Bytemarks

As commented by MacProHawaii, we’ve had a full month of watching US military exercises in Hawaii. The final RIMPAC 2010 exercise was an amphibious assault by the joint forces of the US Marines 3rd Battalion and Royal Australian Regiment. In the above video the amphibious assault vehicles (AAV) are shown leaving the USS Cleveland. Our [...]

[Read more →]

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 [...]

[Read more →]

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 [...]

[Read more →]

Friday’s F-22 Arrival Ceremony was quite the event. In addition to the social media contingent, which included Marc Orbito, Ricky Li, David Lau, Gabriel Yanagihara, Lee J Hopkinson, Greg Yamane, Brian Dote, Ian Kitajima and me, there where a few hundred guests of the Air Force and joint services. Hula performance was done by Robert [...]

[Read more →]

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 [...]

[Read more →]

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

[Read more →]

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 [...]

[Read more →]

Without a doubt watching the F-18 Hornet catapult off the flight deck of the USS Nimitz is an intense, awesome and full-body experience. The jet engine noise will penetrate to your bones. We had both foam ear plugs and over that wore headphones. Even with the double protection you could hear and feel the power [...]

[Read more →]

I just put together this Animoto video of some photos from my embark to the USS Nimitz. The entire set of photos are on Flickr for your viewing pleasure. I am also working on posting my videos. So bear with me as I unfold all this content of my trip.

[Read more →]

I’ve got my mission orders. It was sent from Theresa Donnelly, LTJG COMPACFLT via email to meet at the Nimitz Gate at Pearl Harbor Naval Base this morning to embark on a tour of the US Navy Aircraft Carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68). With all this excitement I could barely sleep last night. The mission [...]

[Read more →]