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



On Display - Royal Navy Battlecruiser HMS Hood, 1941

Kostas Katseas (angeleyes) shares his latest build, Royal Navy Battlecruiser HMS Hood, 1941 in this MSW "On Display" Feature.




Enterprise Departs for Sea Trials
Source: US Navy

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. --- USS Enterprise (CVN 65) departed Northrop Grumman Newport News Shipyard April 17 to conduct sea trials.

The ship will be testing equipment, running system checks and making certain that Enterprise is ready to be delivered to the fleet.

"It's kind of like buying a car," said Cmdr. Edward M. Galvin, Enterprise's operations officer. "You have to take the car out for a test drive to try out all of its systems. That's what we'll be doing with sea trials: taking the keys from Northrop Grumman and trying the ship out."

Also getting underway with Enterprise during the trials are key members of Northrop Grumman who will help make sure the ship is ready for the open water.

"I am very confident and hopeful that the next place we'll be pulling into will be Naval Station Norfolk," said Galvin. "I think everyone is ready to get back out to sea."

Upon the successful completion of sea trials, Northrop Grumman will deliver the ship to the fleet, and Enterprise will begin preparing for deployment.

"This will mark the culmination of our shipyard work," said Galvin. "At that point, we'll be able to shift our focus from fixing the ship to combat presence, our real job."

After the completion of sea trials, Enterprise will begin preparing for full-scale flight operations.

"The next time we go out will be for flight deck certification," said Galvin.

The end of every day marks another step closer to Enterprise beginning her 21st deployment in her 48 years of service.

Enterprise is currently conducting sea trials in preparation for her return to the fleet.


Northrop Grumman-Built William P. Lawrence Christened; Legacy of Former POW Honored
Source: Northrop Grumman Corp.

PASCAGOULA, Miss. --- In a traditional U.S. Navy ceremony, Northrop Grumman Corporation christened its 28th Aegis guided missile destroyer, William P. Lawrence (DDG 110), in front of more than 2,000 guests today at the company's Shipbuilding sector in Pascagoula, Miss.

DDG 110 honors the late Vice Adm. William P. Lawrence, who spent nearly six years as a prisoner of war (POW) in North Vietnam. He later served as superintendent of the Naval Academy.

"At Northrop Grumman, we plan to build more of these warships," said Mike Petters, corporate vice president and president of Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding. "We will ensure that they are the safest, most capable and most cost-efficient ships that they can be. It's also our shipbuilding family's commitment to the Navy and to future war fighters, who will carry on the fight, valor, and honor of Admiral William P. Lawrence."

Texas businessman and former presidential candidate H. Ross Perot, who attended the Naval Academy with Vice Adm. Lawrence, delivered the principal address.

"He lived Winston Churchill's shortest speech -- never give in," Perot said. "I can't think of a more appropriate motto for the USS William P. Lawrence. I know that all of you who are building this ship will continue to set the highest standards of leadership and integrity, and the crew that comes aboard will also do the same."

"Through this magnificent new warship and the name she bears, we honor the very best in human nature and the American spirit -- Vice Admiral William P. Lawrence," said Rear Adm. William Landay III, Program Executive Officer, Ships. "We are moved and inspired by what he accomplished throughout his naval career, but equally by who he was -- an individual of uncommon character and decency."

Adm. Landay added, "The United States Navy is the preeminent naval power in the world because of the powerful combination and remarkable abilities of the American sailor and the American shipbuilder."

Ship sponsors Diane Wilcox Lawrence, widow of Vice Adm. Lawrence, and Vice Adm. Lawrence's daughters, Laurie Macpherson Lawrence and retired U.S. Navy Capt. Wendy B. Lawrence, christened the ship by simultaneously breaking champagne bottles across its bow.

"Sail with the honor of the man whose name you bear," all three sponsors said in unison.

U.S. Navy Cmdr. Tom Williams is the prospective commanding officer of the ship and will lead the crew of 276 officers and enlisted personnel. The 9,200-ton ship is 509 feet in length, has a waterline beam of 59 feet, and a navigational draft of 31 feet. Four gas turbine engines will power the ship to speeds in excess of 30 knots.

William P. Lawrence (DDG 110) is a part of the Arleigh Burke (DDG 51)-class of guided missile destroyers. Arleigh Burke is one of the destroyer classes of the United States Navy and is built around the Aegis combat system and the SPY-1D multi-function phased array radar. The Arleigh Burke-class ships are the U.S. Navy's only active destroyers and are among the largest and most powerful destroyers ever built, both larger and more heavily armed than many previous cruisers.




History in the Making: First F-35B Lightning II Squadron Stands Up
Source: US Marine Corps

EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --- A small squadron of Marines marched toward the future of military aviation, April 2. Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501, currently only 37-Marines strong, stood up as the Marine Corps’ F-35B Lightning II training squadron in a ceremony at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.

The squadron is the nation’s first training squadron for the new Joint Strike Fighter, making the ceremony not only a first for the Marine Corps, but for the entire Department of Defense.

"We are beginning a new chapter of Marine aviation," said Lt. Col. James B. Wellons, VMFAT-501’s commanding officer. "This is an honor and an opportunity of a lifetime."

The Joint Strike Fighter program was developed as a means to replace several Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps aircraft with a single jet. The Marine Corps’ variant, the F-35B, will be the only version with short takeoff and vertical landing capabilities.

The F-35B is slated to replace the AV-8B Harrier and F/A-18 Hornet fighter and attack aircraft currently in the Corps’ inventory. The Lightning II is also proposed to have electronic countermeasures capabilities like those of the EA-6B Prowler.

"We have held out on buying another attack aircraft for 11 years," said Maj. Shawn M. Basco, VMFAT-501’s executive officer. "We have been waiting for the F-35B to come along and provide us with an all-STOVL force. We will have the capabilities of a Harrier, some organic in a Prowler and some effects and capabilities of a Hornet in one aircraft."

Over the course of the next year, the training squadron is scheduled to receive its first of 20 F-35B Lightning II aircraft, allowing hands-on training for pilots and maintainers.

But, senior Marine leaders on hand for the ceremony said they are confident the squadron’s Marines will be up to the task.

"There are great challenges ahead, but like the introduction of a lot of other aircraft, we will get through this," said Maj. Gen. James F. Flock, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing’s commanding general. "We have hard-charging Marines who make up VMFAT-501, and they are the Marines that are going to train the future pilots and maintainers of our Joint Strike Fighter squadrons."

Though VMFAT-501 may be America’s first training squadron for the F-35 aircraft, the squadron itself is steeped in history.

The squadron’s legacy comes from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 451, which was originally formed during World War II as an F4U Corsair squadron. The squadron saw combat in Japan in 1945, and later flew F-4 Phantoms over Vietnam in the 1960s.

The "Warlords" of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 451 were retired in 1997. The squadron was reactivated at the National Museum of Naval Aviation aboard Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla., April 1, to be re-designated as VMFAT-501.

It is military tradition to re-designate retired squadrons instead of creating new ones so that history may be continued rather than lost.

"This generation of Warlords is standing on the shoulders of the ones before it," said Gen. James F. Amos, the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps. "They will make history in many ways by flying an aircraft most people have never seen."




USS Henry Clay

Today’s website is USS Henry Clay. Enjoy.


This Day in U.S. Naval History

1796 - Congress authorizes the completion of three frigates.
1861 - Norfolk Navy Yard in Virginia is abandoned and burned by Union forces.
1914 - In the first call to action of naval aviators, a detachment on USS Birmingham sailed to Tampico, Mexico.
1915 - The first Navy contract for lighter-than-air craft is awarded.
1942 - USS Wasp (CV 7) launches 47 British aircraft to reinforce Malta.
1947 - Navy Capt. L.O. Fox, supported by 80 Marines, accepted the surrender of Lt. Yamaguchi and 26 Japanese soldiers and sailors, two-and-a-half years after the occupation of Peleliu and nearly 20 months after the surrender of Japan.
1953 - USS New Jersey (BB 62) shells Wonsan, Korea, from inside the harbor.
1964 - USS Henry Clay (SSBN 625) launches a Polaris A-2 missile from the surface in the first demonstration that Polaris submarines could launch missiles from the surface as well as from beneath the ocean. Thirty minutes later, the submarine launched another Polaris missile while submerged.


Photo of the Day



USS Henry Clay (SSBN 625) launches a Polaris A-2 missile from the surface.

Gator