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.”…
…and then there’s the jackasses. The crews of the USS Port Royal, USS Hopper and USS Ingraham clearly showed they were on the side of the professionals, The IRGN? Well, here’s an extract from today’s press conference with ADM Cosgriff (C5F/NAVCENT): Q Sir, Jonathan Karl with ABC News. A couple of quick things. One, the Iranian…
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…
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…
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…
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…
(Ed. Note Flightdeck Friday will be up later today – SJS) Skippy-san broke the news first here and PACOM himself (ADM Keating) expresses his concern and perplexity here. He notes, somewhat ironically, that it would be hard to "put a positive spin" on this latest incident (coming on the heels of China’s equally curious refusal…
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…
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…
