Bytemarks

That image to the right is not the Admiral’s Barge. It’s the Sea-Based X-band Radar or SBX. But had it not been for Rear Admiral Dixon Smith and his “Barge”, I would have been able to get this close up view. The SBX is one of those vessels you see out of the corner of [...]

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This has been the month of RIMPAC 2010 and the PACOM and PACAF offices are working overtime to expose the media to all the varied activities taking place around Hawaii. This past Friday, several of us joined the crew of the C-17 on a practice mission over Hawaii Island. We met at the Hickam Gate [...]

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Along side the MAARS was another interesting robotic vehicle called GUSS, the Ground Unmanned Support Surrogate. The team shown included (from left to right) Jesse Hurdus, Torc; Alfred Wicks, Virginia Tech; and Capt. Tim Bove, Marine Corp. Warfighting Laboratory. On first appearances, GUSS looks like a Polaris jeep equipped with antennae and sensors.  The units [...]

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In addition to the “big iron” being used in RIMPAC exercises, there are examples of “little iron” robots being field tested to protect and support the ground forces. I got a chance to see a couple of them this past weekend. Shown in the photo is the Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System (MAARS) unit manufactured [...]

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The USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) is just one of 32 vessels in Hawaii for the Rim of the Pacific exercises held every two years. My run on Sunday morning takes me along Pearl Harbor and the Arizona Memorial. I shot this photo from the Visitor Center area. It is pretty amazing how many ships are [...]

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En route on its mission: Pacific Partnership 2010, the USNS Mercy docked in Pearl Harbor to pick up supplies and volunteers from Hawaii, before heading off to Guam. The weekend stopover also allowed ship personnel to spend a brief moment in Hawaii. But judging from the amount of visitors filing through the ship, there was [...]

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The USS Chung-Hoon is an Aegis Class Destroyer that has a particular tie to Hawaii. The ship is named after Rear Admiral Gordon Pai`ea Chung-Hoon, a local of Hawaiian/Chinese ancestory who was the recipient of the Navy Cross and Silver Star for heroism as commanding officer of USS Sigsbee (DD-502) from May 1944 to October 1945. On April [...]

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Approach to the USS Santa Fe from our transport vessel, a torpedo weapons retriever. Riding the sail of the USS Santa Fe

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A friend of mine in college was studying to be a nuclear engineer and after graduating headed off to the Navy to do his tour of duty on a submarine. At the time I could not comprehend what 6 months on the sub really meant. I probably still don’t fully understand although having the opportunity [...]

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We stood near the achor point of the arrest cable used to catch the planes as they land. From this vantage point you can almost touch the F-18 as it approaches and flies in for a landing. The arrest cable is about 3 inches in diameter and when the F-18 catches it you can feel [...]

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