Rocky Mountain Navy Association Newsletter December 2016

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. 1 Issue 10

December 2016

Our next Rocky Mountain Navy Association luncheon is Wednesday, January 4, 2017 at the American Legion Post at I-25 and Yale (5400 East Yale.)

We are planning on having a speaker who we think will you will enjoy hearing 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 Video‌. our newsletter is just one way that information can be shared.

1 Click on links or photos for websites or more information

Feature Article of the Month On December 9, 2016, Rocky Mountain Navy made its first ever road trip. At 1030 AM about 20 members were in the court room of Judge Bonnie McLean.

Judge McLean is the presiding judge of the Veterans Trauma Court (VTC) in Colorado’s 18th Judicial District which includes Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln Counties.

The VTC or “Vet Court” is a state and grant funded program that provides an alternative to incarceration for U.S. military veterans with trauma spectrum disorders and/or substance abuse issues who have proven to be high risk and high need. Program participants agree to actively engage in treatment and counseling, make regular court appearances, and are intensively supervised. The VTC team assists participating veterans in accessing PTSD, domestic violence, mental health and/or substance abuse treatment. They are also connected to educational, housing, and employment resources. The VTC takes veterans regardless of their discharge status as we recognize that veterans lacking VA healthcare eligibility need our assistance. Peer support is also available.

Judge McLean currently has 29 “clients” as she calls them. There was one female client and the rest were male. The Vet Court in El Paso has approximately 100 clients. If the court, the district attorney and the defendant all agree, the defendant is admitted to the program with a guilty plea and a 90-day suspended sentence. If a client misses a random drug test or a counseling session or any of the mandatory events, the judge can lift the suspension for a day or week or longer at her discretion. This is not the goal of the court at all. Rehabilitation and treatment are the true goals. By virtue of being a veteran, it is assumed that there is a very high likelihood of PTSD for the clients. The court works closely with the VA and numerous other community based organizations to help bring the client back to the norms of society.

One normally thinks of a court as a strict formal setting, but this vet court was anything but. Seals of each service were on the wall behind the judge and it seems that the courtroom was littered with things that could help the clients out—coats, gloves, hats, some food items, personal care items etc. The judge spoke with each of the eight clients in this session in an almost conversational tone. The attending probation officer is asked to comment on what the client has failed to do and the judge uses her discretion from a warning (stern or friendly as appropriate) to a day or week of incarceration to get the client to follow the plan.

There is a program that lasts 18 months in four phases. Phase one is the most regimented and requires the client to come to court every week. Phase two is a little looser. Phase three is looser yet. In Phase four clients report to court monthly. A “graduation” is a celebration of a great deal of work and the client has no requirement after that event unless there is a new event that would bring him/her back into the justice system.

If a client has a “good” week, they can choose a token from a basket. Three types of awards are tied to the tokens: 1) a gift card 2) choose any one of the items in the courtroom or 3) every one, judge included, do 20 push-ups right there in the courtroom. Not many Rocky Mountain Navy members did the push- ups.

This event was most interesting and you are encouraged to go to the Vet Court any Friday at Merchandise……..

1030 AM to see this attempt to keep vets out of the jails. Just don’t be surprised if you are asked to do push-ups!

Article contributed by Pete Callaway, Rocky Mountain Navy Association Member Website…...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLfQYnHYsKg

2 Click on links or photos for websites or more information

How Elvis Helped Save the USS Arizona Memorial By: US Naval Institute Staff

Elvis did not forget the Arizona, and the Navy did not forget Elvis. When Elvis passed away in 1977, the Navy showed its gratitude by placing a wreath for him at the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial.

The Imperial Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 inflicted a brutal blow on the U.S. Pacific fleet but only two active ships were a total loss – U.S.S. Oklahoma and U.S.S. Arizona. Oklahomawas eventually refloated but was too badly damaged to repair and return to service. Arizona, however, had been devastated by a cataclysmic explosion caused by a bomb crashing through the deck and igniting the ship’s forward magazine. Nearly 80 percent of Arizona’s 1,512 crewmen were lost with most of them being entombed in the sunken ship The wreck immediately became a memorial as passing ships rendered honors to the Arizona and her crew throughout the war. Proposals to erect a permanent memorial were promoted as early as 1943 but it was not until 1949 that an organized effort began to take shape following the creation of the Pacific War Memorial Commission (PWMC). As the PWMC considered ideas to formally recognize the role of Hawaii during the war which would include a memorial to the Arizona, Admiral Arthur Radford had a flagstaff placed on the wreck in 1950 and ordered that the colors be raised at the site every day. This modest memorial was later expanded to include wooden platforms and a commemorative plaque. Requests for Federal funds to improve the memorial in the early 1950s were denied because U.S. military actions in Korea were deemed a priority.

Read article...

Elvis was not only pleased to be able to perform for an audience, he was a patriot who genuinely believed in the cause and wanted to help. The PWMC accepted Elvis’s generous offer and began making arrangements with the Navy to use the 4,000 seat Bloch Arena at Pearl Harbor as the venue for the concert.

Merchandise……..

htt

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

Click on links or photos for websites or more information

2

Internet Mining Factoids

Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 10 July 1945, after her final overhaul and repair of combat damage.

Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

A rendering of a laser countermeasure system spearheaded by the Air Force Research Laboratory. In August, Northrop Grumman Corp. won a contract to develop its beam control system.

With airplane lasers, the Pentagon is trying — again — to turn a 50-year-old vision into reality

By Samantha Masunaga—Contact Reporter Los Angeles Times

Read Article….

A fighter jet is soaring through unfriendly skies when its sensors detect a hurtling, incoming missile.

Within seconds, a pod on the fighter activates and shoots out a high-energy laser that destroys the threat.

This isn’t the stuff of science fiction. It’s the U.S. military trying once again to turn a 50 -year-old vision into reality.

Spurred by advances in laser technology, as well as the evolving capabilities of potential adversaries, defense firms are developing laser weapons systems, ranging from aircraft armed with a high-energy laser to attack ground targets to countermeasures to protect future fighter jets from missiles.

Article by Defense One: Pentagon: We’re Closer Than Ever to Lasers That Can Stop Iranian, North Korean Missiles 63 Click on links or photos for websites or more information

Book Reviews T H E F I R S T M E M O I R B Y A USS ARIZONA SURVIVOR: Donald Stratton, one of the battleship's five living heroes, delivers an "epic,"* "powerful,"** and "intima te"** eyewitness account of Pearl Harbor and his unforgettable return to the fight.

At 8:06 a.m. on December 7, 1941, Seaman First Class Donald Stratton was consumed by an inferno. A million pounds of explosives had detonated beneath his battle station aboard the USS Arizona, barely fifteen minutes into Japan’s surprise attack on American forces at Pearl Harbor. Near death and burned across two thirds of his body, Don, a nineteen-year-old Nebraskan who had been steeled by the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, summoned the will to haul himself hand over hand across a rope tethered to a neighboring vessel. Forty-five feet below, the harbor’s flaming, oil-slick water boiled with enemy bullets; all around him the world tore itself apart.

Click on links or photos for websites or more information

In this extraordinary never-before-told eyewitness account of the Pearl Harbor attack—the only memoir ever written by a survivor of the USS Arizona—ninety-four-year-old veteran Donald Stratton finally shares his unforgettable personal tale Bio... of bravery and survival on December 7, 1941, his harrowing recovery, and his inspiring determination to return to the fight.

Don and four other sailors made it safely across the same line that morning, a small miracle on a day that claimed the lives of 1,177 of their Arizona shipmates—approximately half the American fatalities at Pearl Harbor. Sent to military hospitals for a year, Don refused doctors’ advice to amputate his limbs and battled to relearn how to walk. The U.S. Navy gave him a medical discharge, believing he would never again be fit for service, but Don had unfinished business. In June 1944, he sailed back into the teeth of the Pacific War on a destroyer, destined for combat in the crucial battles of Leyte Gulf, Luzon, and Okinawa, thus earning the distinction of having been present for the opening shots and the final major battle of America’s Second World War.

All the Gallant Men is a book for the ages, one of the most remarkable—and remarkably inspiring— memoirs of any kind to appear in recent years.

In March of 2003, a coalition of countries headed by the United States invaded Iraq. Two months later, President Bush declared the end of major combat operations. It was almost a year later that the Navy recalled Paul Sherbo to active duty. At that time, one of Paul’s fellow Reservists was sure the war was winding down and Paul would be home in just six months. It wasn’t winding down. He was not home in six months.

Admitting he was “not one of the 19-year-old American warriors kicking in doors in Fallujah,” Paul says, it was nonetheless an expedition into unfamiliar territory. “I began this journey as a married father of three in my early 50s with a good job, a transplanted Iowa boy living and working in the Denver area. I was a captain in the Navy Reserve with a decent amount of sea-time on active duty behind me. None of this prepared me for a ground war insurgency in a desert. http://www.paulsherbo.com/ Colorado Author http://www.patriotmediainc.com/

4

Rocky Mountain Navy Association

News

View @ http://gdebchristenings.com/

Click on

Guided-Missile Destroyer USS Zumwalt Arrives in San Diego

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

Additional Articles Links: All Hands article on Zumwalt Class DDG http://spendergast.blogspot.com/2016/12/ ddg1000-uss-zumwalt-comes-to-home-port.html

Video‌.

5 Click on links or photos for websites or more information