Happy 236th Birthday Shipmates

This is about one thousand times better than "A Global Force For Good"

Just in time for the Navy's 236th Birthday tomorrow.

Useful Advice For Your Consideration

Since “Two are better than one” ask yourself these questions:

• Who is helping you to be your best? Thank them!
  
• Who do you need to help you be at your best? Ask them!
  
• Who can you serve and ease their load? Serve them! 

Ripped from Tommy Kiedis' blog HERE.

Chief of Naval Operations enters the blogosphere

WELCOME ABOARD CNO.

You can read his blog HERE. He's already got 325,087 active duty followers. Who can compete with that???

What our schools must do

There are three things a school must do:

• First, it must transmit to the pupil a substantial body of knowledge; 
• Second, it must develop in him the necessary intellectual skill to apply this knowledge to the problems he will encounter in adult life; and 
• Third, it must inculcate in him the habit of judging issues on the basis of verified fact and logical reasoning.

Admiral Chiam G. Rikower

Admiral Jonathan Greenert on cyber threats and opportunities

The Navy is on a good course and speed regarding transformation initiatives and we have a good navigation plan for the future. If confirmed, my goals will remain largely consistent with our current efforts. For example, Navy has taken the lead within DoD in reshaping itself to meet current and future cyber threats and opportunities, but we have more work to do to capitalize on our progress to date and realize the full potential of our growing cyber force. We must continue to mature Navy’s recently-formed Information Dominance Corps.

Help for the boss

"I want to talk to senior staff at round table and tell people to stop giving me information the day of a meeting, it does not do me any good. If it is long, I should be given it the Friday before, if not, it needs to be given to me the day prior, so I have time to read it. To give me a notebook or a long paper right before a meeting is not a service -- it is a waste of the peoples' time who put the information together; it makes me feel bad; and I'd rather not get it."

Donald Rumsfeld
Secretary of Defense

You're not helping the boss by giving him lots of information he won't have time to process.

Honest, Open and Robust Dialogue

THE KEY TO OUR FUTURE SUCCESS WILL BE HONEST, OPEN AND ROBUST DIALOGUE. I PROMISE THAT IS WHAT  YOU WILL RECEIVE FROM ME AND I EXPECT NO LESS FROM EACH OF YOU.

From Vice Admiral Michael S. Rogers', Commander, Fleet Cyber Command/TENTH Fleet "Assumption of Command" message.

My Guy on The Mat

www.miltprigree.com

“Wrestling is a terrific sport. It requires discipline and application. Success results from a great deal of individual hard work, which is a good lesson, regardless of the field of activity. I can’t think of anything I would change from my high school and college years. Back in those days, the development of the sport of wrestling was far from what it is today. Today wrestling programs are much more rigorous and the coaching greatly advanced. As a result, competition today is considerably greater, which makes all competitors better.”

“I suppose the toughest wrestler I wrestled was Tom Evans of Oklahoma in 1956. He was, as I recall, second in the Olympics in 1952.”

“Wrestling has made a big difference in my life. You don’t do something for that many years – four years in high school, four years in college, three-plus years in the Navy, and a year or two after I left the Navy in the AAU and YMCA tournaments – and not have it have a big impact on your life."

Donald Rumsfeld
All American

Rear Admiral Jan E. Tighe - CAPSTONE

Rear Admiral Jan E. Tighe is a Capstone Fellow in group FY2012-1.  Rear Admiral Tighe is currently serving as the N2N6F4 - Director, Decision Superiority on the OPNAV Staff.  She earned her PhD in Electrical Engineering in 2001 from the Naval Postgraduate School. 

Education at the general/flag officer level is inherently joint and unified in nature. Its focus is on the highest levels of strategy, integrating the elements of national power to achieve national security objectives. In particular, the CAPSTONE course reinforces new general/flag officer comprehension of joint matters and national security strategy needed for the remainder of an officer's career.

She'll return to the OPNAV staff upon completion of Capstone in November 2011.

In case you may have missed this

Captain Donald P. Darnell, Jr. was relieved as Commanding Officer, Navy and Maine Corps Intelligence Training Center on September 30, 2011, by Captain William Kotheimer.

All in

Vice Admiral Michael S. Rogers is ALL IN. Make sure you are!

Diversity we can believe in - diverse in experience, background and ideas

Ready Sailors and Civilians will remain the source of the Navy’s warfighting capability.

• Our people will be diverse in experience, background and ideas; personally and professionally ready; and proficient in the operation of their weapons and systems.
• Our Sailors and Civilians will continue a two-century tradition of warfighting excellence, adaptation, and resilience.
• Our character and our actions will remain guided by our commitment to the nation and to each other as part of one Navy team.

From the CNO's Tenets.

Profession of Arms

"We must renew our commitment to the Profession of Arms. We’re not a profession simply because we say we’re a profession. We must continue to learn, to understand, and to promote the knowledge, skills, attributes, and behaviors that define us as a profession."

General Dempsey
U.S. Army
Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff 

History in the making

Yesterday was a day marked by a little bit of naval history in the making.  You had to have been there to really capture the whole of it.

Somewhere around 1530 on Friday, 30 September, the Navy's Cryptologist, Vice Admiral Michael S. Rogers broke his 3 star Flag for the first time when he assumed command of U.S. Fleet Cyber Command/U.S. TENTH Fleet at Fort McHenry, Maryland.

Some readers will recall Fort McHenry's historical significance and others are completely unaware.  Here's some of it... During the war of 1812, beginning at 6:00 A.M. on September 13, 1814, British warships bombarded the fort for 25 hours. Due to the poor accuracy of the British weapons at maximum range, and the limited range of the American guns, very little damage was done on either side, but the British ceased their attack on the morning of September 14, 1814, and the naval part of the British invasion of Baltimore had been repulsed.

Francis Scott Key, a Washington lawyer who had come to Baltimore to negotiate the release of Dr. William Beanes, a civilian "Prisoner of war", witnessed the bombardment from a nearby truce ship. An oversized American flag had been sewn by Mary Pickersgill in anticipation of the British attack on the fort. When Key saw the flag emerge intact in the dawn of September 14, he was so moved that he began that morning to compose the poem "The Defence of Fort McHenry" which would later be renamed and become the United States National anthem.

Now, how cool is it that VADM Rogers breaks his flag as a 3 star for the first time in this historic place?  The 15 gun salute was icing on the cake.  It was awe inspiring.  It really was.