NFO’s: 43 yrs and still going strong…

The Background: On 8 February 1965, a change to Bureau of Personnel Instruction 1210.4C authorized a new designator and name, Naval Flight Officer (NFO). The new designator was appropriate for “an unrestricted line officer, a member of the aeronautical organization . . .who may fill any billet not requiring actual control knowledge of an aircraft.”…

Implementing the Maritime Strategy: French Navy Rafales, Hawkeyes Deploying on US CVN Summer ’08

Found this gem whilst out doing some scouting: The French Aéronavale will embark for the first time on an American aircraft carrier. Without a second aircraft carrier, while Charles stopped for maintenance for eighteen months, pilots of Rafale and Hawkeye are going to train in July 2008 aboard the USS Roosevelt off Norfolk, in the…

Implementing the Maritime Strategy: Sizing the Force

 A couple of articles in the open press that reveal portions of VADM Morgan’s “Three Futures, One Navy, A Portfolio Analysis” thought piece on three different futures of what the navy might look like have spurred some pretty decent discussions – again – in the Navy blogsphere, particularly over at the usual suspects.  Now we…

Eating the Elephant – One Bite at a Time

For those not so inclined to leap with both feet into the full Appropriations Bills (regular, continuing and sustaining minus the funds for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan), here is a Congressional Research Service study of current Defense Authorization and Appropriations bills with analysis of some of the more important parts (like shipbuilding – pg…

Support Your Local Zappers

    Want to send something to show your appreciation and support for what our folks are doing overseas? How about to a deployed squadron, like say, VAQ-130 aka the Zappers? Here’s the address – and trust us folks, even though the deadline has passed for getting care packages and such into theater by Christmas was 15…

Implementing the Maritime Strategy: New Naval Operating Concept (NOC) to be Written

Sometimes vindication comes quietly – as, say, a couple of years later in part of an interview and provides demonstrative proof that there is a core group that ‘gets it’: “In a Nov. 15 interview with ITN, Morgan said that when Navy officials wrote the NOC in 2006 “we knew we were doing the process…

Executing the Maritime Strategy: 2 Amphibs En Route To Bangladesh After Cyclone

  Forward Presence; Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response (ASSOCIATED PRESS 18 NOV 07) WASHINGTON – The White House offered condolences Saturday evening to victims of a deadly cyclone in Bangladesh and said the U.S. government has provided an initial $2.1 million in emergency relief aide. A statement from press secretary Dana Perino said the amphibious…