Take a minute out of your day to see some great photographs of our Navy. The Chief of Information annually puts together a collection of photos for the Navy Year In Review.

Here's the link:

http://www.navy.mil/media/OtherMedia/YearInReview/yir08/start_here.html

Enjoy.

USO SUPPORTS OUR TROOPS -- YOU CAN TOO!

If you have served in the military, then you are aware of the great work the USO (United Services Organizations) does in supporting our troops. Click on this link for an overview of this great organization: www.uso.org

For the past two days, I have been in Manhattan. Hoping for Spring weather, I packed only two light coats, including a USO cotton jacket that is similar to the ones troops wear in desert climates. Needless to say, that sparked a few conversations from military veterans as I walked the streets of lower Manhattan.

At military posts throughout the world, the USO provides a home away. At more than 130 locations, the USO delivers its special programs and services to our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines and their families. In recent years, new USO centers have been established in Kuwait, Qatar and Afghanistan, as well at new airport locations at Dallas/Fort Worth, Raleigh/Durham and Denver. I am in the initial stages of establishing a USO at Detroit Metropolitan Airport (DTW). Although our military presence in the Detroit-area is limited to primarily Selfridge Air National Guard base where all five services have operations, more than 9,000 servicemen and women transit DTW each month.


If you would like to show your support of creating a USO at DTW, comment on this blog or send me an e-mail at john_mccandless@toyota.com. In the meantime, I urge you to send the USO a small donation. One of their excellent programs is providing telephone cards to our deployed troops so that they can call home more often. Details are available on http://www.uso.org/whatwedo/usoprograms/usooperationphonehome/ .

For a few dollars, you can make a difference.

Thanks, in advance, for showing your support.

Capt John McCandless, USNR (Ret.)

THE MEN OF MICHIGAN

On Watch, The Men of Michigan

Tonight as we sleep, they are there, “On Watch” -- guarding over you and your family. You can’t see them. Or hear them. They are, in fact, invisible to the world. They are the officers and men of the guided missile Trident submarine USS MICHIGAN (SSGN 727). As we sleep, these men are on patrol, safeguarding the freedoms we cherish.

“Deep, Beneath the Sea, on Patrol,
The Men of Michigan.”

So began the ode I penned in 1986 when I first embarked as a Navy Reserve officer on our state’s namesake warship -- USS MICHIGAN. At that time, she was the second of the Ohio class ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs.) Each of our current SSBNs are armed with 24 multiple-warhead, inter-continental ballistic missiles. That’s more destructive power that all the bombs dropped by the Allied and Axis powers in World War II. First commissioned in the early 1980’s, the SSBNs kept us safe and played a major role in the winning of the Cold War. All because they were there, “On Watch”, 24/7, for months at a time.

“Deployed from home, undetected she roams,
Keeping the peace, The Mission of Michigan.”

MICHIGAN, along with the other first three Trident SSBNs , (OHIO, FLORIDA and GEORGIA,) has been converted to SSGNs --guided missile submarines. Twenty-two of her 24 missile tubes now hold seven Tomahawk land attack missiles. Tubes number one and two are lock-out chambers, allowing for the clandestine insertion and retrieval of Navy Seals or other Special Operation Forces. The ship is so large, (560 feet in length, 42 feet in beam,) she can berth 66 elite war fighters in addition to her crew of 159. MICHIGAN, by the way, can also carry a mini-sub. Just in case.

The SSGNs provide our Navy with an unprecedented combination of strike and special operations mission capability in the ultimate stealth platform. Our enemies will never know we are there until the Tomahawks take them out. MICHIGAN can launch a single Tomahawk or all 154. Launching all of them takes a few minutes, but they are programmed to land at their designated targets at the exact same second. Boom! The bad guys are gone without having time to make a cell phone call to alert their fellow terrorists in different, (and now smoking,) locations.

“Back in the states, on Christmas and all other dates,
Our freedoms kept safe, by the Men of Michigan.”

Recently, I had the privilege to be part of a small group of Michigan residents invited to sail aboard our state’s namesake warship for nine hours in Pacific waters off of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Known as a “distinguished visitor,” (DV) day sail, it was a grand opportunity to demonstrate how well some of our tax dollars are spent. The cost of getting to and from Hawaii was paid for by each DV. All of us agreed that it was the best investment we ever made.

For nine hours, we saw every inch of the ship, with the exception of the nuclear reactor and the classified radio room. Before we submerged for some five hours, each of us had the opportunity to climb from “Control,” (where the periscopes are located and the ship is conned,) 35 feet straight up a narrow ladder to the “Sail”. It wasn’t a easy climb and there no one behind you to catch you if you slipped. But, the watch teams of the men of MICHIGAN scale and decent these ladders in seconds every time they submerge and surface.During our embark, we met most of the crew members and even delivered a birthday card to Petty Officer First Class Adam Merkel, a ten-year Navy veteran from Macomb Township, Mich. Inside the card were pictures from his daughter’s second birthday party, which he missed since he was on patrol, readying MICHIGAN for her new mission. Merkel, by the way, is the ship’s “Sailor of the Year”.

"Keeping the world in check,beneath the seas, below deck,
For months on end, the Men of Michigan."

After nine hours of walking her steel decks and climbing her steel ladders, our group was pretty tired, but immensely impressed by the missiles, systems, size and capabilities of MICHIGAN. We were most impressed by the men of MICHIGAN, whose average age is twenty-one and a half.

The ship has since been certified for her new mission and is now forward deployed to Guam. MICHIGAN, as well as all SSBNs and SSGNs, have two crews -- Blue and Gold. Every three months, the relief crew will fly out to Guam and the other crew will return to Bangor Submarine Base to be reunited with their families, continue training and perhaps even take a week or two of their annual leave. If they’re lucky, some of the young fathers may even be home for the birth of a new baby or attend a daughter’s third birthday party.

”At Bangor Subase, wives and families wait,
Growing, coping and missing, their Men of Michigan.”

Before leaving for Hawaii, I learned from the off-duty Chief of the Boat, (COB is the most senior enlisted Master Chief Petty Officer,) that the ship’s crew’s mess was devoid of anything that spoke of “Michigan.” We quickly changed that. To get the ball rolling, Speaker of the House Andy Dillion arranged for two State of Michigan flags to be flown over the Capitol Building -- one for the mast and one to be framed for the crew’s mess. Navy League members donated other items and special plaques.

CAPT Dietrich Kuhlman, USN, Commanding Officer of MICHIGAN’s Blue Crew, told us that his crew’s morale is the highest in the submarine force. He credits that, in part, to what the citizens of Michigan have done over the years to support the crews of their namesake ship. During their off period, the skipper, the COB, a junior officer and a petty officer, are invited to visit Detroit and other cities, towns and villages for a few days. The cost associated with their visits is underwritten by Navy supporters. Two groups, the Metropolitan Detroit Chapter of the Navy League of the United States and the 727 Booster Club, chartered out of the Grosse Pointe War Memorial, provide most of the funding. It’s our way of thanking the men of MICHIGAN for their service.

“God Bless these special men,
whose dedication will never end,
We salute you,Our Men of Michigan.”

The next time you encounter a sailor, Marine, airman or soldier at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, take a minute to stop them and thank them for their service. While many of us sit in comfort of the Northwest Airlines World Club, our service men and women wait for their planes in the concourse. Unlike every other major U.S. airport, Metro has no USO facility. I’m not sure why. Perhaps before 9/11, the planners didn’t see a need for one. Let’s change that. I’ll even volunteer to head the fundraising campaign to get it done. If you’d like join me, send me a note. If you’d like to support the Men of Michigan, go to www.warmemorial.org for information on the 727 Booster Club and to www.navyleague.org for information on the Navy League.

“Peace and freedom have a price,
It's the dedication and sacrifice,
Of these Men of Michigan.”

A TEAR IN MY EYE

A TEAR IN MY EYE
The Retirement Ceremony of a Shipmate
By Captain John G. McCandless, USNR (Ret.)

Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich., March 14, 2009 – You may have caught the feature story on Command Master Chief Adrian D. Williams, USN in Wednesday’s Free Press. If you didn’t, take a minute to do that now to read it now: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009903110416

Yesterday, I had the honor to join over 150 of Master Chief Williams’ shipmates, family and friends at his retirement ceremony in the Fries Ballroom of the Grosse Pointe War Memorial. With the waters of Lake St. Clair as a backdrop, the event brought tears to my eyes more than once.

After the “Arrival of the Official Party with Honors,” the National Anthem, sung by Master Chief’s niece, Chanda E. Long, and the invocation by Pastor Daryll Gaddy, the first speaker was Commander Leonard Borgdorff, USN, Commanding Officer, Naval Recruiting District – Michigan. His remarks were brief and interactive. He started by asking for a show of hands of shipmates who had graduated from boot camp in the current decade … lots of hands. Almost as many for those who had completed boot training in the 1990’s. Fewer for the 80’s and only a couple for the 1970’s, which included the Master Chief. That set the stage for honoring a shipmate who left Detroit in 1977 for boot camp at Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Waukegan, Illinois.

Thirty-two years later, after 19 duty stations afloat and ashore, Adrian Williams will be piped ashore for the last time.

Guest speaker at the ceremony was Captain Gary Edwards, USN, who was the Master Chief’s commanding officer at Naval Security Group Activity, Fort Gordon, Georgia in 2001. CAPT Edwards, a tall, articulate cryptology specialist, relayed his personal story about the importance of chief petty officers in the Navy. Edwards, commissioned in 1986, reported to his first ship, USS Saginaw (LST 1188) http://www.usssaginaw.org/ . Knowing little of the Navy, and even less about amphibious landing ships, then Ensign Edwards had his first meeting with his captain. The “old man”, who according to the ship’s website was Commander Tematio E. Bugarin, USN (I’m not making this up), told him how hard his life would be for the next three years and that he’d better find himself “a sea daddy.” Edwards left the captain’s cabin without a clue, but soon learned that sea daddies were Navy chief petty officers. I also learned as an Ensign on the USS AMERICA (CVA 66), that it is the chiefs who make the Navy work. I also was clueless in my first seagoing assignment, which included running a damage repair locker on the ship’s hanger bay. Knowing that I had only five days training in damage control (a most serious subject given the three major fires aboard aircraft carriers in the late 60’s and early 70’s,) the chief told me not to worry. “Ensign, you’ve got the bar (Ensign insignia) and I’ve got the boot,” said the chief. “We’ll make this thing work!” And worked it did, as a few short months later our repair locker scored a 98 (out of 100) on our Operational Readiness Inspection before sailing for Vietnam.
Command Master Chief Williams was next on the program. With warmth and grace, he spoke from his heart about his experiences over the last 32 years. With many, many months of deployments, away from home, it becomes very emotional when you’re thanking your family for their love and support over the years. But, the Master Chief did this with class. Present, and also honored by the Navy, during the ceremony were his mother, Ophelia Williams; wife Brenda Long-Williams; sons Darrin and Terrence; sister, Valerie Bently-Williams and brother, Derek Williams.

Next was the “Flag Ceremony”, in which a folded American flag, flown recently over the Master Chief’s favorite shipboard duty station, the USS Lake Erie (CG 70), was passed from the most junior Seaman Recruit, through sailors in the next eight ranks, then presented to Master Chief Williams. In turn, he presented the flag to his mother. This solemn ceremony took many minutes, as each sailor slowly saluted the flag, took procession, then passed the flag on to the next in line. Over the musical background of the Navy Hymn, Senior Chief Andre Bagwell, USN, also a Detroit native, delivered these impressive “I am Old Glory”, first written by Howard Schnauber in 1944.

I am the flag of the United States of America.My name is Old Glory.I fly atop the world's tallest buildings.I stand watch in America's halls of justice.I fly majestically over great institutes of learning.I stand guard with the greatest military power in the world.Look up! And see me!I stand for peace - honor - truth and justice.I stand for freedomI am confident - I am arrogantI am proud.When I am flown with my fellow bannersMy head is a little higherMy colors a little truer.I bow to no one.I am recognized all over the world.I am worshipped - I am saluted - I am respectedI am revered - I am loved, and I am feared.I have fought every battle of every war for more than 200 years:Gettysburg, Shilo, Appomatox, San Juan Hill, the trenches of France,the Argonne Forest, Anzio, Rome, the beaches of Normandy,the deserts of Africa, the cane fields of the Philippines, the rice paddies and jungles of Guam, Okinawa, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, GuadalcanalNew Britain, Peleliu, and many more islands.And a score of places long forgotten by all but those who were with me.I was there.I led my soldiers - I followed them.I watched over them.They loved me.I was on a small hill in Iwo Jima.I was dirty, battle-worn and tired, but my soldiers cheered me,and I was proud.I have been soiled, burned, torn and trampled on the streets ofcountries I have helped set free.It does not hurt, for I am invincible.I have been soiled, burned, torn and trampled on the streets ofmy country, and when it is by thosewith whom I have served in battle - it hurts.But I shall overcome - for I am strong.I have slipped the bonds of Earth and stand watch over theuncharted new frontiers of spacefrom my vantage point on the moon.I have been a silent witness to all of America's finest hours.But my finest hour comes when I am torn into strips tobe used for bandages for my wounded comrades on the field of battle,When I fly at half mast to honor my soldiers,And when I lie in the trembling arms of a grievingmother at the graveside of her fallen son.I am proud.My name is Old Glory.Dear God - Long may I wave.

Emotion, plenty of emotion, and tears.

Then, before the retirement of the colors, the benediction and the piping of Command Master Chief ashore, Chief Petty Officer Lucio Saraiva, our recruiter in Big Rapids, Mich., read an even more moving essay, “The Watch.” Read, however, is the wrong work. Chief Saraiva delivered the message with emotion, drama and pride.

For thirty-two yearsThis sailor has stood the watchWhile some of us were in our bunks at nightThis sailor stood the watchWhile some of us were in school learning our tradeThis shipmate stood the watchYes.. even before some of us were born into this worldThis shipmate stood the watchIn those years when the storm clouds of war were seen brewing on the horizon of historyThis shipmate stood the watchMany times he would cast an eye ashore and see his family standing thereNeeding his guidance and helpNeeding that hand to hold during those hard timesBut he still stood the watchHe stood the watch for thirty-two yearsHe stood the watch so that we, our families andOur fellow countrymen could sleep soundly in safety, Each and every nightKnowing that a sailor stood the watchToday we are here to say'Shipmate... the watch stands relievedRelieved by those You have trained ,Guided, and LeadShipmate you stand relieved.. we have the watch...""Boatswain … Standby to pipe the side ... Shipmate's going Ashore.."

With that, the boatswain’s pipe sounded, the ship’s bell rang and Command Master Chief (Surface Warfare) Adrian D. Williams, USN returned the salute of eight fellow chief petty officers acting as sideboys and departed … adding a (Ret.) to his title as his new career had just begun.

Well done, Master Chief. Thank you and your family for all your service to our Nation and to our Navy.

• Pass this along to a friend
• For information on the US Navy visit: http://www.navy.mil/
• For information on the Grosse Pointe War Memorial visit: http://www.warmemorial.org/