It's All About My Big Sixteen-Inch...Guns

Yet another article proposing that the Iowa-Class battleships be brought out of mothballs and modernized.

Return of the US Navy 2nd Fleet

Deactivated during the Barack Obama administration in 2011, the Norfolk-Based Second Fleet is being reactivated to counter Russia.

Summer Jobs In NC, 1950's-Style

Working to preserve mothballed Liberty Ships that were moored in the Cape Fear River. For those not aware of it, US Navy ships that are not "mothballed" in shipyards are often moored in "mothball fleets" in various rivers and bays throughout the US. The Cape Fear River provided one such refuge for Liberty Ships (civilian-staffed cargo ships carrying military goods) after WWII.

US Naval Academy To Teach Celestial Navigation Again

I never knew that they dropped it, myself.

The same techniques guided ancient Polynesians in the open Pacific and led Sir Ernest Shackleton to remote Antarctica, then oriented astronauts when the Apollo 12 was disabled by lightning, the techniques of celestial navigation.

A glimmer of the old lore has returned to the Naval Academy.

Officials reinstated brief lessons in celestial navigation this year, nearly two decades after the full class was determined outdated and cut from the curriculum.

That decision, in the late 1990s, made national news and caused a stir among the old guard of navigators.

Maritime nostalgia, however, isn't behind the return.

Rather, it's the escalating threat of cyber attacks that has led the Navy to dust off its tools to measure the angles of stars.

After all, you can't hack a sextant.

And sextants aren't subject to EMP's or CME's, either. (ElectroMagnetic Pulse attack or Coronal Mass Ejection from the sun).

NC Coastal Flooding Floats Battleship North Carolina

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the WWII battleship USS North Carolina (BB-55) spends most of its time stuck in the mud in its berth across from downtown Wilmington, North Carolina. Rains and flooding that caused by hurricane Joaquin have caused the battleship to float out of the mud.

Oh, the ship is still secure and didn't go floating off down the Cape Fear River, no worries there, but it's a good thing that the ship is still intact enough to actually float, although it certainly needs (and will be soon receiving) attention to rusting problems to the hull below the water line.

USS Gabrielle Giffords?

I wonder how many sailors will turn down orders for duty on this ship because of Giffords's gun control stance?

Sweet Work At a Sweet Duty Station

That would be the old Navy rate of Photographer's Mate, which used to be taught at NAS Pensacola, Florida.

The US Navy is celebrating its 100th year of Naval Photography, and this Stars and Stripes story looks back at the history.

The Photographer's Mate school at Pensacola was in high demand always, a fun job with civilian applications for after the Navy career was over, at one of the nicer US Naval facilities.

Now They'll All Acquire Dogs, Of Course

"REVEALED: Navy Seals hiked six miles and got within 100 yards of Yemen compound where executed US hostage was being held - before a dog bark alerted al-Qaeda captors."

I really wish that these operational details wouldn't get revealed.

Happy Birthday...

...to the US Navy.

Hey, I'd Go In a Heartbeat

"Navy Stations Sailors In Romania."

To live in the land of Vlad Tepes? Visit Dracula's Castle? Hell, yeah!

Navy Treating Sailors Like Children Or Lab Rats - - As Usual

Want fries with that? Sorry, they'll be baked. Want a soda? Tough.

Why don't you just go back to bully beef and weevily hardtack?

What'd you do, put Michelle Obama in charge of Navy chow?

Not Often I Gloat Over a Death...

...but in the case of John Walker Jr., I'm willing to make an exception.

Enjoy your afterlife in the Ninth Circle of Hell, traitor.

Another One Bites the Dust*

US Navy: USS Saratoga (CV-60) to be scrapped.

Any non-nuclear aircraft carriers left at this point on active duty?

*when I attended US Navy boot camp in Orlando, Florida, in the fall of 1980, Queen's hit Another One Bites the Dust was a hit song. It was appropriate as our company was reduced in size from nearly 100 young men to around 80 at graduation, would have been even lower than that but we picked up some sailors from other companies who had been held back for one reason or another.

So He Won Some Cash...

...he'll never win his good name back, which is what he said he sued for.

And now he'll forever be known as the prick that sued a widow. Yah, he'll be welcome at SEAL functions.

It Wasn't the Book, Jesse...

...it was the fact that you chose to sue the widow of a hero.

Jesse Ventura is unhappy that he's no longer welcome at SEAL functions.

For You Navy People...

...who have visited or been based out of Rota, Spain: Did you know that, once upon a time, Rota had its own variety of sweet dessert wine, Tintilla de Rota? Old books on the subject describe it as a muscat varietal, but one which was distinct to the Rota area.

As you will see if you click the link, Tintilla de Rota (anglicized to "Rota Tent") is back, courtesy of the Gonzalez-Byass sherry company; it is now grown near Arcos de la Frontera, a picturesque town perched atop a mountain about a dozen miles from Jerez de la Frontera, where sherry is made. Rota Tent was often used in Great Britain for communion wine.

Arcos de la Frontera, Spain.

US Navy Releases Spanish-American War Photographs

Story.

Sample pic, of Marines in Charleston, SC:

Click the link to the story. The gallery can be seen here.

Dumbest White Boy In the Navy

He is (soon to be was, probably) an Annapolis Midshipman, and he charged at a cab driver with a butter knife.

No, I didn't misspell that. Butter knife.

Dumbass.

Collector-Quality Pens Made From the Deck Of USS North Carolina (BB-55).

Story.

The website if you wish to buy one of the pens is here.

The brass-and-teak Bolt Action pen is awfully tempting, but at $135 it's hard to fit it in my budget. But damn, it's a pretty pen:

Last WWII UK Submarine Restored, Open For Visitors

HMS Alliance:

Pic: