US military news thread

[Jeff Head]

Raptors will deploy to Okinawa next week

The first overseas deployment of the F-22 will occurs next week as the Raptors will be sent to Kadena AFB in Okinawa.

http://content.hamptonroads.com/stor...572&ran=132128

It is being done as a message to North Korea and China IMHO...and I am sure that it will not hurt the US Air Force's feelings, or LOckheed Martin and Boeing to have them there in Okinawa where the Japanese can take a good look at them since it is reported that Japan is interested in buying some and beginning to update their F-15 inventory.

[BLUEJACKET]

I just posted article quotes about F-22s deployments & capabilities-see #56
here.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...9&q=F-22&hl=en

Joint Strike Fighter Testing Video

[bd popeye]

US Navy Astronaut goes beserk!

A US astronaut goes beserk over a love affair gone bad..She's USN Captian Lisa Marie Nowak. She is the first US astronaut to be charged with a felony. You have to read this.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070206/...onaut_arrested

By MIKE SCHNEIDER, Associated Press Writer
49 minutes ago

ORLANDO, Fla. - A NASA astronaut charged with attempting to kidnap a romantic rival in a love triangle with another astronaut was allowed to go free on bail Tuesday on the condition that she not contact the alleged victim.

The judge told Lisa Marie Nowak she could be released on $15,500 bond, then asked if she understood the conditions. She responded "yes."

Nowak, a married mother of three, stood in a jail uniform, looking down during most of the hearing. She planned to return home to Houston, and the judge ordered her to wear a tracking device.

The 43-year-old robotics specialist faces charges including attempted kidnapping, attempted vehicle burglary with battery, destruction of evidence and battery.

Police said she drove 900 miles, donned a disguise and was armed with a BB gun and pepper spray when she confronted a woman she believed was a competitor for the affections of Navy Cmdr. William Oefelein, an unmarried fellow astronaut.

Nowak rode aboard Discovery in July. Oefelein, 41, piloted the space shuttle Discovery in December. They trained together but never flew together.

Nowak told police that her relationship with Oefelein was "more than a working relationship but less than a romantic relationship," according to an arrest affidavit. Police found a love letter to Oefelein in her car.

According to authorities, Nowak believed another woman, Colleen Shipman, was romantically involved with Oefelein. When Nowak found out Shipman was flying to Orlando from Houston, Nowak decided to confront her early Monday, according to the arrest affidavit.

Nowak raced from Houston to Orlando wearing diapers in the car so she wouldn't have to stop to go to the bathroom, authorities said. Astronauts wear diapers during launch and re-entry.

Dressed in a wig and a trench coat, she waited for Shipman's plane to land and then boarded the same airport shuttle bus Shipman took to get to her car, police said. Shipman told police she noticed someone following her, hurried inside the car and locked the doors, according to the arrest affidavit.

Nowak rapped on the window, tried to open the car door and asked for a ride. Shipman refused but rolled down the car window a few inches when Nowak started crying, the statement said. Nowak then sprayed a chemical into Shipman's car, the affidavit said. Shipman drove to the parking lot booth and police were called.

An officer reported following Nowak and watching her throw away a bag containing the wig and BB gun. Police also found a steel mallet, a 4-inch folding knife, rubber tubing, $600 and garbage bags inside a bag Nowak was carrying when she was arrested, authorities said.

Two other astronauts attended the hearing. Steve Lindsey, commander of Nowak's Discovery flight last July, testified that Nowak would obey the conditions of her release.

Chris Ferguson, a pilot on the mission, also attended the hearing. Asked afterward about Nowak's behavior, Ferguson said "perplexed is the word I'm sticking with."

Oefelein and Shipman, who the Houston Chronicle said worked at Patrick Air Force Base near the Kennedy Space Center, did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

NASA spokesman James Hartsfield in Houston said that, as of Monday, Nowak's status with the astronaut corps remained unchanged. "What will happen beyond that, I will not speculate," he said.

Hartsfield said he couldn't recall the last time an astronaut was arrested and said there were no rules against fraternizing among astronauts.

Police said Nowak told them that she only wanted to scare Shipman into talking to her about her relationship with Oefelein and didn't want to harm her physically.

"If you were just going to talk to someone, I don't know that you would need a wig, a trench coat, an air cartridge BB gun and pepper spray," said Orlando police Sgt. Barbara Jones. "It's just really a very sad case."

According to NASA's official biography, Nowak is a Naval Academy graduate who has a master's degree in aeronautical engineering. She has a teenage son and younger twin girls.

Oefelein has two children and began his aviation career as a teenager flying floatplanes in Alaska, according to a NASA biography. He studied electrical engineering at Oregon State University and later earned a master's degree in aviation systems at the University of Tennessee Space Institute. He has been an astronaut since 1998.

[bd popeye]

USS John F Kennedy CV-67 to be decomissioned

Yes on the 23rd of March this year. The "JFK" was my first ship back in 1972. I will never forget my orders they stated "Report to the Commanding Officer of the USS John F Kennedy CVA-67 OUTSTALANT"..OUTSTALANT?? That is Navy speak for "Out Stationed Atlantic". That meant they were deployed. I caught up with the ship in Rhodes Greece.

On the 23rd of March a grown man will surely cry out loud. That will be me.

http://content.hamptonroads.com/stor...9085&ran=67503

NORFOLK - The aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy will be decommissioned March 23 in a ceremony at the Mayport, Fla., Naval Station, the Navy's Air Force Atlantic command in Norfolk announced Wednesday.

After nearly 40 years of service, the carrier, named in honor of the 35th president, will be placed in an inactive status and kept at Inactive Ships Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia, the Navy said in a release.

It was built at Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, now known as Northrop Grumman Newport News shipyard, and commissioned in 1968.

It will make one more port call before retirement, visiting Boston March 1-5.

Details of the decommissioning ceremony are still being finalized, but dignitaries, including members of Congress, Navy officials and possibly members of the Kennedy family, are expected to attend, the release said.

[BLUEJACKET]

If the Navy doesn't care, why should you? To them old ships and sailors are expendable-that's a fact of life.
Army made video warning about dangers of depleted uranium but never showed it to troops

[bd popeye]

If the Navy doesn't care, why should you? To them old ships and sailors are expendable-that's a fact of life.

Actually I feel insulted by your remarks. It reeks of distain for someone that served in the USN for 20 years.

Trained active duty sailors are not expendable. but old ships are.

Maybe in your eyes. But in my "lifer dog" heart my best memories of being in the USN were being ships company on the USS John F Kennedy CVA-67. Homeport back in the day..Naval Operating Base Norfolk VA.

Unlike you, I'm proud I served in the Worlds Greatest Navy and would do it again. Let's end this with those thoughts shall we?
__________________________________________________ ___________


Depleted uranium is nothing new. As for US forces not being trained on how to handle it, safe storage and the effects of expouer to depleted uranium. I find that very hard to believe. I know that many years ago when USN Cv's may have had nuke weapons on board, I will nether confirm or deny the presence of nuclear weapons on board USN vessels, We, as ordanceman, were fully trained on the handling of nuclear weapons. I choose not to believe the left wing ramblings in those articles.

However I am keenly aware of the devasating effects depleted uranium has on enemey forces and bystanders.

[BLUEJACKET]

They say that "the people are our biggest asset" but for all I have seen it's just a slogan,- one can just recall needless risks and casualties (I'm not talking about accidents) on USS Pueblo/Liberty/Cole/EP-3 and at Marine barracks in Beirut, not to mention submarine ops against the Soviets in their territorial waters! I don't doubt that you had good time on CV-67 (as I had some on CV-63 & elsewhere, and proud of it too for 3 reasons- I traveled around the World 2 times, didn't kiss anyone's behind and left with an honorable discharge), but that's beside the point. In the bigger scheme of things, those in military uniform are mere "pawns in someone else's hands", like Mr.Henry Kissinger alleged to have said. The DU issue only another example of it:
http://www.miltoxproj.org/Health%20E...5-04%20RTF.rtf

http://www.ngwrc.org/Archives/conf20...DU-Atlanta.pdf

http://hannah.webserver.smith-family...ve/000448.html

http://www.llrc.org/du/subtopic/pragrept.pdf

http://www.ippnw.org/MGS/V7N1IPPNWDU.html

http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2004/8.html

..for the foreseeable future, our great nation's most precious treasure, the young men and women standing guard on the ramparts of freedom, will fight and bleed and die wearing inferior body armor.

[bd popeye]

In the bigger scheme of things, those in military uniform are mere "pawns in someone else's hands",

There's not a single person in Uniform in the US armed forces since 1973 who was conscripted into service. Not one. As you know they are all volunteers.

In the words of that old school cartoon charcter Super Chicken "They knew the job was dangerous when they took it".

One last time, let's leave it at that.

[BLUEJACKET]

New US general warns Iraq doomed if crackdown fails
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L10750830.htm

Will the Watada Mistrial Spark an End to the War?
http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mh...s=brechersmith

An Iraq Interrogator's Nightmare
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...801680_pf.html

Surging Into Catastrophe in Iraq

The Pentagon's not-so-little secret

Insurgents launch deadly attacks on Iraq security forces

Analysis: U.S. troops in for long haulhttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070213/...aq_long_haul_1

Military grants more waivers to recruits
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070214/...cruits_waivers

Al-Qaida's No. 2 calls Bush an alcoholic
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070213/...a/zawahri_tape

[bd popeye]

In the past few years I've noticed that the USN and USMC have stepped up their operations with the Philippines.

Recently the USS Blue Ridge(LCC-19) was in Manila an Cebu RP for "goodwill" port visits. During the visit to Manila a passanger ship in port suffered a major fire. US sailors assited the Philippine authorites in the fighting of these fires.

http://www.navy.mil/list_all.asp?id=27782

Crew members from USS Blue Ridge (LCC 19) respond to a shipboard fire aboard the passenger ferry Manila Bay One. Blue Ridge firefighters working alongside local Coast Guard and the Manila Bay One crew battled the casualty for more than six hours before finally extinguishing the blaze. Blue Ridge and embarked U.S. 7th Fleet staff are in the Philippines as part of Project Friendship, a humanitarian assistance/community service project with the Armed forces of the Philippines. During Project Friendship in the Philippines, the ship's approximately 1000 crew and U.S. 7th Fleet staff along with embarked Marines and Seabees will participate in friendship-building and goodwill-generating activities.

[The_Zergling]

Supplementing Bluejacket's link on Military waivers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/14/us...rtner=homepage

The number of waivers granted to Army recruits with criminal backgrounds has grown about 65 percent in the last three years, increasing to 8,129 in 2006 from 4,918 in 2003, Department of Defense records show.

During that time, the Army has employed a variety of tactics to expand its diminishing pool of recruits. It has offered larger enlistment cash bonuses, allowed more high school dropouts and applicants with low scores on its aptitude test to join, and loosened weight and age restrictions.

It has also increased the number of so-called “moral waivers” to recruits with criminal pasts, even as the total number of recruits dropped slightly. The sharpest increase was in waivers for serious misdemeanors, which make up the bulk of all the Army’s moral waivers. These include aggravated assault, burglary, robbery and vehicular homicide.

...

The Army enlisted 69,395 men and women last year.

While soldiers with criminal histories made up only 11.7 percent of the Army recruits in 2006, the spike in waivers raises concerns about whether the military is making too many exceptions to try to meet its recruitment demands in a time of war. Most felons, for example, are not permitted to carry firearms, and many criminals have at some point exhibited serious lapses in discipline and judgment, traits that are far from ideal on the battlefield.

...

Mr. Belkin said the increases in moral waivers in the Army posed a problem only to the extent that the military failed to track these recruits or provide special integration training for them.

Since more than 125,000 service members with criminal histories have joined the military in the last three years, Mr. Belkin said, “you have a sizeable population that has been incarcerated and is not used to the same cultural norms as everybody else.”

“The chance that one of those individuals is going to commit an atrocity or disobey an order is higher,” he said. “Many of those individuals can be good soldiers, but in some cases they have special needs. The military should address those needs rather than pretending they don’t exist.”

For more information, follow the link. This is a perplex situation, especially if you consider that the army is effectively ranking criminals higher than homosexuals. There have been various qualified soldiers who have been kicked out of the army (including some fluent in Arabic) because of their sexual orientation... needless to say it is worth questioning the validity of these policies given the current context.

[bd popeye]

I find that article intresting. I read the yahoo article yesterday. I have no comment other than the US military has long "massaged" it's waiver policies to suit it's needs. During the Korean war "qualified" persons were paroled out of prisons and straight into the US Army. Unbelievable.

My new wifes son in law is a USN recruiter. I asked him about the waivers for criminal behavior. He said he does not know about the Army. But the USN will only consider a waiver if the infraction occuried when the potential recruit was a minor. and if the the infraction was a misdemeanor. No felons can join the USN. One more thing he pointed out all US services require a criminal waiver for major driving infractions. In fact they are considered misdemeanors.

[The_Zergling]

I find that article intresting. I read the yahoo article yesterday. I have no comment other than the US military has long "massaged" it's waiver policies to suit it's needs. During the Korean war "qualified" persons were paroled out of prisons and straight into the US Army. Unbelievable.

My new wifes son in law is a USN recruiter. I asked him about the waivers for criminal behavior. He said he does not know about the Army. But the USN will only consider a waiver if the infraction occured when the potential recruit was a minor. and if the the infraction was a misdemeanor. No felons can join the USN. One more thing he pointed out all US services require a criminal waiver for major driving infractions. In fact they are considered misdemeanors.

It wouldn't surprise me if Navy and Air Force recruiting standards haven't dropped much if any over the past few years, as losses in personnel have been minimal. As it stands, the Marines and the Army are doing most of the fighting and thus have the highest attrition rate. Most of the time news reports only count deaths of soldiers, but even if one is injured but not killed more often than not they are incapable of fighting anymore, and thus need to be replaced. If counting the number of total casualties including wounded, then it's quite clear that the strain on the army is heavy indeed.

This leaves a particularly bad feeling in my mouth because this is a war concerning politics even more than military force, and that US forces have to be extremely tactful if there's any chance at all of "victory", but that requires well-trained personnel with good solid cultural understanding as well as fluency in Arabic. I doubt we're getting that with decreased training time and recruits with lower education, hence my increasing pessimism with the whole situation.

[bd popeye]

I doubt we're getting that with decreased training time and recruits with lower education, hence my increasing pessimism with the whole situation.

The standards have not changed. More waivers are given. Education standards are the same. the Army has allowed more recruits with lower test scores to join. But this does not mean all are lower mental groups.

To just what degree have training time been reduced? You may be mistaken on this point.

Most of the time news reports only count deaths of soldiers, but even if one is injured but not killed more often than not they are incapable of fighting anymore, and thus need to be replaced. If counting the number of total casualties including wounded, then it's quite clear that the strain on the army is heavy indeed.

I agree 100%...

[The_Zergling]

The standards have not changed. More waivers are given. Education standards are the same. the Army has allowed more recruits with lower test scores to join. But this does not mean all are lower mental groups.

To just what degree have training time been reduced? You may be mistaken on this point.

Eh, my bad. I worded it poorly... let me try again. I wasn't implying that the military was getting recruits with lower mental capacity, but even if all the recruits are at least average simply going through standard training probably won't cut it. Unless they've increased training time, chances are they won't have a chance.

The situation in Iraq is not simply one in which you can toss any recruit through intensive weapons training and expect them to save the day. Being able to grasp the nuances of culture, the subtleties of something completely foreign to you, being sensitive to things that may seem unimportant to you but important to the Iraqis... these are skills that I doubt most people are able to develop, and it takes time. It's hard enough as it is for people living in the States to be open-minded or tolerant of people different from them, let alone when they're being shot at on a daily basis.

The fact that training time has not been increased tells me that these soldiers aren't learning the sufficient skills necessary to make this succeed. I doubt the original army training included fluency in Arabic, nuances of Iraqi culture, or classes regarding Islam. (Obviously there's many other things that would be nice to have in a soldier, but those are the most obvious) Soldiers are primarily trained to apply force, that's just the way things are.