COMNAVSURFOR – “Vision for the 2026 Surface Fleet” Interesting read & released coincident with the Surface navy Association’s annual meeting. I especially note with interest the emphasis on offensive lethality – to wit: the Surface Force must greatly improve it’s offensive lethality. All well and good and the nod to training is important. BUT: –…
So – just as I was making a serious dent in the pile of shame, in the mail today comes an advance copy of “The Admirals” courtesy the publisher, Little Brown, scheduled for release next month. The noted author Walter R. Borneman (Polk, 1812, and The French and Indian War among several) takes on the…
It has been said that in a world intricately and inexorably connected, individually, we seem to draw apart from one another. That those connections we have are tenuous, virtual and of little lasting substance or effect. Like spiderwebs on the wind, we connect and (temporarily) bond with whatever object we come in contact…
From CNO: Â On 13 October, the Navy celebrates 236 years of enduring traditions and missions that have preserved freedom of the seas and the American way of life. As we celebrate this birthday, we can reflect on more than two centuries of warfighting excellence while serving as a global force for good. The mettle…
Skippy-san thinks so: When the Navy was a lot larger-a lot of these billets did not exist, and we where an organization that was 200,000 people bigger and 300 ships bigger. Yet we still got ships deployed. Why does it take so many flag officers to do so now? It doesn’t-and you know it. More…
The Board of Directors at the US Naval Institue (of which, full disclosure, I am a Life member) has evidently determined that the “mission statement” that has served the organization for 138 years is in need of an overhaul. Norman Polmar disagrees: I am writing to you–fellow members of the U.S. Naval Institute–to urge that…
1050L 24 Oct 1944. USS St. Lo (CVE-63) is under heavy air attack. After successfully fending off the superior surface force of VADM Takeo Kurita’s Center Force, “Taffy 3†is now defending against a surprise air attack that has lasted some 40 minutes already. One of the features of this attack is the use of…
13 October 1775: Continental Congress “Resolved, That a swift sailing vessel, to carry ten carriage guns, and a proportionable number of swivels, with eighty men, be fitted, with all possible despatch, for a cruise of three months, and that the commander be instructed to cruize eastward, for intercepting such transports as may be laden with…
The sun has long since set – but in the darkened, borrowed office I notice little beyond the pale circle of light on the desk in front of me. Before me is list of names, some scratched out, many not. The hand that just hung up the phone is now cradling my head – throbbing…
In every battle there is a moment when the combatants, and the world, seem to catch their breath. It is a fleeting moment, lost in the blink of an eye. But in that same blink, everything changes. Such moments are borne of desperation, of courage, of plain dumb luck. But they are pivotal – for…
