Before You Go See the New Top Gun Movie - Listen to these

While that looks like fun, you really ought to prep yourself by listening to this excellent sequence of shows recorded at the Tail Hook Convention in Reno this year covering the Top Gun program and how it works in reality.

One of the key elements of the program's success is the trust placed in, and the reliance on, Navy lieutenants to make it work. Excellence is not demanded, it is expected.

Great job by USNI's Ward Carroll and Bill Hamblet on these shows.











There are a lot more of these great podcasts like these over at the USNI site here.

Videos from West 2015

Well worth viewing, the thoughts of the folks who are in charge:

Deputy Secretary of Defense, Robert Work:


Admiral William Gortney, NORAD Commander:

Help Put a Halt to "Sea Blindness" - USNI Defense Forum 2013

If you, like me, couldn't get to DC for USNI Defense Forum Washington 2013, read about and watch it here. One of the keys to keeping a strong Navy it to work hard at telling the country why we need a large and competent force - not letting, in the words of Royal Navy Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, "sea blindness" rob of us of a key element of national and international security.

Rep Randy Forbes (R, Va) spoke and wonders:

“When I look at what we’re doing in national defense today, I can’t help but think back to the words of Thomas Jefferson, who said that this country is still the best hope for the world, a treasure beyond comparison,” said Forbes, “and I wonder if we’re doing everything today to defend and protect it.”

There is much much more at the link.

Here's an interesting quote from SecNav Ray Mabus:

The Secretary explained that the past 4 1/2 years has afforded him a unique opportunity to observe the Navy and Marine Corps, and he shared that perspective with the audience. “The value of the Navy and Marine Corps is as apparent today as it was when the nation was founded,” he said. “The framers of the Constitution understood that we have to maintain a constant and persistent presence,” he explained, recounting the many campaigns in which the services have fought through the nation’s history. “In each of those the American Navy has maintained control of the seas and guaranteed freedom of navigation between those wars, and peaceful free trade, and in doing so, has underwritten its contribution to the growth of the world economy.” The Navy responds to every call, whether combat or humanitarian aid disaster relief, recalling recent aid missions to the Philippines, Japan, and Haiti. “It’s one of the things that we do, and we are very good at it.” In fact, he noted, the US receives requests for humanitarian assistance every two weeks -- and is the only naval service in the world being capable of performing that role. That also precludes the need for securing overflight rights or permission to base. Instead, he notes, “We [the Navy] don’t have to come in from anywhere; we are already there.”

How do we keep that presence? SECNAV Mabus explained that it requires four things: people, platforms, power, and partnerships. People are first because they are the most important asset, as the machines can’t operate without them. “We push responsibility, and we push authority down,” he explained. “We expect from junior sailors and junior officers great decision-making. We expect them to do these incredibly complex jobs and we expect them to do it every single day.”

With regard to platforms, the Secretary observed, “at some point quantity becomes a quality all its own. We have arrested the decline of the fleet.” ****

Go read, watch the videos and spread the word.

We need to put a halt to "sea blindness" in this country.

Things I Would Pay $15 to Watch Online: "The Fiscal Cliff: What Does This Mean for Defense and National Security?"

Dear U.S. Naval Institute:

You have many wonderful programs and forums that are held in Washington, DC, Norfolk, VA, Annapolis, MD and San Diego, CA.

I would like to attend them all. Sadly, though, I do not live in Washington, Norfolk, etc.

In order to attend a forum in DC, for example, I would have to incur travel costs including airfare, hotel, meals, cab fare and/or gas. In addition, it means time off from work or projects.

Even if the admission to the forum is free or at a reduced price I am still looking at substantial out of pocket costs.

So, here's a plea from the hinterlands, next time you plan an event like the 2012 Defense Forum Washington: The Fiscal Cliff: What Does This Mean for Defense and National Security?, please consider offering an option of allowing virtual attendance - I'd be happy to pay for the privilege of being able to watch and listen in on my laptop or desktop computer. Since my admission price to the live event is $15 (being a USNI member), I'd pay that (and perhaps a little more) to save the hundreds of other dollars of having to travel hither and yon.

The quality doesn't have to be particularly high. The main thing is the access for me and others who would love to join in. Virtually.

Virtual attendance may allow younger officers and junior enlisted to join in while remaining at their duty stations.

I know that there are companies that provide technical assistance in such things here in the 21st Century.

I also note that may other organizations put on live video programs including The Heritage Foundation and The Cato Institute.

Please consider this idea.

Thank you.

MT

On the Mission of the U.S. Naval Institute

 Speaking of pirates - a long time ago when I was young officer (a really long time ago), I first became a member of the U.S. Naval Institute and began receiving their magazine, Proceedings.

Quite frankly, what with a war going on and being really busy trying to learn my job while pretending to lead a division and "manage" assets and stand watches and do day and night underway replenishment, I didn't read every issue. In fact, I must confess that I didn't see much practical application to the articles for a young ensign bobbing about off the coast of Viet Nam.

Over the years, as I had an "on" and "off" relationship with USNI and its publications, I realized one of us had changed. My appreciation of history and tactics and strategy and opinions had shifted. I could find an article by a ship's executive officer concerning trying to apply TQL to the length of a mess line as funny as could be.

Still, I didn't quite get it. When I was invited to blog over at the the USNI Blog, I was surprised. As I wrote in my first post over there, "Now, I’m a long-time fan of Proceedings but it always seemed too remote, too stilted, too brown-nosy to me." The USNI Blog I thought (and I hope I'm right) was a little more immediate, a little more connected and a little looser than a publication that had published Luce and all those long dead guys. But then I noticed that there were young officers and Chief Petty Officers and Petty Officers writing their thoughts in Proceedings. Maybe I'd missed that before, but with regular feature called, "Nobody Asked Me, But . . ." (March 2011 features the thoughts of a real live ensign!) well, this was not grandpa's Proceedings,

In fact, what it was - well, it was living up to the Naval Institute's Mission Statement:

The Mission of the Institute is to provide an independent forum for those who dare to read, think, speak, and write in order to advance the professional, literary, and scientific understanding of sea power and other issues critical to national defense.

So, there were Air Force guys writing articles and professors and professional military strategists and Army guys and lots of Marines and Navy people. Some of the thoughts were/are good or great, some not so much. But there they were, these people who had "dared" to put their thoughts out there for the whole world to judge and always, or nearly always, linked to "issues critical" to sea power and/or national defense.

In short, people who cared enough to worry over some issue and then worry that issue in the pages of Proceedings in an effort to advance understanding "sea power" and "other issues critical to national defense."

Then there was another institution which I joined, the Navy League of the United States. The Navy League is an advocacy group, with its mission to:

Today, the Navy League’s original mission is focused on two main initiatives. First, the Navy League’s public education efforts are designed to inform the nation, and its political leaders, of the vital importance to the country of comprehensive and fully-prepared sea services. Second, the Navy League, primarily through its councils, provides support for active duty sea services personnel and their families. In keeping with its educational objective, the Navy League also supports America’s young people through successful youth programs, including sponsorship of the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps and the Navy League Foundation Scholarship Program.(emphasis added)

The Navy League has a Legislative Affairs Office. It publishes an excellent magazine, Sea Power which has its own mission:

The principal mission of SEAPOWER - an award-winning monthly magazine - is to educate Congress and the American people about the activities, requirements and accomplishments of the sea services and U.S.-flag Merchant Marine. It also provides a forum for senior sea service leaders to express their views on various topics of concern.

Do you get the difference? USNI is a "forum" for discussion of ideas. The Navy League is an institution of advocacy on behalf of the sea services - to keep them in the public eye.

By now, you might be saying, "So what?" Well, some folks on the board of directors of USNI want to change its mission statement to:

The Mission of the Institute is “to be an Independent Forum advocating the necessity of global sea power for national security and economic prosperity.”

There have already been some pretty good posts put up by my fellow Navy bloggers and real experts about the oxymoronic "Independent forum" that has a directed mission "advocating the necessity" (see Information Dissemination'sUnited States Naval Institute: An Open Letter From Norman Polmar and
Steeljaw Scribe - When Does Advocacy Become Lobbying… and CDR Salamander's post and the links therein).

For a good time, you might want to read Steeljaw's USNI Ballot: Incompetence is One Thing — Deceit is Another.

All of which is a long way around to advising those of you who are members of USNI to ignore the flawed paper ballot that accompanies your mailed magazines and vote online against this mission change - and the board directors who have pushed it. The names of these individuals are set out in another "open letter" at Information Dissemination United States Naval Institute: An Open Letter From VADM Bob Dunn which also lets you know how to go about voting by avoiding the confusing straight ticket vote offered as the first option on line.

And, assuming you are otherwise eligible, you can join the Navy League of the United States and support their advocacy and education mission here.

Naval Institute Piracy Conference 20 October

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Martin N. Murphy, Author and Piracy Expert

Panel: Blackbeard to Barbary Pirates: Making Their Mark on History
RADM Joseph F. Callo, USNR (Ret.), Author (moderator)
  Dr. Virginia W. Lunsford, USNA, Author
  Frederick C. Leiner, Author
  LCDR Benjamin Armstrong, USN, Author

Panel: Piracy's Impact on International Commerce, Law and Diplomacy
CAPT Robert "Turk" Maggi, USN (Ret.), U.S. Department of State (moderator)
  COL Iya J Gababo, Defense Attache, Embassy of the Republic of Kenya,
  Robert Gauvin, Piracy Policy, U.S. Coast Guard
  CAPT Mark Tempest, USNR (Ret.), Attorney

Luncheon Keynote Speaker: Stephen M. Carmel, Senior Vice President, Maersk Line, Limited

Panel: Pirates: How Do We Defeat Them?
CDR John P. Patch, USN (Ret.), U.S. Army War College (moderator)
  RADM Terence E. McKnight, USN (Ret.),
  Capt Zachary D. Martin, USMC, Marine Expeditionary Force Recon Company  
  Laurence Smallman, Defense Research Analyst, RAND Corporation

Annapolis, October 20, 2010

Details and much more information here.

Come on, take the day off and join the fun!