RockyMountain Navy Association Newsletter March 2017

Rocky Mountain Navy Association

News The Rocky Mountain Navy Association (RMNA) is a not-for-profit, organization to promote the United States Navy and the Naval Reserve in the local community. Specific out reach efforts have been extended to civic organizations, educational institutions, and the business community. RMNA also provides mission support to the local recruiting command and offers a wide variety of professional development assistance programs to the naval reserve community. Newsletter Contact: James Garrett, CAPT, USNR (Ret.), garrettj3745@yahoo.com Vol. 2 Issue 3

March 2017

Reminding you of next monthly RMNA Luncheon at the American Legion Post, 5400 East Yale, Denver (southeast corner of I-25 and Yale), on Wednesday, April 12th, gathering around 11:30 a.m. Our Guest Speaker will be Richard "Dick" Life, Captain, US Navy (Ret). (see page 2 for details.)

See You There!

This newsletter is posted online to our website at (www.navrescolorado.org) and Facebook page at (https://www.facebook.com/RockyMountainNavyAssociation/)

RMNA Interests and Activities Denver Council of Navy League https://www.facebook.com/Denver-Navy-League-295522804808/ Colorado ESGR

https://www.facebook.com/colorado.esgr.1

Navy Recruiting District Denver http://www.cnrc.navy.mil/Denver/ Navy Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) http://www.nrotc.navy.mil/ U. S. Naval Academy Blue and Gold http://www.usna.edu/Admissions/BGO/ USS Colorado (SSN 788) Commissioning Committee http://usscoloradocommittee.org/ Members Annual Golf Tournament

Do you have an idea or a success story to share? Maybe you’ve heard of an upcoming event that we should all support. Send me your ideas @ garrettj3745@yahoo.com. There are so many interesting experiences and opportunities to learn and our newsletter is just one way that information can be shared.

“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.”- Video….

Alexander Graham Bell (patented the telephone in 1876) 1 Click on links or photos for websites or more information

Photo: 1975 Moscow May Day Parade: 12 year old Rick Life with LCDR Dick Life, US Navy, at Lenin's Tomb. Leonid Brezhnev is on the Tomb behind them.

Background: Estes Park resident Richard "Dick" Life, Captain, US Navy (Ret), an intelligence collector and analyst, has lived and worked in the international arena continuously since 1962, and is uniquely qualified to address national security issues and regional hot spots. He is a 1962 graduate of the US Naval Academy, who earned an MA in Russian Area Studies from Georgetown University, and as a senior officer graduated from the US Army War College.

A diesel submariner, who became an intelligence officer, Dick was trained by the Defense Intelligence Agency and CIA. He was involved in some 50 countries, including three tours of duty in Vietnam conducting covert submarine operations, serving with Marines, and in Saigon as Chief of Navy Intelligence Collection.

In 1974-76 he was an Assistant Naval AttachĂŠ in the US Embassy, Moscow, and in the late 1980s led Navy and Marine Corps human intelligence (HUMINT) operations from offices in Munich, Berlin and the Persian Gulf during the fall of the Berlin Wall, meltdown of the USSR, and Desert Shield/ Storm.

Program: "Understanding Russian Leaders = Putin" While living in and traveling about the USSR collecting intelligence Dick interacted with a broad spectrum of Soviet citizens, ranging from senior Communist Party officials and military officers, to shop keepers and laborers.

This presentation addresses unprecedented political, economic, & social developments in Russia since 1992, & explores President Putin's - & former President Medvedev's - seemingly alarming decisions in the context of the czarist and communist eras.

As Russia has a crucial role to play in the US relationship to Ukraine, Syria, Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan, and other potential global hot spots, this is a very timely topic.

2 Click on links or photos for websites or more information

Internet Mining Factoids

If some graphics are unreadable in the current size, just zoom the pdf to increase the size.

Panel: Shift in South Korean Government Could Alter Relationship with Beijing, Pyongyang By: John Grady March 8, 2017 8:11 AM

The political turmoil over the impeachment of the South Korean president raises troubling questions about Seoul’s direction when it comes to security relations with the United States, Japan, China and its northern neighbor….

Click here … link to article.

Article on Ballistic Missile Defense (South Korea) here….

North Korean Infantry parade in Pyongyang.

Korean Central News Agency Photo

Click here for video of THAAD Ballistic Missile Defense System

63 Click on links or photos for websites or more information

March is “Women’s History Month”.

In honor of Women's History Month, here are some select nuggets of wisdom culled from Eleanor Roosevelt’s debut book. Most people remember Eleanor Roosevelt as a first lady, United Nations diplomat, and humanitarian, but she was also a prolific writer. Roosevelt wrote 27 books—and her first one, an advice book for American ladies called It’s Up to the Women, was published shortly after President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1933 inauguration.

“It’s Up to the Women” contains an eclectic assortment of wisdom. Naturally, the book offers reflections on women's changing roles in society, and tips for living through the Great Depression. But even by modern standards, it still yields plenty of good, common sense advice for women and men alike, on everything from health to doing one's civic duty. For example: ON MONEY Roosevelt wrote It’s Up to the Women during the Great Depression, so the nation's economic downturn weighed heavily on her mind. She advocated a frugal lifestyle, and even devoted an entire chapter to the importance of budgeting (“A budget is a necessary evil no matter how dull you may find it,” she conceded). However, Roosevelt also acknowledged that we sometimes need to throw austerity to the wind and splurge on little things: "No one can really decide [what to spend our money on] for us because to some people certain things mean more than to others,” she wrote. “I should be most unhappy if I could not buy new books but having beefsteak for dinner would mean nothing to me whatsoever!”

Roosevelt also had plenty of advice for fashion on a budget: Buy only what you need, spend more money on quality clothing items that will stand the test of time, and jazz up a tired ensemble with fresh accessories. “One can usually count on a coat lasting two seasons, but a new hat will frequently make people think that everything one has on is new,” she wrote. Good style, Roosevelt concluded, is the product of taste and a carefully curated wardrobe—not money.

ON HEALTH Taking the time to maintain a healthy lifestyle is important for your health as well as the wellbeing of those close to you. “Your physical condition rests on your mental condition and on your spiritual attitude toward life,” Roosevelt wrote. “A nervous and irritable person can do little to make life pleasant for those around her; therefore it is up to us to study our physical needs well and to budget our lives to meet these requirements.”

Roosevelt rattled off a list of tips that would make any physician proud: Eat nutritious meals, get fresh air, keep your brain sharp with hobbies, and exercise. She also recommended staying mindful of your food choices, indulging in moderation, and eating slowly. Try dining with “some congenial companion" to pace yourself, she suggested, but “a book will do if no human is at hand!”

Sleep is also important—but don't get too freaked out if you experience bouts of insomnia. “People who do not sleep should not worry about it,” Roosevelt wrote. “They should lie there and rest and think about pleasant things. They will either fall asleep or, at the worst, get up next morning perhaps a little less refreshed but still quite able to do their daily tasks and retire early the next.”

ON DOING YOUR CIVIC DUTY Not everyone has time to be politically active, but as a U.S. citizen, it'sMerchandise…….. your duty to stay informed and "use [your] vote as intelligently as possible," Roosevelt wrote. Don't vote for a candidate just because your family is, or because of regional prejudices: “A vote is never an intelligent vote when it is cast without knowledge. Just doing what someone else tells you to do without any effort to find out what the facts are for yourself is being a poor citizen.

“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.”- Alexander Graham Bell (patented the telephone on this date in 1876) 4 Click on links or photos for websites or more information

NEWS ITEMS

Navy Subs Can't Stop Losing Their Noise-Dampening Skins Designed to deaden noise, flaps of the rubbery material are falling off at sea.

The U.S. Navy's Virginia-class submarines are the most advanced submarines in the world.

Nuclear-powered and capable of launching cruise missiles and torpedoes, they're formidable underwater opponents. But they still haven't licked one problem: Their rubber coatings are falling off.

The Honolulu Star Advertiser has an article about the return of the Virginia-class sub USS Mississippi to its homeport of Pearl Harbor. In the photo accompanying the article, the five year old Mississippi is missing large amounts of the coating, called Special Hull Treatment (SHT), which appears have peeled away while the sub was at sea. The photo is viewable here.

The key to a submarine's survival is evading detection. One way U.S. Navy submarines evade detection is by lowering their noise profile. So-called anechoic coatings consist of rubber tiles that are affixed to the hull with glue, coating as much of it as possible. The rubber tiles break up sound waves that bounce against the hull, reducing the submarine's acoustic signature and making it more difficult to detect via sonar. They also deaden sound emanating from inside the submarine.

The problem, according to naval expert Norman Polmar, is the glue that affixes the tiling to the hull. The glue is exposed to a wide variety of environmental conditions, including big temperature swings as well as the pressures of operating at 1,000 feet beneath the surface.

The friction of moving underwater tugs at the coating, and running into objects contributes to it gradually sloughing off.

The SHT problem first surfaced in the civilian world in 2010, when the blog NextNavy brought the issue to light. The Navy has been aware of the issue since 2006 and has been trying to fix it. A 2014 article by the Navy Metalworking Center claimed it had developed an improved process that would go on new submarines starting in 2018, and retrofitted to older subs in 2016. It is not known if Mississippi had received the new coating process.

Video‌.

5 Click on links or photos for websites or more information

102nd Navy Reserve birthday celebration

Vice Adm. Luke M. McCollum, left, chief of Navy Reserve, and Force Master Chief CJ Mitchell, force master chief of the Navy Reserve, prepare to cut the Navy Reserve birthday cake during the 102nd Navy Reserve birthday celebration at the U.S. Navy Memorial. The Navy Reserve was officially established March 3, 1915 by combining 17 state naval militias into a single federal force. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jonathan L. Correa/ Released) March 7, 2017

Bio...

Click here for Video ˃

Click here for Story ˃ UPDATED: Marines with 11th MEU Join the Ground Fight in Syria Marines from an amphibious task force have left their ships in the Middle East and deployed to Syria, establishing an outpost from which they can fire artillery guns in support of the fight to oust the Islamic State from the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, defense officials said.

Sources: Washington Post, USNI News

6

Read Poplar Mechanics Article Here‌..

Click on links or photos for websites or more information

Bio...

7