US Navy – It was my privilege to have met CDR Laurel Clark at a NASA scientific meeting in Houston several years ago. She truely had the “Right Stuff.” She and her colleagues aboard the space shuttle Columbia who died so tragically yesterday will be missed, but never forgotten.

• Washington Post: Navy Kept Challenges Coming to Physician
• New York Times: Dr. Laurel Blair Salton Clark: After Sea and Sky Moving on to Space

Canadian Navy – Canada’s special operations unit, JTF-2, will take on maritime operations soon.

• CBC: JTF-2 plans maritime operations

Background – Iraq – The current war plan – “shock and awe???”

• New York Times: War Plan Calls for Precision Bombing Wave to Break Iraqi Army

Background – Information Warfare – The current state of development of network centric warfare.

• Aviation Week: Nascent Net-Centric War Gains Pentagon Toehold

Background – Iraq – The major problem with exile groups lies in the fact that they would have to be put in power by the United States and probably maintained there by American forces if they are to survive until a new constitutional regime can be established. With the exception of the Kurds, who cannot take over Baghdad on their own, the oppositionís leadership and organization is outside Iraq.

• Naval War College Review: Iraq the Day After – Internal Dynamics in Post-Saddam Iraq

US Navy – CINCPAC has requested the USS Carl Vinson battlegroup as a deterrent against North Korea.

• New York Times: Admiral Seeks Deterrent Force in Korea Crisis

US Navy – Life aboard the amphibious transport dock USS Austin in the Gulf.

• Virginian Pilot: Norfolk-based amphibious group patrols Persian Gulf

US Navy – Aboard some of the smaller ships in the USS Kearsarge amphibious ready group.

• Virginian Pilot: Smaller Navy ships bullied by rough seas

Background – Information War – The US military faces a bandwidth crunch.

• Wired: Military Faces Bandwidth Crunch

Background – Merchant Marine – Looking back at 2002 and forward to 2003 for the Merchant Marine.

• Sea Power: Red Sky in the Morning