Boosting resilience with your spouse

The Naval Center for Combat and Operational Stress Control recently came out with ways to increase resilience in Navy couples.

Commissary Coupon App for Android

The rewards card is now even easier to use, thanks to an Android app that makes clipping coupons easy. From: http://www.commissaries.com/press_room/press_release/2014/DeCA_15_14.cfm

Using the rewards card is simple:

• Get a rewards card at a commissary.
• Register the card at http://www.commissaries.com/rewards/index.cfm.
• "Clip" or download coupons to your account (they are automatically loaded to your card).
• Print a list of your coupons and bring it and your card with you on your next shopping trip.
• Present your card at checkout so the cashier can scan it for coupons that match your purchased items.
• Digital coupons are automatically erased from the account as they are redeemed or if they expire.

Is living on base so bad?

Forest City Housing in Hawaii, from Pintrest

With all the debate raging about military retirement, one issue that gets overlooked is the reduction in BAH allotment.  Many servicemembers talk about "making money on BAH" but is that truly the case?  And would that be true if BAH is cut to 99% or 95% of costs?

I decided to do a comparison of costs here in Hawaii.  I happen to live on base in public/private housing administered by Forest City.  I have a friend that lives in Ewa Beach (a popular place for military to live) who swears he's making 600 dollars a month on BAH.  To see how true that was, I busted out some Excel skills and started looking at costs.

Can you wear the awards you want to?

A reader asked me where the regulations say you can wear your "top three" awards, and if you could wear just the awards you wanted to wear.  Good question!  In the 5301 (http://www.public.navy.mil/BUPERS-NPC/SUPPORT/UNIFORMS/UNIFORMREGULATIONS/CHAPTER5/Pages/5301.aspx) it says the following:

"3.  Arrangement.  Arrange ribbons in order of precedence in rows from top down, inboard to outboard.  Wear either the three senior ribbons, or all ribbons if you have earned three or more."

Easy answer to the first question.  The second often pops up with people who don't feel they "earned" an award.  The reality is that you don't get to pick the awards, and that's an order.  Some people take this to extremes, such as with the Medal of Honor awarded to Smedley Butler for actions during the Invasion of Vera Cruz:

"After the occupation of Veracruz, many military personnel received the Medal of Honor, an unusually high number that diminished somewhat the prestige of the award. The Army presented one, nine went to Marines and 46 were bestowed upon Navy personnel. During World War I, Butler, then a major, attempted to return his Medal, explaining he had done nothing to deserve it. The medal was returned with orders to keep it and to wear it as well." (from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler) 

I have confronted Sailors that attempt to pick and choose what awards to wear.  My threshold is that once you've received 2 awards more than what is on your ribbon rack, it's time to update it.  Yes, that means a bit more money...which in that case, you can wear your top three.  It's silly to listen to arguments about what awards to wear, and it's against regulations, so don't allow it.

More tracing pages added

Navy small arms and the lyrics to Anchors Aweigh are now tracing pages for your kids.

Lying

 The Strategic Studies Institute recently published a 33-page paper about lying. It's worth the read (http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/display.cfm?pubID=1250).  While there is a bit of click-bait going on (Saying "Army Officers Lie" is certainly designed to get attention), the paper itself is well written and seems to be well researched.

As you read through it, replace "Army" with "Navy," and you'll find it still rings true.  For example, the study found that a unit needs 297 days to complete all mandated training, but only had 256 days to do so...meaning there is no physical way to complete all training.

"If units and individuals are literally unable to complete the tasks placed upon them, then reports submitted upward by leaders must be either admitting noncompliance, or they must be intentionally inaccurate. Units, however, rarely have the option to report that they have not completed the ARFORGEN pre-deployment checklist. Likewise, it is not an option for individuals to decide that they will forego sexual assault prevention training this quarter because they are too busy with other tasks. If reporting noncompliance is not an acceptable alternative because of the Army’s tendency toward zero defects, then it is important to examine the resultant institutional implications."

Does this sound like ORSE/INSURV?  Is our SAPR training any different?

Tracing Pages for your kids!

I have three small kids that I home school.  The oldest is working on handwriting, so I decided to make some handwriting sheets to help her practice.  Instead of just a bunch of sentences, I chose to make some Navy-related tracing sheets.  Since I love to share, you can now download them as a PDF.  Go to the "Useful Files" link on the left side of the page.

I currently have an officer ranks and ships page, but I'll create some more soon.  Please put suggestions in the comments.

Singapore Navy gets it right on advertising

 The Singapore Navy started an advertising campaign back in 2011 to ensure its population knew about what the Navy did.  Given that our Navy is often overlooked by most of the population, maybe it's time for us to do the same?

You can view the original video here: http://www.campaignbriefasia.com/2011/01/17/Navy%20Wave%2045s.mov

I also did a search, and sure enough Singapore Navy did even more videos. Some examples below, they're a good watch.

Bugle calls, now easy to understand!

When I first moved to an Army post, I was thoroughly confused by all the bugle calls. Sadly, my Google attempts could not unmask any besides the well known "Reveille" and "Taps."

But today, at random, I found the Army Band has a website with the music sheets and audio of the calls:

http://www.music.army.mil/music/buglecalls/reveille.asp

Service Stars authorized for Global War on Terror Expeditionary (GWOT-E) Medal

Effective immediately, you can wear service stars on your GWOT-E to denote support to different operations.  You are authorized to wear up to 4 service stars denoting support to the five operations currently authorized for the Global War on Terror Expeditionary Medal. Those operations are:

Operation ENDURING FREEDOM: September 11, 2001 - TBD
Operation IRAQI FREEDOM: March 19, 2003 - August 31, 2010
Operation NOMAD SHADOW: November 5, 2007 - TBD
Operation NEW DAWN: September 1, 2010 - December 31, 2011
Operation INHERENT RESOLVE: June 15, 2014 - TBD

You can read the memo here. Looking at how the stars have been placed for previous awards, I created the above graphic to denote how they would probably look.

How do you know if you're eligible for each award? Go here to see if you deployed to these listed locations during the specified times.

To properly get this on your record, you want a Page 13 for each medal, specifically listing the supported operation. For example, if you participated in ENDURING FREEDOM and INHERENT RESOLVE, then you want two page 13s on your record, each one saying you were awarded the GWOT-E for each operation, and you would wear the GWOT-E with one star in the center.

Why the BCA is good for you

Navy BCA Meme, from Navymemes.com

I'm not a fat person, at least not now. I never really thought of myself as a fat person. But the Navy made me feel fat almost from day one. My first BCA (almost ten years ago now!) was conducted at Nuclear Power School, where I had to be taped because I weighed in at 225 pounds. I barely passed the tape test, but I did pass. Between working out and watching what I ate, I managed to pass the tape test, but I never really lost the weight.

Working on a submarine didn't help matters. I was always a bigger person. It wasn't like I had a big gut either. I was, as one would call it, "big boned." It was during that time that the Navy's BCA came under fire from a lot of places, and I contributed to throwing verbal darts at a process I thought was unfair.

I went to shore duty, and while I worked out more, it didn't make a difference. At best I slimmed down to 215 pounds. I was still taped by the Navy twice a year. In my mind, I just accepted that I was going to be perpetually taped due to an unfair system.

Back when the Navy launched planes from transport ships using wires

We often talk about today's Navy being so different from previous generations, due to drones, the electromagnetic spectrum, and a myriad of other developments.  As I learn more about history, however, I realize that most of these ideas are old.

Remote control boats?  Try a remote control battleship, the USS Utah, still viewable today off Ford Island after being sunk during the raid on Pearl Harbor.

Jamming enemy transmissions?  Old, like 1905 old.

Air-independent propulsion submarines?  Old, Russia had one as early as 1908.

Launch small planes from transports?  Already done. Called the Brodie System, it could launch multiple planes up to 7000 pounds.

The point of studying history isn't to memorize dates and places.  If all you know about WW2 is battles and locations, you're an idiot.  History teaches us about innovation.  History helps us develop new ideas for the future.  History helps guide us, if we truly let it.  And above all, history is extremely interesting when you get into the human aspect and away from the memorization.

Rail gun on display tomorrow

Too bad I'm in sunny Hawaii, otherwise I'd make a trip to see it.

http://au.ibtimes.com/us-navys-disruptive-weapon-railgun-be-publicly-displayed-washington-defence-expo-february-1415056

Advice: Try it on

So there I was after an hour long brief to my O-6.  I managed to answer all of the man's questions, including some rather complicated materials.  He was really happy, and I received lots of "Good brief!" comments afterwards.  Pretty elated, I finished logging off my computer when my boss (an O-5) came over to give me feedback.

Not all the feedback was good.  She wanted me to use some more language and omit some of the things I said.  My initial reaction was almost to roll my eyes (thankfully I did not!) and to almost dismiss it out of hand.  After all, in my mind I had just knocked it out of the park!  I was on top of my game!

Later that day, I realized how terribly rude that was.  My CDR was mentoring me, finding a way for me to improve that I hadn't thought of, and here I was dismissing it out of hand.  Conveniently, Seth Godin posted an applicable article:

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2015/01/advice-or-criticism.html

I decided to take his advice of "Try it on."  After my next brief, instead of waiting, I went to my CDR and asked for feedback, wrote it down, and tried it out the next day.  Amazingly, although I stumbled a bit, after two briefs my speaking improved, I was more confident of my assessments and overall I got even more compliments afterwards.

Mentorship sometimes happens when we least expect it.