Welcome to MSW’s Scuttlebutt! Here’s the news for the day.



Community Build Session 6 Results
Results are in, mates, for the 6th session of our Community Build. Follow the links to see the voting.
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MSW Word of the Day
Associate editor Jim Adams broadens our vocabulary each morning with a new naval term. This week highlights the events surrounding Pearl Harbor.
Word of the day




Pit-Road’s Computer Wallpaper of the Month

Today’s website is Pit-Road’s Computer Wallpaper of the Month. This month the wallpaper is the box art of “IJN Escort HEI Type”. Enjoy.
Website of the day




This Day in U.S. Naval History

1918 - President Woodrow Wilson sails in USS George Washington for Paris Peace Conference.
1943 - Aircraft from USS Lexington (CV 16) and USS Independence (CVL 22) attack Kwajalein Atoll, sinking four Japanese ships and damaging five others while only three U.S. ships suffered damage.
1944 - USS Flasher (SS 249) sinks Japanese destroyer Kishinami and damages a merchant ship in the South China Sea. Flasher is only U.S. submarine to sink over 100,000 tons of enemy shipping in World War II.
1965 - Gemini 7, piloted by Cmdr. James A. Lovell, is launched. This flight consisted of 206 orbits at an altitude of 327 km, lasting 13 days and 18 hours. HS-11 helicopters from USS Wasp (CVS 18) lead the recovery efforts.
1983 - Aircraft from USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67) and USS Independence (CV 62) strike against the anti-aircraft positions in Lebanon that fired on U.S. aircraft Dec. 3. Two U.S. Navy planes are shot down in the strike.


NORAD Tracks Santa Web Site Going Live
Source: North American Aerospace Defense Command

The North American Aerospace Defense Command is again getting ready to track Santa! On Dec. 1, the NORAD Tracks Santa (NTS) Web site, www.noradsanta.org, will go live and feature fun holiday games and activities that will change daily.

On Dec. 24, Christmas Eve, NORAD will begin tracking Santa Claus' journey via live video feeds that begin at the following times:

-- 3 a.m. Pacific Standard Time
-- 4 a.m. Mountain Standard Time
-- 5 a.m. Central Standard Time
-- 6 a.m. Eastern Standard Time
-- 11 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time


The Web site, designed by Booz Allen Hamilton, allows fans of all ages to get up-to-the-minute reports and streaming videos from key stops on Santa's trip around the world. Google software will output live images from NORAD's high-speed digital "Santa Cams," and Google Maps and Google Earth will follow Santa as he travels around the world.

All of this information is available in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and new this year, Chinese. In addition, for the first time, Canada Post will partner with NORAD to ensure children around the world can send an email to Santa through the NTS Web site. The NTS program is carried out with the assistance of many corporate partners.

The NORAD Tracks Santa (NTS) program began on Dec. 24, 1955, after an errant phone call was made to the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. The call was from a local youngster who dialed a misprinted telephone number in a local newspaper advertisement.

The commander who answered the phone that night gave the youngster the information requested -- the whereabouts of Santa Claus. This began the tradition of tracking Santa Claus, a tradition that was carried on by NORAD when it was formed in 1958. This Christmas marks the 50th anniversary of NORAD tracking Santa Claus as he goes around the world delivering presents.

The NTS program has grown immensely since first presented on the Internet in 1998. In 2007, the Web site received 10.6 plus million unique visitors from 212 countries and territories.

In addition, the NTS Operations Center, occupied by 1,012 volunteers on Christmas Eve, answered nearly 95,000 phone calls and received 140,000 emails from families around the world.


Beginning Of a Busy Operational Period
Source: Royal Navy

HMS Endurance has just arrived at South Georgia where she will be busy for the next two weeks. Endurance is very different from other Navy ships in many ways. One of these is the large number of civilians that come with us on deployment. Most of these change each operational period, which last about 2-3 weeks. Endurance facilitates the stakeholders in getting to these remote locations and carry out work there; be it research, filming, conservation, painting or exploring.

The last Operational Period was a chance to put the ship through her paces after several months away from the ice, as well as allowing many of the crew to become familiar with manoeuvres such as ice breaking. There were BBC and Channel Five film crews onboard as well as an artist but the focus was mainly on the ship’s crew with training for the Royal Marines, surveying, diving and a boat camp to do further surveying.

This period is much busier. At the Falklands the ship picked up all the stakeholders. These are: The British Antarctic Survey (BAS), consisting of 7 scientists and support staff who will be doing a variety of research including geology, lake coring and wildlife surveys. The British Schools Exploring Society (BSES) have 19 gap year students and leaders who will be conducting penguin surveys and investigations into elephant and fur seal populations; the team will also participate in glaciological research studies. The BBC have 4 people on the ship this period who will have cameras in the air and in the water as they look for a variety of wildlife to film for Frozen Planet, made by the same team that produced Planet Earth. Finally 4 people from Spiderlight Films are still onboard, and will be staying with the ship for the rest of the deployment in order to create a documentary of Endurance for Channel Five.

Now that HMS Endurance has arrived at South Georgia all these people are being flown and boated on and off the ship to conduct their work in a stunning, untouched but unpredictable environment. The ship is working hard at getting all the stakeholders where they need to be and is also conducting other work. Surveying, geodetics and magnetics need to be done around South Georgia as the area is largely unsurveyed, the work that Endurance is doing will make it safer for all future ships. Endurance has also assisted in removing some BAS huts for environmental reasons; and the Royal Marines are attempting to recreate Shackleton’s walk across the island. Many of these tasks are weather dependant and so all onboard and ashore, whether civilian or naval, are hoping for enough days of fine weather in order to achieve the tasking as well as to view the spectacular scenery that South Georgia has to offer.


Photo of the Day



Battleship USS Arizona (BB-39) survivors Lauren Bruner, left, Glenn Lane and Edward Wentzlaff view the list of 1,177 perished Sailors and Marines in the shrine room of the USS Arizona Memorial.

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