Steeljaw Scribe

Notes and commentary on things present, reflections on a career in naval aviation and serendipitous items as strike me at the moment…

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Entries from January 2008

Strategic Background

January 29th, 2008 2 Comments

Maybe you’ve seen it before, maybe you haven’t.  Still bears viewing. 

 As important as one of the bases for the Maritime Strategy as it is for the local school board in building its strategic vision and mapping out budgetary direction.
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Remembering Challenger: 28 January 1986

January 28th, 2008 1 Comment

 
 

 
Ladies and Gentlemen, I’d planned to speak to you tonight to report on the state of the Union, but the events of earlier today have led me to change those plans. Today is a day for mourning and remembering. Nancy and I are pained to the core by the tragedy of the shuttle [...]

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Intramural Warfare - 2009 Budget Edition

January 28th, 2008 6 Comments

The three maritime services get together and hammer out a strategic vision   that ties them together, informing their future planning for training, equipping and manning.  They show up in Congress, testify before the HASC (all three together  for the first time) and are generally well received.  Certainly not eviscerated like the CSAF who was [...]

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Postcards from Deployment: A Sailor’s Thoughts

January 28th, 2008 5 Comments

So - life as a Sailor in this modern Navy — you’ve caught glimpses here and at other spots like Lex’s, Pinch, and Yankee Sailor. But that’s the view from Officer Country. Southern logs in this week with some thoughts across a wide-range of topics from the enlisted POV. We’ve said it [...]

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Sunday With Calvin

January 27th, 2008 No Comments

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Flightdeck Friday - Fleet Air Arm Edition: Hawker Sea Fury

January 25th, 2008 2 Comments

9 August 1952
The flight of four Hawker Sea Furies were in a loose formation, scanning the terrain below hunting for targets of opportunity - opportunity in this case being trains carrying elements of the Chinese "peoples volunteer" army south to fight UN forces.  Battles were still fierce this late in 1952 - even as negotiations [...]

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Drone Bites Back?

January 24th, 2008 2 Comments

Heads-up fighter dudes 0 — all those years of shooting at hapless drones may soon be over:

Comes word, courtesy Defense Industry Daily   that the QF-4 may be getting a new capability — to bite back:

Yep — that’s a QF-4 firing the missile, an unmanned QF-4.  No word on if it’s an AAM or ASM [...]

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50,000th Visitor

January 23rd, 2008 1 Comment

Hello Gloucester, County of Gloucestershire, England!  You were #50,000 @ 11:42:44 EST today when you stopped by to checkout Southern Air Pirate’s guest post about transiting the Suez Canal  .  Thanks for stopping by!
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23 January 1968: USS Pueblo - Never Forget

January 23rd, 2008 4 Comments

Then:
 

(CIA A-12   Recce mission on 26 January)
Now:

Taedong River, Pyongyang, North Korea ( 38°59′27.83"N x 125°43′32.13"E)

Remember:

Remember:

Read the story here 2, here   or here  .  A clearly provactive and illegal hijacking on the high seas by the North Koreans - and compounded by inexplicably poor contingency planning on the part of US forces when Pueblo [...]

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Russian Navy Missilex in Bay of Biscay

January 22nd, 2008 2 Comments

Blackjacks, Backfires, Bears; Black Sea Fleet and Northern Fleet  ships - all joining up for a large combined exercise in the Bay of Biscay beginning 23 Jan 08 according to open press reports. 

“The air force is taking a very active part in the exercises of the navy’s strike force in the Atlantic,” the Russian air force [...]

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