We left Sunday morning from the Church parking lot..
We set on a 3 hour trip...Yep key in the Gilligan Island theme...We drove through Atlanta, 3 vehicles...remember the 3 vehicles comment....Well we got north of Gainesville and Vehicle number 1 barfs the Transmission.....So we pull over....Vehicle number 1 is doing the dying cockroach....Tranny is nogo at this station. So I decide to go to Gainesville and rent a uhaul....Remember it is a Sunday and most of the uhaul dealers are closed....so after traveling 39 miles I find an open dealer and get a trailer..
Meanwhile the other van....Did I say Dodge vans...takes all the scouts except 2 of them...on to camp...and it throws the CV joints.....They pull into a driveway and the nice people shuttle them on to camp. What an adventure...
We finally get to camp and get the trailer unloaded and joined the rest of the troup at the campfire..
The Weather rock is having a hard time with the weather...it shows "dry" then we get rain...
We got our quarters squared away...We adults are experienced campers and will bring "snivel gear" for our comfort.
The scenery is awesome, I was here in April for conclave and already had experience with the camp
And we have a great view of the Smokey Mountain...
The kids are going to merit badge classes and they are enjoying the classes.
I took a pic of the EDGE method ...
The messhall has fruits!!!! A couple of weeks ago I attended Camp Daniel Boone in North Carolina and there was no fruit in the messhall..
.I found out that they were selling them in the trading post for $.50 an apple. At Daniel Boone I enjoyed the camp although I felt like an ATM machine for all the extra fees we got charged.
I was trying to roll with Twisted Sister "burn in Hell" but was unable to find a video for the song. I do have the song on my "Stay Hungry" album. This popped up on the feed since "starship" was used as a counterpoint to Twisted Sister. ehh, I remember the song, it was to me goofy but an easy listening song. So I gotta roll with what I found. I saved the "Twisted Sister " post until I can find a cut of the song on video.
Starship is an American rock band established in 1984. Although it was initially a continuation of Jefferson Starship,
its change in musical direction, and subsequent loss of key Jefferson
Starship personnel and enforced name change ultimately led it to become a
separate entity from the original band.
In June 1984, Paul Kantner, the last remaining founding member of Jefferson Airplane, left Jefferson Starship,
and then took legal action over the Jefferson Starship name against his
former bandmates. Kantner settled out of court and signed an agreement
that neither party would use the names "Jefferson" or "Airplane" unless
all members of Jefferson Airplane, Inc. (Bill Thompson, Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, Jorma Kaukonen, Jack Casady)
agreed. The band briefly changed its name to "Starship Jefferson" while
legal proceedings occurred, before settling on the shortened name
"Starship." David Freiberg
stayed with the band after the lawsuit and attended the first studio
sessions for the next album. He became frustrated with the sessions
because all the keyboard work in the studio was being done by Peter Wolf (who had played on the sessions for Nuclear Furniture
and briefly joined the band on the road for the follow-up tour) and
that was the instrument Freiberg was supposed to be playing. He left the band and the next album was finished with the five remaining members, consisting of Slick, co-lead singer Mickey Thomas, guitarist Craig Chaquiço, bassistPete Sears, and drummer Donny Baldwin. In 1984, Gabriel Katona (who had previously played in Rare Earth and Player) joined the band to play keyboards and saxophone on the road with them through to the end of the 1986 tour.
The next album, Knee Deep in the Hoopla was released in September 1985 and scored two number-one hits. The first was "We Built This City", written by Bernie Taupin, Martin Page, Dennis Lambert, and Peter Wolf and was engineered by Grammy-winning producer Bill Bottrell and arranged by Bottrell and Jasun Martz; the second was "Sara".
The album itself reached No. 7, went platinum, and spawned two more
singles: "Tomorrow Doesn't Matter Tonight" (#26), and "Before I Go"
(#68). The band had not had a number-one hit record since previous
incarnation Jefferson Starship released Red Octopus in 1975.
"We Built This City" is a song written by Bernie Taupin, Martin Page, Dennis Lambert, and Peter Wolf, and originally recorded by US rock group Starship and released as their debut single 1 August 1985.
The single version reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 on 16 November 1985, and also number one on the US Top Rock Tracks chart and number twelve in the UK.
What exists of a narrative in the song consists of an argument between the singers (Mickey Thomas and Grace Slick) and an unidentified "you", presumably a music industry
executive, who is marginalizing the band and ripping off money from
them by "playing corporation games" ("who counts the money underneath
the bar?"). In response to this injustice, the singers remind the
villain of their importance and fame: "Listen to the radio! Don't you
remember? We built this city on rock and roll!" A spoken-word interlude explicitly mentions the Golden Gate Bridge and refers to "the city by the bay", a common moniker for Starship's hometown of San Francisco; Starship's predecessors, Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship, were prominent members of San Francisco's psychedelic rock
scene in the late 1960s and into the 1970s. However, the interlude then
follows in rapid fashion by referring to the same city as "the city
that rocks", a reference to Cleveland, Ohio (home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum), and then "the city that never sleeps", a nickname for both New York City and Las Vegas.
Capitalizing on the ambiguity, several radio stations added
descriptions of their own local areas when they broadcast the song, or
even simply added their own ident in its place.
Funny
thing...My son and I took D.O.G for a walk at Sandy Ridge BMX Park and
we were walking the trail and I saw one of the birdhouses we built when my son was a cub scout. Either wolf or bear..can't remember exactly when
but it was still there. I thought that was pretty neat :) He is a life scout now. I remember building new ones after the original ones were busted up several weeks after we built them.
Some Humor; You know when you park in a bad part of town...
Last week I posted on my blog stories about summer camp with the Boy Scouts. Here are the rest of the adventures....and next week I am going with my other troop to summer camp so I will try to post some stuff in the que. I am not sure how good the internet will be at this camp I am going. I have been there before but my other troop hasn't. The other troop is a newer treoop and this is its first trip outside council so it is a big stepping stone for the troop.
On Friday we had a scoutmaster dutch oven cookoff. Cooking with a dutch oven is very neat, educational and filling. *urp* The scoutmaster that was representing us made a cherry dump cake. Basically you need 2 sticks of butter, one can of crushed pineapples, one bag of coconut flakes, one can of pie filling and one box of white cake mix. Open everything and dump it into dutch oven and then cook it over the coals for 1 hour. We then took the dutch oven to the cook off...
There were appitizers, ..
There was main courses....
and desserts
One troop had made "potato Surprise", basically a bunch of new potato's in a dutch oven with some butter and onions.......and then meat loaf......Man talk about my two favorite comfort foods :). Plus desserts. And the fellowship was great! We finished there and slowly headed to camp to escort the troop to the mess hall...
after what we ate, we didn't want to go the the messhall....which was serving "camp" food. while I was there I earned another "Scoutmaster Merit Badge".
The boys on Friday worked what they called the Mountain Man relay" including scout skills...
The scenery was awesome, the smokie mountains are really beautiful
and the streams that were cutting through camp
we did have a lot of......you guessed it....Rain, the last 3 days we had a lot of rain.
the campside stayed wet the last 3 days...
But the fire my son and a couple of the other pyro's started kept burning......
All in all it was a very good camp....and we would go again..
I shamelessly clipped this from both Wirecutter and Irish. The capital of my state has seen quite a lot of protest the past few days....It helps to have a bunch of colleges and universities in the city area I suppose. And the capital of my state is on this list. Just a heads up to my couple of readers to not be there or in the area and to lay in provisions. I will touch on this stuff later....when I don't have to go to work...you know the thing those activist have no clue what that is....
The
hacktivist group Anonymous is now calling for nationwide Day of Rage
protests on Friday, July 15th. The video below promotes the
protests.(WARNING: There is some disturbing and graphic violence in this
video):
Use this as a list of places NOT to
be on Friday the 15th. While the video by Anonymous does specify
non-violence and denounces the actions taken against police officers
that were not involved in these deaths, with the tagline “Day of Rage” I
think it’s safe to expect emotions to be running very high on both
sides of the line. No matter how great your empathy might be for those
who have unjustly lost their lives, these protests are not safe places
to be.
These are the locations and times for the protests:
Phoenix: 5:00PM (EASTLAKE PARK, 1549 E Jefferson St , Phoenix, AZ 85034)
Tuscon: 5:00PM (CATALINA PARK, 900 N 4th Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85705)
Little Rock: 6:00PM (OUTSIDE STATE CAPITOL BUILDING, Dr Martin Luther King Jr Dr., Little Rock, AR 72201)
San Francisco: 4:00PM (CIVIC CENTER PLAZA, 355 Mcallister St, San Francisco, California 94102)
Oakland: 4:00PM (FRANK OGAWA PLAZA, 1 Frank H Ogawa Plaza, Oakland, CA 94612)
Los Angeles: 4:00PM (LEIMERT PLAZA PARK, 4395 Leimert Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008)
Denver: 5:00PM (CIVIC CENTER PARK, 100 W 14th Ave Pkwy, Denver, Colorado 80204)
Washington DC: 7:00PM (OUTSIDE WHITE HOUSE, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500)
Atlanta: 7:00PM (OLD DECATUR COURTHOUSE, 101 E Court Sq, Decatur, GA 30030)
Nashville: 6:00PM (801 Broadway Nashville, TN 37203 Estes Kefauver Federal Building)
Memphis: 6:00PM (Health Sciences Park Memphis, TN)
Austin: 6:00PM (TEXAS STATE CAPITOL, Outside South Gate-11th and Congress Ave.)
Salt Lake City: 5:00PM (SALT LAKE CITY COMMUNITY COLLEGE, 4600 S Redwood Rd, Salt Lake City, Utah 84123)
Seattle: 4:00PM (QUEEN ANNE BAPTIST CHURCH, 2011 1st Ave N, Seattle, Washington 98109)
Milwaukee: 5:00PM (DINEEN PARK, Milwaukee, Wisconsin)
And
if your home happens to be in or near one of these areas, be aware that
your city could be under siege. Make plans to stay safe and hunker down
with emergency food and purified water, or to go someplace safer.
I will post some more summer camp pics tomorrow, I wanted to get my "Monday Music" out on monday...for a change. This song was playing on my MP3 player on my truck radio. I will admit it, I do like Madonna, she has a wide range of vocal talent and has the ability to reinvent herself to stay relevant in the modern music scene, no mean feat. Iremember when I first heard Madonna with "like a Virgin", I thought soo cheesy and I figured that this was a flash in a pan phenomenon, boy I was wrong. The first song that I heard from Madonna that I liked was "Live to tell", it actually showed her voice without the "like a virgin, squeal." It showed maturity and depth of talent. She released more songs and more video's as time progressed. I liked her later stuff and I liked her in the movie "A league of their own"
But by the mid 90's she was really out there....Remember this?
I was listening to Rush Limbaugh in 1994 and he had made a comment that "Don't discount Madonna, she will reinvent herself as a figure of motherhood, and be successful at it. That women is smart and knows what she is doing." I listened and thought Rush was wrong.....but a couple of years later, she did just that....I still talk about that occasionally.
"Frozen" is a song by American singer Madonna from her seventh studio album Ray of Light (1998). It was released as the lead single from the album on February 23, 1998, by Maverick Records. The song was also included on the compilation albums GHV2 (2001) and Celebration (2009). "Frozen" was written by Madonna and Patrick Leonard, and it was produced in collaboration with William Orbit. Musically constructed as a mid-tempo electronic
ballad, "Frozen" talks about a cold and emotionless human being. In
2005, a judge in Belgium ruled that "Frozen" was plagiarized from a song
by Salvatore Acquaviva, and it was banned from the region. This ruling
was overturned in 2014, lifting the Belgium ban on the song.
"Frozen" received acclaim from music critics,
some of whom deemed it an album standout. It was described as being a
masterpiece, and its melodic beat and sound were defined as "cinematic".
The song was a worldwide chart success, peaking at number two on the US
Billboard Hot 100, becoming Madonna's sixth number-two single and the artist with most number-two hits in the history of that chart, while it reached number one on the Hot Dance Club Play
chart. It ultimately peaked at number one in the United Kingdom, Italy,
Spain and Finland, and also within the top-five in other countries,
such as Australia, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland.
The accompanying music video for "Frozen" was directed by Chris Cunningham
in a desert in California, portraying Madonna as an ethereal, witchy,
melancholy persona, shapeshifting into a flock of birds and a black dog.
The music video received a MTV Video Music Award for "Best Special Effects" in 1998. To promote Ray of Light, the singer performed the song in several occasions including on Wetten dass..?. Additionally, it was included in three of Madonna's concert tours. "Frozen" has been covered by a number of artists, such as Talisman and Thy Disease.
Directed by British artist Chris Cunningham, the music video for "Frozen" was filmed at Cuddeback Lake within the Mojave Desert in California during January 7–11, 1998. Madonna thought that there are a lot of magical, mystical powers in the desert and that it is a magical place to be. It was inspired by the film The English Patient and Martha Graham's work. The music video premiered on February 16, 1998 on MTV at 4 p.m. The black goth gown outfit Madonna wears on the video was designed by Olivier Theyskens, and provided by then-new collaborator, designer Arianne Phillips. In an interview with MTV News,
Cunningham stated about his work with Madonna, saying that he thought
Madonna became interested to work with him after seeing his Aphex Twin-directed music video, "Come to Daddy" (1997).Madonna stated that she and her team thought of filming the video in
Iceland, as the idea to the video was to go someplace cold and where
there is snow, but declined the idea. She thought:
'You know what, I'm going to be freezing. I'm going to be miserable,
I'll be complaining all day, I'll be sorry that I ever chose a cold
place. So I said, 'Let's do it in the desert, it'll be warm,' and it
would be sort of the opposite, because even though you think of deserts
as being hot, they're still sort of frozen in terms of there's no
vegetation and they're very desolate. I thought that that would still
work as a visual, but then we got there and it was like 20 degrees below
zero, it was bitterly cold, and I was barefoot. I was barefoot for the
entire video, and then it started pouring rain and everyone got really
sick, and it just actually turned out to be a really miserable
experience.
"The original treatment was, like, massive piles of bodies in the
desert. All these figurative sculptures made up of bodies that were all
multiple Madonnas. They were all going to split and break up and change
into ravens and then change into dogs. Just a performance video, but a
really elaborate one using her, her clothes, and any shapes that would
come out of her clothes
—Chris Cunningham talking about the original idea for the shoot.[62]
The video introduces a sober, contemplative side of Madonna, revealing a mature mysticism.
It begins with the camera skimming along a cracked, desiccated desert
floor, and within seconds Madonna appears, sprawled on the ground
wearing a black dress. Her hands are covered with mehndi and an enigmatic symbol on one palm.
In the video she slowly gestures and sways her arms toward the sky in
the video, desperately pleading to her cold lover cited in the song. At one point Madonna falls, and as she hits the ground, she transforms into a flock of large, dark birds. Later, she transforms into a black dog. Three Madonnas also appear walking and crawling amid the desert throughout the video. As the song progresses, the sky darkens, and Madonna levitates
from the ground. Her form then changes to a shiny black liquid, which
runs along the desert floor and appears to be absorbed by the tattooed
hands of another Madonna, who is curled up on the crenellated ground.
The video ends with a desperate and melancholy Madonna.
Jim Glauner from MTV News commented that from the first scene from the video, the viewer discovers that this is not "Holiday" (1983). Matthias Groß of Madonna On the Couch: A psychoanalytic view on Madonna's music videos,
argumented that it is interesting to look at the video as a dream, and
noted that in the video, Madonna was presented as a witch or an uncanny
creature, by the technique of the central perspective.
He concluded that the viewers find themselves in control of their view,
of the situation in general, and are conveyed the impression to follow a
realistic depiction of a mere melancholic woman in the desert,
according to him. Henry Keazor and Thorsten Wübbena of Rewind, Play, Fast Forward: The Past, Present and Future of the Music Video said that the large panels of cloth that gather and wind around Madonna gain an even more obvious independent movement quality. Billboard
considered it Madonna's third best video noting that it "conveys the
song's bleak heartbreak perfectly" with Madonna's persona in the video.
mountains, The scenery is very cool...if you are into trees and mountains..
I went back to "Boonesboro to walk around and I ducked into the leatherwork shoppe
Watching a belt being crafted for one of the scouts.
Yesterday we headed off location so the kids could get the "horsemanship" merit badge.
We got there as this was rolling in....
The kids were able to get some riding in...
There was much more about horses discussed, the class on parts and care of horses
Although I think Old NFO could teach the class since he was around with horses before airplanes came onto the scene.
The camp is very busy, the parade field in front of the messhall Dining facility is always full of scouts playing.
And back at camp, the scouts are working on their "Paul Bunyan Woodsman" award....Even though they don't know it yet...
I am glad we came out here, but I will be glad to come home though, cots today have been designed by Marquis De Sade, I can't believe that I used to sleep on those things back when I was a scout and then a G.I
My troop went to a new camp we have never been to before, and so far it has been pretty neat. Internet connectivity is pretty spotty and cellphone service is if you are successful in catching the "Verizion extender" or not.
The first thing the scouts did was start setting up "Hammockland" It is a troop staple it seems
The camp is in the smoky mountain range and it is very pretty country. The camp has some pretty neat features among them is...
It is setup like a frontier town in the mountains...
There is a blacksmith shop, the scouts learn to work metal and how it was done back in the 18th century and how necessary such a place was because if you needed something, you had to make it. There was no "walmart"
You could make your own clothing, the scouts could make items of clothing, but there was a cost of material.
There was a leatherworking shop, back then you had to make all your leather goods, from belts, pouches, slings, and anything else that leather was used for
And there was a tavern, they sold rootBEER and gingerALE, plus other munchies...
They also were teaching "hatchet toss" a unique skill.
There was also black powder rifle shooting and I finally got an opportunity to shoot a black powder rifle. The rifle was a 54 caliber ball being chased with 30 grains of powder.
The rifle is "rifled", according to the owner, the rifle was a kit gun purchased 20 years ago and would cost $3000 now. I wouldn't mind getting into black powder shooting, but it is an expensive hobby to get into. I still will check into it. He also said that "back then, they didn't smile for photo's". he is a very nice and friendly gentleman and I was glad he was patient with all my questions..
Here is the ball being inserted. he has already ran the wet cloth down the barrel to make sure that there was no burning embers.
The target in the pic was sideways, the shooting was "up and down". The rangemaster(owner of the rifle) was impressed with the shooting,most people just barely hit the paper. There was no recoil, but there was a lot of smoke and flash though....but I liked it a lot :)
The troop also participated in a flag retirement ceremony, there was a lot of flags and the ceremony took over an hour. Most of the troop was participating in a "horsemanship" merit badge,more on that later. The troop that was there, did participate in the flag retirement ceremony. It was a very solemn ceremony.
There was quite a few flags retired that night, the big one in the following picture was "retired" at the end.
It was a solemn occasion.
There is a lot of fun stuff to do at camp, a lot of the scouts were fishing, the camp policy is that if you catch it, you eat it. There is no catch and release program. I saw scouts fishing and swimming in the same lake.
I will add more later in the week. Although there is something about this camp that I noticed..
This is loaded in my "que" and it should post Tuesday Morning. I had forgotten about this song until I heard the song on my sirius/xm in my car one day headed home from work or home or when I was just going somewhere. It is a unique song and worth a listen.
"My Girl (Gone, Gone, Gone)" is a song that was performed by the Canadian group Chilliwack. It was released on their 1981 album Wanna Be a Star.
In Canada, the song spent four weeks at number 3. In the United States, it reached number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 19 on the Cash Box Top 100.
The band originated in Vancouver, British Columbia out of the remnants of the C-Span Classics, that changed its name to The Collectors when Henderson joined in 1966. Their psychedelic self-titled debut album yielded the minor hit "Lydia Purple".Their second album was based on the musical score written by the band for a stage play by Canadian playwright George Ryga, Grass and Wild Strawberries.
Chilliwack effectively began with the departure of vocalist Howie
Vickers from the Collectors in 1969; however, the band didn't change
their name until 1970, to Chilliwack, a Salish term meaning "going back up" and the name of a city east of Vancouver in the Fraser River valley. With lead guitarist Bill Henderson
now providing most of the vocals and doing most of the composing, the
band released several records that were moderately successful in Canada.
Hit singles in Canada included "Lonesome Mary", which entered Cashbox
January 22, 1972
"Crazy Talk" and "Fly at Night". The album track "Rain-o", a
blues-based composition that appeared in different versions on the
Chilliwack debut album and the later Dreams, Dreams, Dreams, was a well-known concert favourite.
Their album Riding High on Goldfish Records (Terry Jacks' Label) contained one of their biggest hits, "Crazy Talk", which was produced by Terry Jacks.
However, Chilliwack had a difficult time sustaining any success
because of their constant label changes. The two Collectors albums were
on Warner Brothers, and Chilliwack's first five albums were on four
different labels in Canada: Parrot, A&M, Goldfish, and Casino
Records. When the band finally found relative stability and success with
Vancouver's Mushroom Records,
with distribution throughout North America, the label went bankrupt so
abruptly in 1979 that Chilliwack's third album for the label, Breakdown in Paradise, was barely released.
In 1978, Brian MacLeod (guitar, drums, keyboards) joined the band for the Lights from the Valley album, and Ab Bryant (bass) joined the band for Breakdown in Paradise, with the other members except for Henderson departing. Chilliwack then signed with Solid Gold Records in Canada and Millennium Records in the U.S. as a trio and enjoyed its greatest success with this new lineup, releasing the albums Wanna Be a Star and Opus X.
The singles "My Girl (Gone, Gone, Gone)" (1981), "I Believe" (1982),
and "Whatcha Gonna Do (When I'm Gone)" (1982) were popular both in
Canada and in the U.S. Rolling Stone Magazine wrote:
"At their best, Chilliwack was the finest Canadian rock band, outrocking BTO and outwriting Burton Cummings. But a lack of consistency kept it from international success."
Henderson and MacLeod received a Best Producer Juno Award in 1982 for Opus X.
However, echoing the Mushroom problems, Millennium Records then
collapsed. MacLeod and Bryant left the band soon after, and Chilliwack's
last new studio recording was released in 1984 with Henderson as the
only continuing member. Henderson continued to tour as Chilliwack with
other players until December 1988. In 1989 Henderson went on to form the
folk-rock supergroup UHF. Henderson also continued touring with Chilliwack, releasing a new live album in 2003.
Happy Birthday America, from 1776 to 2016 it has been one heck of a ride. We are one of the longest continious forms of government in the history of the world. Not a bad run, but we have to be vigilant to keep it going, the next few years will be crucial to see if our country survives or becomes some despotic regime where the best is behind us and there is nothing for us as a nation to look forward to.
Yep, I will be going camping. We are going out of council this week, actually going out of state this week to a new camp we have never been to before. Some of the long time leaders have been there but the rest of us haven't. I am looking forward to it...except the long drive....*urg*
My posting will be sporadic. I will preload some stuff into the que like my Monday Music and some other stuff.
And the bread and circuses continue in DC on the Potomac. In Hawaii the state governor and congresscritters really shafted the gun owners in that state. They are trying similar stupidity in the land of fruits and nuts. We live in interesting times
I saw this on my "Global Security.org" email listing. I also got this from the New York Post. I remembered when this happened, I was very angry, how we as a superpower was embarrassed and humiliated by this action by the mad mullah's of Iran. I couldn't understand why they allowed themselves to be captured without fighting or calling for help. I also remembered it was leadership issues, the crew refused to obey the Lt in charge and other things. I was dismayed by the lack of "fighting spirit" exhibited by the crew. I also remembered in the late 90's when some humvee got lost from the U.S Army and was captured by the Serb's and we were embarassed. As a G.I, I remembered that it was ingrained into us to fight, not to let ourselves be captured and the humvee got rolled up and Jesse Jackson if I recall went over to negotiate for the soldiers release. I couldn't understand where was the fighting spirit?
Navy Releases Results of Riverine Command Boat, Farsi Island Investigation
Story Number: NNS160630-08
Release Date: 6/30/2016 12:02:00 PM
From the Navy Office of Information
WASHINGTON (NNS) -- The Navy released
the results of the investigation into the seizure of two riverine boats
and the detention of 10 U.S. Navy personnel by Iranian forces today in a
press conference at the Pentagon.
On January 12, 2016, two riverine boats
left Kuwait for a 259 nautical mile transit to Bahrain. After deviating
from their intended plan of movement, one of the riverine boats
suffered an engine malfunction. Both riverine boats subsequently stopped
to troubleshoot. After briefly attempting to communicate with Iranian
forces patrol craft that intercepted them, the riverine boats and their
crews were taken into Iranian custody. As a result of diplomatic
negotiations, the riverine boats and their crews were released the
following morning.
Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm.
John Richardson and Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Operations,
Plans and Strategy Vice Admiral John C. Aquilino spoke to members of the
Pentagon press corps about the facts and circumstances surrounding the
incident.
"The goal of this investigation was to
conduct a thorough review of what U.S. Navy actions may have contributed
to this incident," said Richardson. "We conduct these investigations to
learn what we can in order to prevent similar events from occurring;
and where necessary to hold our people accountable where they failed to
follow procedures and meet expectations."
Additionally, Richardson noted that "the investigation
concluded that Iran violated international law by impeding the boats'
innocent passage transit and they violated our sovereign immunity by
boarding, searching and seizing the boats and by photographing and video
recording the crew."
Conclusions of the investigation
centered on poor leadership and disregarded risk management and mission
planning standards by those directly involved in planning the riverine
boat missions.
The extensive report was subjected to
comprehensive reviews before the public release in order to ensure that
classified information, protected personally identifying information,
and other non-releasable information remains protected. The names of the
service members involved were redacted from the released materials to
protect the privacy of the individuals and because some of them remain
assigned to overseas, sensitive or routinely deployable units.
The report also noted that while the
investigation did expose particular issues in relation to the training
and day-to-day practices of a particular unit, it did not identify a
significant problem in the overall Navy methodology and approach to
training units and their leaders. Rather, the investigation highlights
the importance of proper leadership and the adherence to sound naval
doctrine.
Aquilino gave an overview of the event
to include actions in theatre that lead to the eventual detainment and
release of the RCB crews and what the Navy has done since the incident
to mitigate similar occurrences.
"In order to maintain the bonds of
trust and confidence amongst ourselves, and with the American people, we
have an obligation to continuously examine our personal and
professional conduct to ensure we always execute our mission and behave
with integrity, accountability, initiative, and toughness," said
Richardson.
The released investigation and associated reports have posted online at the Navy's Freedom of Information Act Reading Room.
Click here to view the documents located under the "FOIA Reading Room" tab.
Ten crew members were detained at gunpoint on Jan. 12 by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Photo: EPA
The US sailors who were detained by the Iranian navy last winter
provided their name, rank and serial numbers — and pretty much
everything else their captors demanded, the US Navy said in a blistering
report Thursday.
The 10 crew members, captured at gunpoint in the Persian Gulf on Jan. 12 by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,
improperly revealed passwords for laptops and cellphones and even
sensitive technical details about their two ships, including their top
speed, capabilities and missions, the report said.
“It is clear that some, if not all, crew members provided at least
some information to interrogators beyond name, rank, service number and
date of birth,” the report said.
The Navy report blamed the incident on a combination of poor
planning, clueless leaders who did not properly consider how risky their
actions were, a lack of crew oversight and low morale.
Their capture turned into an international incident that rattled
nerves days before the controversial Iran nuke deal was about to be
signed, and the Islamic theocracy’s mad mullahs exploited the detentions
for propaganda purposes — forcing a woman in the crew to wear a hijab —
and making headlines for weeks.
Problems had plagued the mission from the beginning as the two vessels were making their way from Kuwait to Bahrain.
The commander of the crews’ task force ordered the 250-nautical-mile
transit, the longest the crews had attempted, on short notice, and
“severely underestimated” the transit’s risks.
“He lacked a questioning attitude, failed to promote a culture of
safety, and disregarded appropriate backup from his staff and
subordinate commands,” the report said.
The report redacted names, but the Navy last week identified the
commander of the boats’ task force as Capt. Kyle Moses and said he had
been relieved of his commandThe boats’ captains and crew did not review or stick to their planned
course from the moment they left port, the report said, and
inadvertently went through Saudi Arabian territorial waters before
entering Iranian waters off the coast of Iran’s Farsi Island in the
Gulf.
At one point, the crew members did not realize they were near Farsi
Island because they did not zoom into their navigation system’s map.
“Had any crew member zoomed into the purple dot, they would have discovered the purple dot was Farsi Island,” the report said.
Near the island, one of the boats suffered a faulty engine, and the
two craft were approached by two Iranian vessels, which pointed their
weapons at the hapless Americans as two other Iranian boats arrived on
the scene. Photo: EPA
The American captains did not order their gunners to put on protective gear or to man the weapons on the boats.
Under the standard rules of engagement, US military personnel are obligated to defend their units.
But in the hopes of de-escalating the situation, the captains directed their gunners to step away from their weapons.
“I didn’t want to start a war with Iran,” one of the boat captains
told investigators. “My thought at the end of the day was that no one
had to die for a misunderstanding.”
The Iranians forced the sailors to remove their body armor, kneel,
and place their hands behind their heads, and took video and pictures of
the crew doing so.
At Farsi Island, they interrogated and detained the sailors overnight before releasing them the next day.
The sailors also quickly gave in to Iranian demands that they eat and
act happy while being filmed in order to be released, and one captain
read an apology prepared by the Iranians.
Unknown to them, the US government had already negotiated their unconditional release.
In addition to Moses, the Navy last month fired Eric Rasch, commander of the squadron that included the sailors.
The report said administrative action had been taken with regard to
two personnel, and recommended action be taken regarding six others.
The report also faulted the Iranians for violating international norms.
They replaced an American flag on board with an IRGC one, ransacked the vessels and damaged equipment, the report said.
The United States and Iranian militaries keep a close eye on each
other in Gulf waters, with the US naval presence there meant to reassure
regional allies of its commitment to their security.
For Iran, which sees itself as resisting US interests throughout the Middle East, the detention was a public relations coup.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei awarded medals to IRGC commanders, and Iranian media broadcast videos of the detainees.
“This event was an act of God, it happened at a good time, and you
acted admirably,” Khamenei told the Iranian sailors in January.
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We set on a 3 hour trip...Yep key in the Gilligan Island theme...We drove through Atlanta, 3 vehicles...remember the 3 vehicles comment....Well we got north of Gainesville and Vehicle number 1 barfs the Transmission.....So we pull over....Vehicle number 1 is doing the dying cockroach....Tranny is nogo at this station. So I decide to go to Gainesville and rent a uhaul....Remember it is a Sunday and most of the uhaul dealers are closed....so after traveling 39 miles I find an open dealer and get a trailer..
Meanwhile the other van....Did I say Dodge vans...takes all the scouts except 2 of them...on to camp...and it throws the CV joints.....They pull into a driveway and the nice people shuttle them on to camp. What an adventure...
We got our quarters squared away...We adults are experienced campers and will bring "snivel gear" for our comfort.
The scenery is awesome, I was here in April for conclave and already had experience with the camp
And we have a great view of the Smokey Mountain...
The kids are going to merit badge classes and they are enjoying the classes.
I took a pic of the EDGE method ...
The messhall has fruits!!!! A couple of weeks ago I attended Camp Daniel Boone in North Carolina and there was no fruit in the messhall..
.I found out that they were selling them in the trading post for $.50 an apple. At Daniel Boone I enjoyed the camp although I felt like an ATM machine for all the extra fees we got charged.
There were appitizers, ..
There was main courses....
One troop had made "potato Surprise", basically a bunch of new potato's in a dutch oven with some butter and onions.......and then meat loaf......Man talk about my two favorite comfort foods :). Plus desserts. And the fellowship was great! We finished there and slowly headed to camp to escort the troop to the mess hall...
after what we ate, we didn't want to go the the messhall....which was serving "camp" food. while I was there I earned another "Scoutmaster Merit Badge". 
The scenery was awesome, the smokie mountains are really beautiful
and the streams that were cutting through camp
we did have a lot of......you guessed it....Rain, the last 3 days we had a lot of rain.
the campside stayed wet the last 3 days...
But the fire my son and a couple of the other pyro's started kept burning......
All in all it was a very good camp....and we would go again..
I was listening to Rush Limbaugh in 1994 and he had made a comment that "Don't discount Madonna, she will reinvent herself as a figure of motherhood, and be successful at it. That women is smart and knows what she is doing." I listened and thought Rush was wrong.....but a couple of years later, she did just that....I still talk about that occasionally. 
mountains, The scenery is very cool...if you are into trees and mountains..
There was much more about horses discussed, the class on parts and care of horses
Although I think Old NFO could teach the class since he was around with horses before airplanes came onto the scene.
The camp is very busy, the parade field in front of the 
And back at camp, the scouts are working on their "Paul Bunyan Woodsman" award....Even though they don't know it yet...
I am glad we came out here, but I will be glad to come home though, cots today have been designed by Marquis De Sade, I can't believe that I used to sleep on those things back when I was a scout and then a G.I
It is setup like a frontier town in the mountains...
My posting will be sporadic. I will preload some stuff into the que like my Monday Music and some other stuff.
And the bread and circuses continue in DC on the Potomac. In Hawaii the state governor and congresscritters really shafted the gun owners in that state. They are trying similar stupidity in the land of fruits and nuts. We live in interesting times
