Navy Facts | Navy Recruitment

US Navy SEALs and the amazing Work

: Image via Wikipedia

US Navy SEALs stands for United States Navy Sea Air and Land teams. It is a special operations forces unit of the US navy and part of Naval Special Warfare Command (NSWC) , commissioned in 1987 at Naval Amphibious Base, San Diego CA
During the course of second world war, for successful beach landings there was a need of advance reconnaissance for obstacles and defenses so that the landing forces can be guided safely, led to the training of Explosive ordinance Disposal (EOD) personnel and Combat swimmers from both the Army and Marine Corps at the Amphibious Scout and Raider School, Florida to form Naval Combat Demolition Unit.
By 1943, 9 Under Water Demolition Teams were formed who were to lookout and clear obstacles to make way for safer beach landing of troops. By March 1961, the need of guerrilla and counter guerrilla forces was recognized and the Under Water Demolition Teams were trained to be able to operate from Air, Land and Sea thereby forming SEALs. The first 2 teams were trained in various unconventional areas of combat and warfare which included Close quarters combat, High Altitude parachuting demolition, SBI training etc to make them effective fighting material.
Naval Special Warfare Groups (NSWG) I & III based in San Diego and NSWG II & IV in Norfolk are the major operational components of NSWC. The NSWG consists of SEAL teams of SEAL delivery vehicle teams, high tech equipment’s and Special Boat teams, and is responsible for their deployment in any part of the world when required. NSWC boasts of having around 5400 personnel in active duty including 2450 SEALs, and 600 SWCC. Also handles a reserve of 1200 personnel and NSW deployable anywhere on the globe. Their main mission areas are Direct action, counter terrorism & Counter drug ops, Special and Hydrographic Recon security assistance, rescue operations and foreign internal defense.

Filed Under: Navy, Navy Facts Tagged With: Naval Special Warfare Command, San Diego, Special forces, Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen, United States, United States Naval Special Warfare Command, United States Navy, United States Navy SEALs

Submarines Are The master of stealth weapons

: Image via Wikipedia

Anti-Submarine warfare (ASW) is one of the branches in the naval warfare which emerged during the First World War. It involves using various weapons, aircrafts, warships, sensors and submarines to seek track and destroy the enemy submarines. ASW involves effective usage of sonar for detecting, classifying, tracking the enemy submarine and then destroying them using anti-submarine mines or torpedoes launched from surface ships, aircrafts or other underwater platforms in order to destroy it. ASW also involves protecting the friendly ships from submersed threats by guiding them.
During the World War I submarines were a big threat to the ships. The kind of ASW tactics used during those times was primitive. It just involved using small boats mounted with guns, used to hunt the submarines when they were on surface. The submarines of those times had to surface at regular intervals to charge their batteries and tin order to cross long distances. As time passed, by the advent of the new diesel engine and nuclear powered submarines, the ASW techniques became more and more sophisticated. The newer submarines can stay submersed for a longer period of time and the can also be stealth at the same time.
During the World War I period anti submarine nets were used at the harbors and chain link nets were suspended around the warships for protection from the torpedoes. Mines and depth charges were used to counter attack. And during the Second World War, aircrafts were used to attack submarines, long range patrol aircrafts were used for detection, escort carriers and destroyers were used for search and destroy patrols, later on active and passive sono-buoys deployed from aircrafts for detection and tracking.
Modern warships use torpedo carrying helicopters and homing torpedo launchers are used for ASW Specialized search vessels called Tuna boats are used to search and track submarines, Magnetic anomaly detectors and FLIR detection are also used for detection.

Filed Under: Navy, Navy Facts Tagged With: Aircraft, Anti Submarine Warfare, HMS Astute, Nuclear submarine, Skye, Submarine, World War I, World War II

Online Education Degrees for Navy Men and Women

: Image by mcwetboy via Flickr

Online colleges have really revolutionized the way people can get an education in America. Working toward an online education degree is something that almost anyone is capable of doing, regardless of whether or not the person has a family to take care of, a job to go to every day, or a heavy workload. Online colleges are an excellent opportunity for anyone looking to further education and for those currently serving in the Navy. For many people, an online education degree may be a perfect fit.

For service men and women, online educations are great because most programs accept military tuition. Some will even include a laptop for your learning options. Programs are self-paced, and most are 100 percent online. That means you never have to worry about working around someone else’s schedule. You can work toward your bachelor’s, associate’s, or master’s degree in subjects like real estate, business, medical, and green technologies. Many online programs also have textbook grants and military spouse training scholarships for active service men and women.

A great benefit of online education degrees for those in the Navy is that they can earn their degrees while they are currently serving, whether they’re aboard a ship or serving abroad. You can work toward your degree in only one to two hours daily, sometimes for as little as three days a week. This offers the flexibility that single parents and those who are deployed need.

Even though you will still follow similar formats to regular, traditional college with professors, textbooks, homework, and exams, you will use online message boards, e-mails, and online chats to do your work at your own pace on your own time. It’s a perfect fit for military men and women looking to enhance their education.

Filed Under: Navy, Navy Facts Tagged With: Distance education, E-learning, Education

Tipping the Scale with Pride

: Image by Getty Images via @daylife

USSR, China, and the United States all tried in vain to stand with equal force on the heads of Burma, Malaya, Indonesia and Vietnam, to name a few. That is a heavy load for such tiny countries to be carrying. So why all the sword rattling over such a small part of the planet?

It is possible that wealth had something to do with it. These areas of the world do offer a great deal. Production of rubber and rice? That seems a little overboard with the invention of synthetics and the fact that rice is grown in the US as well. Food, is a big factor, so for now, let’s not erase that as a possibility for domination by outer forces.

Another possibility is perceived ethics. On one hand, the U.S. seems to think that its own brand of democracy is the only possible way to save the world from total collapse, not seeing that the sheep’s skin of democracy is a paltry cover for its capitalistic religious fervor. The U.S. is not innocent. The irony is, of course, the fact that Communism, which began as a welfare system for all, turned into a dictatorship creating different results from Capitalism but the end score was the same. Disaster.

Is it possible that the only reason that Indochina, et al, has been so important to these three superpowers, one now being Russia, is pride? Could it be that simple? If you look closely at the U.S. presidents, little is hidden in their personalities and their policies. Pride was indeed a determining factor in most decisions made in that office, along with a desperate desire to win the next election . . .pride again?

What is the point of this? For the sake of a better economy, welfare of all, balanced military designed to serve and protect and a government for the people and by the people, it might serve all of us to look at our motives next time we decide to help someone see our viewpoint. Rulers are not the only ones with arsenals. They just have different weapons.

Filed Under: Military, Military Photography, Navy, Navy Facts, Recruitment Tagged With: Burma, Capitalism, China, Indochina, Indonesia, Russia, United States, Vietnam

Giving Instead of Taking

: Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Tiny tears in time eventually repeat themselves if not tended to. Often the rhetoric of savior kings becomes the rhetoric of political activists which then becomes the rhetoric of kings again, or politicians running for office under the guise of activist. The circle completes itself, all emotions charged and brains turned completely off.

Those tiny tears are a minute rips in time and if you compare the tears to cloth, the weft and weave is humanity trying to hold itself together while hanging on to fraying pieces that keep pulling away from what ends up being nothing but a pile of mislaid thread. Entropy one, balance zero.

In an effort to support what is already falling apart, taxes are raised, military might is increased and the old bags of rhetoric are opened up one more time. Eventually the rhetoric lands on numb ears and everyone refuses to play the game. Chaos theorists have had fun looking at this for years, finding patterns inside of patterns. John Nash must love this stuff!

In the interest of balance, look at this numbing fact: in 2009, the world spent 1.531 trillion on military, with the U.S. footing 46.5% of that total.

The next step is for you to do your research on the soaring cost of food worldwide, the shortages causing food riots, the indexes of food stores dropping, the affect bio-fuels have on the production of food, the total effect this has on humanity and the unrest that will continue to skyrocket due to this problem. Once you have done that, come back and look at the military expenditures. That’s all. Just look and let it sink in. Don’t define the problem. Don’t lay blame. In all likelihood the blame spreads very far anyway and blame does not alleviate the problem. It only strengthens it.

With that done, remember how the U.S. military has been used in the past decade to help people during disasters. No shots fired. Simply hundreds of thousands of well trained men and women pouring their hearts out to help. Just think it through, that’s all.

Filed Under: Military, Military Photography, Navy, Navy Facts, Recruitment Tagged With: Academic Departments, Biofuel, Communication, Directories, John Nash, Rhetoric, Social Sciences, United States armed forces

MR2: A True Story . . .Well, Maybe

In 1983 a Navy Machinist ranked MR2 was on leave in Japan. The rank MR2 means Machinery Repairman Second Class. He did as most Navy men do on leave, hitting the town, looking for fun. He ended up in a dance hall with his buddies watching the locals dance and to their wonder, men danced with men and women danced with women. It perplexed him. After a couple beers and some long conversations with his mates, he mustered the bravery to dance with one of the young women. When he approached one of the young ladies with the offer to dance, her face turned a couple shades of red but not due to embarrassment. She was flattered.

The two danced the night away. He would tell you it was a night to remember as the tiny woman who spoke little English became enthralled with the moment, sharing an evening dancing in the arms of a true gentleman. They exchanged as much information as they could in the loud surroundings. She found out his rank and the ship he was on. The night ended and the machinist wandered back to his ship for the night with a great story to tell. But the story had not yet ended.

The next morning he was brought to dockside, having been requested to do so by a young Japanese woman with a bouquet of twenty-four roses. It was of course the young woman from the night before. Upon opening the note, he got her name for the first time. The last name was Toyota.

A year later, the Toyota MR2 was produced. According to Toyota MR2 stands for mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive, two-seater. The machinist now works as an aerospace inspector. The story still goes around the shop causing grins on fellow machinists’ faces. No one knows if the story is true. The retired Navy man swears to his honesty and even blushes when he tells the story. True or not, it makes for great legend!

Filed Under: Navy, Navy Facts, Service Tagged With: Automobile layout, Dance, Japan, Toyota, Toyota MR2

One Footlocker, One Porthole

: Image via Wikipedia

When Earl hit his eighteenth birthday he joined the Navy during WWII. To be on the safe side, he entered as a medic, not knowing that medics in the Navy filled both Navy and Marine positions. He stood in line, listening to someone going down the line saying: -Marine, marine, marine. . . when Earl was reached, the words hit his ears: “Navy. . . it was the first of many blessings to come.

Earl was on the second largest troop transport in the fleet a converted ocean liner. It was also fast, allowing it to steam on its own without being a sitting duck in convoys. Earl’s quarters were a private stateroom”an amazing luxury. One bed. One footlocker. One porthole.

Earl worked primarily with the men who were suffering from shell shock, although he often dealt with men whose bodies came aboard with missing parts. These events left endless silent scars inside. He bled as much as the injured.

The ship traveled three oceans. Bombay was always pleasant with families waiting ashore to take the men home to dinner, treating them like family and of course introducing them to their daughters in hopes for better lives with the young American boys.

One trip to New York found the ship full of German prisoners who were so shocked that the Statue of Liberty was still standing that they rushed to one side to stare. The ship listed. They had to be forced evenly across the deck, port and starboard. German propaganda convinced them that New York was leveled.

Earl’s stories were mostly fun with occasional drifts into the horrors of the medical unit. He didn’t talk much about those events. WWII broke him in many ways. He hid deep pain for the rest of his life. But he found enough strength to keep giving as a minister until he died in his mid eighties”broken medic to broken minister but tough enough to persevere. No one ever knew his deepest feelings. They were locked forever in a footlocker with one porthole open to God.

Filed Under: Navy, Navy Facts Tagged With: Navy, Ocean liner, Statue of Liberty, United States, World War II

The Weird Legend of Wes

: Image via Wikipedia

The son of a minister in Northern Idaho, Wes was an average student but smart as a whip. He was the fastest sprinter in the high school but never turned out for the track team. He was desired by some of the most beautiful girls in school. He dated most and the relationships failed miserably. Wes was married to beer, tequila, whisky, gin, and cheap wine.

By his high school senior year, Wes had totaled seven cars and two motorcycles. Totaled, not wrecked”as in junk yard refuse. In the final accident, Wes flipped a 1971 pearl paint job Javelin end for end for a quarter of a mile down the highway. He arrived to the hospital DOA . . . except for a twitching little finger on his right hand. He later told his friends that it was an LSD flashback. Oh, yes, it wasn’t just alcohol.

Wes tried college for one year in 1973 but could not take the pressure of being told what to do. A few months later he joined the Navy. Yes, everyone went: Huh!?

The folks in the U.S. Navy must have been pretty savvy about Wes, or maybe it was just pure dumb luck. His duty? Helmsman. Try to imagine the conversations in the bars at Wes’ hometown. Try to understand the enormity of this irony. You can’t, right? Don’t bother trying. It was the kind of event that was so ridiculous that you would never see it in a movie. It was way too unbelievable.

Wes remained in the Navy for one hitch which, from what little was known, went without incident. It was likely the most stable time in Wes’ life.

In 2010, Wes is near crippled. The condition of his body is not from the Navy who seemingly tried their best to make him face his demons and correct his life’s course. The crippled body was due to the nine totaled vehicles. Age shows the after effects later in life. One of Wes’ friends used to say: -Live fast, die young, and have a good looking corpse. Wes tried and failed.

Filed Under: Navy, Navy Facts Tagged With: High school, Navy, United States Navy, US Navy

What You Need to Know to Join the Navy

: Image via Wikipedia

Deciding to enlist in the military is a big decision that will affect your life forever. If you have thought about joining the military and feel like the Navy would be a good fit for you, knowing the qualifications and requirements will help you prepare:

Basic Qualifications
To join the Navy, you must be at least 18 years old and no older than 34. 17-year-olds are permitted to enlist, but they must have signed permission from their parents. If you want to be an officer in the Navy, you must be between the ages of 19 and 35 and have a Bachelor’s degree. You also must be a US citizen or a permanent immigrant with a green card.

Physical Requirements
Those who want to join the Navy must fall within a certain body fat percentage for their height. The Navy has charts that help you determine if your weight puts you in the acceptable category. You will also need to pass a medical test to ensure you don’t have any illnesses or issues that would put you or your fellow soldiers in danger, as well as a physical fitness test that involves running, push-ups, and other basic exercises.

Educational Requirements
The Navy requires you at least have a GED or high school diploma to graduate. Anyone wanting to join any branch of the military must also pass the ASVAB (Armed Forces Vocational Aptitude Battery), which is an entrance test. It includes nine categories, including science, math, mechanical comprehension, and paragraph comprehension. There are many ASVAB study guides and practice tests that will help you prepare.

While a recruiter is the best person to talk with to find out specific requirements for joining the Navy, these are the basics you must know. Joining the Navy is physically and mentally demanding, and these qualifications help make sure the Navy is a good fit for you.

Filed Under: Navy, Navy Facts Tagged With: Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, Navy, United States Navy

Reasons to Buy Certified Silver Investments

Buying silver is one of the oldest and best investments available for you to put your money into. You can get started for a relatively low amount of money and, therefore, it is an investment opportunity that is to just about accessible to everyone.

When you are looking into investing in silver, there are many reasons why you should consider only buying certified silver investments, such as certified silver coins. Of course, some reasons are pretty obvious and some reasons are more important than others, while some might even prove to surprise you.

The biggest reason behind why to buy certified coins is so that you avoid making a bad investment by buying a problem silver coin and end up losing some or all of the initial money you invested. A lot of the uncertified silver coins out there can’t be slabbed because the problems they have aren’t acceptable to PCGS (Professional Coin Grading Service) or NGC (Newmismatic Guaranty Corporation). Therefore, those coins basically lose their market value because they don’t match up to other certified silver coins. Problems with the silver coins can be anything from being scratched, dented, doctored, cleaned, re-proofed, holed, corroded, whizzed, punctured, porous, re-plated, altered, excessively worn, painted, or gold plated.

When you are making an investment in silver coins you want to make sure that the coins you are buying are real. Many people have bought silver coins thinking they are real; however, when they get them graded, they regretfully find out they are fake. And usually by that time, the person they bought it from is long gone. Unfortunately, it happens all the time. But you can be smart and safe guard yourself and not let it happen to you by deciding from the start to only purchase certified silver coins for your certified silver investment opportunities. So, make sure to do your research and only buy certified!

Filed Under: Navy Facts Tagged With: Business, Econimy, Navy Facts, Silver Investments, Stock market