The Final Patrol: The F-14 is Retired

Hey all-
This is a bit of old news, from September of last year, but it is significant nonetheless. We bid farewell to another Cold Warrior, this one a dominating force in the air. The F-14 Tomcat has been retired by the U.S. Navy, having been replaced by the F/A-18F Super Hornet, which entered service with the U.S. Navy in 1999.
The Tomcat was born into the midst of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. It's first deployment came in 1974, when two squadrons of these fighters were assigned to the U.S.S. Enterprise. The Tomcat would serve for the next thirty-two years in various roles with the U.S. Navy, including as a patrol fighter, fighter-bomber, and in a less utilitarian role as a public-relations figure. Tom Cruise starred in Top Gun in 1986 as a F-14 pilot. This movie made the Tomcat famous.
The Tomcat is considered the last of the true dog-fighters, the primary intention of its design. This is reflected with the speed and maneuverability of the Tomcat, able to reach speeds of over 1,500 miles per hour and a climb rate of 45,000 feet/minute. Its unique swing-wing design allowed for maximum aerodynamic performance, and also for stability. Unfortunately for the F-14, dog-fighting is now obsolete with the perfection of long-range missiles.
The Tomcat will be missed, as it was a legend in its own right, being faster and stronger than anything America's enemies could put into the sky. After 32 years of service, the F-14 will join in retirement other fighters like the F6F Hellcat, the F-86 Sabre, and the F-4 Phantom. Happy retirement to a true winged warrior.

HR Problems for the military: Boots on the Ground, or Lawfully Sound?

Hey all-
I would like to thank Professor Dubnick for suggesting this thread some weeks ago. Other stories and a busy schedule interfered with my posting the story.
Professor Dubnick provided the link for an interesting article that was in the New York Times about two weeks ago through his own blog, Accountability Bloke. The article discussed the increasing number of waivers being given out by the U.S. military to new recruits. This means that more new recruits, who would normally have not been taken into the military because of a conviction in their past. The same article also points out that people who would not have ordinarily have met the physical requirements of joining the military are also being signed up. This seems to signify recruiting problems in today's military. These waivers, along with increased enlistment bonuses and loosened restrictions on weight, age, and education, paint a gloomy picture of troop availability in today's military. The military has also been stop-lossing their personnel, keeping them in the military longer than normal.
Such shortages have prompted worries of a draft on the horizon, bringing back bad memories of 1973 and the Vietnam War. Hopefully, it will not come to this.

A New Face in D.C.

This past week, a new official was sworn in in Washington. His name is Vice Admiral John Michael "Mike" McConnell, and he is replacing John Negroponte as the Director of National Intelligence. One of McConnell's first challenges will be the continuing integration of America's intelligence-gathering agencies. The aim of this integration is to increase the efficiency of intelligence-gathering and to increase inter-agency cooperation. McConnell is the second man to hold the post, which was created in 2004.

McConnell has a resume that spans many years in the service of his country. He retired from the Navy in 1996 after 29 years of service, 26 of those spent in intelligence-gathering. He also served as the Intelligence advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the end of the Cold War and Operation Desert Storm.

The New Way Forward

I was logging onto the internet recently and I found this article on Yahoo News from the Associated Press. It involved the movement of about 20,000 more U.S. troops into Baghdad. This was the result of plans announced January 10, 2007 by President Bush. The "Surge Strategy" was also announced at the State of the Union Address.

This strategy is similar to the way that the U.S. dealt with the insurgent stronghold in Fallujah in November-December of 2004. The operation drove the insurgents from this city in central Iraq and turned a terrorist hotbed into a relatively stable city. Hopefully this operation will accomplish the same.

Personally, I think that this should have been tried earlier. An offensive that keeps the terrorists on the run gives them less time to set up ambushes or plan attacks.

This issue is being debated in the House of Representatives today. A resolution has been proposed in the House to oppose the plan set forth by the Bush Administration. What strikes me is the emptiness of the House Chamber on CSPAN on such an important issue. Lawmakers on both sides have harped upon the importance of this issue, and yet they cannot make time to show up to work to debate it. What does that say about our Congress, that they cannot give up part of their weekend to work out a solution to this crisis? I am interested in all opinions on this issue.

A Silent Warrior Retires

The U.S.S. Hyman Rickover made port in Kittery, Maine on Friday after completing its last tour of duty in a history that spanned twenty-two years. The story is significant news for the Portsmouth/Kittery area, which is home to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, a major manufacturing site for U.S. submarines. The ship, the only submarine of the Los Angeles class not to be named for a U.S. city, was named for a man veiwed by many as "The Father of the Nuclear Navy".

Hyman G. Rickover had a distinguished career in th U.S. Navy, starting in 1922 when he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis Maryland. He was commissioned as an ensign, the beginning rank of naval officers. He served primarily on surface ships until 1929, when he assumed command of his first submarine. After World War Two, Rickover was trained in the ins and outs of nuclear power and began to explore the possibility of nuclear ship power. His efforts culminated in the first nuclear submarine, U.S.S. Nautilus, which was commissioned in 1954.

Rickover's efforts would lead to othe breakthroughs in nuclear ship development. Among later nuclear warships are the carriers of the Nimitz class and the U.S.S. Long Beach and other nuclear cruisers of the U.S. Navy, as well as the ballistic missile submarines of the Ohio class and the fast-attack submarines of the Los-Angeles class.

The U.S.S. Hyman G. Rickover will have her reactor de-fueled at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and will be towed to Puget Sound, Washington for decommissioning. Farewell to a proud ship of the Nuclear Navy, named for that navy's father.

First Post

Hey Everybody-
This is my first post on my first blog, so here goes. This blog will contain news about the military. This will vary from which technologies are being introduced and retired, to news from the front, and things in between.
My passion for history, especially the military side, comes from hearing stories about my grandfather. He served on the escort carrier U.S.S. St. Lo (CVE 63) during World War Two. This ship, along with many others, fought in the series of engagements now known as the Battle of Leyte Gulf in late October of 1944. St. Lo was involved in the Battle off Samar, where the U.S. lines were almost broken by a force of Japanese batttleships and heavy cruisers. These ships were turned back and St. Lo survived the engagement, only to become the first American warship sunk by kamikaze in World War Two later in the day.
My grandfather survived the battle, the kamikaze, and the sinking. He went on to be stationed on Okinawa after the war, then joined the army and became a drill sergeant. He married my grandmother and had nine children, the second youngest of which was my mother. I never met my grandfather. After surviving the largest war in human history, my grandfather died at a relatively young age from a heart attack in 1978. The stories of his time in the war come from my mother, who in turn heard them from him.
I am proud of this part of my family history because I believe that a person should serve their country when their country is in need. It reminds me of that famous line from JFK's inaugural address: "And so my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you-ask what you can do for your country." This country has given us so much, why not return the favor?