12 October 2000 . . . . . . When another chapter in the Long War against terror was written in the blood of the free: The toll: * Seventeen American Sailors dead: Hull Maintenance Technician Second Class Kenneth Eugene Clodfelter, 21, of Mechanicsville, Va. Electronics Technician Chief Petty Officer Richard Costelow, 35, of Morrisville,…
Project CADILLAC (Part II)     Project Cadillac was more than just a program to develop radar – it would develop an entire AEW system — Radar, IFF, relay equipment, shipboard receivers, and airborne platform. Such an undertaking would be ambitious enough in peacetime, at the height of a critical stage in the…
Project CADILLAC (Part I) Ed note: Everything has a beginning and that beginning is usually quite humble compared to present conditions. Consider, a small spring at the headwaters of the Madison River in Montana is the source of the mighty Missouri River which itself empties into ol’ man river — the Mississippi, all of which…
By any measure, fifty years is remarkable. Birthdays, reunions, wedding anniversaries – in all of these the marker set at fifty years is justifiably prominent and noteworthy. For aircraft — especially those in carrier aviation, it is signatory. This month the E-2 Hawkeye will celebrate 50 years, starting with the first flight of the prototype,…
“Whenever the Enterprise roams in the traditional freedom of the seas, she is the sovereign of the United States, a mighty symbol of our determination to preserve liberty and justice and a clear sign of our nation’s ability to do so.†– ADM Arleigh Burke, 24 Sept 1960 This Friday (24 Sept) marks the 50th…
At its root it is all about resources — protein to supplement meager domestic harvests and oil to drive economies that governments push to unnatural and unsustainable annual growth. It is about an emergent regional power, poised on the brink of asserting itself as something more, flexing new-found muscle in new domains and deepening…
Couple of items of note form the past week re. the future fleet: VAW-120 Receives First Fleet E-2D Advanced Hawkeye NORFOLK, Va. (NNS) — The E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, the Navy’s newest airborne early warning and control aircraft, was delivered to the fleet July 29 at Naval Station Norfolk. Adm. Gary Roughead, chief of naval operations,…
Underway once again, Fleet CQ in VACAPES… Background here. Petition here. Over 3,000 signatures as of today (28 July) — let’s keep pressing. 50th Anniversary of her christening is coming up in September. Just think, what a great way to kick off the 100th anniversary of Naval Aviation next year with the naming of the…
There’s requests that are general in nature — and then there’s targeted requests. The latter are often specific, meet an urgent need and require short turnaround. This is a targeted request. The details are over at Maggie’s Place, but here’s the thumbnail sketch. Marines brought in from the field with serious injuries (usually traumatic brain…
(*See Naples and Die…) Twenty-three years since I last tred the cobblestones of bella Napoli and in the intervening years much has changed — and much hasn’t. In town for business, there was little time to sight see over the course of a two day session, but the little I was able to partake reminded…
