the ship, too) on what to do when the signal was executed.

I recall we arrived in our station on that moonless night, nestled among the combatants, who would patrol the seas to keep us and the CV safe from enemy attacks, and we reported “Alfa Station” smartly as we ordered speed reduced to match the guide’s speed. Within moments, PRITAC came to life once more and, spewing forth a fairly long string or letters and numbers, followed by “Standby, EXECUTE!”

The JOOD clearly announced the the Helmsman and Lee Helmsman the rudder and engine orders for us to slip, ever so relatively to our new station, with a new axis on the formation (I think it was almost a 180 degree axis change to match the reversal of the formation’s course. And the 40,000 tons of steel and people and liquid cargo commenced to swing crisply (well, as best we could imitate a destroyer with less HP per ton). Now consider this “M” with new “A” in both the forward speed and the rudder standard (15 degrees) input, while traveling about 15 kts. As we smiled in the dim red glow of the low level illumination of the bridge equipment, several of us, the CO and XO and OPS, as well as I on the bridge wing, noted the relative movement of the running lights of the other ships of the formation would indicate they were not in a bold course change to the right, they were more like, well, to put it plainly essentially still headed the same direction they had been going before the long, but…you guessed it, not wholly ordered signal.

A new voice was heard over PRITAC, with a distinctly English (the Queen’s not American), sending a new communication and, but the “call up” portion of the message, only addressed to our call sign. The “we’re real Surface Warfare experts” aura fading. No, evaporated, as the words sunk in “(MILWAUKEE), Your movements are not understood.” Being the practiced crisis management experts we are resulted in the almost instantaneously blurted out comment by several of us “KEEP THE RUDDER ON!” We then realized of the extensive signal sent, only a portion of it was directed to be carried out, and there were other portions yet to be executed. Those parts are pretty obvious.

The speed increase and right standard remained on, as we cut a 360 degree wake into the black water, before resuming the station we were not supposed to have left yet. The CO said to keep the speed on, but to report “Alfa Station” to the Officer in Tactical Command (OTC), we did and after “Roger,” the remaining portions of the long signal, to include the new course change, so all we had do was put the rudder back on and head for our new station.

At least it was a dark and windy night….

Welcome, LGF readers! Enjoy and feel free to comment…

I heard this morning that the DA’s Office in North Carolina has dismissed all charges against the three Lacrosse players. Two new prosecuters who took over the case after Michael Nifong recused himself (under threat of disbarment), said there was many, many discrepancies with the allegations and dismissed all legal charges.

In the heat of the current affairs regarding Don Imus, one of the players said in the news conference yesterday “he stole our joy.”

Don Imus went on Al Sharpton’s show to apologize. Good move. Don also is going to meet with the Rutger’s basketball team. Better move.

Not to dismiss anything as “not important” or proclaim it’s OK, consider the acrimony over the three lacrosse players, some of it lead by Al Sharpton:

[…]
REV. AL SHARPTON, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: I think that there are certainly a lot of racial factors. Whether it is directly in the case, we’ll see, because some reports said that there was racial language used. But I think that when you look at the racial atmosphere, when you look at the fact that there again were the allegations of racial statements, when you look at a lot of people feeling that they have been treated differently, where this girl has basically had a character charged in the media, there is a lot of racism that’s in the air. Having said that, I commend a lot of the blacks and whites who stood vigil and to come together in that community to stand up for this girl. So I think in the midst of this, there is some good.
[…]

(from an interview with Bill O’Reilly on Fox News 4/19/2006)

If it was bad for Don Imus to steal someone’s joy, is it also bad to steal someone’s life, future and education, in addition to making their families put out thousands of dollars. More than joy was stolen, not only from the 3 young men, but of an entire team, the coach included, and the reputation of the very school who had 88 faculty members condemn before evidence was looked at with the quality we expect from our legal system.

This issue will follow these three young men for many years to come. Check out an employment application and note that most likely they will have to disclose they have been charged with felonies, regardless of the outcome, the question usually lists “been charged with, convicted of, plead no contest to a felony” as conditions of filling out the response to a criminal history. It will show up on background checks, also. Hopefully the NC legal system will drop everything and expunge the charges immediately, due to the long term nature of this case and the high level of interest it generated.

So…I’m just waiting for Al Sharpton, who has positioned himself as a voice for his community, and had strong opinions on the subject, to invite the entire Duke Lacrosse Team to his show and apologize. I think it would do well for many people, in the media and at the school to seek some private meetings as well. All in the name of what Martin Luther King was after for us all.

Would that be expecting too much?

Update: In response to the so far two comments left, I don’t have a category for “Satire” in my database yet, but this is some politics and then, you guessed it a “Walking in a Wishful Wonderland” type of moment. I’m sure not blue in the face yet, nor do I expect to get there.

Tracked back@: stik N stein