Posts tagged as:

Barack Obama

How can the Navy win a flyover…during a budget crisis?

by Craig Hooper on February 12, 2011

Over the next year, the Navy is gonna learn that a depression makes a bad time to party. Today, as the U.S. Navy prepares to kick-off the ceremony-laden, flyby bedecked Centennial of Naval Aviation with a massive flyby in San Diego, the nation’s “Austerity-First” budget-trimmers are sharpening their pencils, ready pillory the Navy for each [...]

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Did RAND force the “Green Fleet” out of the State of the Union Address?

by Craig Hooper on January 27, 2011

With all the excitement over the East Coast snowstorm, the President’s State of the Union and AFCEA’s WEST 2011, Navy-types may have missed an interesting bit of DC bureaucratic theater–RAND’s preemptive strike at the DOD’s aggressive adoption/promotion of renewable energy–in a report released early in the week. I strongly suspect the perfectly-timed media coverage of [...]

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LPD-17 and the rage of J. Michael Gilmore

by Craig Hooper on October 28, 2010

J. Michael Gilmore, the Defense Department’s director of Operational Test and Evaluation, has the most thankless job in the Pentagon. This guy, more than anybody else, knows where the bodies are buried on various platforms–and nobody listens to him. As a weapons tester and evaluator, he is hated by program managers, dismissed as a cantankerous, [...]

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In Press: Talking memorials in the Florida Times-Union

by Craig Hooper on October 17, 2010

In the crowded world of floating naval memorials, hope springs eternal. In Jacksonville, an effort by the Jacksonville Historic Naval Ship Association to save an elegant former destroyer, the Charles F. Adams (DDG 2), moved ahead, getting support from the Jacksonville City Council.  (The picture with the post is the ship as of 2002…a pity, [...]

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Meet the 23rd Secretary of Defense:

by Craig Hooper on August 17, 2010

Just a wild and unsupported guess, but you heard it here first…Should Gates leave office to run for the presidency or something, the next SECDEF will be Ray Mabus. Seriously, If SECNAV Mabus were a stock, I’d buy, buy, buy… (And as an extra bonus, here’s a neat picture of the next SECDEF chatting with [...]

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Violent anti-government extremism comes home:

by Craig Hooper on July 21, 2010

From time to time I take a break from maritime affairs to focus on the the potential toll the “winking-at-anti-government-violence” rhetoric that is, for some milkook blogs, their stock-and-trade. Why do I scorn milblog armchair revolutionaries?  Because I think the “community” they foster encourages their desperate and dumb members to turn to violence. Milblogs should [...]

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In Press: Proceedings article explaining the Olympia (C-6) debacle

by Craig Hooper on July 16, 2010

In America’s constellation of troubled maritime memorials, none are more threatened than the Protected Cruiser Olympia (C-6).  This humble ship is, in itself, an American treasure of unmatched historical, technical and symbolic value (In response to Robert Farley’s twitter yesterday, I’d trade an Iowa Class Battleship for the Olympia–in a heartbeat!). Everybody is eager to [...]

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In Press: Quoted In the Des Moines Register on ex-USS IOWA (BB-61)

by Craig Hooper on July 14, 2010

Last week I had a great chat with Des Moines Register columnist Marc Hansen about the ex-USS Iowa (BB-61).  In the resulting July 10 article in the Des Moines Register, I was somewhat blunt about the poor performance of the nonprofit Historic Ships Memorial at Pacific Square, the organization currently designated as the future recipient [...]

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In Press: Quoted In the Financial Times

by Craig Hooper on April 5, 2010

I recently had the pleasure of  talking to a Financial Times reporter about Iran’s appetite for small boats. The story, dealing with the saga of the “Bradstone Challenger“, a Bladerunner 51 speedboat, just hit the press today (and it got some love from Drudge (bottom middle column), so…good times). (.pdf here) I noted Iran’s interest [...]

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