Neptunus Lex Crosses the Bar

I started this blog in 2003. At the time there were few MILBLOGS around. Then one called Neptunus Lex arrived on scene. It was written by an active duty Naval Aviator and senior officer. It soon became one of my daily reads. His writing was exemplary as can be seen is his portrayal of a day at sea on board a carrier, Rhythms. As a fellow native Virginian, his posts about returning to visit the Old Dominion were especially meaningful to me.

I was happy for him when he started flying again. I felt a small connection since the F-21's would occasionally fly over my house on their way home to Newport News. When I saw them, I would wonder if Lex was at the controls. I thought it would be cool to meet him. Alas, that is not to be.

I was waiting my turn at the NAS Oceana barber shop catching up on my blog reading when I saw the post on CDR Salamander. Lex had died doing what he loved the most. It was strange the sadness I felt for someone who I had never met and until recently, never knew his real name.

In his next to last post, he wrote about his chosen vocation;

It’s funny how quickly you can go from “comfort zone” to “wrestling snakes” in this business.

But even snake wrestling beats life in the cube, for me at least. In measured doses.

Fair Winds and Following Seas Captain Carroll LeFon, you will be missed.


The Armorer has a nice tribute and a collection of others.

Hurricane Links

Here are some good links for hurricane information.

http://www.stormpulse.com/atlantic
This is a site that I just found out about this year. It is a very nice graphical display of the storm forecast.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/article.html
I am a big fan of Weather Underground (the website, not the radical group). Their chief meteorologist has a blog where he breaks down the storm nicely.

http://www.weather.gov/view/prodsByState.php?state=VA&prodtype=discussion

http://www.wunderground.com/DisplayDisc.asp?DiscussionCode=AKQ&StateCode=VA&SafeCityName=Carrollton
The weather-guessers at the National Weather Service send out their discussions on what they are seeing and how they came up with their forecasts. The audience is other meteorologists so they can get a little technical but there is a lot of good information in there. Both of these links go to the same product but in a different format.



Enjoy and stay dry!

Still Here

To anyone who is still checking on this blog I apologize for the lack of content. I realize that it's been over a year since I wrote but there's been a lot going on that precluded me from writing.

I'll start writing again soon.

M/V Arctic Sea "Disinformation"

Modern Day Piracy is complaining that the press wasn't told that the Maltese and Russians knew where the M/V ARCTIC SEA was located.

It sounds like the only information that was kept from the press was the location of the vessel. I think that was an entirely reasonable thing to do.

Let's put this in another way. Suppose a bus had been hijacked and was taken somewhere. The press gets the word and conjectures about it "disappearing." Meanwhile, the police are using a tracking beacon on the bus that the hijackers don't know exists. Is it wrong for the police to keep the press in the dark about the location of the bus until the situation is resolved?

If it was revealed that the concerned parties knew exactly where the ARCTIC SEA was, would the hijackers have removed the crew? If so, we'd probably still be looking for them. At the least, they would have tried to locate the beacon and secured it.

This wasn't a disinformation campaign against the press. It sounds like the press is upset that someone was able to keep a secret this time.


Hat Tip: Eagle Speak

CNN Gets it Wrong

Today, CNN posted a story about a British couple who had to be rescued in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. It's a common enough story but CNN had this line that causes me to write this entry;

Armstrong alerted the U.S. Coast Guard of their problems. However, the Coast Guard told the couple they were too far out to be rescued.

That's hooey! This is what I believe happened. The sailors contacted the Coast Guard to report their situation. When their position was plotted, the Coast Guard realized that they were well out to sea. At that point, the only option for the sailors is to be removed from their boat by another vessel. When they realized that they'd have to leave their boat behind, they decided to wait it out or arrange for a towing vessel. The bill for a tow boat to come that far out probably exceeds the value of the sailboat.

Finally, when the reality of their situation sunk in, they called the Coast Guard and said they'd like to get off. At that point, an AMVER vessel was most likely diverted to take the crew to safety.

The US Coast Guard is responsible for Search and Rescue in a chunk of the Atlantic that extends out to 040 Degrees Longitude. The area is over 4 million square nautical miles. No matter where you are in that chunk of water, the CG will make every effort to assist you.

OPSEC

Be careful what you talk about. You might be in this guy's restaurant.

HT to Storming the Tower of Babel.

Wii Games

I was asking for suggestions on Wii games that a 3 1/2 year old girl would like. My older sister suggested the following games. Any other suggestions?

DVD Bleg

I need a new DVD player for a non-HD TV. Is there any reason not to get a HD-DVD player for $47?

4th Annual Valour-IT Fundraising Competition

Project Valour-IT supplies voice-controlled laptops and other technology that supports the physical and psychological recovery of wounded veterans. Each year the milblogs and other bloggers spread the word about the project and encourage donations. Teams are divided by service branch in a spirit of fun competition, though all the money goes to the same place. Please click on the graphic on the sidebar to donate! Help Team Coast Guard help our wounded warriors!

==Update==
The Coast Guard Team has kidnapped the other team thermometers!

Good Advice

FrankJ at IMAO has excellent advise to carry us through to Election Day; "Be Positive."

McCain and Palin in Virgina Beach

In my seat
Originally uploaded by medicjm

I went to the McCain/Palin Rally in Virginia Beach earlier this month. I took my camera fully intending to put up a long blog post about it. Obviously, I have not had time to do it. I have posted some of my photos in Flickr.


I am in this picture taken by the BBC.