Coast Guard SEALS

Back when I was writing for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, I wrote about the first Coast Guardsmen to be admitted as candidates to become Navy SEALS.

Wondered what happened to all that in the year that I was away.


Turns out of 19 selected to what is unarguably the Armed Forces most grueling training, two made it in May after more than 18 months in intense training.

Both men became the first members of any other branch of the armed forces to become Navy SEALS. Three more members of the Coast Guard are in the pipeline to become SEALs.

A Coast Guard notice said:

For more than a year and a half, these Coast Guardsmen endured what many consider to be the most difficult training available in the Armed Forces. This includes, among other things, training in combat diving, demolitions, marksmanship, patrolling, cold weather survival, land warfare and parachute operations.

The two members – whose names are being withheld for security reasons – attended training as part of an historic Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2008 by the Commandant of the Coast Guard, the Chief of Naval Operations, and U.S. Special Operations Command. The MOU is scheduled to last for the next seven years, with the option to extend indefinitely if both services find value in the arrangement.

May be old news but I'm catching up. Like to follow up on what I've previously written.

Port Angeles Coast Guard first to arm helicopters

Coast Guard Air Station Port Angeles, the first Dolphin HH-65 helicopter unit in the nation to arm its helicopters, has completed its final training tests, CG District 13 headquarters announced.

The enhanced use of deadly force stems from demands for increased security after 9/11 to protect potential terror targets like bridges, ports and waterways, with large groups of people, after 9/11, the Coast Guard said in a press release. The helicopter's guns will not be used in routine law enforcement missions, Coast Guard officials said.

The Port Angeles aircrews who completed their final training tests last Thursday are "hand-selected, highly trained indivicuals specifically chosen for their maturity, judgement and sound decision making skills," the Coast Guard said in a press release.

The Coast Guard adds its aviation wing to the armed boats, cutters and maritime security boarding teams it already has.

Local Coast Guard officials said the Port Angeles air station crews have been conducting extensive land-based and open-ocean firing range training and hostile-boat intercept maneuvering drills since the initial phase of training began in the spring of 2008.

That was when the air station received upgraded MH-65C helicopters outfitted with M-14T rifles and M-240 machine guns.

By the way, you can download and watch a Coast Guard video of these aircrews in action, as an Astoria, Ore. MH-60 crew medevacks a sailor off of an unnamed, moving Navy submarine off the Washington Coast last Wednesday.

Bremerton rear admiral earns second star and new job

The Defense Department announced Friday that the commander of Carrier Strike Group Three and the USS John C. Stennis Strike Group based in Bremerton, will be assigned to direct theProgramming Division, N80, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Washington, D.C.

Rear Adm. (lower half) Mark A. Vance already is slated for promotion to a two-star rear admiral.

Vance, a Naval aviator, is a Billings, Mont. native and University of Idaho graduate, with graduate degrees from the University of Southern California and the U.S. Naval War College.

Vance’s biography includes fleet assignments with fighter squadron deployments -- including to Iraq -- from both coasts,with squadrons from the aircraft carriers USS Nimitz, USS Independence, USS Carl Vinson, and USS Harry Truman.

Vance's 4,000 accident-free hours in various Navy jets include 3,500 in F-14 Tomcats.

Vance also has previously served as deputy director and acting director of "Deep Blue," then the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, the Navy has established an operations group, informally known as "Deep Blue," an operations group established after 9/11 to provide intellectual support for the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) and regional warfighting commanders-in-chief in the global war on terrorism, according to Navy officials.

According to Defense Daily International, Deep Blue is akin to the Air Force's"Checkmate"strategic planning organization.

Both organizations reportedly explore new concepts for platforms, weapons systems, sensors, and tactics, techniques and procedures to improve U.S. capabilities in a "network-versus-network" war with Al-Qaeda and other internationally dispersed terror groups, a Naval official told DDI.

Ballistic missile sub rescues stranded mariners

Phillip Ewing of Navy Times reported Wednesday that in a highly unusual event, five Bahamian fishermen clinging to their capsized boat "were rescued Aug. 11 by what could be the world’s least likely ship to render aid on the high seas — a U.S. ballistic missile submarine."

The USS Rhode Island based out of Georgia, a sister to the big Trident ballistic missile submarines based near Seattle at Bangor, was underway in theAtlantic Ocean when its crew spotted the overturned fishing vessel with four men and a 14-year-old boy aboard.

A Navy announcement said the big boat's Gold Crew commander, Cmdr. Kevin Mooney, decided to turn around and investigate.

While tight security normally has Navy security teams keeping fishermen and others from getting too close to the boats, Lt. Rebecca Rebarich, spokeswoman for Submarine Group 10, said that while highly unusual for ballistic missile subs, which operate invisibly, to help mariners, the Mooney felt obligated to help the fishermen who had been adrift in their upside down boat for four days.

Citing a Navy announcement, Ewing wrote that "the rescued men joked with the Rhode Island’s crew that no one would believe the story of how they were rescued, according to the Navy’s announcement, but Mooney gave each one proof — a ship’s command coin."

Prowler 907 heads to the boneyard

Thirty-four years ago this week, Gerald Ford was president, the U.S. and Soviet Union signed the Helsinki Final Act to revive detente, and an EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare jet, number 907, began service.

Recently, Prowler 907, based at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station with VAQ Squadron 129, became the first Prowler to retire.

It's the passing of an era, kinda like seeing Huey helicopters fade away.

The Vietnam-era Prowlers, older than some of the aviators who fly them and crew who maintain them, are slated to be replaced in coming years by the EA-18 Growlers, a variation of the F-18 fighter.

But the taxpayers got their money with the Prowlers, which remain the electronic warfare workhorses for all branches of the military. The Navy will hang onto them until 2013, the Marines until 2019, when they are finally expected to be phased out.

The radar jamming, electronic warfare planes continue to be considered top priority in the U.S. arsenal -- scarcely any combat happens without one in the air.

Petty Officer Second Class Tucker Yates, a Navy journalist, chronicled 907's final flight in the region's Northwest Navigator online newspaper.

Yates said Capt. Tom Slais, deputy commodore of Electronic Attack Wing, U.S. Pacific Fleet, along with Lt. Cmdr. Timothy Jackson, flew 907 on July 22 from Whidbey to the “boneyard” at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz., for reclamation and preservation.

At the end of its life, Prowler 907 and those who flew her served the nation by attaining more than 11,000 hours of flight time, more than 18,000 landings, 7,019 field carrier landing practice landings, 9,069 field landings, 1,651 catapults, 1,656 ship arrested landings and 1,706 total arrested landings.

Yates calculated it all averaged 147 catapults and 152 arrestments per 1,000 hours.

The twin-engine Prowlers, originally developed in the 1960s for the Marine Corps, are a modification of the old A-6 Intruders. A more advanced version began being developed around 1966 for the Navy. The planes entered service in 1971 and have undergone modifications over the years, and carry top secret electronic warfare equipment to perform their missions.

More than 170 Prowlers were built at a cost of over $50 million each; around 120 remain in service today, still maintained though some of the contractors have long gone out of business. Several years ago the fleet was grounded when cracks were found in parts of the airframe. In 2003, Congress and the President authorized $85 million for needed wing repairs.

A few years ago while with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, I wrote about efforts to keep the jets flying which you can find here.

The Prowlers continue to serve from aircraft carriers and land bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. A few years ago, I and other news organizations reported that the Prowlers electronic warfare capabilities were being used against improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, the homemade bombs that have caused so many casualties among military members and civilians alike. Apparently the planes can jam the devices used to detonate IEDs, like cell phones and garage door openers.

A personal note here -- my late father, a career soldier who at one time was the Army's top electronic warfare technician during the height of the Cold War, was unsurprised by that fact, but wondered why it couldn't be carried out by ground based equipment. He seemed familiar with the concept but wouldn't tell me how or why he was.

Meanwhile, Yates reported that a former enlisted member of Prowler 907's ground crew, Aviation Structural Mechanic 3rd Class Donnavin Brown, returned one more time to send the jet on its way. Brown, according to Yates, was the plane captain from August to December 2008.

“It’s sad that my aircraft was the first to go to the boneyard, but I couldn’t have asked for anything better,” Yates quoted Brown as saying. “I was glad that I got to do this.”

Slais said, “The thing about this is that it’s 2009, and we’re currently scheduled to fly this aircraft until 2013 so we still have [a few] years of flying EA-6Bs out of Whidbey Island right now, and the Marines will be flying them until 2019. We still have a lot more work to do with this aircraft.”

Remains of missing 1991 Gulf War pilot found

Navy Times just reported today that the remains of Navy Capt. Michael Scott Speicher, an F/18-18 Hornet pilot who became the first casualty of the 1991 Persian Gulf War when he was shot down over Iraq on Jan. 17, 1991, have been found.

Quoting Rear Adm. Frank Thorp, the Navy's top spokesman, the newspaper said the remains were found in early July by Marines stationed in Anbar province on a tip from an Iraqi citizen.

“The Iraqi citizen stated he knew of two Iraqi citizens who recalled an American jet impacting the desert and the remains of the pilot being buried in the desert,” Thorp told Navy Times.

“One of these Iraqi citizens stated they were present when Captain Speicher was found dead at the crash site by Bedouins and his remains buried.”

Thorp said the remains were recovered over several days during the past week and were positively identified by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.

"Positive identification was made by comparing Capt. Speicher's dental records with the jawbone recovered at the site," the paper quoted Thorp as saying. Forensic investigators also expect a DNA match from samples taken from Speicher's family to be made in the next day or two.

Speicher, a lieutenant commander at the time he was lost, was promoted twice over the years he was listed as missing.

Top enlisted submarine chief sentenced for child rape

When I was with the now defunct Seattle Pee Eye newspaper before it became something online and dropped military and veterans affairs as a beat, I reported in February the case of Navy Master Chief Daniel C. Jones, 39, a senior enlisted man at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor who had been charged with child rape.

The Kitsap Sun says Jones was sentenced Friday to 11 years in prison after pleading guilty to the charges of raping a teenage girl and trying to have sex with another by Kitsap County Superior Court Judge Anna Laurie.

Jones had served as "chief of the boat" for the Blue crew of the Bangor-based Trident nuclear submarine USS Louisiana.As I reported in May in the now defunct Seattle P-I newspaper's "Now Hear This" blog (which I will try to post in archives here):

The case began Jan. 13 when, the charges allege, Jones had sex with a teenage girl after showing her a book about adults having sexual intercourse with children at a home in Central Kitsap. A second adolescent girl told the pastor of a church that she had seen the same book....

Jones arrest was the third time in a less than a year that a senior enlisted man from the Navy base has been charged with a sex crime against children, all unrelated incidents.

In June 2008, Naval Base Kitsap's top enlisted man, command master chief Edward Scott, 43, was sentenced to nine months in jail with eight years suspended for second-degree attempted rape of a child and communicating with a minor for immoral purposes.

Scott pleaded guilty in March 2008 after he was arrested when he showed up at a Bremerton motel, thinking he was meeting a mother and her 12-year-old twins for sex. The mother, however, was an undercover agent facilitating a month-long sting operation.

Last August, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service arrested a former sailor-of-the-year on child rape charges filed by Kitsap County authorities.

Chief Electronics Technician David Allan Holmes, 39, an 18-year veteran who had served on the submarine USS Ohio, was charged with first- and second-degree child rape charges, accused of raping a teenage girl and her brother.

Court records indicate Holmes was granted $200,000 bail and his case has not yet gone to trial. A hearing slated for Feb. 9 was continued, court papers indicate.

Holmes, married with children, was the 2007 Sailor of the Year for Submarine Development Squadron 5 and previously had served on the now-retired USS Parche, a highly decorated intelligence-gathering submarine.

Holmes case is still awaiting trial, but two months ago, his case took an interesting twist when his wife, Brenda Kay Holmes, 40, of Silverdale, also was charged with second-degree rape in Kitsap County Superior Court.

Brenda Kay Holmes joined her husband in being similarly accused of sexually abusing a teenage girl. Prosecutors told the Kitsap Sun both knew both children they are accused of raping.

According to the Sun, court documents allege the couple forced the girl to watch them have sex when she was as young as 6 years old, and that prosecutors have evidence of sexual contact between the girl and both Brenda and David Holmes.

Citing court documents, the Sun also reported taht text from e-mails suggest Brenda Kay Holmes was angry about her husband's interest in the minor and planned to speak with him about it when he arrived home from deployment.

That is all.

Seafair Parade of Ships features first Coast Guard Legend-class cutter

The Everett-based guided-missile destroyers, USS Shoup and USS Momsen will arrive in Seattle's Elliott Bay on Tuesday to prepare to lead the Seafair fleet's "Parade of Ships" on Wednesday, among them the Coast Guard's newest and first "National Security Cutter."

The two Navy warships will be joined by the USCGC Bertholf based in San Francisco, and two Canadian vessels, HMCS Brandon and Nanaimo. The parade is expectd to sail past Pier 66 after 1:30 p.m.

It's a relatively small Seafair fleet compared to those of years past, but the ships are expected to attract crowds when they moor at Terminal 30 and open for visitors after the parade on Wednesday.

The Chief of Naval Operations and other Navy dignitaries are expected to be in Seattle for the parade.

The Shoup, named for former Marine Corps commandant Gen. David M. Shoup, who earned the Medal of Honor while leading Marines at Tarawa in WW II, is relatively new, having been commissioned in Seattle at Terminal 37 in 2002. It has been commanded since April 2008 by Cmdr. Michael J. Lehman, a 20-year Navy veteran whose first assignment was aboard the Everett-based aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.

The newer USS Momsen, named for former Vice Adm. Charles B. Momsen of WW II fame, who also developed the submarine escape Momsen Lung breathing apparatus, was commissioned in 2004 in Florida. It is commanded by Cmdr. Robert W. Bodvake, a 19-year Navy veteran.

Each destroyer carries a crew of close to 275 sailors.

Both vessels, technically advanced Arleigh Burke-class modern guided missile destroyers, aren't the old "tin cans" of granpa's Navy.

When the first Arleigh Burke class destroyer was commissioned in 1991, the Navy says that at the time it was the most powerful surface combatant ship ever to put to sea. They are capable of carrying out air, surface and submarine warfare, but also in recent years have assisted in humanitarian missions.

Each ships' armament includes SM-2MR standard missiles, ASROC missiles; Tomahawk guided missiles; six MK-46 torpedoes; a close-in weapon system; a 5-inch MK 45 gun; an Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile; and two LAMPS MK III MH-60 armed with Penguin/Hellfire missiles and MK 46/MK 50 torpedoes.

Meanwhile, USCGC Bertholf commissioned only last year, is the first of the Coast Guard's new Legend-class national security cutters. It is the first ship to be built under the Coast Guard's at times controversial "Deepwater" modernization program, and is designed to replace the aging 3780-foot high endurance Hamilton class cutters.

The cutter, named for former commandant Ellsworth Bertholf, who commanded the Revenue Service and Coast Guard, and who is known in large part for his Alaskan exploits.

The Bertholf, which carries more enhanced lifesaving and rescue capabilities, including two MH-65 C Dolphin helicopters, also has more firepower to interdict drug runners and potential national security threats.

It is the first Coast Guard cutter to use a Bofors 57 mm deck gun, a close-in weapons system, four 50 caliber machine guns, two M240B light machine guns, and countermeasures and an electronic warfare system. The cutter is also designed for better interopability with the Defense Department, advanced intelligence gathering sensors, and enhanced tracking system for rescues.

Tours will be available Thursday, July 30 through Saturday, Aug. 1 from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and on Sunday, Aug. 2 from noon to 3:30 p.m. The ships are slated to leave next Monday around noon.

To learn more about Seafair events visit http://www.seafair.com.