Yearly Archives: 2019

Navy Launches New Electronic Enlisted Advancement Worksheets

Navy Launches New Electronic Enlisted Advancement Worksheets

Sailors aboard the U.S. 7th Fleet flagship USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19), in Yokosuka, Japan, participate in the Navy-wide E-6 advancement examination in September 2018. U.S. Navy photo

Roughly a third of active duty sailors will be part of a pilot program testing the Navy’s new system intended to cut down on paperwork and errors associated with the Enlisted Advancement Worksheets (EAW). Read More

Marines Flex Expeditionary Construction Skills by Rebuilding the 'Airport in the Sky'

Marines Flex Expeditionary Construction Skills by Rebuilding the ‘Airport in the Sky’

Catalina Runway 4/22, with the runway mostly cleared of the old asphalt. The existing taxiway (right) will be used as the temporary runway for limited flights until mid-April, when the new concrete runway built by Marines is expected to receive its first flight. Runway Photo by Glen Gustafson, courtesy of the Catalina Island Conservancy

This post has been updated to clarify comments from Cynthia Fogg on the role of the Navy’s Seabees in the process of rebuilding the runway.

Marines will deploy soon for a unique expeditionary mission: Three months on rugged Santa Catalina Island, off California’s coast, building a concrete runway at a small, cliff-top airport. Read More

Ensign Keeps New Year's Day Rhyming Deck Log Tradition Alive

Ensign Keeps New Year’s Day Rhyming Deck Log Tradition Alive

EAST CHINA SEA (Dec. 31, 2018) Ens. Lauren Larar writes the New Years deck log entry while underway in the East China Sea aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS McCampbell (DDG 85). U.S. Navy photo.

According to almost a century of Navy tradition, the year’s first deck log entry on a U.S. warship must be written in rhyme. The tradition is a tricky one since the entry must still include all the required information about a ship’s location, propulsion and operations. Read More

Navy Could Award 2-Carrier Contract by End of January, With Expected $4B in Savings

Navy Could Award 2-Carrier Contract by End of January, With Expected $4B in Savings

A 2013 artist’s concept of the future carrier Enterprise (CVN-80). DoD Image

This post has been updated to include a statement from Huntington Ingalls Industries.

The clock is now counting down for the Navy to award Newport News Shipbuilding a two-aircraft carrier contract, after the Pentagon formally notified Congress on Dec. 31 that it wanted to pursue the first dual-carrier contract since the late 1980s. Read More

Rep. Courtney: Looming Costs Will Force Decision on How to Pay for SSBNs

Rep. Courtney: Looming Costs Will Force Decision on How to Pay for SSBNs

A sailor explains the layout and functionality of Ford’s flight deck to Rep. Joe Courtney in 2016. US Navy Photo

How to pay for the upcoming Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarine “will have a life of its own” this spring and may force the Navy and Pentagon to embrace a dedicated funding account they have so far only partially leveraged, a key congressman on the House Armed Services Committee predicted. Read More