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MOBOAT NEWS 16 Mar 08
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Bob Behm
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Mar 16, 2008 16:37 PST
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MOBOAT NEWS - VOL. 5 NO. 1
A newsletter for veterans of the “USS Monticello LSD 35"
Our website has had over 19,740 visitors since it was launched in
August 2004.
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Inside This Issue:
1. WHAT'S NEW?
2. 2009 REUNION
3. SATELLITE SHOT
5: WEBSITE OF THE MONTH
6: IRANIAN BOATS
7. I REMEMBER
8. OSPREY
9. VETERAN NEWS
10. HUMOR
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1: WHAT'S NEW?
At last count, 508 crewmembers signed into the online Deck Log.
We have had almost 20,000 visitors to our homepage. That's a lot of
folks browsing your photos, videos and ship's history. The main reason
that the website was built was that the ship's history could be shared
with anyone that wanted to read about her and that she may never be
forgotten.
I have embedded the 3 Hardtack films into the "History" page.
Just click play and watch the film from our webpage.
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2: 2009 REUNION!
We been talking to the major hotels in San Mateo county about having
the reunion in one of their hotels. The price per night is far too hgh
for our group. $120 - $150 We'll keeping looking, but if we can't find a
decent price then we'll have to host the reunion elsewhere.
My wife and I are heading back to Branson on the 27th of this month.
We have a three-day ConFam with the ReunionFriendly folks and then we're
staying at a local resort for a week. We booked the additional week
through the Armed Forces Vacation Club. It's a great deal for those who
have retired from the military.
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3: Photos
We're still looking for photos to place on the website.
Break out those old photos and get them scanned to share with all of
our members.
We'll also like to have those old 8mm movies of the ship and crew.
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4. SATELLITE SHOT
Lake Erie Crew Describes Satellite Shot
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
PEARL HARBOR - The crewmembers of the USS Lake Erie were calm as they
fired the latest shot heard round the world. The Aegis-class cruiser
fired the missile Feb. 21 that destroyed a dead spy satellite that posed
a threat to humans.
Navy Capt. Randall M. Hendrickson, the Lake Erie's commanding officer,
spoke to reporters recently aboard the ship, which just returned from
the mission. The visiting reporters are traveling with Navy Adm. Mike
Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who visited the ship.
The captain said the crew worked intensively for a month and a half
before the shootdown. "We kept working up with a team of government
experts and technicians, as well as industry partners," Hendrickson
said.
The group worked to gather information and modify the Standard Missile 3
and the Aegis weapon system, he said. They started tracking the
satellite at different times to get radar cross-section data, which
helped build the program software, Hendrickson said.
"Obviously there was a lot of anticipation building up each time we
practiced, each time we tracked," he said.
The ship's weapons systems officer, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Drew Bates, said the
rehearsals really helped when push came to shove. "By the time we did
this, we had seen it a hundred times," he said. "We were practicing what
to do in case things go wrong. Fortunately nothing went wrong. This went
just the way it was designed to happen, and hats off to the industry
team for giving the nation a system that was able to have the excess
capability to do this."
The satellite was unlike any target the system was designed to go after,
the captain said. The satellite was in orbit rather than on a ballistic
trajectory. Also, the satellite was traveling at incredible speeds.
The Lake Erie left here the day officials announced President Bush's
decision to try to shoot down the satellite. Hendrickson said the ship
was in position when the shuttle Atlantis returned from its mission.
The ship received the order that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates had
OK?d the mission at mid-morning on Feb. 21. "From that point on, the
ship was very calm," Hendrickson said. "Obviously, the closer we got,
there was a lot of anticipation. The firing team was very calm when we
did it and, with the exception of the 'whoosh' when it went out of the
launcher, it was just as scripted."
He said that when the missile's seeker opened its eyes it had the
satellite 'right dead center.'
When the missile hit the satellite, 'there was a lot of cheering' aboard
the ship, he said.
The crew knew from the kinetic warhead imagery in the nose of the
missile that it was a good hit, the captain said.
"The radar scope went wild," he said. "At that point, there was a lot of
debris, a lot of pieces and, at that point, we thought we had a pretty
good impact. Then that was confirmed by the aircraft that were airborne,
the radars ashore and some other sensors that it was pretty much
obliterated. Over the next three to four hours, a lot of it was burning
up as it was coming down, which was the whole point of it."
Civilian experts from the Navy facility in Dahlgren, Va., and
contractors from Lockheed Martin and Raytheon helped the crew prepare
for the shot. But Navy sailors manned the consoles for the mission.
Everyone on the USS Lake Erie contributed, the captain said. "Whatever
the task is, there's no small task on a ship," he said.
The reaction of the crew is unbelievable, said Command Master Chief
Petty Officer Mack Ellis, the highest-ranking enlisted sailor on the
Lake Erie. "Even the youngest sailor who didn't understand it at first,
every time they walk somewhere and people know they are from Lake Erie,
they say congratulations. It puts a smile of their face and makes their
day."
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5. WEBSITE OF THE MONTH
http://www.navy.mil
For all the current official news of the U.S. Navy. This website has
extensive files and a search engine to find what you're looking for. It
contains some great videos of the fleet.
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6. IRANIAN BOATS
Navy Ships Approached by Iranian Boats
Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command
Commander, U.S. 5th Fleet Public Affairs
BAHRAIN -- Following a routine transit through the Strait of Hormuz on
Jan. 6, three U.S. Navy ships operating in international waters in the
Persian Gulf were approached by five Iranian small boats that
demonstrated irresponsible confrontational behavior near the U.S. ships.
USS Port Royal (CG 73), USS Hopper (DDG 70) and USS Ingraham (FFG 61)
were steaming in formation at approximately 8 a.m. as they finished a
routine Strait of Hormuz transit when five boats, suspected to be from
the Islamic Republic of Iran Revolutionary Guard Navy (IRGCN),
maneuvered aggressively in close proximity of the Hopper. Following
standard procedure, Hopper issued warnings, attempted to establish
communications with the small boats and conducted evasive maneuvering.
Coalition vessels, including U.S. Navy ships, routinely operate in the
vicinity of both Islamic Republic of Iran Navy and IRGCN vessels and
aircraft. These interactions are always correct on the U.S. part and
reflect a commitment to accepted tenets of international law and common
practice.
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7. I REMEMBER
I would like each of you to sit down and write about a particular
incident or event that occurred while you were aboard the MoBoat. As
time passes we'll tend to forget and all those great stories and they
will be lost forever. Like it or not, we are a part of the history of
this nation and I would like to have our grandchildren and
gret-grandchildren be able to read about us one day.
So, sit down and write your story today!
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8. OSPREY
By Kimberly Johnson - Staff writer
The 100th V-22 Osprey to roll off the assembly line was celebrated in
Texas on Wednesday.
The production milestone, celebrated at the Bell Helicopter Military
Aircraft Assembly Center in Amarillo, highlighted the joint partnership
between Bell Helicopter and Boeing, said one industry official on hand
at the celebration.
“They said teaming agreements would never work,” said Gene Cunningham,
vice president and director of the joint Bell-Boeing V-22 Program office
in Amarillo, according to a statement.
Two variants of the tilt-rotor aircraft are under production, for the
Marine Corps and Air Force Special Operations Command. The Corps
deployed 1`0 MV-22s from Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron-263 — the
first to launch for real-world operations — to Iraq this past fall.
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9. VETERAN NEWS
New law gives disabled veterans more home grants
Department of Veterans Affairs
WASHINGTON -- A change in federal law allows certain seriously injured
veterans and servicemembers to receive multiple grants for constructing
or modifying their homes, the Department of Veterans Affairs has
announced.
Before the change, eligible veterans and servicemembers could receive
special adaptive housing grants of $10,000 or $50,000 from VA only once.
Now they may use the benefit up to three times, so long as the total
grants stay within specified limits outlined in the law.
"Veterans seriously disabled during their military service have earned
this benefit," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake.
"This change ensures that every eligible veteran and servicemember has
the chance to use the maximum amount afforded to them by our grateful
nation."
In order to ensure all previous recipients are aware of this
opportunity, VA has mailed more than 16,000 letters to eligible
veterans, reaching out to those who used only a portion of their grant
or who decided not to use the grant even after initially qualifying.
The response over the past year has been dramatic, with more than 4,600
applications received thus far. Of these, approximately 3,900 veterans
have been determined eligible under the new law, and more than 200
grants already awarded.
VA has averaged about 1,000 adaptive housing grant applications per year
during the past 10 years. Since the program began in 1948, it has
provided more than $650 million in grants to about 34,000 seriously
disabled veterans.
To ensure veterans' and servicemembers' needs are met and grant money is
spent properly, VA works closely throughout the entire process with
contractors and architects to design, construct and modify homes that
meet the individuals' housing accessibility needs.
Eligible for the benefit are those with specific service-connected
disabilities entitling them to VA compensation for a "permanent and
total disability." They may receive a grant to construct an adapted home
or to modify an existing one to meet their special needs.
VA has three types of adapted housing grants available. The Specially
Adapted Housing grant, currently limited to $50,000, is generally used
to create a wheelchair-accessible home for those who may require such
assistance for activities of daily living.
VA's Home Loan Guaranty program and the Native American Direct Loan
program may also be used with the SAH benefit to purchase an adaptive
home.
The Special Housing Adaptations grant, currently limited to $10,000, is
generally used to assist veterans with mobility throughout their homes
due to blindness in both eyes, or the anatomical loss or loss of use of
both hands or extremities below the elbow.
A third type established by the new law, the Temporary Residence
Adaptation grant, is available to eligible veterans and seriously
injured active duty servicemembers who are temporarily living or intend
to temporarily live in a home owned by a family member.
While the SAH and SHA grants require ownership and title to a house, in
creating TRA Congress recognized the need to allow veterans and active
duty members who may not yet own homes to have access to the adaptive
housing grant program.
Under TRA, veterans and servicemembers eligible under the SAH program
would be permitted to use up to $14,000, and those eligible under the
SHA program would be allowed to use up to $2,000 of the maximum grant
amounts. Each grant would count as one of the three grants allowed under
the new program.
"The goal of all three grant programs is to provide a barrier-free
living environment that offers the country's most severely injured
veterans or servicemembers a level of independent living," added Dr.
Peake.
Other VA adaptive housing benefits are currently available through
Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Service's "Independent Living"
program, the Insurance Service's Veterans Mortgage Life Insurance
program, and the Veterans Health Administration's Home Improvement and
Structural Alterations grant.
For more information about grants and other adaptive housing programs,
contact a local VA regional office at 1-800-827-1000 or local veteran
service organization. Additional program information and grant
applications, VAF-26-4555, can be found at
http://www.homeloans.va.gov/sah.htm.
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10. HUMOR
Just before our first long deployment, two Navy buddies were talking
about the stress of leaving their families.
A senior officer, a veteran of many deployments, overheard our
conversation and offered the following advice:
“You must be sensitive to your wives' emotional needs,” he said. “Never,
ever, whistle while you pack!”
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Well... that's all for this Issue of the MoBoat News.
I truly hope this newsletter found you well.
Please continue spreading the word about ussmonticello.com. Feel free
to forward this Newsletter to anybody you think might find it
interesting.
If this Newsletter was forwarded to you and you'd like to subscribe,
just visit http://ussmonticello.com/newsletter.htm. All back issues
ofthe MoBoat News are also available there as well.
So long for now,
Bob Behm (Beamer)
Webmaster: USSMonticello.com
Former BM3
USS Monticello LSD 35 '69-'71
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