A Brief Update

When I restarted the blog, I was serious. I really do intend to write a lot in the near future. The hick-up in consistency is completely my fault... basically, work came to me the first week of February and said they would spend a whole bunch of money for me to take a certification exam on March 10th if I was interested.

I said yes.

Then the rule of three came fast and furious. Basically, three different family members had three very different, serious health problems over a three week period. Things are better now, but I am cramming for a test I will either pass because I'm both lucky and brilliant, or fail because I did not commit the time one would normally commit to be successful. Given the circumstances, I choose to be thankful health has returned to my family, and I'll live with the test results.

So forgive me while I cram work and studies through Friday, and appease me just once as I rant in the other post today. Things will get back to normal next week, or at least that's the plan.

Thank you for your patience.

V/r,

Raymond

USNI Happy Hour - Newport

A typical "smoker" at Naval Auxillary Air Station (NAAS) Oceana, in which a hangar has been converted into a boxing auditorium. Note the Navy band at left, in uniform, the aircraft under repair in the background and the (admittedly few) female guests. These events were sailors' entertainment in the mostly rural part of Princess Anne County (Virginia Beach).

From the USNI Blog.

Mid 20th Century the “Happy Hour” was a common occurrence in the USN. It was an opportunity for sailors to blow off some steam, and maybe even get a little exercise. Also known as a “smoker,” in those days a “Happy Hour” was usually series of boxing or wrestling matches when the ships weren’t busy.

In our post-prohibition world it means something a bit different, but still gives us a chance to blow off some steam. On Thursday, 12 December, The Naval Institute will host a Happy Hour in Newport, Rhode Island for members, prospective members, or anyone who wants to show up to talk about daring “to read, think and write” about sea power and national security.

A member of our Editorial Board will be there to answer questions, and some writers and thinkers who have contributed to the Institute to share some of their experiences. While there will be no punches thrown, sparing over strategy and grappling with the naval issues of the day will be encouraged.

If you are in Newport, please join us to splice the main brace at the USNI Happy Hour/Social:

The Malt
150 Broadway
Newport, RI
12 December 2013, 1700 until the tab runs out or the grog runs dry.

More of this.

Every year for the past several I have found a way to get a hold of the unclassified final winning papers from the Spring graduating class at the Naval War College. Yes, I've even driven from Albany to Newport and attended the awards ceremony to beg for copies of papers. Every year in reflection, some of those papers represent the best thing I read all year - and I read a lot.

I am convinced the Naval War College is, consistently every year, one the most incredible idea factories on the topic of seapower in the world. It is unfortunate that few of those ideas are exposed to the general public despite these papers being unclassified. In seeking the reason why, I have found that the overwhelming majority of students believe it is better for their career not to have their work published, no matter how good it is. That perception says a lot, and nothing good.

Personally, I think the NPS model of posting everything online is better, and I do hope one day the Naval War College takes a similar approach.

I have long believed that USNI is the one organization that could positively make a difference to the situation if they can get folks who write excellent material to take a few hours, condense those works, and somehow funnel the material into USNI for publishing via the range of publishing options available at the Institute (Proceedings, Web, Multiple Article Collections on a Single Topic for Books, etc.). This "Happy Hour" appears to me an excellent opportunity to move the ball down the road a bit, and I hope every one in Newport with an interest in Seapower shows up to support this activity - both faculty and students.

Shaping My Discussion Points

With the budget released and the first of the Congressional hearings out of the way, several topics have emerged as those most critical to the Navy in 2013. These are the topics that I have been spending my nights reading and researching. Expect most articles from me until at least June to discuss these topics.

1) When and if the Navy should make a concerted move away from current fleet design.

There are many competing schools: stay the course; stay the course, but improve ability to fight from range; submerge a greater portion of the fleet; demassify, creating larger numbers of smaller ships; prepare for the age of robotics, etc etc.

We all know Navy is in a state of great technological and fiscal flux. So, does Navy pull the trigger now? Choose a way forward and take early steps; pursue technologies that extend current design for a while? Does sequestration answer the question, or simply ask the question? Many ways to think about the issue.

2) Along those lines, should the Navy be asking Congress for alternative funding streams to pay for the SSBN(X)?

3) With directed energy, cyber, and electronic warfare emerging as high demand and desired capabilities for forward deployed naval forces today, is the R&D funding for these technologies sufficient to keep the Navy ahead of the curve of competitors?

4) Will a true debate over the nature of air-sea battle emerge in public, beyond much of the drivel one reads today?

5) What is the future of the amphibious fleet? Should it be optimized for amphib assault? Should it be optimized for global patrolling and crisis response? Should the Navy/Marine Corps team stay with stark delineation of grey and black hulls, or is it time to move to a more affordable mix?

6) Is naval aviation in tune or out of sync? UCAS-D, UCLASS--is it really heading toward a new dawn in aviation, or will bureaucratic and institutional inertia keep Navy from really making a concerted shift to carrier-based unmanned aviation? Is the issue the platforms deploying aircraft or the carrier air wing design, or both?

7) The LCS discussion is vibrant. Navy has spent around $12 billion so far on LCS. The JSF discussion is not vibrant. Navy has spent $50 billion on that program so far. Is Navy getting what is being paid for?

Fair Warning on Comments Lately

Borrowed from here.

I've been pretty busy the last few weeks, and am only now catching up on several of the comment threads.

This is a one time warning and comment.

We appear to have several new commentators on this forum who have foot-in-mouth disease. This is a professional forum, and I have expectations of professional conduct and respect for other members of this community. I love that Robert Farley and Bryan McGrath choose to make political arguments and provide political commentary on this site on issues related to the topics we frequently discuss, but when they do make such arguments and comments I fully expect all members of this community to conduct themselves professionally in disagreement. If you are unable to make a counter argument to any author or contributor in the comments without resorting to a personal attack or juvenile internet insult then you lack the professionalism and respect to be a member of this professional forum.

I will delete your comment and ban you if you are unable to control yourself.

So for all of you who let your politics bring out the very worst in you, go somewhere else to act like an internet troll. I like the professional disagreement on political issues related to topics discussed here, and I learn a lot from those professional disagreements. I learn nothing from the arguments that resort to personal attacks as part of an argument, and I assure you no one will miss disrespectful internet trolls when you are thrown off the site. Some of you appear to be one comment away from never commenting again. Be respectful, be quiet, or be silenced.

Carry on. Consider this the only warning.

And as always, if any member of this community has an issue they believe requires my attention, my email address is listed on the right. I may not reply to every email, but I do read all of them.

9/11

Friday Morning Musings

It's summer time. Some of us here on ID are on vacation, while others (like me) are spending evenings on the deck enjoying the dog days of summer with a glass of wine and good book. Yeah, there are plenty of things to write about, but I'm OK taking a few slow weeks on the blog hanging with the family until school starts. I hope many of you do the same.

But things are happening...

First, last night I listened to this past weekend of Midrats - a full hour with Chris Cavas. Bottom line, best hour of naval discussion you are going to find anywhere in audio. That show has a sweet spot in my opinion, because when the discussion becomes a sharp guest who discusses naval history in the context of current events, that show becomes solid gold interesting. I highly encourage you to put the headphones on and listen, I think you will find yourself enjoying it quite a bit.

Chris Cavas says many interesting things, but specifically something I thought was very thought provoking - something I never gave much thought about until last night. Chris Cavas suggested it's possible that DDG-1000 could be a HMS Dreadnaught or Monitor. The way he proposes this suggestion in the discussion was very interesting, and absolutely thought provoking. It really is a great hour of radio.

Second, Secretary Mabus is good at making headlines, whether it is ship names or green energy, but most of the attention he gets is little more than political attacks. More legitimate attacks in my opinion are things like the breathalyser tests - small things with huge impacts that understandably piss people off. The breathalyser test in particular - rightfully in my opinion - will mark Secretary Mabus negatively and it will likely be a policy that is discarded in the future, because if my employer gave me a breathalyser test every day I showed up for work, I'd file a lawsuit. Breathalyser tests are issued as a punishment handed out by judges to folks who commit crimes, for example you may have to blow in one to start a car. It is also used in law enforcement, but only for people who have demonstrated suspicious criminal activity related to alcohol. The implication of the Navy policy is that serving in the Navy is a crime because it requires such punishments, or being a sailor makes you a suspicious person related to alcohol. Talk about an unfair stereotype. That policy strikes me as one of the most blatant abuses of government power specific to military professionals enacted since the civil rights era, and it is shameful how politicians stand in silence on the issue.

But something else has happened under Secretary Mabus that no one really highlights. The ship has been righted regarding shipbuilding, as there is very little happening right now that is obviously a huge shipbuilding issue. LPD-17 is stable. LCS is stable. DDG-51 Flight IIA is stable. MLP is stable. DDG-1000 is stable. LHA is stable. Sure there is always risk, but nothing on any of those programs we can point to as being highly risky from a shipbuilding budget perspective. CVN... I think it's stable, but no question that's where the biggest risk is today. All in all though, shipbuilding is in better shape today than it has been at any point in the 21st century.

While the Breathalyzer test is a policy that is flat out unforgivable in my eyes and will mark Ray Mabus's record as being the SECNAV who treated the sailors under his watch as drunkards, there are other aspects of leadership under his watch that are truly excellent. He will not be remembered for those good things, but that's his problem.

Third, the US Naval Institute has put out a video trailer on YouTube regarding a book to be released soon - The Aden Effect. The Naval Institute has published plenty of historical fiction over the years, but there are only a few examples of fiction as contemporary military thrillers. The last two times the Naval Institute Press published contemporary fiction, I am pretty sure the two books were Flight of the Intruder and The Hunt for Red October. I am really looking forward to reading The Aden Effect. Check out the trailer. Pretty cool.

Fourth, speaking of USNI, what a brilliant post and discussion over at the USNI Blog by RDML Foggo as he takes on tough topics like strategic communications and branding. If any PAOs want to jump into that discussion with a professional opinion and engage a professional discussion specific to your profession, you know I want to post it!

My short take is this - I think RDML Monyihan was one of the most successful Navy leaders of his generation, because it is blatantly obvious to even the most casual observer how much the Navy Information Office changed on his watch. The Navy built and developed their entire social media space, developed policies and standards, and their activities on Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr are truly excellent. The new Navy.mil website has worked out some initial kinks and looks great - even on mobile devices. The Navy's Official Blog has really evolved and is nothing short of fantastic (for example from yesterday), and if you aren't checking it every day I think you might want to think about doing so. The transformation of Navy Information under RDML Monyihan was remarkable, and in hindsight I think it is very fair to say that the amount of positive change he put into action under his Command rivals any Flag officer tour in modern navy history from an "omg that's obviously a huge and positive difference" perspective.

But as CHINFO, RDML Monyihan focused on infrastructure from which RDML Kirby can build the Navy Information community from. Don't get me wrong, RDML Monyihan empowered people, but the changes in Navy Information were mostly at the technical, policy, and tool level of information distribution. The PAO as a professional didn't evolve much under RDML Monyihan, even as all the tools available to the PAO absolutely did.

The question is - where does and where should - the Navy Information folks go from here - and I think the question is specific to topics of people, service, responsibility, and role. RDML Foggo has a very interesting take on the evolving role of professionals in public affairs, at minimum a discussion I think worth having.

The tools are in place, the policies have been refined through experience... now it's time for the ideas and people to put the tools to work. I believe RDML Foggo has started the right conversation, and the time is now for PAOs to push new ideas as it relates to their profession, and one way to do it is to join the discussion RDML Foggo is trying to kickstart. I hope several of you decide to make ID that place to have that discussion, because I think my audience would find that discussion very interesting and engaging.

PAOs as the Navy's strategic action officers? In the information age - the CO, XO, and PAO might be the right team for exactly that in every AOR.

Fifth and finally, by now I am sure all of you have read the personal account by a sailor on USS Porter posted on CDR Salamander. In that account is is noted that sailors spent the first night sleeping on deck in a ship deemed uninhabitable due to ACs being down. It's a single data point, and may not be a defining one, but when a ship takes damage at 1:00am, struggles the rest of the night and into the next day to get to shore, then has to sleep on a ship in a foreign port in the open on deck in the desert air - that pretty much sucks. The personal account also notes that a bunch of resources for the ship - technical and otherwise - has arrived. These are mixed results, and can't possibly inform us of the whole story.

But history advises us what to watch for when a ship takes damage and/or casualty, and 5th fleet has a history. In the 1987-1988 tanker war, both the USS Start (FFG 31) and USS Samuel B Roberts (FFG 58) incidents demonstrated that 5th Fleets support for the sailors was ultimately inadequate to the task in supporting the crew. In both cases sailors persevered - as great sailors do - but the lessons learned was that disaster recovery and contingency planning by 5th Fleet needed to be better. USS Cole (DDG 67) in 2000 was a reminder that those plans had not evolved much, and that ship was on it's own for way too long before the fleet was able to offer quality support.

I think this issue is very important. The very same waters where the USS Porter incident occurred is where the next war at sea might occur, and that war could legitimately occur as soon as next week. It is my hope that as part of the response to this incident 5th Fleet makes the disaster response to ship casualties and damage a top priority, because while it would be a major tragedy to lose a US Navy warship, it would be an unforgivable, incalculable tragedy of epic proportions to unnecessarily lose sailors as part of that event because 5th Fleet wasn't prepared to support ships and sailors fighting for our nation. War at sea is historically a war of attrition, planning for ship casualties and damage is the most historically obvious planning effort necessary as part of any war planning effort in that AOR, even as we all hope those plans are never needed. For better or worse, this incident with PORTER was a good data point towards informing whether the disaster response plan in that AOR worked effectively or not.

A Myth, A Man, A Legend, A Navy PAO

Today Captain Cappy Surette will retire from the US Navy, indeed this blog post is intended to run an hour and a half before his retirement ceremony. I often get invited to promotion and retirement ceremonies, and I try to make the ones close enough to drive to, but I truly regret not being able to attend Cappy's ceremony today. DC based retirements are hard for me to make.

Many, if not all of you, likely saw the profile of myself and Information Dissemination on Wired Magazine's Danger Room. Like all profile articles in media, it cannot possibly tell the whole story, indeed journalists write articles for publications, not books. From my point of view, it is difficult to tell the story of Information Dissemination without mentioning Cappy Surette.

The first Navy public affairs officer to reach out to me as a blogger was Cappy. A few years ago CDR Salamander told me Cappy was one of the first to reach out to him as well. This was long before social media was popular, long before the Navy integrated social media into their own activities, and long before the trends in news information were notably trending towards social discussions. On more than one occasion, Cappy found ways to convince me that I needed to attend certain events, and he was very convincing.

I met Cappy in Durham, NC at the last of the Conversations with the Country tour of CS-21 in 2008. He wanted me to have lunch with Frank Thorp, CHINFO at the time, and wanted me to see what CS-21 was from their perspective. Later that year, he was who pushed for me to get on USS Freedom (LCS 1), basically making me the first 'blogger' the Navy treated like media. Keep in mind that this was still at a time where I was writing under a pseudonym - the world still only knew me as Galrahn, but to Cappy I was Raymond.

Like every interesting sailor, Cappy has great stories. For those of you who run into Cappy as he moves on to the next chapter of his life, should you see him - ask about the picture above. Yes, that is a beret. The ship is off Iraq in 1994, and the number of stories he can tell about that tour are likely endless, and can lead to any number of stories related to job, love, and life.

I wish Cappy the very best. This blog would never be what it is today if it wasn't for people like Cappy, who pushed experience, offered credibility my direction, and enabled my exposure and learning process with the US Navy in ways that the information highway simply can't do. The popularity of Information Dissemination is a manifestation of a lot of circumstances and people. USNI has had a huge influence in promoting the Navy online and Information Dissemination in particular, but indeed people in the US Navy are responsible as well - and it is in part because public affairs folks like Cappy Surette did little things along the way like elevate a small blog with an anonymous author by lending it the credibility of the Navy Information Office, and treating the blog and author as an equal among established media.

Have you ever seen a blog post in CLIPS? If you have, thank Cappy Surette, who long before the Navy dominated military discussions in non-news social media, argued for the inclusion of blog articles in a CHINFO establishment that didn't care much about social media at the time.

In the complex fabric of social network design and how that impacts the credibility of information sources, what Cappy did for Information Dissemination and the greater Navy social media community dating back to even before I met him in 2008 was at least as important as everything we the community were trying to do, and I hope he understands how much I truly appreciate his efforts, because in my opinion he deserves a tremendous amount of credit for the active visibility and engaged community the Navy has today through social networks like Information Dissemination that he helped promote as part of the Navy Information establishment. It may not have been his intention, but the results are what they are.

Congratulations to Captain Cappy Surette on a very successful career. You have long been a visionary among Navy PAOs and based on the results of my research into the subject, and you should be rightfully credited as the first Navy PAO to truly challenge the Navy on issues related to the impacts and benefits of social media, and the PAO who engaged the Navy online community in a meaningful way. The Navy enjoys a very strong traditional information market because of folks like United States Naval Institute and news magazines like Navy Times, but I also believe the US Navy enjoys a very healthy online discussion other services do not, primarily because of the work Captain Surette did to develop and foster opinions related to social media inside the Navy, even when they weren't necessarily being accepted by his superiors at that time.

On Feedback

I very much appreciate the replies to the request for feedback I made before the Virtual Conference in June, and I have not ignored the content in those emails even though I apologize that after the first one hundred or so I quit replying to each individually. I really do appreciate folks speaking up and giving us a better understanding of what works, what doesn't, and how we can improve things on ID.

Some of the site specific changes are now in QA (yes, I actually run a QA blog for ID to test stuff out) and I'm still working out the kinks, like the new Disqus version for example. What was noteworthy was that there seems to be interest in more authors - particularly foreign authors and guest authors, and there seems to be a desire to see more interaction between the blog and uniformed leaders in the US Navy. I'll do what I can.

But I thought I would just throw this out there and see what happens. I am looking for people who can write about the Indian Navy, someone who would be interested in writing about the Pacific from an Australian naval point of view, and someone who can bring a more European/NATO uniformed maritime perspective - preferably - but not mandatory - someone active or retired in the Royal Navy or French Navy.

Basically, needles in a haystack, but it never hurts to advertise.

Also, I'm always looking for authors who are active duty in the US Coast Guard or US Marine Corps who don't work in their news and information shops, and are equal or below the rank of Captain or Colonel.

Reflections and Questions

Sunday is the 5th anniversary of Information Dissemination.We intend to throw a party in celebration all month long in June, but I'll discuss that more tomorrow. I believe June is going to be an month here at Information Dissemination. It is my hope that the smartest thing you read every day will be on the pages of this site, and this site intends to be very competitive every day on that point.

But before we look ahead, we want to look back and reflect a bit for purposes of learning how to make the future better.

Statistics


I ran some metrics Friday night at midnight looking back the last 365 days (yes I am aware it's leap year, but today would be 366 and isn't counted). Consider the following.

This website had 3,274,780 visits the last 365 days
About half the visitors on weekends are outside the US.
About 24,000 individual devices are recorded as a visitor every week.
The site averages slightly over 10,000 visitors every weekday.
The estimated size of this 'regular' (repeat visits multiple days, every week) community is 14,000 people.
Slightly over 2% of this audience leaves a comment once a month.
Slightly over 2100 different people have sent an email directly "To:" me related to the blog over the last 5 years

We need your feedback. Below are several questions that will contribute to the future direction of this site. You can send in comments or email, and even if you want to only answer one question - every little bit helps.

Preferences

1) What do you like about Information Dissemination?

2) What do you dislike about Information Dissemination?

3) What would you like to see changed or done differently at Information Dissemination?

Behaviors

1) How often do you visit Information Dissemination?

2) Do you visit Information Dissemination on more than one device (PC, Phone, Laptop)?

3) How many days a week do you visit Information Dissemination?

4) Do you use any of the links on the right blog panel when you visit Information Dissemination?

Interests

1) What topics discussed do you enjoy the most at Information Dissemination?

2) What topics discussed do you enjoy the least at Information Dissemination?

3) What other websites do you visit regularly?

Hobbies


1) What kind of books do you read?

2) Do you play any game of the Harpoon series or Global Combat Blue 2?

3) Would you join communities made up of other Information Dissemination readers, like book clubs or open source wargaming communities?

Medium

1) Do you watch the videos post to Information Dissemination including YouTube, Bloggingheads, and others?

2) Would you like to see more video content, either created or disseminated, posted on Information Dissemination?

3) Would you subscribe and listen to a podcast focused on the content discussed on Information Dissemination?

4) Would you watch a live or recorded video focused on the content discussed on Information Dissemination?

5) Would you use an Information Dissemination phone or tablet application?

Social

1) Do you use Twitter or Facebook?

2) Do you follow any official Navy Twitter accounts or Facebook pages?

3) Do you follow any of the authors of Information Dissemination on Twitter or Facebook?


Miscellaneous

1) Please add any additional comments here.

Milbloggies Nomination

I'm not really big on awards or contests, it's just not my thing. I'm actually very lazy about those kind of logistical aspects of running this site to be honest, a good example being how last night I finally added the banner fort the Defense IQ top 10 blog award awarded to Information Dissemination earlier this year.

But it has come to my attention that it is the community that is out nominating the blog for awards, so I need to be a bit more responsive to these things in respect to the community. Fair point.

Last year I went to the milblogger conference, but full disclosure, I went because I wanted to see the excellent Navy PAOs who ran the social media shop who were in attendance, and because I was asked to write about it for USNI. It was also the same weekend last year as the USNI annual meeting, and there was no chance I was missing last years meeting.

As you may or may not be aware, the annual Milbloggie awards are for active and retired members of the military - and I am neither. Still, the other day I got an email from someone involved asking to confirm that active and/or retired members write for Information Dissemination. Now I know why.

CDR Bryan McGrath (ret) and CDR Chris Rawley are why Information Dissemination has been nominated as 2012 Milbloggies Finalists for the 2012 US Navy category. Other finalists for the 2012 Navy category include Feminine Fatigues (JO aviator), Navy Operational Stress Control, USNI Blog, and Military Dad (JO SWO).

Congratulations to Bryan and Chris, the nominations for this apparently came from the ID community in recognition of the excellence both of you contribute regularly.

Voting is expected to begin on Tuesday.

P.S. As I have said many times, I will support any JO who writes, because it is my sincere hope that JOs who write about life as JOs will begin writing about more professional topics in the future as the Navy becomes their profession rather than simply their job. I think it is great to see 2 JOs on that short list, and I highly recommend any senior officers (active or retired) who may read this post swing by and congratulate both JOs. Foster the future, pay it forward.

Spring Break

I will not be around much the next several days. I realized the other day I will be the parent of a child under the age of 18 for over 35 years of my life - which makes me either crazy or stupid. While the littlest man may only be 3 months old, my oldest little lady is not so little anymore, and dad must take her on college visitation trips. This coming Monday that process continues with a trip to the DC area. I'll be at the USNI members meeting Wednesday for those attending, and look forward to hopefully seeing many of you there.

In the meantime, I highly recommend this article by Benjamin Kohlmann titled The Military Needs More Disruptive Thinkers and this article by Peter J. Munson titled Disruptive Thinking, Innovation, Whatever You Want to Call It is Needed for a Military in Crisis. My first impression is that this should be the beginning of an important conversation. Also, if you missed it the Small Wars Journal put out a call for papers on several subjects, and I think this represents a good opportunity for young naval officers looking to improve their writing skills - and an opportunity for senior naval officers to encourage and mentor towards those JO skills on subjects that would find value from a Navy perspective.

Time for Whiskey... Tango... Facepalm

I had big plans of writing something hopefully thought provoking and interesting tonight, but that was before this news hit the airwaves about my beloved Razorbacks. If it takes Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long longer than the weekend to send Bobby Petrino packing, it will only make a bad thing worse.

The University of Arkansas must fire Bobby Petrino, and I say this as the biggest Arkansas Razorback football fan in New York State, because even in Arkansas the football coach can't have an inappropriate relationship with an employee on his staff, unless it's his cousin. This isn't about her qualifications, it is about his professional misconduct - and yes, both of them should be fired. I am well aware that Rick Pitino cheated on his wife and got a raise, but this isn't a private matter - she worked for him. If Petrino is looking for the Pitino treatment, he should have stayed in Louisville.

I had huge hopes for the upcoming season with home games against both LSU and Alabama - the football team is loaded with talent. Tyler Wilson is 2 home game wins away from being a Heisman Trophy frontrunner, and the success the football program has had is unquestionably a result of the work of Bobby Petrino. Professional misconduct as demonstrated by the coach does outweigh all the good though, and the University of Arkansas would be wise to follow the model of the US Navy and enforce a zero tolerance policy when it comes to inappropriate relationships with subordinates.

I'm off to drink a bottle or two... and ponder what could have been an upcoming season that represented the best opportunity for a National Championship in my lifetime to date. To what might have been...

P.S. Hire Garrick McGee!

Heavy Heart

One way or the other, for at least one more day I shall share my morning coffee with the man I have shared it with for the past many years.

News You Can Use

Because I think several of you would be interested to know, George Galdorisi set up his blog on Monday. I heard about from his new Twitter account.

We all have favorite authors, and George Galdorisi has long been one of my favorite periodical authors for over a decade. Yes, I guess I am a stalker because I think this is an interesting development, and no I didn't ask his permission to discuss it. (full disclosure, I've never met Captain Galdorisi nor ever communicated with him via email that I am aware, but I've read almost everything he has written and published in the open source).

As an aside observation, is it just me or is there something about the RW and P-3 community of naval aviators where to an outsider like me it seems they more committed to writing down big, even sometimes controversial ideas than the other, larger communities? I wonder if it is cultural. This isn't a scientific observation.

SOPA

If you don't know, you need to start learning about it. This is one law that I strongly believe Congress will screw up in a big way, and I'm not going to sit quietly like I did with the Patriot Act. I'm almost convinced that only people who have indifference or contempt for American ideals like liberty and freedom would support this law.



Go to Wikipedia today, you will be given information how to contact your political leaders. Speak out, before you are silenced.

Happy New Year

I'm usually not a fan of polls and popularity contests on the internet, that just isn't my thing, but in this case I am making an exception. The US Coast Guard is posting their top 10 videos from 2011, and is asking the community to vote on their favorite video. All of the videos are expected to be released by the end of the year, and voting on the videos will continue until mid-January. So far, the video of the airplane landing in the water is my favorite, but all of the videos are impressive.

The Navy can't do a top 10 video, but we all know if there was such a thing, a US Navy SEAL shooting Osama bin Laden in the face would almost certainly be number ONE. US Navy videos of live action represent - for the most part - documentation of political statements by other means. US Coast Guard videos on the other hand are acts of valor in the line of duty with no tie to politics, and watching the videos is a reminder why Coast Guard Alaska on the Weather Channel has been one of the most interesting television shows this year. The people in the US Coast Guard are INCREDIBLE.

You can follow the countdown of videos on the Coast Guard Compass blog.

I continue to be out of pocket, with my wife due to deliver our third child, our first boy... today, and likely to bust open any second. My tax return is screaming delivery before midnight Saturday night, but my karma is likely shouting otherwise. Either way, I intend to get a better feel for the new schedule before picking back up here, as time organization is very much a big part of the process for content on the blog. It isn't so much the writing that consumes time... it's all the reading!

I want to thank the authors of the blog for picking up the slack in my absence, and I send my best wishes to all the folks who have made Information Dissemination a part of their daily routine. It is our hope ID is an interesting way to follow maritime issues that impact our nation and the world at large.

To all the members of the maritime services, thank you for your service to our nation. I wish you and your families a happy, safe New Year.

Happy Holidays

From everyone at ID, Merry Christmas!

Pivots

I had a few thoughts on the "East Asia Pivot" at WPR last week:

Indeed, the announcement of the base at Darwin has a military as well as a strategic logic. China’s increasing capabilities, particularly in the field of ballistic missiles and potentially in the field of stealth strike aircraft, have placed current U.S. bases in Japan and South Korea in the radius of attack. And so while the shift of resources to Australia could be seen in this context as a retreat, it also represents a more realistic distribution of capabilities, given current Chinese military strengths. Potentially, China could misread this step as a U.S. decision to give the PRC’s ambitions a bit of space. However, it appears that the Chinese have thus far read the move as aggressive rather than accommodating.

See also this interview with Paul Keating (via Sam Roggeveen), and this White House background briefing on the Australia and ASEAN trip.

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. On a less happy note, I think that everyone at the blog joins in offering heartfelt condolences to James Joyner upon the unexpected passing of his wife, Kimberley.

TV Time

The Quicken Loans Carrier Classic between the University of North Carolina Tar Heels and Michigan State University Spartans that will be played on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) just looks cool. For those interested in seeing the game, it will play at 7:00pm EST on ESPN.

Big props to whoever in the US Navy set this game up. While the game itself will probably be a blowout, the primetime slot on Friday night will likely be one of the most viewed events on television representing a great opportunity for the Navy to showcase itself to an American audience.

Speaking of television, did anyone else catch Coast Guard Alaska on Wednesday night? I don't watch much TV, but that is good stuff - and was much better than watching a political debate.

Thank you to all Veterans who read this blog.

Enjoy a safe holiday.

Links of the Day

Petty Tyranny by W. Thomas Webb. His wordpress blog is here, and his Tumblr site is here.

More so than any other naval affairs website out there, almost all of the content on those sites would fit right in on this blog.