The canceled Distinguished Warfare Medal annouced in February at the Pentagon. DoD Photo
The Pentagon is cancelling a controversial medal designed to recognize contributions of unmanned aerial vehicle pilots and cyber troops, according to a Monday memorandum signed by Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel obtained by USNI News. Read More
Rear Adm. Charles M. Gaouette receives honors from side boys during a change of command ceremony for Commander, Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 3 on April 5, 2012. US Navy Photo
Rear Adm. Charles M. Gauoette was relieved of command of Stennis Carrier Strike Group in October, following an incident where Gauoette admonished USS John C. Stennis CO Capt. Ronald Reis for ship handling during a transit through the Strait of Malacca, according to reports from The New York Times and Navy Times. Read More
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel at National Defense University in Washington, D.C., on April 3, 2013.
The Pentagon has issued a budget that hopes to sidestep mandatory sequestration cuts as part of a larger Obama administration spending reduction strategy.
The $526.6 billion budget, announced Wednesday at a press briefing at the Pentagon, is part of the larger budget proposal across government that would save $1.8 trillion over ten years. Read More
Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. James Amos addresses the Sailors and Marines assigned to the newly commissioned amphibious transport dock ship USS Arlington (LPD-24) on April, 6 2013. US Navy Photo
“We are not sure how that is going to play out,” the commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps said about events in Afghanistan and Pakistan as the United States and NATO complete their withdrawal from combat operations in 2014 as he launched into an around the globe assessment of threats from North Korea’s “no sense of stability” to pirates in the Gulf of Aden and the Straits of Malacca facing the nation now. Read More
Chief of Naval Personnel Vice Adm. Scott Van Buskirk at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Fla. US Navy Photo
The Navy’s personnel chief says the service has been making steady progress in reducing the 10,000 skill-set gaps between sea and shore billets by incentivizing people “to return to sea” and increasing the recruiting mission in undermanned ratings.
Vice Adm. Scott Van Buskirk, speaking on 9 April at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space Exposition 2013 at National Harbor, Md., said 7,000 gaps at sea remain and asked the Fleet “to be patient” as the recruits move through the schoolhouse. “We still have to do some cross-decking” to keep the appropriately rated sailors on board ships. Read More
Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert addresses a Sailor’s question during an all hands call hosted at Naval Air Station North Island on Jan. 31, 2013.
Adm. Jonathan Greenert, Chief of Naval Operations, is pushing for the Navy to pay more attention to threats in the Electromagnetic (EM) spectrum. Read More
Adm. Jonathan Greenert gives an April, 1 2013 video message to the fleet. US Navy Photo
The Fiscal Year 2013 defense bill, signed into law last week, will halve the $ 9 billion in budget cuts the Navy it feared it would have to absorb, said Adm. Jonathan Greenert in a message to the Navy released on Monday. Read More
Sailors’ vehicles are parked on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) on March, 13 2013. US Navy Photo
When in doubt about grave questions, reach for the classics. What would the likes of Alfred Thayer Mahan or Julian Corbett say about the fate of the big-deck aircraft carrier or nuclear carrier (CVN)? I suspect their ghosts would voice skepticism. Read More
From the March Congressional Budget Office report on Pentagon spending cuts: In 2013, the Department of Defense (DoD) faces an 11 percent reduction (after adjusting for inflation) in its base budget from the amount it received in 2012. (The base budget funds the department’s normal activi- ties but excludes overseas military operations like those in Afghanistan.) Under current law, the department’s bud- gets will increase by a cumulative total of 2 percent more than inflation between 2013 and 2021, still well below its funding in 2012 in real (inflation-adjusted) terms. Those limits are mandated by the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA), which capped annual funding for defense and nondefense agencies during that period. Read More
Undated photo of Sgt. Eusebio Lopez. USMC Photo
The Marine Corps has identified the three Marines killed in an apparent double murder-suicide on Thursday at the Officer Candidate School at Quantico Marine Corps Base, according to a Sunday report. Read More