Saturday morning started off chilly, with a grey sky and the threat of rain. At the Wall, the fallen were remembered and Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Greenert gave tribute. Eleven new names were added.

Towards the end of ceremony the sun came out, blue skies appeared, and the temperature noticeably warmed. 

Old friends and teammates were in abundance, and the day moved from grief towards the celebration of life at the Memorial Ball that night.

I’d say I wish that no new names will be added next year, but that’s already busted. Two more names are being cast into bronze for 2014.

The NY Times just ran a tribute to EODCS Tim Johns, USN — a great warrior who tragically is no longer with us. I didn’t know him as well as my friends Jeff, Sparky, Scott, Sarah, or many others did, but I was lucky to have known him at all.

Across the globe, there is a community of EOD Technicians who are in mourning over Timmy’s death. And this Saturday, many of us will gather. Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines. Active duty, retired, and separated. And we will grieve together at the annual EOD Memorial service.

Please take a moment and read about a man who willingly put himself in harm’s way — for you — far more than we should be able to ask. And then I ask that you consider donating to the Memorial Foundation.

This morning, my day job took me to Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, CA to visit my client over at COMEODGRU-1. After I’d finished my business and started driving out of the parking lot, I noticed a familiar grey nose through the trees. It was the bow of a SWIFT Boat, a type of gunboat that my father, CAPT Art Ismay, USN (Ret.) introduced to the Republic of South Vietnam in March 1965.

Since I’m getting on a plane tomorrow to visit a memorial built for my old community, and those killed in my war, it felt right to visit a different wall today — one built for my dad’s community, and his war in Vietnam.

As a young Commander, he established Boat Squadron ONE, later recommissioned as Coastal Squadron ONE at Cam Rahn Bay, where he served from March 1965 to November 1966. He married my mom just months before in November 1964 at the Presidio. 

At the time of their wedding, dependents were allowed in Vietnam, and Commander Ismay’s new bride was excited for the move to Saigon.  But President Johnson changed her plans when he officially transitioned our role in Vietnam from advisory to combatant.

So, the new Mrs. Ismay (an Army brat herself) went to stay with her parents at Ft. Ord while her husband went off to invent a new form of “brown water” combat with an untested type of weapon.

Eventually, he received the U.S. Navy’s first two PAC-V combat hovercraft, but the workhorses of his squadron were one hundred PCF (Patrol Craft, Fast) SWIFTs. One of them made it’s way back to Coronado years ago, received an overhaul, and was put on display at the amphib base.

Flanked by a PBR and a Monitor, PCF-104 looks good. So does my dad, who was born May 2nd 1927.

Happy birthday, Dad.

Here’s the birthday boy last year as we celebrated together in Nags Head, NC.

Postscript: in the title of this post, I mention that Vietnam was my dad’s third war. That wasn’t a typo. I hope to visit the first two in this blog one day. Stay tuned.

For those of you who weren’t fortunate enough to meet him in life, this is Senior Chief Tim Johns, USN. He was a Navy EOD Tech, and he deployed to combat over and over again so you didn’t have to. He went to Iraq and Afghanistan multiple times and did a job most people would never think of taking on. He did it gladly, and he was one of the best there was.

But now he’s dead. Al Qaeda didn’t do it, and neither did the Taliban — although both groups tried pretty damn hard to do so. It was a car wreck near China Lake, CA 4/27/2013 that got him. And he’ll never go on the EOD Memorial because he didn’t die “doing the job.”

That won’t stop lots of glasses being raised in his honor in a lot of Florida bars the next few days.

You should raise one too, and say thanks.

He was a warrior. And a friend.

Coming soon: tribute paid on NYT At War.

What Would a Fighter Jet Buy 60 Years After Eisenhower’s Speech? just posted on the NYT, and I’d like to offer some background information about how I came about the numbers and prices used in the piece.

Every effort was made to vet all figures cited through multiple sources wherever possible. Knowing that the dollar figures mentioned for ship and aircraft prices might be controversial, I contacted both US Air Force and US Navy public affairs at the Pentagon. They explained that their numbers are known as Average Procurement Unit Costs (APUC).

APUC is defined as the total cost to buy all aircraft over all years divided by the total number of aircraft purchased. It does not include Research, Development & Test and Evaluation funds, upgrade modifications costs or operations and sustainment costs.

Ship and Aircraft Costs

These are the numbers I was given, adjusted for inflation in 2012 dollars:

B-2 Spirit: $1,461,500,000.

B-1 Lancer: $179,630,000.

B-52 Stratofortress: $74,800,000.

A-10 Thunderbolt: $15,980,000.

F-22 Raptor: $214,000,000.

F-35 Lightning II: $109,200,000.

F/A-18E Super Hornet: $78,200,000.

F-15E Strike Eagle: $72,400,000

F-16 Falcon: $34,100,000.

DDG-51 Flight I: $1,366,000,000.

DDG-51 Flight II: $1,596,000,000.

DDG-51 Flight III (proposed): $ 3,000,000,000-$4,000,000,000. Note: these numbers came from open-source online searches, and not from any official US Government source. This platform has not been formally requested by the US Navy, but is being considered.

Civilian Commodities Costs

I submitted requests for information to Department of Transportation, Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, Dept. of Education, and others to ascertain the prices of civilian commodities mentioned in the original 1953 speech. All of them helpfully referred me to national trade organizations for the data. Which leads me to some well-deserved thank you’s:

Thank You

Valoise Armstrong, Eisenhower Presidential Library.

Bob Ivie, Professor of American Studies & Communication and Culture, Indiana University.

Doug Hecox, Federal Highway Administration.

Carly Moore, American Hospital Administration.

Ed Gulick, US Air Force Public Affairs.

LTJG Caroline Hutchinson, US Navy Public Affairs.

Emily Straub, Carter Center.

Terry Miller, Executive Director, Tin Can Sailors Association.

Gretchen Hesbacher, National Institute of Building Sciences.

Michelle Wardlaw, National Association of Realtors.

Dan Linke, Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University.

Scot Christenson, US Naval Insitute.

Dr. Norman Friedman, US Naval Institute.

Tim Duggan, RCS Market Intelligence.

Robert Kehoe, RCS Market Intelligence.

Travis Sharp, Center for a New American Security.

Linda Embry, National School Boards Association.

Melissa George Kessler, National Association of Wheat Growers.

Jim Newton, LA Times.

Robert Schlesinger, US News and World Report.

On April 16th 1953, President Eisenhower delivered his Chance for Peace speech. Coming soon on NYT At War, a reflection on what it means sixty years later.

On October 22nd 1962, nearly three thousand noncombatants fled Naval Base Guantanamo Bay.  This man, Rear Admiral E.J. “Jerry” O’Donnell, commanded the installation.  He’s my grandfather, and I put together a piece of family history in his honor.

A 50th anniversary article forthcoming at The New York Times At War blog.

This picture taken in the Libyan desert was shared with me last year.  I knew right away it was .30-06 ammo packaged for the M1 Garand. But I couldn’t figure out where the American flag logo came from.

Ten months later I happened upon US European Command’s website and saw an updated version of that logo marking relief aid headed to Libyan refugees in Tunisia.  To my surprise, I stumbled upon the story of how and why the US government built the Libyan Army in the 1950s.

I hope you like reading it as much I liked researching and writing it.  And thanks to C.J. Chivers for giving me this opportunity.