Month: January 2018

an Ulchi by any other name

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“Saretsky, Eric W. CTMC (UFL N39 COPS3)” <xxxxx> wrote:
It’s 6 AM in El Cajon and I’m hoping that you’ve been able to sleep. I know how hard it is for you when you are in the middle of problem-resolution (baby-sitting) teachers and students!
I’ll be here all night, so I am just sending you lots of virtual hugs to comfort you!
Love you,
me

My wife found and shared with me old email we exchanged over ten years ago when I was on a Navy Reserve assignment to COMSEVENTHFLT AOR.   It was my second visit to  Yokosuka, Japan.  Seven years earlier, in 1998 or 1999, I had been on Active Duty, aboard the USS CORONADO,  when it visited Japan and Korea.   That previous time,  I had only just begun dating my future wife, and our exchanges by email were very slow and tedious.  This,  from a ship that was “state of the art” in most things electronic.  In 2006 I had been a Reservist nearly six years, married five years and when I received orders to the SEVENTH Fleet for ULCHI FOCUS LENS,  it was my first time in seven years that I was again on sea duty.  And email was quite a bit more advanced in comparison.

My assignment aboard the USS BLUE RIDGE during UFL was interesting work, simulating tactical intelligence options, “PsyOps”( (psychological efforts to dissuade North Koreans from participating in the event of hostilities) and so forth.  Other teams had different scenarios to develop.   One of the things I learned, working with a joint unit of intelligence professionals ( Reservists who were also civilian experts in the fields they supported in uniform),  is that some battlefield commanders, i.e. the Active Duty Army general heading up this exercise, are “warhead on forehead” types and not given to deep consideration of other forms of military conduct.  I had previously seen that in a prior year working with an Air Force team who were reluctant to employ a new technology- because it was new, and not part of their manual (printed before the technology was in development).

Were I to do it again,  I would again prefer to be a Navy Chief Petty Officer aboard ship.  There is truth in Rank Has Its Privileges.  While a Reserve Commander from my unit was also on this same Exercise,  he had neither the camaraderie, nor the access to good chow that came with being a Chief in the BLUE RIDGE CPO Mess.  It’s a tradition that all Navy Chiefs past and present are one, and all Navy units’ CPO Mess are one Mess

  new Chief Petty Officers initiated into the BLUE RIDGE CPO Mess (Sept 2006)

One other thing that seems to remain constant over the years since I last donned a uniform, is the fondness for change – in uniform styles, acronyms and Joint Exercise names.   When I was reminiscing about ULCHI FOCUS LENS,  online I found that this Joint exercise was subsequently changed to ULCHI FREEDOM GUARDIAN.   In the decade that this has been in use,  I presume the Pentagon is probably searching for a new name.  “ULCHI FREEDOM MAGA”?  Anyone?  It undoubtedly will be huge.

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article:  U.S. Army STAND-TO! | Ulchi Freedom Guardian

creative writing

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Any enlisted member of the military has undoubtedly encountered three styles of writing: one style encompasses instructions. The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), Department of Defense (DOD) Instructions, and a unit’s Plan of the Day (POD) are just a few of these that provide the boundaries of behavior we know as “military bearing”. Another involves “creative writing”, that is, the personnel evaluation, used to qualify a member for advancement.

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Periodically, an enlisted member is required to submit a summary of his or her performance, which provides in short concise bullet format, a skill or achievement, and it’s value to the evaluating senior NCO or officer. There are some individuals who may actually perform far superior to her peers, but without some “inside” information on what a superior in command, or a merit board is looking for, may not stand out. While experience is a good teacher, a mentor in the service provided needed polishing in the specific language the military uses.

INSPIRED MENTORING. 19 OF 20 SAILORS PROMOTED THIS CYCLE.

As the Navy has embarked on a “radical overhaul” ( per Navy Times) of the enlisted evaluation system, I thought it would be worth reminiscing about writing as practiced in the U.S. Navy. The last time the Navy overhauled the evaluation system, it was to refine a grading system that was less objectively-based and more subjective. As anyone from the period of the 1970s to 1990s can attest, there were certain Sailors who were deserving of promotions, but only the “4.0” Sailor was the rare crow who would get advanced. The grading scale rated on a scale from 2 and below, to 3.0 to 3.4 or 3.6 in several areas that were broken down on the evaluation form. In the passing years, more and more candidates learned “how” to write their evaluation, and their superiors learned “how” to get their sailors advanced.

TECHNICAL EXPERT. MACHINERY LUBRICATED EFFECTIVELY.

As a result, beginning in the late 1990s, a “5.0” scale was implemented to refine the process. Another period of ranking creep, and failures of subjective grading (combined with Congressional-mandated manpower levels) probably resulted in this 2017 revision.

My favorite excerpts from the Navy Times article explains this:

(Vice Admiral Robert) Burke says the system created “unwritten rules” and “grade creep” that have eroded the system’s effectiveness.

The Navy has developed an unofficial “code” for writing performance assessments. If you are a supervisor, “you have to be able to write in code,” Burke said. “If you are sitting on a [promotion] board, you have to be able to decipher the code. And each of our tribes — for example, surface warfare, submarines, aviators — each one of these individual communities has a slightly different code.”

Lead, follow or get out of the way

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The general tendency of things throughout the world is to render mediocrity the ascendant power among mankind.  – John Stuart Mills

Without ambition, one starts nothing.  Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you.  You have to win it. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Two truisms.   Which one describes your world view?

mediocrity
larrycuban

More thoughts on fleeing institutional mediocrity.

from sails to “the Force”

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Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
-Arthur C. Clarke,  via brainyquote.com

Today I went to see the latest Star Wars movie, The Last Jedi.  But this is not intended as a review of a movie that has been seen and reviewed by others.  My thoughts run to (technological) life imitating (science fiction) art.   Here’s what I will say about the movie: I enjoyed it.  Humor, blasters,  evil empires, love and courage.  Okay, so some of the plot does mimic a progression that I saw in the original trilogy.  And the feel is different from those original Star Wars  (non-remastered, CGI -modified rework by Lucas) films I saw in the 1970s  and 1980s.

I started thinking how science fiction,  particularly Star Trek and then Star Wars, have given us a world where we have satellite-beamed entertainment,  video-communicators in everyone’s pocket (Iphone and android),  and space travel that is so routine, few are awed anymore.  Yet we all yearn to visit other planets, other stars and engage with whomever is “out there”.  How many were fascinated by the flyby of Pluto, and the still-communicating Voyager satellites entering interstellar space.  We have started to change our view of aliens from those wanting to eat us to visitors.

What lists can you come up with of the science fiction later becoming science fact?   Mine starts with writings from a hundred-fifty years ago.

  • From the Earth to the Moon,  Jules Verne (1865) a vessel in which men travel to the moon.

Science: Sputnik, Soviet launch a man-made satellite into orbit.

  • 2001: A Space Odyssey. Arthur C. Clarke (1951)  Origins of man. Finding alien technology and a depiction of space travel (10 years before it became reality) with a supercomputer pilot to Jupiter

Science: NASA space program ( Project Apollo, 1963 -1972) overcoming technical hurdles and developing tools and systems to travel to the Moon, land and then safely return to earth.

  • Star Trek  ( TV series, 1966 -1969) Drama and adventure at faster than light-speed. Stories on the difficulty of maintaining unity in the galaxy.  Racial diversity, Love, loss, greed, lust, and alien civilizations.

Science: Apollo – Soyuz, Skylab (1973 –  1979)  Initial efforts at cooperation in space,  long-term habitation in space orbit, and coexistence on Earth.

  •  Star Wars  (1977).   This story of good versus evil,  love, journey to discover one’s identity and high-tech shoot ’em ups, started what became one of the world’s top-earning movie franchises in history.  Planet-vaporizing weapons and plasma-laser light-sabers.

Science:  the Strategic Defense Initiative in 1983 (called mockingly, Star Wars).  Intent was to develop – particle beams, lasers and  missile defense systems

  • Star Wars movie trilogy  and Star Trek movie/ television  franchises, (1980s -2009)  Food synthesizers, medical diagnostics, hibernation, and transporter “beaming”

Science:   naval electromagnetic rail gun, launching projectiles at supersonic speeds  (since 2007)

Science:  quantum teleportation experiments and transporting particles in 2017 (“beam me up, Scotty!”) With quadrillions of calculations needed to beam Kirk about,  the technology is still in a galaxy, far, far away.

 

Has Global Warming scrapped icebreakers too soon?

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via  The Business Insider,  January 12, 2018

  • The Navy’s new littoral combat ship, USS Little Rock, was commissioned on December 16 and planned to head for open ocean the next day, with stops along the way.
  • Its departure was delayed, and it has been stuck in Montreal since arriving there.
  • The Little Rock is the fifth Freedom-class littoral combat ship to enter service and the most recent ship to enter service for the Navy.

The US Navy’s latest littoral combat ship, USS Little Rock, was commissioned in Buffalo, New York, on December 16 and scheduled to depart the following day for its home port at Mayport Naval Station in Jacksonville, Florida.

Unfortunately for the Navy’s newest commissioned warship, the weather has not been cooperative.

The ship’s commanding officer, Cmdr. Todd Peters, decided to delay the departure from Buffalo for three days because weather conditions on Lake Erie. It left on December 20, traveling through the Welland Canal to reach Lake Ontario and then through the St. Lawrence Seaway for a regularly scheduled stop in Montreal.

Photos posed on the ship’s Facebook page on December 27 showed it had made it to Montreal. The ship was scheduled to leave the next day for Halifax, Nova Scotia and then reach open ocean by December 30.

However, because of ice and a lack of tug boats to guide it out, the Little Rock remains in Montreal, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Courtney Hillson, public affairs officer for the US Naval Surface Force Atlantic, told Business Insider on Thursday.

While in Montreal, the ship’s crew has done routine repair work, including on a cable associated with the ship’s steerable waterjet, which is part of the propulsion system. That system has caused problems for other littoral combat ships.

Those repairs were completed on January 4, Hillson said, and in the days since the crew has been doing routine work to “ensure readiness” for any future taskings.

US Navy littoral combat ship USS Little Rock St. Lawrence Seaway iceUS Navy littoral combat ship USS Little Rock heading toward Montreal, December 27, 2017. USS Little Rock/Facebook

The Little Rock is the most recent ship to enter service for the US Navy, commissioned two days after the USS Portland, a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock. The Little Rock is the fifth Freedom-class littoral combat ship to join the fleet. There are also five Independence-class littoral combat ships in service.

The vessel is 389 feet long and has a draft of 13.5 feet, according to a Navy fact sheet. It has a top speed of over 45 knots and displaces about 3,400 tons with a full load.

It has a modular design that allows it to carry out anti-surface, anti-mine, and anti-submarine operations, and the ship’s approximately 70 sailors are trained to perform a number of tasks. It is outfitted with a helicopter pad, a ramp for small boats, and can carry and deploy small assault forces.

US Navy littoral combat ship USS Little RockThe littoral combat ship USS Little Rock is launched into the Menominee River in Marinette, Wisconsin, after a christening ceremony, July 18, 2015. US Navy

Its flight deck is the largest of any US Navy surface combatant, and its armaments include an MK 31 Rolling Airframe Missile System, an MK 110 57 mm gun, crew-served and small-caliber guns, and other weapons systems that can be tailored to specific missions.

The ship is scheduled for more training and combat-systems testing in 2018, Peters, the ship’s commanding officer, told The Buffalo News.

The ship’s crew completed a previous round of assessments scheduled for 121 days in only 63 days. Once the next round of testing and training is finished, the ship will start conducting missions, according to The Buffalo News.

While the Little Rock’s current problems are caused by nature, it has been waylaid by manmade issues in the past.

In September 2016, the Navy halted all littoral combat ship operations after the fourth accident in the span of a year. The halt also prompted the Navy to have leaders at the Navy’s Surface Warfare Officer’s School review the littoral combat ship training program and recommend changes if they saw fit.

Congressional leaders have criticized the littoral-combat-ship program. Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain has blasted the growing cost of the ships as a “classic example” of defense acquisition gone awry. McCain and others also expressed frustration when the White House intervened in May to include an extra littoral combat ship in the Navy’s 2018 budget request.

the measure of a Man

Eric Saretsky3 Comments

In hindsight, one of the things I miss the most about military service, is the camaraderie.  In particular,  when independently- acting individuals, which all civilians are,  go successfully through the crucible that begins in boot camp or basic training, that shared experience is indelibly stamped on one’s character. Sit three individuals from three different eras and three different branches of the military, and quite soon all will be talking, laughing and swapping tales as though they knew each other for decades.

From boot camp, individuals are shaped and reshaped into a highly-effective team in their units, in field operations and exercises, in ships or aircraft,  armored vehicles or in combat squads. There is a common jargon and understanding that comes from overseas assignments, difficult environments, passable chow, and either adrenaline-pumping action or numbing boredom.

And one day, it all comes to a end.  A final enlistment concludes with retirement, and with the hanging up of the uniform,  so end also the phone calls from your peers or your “reporting senior” (the officer you report to).  Also,  the periodic transfers, carefully-written evaluations, frequent deployments, and daily Physical Training ( running along the beach at 5AM) – and periodic assessment – are left to others.

Sadly, unless the now-retired military member obtains employment in a profession closely allied to the military,  the camaraderie of the Chiefs’ Mess: the traditions, courtesies, and respect that a Chief Petty Officer has earned in the naval service are only weakly understood by a civilian employer and less so by your never-serving civilian supervisor.

Fortunately for many of my friends in uniform, a transition from military life to a civilian career or self-employment went smoothly. Bringing the same focus to task accomplishment, a university degree, or a business resulted in continuing success.

weather-guessers and almanacs

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traffic is a nightmare when it rains in San Diego

In spite of PhDs and supercomputers,  I have observed in The Old Farmer’s Almanac having as good or better record for tracking weather.   OFA18_Continuity__59367.1499713920The natural world – with and without man’s intervention –  is often unpredictable.  After the firestorms particularly in southern California last month, residents knew it would only be a matter of time before the winter rains came and turned the barren hillsides into avalanches of mud.   Today mud, rain and debris adds insult to ashen injury.   Newscasters will converge on the latest personal tragedy,  but other people will also mobilize to render aid, help clean up and show their compassion and humanity.

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last week in Boston. Courtesy of Weather Channel.

Across the country, last week in New England and other parts of the Northeast,  a blizzard some were likening to an icy hurricane made life difficult;  the Southwest was balmy and dry.  Perhaps on one winter Sunday morning,  a frozen water heater supply pipe in an attic burst;   for someone else, it may have been navigating sixty miles along unplowed Virginia highway (without snow tires) when an overnight snow caught everyone by surprise.  Or equally resilient, a Pennsylvania widow in her 70s, shovels ten-foot drifts of Lake (Erie)-effect snow every winter to get to her car.    In the Southeast and Appalachia,  weather inflicts misery most years.  “If the crick don’t rise” (and flood the house) is not a quaint form of speech.  In Norfolk, Virginia,  with the threat of an approaching hurricane,  ships put to sea; residents ashore advise newcomers how to avoid the oddly deep ditches on either side of local roads.  For the unwary, hurricanes and late summer downpours may turn cars into submarines.

In California and along the West Coast,  a severe earthquake – once or twice in a person’s lifetime – randomly strikes.   Few flee the state because of activity along the San Andreas fault.  People adapt equally to the weather.   When it rains in winter, fire season the following year may be bad.  Sunshine and predictable temperatures offset even those who lose their property to wildfire.   They rebuild.   In 2017, wine country was devastated by wildfire, then southern California from Ventura northwest to Santa Barbara and to the south,  part of  Riverside county and northern San Diego county went ablaze as well.

Firefighters keep watch on the Thomas wildfire in the hills and canyons outside Montecito, California
Thomas fire, Montecito, Calfornia (Reuters)

Wildfires is the natural disaster that most Californians fear.  It affects most Californians as most of the population live in the regions that prior residents and stewards  have done their best and worst to preserve from fire.   It may take decades for the land to recover.   But Nature heals itself in time.   So I do not spend a lot of time worrying about the weather or climate science or climate change.   I take care of my property and help others where I am able.

 

 

 

Falling star

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It is a stressful time to be a General Officer in the United States Armed Forces.  An Army Major General,  Ryan Gonsalves, was on the short list to get his third star,  or promotion to Brigadier General, when he abruptly inserted combat boot in mouth.  An article asserts he made some colorfully blunt and condescending assessment of a Congressional delegation and particularly offended a female staffer.   He should not have been so colorful.  Perhaps he could have watched “A Few Good Men” for insight in how not to be condescending.

One gentlemen I know summed it up well.  For millennia, men have used power to obtain sex; however, in the same time, women have used sex to obtain power.  At the extremes we have seen abuses. Effective warriors in history, such as Alexander, Charlemagne, Ulysses S. Grant and Omar Bradley were effective leading people and changing the course of history.   However, I would think that a general in the second decade of the Second Millennium would have some acumen.  For the last two hundred years, the United States military has had civilians making policy, authorizing budgets, and setting priorities for national defense.   Many times this has been contrary to the advise of the seasoned warriors who know that adversaries and potential adversaries respect the threat or the actual implementation of force.

Yet a parent’s advice to a child aggrieved about many things should still be a fundamental truth. Apparently, the wisdom of picking one’s battles carefully was not heeded by this general.  Perhaps he reflects the current Commander-In-Chief in that regard.  And unfortunately it seems, this general officer has learned that indeed, the “pen (to strike his name from consideration) IS mightier than the sword”.

 

the ghost

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miltonberle

Dreams seem easier to recall after a restful night’s sleep. But the other night was just plain strange. I seem to have had ghosts on my mind. And not Pirates (not POTC, a la J Depp), Casper, or a murdered psychotherapist.

In the movie Sixth Sense, Bruce Willis is a ghost, unaware that he is a ghost, who helps a young boy deal with his special, if terrifying, gift of seeing “dead people”.

On the other side of the specter, er, spectrum, I might have been channeling a twenty-five year old, Robert Downey, Jr, movie Heart and Souls, which has four ghostly “guardians” helping the character played by Downey. The other night, I had what seemed to me to be an all-night dream about Milton Berle performing stand-up in from of my church congregation. His microphone kept cutting out. For some reason, I was in charge of the sound in the auditorium and could not get his microphone to work properly. It’s not that I am technically challenged – I ‘m not. But why Milton Berle?? If I were to be haunted by comedians from the Beyond, I’d rather have Robin Williams, John Candy, Chris Farley or perhaps John Belushi. However, with a church audience, George Carlin might, understandably, have his mike cutting out a lot.

Since I have been reminiscing a lot about my Navy days, I may have still some misgivings about one stand up routine I did for my CPO Mess when I was an initiate. “Let the other Selectee tell that same joke”, they said. His deadpan delivery was so good they all laughed. At least for the Initiation Talent show I was much better imitating Beyonce. (No I won’t go into it now, and it was NOT by choice!)

Perhaps I identified with “Uncle Miltie” as a cigar enthusiast. Or his schedule for haunting may have been open. All the other ghosts were probably guests on the Johnny Carson Show – now appearing on an astral plane.

New Year’s field day

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shopping

Anyone who has served in the military knows that at some point, their installation, military unit, or occupational speciality, will reorganize, merge, or close (“disestablish” in military-speak).  In my experience aboard the USS TEXAS (CGN-39), when the ship entered the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard at Bremerton, Washington in 1992  for an overhaul but was decommissioned part-way through, one of my duties was to remove an accumulation of years of my division’s electronic maintenance materials, records, files, and publications.  Twenty-five years ago,  electronic storage required several cabinets and boxes in an auxiliary storeroom; paper binders, manuals and the local records pertaining to two prior decades of repair, acquisition and transfer of equipment had to be reviewed, removed and sent for destruction.

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While not due to any closure,  the reorganization of my garage this past week has drawn on some of those analytical skills in reviewing or disposing of things collecting cobwebs and dust in the garage.  The last time I did this was at least a year ago.  Since then,  most things have been moved from on top of the rafters in the garage, to one side and then the other side of the interior.  (I haven’t been able to park a car in the garage for at least seven months.)  However, I did find (again) my Navy Senior Chief uniforms in a trunk, as well as a box with random uniform insignia in the former Navy working uniform style (blue-gray “camouflage” pattern).   I sorted through boxes of old framed pictures, loose papers, photographs about 50 years old, cards and letters I sent my mother thirty or forty years ago from my duty stations at the time.   

This was all as a result of putting Christmas decorations away for another year.   Since I was boxing them up and looking to consolidate what my wife had already consolidated,  I started to put other random boxes together.  And now. perhaps, I will finally be able to move everything to the opposite side of the garage, so I can pull down all the uninsulated pegboard and half-tacked drywall on the other side, and install new.   At least, before Spring cleaning.

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Intermediate Maintenance Availability (IMA) periods stink.  I have to continue using the garage (or at very least keep the laundry facilities operating) and preserve my access to my tools and “stuff” throughout this period.   At least, I do not have to stand watch around the clock.   But I do have to keep an eye out for refuse removal.  The crew keeps putting the galley waste in the garage, when the pier trash bins are a short walk to the driveway.  We do not tolerate any stink in my workspaces.