Tag: usn

Shocker! Embracing Drag Queens Didn’t Fix The Navy’s Recruiting Crisis

It turns out that propping up and embracing enlisted drag queens isn’t the answer to the U.S. Navy’s recruiting crisis after all.

On Tuesday, Navy Recruiting Command revealed that the branch had failed to meet its recruiting goals for the 2023 fiscal year. According to the Navy Times, the branch brought in “30,236 new active duty sailors in fiscal 2023, falling short of the 37,700 target number accessions for the year.” The Navy also missed its targets for new active-duty officers and reserve officers by 452 and 773 enlistees, respectively.

During her Senate confirmation hearing last month, Acting Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti projected that the Navy would miss its FY23 recruiting targets by 7,000 sailors. According to Franchetti, that estimation is better than one given by the Navy at the beginning of FY23, which predicted a 13,000 shortfall in new recruits.

To combat the ongoing crisis, the Navy increased its maximum enlistment age from 39 to 41 in November “in an effort to allow more civilians to join its ranks.” Nearly a month later, it lowered its entrance test standards. And in June, the branch announced further plans to extend the work week for its recruiters from five days to six to address existing shortfalls but backed away from the policy after facing backlash from sailors.

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Navy sailor vanishes in San Diego, prompting investigation: ‘Very uncharacteristic’

A US Navy sailor failed to return to his ship in San Diego as his family and lieutenant claim it’s “very uncharacteristic” for him not to report back to duty.

Nija Townsend Jr., 20, was reported missing on Monday when he didn’t report for work on his ship, the USS Germantown, following his weekend leave, the sailor’s mother, Courtney Frazier, told NBC 7.

“The health and welfare of our Sailors is a top priority and we will continue to work with local authorities to help locate this service member,” Cdr. Arlo Abrahamson, Public Affairs Officer for Naval Surface Force, US Pacific Fleet, told the outlet.

The Lake Jackson, Texas native was last seen by ship personnel at around 1 p.m. on Saturday, Navy officials tell the outlet — saying they are now working closely with the San Diego Police Department and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) to locate the vanished seaman.

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SEALs, Other Navy Special Warfare Troops To Be Randomly Tested For Performance Enhancing Drugs

The Naval Special Warfare (NSW) Command will begin randomly testing its personnel for performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), following allegations that such drugs are in widespread use among the Navy’s special warfare community.

Rear Adm. Keith Davids, the commander of NSW, announced the command will introduce incremental, random force-wide urinalysis testing starting in November.

“My intent is to ensure every NSW teammate operates at their innate best while preserving the distinguished standards of excellence that define NSW,” Rear Adm. Davids said in a Friday press statement.

NSW is most known for its Navy SEAL teams but the command is also responsible for training and deploying Special Warfare Combatant Crewmen and Explosive Ordnance Disposal technicians.

Illicit substances have been a persistent concern throughout the military, even in the special operations community. Some leaders have balked at testing regimens for performance-enhancing drugs because they are often highly specialized and costly and require contracting through a limited number of labs that do such work. The military services have done occasional tests when they perceive a problem with an individual service member, but they must get special permission from the Pentagon to do routine, random testing.

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The Inside Story of How the Navy Spent Billions on the “Little Crappy Ship”

It took investigators months to unravel the mystery of the engine’s breakdown. But this much was clear at the outset: The Freedom’s collapse was another unmistakable sign that the Navy had spent billions of dollars and more than a decade on warships with rampant and crippling flaws.

The ongoing problems with the LCS have been well documented for years, in news articles, government reports and congressional hearings. Each ship ultimately cost more than twice the original estimate. Worse, they were hobbled by an array of mechanical failures and were never able to carry out the missions envisaged by their champions.

ProPublica set out to trace how ships with such obvious shortcomings received support from Navy leadership for nearly two decades. We reviewed thousands of pages of public records and tracked down naval and shipbuilding insiders involved at every stage of construction.

Our examination revealed new details on why the LCS never delivered on its promises. Top Navy leaders repeatedly dismissed or ignored warnings about the ships’ flaws. One Navy secretary and his allies in Congress fought to build more of the ships even as they broke down at sea and their weapons systems failed. Staunch advocates in the Navy circumvented checks meant to ensure that ships that cost billions can do what they are supposed to do.

Contractors who stood to profit spent millions lobbying Congress, whose members, in turn, fought to build more ships in their home districts than the Navy wanted. Scores of frustrated sailors recall spending more time fixing the ships than sailing them.

Our findings echo the conclusions of a half-century of internal and external critiques of America’s process for building new weapons systems. The saga of the LCS is a vivid illustration of how Congress, the Pentagon and defense contractors can work in concert — and often against the good of the taxpayers and America’s security — to spawn what President Dwight D. Eisenhower described in his farewell address as the “military industrial complex.”

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U.S. Navy Confirms They Have Visuals of “Near Misses” With UAP; All Remain Classified

In the 2021 UAP report published by ODNI, there were 11 “near misses” that were referenced. The Black Vault filed numerous cases to get these in 2021, as at that time, nothing was known about them.

The case files of the 11 “near misses” were eventually released and listed as the Range Fouler reports (see: Range Fouler Debrief Forms and Reports)

But one of the cases filed by The Black Vault also went after the photos/videos related to those 11 cases.

That Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR) was denied, as a review by the FOIA office (also The Black Vault’s request) showed that the requested visual(s) were 100% classified across the board.

So, the MDR was denied based on that review. It is unclear if all 11 had imagery, or just 1. Regardless, these would definitely provide a close-up look at the encounters, if they are ever released.

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Ron DeSantis Cut Lenient Plea Deals to Shorten Prison Sentences for Child Porn Crimes

As a prosecutor, current Florida governor Ron DeSantis repeatedly cut plea deals to give lenient sentences to defendants convicted of child pornography crimes, according to records obtained by NATIONAL FILE.

  • In one case, the deal DeSantis cut with the child porn aficionado cut the perpetrator’s sentence from thirty years down to six year.
  • In another plea deal DeSantis cut with a sailor facing a child pornography charge, the service member ultimately only received a 6-month prison sentence rather than a maximum 10-year sentence.
  • At least two of the child porn consumers DeSantis cut deals with were members of the U.S. Navy.

In 2007, Gregory Baker was charged for allegedly possessing a thumb drive with child porn on it.

According to a court document: “visual depictions involved the use of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct and which visual depictions were of such conduct.” In June 2008, DeSantis became the assistant U.S. attorney on the Baker case.

DeSantis did not oppose Baker’s attempt to modify the conditions of his release pertaining to curfew and travel. In October 2008, DeSantis submitted a “downward departure” motion that created a “one level reduction in the Defendant’s total offense level,” and Baker ended up getting sentenced to only one year and one day in prison.

DeSantis signed the motion, which stated: “The defendant’s guilty plea permitted the government to avoid preparing for trial and permitted the government and the Court to allocate resources efficiently.”

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Ex UFO chiefs claim their Pentagon bosses misled Congress by claiming a swarm of mysterious objects that buzzed around Navy ships in 2019 were mere drones – not a national security threat

The inside story of a 2019 UFO investigation by two top former intelligence officials was revealed in a jaw-dropping talk at a conference in Los Angeles.

The former head of the government’s UFO task force Jay Stratton and his chief scientist Travis Taylor spilled the secrets of their official probe into a swarm of objects that buzzed around a fleet of eight Navy ships off the US West Coast in July 2019.

Speaking at AlienCon in Pasadena on March 5, Stratton and Taylor said their investigation left them fearing Russia or China could have achieved incredible drone battery technology – or may have launched quadcopters from submarines that somehow evaded the Navy’s best radar just miles from the mainland.

But when the incident was recounted by their high-ranking Pentagon bosses to politicians and the public last year, it was presented as a very different story.

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Navy lied about fuel-laced water on US aircraft carrier

A US Navy whistleblower has reportedly accused his superiors on the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier of lying to crew members about the severity of a fuel leak into their drinking water and denying them medical treatment when they were sickened by the contaminated fluid.

“We were exposed to an unhealthy amount of JP-5,” a sailor on the carrier told Business Insider, referring to a common type of kerosene-based jet fuel. The media outlet, which posted its article on Saturday, said it didn’t identify the sailor out of concern that he might face retribution from the Navy for speaking out.

The incident occurred in mid-September, when members of the nearly 3,000-person crew noticed discoloration and a foul smell in the water that they use for drinking and showering. After initially advising the crew to drink only bottled water, the ship’s commanding officer and executive officer later announced that the Nimitz’s normal water supply was safe to use.

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Navy says all UFO videos are classified, won’t be released

Awatchdog group seeking access to unidentified flying object footage has been rejected with the unambiguous message that, due to heavy classification, none of the government’s media on UFOs will be released.

The Black Vault reported this week that starting in April 2020 it sought to acquire all “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena” videos within the files of Naval Air Systems Command. Three such videos had already been leaked from government databases before being officially released by NAVAIR.

The division subsequently denied that request, citing no such videos in its possession. A request filed with the Office of Naval Intelligence was met with a similar response. 

A third request filed with the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations was finally met with a comprehensive rejection, one that said “the requested videos contain sensitive information pertaining to Unidentified Aerial Phenomena and are classified and are exempt from disclosure in their entirety.”

The agency also said: “The release of this information will harm national security as it may provide adversaries valuable information regarding Department of Defense/Navy operations, vulnerabilities, and/or capabilities. No portions of the videos can be segregated for release.”

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Man Behind US Navy’s Largest Corruption Case Hires a U-Haul, Cuts Ankle Tag, and Flees

His unassailable charm was said to have penetrated the U.S. Navy better than the Soviets ever could, as he gained unprecedented access to classified military information through a massive bribery network. Now, Leonard Glenn Francis has pulled off yet another daring feat, successfully escaping house arrest just weeks before he’s set to be sentenced for masterminding the Navy’s largest-ever corruption scandal. 

Widely known as “Fat Leonard” for his 350-pound, 6-foot-three stature, Malaysian businessman Francis cut his GPS monitoring ankle bracelet off on Sunday and fled his San Diego home, where he’s been under house arrest since 2018. 

Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Omar Castillo told reporters on Monday that police arrived at Francis’ home concerned about his health after being notified of a problem with his bracelet, only to find nobody home.

“As of now, multiple leads are being investigated,” Castillo said, adding that Francis’ neighbors had seen U-Haul moving trucks at his house in the days before his escape. None notified police of his brazen and slow-paced escape, though it’s not clear whether they knew who resided at the property.

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