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| -Short Attention Span Theater- | |
| Navy Gets Upset, Pulls Video From YouTube | |
| 2007-08-18 | |
| The Navy has pulled the plug on a YouTube video shot aboard the San Diego-based aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan because it shows sailors inappropriately using safety equipment, a Navy spokesman said. The four-minute, 18-second music clip, titled “Women of CVN76: 'That Don't Impress Me Much,' ” was posted May 23 on the popular Web site for videos. It was viewed more than 31,000 times before its removal last week – reportedly at the urging of Adm. Kirkland Donald, the Navy's director of nuclear propulsion. Navy commanders have counseled the airman who produced the footage, said Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Brown, a spokesman for the San Diego-based Naval Air Forces command. The incident illustrates the challenges that the military faces in an age of digital cameras and online video-sharing. The Pentagon frequently has found itself on the defensive – for security or other reasons – on issues involving the Internet and technology. The theme of the Reagan video, set to a tune by country singer Shania Twain, is that women serving aboard the Reagan can do the same jobs as men. Until 1994, the Pentagon barred women from serving on combat ships. “The video was a lighthearted and positive depiction of the service of women officers and sailors aboard aircraft carriers and in Navy squadrons,” Brown said. “It showed the good humor and camaraderie of the ship's crew.” But it also included fleeting shots of the door to the ship's nuclear power plant and of a sailor dancing while wearing a full-body radiation suit – items that might alarm the Navy's nuclear-propulsion officials, who are hypersensitive about the security. Under Pentagon rules, images of any part of a ship's nuclear plant cannot be shown to foreign nationals. “The nuclear community is totally paranoid,” said Norman Polmar, an independent Navy analyst from Alexandria, Va. “They should be security conscious. But we're not the only people in the world with nuclear technology.” Brown denied that anything in the video compromised operational security. What worried Navy officials, he said, was the “lack of propriety” in a few scenes involving the use of safety equipment. Neither the Navy nor the ship's command sponsored the video, Brown said. But “Women of CVN76” spotlighted sailors from many departments of the carrier. Even the commanding officer, Capt. Terry Kraft, made a cameo appearance. Brown said someone brought the video to the Navy's attention last week. Kraft was then summoned to the Pentagon for a meeting with Donald, a four-star flag officer who is near the top of the Navy's chain of command.
Earlier this year, the Army tightened regulations on war-zone bloggers out of fear that enemy fighters would glean useful intelligence from them. Last week, the military newspaper Navy Times revealed that the online mapping site Google Earth carried a satellite photo that showed the exposed propeller of a U.S. nuclear submarine in drydock. The propeller is considered to be highly sensitive military technology. Recently, the Department of Defense cut off access to 11 Web sites – including YouTube and MySpace, a social-networking forum – from its workplace computers. In doing so, Pentagon officials cited concerns about the amount of bandwidth used in accessing the sites, but some critics said it amounted to censorship. At the same time, the Defense Department has used YouTube to post battle footage from Iraq, according to The Washington Post. “It's kind of a double-edged sword,” said William Knowles, a Chicago-based analyst who operates C4I.org, a Web site about government and military security. “It's one thing to have digital cameras on the battlefield, on the warship. But you'd hope there would be guidelines (about how to use them).” Staying ahead of the latest technology is immensely difficult for Pentagon security officers, analysts say. “It's just like wildfire,” said Fred Villella, a retired Army colonel from Encinitas who runs the military security consulting firm System Defenses International. “I don't know if we're ever going to be able to catch up with the capabilities that are out there.” | |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #7 Thanks Pappy for proving my point. We're talking about a sailor dancing wearing rad equipment, not opening the seals to look at the pretty blue glow. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2007-08-18 18:42 |
| #6 What this means is "Do not f*ck with Naval Reactors NavSea 08". |
| Posted by: Penguin 2007-08-18 18:15 |
| #5 Pappy's got a point. Here in Computer Land, when things go tits-up, we just reboot the server. Maybe some lost business and whiney customers. In the military, when it all goes wrong you end up with twisted, smoking wreckage and dead comrades. It's like running with scissors - explosive, fragmentation scissors. They can't afford mistakes. Sometimes being a 'tight-assed prick' can have survival value. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2007-08-18 12:42 |
| #4 Maybe things are getting a little out of hand No, I rather think things are DEFINITIVELY getting a little out of hand : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwFk2VaDXok |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2007-08-18 12:26 |
| #3 Maybe things are getting a little out of hand: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEkYqL9n7vo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqaWdkdFb3Y http://youtube.com/watch?v=puVmKfCwb4M |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-08-18 12:19 |
| #2 Which NAVY are you talking about, Redneck? The nukes, the airdales, the SeaBees, the SEALS, the boomers, the bubble-heads, the FMF, or the skimmers? Humor? The Thresher was a real knee-slapper, eh? And the Forrestal, the Thach and the Belknap all had great punchlines. I bet a nuke-accident would certainly cause great amusement. I bet it's especially funny when a cat-launch goes wrong, a marine falls overboard, or an AB gets hit by a rotor. I found it especially amusing when I got wounded during an operation because somebody fucked up. The two-year hospital stay and rehab was real Comedy-Central material. Yeah, we officers should stand back and laugh our fucking fool heads off. If and when you pull your head out of your ass, do some research on the number of Navy nuke accidents. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2007-08-18 12:08 |
| #1 The NAVY always were tight-assed pricks, no humor seen or present in their Officer ranks. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2007-08-18 11:12 |