Views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AUSN By Phillip Keuhlen After the 2020 summer of riots, the U.S. Navy’s Chief of Naval Operations stood up Task Force One Navy (TF1N) on July 1, 2020. After a six-month effort, the final 142-page report was submitted on January 28, 2021 Its two operating assumptions are, first, that the Navy, as an institution, is systemically racist, and, second, that “Mission readiness is stronger when diverse strengths ar

Five percent of all active-duty Marines failed to meet the Nov. 28 deadline of being fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus, the Marine Corps said Monday. The announcement raises questions about whether the Corps will start separating Marines who failed to adhere to the vaccinate mandate, the Marine Corps Times reported. The Marines said in late October that those who refuse vaccination and don’t receive a medical or religious exemption “shall be processed for administra

In April, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin gave officials 90 days to write report aimed at reducing extremism among members of the U.S. Armed Forces, including by writing a definition of prohibited extremist activities. That report is now four months late and counting, but top Pentagon officials said last week that the report is still being reviewed by Austin and that there is no date for its release. “We appreciate the work stakeholders across the enterprise have put in this i

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) this week renewed his effort to add billions in new funds to modernize the Navy’s public shipyards. Wicker was the lead sponsor of legislation from earlier this year aimed at pumping $25 billion into both public and private shipyards. This time around, Wicker is proposing his legislation as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which authorizes defense spending for fiscal year 2022. The Senate voted to start work on the legisl

The U.S. Navy is drawing fire from its three toughest adversaries as it continues to drill with allies and project power in some of the world’s most sensitive hotspots. Over the weekend, senior Russian officials complained that the USS Mount Whitney’s presence in the Black Sea is hurting stability in the region and said it they would continue to monitor the U.S. military’s “activity of an aggressive nature.” The Whitney is drilling with the USS Porter and NATO allies amid wor

On Veteran's Day 2021, the Association of the United States Navy delivered over 56,000 postcards to veterans in more than 250 Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics. Each card included a personalized message from volunteers expressing the gratitude we all feel for these brave men and women who put their lives on the line for this country. Since the First World War, service members have treasured the letters, care packages, and postcards received from loved ones

SEATTLE — A metallurgist in Washington state pleaded guilty to fraud Monday after she spent decades faking the results of strength tests on steel that was being used to make U.S. Navy submarines. Elaine Marie Thomas, 67, of Auburn, Washington, was the director of metallurgy at a foundry in Tacoma that supplied steel castings used by Navy contractors Electric Boat and Newport News Shipbuilding to make submarine hulls. From 1985 through 2017, Thomas falsified the results of str