#Naval Medical Forces Atlantic

[davebriggs007]

Liberty call Via Flickr: 240301-N-KC192-1051 PORTSMOUTH, Va. (March 1, 2024) Members with the Defense Health Agency (DHA), and Defense Health Network (DHN) Atlantic, Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command (NMRTC) Portsmouth and Veterans Health Administration (VA) leadership pose for a group photo after discussing training and partnership in the DHA Naval Medical Center Portsmouth military treatment facility on board Naval Support Activity (NSA) Hampton Roads-Portsmouth Annex, March 1, 2024. DHA and VA leadership toured shore and at-sea platforms in the Hampton Roads area, which showcased Navy Medicine quality healthcare and patient safety capabilities. (U.S. Navy photo Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Decker)

[ewanmitchellcrumbs]

Sunk Cost

Pairing: Tom Bennett x f!reader Warnings: Mentions of blood, death and injury. Mild angst and mentions of PTSD. Smut. Word count: ~4.8k

Summary: Following the Battle of the River Plate, she is deployed to the Falkland Islands to tend to the survivors of the HMS Exeter. Some of the naval officers are in better shape than others, and when one in particular makes it his mission to bed her before shipping back home, she decides to give him a taste of his own medicine.

Author's note: Based on this request. No tag list - please follow @fics-by-ewanmitchellcrumbs and turn on post notifications. "Conchies" is slang for conscientious objector.

She had travelled aboard the SS Lafonia to the Falklands, accompanied by two doctors and eleven other nurses to treat the injured of the HMS Exeter following the battle of the River Plate.

Having qualified as a nurse almost five years ago, she was experienced in dealing with blood and injury and, in the days spent sailing across the South Atlantic Ocean, she had been steeling herself for the inevitable carnage she would be witness to.

Nothing, however, could have prepared her for the utter devastation she was met with upon arrival. Pulling back the canvas flap of the medical tent, the smell was the first thing to hit her, pushing her backwards like an invisible, oppressive force; burned flesh and the rancid, yet somehow sickly sweet scent of decay.

Everything from minor burns to missing limbs needed to be treated, but those sailors were the fortunate ones, they still drew breath. Seventy two British sailors had lost their lives defending against German forces.

It would be two weeks until a boat arrived to collect those fit enough to travel back to England, so those able bodied enough to do so assisted with dressing wounds and changing bed pans. She was grateful for the help as, despite there being fourteen medical staff to attend to their patients, it was overwhelming and she was tired, so tired.

She had smiled, though it had not quite reached her eyes, as she’d been introduced to the private that would be assisting her on her rounds.

“Name’s Tom, Tom Bennett,” he’d greeted her with an incline of his head and a lopsided smirk. 

“Nice to meet you, Private Bennett,” she’d replied as politely as she could, discreetly taking him in.

He stood around six feet tall, a mop of sandy coloured hair atop his head. He was classically handsome with high cheekbones and an aquiline nose, and carried himself with a self assured swagger that emphasised the fact that he knew he was good looking. She could have overlooked his vanity, were it not for the fact he was apparently cocky in every other respect too.

Her exhaustion had worn her patience thin, however, she was certain that the sailor assigned to helping her with her rounds would have grated upon her nerves even with a full night’s rest. She found his unwavering smirk and continual stream of flirtatious remarks wholly inappropriate, considering the situation they found themselves in. There was no doubt in her mind that he had fought bravely and his service upon the Admiral Graf Spee was to be highly commended, but it didn’t mean she had to enjoy his company, she merely endured it.

“Private Bennett, I need to give this patient a sponge bath, can you please dispose of these dressings?” She asked, keeping her tone curt as she seated herself beside a cot.

“My turn next, yeah?” He quipped cheekily, causing her to press her lips into a tight line to suppress the urge to sigh.

She lifted her eyes to meet his, her stern gaze wholly unaffected by the way the blue of his sparkled with mischief. “The dressings, Private Bennett.”

“You can call me Tom, y’know,” he said airily, the smirk on his face never faltering as he snatched up the dirty bandages and turned to walk away.

“I’d rather not,” she muttered wearily to his retreating form, turning her attention back to the sailor laid dozing in the cot beside her.

All of her rounds were much the same; Tom trailed behind her, flirting shamelessly, and every remark made her blood boil. For the patients yet to regain consciousness, she could mercifully ignore him. However, for the sake of maintaining a pleasant bedside manner for those who were lucid, she had to smile, laugh and remain polite.

As the days dragged on, she found herself wishing the boat coming to ferry Tom Bennett back to England would arrive sooner. Attempting to keep her temper in check and not give him a well deserved telling off in front of everyone was becoming as exhausting an effort as it was caring for the wounded. He was a pain in the arse.

It had been a particularly demanding day - several of the patients being treated for severe burns had developed infections - by the time the next nurse arrived to relieve her of her duties, she was desperate to be off of her aching feet. Sitting down heavily upon a bench in the rest area, she fished her cigarette case from her apron pocket, flipping it open and placing one delicately between her lips. Before her hand could reach for her matchbook, a flash of flint followed by flame ignited in front of her, illuminating the end of her cigarette into a bright, cherry red glow.

She blew out a tight line of smoke, her eyes narrowed in displeasure as she looked up at the smug face of Tom Bennett. The sight of him was enough to spoil the pleasant taste of tobacco that she usually revelled in upon her first drag. The corners of his mouth were upturned into a self satisfied smile, his eyes crinkled in quiet amusement as he looked down at her. He always looked like he was entertained by a joke that only he was privy to, it drove her crazy.

“Thanks,” she said curtly, taking another drag.

“Anything for you, gorgeous,” he winked, seating himself beside her and lighting up a smoke of his own.

“I wish you wouldn’t do that,” she muttered darkly, gazing off into the distance, her lips pursed.

“Do what?” He mumbled around his cigarette, keeping it perched at the corner of his mouth.

She sighed, pressing at the point between her eyebrows with the thumb of her free hand, an absentminded gesture of exasperation. “Everything’s a joke to you, isn’t it?”

Tom snatched his cigarette from between his lips, holding it between the forefingers of his right hand as he raised his palms in a defensive gesture. “Enough misery ‘round ‘ere, ‘int there? Jus’ tryna make you smile.”

“Well, you’re not,” she spat, taking a quick puff, savouring the short burst of lightheadedness that the nicotine rush afforded her.

He gave an easy shrug, fixing her with a dopey grin. “Well, I don’t see anywhere ‘round ‘ere where I can buy you flowers, so my witty charm will have to do.”

She scoffed, flicking away her butt, and rose to her feet, storming off.

“See you tomorra, yeah?” he called after her, “unless you want someone to help warm your cot tonight?”

Fucking prick.

Sleep evaded her that night. Tom had gotten under her skin. It made her furious that with so many men injured and dying around them, he failed to see the gravity of their situation. How could he be cracking jokes and making clumsy attempts to seduce her in the midst of a war? He needed to be taught a lesson, to be taken down a peg or two, and she decided she was the person to do it. Perhaps if the tables were turned on him, then he’d realise just how inappropriate his behaviour was and feel rightfully ashamed of himself.

The following day, as Tom accompanied her on her rounds, she laughed heartily at his flippant remarks, allowed her fingers to linger against his as he passed her bandages, and stared deep into his eyes every time she addressed him.

“Lucky sod,” he’d jested as she’d dabbed gently at the burns on a patient’s chest.

“You’ll get your turn later,” she’d quipped back with a wink, causing his jaw to fall agape. He’d been quick to close his mouth again, averting his attention to the floor as his cheeks had turned crimson.

It was obvious her being receptive to his advances was having an effect on him. All day she saw the way his eyes widened in disbelief, the slight blush that crept into his cheeks when she returned his flirty banter. He was uncomfortable with not being given the brush off, and she was enjoying every second of it.

“What are you playing at?” His voice came from behind her, as she was rifling through the medicine cabinet, searching for a bottle of iodine. It was a quiet corner of the medical tent, partitioned off from the sick beds for medical personnel to replenish supplies and dose out medicine.

“What do you mean?” She asked casually, not turning around as her hands continued to move aside brown bottles. She hoped the clink of the glass was enough to disguise the hint of amusement in her voice, and if not, at least he couldn’t see her smiling.

“You’re flirting with me,” he stated simply, though his voice didn’t carry its usual confidence.

“Am I?” She replied with faux innocence, casting him a glance over her shoulder.

He wasn’t standing as straight as he usually did, his brow was furrowed and he had his hands clasped in front of him. He was nervous.

Good, she thought.

“I–I think so, yeah…”

She rounded on him, closing the distance between them, delighting in the way his posture visibly stiffened as she pressed close, placing her palms against the broadness of his shoulders.

“I guess I finally figured there’s no use in denying what’s between us,” she cooed, “can’t fight it any longer.”

“Yeah..?” He asked, blinking rapidly, lips parted as he stared down at her with wide eyes.

“Absolutely. You deserve a reward, Private Bennett,” she said, reaching up to card her fingers through the softness of his hair. “You fought so bravely, it would be an honour for me to give myself to you. You’re a war hero.”

His face blanched, and for the first time since she’d met him, she saw the corners of his mouth turn downwards, a flicker between anger and sadness causing his brow to furrow and his gaze to dull. He grasped her wrists gently, moving her hands back to her sides, before quickly walking away.

She had expected to feel triumphant in managing to fluster him enough to get him to back down, but she didn’t. It was wholly unsatisfying, a heavy feeling of guilt sat like a stone upon her chest. There was something in her words that had utterly knocked the wind out of Tom’s sails, she had pushed too far. She hadn’t embarrassed him, she’d crushed him, and the worst part was she wasn’t entirely sure what she had said that had caused such an unexpected reaction.

He was quiet for the rest of her rounds, silently following orders, not meeting her eye when he spoke or was spoken to. It was as though all the light had gone out of him. He didn’t hang around for a smoke once she was relieved of her duties, so she was forced to follow after him as he strode back to the sleeping quarters reserved for uninjured naval officers.

“Hey, wait!” She called out, her feet hurrying to keep up with his longer gait, finally falling in step beside him. “I’m sorry if I upset you.”

He stopped, huffing out a sigh as he turned his face upwards, briefly closing his eyes, before looking back down at her. “Forget about it,” he muttered, “message received loud and clear. I won’t hassle you no more.”

She was left standing there as he walked off, leaving her alone. Despite what he said, she knew forgetting about it was the very last thing that she would be able to do.

Her rounds were miserable over the days that followed. Tom didn’t laugh, he didn’t smile, he didn’t even speak unless spoken to. As reluctant as she was to admit it, she missed his jokey flirting. Whatever this was, the silence and sadness that hung between them, she hated it. She couldn’t question it in front of patients, and as soon as his obligation to her was fulfilled for the day, he hurried back to the naval quarters, making it clear he had no desire to speak to her.

Even the patients had started to notice it - of course they had - the stony silence that the pair worked in was a stark contrast to Tom’s usual annoyingly proud and jovial demeanour.

“Lover’s quarrel?” A private with a head injury asked playfully, as she pulled away his dressings to check on the wound.

Tom spoke before she had the opportunity to respond, his tone arrogant and steeped in annoyance. “Nope, just focusing on the job, mate. Got a ship coming to take me away from here tomorra, and the quicker I’m on it the better.”

She felt her heart lurch at his words. So preoccupied with the fact that Tom was refusing to speak to her, she had completely forgotten that he’d be leaving soon. Now his departure loomed imminently and the thought of it made her chest tighten uncomfortably. He couldn’t just leave and never speak to her again without giving her the chance to make amends, or to help her understand what she’d done wrong in the first place; that wasn’t fair.

He didn’t even look at her as she turned to him, instead he handed her the clean set of bandages he’d been holding and walked away, leaving her to finish up with her patient alone.

“Must be nice,” the injured private remarked, as she pressed the clean dressing to his wound and bandaged it up. “Wish I was leaving.”

“Me too,” she uttered softly, a sombre feeling settling over her as she realised she was talking as much about herself as she was the patient she was treating.

Tom was nowhere to be seen for the rest of the day, and she was left to complete her rounds by herself. She supposed she would grow used to it once he left. The strain they were under would be lessened by those fit enough to travel on the boat tomorrow being removed from their care. However, she felt like she was missing a part of herself without him at her side; like looking at the wall and not being able to see her shadow cast upon it. The weight of his absence would fade, but the hurt and uncertainty wrought from his disdain would not. She needed to put things right before he sailed away from her tomorrow, or she would forever live with the guilt of it.

She waited impatiently for the rest of the day for nightfall, deciding that if this was a conversation she was going to pursue then it was better to do so without witnesses - or at least when those witnesses were asleep - the canvas confines of both the medical bay and sleeping quarters provided very little privacy.

Once it was suitably dark, she made her way to the large tent that housed the cots of the naval officers. The humidity made the night air sticky and it clung to her skin, feeling as thick as the inky blackness of the sky above her.  A wave of nervous apprehension washed over her as she reached for the canvas flap - what if Tom was already asleep, or refused to speak to her? What if other sailors were awake and questioned her reason for being there?

A simple white lie of delivering pain relief could deal with the latter of those problems, but she had no idea how to deal with the former. Before her pounding heart and trembling hands could convince her otherwise, she pulled back the partition, greeted by darkness and the gentle snores of those who were asleep. A few kerosene lamps were lit by the beds of those who were still awake, their dull glow illuminated the men that were sitting up reading, smoking or playing solitaire with playing cards spread out across their blankets.

Her eyes searched the gloom for Tom, half expecting him to be fast asleep. Finally, she spotted him, and her stomach erupted into nervous flutters as she saw that he was still awake. She felt as if she was intruding upon something far too intimate, seeing him in the tight white t-shirt and briefs of his underclothes. He laid upon his front, the legs of his tall frame almost hanging off the edge of the cot as they crossed over at the ankle. The low lighting that glowed across the sharpness of his features cast long shadows across his corner of the tent, however, it was not dark enough to hide the yellow canary that fluttered around the small cage that he had balanced upon his pillow. His attention was so focused upon the bird and its shrill twittering that he didn’t even notice her as she stepped carefully towards him.

“Who’s this then?” She asked quietly, once she was a few paces away from Tom’s cot.

His head snapped up quickly, brows raising in surprise as he took in the sight of her, almost as if he couldn’t believe she was standing in front of him. He cleared his throat, shifting onto his side and propping himself up on his elbow before responding. “Her name’s Vera.”

“Vera…that’s a pretty name,” she said, offering him a soft smile as she fidgeted awkwardly with her fingers, forgetting everything she had wanted to say to him.

He lifted the cage, placing it gently on the floor between his cot and the tent wall, then looked back at her. “So what brings you ‘ere then?”

“You won’t speak to me,” she replied. Her voice sounded small, sad and vulnerable to her ears, and she loathed it. She had come here to apologise and then leave, not get upset.

“Usually, people take a hint when that happens, they don’t barge in on them when they’re going to bed.”

His reply hit her like a physical blow, and he must have seen the way her face fell, as he was quick to follow it up with; “But I guess I can’t blame ya for wantin’ a peek at me in me undercrackers.”

She felt instantly lighter as she saw the playful grin spread across his face, turning hers away as she felt her skin grow hot.

Silence fell between them once more and she drew in a steadying breath before lifting her gaze to his again. “I couldn’t let you leave without knowing how sorry I am,” she stepped closer, “I don’t know what I said that ticked you off exactly, but what I did I did with the intent to teach you a lesson, to humiliate you, and that was wrong. I was sick of your flirting, but I realise now that after all you’ve been through that you were just trying to make a horrible situation a lighter one. You’re so brave, and–”

“I’m not fucking brave,” he snapped, making her jump.

“What?” She moved to stand directly beside his cot, her head tilted slightly in confusion.

“I’m not brave,” he repeats, his voice turning to the hushed tone he’d used previously. He scrubbed a hand across his face and fixed her with a tired stare. “I’m not a war hero.”

She blinked rapidly, furrowing her brow as she perched upon the edge of his makeshift bed. “Is that what got you upset? Because I called you a war hero?”

“Do you know why I joined the Navy?” He asked, shuffling back to make more room for her to sit within the narrow space.

She shook her head, allowing him to continue speaking.

“Was avoiding the nick,” he uttered, sniffing. “I’m not a hero, I’m a coward dodging a stretch in prison.”

She was surprised by this, but not repelled. He was hardly the first man to join up to the draft to avoid the authorities, and he would be the last. She sighed softly, looking him in the eye. “That doesn’t change any of what you’ve been through, or how bravely you fought aboard that warship. You should be proud of yourself.”

“Well, I’m not,” he said sullenly, “I’m not going back. The minute I get back home that’s it, I’m done with this bloody war.”

“You can’t do that,” she told him softly, suddenly feeling afraid for him.

“Why not? It’s not my fight. I saw people fucking die. I don’t wanna give my life for something I don’t believe in.”

“You could be hanged for desertion,” she argued, a hint of desperation in her voice. Before she had time to think about it, her hand reached for his, grasping his fingers with her own.

“Dad’s a conchie,” he said, intertwining his fingers with hers, “I could be too.”

She glanced down to where their hands were joined, almost wanting to scream in frustration. “It doesn’t work like that.”

“Well, what am I s’posed to do?” he seethed, snatching his hand back, leaving her to silently mourn the loss of the contact.

“I can’t convince you to do anything, Tom, but please talk to your dad before you make a decision you can’t take back.”

“Y’know, that’s the first time you’ve called me that,” he said, his expression softening.

“What?”

“My name. It’s usually always Private Bennett. I like it when you call me Tom.”

She averted her gaze, feeling her skin blaze with embarrassment once more. “I guess I should get going. Us talking’s probably keeping people awake.”

His hand shot out, grasping hers once more as she rose to leave, making her freeze in place.

“Stay,” came his softly uttered plea.

“There’s all these other people,” she protested in a quiet voice, though she sat back down.

“I just want you to lay next to me. We probably won’t see each other again after tomorrow, and I don’t wanna be alone tonight.”

“I dunno…”

“No funny business, I promise,” he said with a smirk that immediately crumbled her resolve. “I’ll be on my best behaviour.”

“Alright…”

Tom laid out straight and pulled the blankets up around himself, holding one side up in silent invitation for her to join him. She slid underneath, not realising quite how tight the confines of the single cot were until her body was pressed right up against his.

Wordlessly, he leaned over to turn out the lamp, then turned to face her, slinging an arm over her waist and closing his eyes.

She laid there with her eyes open, just about able to make out his features in the darkness. The humidity combined with the heat of Tom’s body and the blankets thrown over them made it uncomfortably warm, and it was an effort not to squirm. But that wasn’t her only means of discomfort. It was difficult to keep her breathing steady and her body from trembling in spite of the heat; she hadn’t anticipated being in such close proximity to Tom to have such an effect on her. The feeling of the long, lithe muscle of his body pressed against hers made her pulse race and her core throb with desire, though the sensation was intermingled with pangs of guilt. He was seeking comfort in her, and here she was lusting after him when she’d spent the last two weeks berating him for doing the same to her.

His breaths fanned softly across her face, and she was convinced that he had fallen asleep, until his grasp on her waist tightened slightly, his fingers digging into her flesh. She froze at the intimacy of it, ashamed of the way desire pooled between her thighs at the gesture, until he ducked his head to bury it into the crook of her neck.

“Help me,” he whispered against her skin, a desperate plea for something, anything to make him feel better.

She reached up tentatively in the darkness, her fingers stroking through the silkiness of his hair. He sighed contentedly in response, and the sensation made her shiver, causing an involuntary tug at his tresses, making him groan and grip her tighter.

“Please,” he murmured into her neck. His hips began to grind against hers, the evidence that he was just was affected by her as she was him more than apparent as it pressed repeatedly against her.

Before she had time to consider the absurdity of it all, she hooked her thigh over him, prompting him to roll onto his back as she straddled him. Her chest rose and fell erratically as she stared down at him. He looked back with wide, imploring eyes, his fingers flexing firmly against the swell of her hips, urging her into action.

The touch was enough to ground her, to give her pause to realise they were in a tent full of sleeping sailors, that she’d rebuffed all of Tom’s previous advances, that come tomorrow she’d never see him again.

She swallowed thickly, trying to move off of him. “We shouldn’t.”

“Please,” he repeated with more urgency, his grip upon her tightening, stilling her and preventing her from moving away.

It was the begging of a desperate man, a man who had seen awful things, who was afraid to die, who was sailing away tomorrow into uncertainty. How could she say no? And how could she deny herself? Over the last two weeks she had seen unimaginable horrors, worked tirelessly, didn't she deserve a little fun?

She allowed the throbbing between her thighs to guide her actions as she reached beneath her skirt of her uniform, tugging her knickers to one side. Tom’s breaths grew unsteady as his eyes watched her in the darkness, his own hands moving to push down his briefs.

As the swollen head of him pressed against her entrance she felt that she was aroused, though not wet enough to make his passage an easy one. She had to rise and sink down repeatedly against the upward thrusts of his pelvis before the tight muscles of her heat finally yielded to him.

Sinking all the way in to the hilt, Tom hissed loudly, earning himself a quiet scolding from her. “Quiet, or you’ll wake people up.”

He bit his lip as she rocked her hips gently, allowing herself to adjust to the intrusion. It had been a while since she’d been with anyone this intimately, and it stung slightly, though the pain was not unpleasant.

She gazed down at him, seeing the crease between his eyebrows as they furrowed against the intensity of his pleasure and the effort to stay quiet. Seeing his face contorted into such a state, even though the darkness prevented her from seeing him clearly, was enough to have her sensitive walls clenching with desire, and she took that as her prompt to begin moving in a steady rhythm, lifting up as she rocked forward, then down as she pulled back.

“Fuck…” Tom murmured under his breath, his fingers leaving indentations in the flesh of her hips.

“Does that feel good?” She asked, her voice breathless with exertion.

“Y–yeah…don’t stop.”

In that moment, none of it mattered; the sheen of sweat upon her skin, the other people asleep around them, it all faded to nothing. Her only focus became the man beneath her begging for more and the exhilarating ache each time the head of him brushed against a sensitive spot deep inside of her.

“You’re so brave, Tom, and you’re doing so well, making me feel wonderful,” she breathed, as she moved atop him.

His expression was one of utter submission and pure adoration, his eyes were glossy with pleasure, his full lips were parted. He clung to her as though he was a drowning man and she was his lifeline, and she supposed she was in a way. She served as a much needed moment of respite when all around him was fear and uncertainty.

She could feel her peak beginning to crest alongside his, his cock pulsed inside of her with each spasm of her core. She pulled off of him as white hot waves of pleasure crashed over her, stifling his groan of satisfaction with a hot, messy kiss - the first they’d shared - as she tightened repeatedly around nothing and he spilled himself across his lower abdomen.

He laid against her chest afterwards, once he’d cleaned himself up, and she cradled him to her breasts, gently ruffling his hair. A satisfied ache had settled between her thighs, and her eyelids felt heavy with tiredness.

“Will you write to me?” He asked quietly.

“If you keep your promise, Tom, then I might not know where to write to.”

He hummed quietly before falling silent.

“You will keep your promise, won’t you? You’ll speak to your dad?”

“Yeah,” he whispered back, almost thoughtfully, “I promise.”

Tom left the next day, and she didn’t see him again, though he often crossed her mind. Six months later, when she was stationed in a hospital in Paris, her heart stuttered in her chest as she looked upon the familiar, yet bruised face of a man laying unconscious in the ward she was working in. She smiled as she approached the bed and looked upon the sleeping form of Tom Bennett. He’d kept his promise. He was a hero after all.

[mariacallous]

In May 2022, just months after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a disparate group of people from across the globe decided that they wanted to fight back.

This turned into the North Atlantic Fella Organization (NAFO), a decentralized online activist network designed to combat pro-Kremlin propaganda, primarily focusing on the platform then known as Twitter. The members, identified by cartoon Shiba Inu avatars, mocked Russian government accounts and used meme warfare to disrupt Moscow’s propaganda over the invasion.

But in November 2022, Elon Musk took control of the platform, changed its name to X, and effectively allowed Russia’s propagandists free rein to do whatever they wanted.

While NAFO members continued to push back, posting memes in response to any posts from official Russian accounts, they knew they had to do something else to alter the course of the war. And so, over the course of the past two years, they have helped to raise tens of millions of dollars for Ukrainian frontline forces, funding weapons, ammunition, medical equipment, and vehicles—many of them branded with the distinctive NAFO livery.

Among the items funded by these shitposting cartoon dogs is a $250,000 marine drone dubbed “Raccoon’s Revenge” that the Ukrainian government says was used to take out a Russian warship. The group has also funded thousands of drones that have become an increasingly important weapon in pushing back Russian forces. Those on the front line say that NAFO’s efforts are vital in combating Russia’s assault.

“This is our only way to win, because the Russian army is bigger than us. We need more drones. It is very, very important,” Oleksandr Sokolenko, a commander of the drone unit in the 79th Air Assault Brigade, tells WIRED. When he spoke to WIRED earlier this month, Sokolenko said he was in a trench between Vuhledar and Kurakhove in the Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine.

Sokolenko first heard about NAFO’s work from a friend who was also in the Ukrainian army, and now believes the work they are doing to fund drones for his brigade is vital to their chances of winning the war.

“In the beginning, when I joined the army, I was in the infantry. But I recognized that drones are really very critical,” Sokolenko says. “So I decided to work with drones. My first time [flying a drone] it was a DJI Mavic, I dropped grenades from it. Now, it's my main work.”

Sokolenko, who joined the Ukrainian military when the war broke out, previously worked as an actor, appearing onstage and in movies. “It’s like Shakespeare said, all the world’s a stage,” Sokolenko joked, flagging that Ukrainian president Vlodomyr Zelensky had also been an actor before becoming a politician.

Because of NAFO’s decentralized structure, it’s impossible to get specific figures on how many people identify as members of the movement—fellas, in NAFO parlance—but one member believes it has to be in the thousands at least.

“You can't just fundraise $250,000 for a naval drone if there's not thousands of people [involved],” a UK-based fella, who did not want to be named over fears of threats from Russia, tells WIRED. That was funded in direct collaboration with United24, the Ukrainian government organization that was set up to allow people to help the Ukrainian war effort.

“It all started in November 2022, when United24 launched the first fleet of naval drones, a project that would later change the course of the maritime war,” a spokesperson for United24 tells WIRED. “Fellas were eager to help and to encourage their initiative. We made a special offer: to fundraise a NAFO drone and brand it with a name of their choice.”

The incentive worked, and in the space of just two months, NAFO had raised $276,429, and decided to call the drone Raccoon’s Revenge, a reference to the raccoons stolen by Russian zookeeper Oleg Zubkov during the Russian retreat from Kherson in November 2022.

In total, NAFO has raised close to $1 million across four fundraising campaigns in collaboration with United24. Their current campaign—dubbed Fellas Fury—is seeking to raise funds for remote control combat robots. Beyond official fundraising efforts in conjunction with the Ukrainian government, NAFO members have also launched numerous separate campaigns conducted in close collaboration with troops on the ground.

Because NAFO does not have a central leader, the fundraising efforts are organized on the basis of brigades or divisions, typically led by one person who has a connection to a particular unit or soldier in the Ukrainian army. These brigades and divisions usually focus on one specific item, whether its vehicles, rifles, drones, or medical equipment, and part of their fundraising efforts is the sale of patches, which have become a huge collectors item.

The fundraising drives are organized on Discord, Signal, and Telegram—but not on X, the platform that the NAFO movement has thrived on for years.

“People are being forced away from X, just because Russia basically bought the platform,” the UK-based fella tells WIRED, citing the prevalence of Russian bots and pro-Kremlin accounts allowed on the platform under Musk’s stewardship. X did not respond to a request for comment.

One of the most successful and prolific NAFO fundraisers has been Ragnar Sass, who runs the NAFO 69th Sniffing Brigade, which has raised more than $10 million to date for Ukrainian troops. That money has allowed Sass and his brigade to send more than 460 vehicles to Ukrainian troops, as well as more than 1,000 drones and other equipment to soldiers on the ground. They have even rescued 32 Ukrainian pets.

Sass’s brigade not only supplies the trucks, but also kits them out with custom technology designed specifically for combat such as jammers and night vision cameras. The trucks and jeeps are then painted, including NAFO lettering, and driven in convoys to the front lines in Ukraine.

“What makes us different, is that we are analyzing every week what are the most effective electronic warfare solutions,” Sass tells WIRED while coordinating his brigade’s 33rd convoy to the Ukrainian front lines.

Sass is an Estonian entrepreneur and cofounder of cloud-based software company Pipedrive, which was valued at more than $1 billion in 2020. He has been operating in Ukraine for more than a decade, and in 2019 launched a startup incubator in Kiev called Lift99.

When the war broke out in early 2022, Sass donated $20,000 to the Ukrainian army. “Many people followed, and by the end of day, we collected $200,000,” Sass says. By March 2022, Sass had organized his first convoy of 14 cars, and by June of that year, he joined with NAFO.

Sass’ operation incentivizes donations by offering a patch to anyone who donates more than €100 ($110), and he says to date they have sent out more than 10,000 patches to donors in more than 50 countries.

The NAFO fundraisers are needed, Sass says, because of the glacial pace that organizations like NATO operate in response to wartime situations.

“We are the fastest and most effective,” Sass says. “We can fundraise and deliver help in a matter of days. Like we did with Kursk: We started a campaign on Thursday evening. Next week, car and drones were handed over to units in Kursk. This war will be won by drones, and NATO procurement is from the stone age.”

Recently, British lawmaker David Taylor joined Sass on one of his delivery missions. “You are doing incredible work and I was proud to have joined you,” Taylor wrote in response to a post by the 69th Sniffing Brigade on X.

Taylor is far from the only high-profile figure who has publicly thanked NAFO for their efforts.

“A massive shoutout to the incredible NAFO Fellas for your unwavering support of Ukraine,” Andriy Yermak, the head of the office of the president of Ukraine, wrote on X earlier this month. “Your ongoing fight for truth and against disinformation is of immense importance.” General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the Ukraine ambassador to the UK and former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, has a NAFO patch.

US congressman Adam Kinzinger is a NAFO member, and Mark Rutte, the secretary general of NATO, was recently presented with his very own framed Shibu Inu cartoon dog.

Ukrainian troops also regularly share their thanks to NAFO donors on social media, posting pictures of the vehicles or weapons funded by the group and how they were used in combating Russia.

“While carrying out some special tasks, I came across a vehicle that helps partially destroy Russian UAV every day,” Bohdan Patel, a 21-year-old Ukrainian soldier, posted on X alongside a picture of a truck with a NAFO patch emblazoned on the side. “Thank you to the NAFO community for the support, it is priceless.”

[ncisfranchise-source]

Rule No. 5: You don’t waste good. And there is a lot of good stuff to be enjoyed as NCIS marks its 20th anniversary this month.

On Monday, Sept. 25, CBS is officially celebrating “NCIS Day” — exactly 20 years (…plus two days) after the JAG spinoff made its broadcast debut. The well-watched NCIS mothership has aired 459 episodes to date, and with all offshoots (including NCIS: Sydney) combined, the franchise will reach a milestone 1,000th episode (!) during NCIS’ 21st season (premiere date TBD). If there is a giant “1,000” cake, I demand a slice.

TVLine has exclusive details on all that “NCIS Day” will entail:

A mini-marathon airing Monday, Sept. 25 and kicking off with the first NCIS episode, featuring the original cast and back when the show was called [Takes deep breath] “Navy NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service.” (Before you “Well, actually…” me –yes, NCIS technically launched via a backdoor pilot in the Season 8 JAG episodes “Ice Queen” and “Meltdown.”) All three mini-marathon episodes are detailed below; get an exclusive first look at the promo up above.

The debut of CBS’ “social take” on the Bandium app that Gary Cole’s Special Agent Alden Parker introduced to the team in Season 19 (as revisited in the video clip directly above). CBS’ version of Bandium will be accessed through an opt-in messenger feature on Instagram and Facebook, allowing “special agent fans at home” to receive exclusive content, personalized shareable content, special announcements and more. (Starting Sept. 18, sign up early using these Facebook and Instagram links.)

An opportunity for fans to take 20% off NCIS merchandise at ParamountShop.com, using the code NCIS20 at checkout from Sept. 7 through Oct. 2. (There will also be an on-air QR/discount code displayed periodically during the NCIS marathon so fans can scan and shop.)

And as you may have already noticed out there on social media, CBS has launched a new joint @NCISverse handle across all of the franchise’s social media platforms.

‘NCIS DAY’ MINI-MARATHON DETAILS

Monday, Sept. 25 at 8/7c — “Yankee White” (Season 1, Episode 1) In the series’ premiere episode, NCIS Special Agents Gibbs (played by Mark Harmon) and Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) and medical examiner Dr. “Ducky” Mallard (David McCallum) arrive on Air Force One to investigate what initially appears to be a death by natural causes. But their investigation is hampered by inter-agency squabbles with the FBI and Secret Service, each believing that they should be the primary investigating unit. Gibbs cunningly gets control of the case from the others, but still has to go head-to-head with Secret Service Agent Kate Todd (Sasha Alexander).

Monday, Sept. 25 at 9 pm — “SWAK” (Season 2, Episode 22) When a letter sealed with a kiss is delivered to NCIS, Tony assumes it’s for him and opens it, only to release a mysterious powder into the NCIS squad room. Gibbs and the team are forced into quarantine in the NCIS autopsy room pending the results of tests to identify the strange powder. As Abby (Pauley Perrette) discovers the substance is a genetically altered version of the plague, Tony and Kate are placed in a bio-hazard isolation ward for fear of exposure. Gibbs and McGee (Sean Murray), meanwhile, race to track down who sent the letter before the deadly plague wreaks more havoc.

Monday, Sept. 25 at 10 pm — “All Hands” (Season 19, Episode 11) After a civilian research vessel in the North Atlantic picks up a small boat of wounded Navy officers, Special Agent Parker (Gary Cole) and his NCIS team arrive on the ship and are forced to hide after discovering terrorists on board. Also, Special Agent Knight (Katrina Law) takes a paper doll with her on the mission to capture photos for her niece’s grade school class. Martha Mitchell directed the episode from a script by Christopher J. Waild.

How will YOU be celebrating “NCIS Day”? Anyone want to go caroling door-to-door with me, maybe stumble across an ill-fated petty officer along the way…?

[mccareer]

Commander Led Naval Medical Forces Atlantic to New Heights

https://www.med.navy.mil/Media/News/News-Article/Article/3837986/commander-led-naval-medical-forces-atlantic-to-new-heights/

[cyberbenb]

War in Ukraine. Day 512. Monthly update 2023, #5. 

Prepared by Sofiia Dalibozhak, Sofia Oliynyk, Maryana Zaviyska

NATO summit in Vilnius.

The 2023 summit took place on 11-12 July and the matter of Ukraine joining the alliance (or not) was one of the major topics of the gathering. On July 11, Allies took decisions to bring Ukraine closer to NATO, and reinforce the Alliance’s collective deterrence and defence. The official invitation for Ukraine was not granted this year. POLITICO also emphasises, that there are two major obstacles to Ukraine joining NATO now, the first one being Article V of the North Atlantic Treaty, providing that any attack on a NATO country is to be considered an attack on all its members – i. e. if Ukraine joined now, the entire alliance would be at war with Russia. The second obstacle deals with the need for meeting certain qualifications of democratic control of the military as it is a prerequisite for joining the alliance.

Though some of the decisions aiming to strengthen cooperation were adopted. Allies agreed to a package of three elements bringing Ukraine closer to NATO. This includes a new multi-year assistance programme to facilitate the transition of the Ukrainian armed forces from Soviet-era to NATO standards and help rebuild Ukraine’s security and defence sector, covering critical needs like fuel, demining equipment, and medical supplies. Allies also agreed to establish the new NATO-Ukraine Council as well as reaffirmed that Ukraine will become a member of NATO, and agreed to remove the requirement for a Membership Action Plan, reads the statement. NATO Allies adopted a comprehensive defence plan that is designed to counter the Alliance’s two main threats – Russia and terrorism. The new regional plan provides for 300,000 troops at high readiness, including substantial air and naval combat power. To meet their defence needs, Allies made an enduring commitment to invest a minimum of 2% of their Gross Domestic Product in defence. 

On July 12, G7 countries announced an international framework for long-term security assurances for Ukraine to boost its defences against Russia. The leaders agreed to ensure a sustainable force capable of defending Ukraine now and deterring Russian aggression in the future, through the continued provision of: security assistance and modern military equipment, support to further develop Ukraine’s defence industrial base, training and training exercises for Ukrainian forces, intelligence sharing and cooperation, support for cyber defence, security, and resilience initiatives, including to address hybrid threats. In addition, G7 countries will aim to strengthen Ukraine’s economic stability and resilience, including through reconstruction and recovery efforts, to create the conditions conducive to promoting Ukraine’s economic prosperity, including its energy security. Lastly, the cooperation will envisage providing technical and financial support for Ukraine’s immediate needs stemming from Russia’s war as well as to enable Ukraine to continue implementing the effective reform agenda that will support the good governance necessary to advance towards its Euro-Atlantic aspirations.

Cities under the attack.

In June Russia continued to shell Ukrainian cities and villages. As for the southern part of Ukraine, the city of Kherson continues to suffer from ongoing shellings. On Thursday, June 29, the Russian army shelled the ‘Point of Invincibility’ in Kherson, leaving two civilians killed, and two others injured. On July 4, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office, 2 people were killed as a result of a Russian artillery attack. On July 6, 3 more were injured, according to Kherson regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin. Earlier, on June 13, 11 people were killed in Kryvyi Rih in Dnipropetrovsk region due to a Russian missile strike. 

Ukraine’s Air Force reported on June 16 that air defence downed all six Kinzhal ballistic missiles, also known as Kh-47M2, six Kalibr cruise missiles, and two reconnaissance drones. This happened several hours after the delegation led by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa arrived in Ukraine on the morning of that same day.

Since the beginning of the full-scale war, more than 170 civilians have been killed, and more than 400 residential buildings have been damaged or destroyed, in Russian attacks on Kyiv, the city Mayor Vitalii Klychko said on July 9.

In the morning of July 6, Lviv was attacked by Russian missiles. The attack damaged 35 residential houses, an office complex, a student campus, a school, and several dozens of cars. National police said that 45 people, including three children, had been injured and 10 people were killed.

Life under the occupation.

Russian occupiers continue to kidnap children from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. The occupying administrations, with the help of telegram channels aimed at the audience of TOT of the Kherson region, promote targeted messages to mislead the local residents about the threat to children on the territory of Ukraine. Specifically, the departure of children to Russia is strongly promoted via such resources by encouraging participation in the “We are children of the Volga” camp program.

Moreover, the occupation administration of TOT demands that businesses, which as of July 1 did not re-register their business to the norms of Russian legislation, cease operations, and threatens them with consequences, namely, criminal responsibility, if the entrepreneurs do not respond to the threats. This is one more measure taken with the aim to increase the rate of passporting of the region.

In the temporarily occupied territories of the Luhansk region the occupiers convert maternity homes into military hospitals, while loading unnecessary furniture and medical equipment onto military transport for the stolen property to be further transported to Russia. In the same region, in order to combat the leakage of information about the location of the Russian troops, the occupation administration threatens with consequences all those who talk to persons who are in the territory under the control of Ukraine.

Liberation.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, as of July 10, since the beginning of the counteroffensive, the Ukrainian army has liberated 168.6 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory. 

Crimea.

According to activists of an independent human rights group Qırım Gayesi (Crimean Idea), at least 18 individuals from the indigenous community of Crimean Tatars were detained since February 2023 to check their alleged involvement in subversive or resistance activities. It is suspected, however, that the number of enforced kidnappings and detentions among Crimean Tatars, in fact, is much higher. People may conceal these incidents, fearing further repressions.

According to the Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, as of July 3 the occupiers have illegally imprisoned 180 Ukrainian citizens in Crimea. 117 of them are representatives of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people. Out of the total number of political prisoners, 24 are arrested, 138 are imprisoned, and 18 are without status.

The occupation court of Crimea has changed the illegal sentence of civilian journalist Irina Danilovich, who was sentenced to 7 years on charges of allegedly “possessing explosives”. The political prisoner is to be transferred to Russia in the near future, and her health condition requires immediate medical attention.

Human rights

On June 27, OHCHR released a report on arbitrary detention of civilians in the context of the Russian Federation’s large-scale attack on Ukraine, covering the period of 15 months from February 2022 to May 2023. 864 individual cases of arbitrary detention by the Russian Federation were documented, many of which also amounted to enforced disappearances. Civilians were often detained during so-called ‘filtration’ in occupied territory for their perceived support of Ukraine, their status as former Ukrainian servicepersons, or their perceived political opinion or affiliation. They included local public officials, humanitarian volunteers, members of civil society, priests and teachers.

Many civilian detainees were held incommunicado, in unofficial places of detention, often in deplorable conditions. In about a quarter of the documented cases, civilian detainees were transferred to other locations within occupied territory or deported to the Russian Federation. Often, no information was disclosed to their families for prolonged periods of time.

In addition, 77 executions of civilians were documented while they were arbitrarily detained by the Russian Federation.

Justice.

On 22 June, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution on the political consequences of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. The resolution reaffirmed the importance of supporting Ukraine for the sake of protecting democratic security in Europe. Moreover, the PACE has therefore set a number of priorities and recommends in particular: expansion of the list of individuals and legal entities subject to restrictive measures (sanctions) in Russia, Belarus and third countries; introduction of basic categories for the purpose of special supervision to avoid evasion of sanctions; recognition of the Wagner PMC and other paramilitary groups involved in the Russian invasion (Kadyrov’s detachment and others) as terrorist groups; recognition of the Russian regime as one that follows the dangerous ideology of “rashism”; the recognition of the Russian Federation’s guilt in the war crime of ecocide, which was committed by blowing up the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station in order to stop the counter-offensive and more. Notably, the PACE declared its support to Zelenskyi’s peace plan.

On July 3, the International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine was launched in The Hague, based on the premises of the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust). According to the press service of the European Commission, the newly established Centre will be key to investigate Russia’s crime of aggression against Ukraine and facilitate case building for future trials. It will provide a structure to support and enhance ongoing and future investigations into the crime of aggression and contribute to the exchange and analysis of evidence gathered since the start of the Russian aggression.

Energy security.

Total damages to the energy sector caused by the destruction of the Kakhovka HPP amount to $624 million. These include the direct loss of the energy capacity of the dam, which was about 334,8 MW. Moreover, the annual economic losses of the state-owned company Ukrhydroenergo exceed $100 million. Nearly $1 billion will be needed to build the new hydroelectric power plant of the same capacity. 

Food security.

The consequences of the destruction of the Kakhovka HPP dam on June 6 have extended to the agricultural industry, as the loss of irrigation in Ukraine’s southern regions has resulted in substantial indirect losses. Damage to the crop plantations, livestock, and fish stocks has resulted in agricultural losses of $25 million. Furthermore, indirect losses for crop production are projected to increase by $182 million annually. 

In addition, due to the decrease in the water level in the Kakhovka Reservoir, a significant part of the Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, and Kherson regions may be left without water supply. In such a case, the construction of new water pipelines will be needed, which means extra expenses for Ukraine.

Holodomor recognition.

Within the course of June and July, three more parliaments of European countries have recognised the Holodomor as genocide against the Ukrainian people. These are Croatia, the Netherlands, Slovakia.

Recent surveys.

On June 19, the United Nations in Ukraine released its Human Impact Assessment report, providing comprehensive insights into the effects of Russia’s invasion on living conditions, health, access to education, livelihoods, food security, social inclusion, and gender equality. 

Among the key findings of the Assessment is the employment situation. Namely, unemployment is predicted to stand at 18.3% across 2023; 65% of households reported a decrease in income since February 2022. As for food security, 44% of households cannot afford essential needs, driving food insecurity; the proportion of households with inadequate food consumption rose to one-third; and 43% of households reported limiting portions, borrowing food, and/or eating cheaper foods, the report states.

On June 27, Sociological Group ‘Rating’ released a survey, encompassing, among others, the assessment of the security situation by the Ukrainian population, opinions on the country’s general development, social distances, institutional performance and participation in community life. According to the survey, 67% of those interviewed believe that things are headed in the right direction in Ukraine, 18% are of the opposite opinion and a further 15% could not assess. 86% and 61% of those interviewed respectively believe that the Ukrainian Armed Forces and family and loved ones were the main factors that helped those surveyed remain stable during the war with Russia. 56% of those surveyed think that the main sign of a successful state is a strong army. Most of those surveyed (58%) said that they were prepared to endure difficulties because of the war for several years to win. As for the social distances, over 75% of respondents did not personally feel criticised or disapproved because of their political preferences, language of communication, belonging to a certain region, religious affiliation, or because of nationality.

Another survey by the Rating Group, launched on June 29, shows that the attitude of Ukrainians toward the largest allied countries remains very positive: most respondents consider Poland, the United States and the United Kingdom friendly countries. Attitudes toward Germany among Ukrainians continue to improve. In contrast, attitudes toward China and Turkey are deteriorating.

Disinformation.

On June 29, Detector Media Research Center launched a brief report on Russian disinformation messages in the Ukrainian segment of Telegram. According to the report, the key narratives include: “Ukraine is to blame for the destruction of the Kakhovka HPP”, “systemic corruption in the Ministry of Defense will lead to a significant reduction in Western aid”, “Ukraine will never be accepted into NATO, security guarantees will be purely declarative”, “the counteroffensive in Zaporizhzhia and Bakhmut is not going according to plan”, “Western equipment is of poor quality” and others. The main goals of propagating these narratives are to discredit Ukraine and its authorities as well as Ukraine’s partner countries and to distort the perception of events on the frontline.

Subscribe to our updates on Twitter and our website.

Thank you for supporting Ukraine! Slava Ukraini! Glory to Ukraine!

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The post War in Ukraine. Day 512. Monthly update 2023, #5.  first appeared on Share the Truth. Updates from Ukraine.

[atlanticcanada]

Royal Canadian Navy introduces no-strings-attached pilot program amid recruitment crisis

The Royal Canadian Navy has launched a new program in an attempt to boost recruitment amid a decline of members.

The Naval Experience Program (NEP) is a one-year program intended to give Canadians with an interest in joining the navy the full experience, without the pressure of past programs that usually last between three and five years, according to Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee.

"They're going to get the full experience of the life of a sailor," Topshee told CTV's Your Morning on Monday.

"We're trying to make sure that we account for the fact that a lot of people don't know what the navy does, and this is an opportunity for them to join the navy – one year, all expenses paid, experience life in the navy – and see if it's for them."

The Canadian Armed Forces recently reported there has been a shortage of approximately 16,000 members. Among the positions that need urgent filling are naval operators, as well as medical officers, aviation specialists, communications and technical tradespeople.

The NEP is said to offer trainees eight weeks of basic training to become a general duty sailor, followed by nine months of exposure to navy life at a home base in Nova Scotia or British Columbia. Topshee says there is also a component of experience on a foreign port to expose participants to the extensive traveling that is a requirement of the job.

"Part of the value proposition of the navy is you join the navy to see the world, so we want to make sure they experience that and see if they like the lifestyle, because it's not for everyone, being on board a ship is a different thing," he said.

Trainees will be paid a year salary of $42,000 and will also have the option to use 20 days of vacation with paid travel accommodations. Once the program is over, trainees can choose to either remain in the navy full-time or part-time, or leave all together if they decide it's not for them.

Topshee says with this program, the Royal Canadian Navy is aiming to reel in 80 per cent of participants to become full-time members.

With files from CTV News Ottawa 

from CTV News - Atlantic https://ift.tt/HtJZ50S

[usafphantom2]

IMAGES: French Navy receives the first H160 for search and rescue missions

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 09/22/2022 - 20:13in Helicopters

The French Navy received the first of six H160 helicopters that will carry out search and rescue missions (SAR).

The aircraft is part of the temporary fleet that will be delivered by the partnership formed between Airbus Helicopters, Babcock and Safran Helicopter Engines.

"The delivery of the first H160 to a military customer is an important milestone for the H160 program," said Bruno Even, CEO of Airbus Helicopters. "This is the first public service version of the H160 to be delivered worldwide. In addition, the delivery occurs soon after the entry into service of two H160s this summer, in Brazil for the private and executive aviation segment and in Japan for news collection missions," he added. "With this H160, we will strengthen our partnership with the French Navy, delivering the right helicopter for its critical search and rescue missions. Together with our partners, we will also ensure that the H160 is ready when necessary."

In 2020, the General Directorate of Armaments of France (DGA) signed a contract with Airbus Helicopters, Babcock and Safran for the delivery of four H160s in a search and rescue (SAR) configuration. In 2021, DGA confirmed an option for two more H160s.

The first H160 for the French Navy was delivered to Babcock by Airbus Helicopters in May 2022. Since then, it has been modified to a lightweight military configuration by Babcock. The modular cabin has also been adapted for SAR operations and a Safran Euroflir 410 electro-optical system has been integrated.

The H160 will gradually begin operating from the Lanveoc-Poulmic naval air station (Breign), Cherbourg airport (Normandy) and the Hyères naval air station (Provence). The temporary fleet of H160s will ensure critical search and rescue missions while waiting for the delivery of the H160M Guépard. Under the French joint light helicopter program (Hélicoptère Interarmées Léger: HIL), 169 H160M Guépards helicopters are planned to replace five types of helicopters in service in the French armed forces. The operational feedback of the French Navy with these H160 will benefit the design of the military version of the aircraft and its associated support system.

Babcock, in partnership with Airbus Helicopters and Safran Helicopters Engines, will ensure the highest level of availability for the French Navy and the continuity of SAR operations on the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts. Built by Airbus Helicopters, the H160 is certified for the use of night vision goggles, necessary for night winch operations.

The H160, as a next-generation medium-generation twin-engine aircraft, powered by Arrano engines, is modular by design to meet missions ranging from offshore transport, private and executive aviation, emergency medical services and public services.

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Tags: Airbus HelicoptersMilitary AviationH160HelicoptersMarine Nationale / French Navy

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Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. It has works published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. He uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

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Tuesday, May 4, 2021

Employers, insurers push to make virtual visits regular care (AP) Make telemedicine your first choice for most doctor visits. That’s the message some U.S. employers and insurers are sending with a new wave of care options. Amazon and several insurers have started or expanded virtual-first care plans to get people to use telemedicine routinely, even for planned visits like annual checkups. They’re trying to make it easier for patients to connect with regular help by using remote care that grew explosively during the COVID-19 pandemic. Advocates say this can keep patients healthy and out of expensive hospitals, which makes insurers and employers that pay most of the bill happy. But some doctors worry that it might create an over-reliance on virtual visits. “There is a lot lost when there is no personal touch, at least once in a while,” said Dr. Andrew Carroll, an Arizona-based family doctor and board member of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Landlords and renters both struggling (Washington Post) In the covid economy of 2021, the federal government has created an ongoing grace period for renters until at least July, banning all evictions in an effort to hold back a historic housing crisis that is already underway. More than 8 million rental properties across the country are behind on payments by an average of $5,600, according to census data. Nearly half of those rental properties are owned not by banks or big corporations but instead by what the government classifies as “small landlords”—people who manage their own rentals and depend on them for basic income, and who are now trapped between tenants who can’t pay and their own mounting bills for insurance, mortgages and property tax. According to government estimates, a third of small landlords are at risk of bankruptcy or foreclosure as the pandemic continues into its second year.

Pandemic baby bust unprecedented in Bay Area, California history (San Francisco Chronicle) U.S. residents are having fewer babies this year. And California’s birth rates in January and February—around the time when early pandemic babies would be due—declined by 15% compared to the same period last year, the steepest year-over-year decline for those months since at least 1960, according to a Chronicle analysis. We used data from California’s Health and Human Services department, which collects monthly birth totals per county. We found that the state’s births declined from nearly 70,000 in the first two months of 2020 to fewer than 59,000 in the same period in 2021.

Zoom Court Is Changing How Justice Is Served (The Atlantic) Last spring, as COVID‑19 infections surged for the first time, many American courts curtailed their operations. As case backlogs swelled, courts moved online, at a speed that has amazed—and sometimes alarmed—judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys. In the past year, U.S. courts have conducted millions of hearings, depositions, arraignments, settlement conferences, and even trials—nearly entirely in civil cases or for minor criminal offenses—over Zoom and other meeting platforms. As of late February, Texas, the state that’s moved online most aggressively, had held 1.1 million remote proceedings.

Mexico City metro overpass collapses onto road; 20 dead (AP) An elevated section of the Mexico City metro collapsed and sent a subway car plunging toward a busy boulevard late Monday, killing at least 20 people and injuring about 70, city officials said. Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said 49 of the injured were hospitalized, and that seven were in serious condition and undergoing surgery. The overpass was about 5 meters (16 feet) above the road in the southside borough of Tlahuac, but the train ran above a concrete median strip, which apparently lessened the casualties among motorists on the roadway below. “A support beam gave way,” Sheinbaum said, adding that the beam collapsed just as the train passed over it.

El Salvador’s judiciary (Foreign Policy) Lawmakers in El Salvador voted to remove five influential Supreme Court judges and the attorney general over the weekend in a move U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has noted with “grave concern.” The motions to remove the officials passed with a supermajority in El Salvador’s legislature, now ruled by President Nayib Bukele’s New Ideas party following a sweeping victory in February’s elections. Addressing the international community on Twitter Bukele dismissed rebukes over the move. “With all due respect: We are cleaning house … and this doesn’t concern you,” Bukele said.

‘Hospitals are full’ as Argentina COVID-19 cases hit 3 million (Reuters) Argentina coronavirus cases hit 3 million on Sunday since the pandemic began, as medical workers said hospitals were full to capacity despite toughened government measures to bring down the spread of infections. The government of President Alberto Fernandez this week unveiled a new round of tougher restrictions as a second wave of infections has battered the country, filling up intensive care units and setting new daily records for cases and deaths. Marcela Cid, owner of a business on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, said that Argentines were increasingly “locked into a situation” that while necessary, was of little help to anyone trying to move beyond the pandemic.

EU proposes reopening external borders (AP) In an announcement sure to be welcomed by travelers worldwide, EU officials on Monday proposed easing restrictions on visiting the 27-nation bloc as vaccination campaigns across the continent gather speed. Travel to the European Union is currently extremely limited except for a handful of countries with low infection rates. But with the summer tourist season looming, the bloc’s European Commission hopes the new recommendations will dramatically expand that list. The Commission hopes the move will soon allow travelers reunite with their friends and relatives living in Europe and support the bloc’s economy this summer. Under the Commission’s proposal, entry would be granted to all those fully vaccinated with EU-authorized shots. Coronavirus vaccines authorized by the European Medicines Agency, the bloc’s drug regulator, include Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.

Indian leader’s party takes electoral hit amid virus surge (AP) India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi suffered a resounding defeat in a key state election on Sunday, indicating his Hindu nationalist party’s political strength may be slipping as the country struggles to contain an unprecedented surge in coronavirus cases. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was unable to dislodge West Bengal state’s firebrand chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, after a hard-fought campaign. His party also failed to win in two southern states, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. But the BJP secured a second term in the northeastern state of Assam and an alliance with regional parties led it to victory in the union territory of Puducherry. Even before the current virus surge, Modi’s party faced stiff challenges in these local legislative elections. Following the disappointing results, Modi stands weakened but faces no threats to staying on as prime minister until his term ends in 2024.

Formal Withdrawal from Afghanistan Begins (AP) US and NATO troops stationed in Afghanistan formally began the withdrawal phase over the weekend, a process that is expected to last through the summer and officially end Sept. 11. Roughly 3,000 US troops and 7,000 coalition troops remain in the country, along with a reported 18,000 Pentagon-employed contractors. The exit has been framed as nonconditional—meaning ongoing attacks by the Taliban against the Afghan government won’t delay the withdrawal. Many have questioned the ability of the Afghan National Army to provide security against the Taliban absent international forces. Despite assurances by Afghan officials, Taliban forces have established themselves across most of the country. Afghan forces control an estimated one-third of the country’s districts, with the Taliban controlling about 10%, and nearly half—areas that include a total of roughly 14 million people—currently contested.

Chinese man crosses Taiwan Strait by rubber dinghy, seeking ‘freedom and equality’ (Washington Post) A Chinese man appeared to sail undetected through the highly militarized Taiwan Strait in a rubber dinghy, fleeing his native China for Taiwan in search of “freedom,” according to Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration. The man, identified only by his surname, Zhou, left Shishi county in Quanzhou, a port city in Fujian province, at 10 a.m. on Friday, arriving more than 10 hours later at Taichung port on Taiwan’s western coast, Taiwan’s Coast Guard said on Monday. Officials said they were still investigating Zhou’s journey over the 100-mile stretch of sea between China and Taiwan, which is patrolled by hundreds of Chinese and Taiwanese coast guard ships and naval vessels. Coast Guard officials, relaying Zhou’s account of his journey, told reporters he had traveled in a rubber raft measuring 8.8 feet by 5 feet that he bought on the Chinese e-commerce site Taobao and fitted with an outboard motor. The incident has prompted concerns about the security of the contentious waterway at a time when military observers worry that long-standing tensions between the governments of China, Taiwan and the United States, which is committed to defending Taiwan, could boil over into military conflict.

Australia warns its citizens of jail and $50,000 fine if they return from India (Washington Post) Even in the pandemic era of closed borders, Australia’s latest travel restriction stands out: Anyone, including Australian citizens, who arrives in the country after visiting India in the previous 14 days can face up to five years in jail, a $50,000 fine or both. On Monday, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison defended the move. Australia had seen a sevenfold increase in the percentage of people traveling from India who tested positive for the coronavirus, the prime minister told Sydney’s 2GB radio station. The decision to threaten even Australian citizens with jail time if they return home from India during its record-breaking coronavirus surge is a significant escalation of border restrictions for Australia, an island nation that had already mandated strict controls at its borders throughout the pandemic.

DR Congo declares state of siege over eastern bloodshed (Reuters) Militants killed at least 19 people, including 10 soldiers, in raids on two villages in the east of Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday, hours after President Felix Tshisekedi declared a state of siege in two provinces. A surge in attacks by armed militias and inter-communal violence in the east have killed more than 300 people since the start of the year as government troops and U.N. peacekeepers struggle to stabilize the situation. The most recent attacks took place early on Saturday when militants raided two villages in North Kivu’s regional hub of Beni, local authorities said. Tshisekedi had declared a state of siege in North Kivu and Ituri provinces on Friday.

[dragonrajafanfiction]

West African Hybrids

“Hey… Hey! Wake up, we’re almost there.”

Ru’Yi felt a slight nudge at her side and opened her eyes. Her uniform was slightly rumpled. She managed to tie up her hair so it wouldn’t be too frizzy on landing. “Really?” She whimpered in a sleepy disappointment. “That was so fast…”

“Well, the executive department doesn’t like to waste time. So the gear department modifies planes for maximum speed.” Rodney gave her a shy smile, revealing a single dimple on his right cheek. “Are you okay? Can I get you anything?”

She shook her head. “I’m alright.”

It was still too dark to see much but, as people began to turn on their overhead lights, she noticed that his eyes were hazel, brown with flecks of green and gold mixed in, hidden behind his dark brown bangs. Everything from his hair cut, to his quiet voice, and hesitant demeanor spoke to his shyness, but now that she got a good look at him, she could tell that he was at least as strong as Brian. He had those same broad shoulders and muscles along his arms. He was also relatively tall, stretching his legs under the seat in front of him.

Around her all the students were always wide awake, shifting and speaking to their seatmates.

Ru’Yi only remembered flying once before. Back when she was fourteen when they were on the island, she had been so excited to take her first flight and she packed all her things early. She even watched videos of 757, 747 and 777 airliners to see how things would be. These massive jets with smiling Flight attendants, a friendly captain speaking over an intercom, and movies built into the seats.

But instead of a large bustling airport, her father and mother took a boat to another island where a sandy flat ribbon of land served as a runway. There were no customs, no shopping, nothing like that. Just a long silver luxury private jet in the middle of nowhere.  

“Why can’t we just be normal?” She had lamented.

Her father answered her question in his usual succinct manner. The nearest airport was nearly a day’s travel away and she would never be able to use it anyway because she didn’t have a passport. He looked at her with a head slightly tilted, like a curious bird wondering what was wrong. The juxtaposition of his serious-eyed stare, his questioning gesture and his shirt with the bright yellow hibiscus flowers would have been funny but she wasn’t laughing.

This was better anyway, her mother had chimed in. They had the whole plane to themselves. There was an onboard chef ready to fix anything they possibly would want to eat, music, movies, games, and a good pilot that her father knew. She also was dressed in a yellow sundress to match her husband’s and together, they looked like the happy globetrotting couple.

 Ru’Yi had relented, but didn’t smile. Deep down, he knew all the kids at school would envy her. They would question how some tour guide could afford a private flight to the United States.

She should be grateful.

Now sitting in the Beluga Aircraft, she realized that this was as close to normal as she could get. At least now, she was surrounded by other people who also didn’t seem to use passports, use airports or pass through customs. They were flying a jet with a jet tucked inside it like a Russian nesting doll and still managed to go faster than the planes she’d looked at as a child. She started to wonder if normalcy was as much as a fantasy to her as dragons were to ordinary people.

Aircraft Carrier, Aido-Hwedo, West Africa Branch.

The calm Atlantic waters broke beneath the unstoppable gun-metal bow of the moving wall of metal that towered a thousand feet high. It was topped with what appeared to be a flat road surface, as though a piece of highway had broken off a steel cliffside and set sail. On the side of this cliff was a name in large white block text a dozen feet high: Aido-Hwedo.

The original name of the vessel was the USS-Enterprise. This aircraft carrier was the one near enough to Pearl Harbor to participate in the famous World War II battle. It had scrambled several of its jets to help, but in the confusion of the sudden attack, many of them were shot down by their own countrymen. Later it saw intense battles of the South Pacific and then other missions during peacetime. But, for all its storied history, it still ended up at the shipyard to be turned into scrap at the end of its life.

According to history, it was scrap. Supposedly, all that was left of the ship was its bell, an anchor and the name plaque. Indeed, the name plaque was removed, but the ship itself moved about on the seas like a ghost of decades past, fighting battles under its new name.

The Aido-Hwedo was the great rainbow serpent that both created the world and sustained Earth’s form from falling to chaos -- A great beast that ate iron and, lacking iron, would instead eat its own tail.

Ordinarily, this floating runway would have been decorated with fighter jets, but for this occasion the landing surface was cleared to accommodate its incoming oversized cargo.

Within the control tower a tall man with skin the color of black coffee watched through his binoculars while a woman sat watching the radar screen. He was dressed in a black naval uniform, decorated with gold tassels. He was still, silent, and tense as he prepared to watch the plane land.

Landing on a flight deck is one of the most difficult things a pilot will ever do. The flight deck only had about 500 feet of runway space for landing planes, which wasn’t nearly enough for the heavy, high-speed jets like the modified Beluga coming in. To land on the flight deck, it would need a tailhook, which was exactly what it sounded like — an extended hook attached to the plane’s tail. The pilot’s goal would be to snag the tailhook on one of four arresting wires, sturdy cables woven from high-tensile steel wire. It would be precision flying at low speed and a high angle of attack. It was the definitive skill that tested Navy carrier pilots. The principle on landing would be to fly the plane aboard the ship at the slowest speed at which it can be done safely, to deliberately stall and drop into the landing.

Despite his confidence in the pilot, Foli Abalo looked through his binoculars with anticipation of a close call. The wire system was checked, rechecked and placed under guard. A back up emergency wire system was installed in case it failed anyway.

“Approach speed 450. Tail hook lowered.” The woman murmured. 

The lights of the plane were suddenly visible as it made its approaching turn. It moved incredibly slowly, stalking the ship like a massive fat shark.

“Speed reduced 350…”

It was the moment of truth. By now, the plane was so low and flying so slow, it had two options, land perfectly on the aircraft carrier or land on the ocean. There would be no recovering from this descent.

“On final approach. Flaps full. Speed 300.”

The roar of the engines was now audible in the tower. It rattled the glass. This plane would take up every inch of the runway and its wings would span the full width of the ship. Compared to the plane, this aircraft carrier seemed more like a sheet of notebook paper.

“Landing in five… four, three, two…”

The plane suddenly dwarfed the runway. The weight of it rocked the carrier. A pair of reverse thrusters built into the engines ignited in front of it. The brake lines caught the tailhooks and screamed under the strain. The plane passed the tower, rumbled further and further to the edge and then stopped completely, its nose peeking over the water.

A smattering of applause echoed throughout the tower. “We did it! We did it! That was the hard part wasn’t it? Get the crew down, have medics on board just in case the force of the stop caused any injuries.”

While the crew scattered, Foli smiled, his teeth a brilliant white, his black eyes twinkling. “Grant… it’s been far too long. How have you been doing my friend? Will you still recognize me? I wonder.” He chuckled.

Foli was one of a set of quadruplets. His mother had two eggs fertilized that day and by luck, both of them divided into two sets of twins. They were all born on the same day and seemed to have the same spirit in them so it was impossible to tell them apart as babies even for the most experienced spiritualist. Normally, the children would be named after the day of the week until they were given their permanent names. As it turned out, they were given the names of their birth order and that was that.

The name Foli meant first son, Atsu meant the younger of twins, Do was the first child after twins, and Dofi the second child after twins. His three brothers were also on this ship, scattered throughout the crew. Those onboard had no trouble telling them apart thanks to the uniform system of the West Africa branch. The gold crown on his hat meant he was the First Officer. But without his hat, it was very difficult to tell for those who didn’t know them well, and it wasn’t uncommon for his brothers to disguise themselves as pranks. He wouldn’t meet his friend today. His youngest brother, Dofi, would meet him instead.

He walked out of the tower where his brother was waiting and passed his his hat. Looking at them was like looking at a reflection. The same curled hair, cut short in the same buzzed syle, the same smile, and broad nose.

It was Dofi’s idea to play the prank. He was always the jokester and the one who initiated play on the ship. Atsu, the Chief Engineer was up to his ears after making the modifications to the ship for this mission. And Do had to stay on watch, keeping a careful eye on the stirring atmosphere just a few hundred miles distant. Although they were all the same age, Foli was expected to be the responsible representative and more was required of him as the oldest brother, even if he was only the oldest by a few minutes. So he wasn’t allowed to be seen playing, drinking or smoking.

Dofi screwed the hat on his head. “I’ll say I stole it.” He said, turning on his heel with a wink and then, pulling his face into a stoic frown, marched straight towards the bridge. When the other crew saw him they quickly pulled up in a sharp salute, thinking he was the captain.

The West Africa Branch had managed to remain under the radar for much of history. Africa had few mountains to guarantee a sufficient amount of steady rains. So great buildings and permanent settlements were mostly confined to the coasts and river valleys. The rest of Africa was forced to follow the shifting weather. The most valuable items one had had to be portable. So the hybrids of Africa were always mobile and moving. They kept their secrets with them in oral traditions, and carried their alchemical knowledge in the form of clothing, necklaces and even scars and tattoos. When the tidal wave of destructive colonization smashed to ruins the cultures of millions and the cutting knife of modern country borders separated allies and grouped them with enemies, and the explosion of civil war blew countries into eternal cycles of poverty, the hybrid life of West Africa was like a serpent, sliding under it all, with a secret network of transportation, communication and trade.

Anjou landed on the shores searching for such treasures. They were aware of him immediately and shied away. After all, those Europeans were nothing but looters and could not be trusted. They offered him fakes in hopes of luring him off their land. He saw through their counterfeits, but showed a surprising amount of restraint and tolerance for their hesitance. After a few years of negotiations, they finally trusted him enough to grant him a single piece of exquisite art that contained the alchemical formula for a special kind of dragonslaying metal. In return, he agreed to keep them secret for seven years. 

Those seven years passed and the promise was kept and the relationship grew a bit more open. They began to send their young men and women to the college. Foli attended along with Grant. Sadly, the death of Anjou was an uncertain time for the College. They didn’t know this “Lu Mingfei” or this “Von Frings”. But Foli knew Grant Baldwin and he couldn’t refuse a request for help from a friend. Grant said he needed people who could keep secrets and no one kept secrets like the West African Hybrids.

The crew that would welcome them rolled the tall stairway up to the plane’s door and arranged themselves in a long row spanning its length, hands folded behind their backs, looking like a row of sharply dressed dominoes.

The door finally opened and Grant exited first. He looked out over them and stepped easily down towards the ‘Captain’ who gazed at him with a serious air. For a moment, the two stared at each other not saying anything.

From his perch in the tower, Foli could hear what was being said through the wire Dofi wore. He grinned as he heard his brother say, “Welcome to my ship, Director.”

Grant’s voice, at its most deadpan and dry tone said, “Since when did Foli grow a mole on his cheek? Where is he? Which brother are you?”

Within the tower, Foli tilted his head back and howled with laughter, his joy at his brother’s prank failing was intensified by the fact that his friend still remembered him after all his time. “Which brother are you? Hahaha…” He leaned forward and clicked the PA system and his voice boomed over the speakers attached to the tower. “Good morning, Mr. Baldwin! Long time no see! Hahaha!”

“Was this a test?”

“Yes! And you half passed. For the second half, you will have to find out for yourself which brother is he!”

The rest of the line of crew also grinned but kept their laughter in check as Dofi gave a bow with an elegant leg. “We’ll show your students a good time. They need rest while we prepare the mission.”

The students piled off the plane in a rush, eagerly waving and looking around. Foli watched carefully, making a checklist in his mind of each face. He’d gotten the roster from Baldwin of those approved for the mission, so when he saw a woman get off he straightened with surprise.

He didn’t remember any women being on the roster. She seemed young, her skin was only the color of a latte, but her hair was long, coiled and beautiful. She carefully stepped down to the ground and took her place in line to wait for her luggage.

He turned off the PA. It seemed that Grant had his own surprises. “Ensign… who is the girl?”

The woman at the radar shook her head. She’s not on the roster. There’s no female name on the manifest.

He rubbed his chin. He knew he should trust Mr. Baldwin, but he also knew that he only had so much authority. The School Board would easily overrule him. 

“Find out what you can about her.” He turned. “I will make my way down to the deck.”

[rutidon]

A Peak at Ships: The Atlantic Theater, the Bismarck, and the Saint-Nazaire Raid

It’s March of 1942, and Europe is caught up in the middle of World War Two! Let me set the stage for today’s topic: Have you ever seen an entire town explode?

No? Then you’re probably not one of the six-hundred eleven men involved in Operation Chariot. With little more than an obsolete warship and balls made of the purest and strongest of brass, these men managed to put an entire town out of commission for six years.

The Fall of France

Two years earlier, the German Army had invaded France, taking over the Low Countries in the process. Within six weeks:

 Paris falls into German hands, the French Government goes into exile

The French Army disintegrates

The British Army is forced to abandon the continent by way of Dunkirk.

In the aftermath of the Battle of France, Germany quickly set to work taking over French industries and military installations in order to replace what they had lost and keep their (frankly-lopsided) war economy afloat.

Because Britain wasn’t out of the war yet, it became Germany’s top priority to defeat the island nation or pressure them into a surrender. The greatest thing about fighting an island nation is the fact that it's a nation on an island. There's only so many resources (Food, munitions, booze, poems, and medical supplies) that an island can use up before they need to import more, and because this is an era before Trans-Atlantic commercial flights, Britain was forced to use ships to connect itself with its various colonies, commonwealths, and business partners that weren't caught up in the German takeover of Continental Europe or the Axis invasion of North Africa.

The most crucial intact supply lines for Britain were...

The Suez Canal (Contested by the First Battle of El Alamein and ultimately successfully defended by the Second Battle of El Alamein in October of 1943)

The Straits of Gibraltar (Protected by the rocky fortress of Gibraltar)

and

The Atlantic Ocean (Simultaneously defended and made perilous, by its sheer size. Anything could be lurking out there, but you could go for days without seeing another ship). 

In order to starve out the UK, Germany knew that they would have to take the war to the high seas.

U-Boats

Submarines, known to the Germans as Unterseeboots (Underwater Boats, pretty creative), and recursively translated as "U-Boats", came into vogue during the First World War, where they used new technology to hide underwater until an enemy warship or commerce vessel came along, surface, torpedo or gun down the ship, and then submerge in order to make an escape. 

German experiments and strategies (Such as the Wolfsrudel, or "Wolf-Pack" in the Mid-Atlantic Gap) brought submarines to the forefront of the war. U-Boats were typically employed off of the Atlantic Coast of America, where their stealth and the undersea terrain allowed them to terrorize American shipping lanes until new technology (Radar and Convoy Sailing) and strategies could, in turn, bring an end to the U-Boat Menace.

Little Side Note: U-Boats found the most success in a stretch of the eastern seaboard known as ‘Torpedo Alley’. This region, including the Outer Banks and Barrier Islands of North Carolina, features narrow sea channels, ridges, dark and brackish water, and sandbar-like islands. U-Boats could easily use the terrain to hide themselves until ships came along, then use those same geographic features to disappear. Today, there are roughly fifty wrecks of tankers, freighters, patrol boats, and even some u-boats beneath the waves off North Carolina.

Bismarck

Closer to Europe, where "not being spotted" was no longer a concern, the Germans could dare to get more adventurous with surface ships, such as destroyers. Destroyers (Small and maneuverable lightly-armed and lightly-armored warships) had a variety of uses such as:

Escorting larger warships

Escorting merchant vessels

Attacking enemy merchant vessels

Patrolling coastlines

Sinking enemy submarines

And more!

But Hitler was never a man for subtlety. He saw destroyers as useful, but not nearly impractical enough, so he backed up the construction of the Bismarck-class battleship shortly before the war. This baby was a floating fortress, and was one of the biggest goddamn ships ever seen at that point. The Bismarck-class could take the fight to Britain and obliterate any coastal defenses or heavy ships with its 1,800lb (800kg) 15 in (350mm) shells, but Erich Raeder, head of the German Naval High Command, decided that the KMS (Kriegsmarineschiff) Bismarck would make a better commerce raider, sneaking up on unarmed merchant ships (With its unheard-of stealth) and sinking them. This was a stupid idea from a stupid, stupid Nazi piece of shit.

The Bismarck was built in violation of the Washington Naval Treaty, which put limits on ship displacement (weight) and armament. As a result of this illegal shenanigan, the Bismarck and her sister ship, KMS Tirpitz were at a weird position. The Washington Naval Treaty’s job was to ensure that no navy had ships that were too powerful, but the displacement rules were also important to note because of physical limitations.

Little Side Note: Ships have a variety of measurements including length, beam (width at the widest point), draft (length between the waterline and the keel), tonnage (the amount of cargo it can carry), displacement, and “-Max”. This last one is the important bit for Bismarck and Tirpitz. Most ships encounter a wide variety of man-made and natural structures such as canals, straits, bridges, sandbars, dry docks, and loading docks. Unfortunately, because building large structures is very expensive, many of these installations are built at a very specific size, and no ship that theoretically cannot fit them should not be allowed anywhere near them (Today, the most important sizes are the Panamax, for the Panama Canal, and the Suezmax, for the Suez Canal).

Because the Bismarck and Tirpitz were built in secret German dry docks, they could theoretically only fit in German docks if they needed to repair or refuel. They were built to be able to travel up to 9,810 miles (15,788km), but that’s traveling at a speed of 19 knots and not running into any obstacles or enemy ships. In their entire lifetimes, neither ship made it far from Europe, and neither ship left the North Atlantic.

Bismarck’s Ballet

On September 15, 1940, Bismarck went out to sea for the first time and made its way back to the port of Kiel in January of the next year. While there, a Swedish military official was invited onboard the ship, and he managed to walk away with several important details about Bismarck (Bad). These details immediately found their way into British hands (Worse), and the British decided that the Bismarck needed to be dealt with (Worst).

For now, Bismarck was ordered to meet up with KMS Gneisenau and KMS Scharnhorst. Ultimately, those two ships were damaged while in port and at sea, respectively, along with the heavy cruisers KMS Admiral Scheer and KMS Admiral Hipper (The other two heavy-hitters of the German Navy). After some bureaucratic nightmares, Operation Rheinübung was put forward with only Bismarck and a heavy cruiser known as KMS Prinz Eugen. The two ships, along with some escorts and aircraft, were picked up by British intelligence, who likely shit their pants and tried to throw together a plan.

Eventually, the HMS (His Majesty’s Ship) Suffolk and HMS Norfolk attempted to stop the party in the icy waters off of Norway, buying time for other British ships, HMS Hood and HMS Prince of Wales to join the Battle of the Denmark Strait. During the engagement, Hood was sunk with the loss of all but three men; Prince of Wales was damaged with the death of most of her bridge crew, but managed to escape; and Bismarck was left tilting in the water and trailing oil.

In the aftermath, Bismarck and Prinz Eugen were forced to seek repairs. As a result of Bismarck’s size, there was only one dock in Europe outside of Germany that was capable of accommodating her: St. Nazaire.

Saint-Nazaire and the Sinking of the Bismarck

With a population of 70,000, Saint-Nazaire sits on the western coast of France, along the Bay of Biscay, at the base of a peninsula that sticks out into the Atlantic Ocean. There was another port on this peninsula that the Germans used, Brest (Heh.), but this Brest wasn’t big enough for Bismarck.

Coming from the Atlantic or the Loire River, you could expect to find sheltered harbors, two access canals, submarine pens, and the Louis Joubert Lock, also known as the Normandie Dock, which was the largest lock/dry dock in the world at the time of its construction.

Big B and P.E. knew that they had to make it to Saint-Nazaire without being spotted and sunk, a task made difficult by the fact that the entire British Navy was aware of Bismarck’s existence and given orders by Winston Churchill himself to stop her at any cost. Battleships, cruisers, battlecruisers, destroyers, and aircraft carriers in the area dropped what they were doing and raced to intercept Bismarck, easily following the trail of oil she left in the water like Hansel and Gretel. Bismarck managed to fight off or evade each ship before sailing away and attempting to reach Brest--if not Saint-Nazaire--while Prinz Eugen fled.

Eventually, the only ships capable of participating in the search were the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, the battleships HMS King George V and HMS Rodney, the heavy cruisers HMS Norfolk and HMS Dorsetshire, the light cruiser HMS Sheffield, and a few destroyers.

Ark Royal, equipped with a few Swordfish-class torpedo bombers (Planes that drop torpedoes into the water in order to hit naval targets), managed to locate the Bismarck three-hundred miles from Brest (heh). While the torpedo bombers attempted to run on Bismarck, who was too busy trying to sink Sheffield.

The slow and small Swordfishes managed to fly through the anti-aircraft fire of the Bismarck long enough to hit her with torpedoes. The first caused minimal damage, but the second hit Bismarck in her rudder while she was turning, jamming the steering system in the process. As a result, Bismarck was left sailing in a wide counterclockwise circle.

By the next morning, Bismarck was history. As the enemy warships shelled her, the crew decided to cut their losses and scuttle her. Of her 2,200-strong crew, only 114 men and one cat managed to escape the sinking ship. She never even made it to Saint-Nazaire.

Little Side Note: The cat is a possibly-made up story. Oscar (Or Oskar) served onboard Bismarck, hunting rats and mice, and enjoying pleasant times with the crew. When Bismarck took a one-way ticket to Davy Jones’ Locker, Oscar floated among the wreckage until she was picked up by a British ship, HMS Cossack. Cossack sank off the coast of Gibraltar on October 27 from a combination of a U-Boat attack and battle weather; Oscar floated to survival once more and took the HMS Legion to Gibraltar. From Gibraltar, Oscar joined the crew of Ark Royal. The Ark Royal was soon torpedoed as well, and the crew was forced to transfer to the HMS Lightning and HMS Legion. Oscar decided to stay in Gibraltar, eventually returning to Belfast, UK, by sea. He passed away in 1955.

By this point, you could be forgiven for thinking that the story was over. After all, Bismarck was gone. Wrong. France and Saint-Nazaire are still under the control of Germany, who can use the port to repair the remaining Bismarck-class, Tirpitz, along with any other battleships and heavy cruisers that Germany might be able to put out to sea.

The Plan

“Alright, let’s fuck some shit up” said the Royal Navy. 

The plan was to have the Royal Air Force conduct a few raids nearby in order to distract the German High Command, allowing a decommissioned destroyer to attack the canal gates. A squad of commandos would then disembark and destroy the rest of the dock. The British decided to use one of their own ships (as opposed to buying or stealing a ship) in order to keep the raid, codenamed “Operation Chariot”, a secret.

The British selected HMS Campbeltown, an old destroyer captained by one Stephen Beattie, and began stripping her down in order to make her light enough to enter the estuary near the dock. Then, she was disguised as a German destroyer and crammed with 4.5 tons of heavy explosives set in concrete.

Oh, right, the plan was for Campbeltown to fucking ram the dock and then explode. If she couldn’t reach the dock, then she would be intentionally sunk and blown up while the commandos landed nearby. A handful of motorboats and other destroyers would accompany Campbeltown, but wouldn’t participate in the aggressive demolition plan.

The Raid

On March 26, 1942, the convoy of ships met up off Saint-Nazaire, quietly kidnapping any civilian ship crews in order to make sure that the raid remained a secret. The next night, several British Whitley and Wellington bombers began circling above Saint-Nazaire before hitting every military installation in the immediate area.

“What’s that?” said the Germans, looking to the skies. “It’s gotta be a paratrooper landing!”

“Ooh, ships!” said a German submarine. “Better report this to the higher-ups.” Unfortunately, something got confused somewhere else, so the Germans still had no idea that they were about to get the ass-thrashing of a lifetime.

Half past midnight, on March 28, Campbeltown trudged through the marshy estuary, running aground a few times as she approached the dock. The Germans, not expecting a ship at this odd hour, turned on their signal lights and began firing at the British.

“Wait, guys, it’s us!” reported the Campbeltown, using passable German and enough vague wording to buy them time as they plowed through the sandbars and reeds at a speed of 19 knots. As the bombardment intensified, Campbeltown struck the gates to the canal and forced herself ashore by almost thirty-three feet.

While still under heavy fire, the commandos left the ship, taking heavy casualties, but planting explosives on a variety of installations in the dock. Lieutenant Colonel Augustus Newman and his team attacked the submarine pen and a few ships near the Loire River, before regrouping in town with the one-hundred remaining commandos. Here, he gave three orders:

“To do our best to get back to England;”

“Not to surrender until all our ammunition is exhausted;”

“Not to surrender at all if we can help it”

Out of options, and with no way to retreat or abandon the port, Newman and his team were surrounded and captured by the Germans. For the next five hours, the motorboats were ripped to shreds and the bombers were forced to withdraw from Saint-Nazaire.

On March 28, roughly forty German officers and civilians boarded the stranded HMS Campbeltown, touring their latest trophy of the war. At noon, Captain Beattie was being interrogated by the Germans at their command center.

“No funny business, okay?” said the German officer. “There better not be any traps on board that ship.”

“I swear that there are no traps on my ship.”

“What are you, insane? We’ll have this dock up and running within a few weeks. Your puny little ship and your poorly-trained men were no match for our German firepower.”

Just then, the 4.5 tons of explosive-laden concrete remembered that they existed, blowing the windows of the room in and throwing Beattie and his captor to the floor. Three-hundred and sixty men were killed by the explosion, which destroyed the dry dock and swept away just about every ship in the harbor.

“We’re not as foolish as we think!” Beattie smiled.

The Germans were taken by surprise, and in their confusion, accidentally opened fire on their own troops and French civilians.

The Aftermath

By the next day, 169 British commandos and sailors had been killed and 215 had been captured. 360 German soldiers and French civilians had also been killed as a result of the raid.

Saint-Nazaire’s naval installations wouldn’t be fully operational until 1948, six years after the raid and three years after the war had ended. Because of their bravery, audacity, gallantry, and outright insanity, the German Navy was left with only one place to refuel and seek repairs: Germany.

The following awards were given to participants in the raid:

4 Conspicuous Gallantry Medals

5 Distinguished Conduct Medals

17 Distinguished Service Crosses

11 Military Crosses

24 Distinguished Service Medals

15 Military Medals

5 Victoria Crosses

4 Distinguished Service Orders

4 Croix de guerre awards from France

51 Mentions in dispatch

169 honorable burials at La Baule-Escoublac cemetery

Despite the heavy casualties, the raid was a complete success. The Saint-Nazaire Raid was one of 38 engagements during the Second World War to have an award issued in its name. Today, Operation Chariot is taught as the “Greatest Raid of All Time”.

At Falmouth, where the raiders departed from, there is a rock with an inscription that reads:

“OPERATION CHARIOT FROM THIS HARBOUR 622 SAILORS AND COMMANDOS SET SAIL FOR THE SUCCESSFUL RAID ON ST. NAZAIRE 28th MARCH 1942  168 WERE KILLED 5 VICTORIA CROSSES WERE AWARDED ———— · ———— DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF THEIR COMRADES BY THE ST. NAZAIRE SOCIETY”

On October 7, 1987 a Type 22 frigate by the name of HMS Campbeltown was put out to sea. Onboard was a bell from the original Campbeltown, salvaged from the disintegrated remains left behind in Saint-Nazaire. When she was decommissioned in 2011, the bell was brought to Campbeltown, Pennsylvania, the ship’s namesake.

Today, Saint-Nazaire is a thriving port, whose claim to fame also includes being the builder of the MS Symphony of the Seas, the largest passenger ship in the world.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 11.1

365 – The Alemanni cross the Rhine and invade Gaul. Emperor Valentinian I moves to Paris to command the army and defend the Gallic cities. 996 – Emperor Otto III issues a deed to Gottschalk, Bishop of Freising, which is the oldest known document using the name Ostarrîchi (Austria in Old High German). 1009 – Berber forces led by Sulayman ibn al-Hakam defeat the Umayyad caliph Muhammad II of Córdoba in the battle of Alcolea. 1141 – Empress Matilda's reign as 'Lady of the English' ends with Stephen of Blois regaining the title of 'King of England'. 1179 – Philip II is crowned as 'King of France'. 1214 – The port city of Sinope surrenders to the Seljuq Turks. 1348 – The anti-royalist Union of Valencia attacks the Jews of Murviedro on the pretext that they are serfs of the King of Valencia and thus "royalists". 1503 – Pope Julius II is elected. 1512 – The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, is exhibited to the public for the first time. 1520 – The Strait of Magellan, the passage immediately south of mainland South America connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, is first discovered and navigated by European explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the first recorded circumnavigation voyage. 1555 – French Huguenots establish the France Antarctique colony in present-day Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 1570 – The All Saints' Flood devastates the Dutch coast. 1604 – William Shakespeare's tragedy Othello is performed for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London. 1611 – Shakespeare's play The Tempest is performed for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London. 1612 – During the Time of Troubles, Polish troops are expelled from Moscow's Kitay-gorod by Russian troops under the command of Dmitry Pozharsky (22 October O.S.). 1683 – The British Crown colony of New York is subdivided into 12 counties. 1688 – William III of Orange sets out a second time from Hellevoetsluis in the Netherlands to seize the crowns of England, Scotland and Ireland from King James II of England during the Glorious Revolution. 1755 – In Portugal, Lisbon is totally devastated by a massive earthquake and tsunami, killing between 60,000 and 90,000 people. 1765 – The British Parliament enacts the Stamp Act on the Thirteen Colonies in order to help pay for British military operations in North America. 1790 – Edmund Burke publishes Reflections on the Revolution in France, in which he predicts that the French Revolution will end in a disaster. 1800 – John Adams becomes the first President of the United States to live in the Executive Mansion (later renamed the White House). 1805 – Napoleon Bonaparte invades Austria during the War of the Third Coalition. 1814 – Congress of Vienna opens to re-draw the European political map after the defeat of France in the Napoleonic Wars. 1848 – In Boston, Massachusetts, the first medical school for women, Boston Female Medical School (which later merged with the Boston University School of Medicine), opens. 1861 – American Civil War: U.S. President Abraham Lincoln appoints George B. McClellan as the commander of the Union Army, replacing General Winfield Scott. 1870 – In the United States, the Weather Bureau (later renamed the National Weather Service) makes its first official meteorological forecast. 1893 – The Battle of Bembezi took place and was the most decisive battle won by the British in the First Matabele War of 1893. 1894 – Nicholas II becomes the new (and last) Tsar of Russia after his father, Alexander III, dies. 1894 – Buffalo Bill, 15 of his Indians, and Annie Oakley were filmed by Thomas Edison in his Black Maria Studio in West Orange, New Jersey. 1896 – A picture showing the bare breasts of a woman appears in National Geographic magazine for the first time. 1897 – The first Library of Congress building opens its doors to the public; the library had previously been housed in the Congressional Reading Room in the U.S. Capitol. 1911 – World's first combat aerial bombing mission takes place in Libya during the Italo-Turkish War. Second Lieutenant Giulio Gavotti of Italy drops several small bombs. 1914 – World War I: The first British Royal Navy defeat of the war with Germany, the Battle of Coronel, is fought off of the western coast of Chile, in the Pacific, with the loss of HMS Good Hope and HMS Monmouth. 1914 – World War I: The Australian Imperial Force (AIF) departed by ship in a single convoy from Albany, Western Australia bound for Egypt. 1916 – In Russia, Pavel Milyukov delivers in the State Duma the famous "stupidity or treason" speech, precipitating the downfall of the government of Boris Stürmer. 1918 – Malbone Street Wreck: The worst rapid transit accident in US history occurs under the intersection of Malbone Street and Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, New York City, with at least 102 deaths. 1918 – Western Ukraine separates from Austria-Hungary. 1922 – Abolition of the Ottoman sultanate: The last sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmed VI, abdicates. 1928 – The Law on the Adoption and Implementation of the Turkish Alphabet, replaces the Arabic alphabet with the Latin alphabet. 1937 – Stalinists execute Pastor Paul Hamberg and seven members of Azerbaijan's Lutheran community. 1938 – Seabiscuit defeats War Admiral in an upset victory during a match race deemed "the match of the century" in horse racing. 1941 – American photographer Ansel Adams takes a picture of a moonrise over the town of Hernandez, New Mexico that would become one of the most famous images in the history of photography. 1942 – World War II: Matanikau Offensive begins during the Guadalcanal Campaign and ends three days later with an American victory. 1943 – World War II: The 3rd Marine Division, United States Marines, landing on Bougainville in the Solomon Islands, secures a beachhead, leading that night to a naval clash at the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay. 1944 – World War II: Units of the British Army land at Walcheren. 1945 – The official North Korean newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, is first published under the name Chongro. 1948 – Athenagoras I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, is enthroned. 1950 – Puerto Rican nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo attempt to assassinate US President Harry S. Truman at Blair House. 1950 – Pope Pius XII claims papal infallibility when he formally defines the dogma of the Assumption of Mary. 1951 – Operation Buster–Jangle: Six thousand five hundred American soldiers are exposed to 'Desert Rock' atomic explosions for training purposes in Nevada. Participation is not voluntary. 1952 – Nuclear weapons testing: The United States successfully detonates Ivy Mike, the first thermonuclear device, at the Eniwetok atoll. The explosion had a yield of ten megatons TNT equivalent. 1954 – The Front de Libération Nationale fires the first shots of the Algerian War of Independence. 1955 – The establishment of a Military Assistance Advisory Group in South Vietnam marks the beginning of American involvement in the conflict. 1955 – The bombing of United Airlines Flight 629 occurs near Longmont, Colorado, killing all 39 passengers and five crew members aboard the Douglas DC-6B airliner. 1956 – The Indian states Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Mysore are formally created under the States Reorganisation Act; Kanyakumari district is joined to Tamil Nadu from Kerala. 1956 – Hungarian Revolution: Imre Nagy announces Hungary's neutrality and withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact. Soviet troops begin to re-enter Hungary, contrary to assurances by the Soviet government. János Kádár and Ferenc Münnich secretly defect to the Soviets. 1956 – The Springhill mining disaster in Springhill, Nova Scotia kills 39 miners; 88 are rescued. 1957 – The Mackinac Bridge, the world's longest suspension bridge between anchorages at the time, opens to traffic connecting Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas. 1963 – The Arecibo Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, with the largest radio telescope ever constructed, officially opens. 1963 – The 1963 South Vietnamese coup begins. 1968 – The Motion Picture Association of America's film rating system is officially introduced, originating with the ratings G, M, R, and X. 1970 – Club Cinq-Sept fire in Saint-Laurent-du-Pont, France kills 146 young people. 1973 – Watergate scandal: Leon Jaworski is appointed as the new Watergate Special Prosecutor. 1973 – The Indian state of Mysore is renamed as Karnataka to represent all the regions within Karunadu. 1979 – In Bolivia, Colonel Alberto Natusch executes a bloody coup d'état against the constitutional government of Wálter Guevara. 1979 – Griselda Álvarez becomes the first female governor of a state of Mexico. 1981 – Antigua and Barbuda gains independence from the United Kingdom. 1982 – Honda becomes the first Asian automobile company to produce cars in the United States with the opening of its factory in Marysville, Ohio; a Honda Accord is the first car produced there. 1984 – After the assassination of Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India on 31 October 1984, by two of her Sikh bodyguards, anti-Sikh riots erupt. 1987 – British Rail Class 43 (HST) hits the record speed of 238 km/h for rail vehicles with on-board fuel to generate electricity for traction motors. 1993 – The Maastricht Treaty takes effect, formally establishing the European Union. 2000 – Chhattisgarh officially becomes the 26th state of India, formed from sixteen districts of eastern Madhya Pradesh. 2000 – The Republic of Serbia and Montenegro joins the United Nations. 2012 – A fuel tank truck crashes and explodes in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh, killing 26 people and injuring 135.

[airmanisr]

Sikorsky MH-60S "Sea Hawk" by Robert Sullivan Via Flickr: ATLANTIC OCEAN (Aug. 10, 2019) A Sikorsky MH-60S "Sea Hawk" helicopter assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 26 undergoes preflight checks as an F/A-18C "Hornet" assigned Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23 lands on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) in the Atlantic Ocean, Aug. 10, 2019. The John C. Stennis is underway conducting routine operations in support of Commander, Naval Air Force Atlantic. MH-60S The Navy decided to replace its venerable CH-46 "Sea Knight" helicopters in 1997. After sea demonstrations by a converted UH-60, the Navy awarded a production contract to Sikorsky for the CH-60S in 1998. The variant first flew on 27 January 2000 and it began flight testing later that year. The CH-60S was redesignated MH-60S in February 2001 to reflect its planned multi-mission use. The MH-60S is based on the UH-60L and has many naval SH-60 features. Unlike all other Navy H-60s, the MH-60S is not based on the original S-70B/SH-60B platform with its forward-mounted twin tail-gear and single starboard sliding cabin door. Instead, the S-model is a hybrid, featuring the main fuselage of the S-70A/UH-60, with large sliding doors on both sides of the cabin and a single aft-mounted tail wheel; and the engines, drivetrain and rotors of the S-70B/SH-60. It also includes the integrated glass cockpit developed by Lockheed Martin for the MH-60R and shares some of the same avionics/weapons systems. It is deployed aboard aircraft carriers, amphibious assault ships, Maritime Sealift Command ships, and fast combat support ships. Its missions include vertical replenishment, medical evacuation, combat search and rescue, anti-surface warfare, maritime interdiction, close air support, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and special warfare support. The MH-60S is to deploy with the AQS-20A Mine Detection System and an Airborne Laser Mine Detection System (ALMDS) for identifying submerged objects in coastal waters. It is the first US Navy helicopter to field a glass cockpit, relaying flight information via four digital monitors. The primary means of defense has been with door-mounted machine guns such as the M60D, M240D, or GAU-17/A. A "batwing" Armed Helo Kit based on the Army's UH-60L was developed to accommodate Hellfire missiles, Hydra 70 2.75 inch rockets, or larger guns. The MH-60S can be equipped with a nose-mounted forward looking infrared (FLIR) turret to be used in conjunction with Hellfire missiles; it also carries the ALQ-144 Infrared Jammer. The MH-60S is unofficially known as the "Knighthawk", referring to the preceding "Sea Knight", though "Seahawk" is its official DoD name. A standard crew for the MH-60S is one pilot, one copilot and two tactical aircrewmen depending on mission. With the retirement of the "Sea Knight", the squadron designation of Helicopter Combat Support Squadron (HC) was also retired from the Navy. Operating MH-60S squadrons were re-designated Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC). The MH-60S was to be used for mine clearing from littoral combat ships, but testing found it lacks the power to safely tow the detection equipment. On 6 August 2014, the U.S. Navy forward deployed the Airborne Laser Mine Detection System (ALMDS) to the U.S. 5th Fleet. The ALMDS is a sensor system designed to detect, classify, and localize floating and near-surface moored mines in littoral zones, straits, and choke points. The system is operated from an MH-60S, which gives it a countermine role traditionally handled by the MH-53E "Sea Dragon", allowing smaller ships the MH-53E can't operate from to be used in the role. The ALMDS beams a laser into the water to pick up reflections from things it bounces off of, then uses that data to produce a video image for technicians on the ground to determine if the object is a mine. The MH-60S will utilize the BAE Systems Archerfish remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to seek out and destroy naval mines from the air. Selected as a concept in 2003 by the Navy as part of the Airborne Mine Neutralization System (AMNS) program and developed since 2007, the Archerfish is dropped into the water from its launch cradle, where its human operator remotely guides it down towards the mine using a fiber optics communications cable that leads back up to the helicopter. Using sonar and low-light video, it locates the mine, and is then instructed to shoot a shaped charge explosive to detonate it. BAE was awarded a contract to build and deliver the ROVs in April 2016, which will be delivered in September

[mccareer]

RDML(s) Kevin Brown is Next NMFL Commander

Here is the flag announcement, although I’m sure he will not be the Chief of the Medical Service Corps and that is a typo: Capt. Kevin J. Brown, selected for promotion to rear admiral (lower half), will be assigned as commander, Naval Medical Forces Atlantic, with additional duties as director, Tidewater Market/chief of Medical Service Corps, Portsmouth, Virginia. Brown is currently serving as…

[maxwellyjordan]

Tuesday round-up

In an op-ed for The New York Times, Alan Cross weighs in on the court’s 5-4 decision last week to allow Alabama to execute a Muslim inmate who had challenged Alabama’s refusal to permit an imam to be by his side when he died, noting that “[w]hat has gone largely unnoticed, but is in fact much more disturbing, is what Alabama did while the Ray case made its way through the courts: To further protect itself from Mr. Ray’s challenge, the state indicated it would end the practice of having a chaplain or spiritual adviser in the death chamber altogether.” At The Economist’s Democracy in America blog, Steven Mazie writes that “[a]side from acknowledging the religious discrimination of their previous policy, this move matched similarly fraught strategies of addressing racial discrimination claims during the civil-rights era.” At The Atlantic, Wajahat Ali wonders “[h]ow … these five justices [would] have responded if all the facts were the same but Ray were a Christian and the imam were a priest,” and he suggests that “[i]f the free-exercise clause allows you not to bake and sell a cake, maybe it should also allow you to have an imam at your own execution.”

Briefly:

Amy Howe reports for this blog, in a post first published at Howe on the Court, that yesterday the court released its April argument calendar, which “is perhaps most noteworthy for what it does not currently include: the challenge to the Trump administration’s decision to add a question about citizenship to the 2020 census.”

At Lawfare, Steve Vladeck urges the justices to review Larrabee v. United States, a cert petition on the list for Friday’s conference, and to “hold that retired service members are no longer part of the ‘land and naval forces’ for purposes of the Constitution—and thus can be tried only by civilian, rather than military, courts for offenses committed after leaving active duty.”

At E&E News, Ellen Gilmer reports that “[t]he Supreme Court is halfway through its current term, but the bulk of its environmental issues are still awaiting resolution.”

At Take Care, Leah Litman explains how Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s dissent from the Supreme Court’s order in June Medical Services v. Gee, which blocked a Louisiana law that would require abortion providers to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals from going into effect pending appeal, shows “how reproductive justice supporters were exactly right about Justice Kavanaugh in particular.”

At The World and Everything in It (podcast), Mary Reichard breaks down the oral arguments in reargued takings case Knick v. Township of Scott, Pennsylvania and in Rimini Street Inc. v. Oracle USA Inc., about the scope of the costs awarded to a prevailing party in a copyright case.

We rely on our readers to send us links for our round-up. If you have or know of a recent (published in the last two or three days) article, post, podcast, or op-ed relating to the Supreme Court that you’d like us to consider for inclusion in the round-up, please send it to roundup [at] scotusblog.com. Thank you!

The post Tuesday round-up appeared first on SCOTUSblog.

from Law https://www.scotusblog.com/2019/02/tuesday-round-up-465/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[wisepoliticalnews]

"Tugs and landing from the maize". How Ukraine surprised NATO

Rocket firing, amphibious assault landing, aviation flights and fleet interaction - about 5,000 troops from 30 countries are participating in the Sea Breeze 2021 joint exercises of Ukraine and NATO. Encouraged by the unprecedented activity of Western guests, local media and politicians do not skimp on bellicose statements and directly indicate against whom the maneuvers are directed.

Brussels and Washington attracted practically all members of the North Atlantic Alliance and even several non-aligned allies to the exercises. In Ukraine, they emphasize that Sea Breeze has not yet been carried out on such a scale. We have already formed detachments of ships, deployed command and control posts, and deployed aviation to dispersal airfields.

The allies train to attack surface and submarine targets of a simulated enemy, strike overland, and organize air defense. In addition, ships patrol Ukrainian territorial waters on a daily basis. However, after the incident with the British destroyer Defender, no one has yet dared to violate the Russian border.

Along with the traditional tactics on maneuvers, quite specific techniques are also practiced. Last weekend in the Black Sea began joint training of combat swimmers from six countries with the participation of more than 130 people. According to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, they are learning to raise sunken ships to the surface, search for and destroy sea mines, provide divers with medical assistance and use modern diving equipment. In addition, Western instructors shared their experience of underwater sabotage. Taking into account the repeated threats from Kiev to blow up the Crimean bridge, there is no doubt that the soldiers of the Naval Forces of Ukraine listened to their Western colleagues more than attentively.

On land, the participants in the maneuvers underwent, in particular, joint training in mine explosives. The Ukrainian marines familiarized the foreign guests with the weapons at the disposal of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, told about the structure and tactical and technical characteristics of products, techniques and methods of their combat use. The NATO sappers, in turn, demonstrated modern demining equipment and explained how to use them. After that, the servicemen worked out a tactical landing - landing from helicopters.

It must be said that even a cursory analysis of the composition of the united group reveals a clear discrepancy between the loud statements of officials about the scope of the Sea Breeze to reality. On paper, 32 ships look impressive - an inexperienced public might even get the impression that at least two aircraft carrier strike groups of the US Navy entered the Black Sea. However, 24 "pennants" are under Ukrainian flags. The Naval Forces of Ukraine brought into the sea literally everything that is still capable of at least somehow walking and has not completely rusted. For the most part, these are small boats, tugs and support vessels.

In addition, during the landing on Zmeiny Island, a serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was killed. This incident confirms the low level of organization of NATO exercises.