Oral Exam is coming up.
Thesis needs to get finished.
Blog will be light for the next week or so. Sorry everyone!!
~ FN
Entries from September 2008
Dangerous Waters
September 23, 2008 · Leave a Comment
Submarining is a dangerous business. Always has been. It’s inherently dangerous to purposefully sink a ship. We do all we can to make sure the number of dives equals the number of surfaces.
Anyone who’s ever toured a submarine will tell you how packed it is with stuff. We don’t waste any space and everywhere you turn there are components necessary for the ship’s operations. Most of it can’t hurt you. Some of it can.
A sailor has died aboard the nuclear-powered Navy submarine USS Nebraska off the island of Oahu, Hawaii.Few details were released on the death, which occurred Saturday and was described as accidental in a Navy news release Sunday night.
Lt. Kyle A. Raines said in an interview the crew member was mortally injured while the sub was beneath the surface of the ocean. He was given emergency medical treatment on board the sub and was placed on a medical helicopter. but Raines says he died before reaching a hospital.
Raines says there was no indication that a mechanical problem or malfunction was involved, nor was anyone else injured.
The 560-foot Nebraska, one of the Trident submarines that can carry nuclear missiles, is based at Bangor on Hood Canal.
Deaths onboard are rare, but they do happen. There’s discussion over at TSSBP that gives more details, as well as over at Budd’s Place.
Deaths are never easy to deal with, especially when they happen onboard. What’s worse is trying to deal with the pain as the Navy conducts its necessary investigations to determine what went wrong and how to prevent it from ever occurring again. Lots of our procedures are written in blood because of, and thanks to, these very necessary proceedings.
It won’t be easy, but it must be done. My thoughts go out to the Sailor’s family and friends, and to the Crew of NEBRASKA for the trial they have endured, and for those to come.
UPDATE: From the Folks over at Navy Times:
A sailor who died Saturday after he was injured aboard the ballistic-missile submarine Nebraska had become “entangled and pinned” in the rudder ram during a cleaning evolution, according to the Naval Safety Center’s Web site.
Categories: Submarines
Tagged: SSBN 739, USS Nebraska Death
Standby for a round of contacts
September 23, 2008 · 3 Comments
So, big Ivan’s coming out to play with our good friend Chavez.
Russian warships have set off for Venezuela for joint exercises unprecedented since the Cold War.
The fleet of ships, headed by the nuclear-powered Peter the Great cruiser, set off from its base at Severomorsk in the Arctic.
The ships are due to take part in joint manoeuvres with Venezuela in November.
The move is seen as a rebuff to the United States, which is facing increasingly fraught relationships with the two nations.
Now, of course, everyone will point to this as a chance for the rebirth of the Cold War.
I just don’t think so.
The Russians scraping together a few operational ships and coming down for an exercise is just not on the scale that the Cold War was, nor will it be. Truth be told, I just don’t think the Russian Mafia Economy can support what would be needed to have a true re-birth of the Cold War. However, it’s obvious that the players involved see this is a great stand against Uncle Sam.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who will visit Moscow this week, said on Sunday that Latin America needed a strong friendship with Russia to help reduce Washington’s influence in the region.
A staunch critic of the US, he backed Russian intervention in Georgia last month and has accused Washington of being scared of Moscow’s “new world potential”.
Mr Sechin also warned the US not to view Latin America as its own backyard. “It would be wrong to talk about one nation having exclusive rights to this zone,” he told the Associated Press.
The only thing I can say is, just because two first graders agree to try, doesn’t mean they can get the big, red Dodgeball from the fifth grader. 
Should be a good time.
Categories: Military · Navy
Tagged: russian navy deploys to caribbean, russian navy venezuela
Commander, United States Navy, Departing.
September 17, 2008 · Leave a Comment
Sailors of the USS CHICAGO (SSN 721) Lower the flag to half mast on 9/11
He was my advisor, academically and on all things Navy, here at the Army Command and General Staff College. To say he was an exceptional officer would be insufficient. To say he was larger than life comes close. He was an incredible person to be around. Lively, energetic, and eager to help.
Joel over at at TSSBP has a much better write-up on this incredible man.
Do him the honor and give it a read.
Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bidd’st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!Lord God, our power evermore,
Whose arm doth reach the ocean floor,
Dive with our men beneath the sea;
Traverse the depths protectively.
O hear us when we pray, and keep
Them safe from peril in the deep.
Categories: Submarines
Tagged: CDR Scott Harrington
wait…what?
September 17, 2008 · Leave a Comment
I love the American media in all their misinformed-I-write-the-headlines-but-don’t-read-the-story selves.
You’re reading that right. The headline says gas is up 38% from July. The sub-headline right beneath it says gas is down 6.3% from July.
ohhhh you meant up 38% from LAST July. well….that’s different.
man.
math is hard.
