Category Archives: U.S. Coast Guard

Pentagon Faces its own Debt Ceiling Crisis

Pentagon Faces its own Debt Ceiling Crisis

Pentagon comptroller Robert Hale

Pentagon comptroller Robert Hale

If the debt ceiling is not raised there would be delays in paying salaries even to the military and recalled Pentagon employees, as well as meeting obligations to contractors—from shipyards to health care providers, the Pentagon comptroller warned Thursday.

Although the hearing of the House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee had been called primarily to learn why the Department of Defense (DoD) did not recall all its workers, Robert Hale said the debt ceiling problem “is a very different kind of situation” from the one faced during the shutdown. Read More

Pentagon's Ashton Carter to Step Down in December

Pentagon’s Ashton Carter to Step Down in December

Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter briefs the press at the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., on Sept. 25, 2013. DoD Photo

Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter briefs the press at the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., on Sept. 25, 2013. DoD Photo

Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter will step down from his position in December, according to a Thursday afternoon release from the Pentagon.

“Earlier today, I met with Ash Carter and reluctantly accepted his decision to step down as Deputy Secretary of Defense on Dec. 4, after more than four and a half years of continuous service to the Department of Defense,” said Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel in a statement sent to Pentagon reporters. Read More

Proceedings: Naval Institute at 140

Proceedings: Naval Institute at 140

U.S. Naval Institute contributors clockwise from top right: W.S. Sims, William F. Halsey, Hyman Rickover, Ernest J. King and Alfred Thayer Mahan. Illustration by Tom W. Freeman

U.S. Naval Institute contributors clockwise from top right: W.S. Sims, William F. Halsey, Hyman Rickover, Ernest J. King and Alfred Thayer Mahan. Illustration by Tom W. Freeman

Sometimes in the throes of the monthly and bimonthly Proceedings and Naval History deadlines we lose sight of just how much bigger the U.S. Naval Institute is than any or all of us. And the 15 founding members who convened on the evening of 9 October 1873 by the light of oil lamps in the U.S. Naval Academy’s Department of Physics and Chemistry building probably had no idea that the organization would ever be as influential and relevant as it is today. Read More

Government Shutdown: The Basics

Government Shutdown: The Basics

A Senate panel has rejected a Pentagon request to open a new round of base closures.

A Senate panel has rejected a Pentagon request to open a new round of base closures.

With the House voting again to delay for a year the start of the Affordable Care Act and repealing a tax on medical devices that helps pay for the measure, a partial shutdown of the federal government this week appears nearer. The Senate is expected to take up and reject the bill when it convenes today, likely in the middle of the afternoon. Read More

Opinion: 'Never Forget'

Opinion: ‘Never Forget’

The following story originally appeared in Proceedings, September 2011.

A decade later, a former naval officer recalls the day he was working in the Pentagon when his life—and those of all Americans—changed forever.

The terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 were the defining moments for our generation, a shockwave start to a turbulent decade. How best to mark that fateful day, and the ten years since?

Simple. Never forget. Read More

Huntington Ingalls to Close Gulfport Composite Facility

Huntington Ingalls to Close Gulfport Composite Facility

The deckhouse for the future USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) sits on a barge at Norfolk Naval Station in 2012. US Navy Photo

The deckhouse for the future USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) sits on a barge at Norfolk Naval Station in 2012. US Navy Photo

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) will shutter its composite manufacturing facility in Gulfport, Miss. following a decision by the U.S. Navy to switch from composites to steel in the construction of the deckhouse for the last of three Zumwalt-class guided missile destroyers (DDG-1000), HII announced Wednesday. Read More

Navy Divers Recover Downed F-16 Wreckage

Navy Divers Recover Downed F-16 Wreckage

Divers, assigned to Mobile Diving Salvage Unit 2, Company 2-4, wait on the diving stage to be lowered into the water during air surface supplied diving operations off the coast of Virginia on Aug. 16, 2013. US Navy Photo

Divers, assigned to Mobile Diving Salvage Unit 2, Company 2-4, wait on the diving stage to be lowered into the water during air surface supplied diving operations off the coast of Virginia on Aug. 16, 2013. US Navy Photo

Navy salvage divers have recovered the flight data recorder and pieces of an Air Guard F-16C that crashed Aug. 1 after a mid-air collision, according to a Tuesday release from the service.

Divers from Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit (MDSU) 2 aboard the USNS Grasp (T-ARS-51) recovered the debris after almost a weeklong search from under 107 feet of water. Diving operations were completed on Monday, according to the statement. Read More

HII Launches Fourth National Security Cutter

HII Launches Fourth National Security Cutter

Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton, the fourth Legend-class National Security Cutter, was launched Aug. 10, 2013, at Ingalls Shipyard, Pascagoula, Miss. Huntington Ingalls Inc. Photo

Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton, the fourth Legend-class National Security Cutter, was launched Aug. 10, 2013, at Ingalls Shipyard, Pascagoula, Miss. Huntington Ingalls Inc. Photo

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) launched the Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton (WMSL-753), the fourth in a class of eight planned Legend-class National Security Cutters for the U.S. Coast Guard, the service announced on Wednesday. Read More