US Navy
Who's the voice on radio in Iran standoff?
Submitted by Jerimee on Mon, 01/14/2008 - 2:05pm.By ANDREW SCUTRO and DAVID BROWN, Navy Times
The threatening radio transmission heard at the end of a video showing apparently harassing maneuvers by Iranian patrol boats in the Strait of Hormuz last weekend may have come not from the Iranian crews, but from a locally famous heckler known among ship drivers as the "Filipino Monkey."
While the threat — "I am coming to you. You will explode in a few minutes" — was picked up during the incident, further jacking up the tension, there's no proof yet of its origin.
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House budget says Navy needs local support (OLF)
Submitted by parmea on Wed, 12/12/2007 - 9:05pm.U.S. House axes Washington County OLF site.
"The House has taken the Washington County site off the table because it posed a danger to the community, pilots and aircraft," wrote Butterfield, a Democrat from Wilson. "This is a clear message that if the Navy wants to move forward with an OLF it must have the support of the community."
Now we have all 4 big boys saying the Navy needs to have local support before moving forward with their OLF site!
The roster of elected officials opposed to this OLF or stating local support is required:
Camden County board of commissioners
Gates County board of commissioners
Perquimans County board of commissioners
Washington County board of commissioners
Frontpaged by A . . . a much better report than what I wrote. Thanks, Parmea.
Please Navy Review History - and Your OLF Statements
Submitted by parmea on Thu, 11/29/2007 - 9:29pm.
“You can make it as big as you want,” Khachaturian said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “If what the Navy needs is 2,000 acres, there is no question that is a possibility.”
The proposal may be cost prohibitive. The acre-sized components cost from $20 million to $30 million each, depending on how much weight they are designed to support. Two thousand such components would therefore run the Navy from about $40 billion to $60 billion.
The estimated cost to acquire land and construct the facilities needed for an OLF on land is $231 million, according to the Navy’s draft environmental impact statement released in February.
Once built, the platform could be moored to the sea bed with cables. Computers could be used to position the platform or move it to different locations, Khachaturian said. The system floats optimally in water 1,000 feet deep or more, Khachaturian said.
Frontpaged and embellished (with the photograph) by Anglico. This image is from the company Versabuoy that produces floating platforms. It's very cool stuff. Check out their site.
Dole: It's not my fault. Again.
Submitted by James Protzman on Fri, 11/16/2007 - 10:16am.
If you listen closely, you can now hear Do-Nothing Dole whining all the way from the Watergate where she lives. In what feels like a bad script from the Twilight Zone, the Very Senior Senator has this to say to Governor Mike:
"Fooey on you, mean old Governor. It's all your fault that North Carolina has become a ping-pong ball in my sweet little game with John Warner and the US Navy. Nanny-nanny boo-boo. I'm rubber and you're glue. Bounces of me and sticks on you."
That, of course, is my translation, which is amazingly close to what Dole actually had to say, as reported in the N&O today.
UPDATED WITH TAGS
Mike to Liddy: Do Your Durn Job.
Submitted by James Protzman on Thu, 11/15/2007 - 4:11pm.
I love this.
Gov. Mike Easley on Wednesday said U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole is failing residents of two counties where the Navy is considering building a jet landing strip by not speaking against the project.
In an unusually sharp exchange, the governor -- who had worked with the Navy to find the sites -- urged the state's congressional delegation to heed local opposition to the so-called outlying landing field in Eastern North Carolina.
***
The Democratic governor's letter drew an immediate and negative response from the state's two Republican U.S. senators, who earlier this year united behind him in asking the Navy to reconsider its site near the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge.
"We disagree with your view that the best course of action is now for the congressional delegation to recommend that the Navy develop yet another list of potential locations -- in addition to the 21 sites it is currently considering," Dole and Sen. Richard Burr said in a joint statement.
US Navy In-Digestion
Submitted by James Protzman on Wed, 11/14/2007 - 6:16pm.
The path taken by the US Navy for its proposed Outlying Landing Field in North Carolina is strewn with lies, missteps, deception and stupidity. But if you thought the Navy had learned anything from its years of incompetence, you'd be wrong. The Daily Advance has the story.
Despite the buildup for an announcement this week, the Navy might not be ready to reveal Thursday what sites should be considered further for a pilot training field, officials said Tuesday. For weeks, residents of counties across northeastern North Carolina have been waiting with bated breath for Nov. 15 — the date Navy officials had indicated they would announce which of 22 sites in Virginia and North Carolina are worthy of further study for an outlying landing field.
***
A Navy admiral has told a state commission studying potential OLF sites that he must present all of his information to the Secretary of the Navy by Thursday. But it is unclear how long it will take Navy Secretary Donald Winter to digest that information, and when he will be making an announcement, several Navy spokesmen said Tuesday.
Digest the information? What the heck does that mean? Is Winter going to all-of-a-sudden rule certain sites out of bounds for political reasons? And why does the Secretary of the Navy get to know what the Navy's planning when We the People are kept in the dark about the potential destruction of a big part of our state?
I truly don't get this at all, but it gets even worse because the governor's study group appears complicit in the back-room scamming.
NALF Fentress operations to increase
Submitted by parmea on Tue, 10/30/2007 - 5:13pm.The Navy cannot, I repeat cannot perform 2 air wings worth of training in a two week period. Because of this we must build a second OLF to augment Fentress so air wing training can be accomplished in this time frame. OOOh wait, my bad, they can accomplish this training in a 5 day period .... I return you to your normal BlueNC reading. Sorry to have scared you so.
But we still want our second OLF.
So just who proposed the new sites for the OLF?
Submitted by parmea on Sun, 10/07/2007 - 10:26am.So who actually proposed the six new sites for further study in the continuing saga of the OLF in Northeast North Carolina.
Was it the Navy? DENR? Governor Easely's office? the Man on the moon?
(OLF) Retired Oceana Boss says Fentress can do the job
Submitted by parmea on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 8:22pm.Former Oceana CO: Fentress may satisfy OLF needs
September 25th, 2007Captain Skip Zobel says he understands the Navy's desire to construct a new outlying field somewhere, but until that day comes, if ever, Zobel says Fentress could certainly do the job.
According to the video news video, the Navy would have to move some training flights to a different field and fix the flight path altitudes at Fentress and the problem is solved.
Capt Zobel was in charge at some time of Oceana and knows the requirements of Oceana, Fentress and the fleet. His statements hold water and are smart.
What he is saying is for the Navy to use the assets at their disposal now. Fix the problems that is causing the Navy's desire to explore an OLF elsewhere.
N&O Misses the OLF Point Again
Submitted by James Protzman on Sat, 09/22/2007 - 6:16pm.I guess once you start drinking the military-friendly kool-aid, it's hard to break the habit. That sad situation is fully reflected in today's editorial page in the News and Observer on the OLF.
The editorial is well-constructed, as far as it goes, but it fails to even address the big issue at the center of the entire OLF controversy: the Navy has not made a legitimate case for ANY outlying landing field anywhere.
If you connect the dots in all the Navy has said, it's clear that the OLF is a want and not a need by any stretch of the imagination. And by joining the discussion over which North Carolina site is best, the N&O gives the Navy a complete pass on the question that matters most: What is the long-range strategy for fighter training on the east coast?
The Navy hasn't even begun to answer that question, and until they do, discussions about specific sites are inappropriate . . . and stupid.
