US Navy – Navy hoping ''pre-sea swap'' prepares crews for ship switch

Virginian Pilot – When sailors were so disappointed with a new Navy program that they thought about quitting, service leaders apparently listened. The ìSea Swapî experiment, which essentially deploys ships for as long as two years while changing out its crews, will now be modified so that participants can get used to the idea before they ever leave their home port.
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Geopolitics / Energy – Are Rising Oil Prices a Case of the Jitters Ö or a Harbinger of Longer Term Problems?????

Defense and the National Interest – Is the price of oil going to be permanently increased? And how is the insurgency in Iraq contributing to this. An interesting followup to the prior piece from Defense and the National Interest on how the Iraqi insurgents are targeting Iraq’s oil infrastructure???
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US Navy – CNA Report on Sea Swap Exercises Gives Experiment Mixed Reviews

Sea Power – The U.S. Navyís Sea Swap experiment was ìclearly a success,î according to a new report about the program, with the ships involved maintaining a high level of readiness during the roughly 18-month study period. But the same report questions whether the savings offered by the swaps ó in funding and operations ó are worth the burden the program places on sailors in terms of work and quality of life.

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US Marines – Marine Corps Fratricide Reduction Efforts

Marine Corps Gazette – As the column of Marines advanced north to secure a strategic Euphrates River bridge just south of the city of An Nasiriyah they observed Iraqi soldiers along the roadside who appeared to be surrendering. Upon approaching them, the Iraqis opened fire with assault rifles and rocket propelled grenades. The Marines took cover in and around their assault amphibious vehicles and began to return fire, and then, in an incident tragically reminiscent of an engagement that occurred 12 years earlier during Operation Desert Storm, a U.S. Air Force Añ10 Thunderbolt strafed the columnódestroying one of the vehicles and killing as many as nine Marines.
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