To those of you who didn’t find your name on this year’s Chief’s selection list, I know yesterday may have been disappointing. I understand those feelings because I once stood exactly where you are.
Continue reading “What Seven Years of Disappointment Taught Me”On Friday, July 31, 2026, Lieutenant Commander James M. Ennes, Jr., US Navy, ret., slipped his cable and unfurled his sails. With the Great Pilot at the helm, he set a course to his final home port.
Continue reading “Remembering LCDR Ennes of the USS Liberty (1933-2026)”On July 31, 2020, Navy Information Operations Detachment (NIOD) Kaneohe Bay, HI was disestablished. Dating back prior to World War Two, NIOC Kaneohe Bay has a long history of supporting the fleet.
Continue reading “NIOD Kaneohe Bay Disestablished, July 31, 2020”Long before the famous codebreakers of Bletchley Park achieved their wartime successes, a small team of brilliant Polish cryptologists accomplished what many believed was impossible—they broke the German Enigma cipher.
Continue reading “The Polish Codebreakers: The First to Break Enigma”The Cold War was a contest not only of military might but of intelligence. While spy planes and satellites often steal the spotlight in histories of espionage, some of the most effective intelligence-gathering platforms were far less conspicuous. Among these unsung platforms was the USS Atakapa (ATF-149) — a fleet ocean tug that, for a brief but critical period, played a key role in Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) collection for the U.S. Navy. Though designed for towing and salvage, Atakapa’s quiet deployment into the world of covert surveillance reveals a hidden dimension of naval operations during the height of U.S.-Soviet tensions.
Continue reading “The USS Atakapa (ATF-149) and Her Secret Cold War SIGINT Missions”
I am a third generation Sailor. My Grandfather (on my dad’s side) was a Boatswain’s Mate (BM) and my father served 27 years and retired as an Operations Specialist Senior Chief (OSCS).
