Friday, November 29, 2019

REPORT ISSUED BY CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE DETAILS NAVY LASER, RAILGUN & GUN-LAUNCHED GUIDED PROJECTILE

Navy Lasers, Railgun, and Gun-Launched Guided Projectile: Background and Issues for Congress. 

File:Railgun usnavy 2008.jpg

FROM THE PREAMBLE OF THE REPORT
https://fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/R44175.pdf

READ THE ENTIRE REPORT CLICK HERE:

Three new ship-based weapons being developed by the Navy—solid state lasers (SSLs), the electromagnetic railgun (EMRG), and the gun-launched guided projectile (GLGP), also known as the hypervelocity projectile (HVP)—could substantially improve the ability of Navy surface ships to defend themselves against surface craft, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and eventually antiship cruise missiles (ASCMs). The Navy has been developing SSLs for several years, and in 2014 installed on a Navy ship a prototype SSL called the Laser Weapon System (LaWS) that was capable of countering surface craft and UAVs. The Navy is now developing SSLs with improved capability for countering surface craft and UAVs, and eventually a capability for countering ASCMs.

 Navy efforts to develop these more capable lasers include  the Solid State Laser Technology Maturation (SSL-TM) effort;  the Ruggedized High Energy Laser (RHEL);  the Optical Dazzling Interdictor, Navy (ODIN);  the Surface Navy Laser Weapon System (SNLWS) Increment 1, also known as the high-energy laser with integrated optical dazzler and surveillance (HELIOS); and  the High Energy Laser Counter-ASCM Program (HELCA)

File:US Navy 111231-N-KS651-967 A Mk 38 MOD 2 25mm machine gun system aboard the amphibious dock landing ship USS Pearl Harbor (LSD 52) ejects casings d.jpg

 The Navy refers to the first four efforts above collectively as the Navy Laser Family of Systems (NFLoS). Under the Navy’s laser development approach, NFLOS and HELCAP, along with technologies developed by other parts of DOD, are to support the development of future, more capable shipboard lasers. The Navy has been developing EMRG for several years. It was originally conceived as a naval surface fire support (NSFS) weapon for supporting Marines and other friendly forces ashore. Subsequently, it was determined that ERGM could also be used for air and missile defense, which strengthened interest in ERGM development. More recently, it was determined that the projectile to be fired by ERGM could also be fired by existing powder-propellant guns, including 5-inch and 155 mm guns on Navy cruisers and destroyers, and 155 mm artillery guns operated by the Army and Marine Corps. When fired from power guns, the projectile does not fly as quickly as it does when fired from an ERGM, but it still flies quickly enough to be of use as an air-defense weapon. The concept of firing the projectile from powder guns is referred to as GLGP and HVP. One potential advantage of HVP/GLGP is that, once developed, it can be rapidly deployed on Navy cruisers and destroyers and in Army and Marine Corps artillery units, because the powder guns in question already exist.

To Read The entire report on line click herehttps://fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/R44175.pdf

 In addition to the question of whether to approve, reject, or modify the Navy’s FY2020 funding requests for SSLs, ERGM, and HVP/GLGP, issues for Congress include the following:  whether the Navy is moving too quickly, too slowly, or at about the right speed in its efforts to develop these weapons;  the Navy’s plans for transitioning these weapons from development to procurement and fielding aboard Navy ships; and  whether Navy the Navy’s shipbuilding plans include ships with appropriate amounts of space, weight, electrical power, and cooling capacity to accommodate these weapons

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

THE USNI HAS POSTED THE REPORT TO CONGRESS ON IRAN'S INTERNAL POLITICS AND U.S. POLICY

Report to Congress on Iran’s Internal Politics and U.S. Policy

Monday, November 11, 2019

It's Time For Outcome Based Audits Before Authorizing Any More Government Expansion

Namazu
                              I'm NAMAZU and I approved this message which I believe in strongly.

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www.vicsocotra.com.                                            
Namazu's pal Vic published this recently and Namazu pushed it for a reprint on the AAB blog. We concur with this latest from Vic via the historical character Arrias. And so  with permission  we reprint: :



                                              



Audit This

Numbers tell interesting stories; some people become quite fascinated with them. In monitoring government programs perhaps the key number that will be quoted is how much money went into the program. I suppose the analogy in the private sector is market capitalization, or, more simply, how much is something worth, how much wealth has been pushed into the program - or company - by people willing to invest in it.

By that measure, the Yankees are the best team in baseball; they are, in fact, the team with the highest value, currently estimated at $4.6 billion. But…

They have a $9 million negative operating income. (The Dodgers are worse off - they had a negative $90 million operating income this year.) Further, neither has won a world series in a long time.

What about government?

But, wait, government isn’t baseball.

That’s what is sometimes called a “Blinding Flash of the Obvious,” a BFO. 

But there’s something to be learned in this - simplistic - “dialectic." The best baseball team in the world is the Washington Nationals. How do we know that? Because they just won the World Series. Fans don’t really care how much they’re “worth.” We might argue that if they played another 7 game series the Astros might win. But, we’d settle it based on an “outcome" model. Next season we’ll do it again.

But not government. Government measures all sorts of things based on input models. And if a problem persists, spend more money on it. And the media keep score: the most important programs are the ones with the most money. But there’s a fundamental problem with this keeping score based on inputs: this is akin to saying the best baseball team is the one with some combination (quick, someone develop a formula) of highest paid line-up, most fans, and if we really want to get picky, most revenue or even highest earnings. (Is that EBIT or EBITDA?)

To which, any baseball fan would answer: What planet are you from?

In the real world, outcomes matter, inputs - not so much. Mike Trout is the highest paid athlete in baseball because he is the best hitter in baseball. And while Bryce Harper is a fantastic athlete, I suspect Phillies management is more than a little antsy about his performance this past year. Good stats for some guy making a few million. But for one of  the highest paid players in baseball? Hmmm.

Consider the Department of Education… Separated from HEW under President Carter to improve the test scores of US Students, and slow the rapid growth in education costs. Since then? Scores remain the same (there is more than enough evidence that the education “product” has actually worsened), and education costs have risen at approximately twice the rate of inflation -  for 40 years.

The Federal Reserve. Created in 1913 to reduce the impact of recessions and the business cycle, and to protect the value of the dollar. Since then we’ve had a slightly lower number of recessions than during the previous century, but we’ve also had the Great Depression, and the Great Recession, and the value of the dollar has fallen 90%.

DOD. Misguided procurement stories are so pervasive it’s difficult to where to begin: F-111/TFX, the Knox class frigate, MX, B-2, F-35, LCS. Everyone’s favorite aircraft carrier, USS Ford. Or the more unpleasant record of winning tactically but not strategically, at least for the last 7 decades. 

       Despite the highly polished and impeccable public image, anyone who has spent any time in uniform can tell you story after story of money going down “rabbit holes” big and small, of incompetence that has to be seen to be believed, of foolish behavior and idiotic decisions; the ability for DOD to pull off great operations is legend, but there’s an equal ability to screw up a two-car funeral.

How much did the Department of Energy contribute to making the US energy independent? Three guesses, first two don’t count.

Agriculture? Commerce? HUD? Spend a little time looking at what their original missions were, and what they do now…

This is one reason we need to push back whenever any of the candidates - Senator Warren, et al - come up with another program to push trillions of dollars (tens of trillions, actually) into massively expanded government programs, as if somehow the government knows what it’s doing.

Why do we think that suddenly they’re “going to get this right?”

How about, before we let government absorb any more programs we insist on an outcomes based audit of a few major offices and see what that looks like. Then we can discuss government expansion. Audit Outcomes, not inputs. 

 Call it a BFO.
Copyright 2019 Arrias
Reprinted with permission from 
Logo   www.vicsocotra.com/

NANAZU SAYS THAT IF YOU'RE NOT READING YOUR SOCOTRA HOUSE PUBLISHING DAILY YOUR GLIB QUOTIENT IS DEFICIENT 


      


Sunday, November 10, 2019

HAPPY BIRTHDAY U.S. MARINES FROM THE FLEET RESERVE ASSOCIATION AND MERCER

Waving Flag #3
November 10, 2019
The FRA and Mercer wish the entire Marine Corps family a happy birthday as the service celebrates its 244th anniversary on November 10th!

On November 10, 1775, the Second Continental Congress resolved to raise two battalions of Continental Marines. Since then, the Marine corps has been engaged in every American armed conflict, demonstrating its capability and resolve around the globe. “From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli;” from the deserts of Iraq to the hills of Afghanistan – wherever their special abilities are needed – today’s Marine Corps is America’s expeditionary force, ready to rapidly respond to crises at a moment’s notice.

General John A. Lejeune, the 13th Commandant of the Marine Corps, gave orders to formally commemorate the Corps’ birthday in 1921 and ceremonies and celebrations have been a service-wide tradition ever since. Commandant Lejeune’s original birthday message, Marine Corps Order 47, is read aloud and the oldest and youngest Marines in attendance share the honor of cutting the cake in a time-honored ceremony. The first piece of cake is presented to the oldest Marine, who then offers it to the youngest.

Thank you to all Marines for your outstanding service!

Please help us thank all those who have served or are currently serving in the U.S. Marine Corps by forwarding this email and letting them know their service is appreciated!
Free, Public Domain Image: U.S. Marines Ceremonial Guard at Swearing In Ceremony For Ray MabusImage result for Public domain images of the US Marine Corps"

TRUMP RIDS LONG BEACH OF CHINESE AGENTS


Naval weapons station seal beach logo.png
Image in Public Domain ( naval origin) 


Loading Naval Munitions At Seal Beach (Photo U.S. Navy)
                                                                    

The Obama administration signed off on a long term (40 years) deal to let a Chinese Communist ( state owned) company control the second busiest container port in U.S. The Trump administration ordered  a national security review and the lease was found to be detrimental to national security. The Obama agreement placed a Chinese state owned merchant marine operation next door to a major naval weapons station sharing common access by water. What on Earth was Obama thinking. Trump cleared the dragon's lair on our door step out. 

 The Obama administration made a long term deal with Chinese state owned COSCO Shipping Holdings  CO. In a Trump Administration victory completely ignored by the MSM COSCO is being made to sell their facility to an entity less threatening to the United States..This decision to kick the Communists Chinese out of a piece of U.S geography that borders a major naval weapons station and shares a common navigation channel came after an extensive national security review and legal search for a way to break the Obama era contract . The victory over the already landed on our shores dragon required extensive study and a very detailed approach. The victory comes after hard grinding work and an act of courage on the part of the President. China and the MSM would not be pleased and they weren't but the Democrats reasoned that they would reveal themselves as communists if they publicly fought the President over this one. Instead the MSM simply chose to ignore the event. 

The ship in the foreground is moored at Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station. Note the breakwaters leading out to the Pacific. for decades the Navy's munitions operations had to share this narrow channel with recreational boaters. Then during the Obama Administration the U. S. Navy also had to share the channel with a Chinese shipping company. Chinese merchant shipping is controlled by the Chinese Navy to a level unknown in this country since we last had war time naval control of shipping during WW II.. The Chinese Navy has publicly stated its intention to drive the US Navy "back to Pearl Harbor". Thus eliminating our rights of innocent passage through the South China Sea and cutting off our allies in the region from any naval assistance from America. (photo Public Domain (US Navy )

The Obama administration signed the agreement in 2012. Obama gave China control of America’s second-largest container port. One of the Trump administration’s first big moves was to get COMMUNIST COSCO out of the Port of Long Beach. After a national security review and federal intervention, the Long Beach terminal business which handles millions of containers annually,is finally being sold to an Australian company called Macquarie Infrastructure Partners.  Essentially that kills the Dragon's decades-long contract with the Obama administration .Nice getting such a large alligator out of the swamp in such close proximity to people upon which it had already declared its intention of eating them, 

Removing Chinese Communists from this important port is a tremendous feat. It is also  a huge victory for U.S. national security. You’ve never heard of it because the media, has ignored this important achievement. The only coverage of the finalized transfer is found in Long Beach’s local newspaper.  The Long Beach paper published a brief article omitting important background information. What was omitted?  The Trump administration’s work to take back the terminal from the Dragon. The paper covered the story as if it was a regular business transaction. According to the local paper, the only media coverage of this event; it would appear that  “a Chinese state-owned company, reached a deal to sell the terminal, one of the busiest in the port, for $1.78 billion.” The piece also quotes the Port of Long Beach’s deputy executive director saying that the transaction process was intricate and involved one of “our most valuable port assets.” Buried at the bottom of the article is a sentence mentioning that the U.S. government, which regulates mergers for anti trust and security reasons had required COSCO to sell its rights to the terminal complex.  In 2012 The Obama Administration gave China control of America’s second-largest container port. One of the Trump administration’s first swamp drainage projects was to get the  Dragon out of the Port of Long Beach. After a national security review and federal intervention, the Long Beach terminal business, which handles millions of containers annually, is finally being sold to an Australian company called Macquarie Infrastructure Partners. That essentially kills China’s decades-long contract with the Obama administration. And from the main stream media? Crickets
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William H. Toohey III AFNI
Toohey Marine LLC
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SEE: https://americanadmiraltybooks.blogspot.com/2019/07/our-senior-legal-correspondent-with.html
for a growing number of informative posts on the ISM (International Safety Management Code)




Sunday, November 3, 2019

THE AAB AND HELIOS RUEHLS PARTNERSHIP IN PUBLISHING

WHAT IS HELIOS RUEHLS, INC.  AND WHY ARE WE PRODUCING THIS BLOG "IN COOPERATION WITH THEM"




 As many of you know from either long term following of the blog or by reading our introduction to the crew (aka production staff of the American Admiralty Books Blog) we as a group are highly interested in science, particularly the nautical arts and sciences but also all hard sciences that have utility in the maritime world. 

 Optical physics has had utility in the maritime world since before the invention of the Quartermaster's Long Glass (telescope). There have been many improvements to the Long Glass over time including the invention of the binoculars giving the conning officer and the look out depth perception when looking at objects at great distances.

File:US Navy 070310-N-9909C-002 Retired Senior Chief Fire Control Technician Hank Wristen, passes the ship's long glass to Chief Warrant Officer Robert McLaughlin.jpg 
The Long Glass is now often used in naval ceremony. Pictured above. NEW ORLEANS (March 10, 2007) – Retired Senior Chief Fire Control Technician Hank Wristen, a prior crew member aboard the WW II heavy cruiser USS New Orleans (CA 32), and the second ship to bear the name, passes the ship's long glass to Chief Warrant Officer Robert McLaughlin. McLaughlin became the first Officer of the Deck aboard the Navy's newest commissioned warship, the amphibious transport dock ship USS New Orleans (LPD 18) on March 10, 2007.  US Navy Photo # 07310-N-9


The binocular evolved into the "Big Eyes" (really big pedestal mounted binoculars) giving a wider field of view and distance perception exceeding even the later versions of the Long Glass. Laser Range Finders, and target acquisition related devices, are among the more recent contributions to navigational safety and naval combat proficiency to emerge from the labs of the optical physics departments of universities and companies. Optical physics is not alien to the nautical arts and sciences. 

File:US Navy 050419-N-7526R-060 Cryptologic Technician 1st Class Jasen Williams, right, mans the Big Eyes binoculars as Operations Specialist Seaman Stephani Wood stands by, waiting to pass along any instructions as USS Blue Ridge (.jpg
Cryptologic Technician 1st Class Jasen Williams, right, mans the "Big Eyes" binoculars as Operations Specialist Seaman Stephani Wood stands by, waiting to pass along any instructions as USS Blue Ridge (LCC 19) gets underway. U.S. Navy Photo # 050419-N-7

 When we were approached by Helios Ruehls Inc. to serve as an experimental forum for their fledgling ventures into popular publishing we saw no conflict, and we perceived an opportunity. 

 You may recall that this blog started out with advertising and as an Amazon books thresh hold. Then the Democrats won the governorship in the our state of business origin and banking.  By administrative fiat of dubious legality, the Democrats placed a sales tax upon all Internet purchases by the inhabitants of the state. Amazon immediately stopped offering their thresh hold arrangement within the state of our incorporation. We had to publish notices to our visitors that purchases made over any links we provided generated no revenues for us and that individuals within states having an Internet sales tax had responsibility to report all Internet purchases to their state internal revenue departments at state income tax time and to pay all out standing sales tax if the on line vendor did not collect sales tax. Pretty soon we had no advertisers either. 

 Enter Helios Ruehls,Inc. looking for publishing consultants and a test bed for ideas. At the time the blog continued to exist only as a sort of hobby activity for a couple of staffers. Zero advertising meant zero funding. But as they say in show biz "if you have a hit you have a hit, but if you have an audience you have a career." Thanks to all 745,000 + of you (and growing) the blog seems to have a life of its own , if you will "a career". Helios Ruehls helps us focus more than we would normally on the hard sciences particularly optical physics. While not all of their posts have direct maritime application we hope that we are building some new categories of visitors. The day will come when Helios Ruehls will launch their own unique blog site, but thanks to our partnership not as a completely unknown entity on the Internet. If thanks to liberal progressive socialism (Democratic Party politics) we never recover our vendor status and advertisers the experience of "operating in cooperation" with Helios Ruehls, Inc. has served us well as consultants. We look forward for at least the 2019 -2020 period to continuing to bring you news from the world of optical physics and hard sciences via Helios Ruehls, Inc. 

 If you have a technology to sell that relates to the maritime world and would like to test the waters of the Internet drop us a comment in the comment section below with your contact information and we will get back to you. Both AAB and Helios Ruehls are open and happy to consider direct advertising, consulting, research contracts (Helios Ruehls, Inc.) , and assignments involving market testing, skunk works lab projects (Helios Ruehls, Inc. & AAB), and cooperative endeavors of various sorts involving the maritime disciplines and applied physics. 

 If you visit SPACE AS AN OCEAN or "PROTOCOLS" you may read one of our books in progress. "PROTOCOLS is an anthology of parallels between the European Recognizance by sea, and space exploration.   https://americanadmiraltybooks.blogspot.com/2019/07/space-as-ocean-or-protocols-twitter.html 
 We intend to finish it on line and produce it as a bound volume sometime in 2020. 

 We also will be selling as a print on demand soft back the 8 volumes of the American Admiralty Bureau's Commentators, and Guides (Admiralty Law reference works) . Watch this blog for more developments as Helios Ruehls and American Admiralty Books work to get into profitable publishing generating more interest in Helios Ruehls as a contract researcher, and allowing Helios Ruehls to begin exploring more of their self generated projects. 

For the Editorial Board

Johnas Presbyter 


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Saturday, November 2, 2019

NEWT GINGRICH ON THE IMPEACHMENT PROCESS SO FAR




NewtGingrich.jpg
A Official government photo of U.S. Congressman Newt Gingrich, from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
Below we reprint a recent post from Newt Gingrich. We discovered it in such a location that we assume it is in the public domain and that Mr. Gingrich wanted maximum exposure for his thoughts. If in fact this was meant to be copy righted and controlled we apologize in advance and offer to remove it immediately if notified by verifiable agents of Mr. Gingrich.


NEWT GINGRICH: HOW SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM FORCED NANCY PELOSI'S HAND ON IMPEACHMENT

"Senator Lindsey Graham has created a new reality for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Graham has written a powerful resolution which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell joined in cosponsoring. Together they have attracted 50 co-sponsors – which means that with Vice President Pence supporting them, they would win a vote to dismiss any phony impeachment from the House that failed to meet a key standard of fairness.

The resolution:

  1. "calls on the House of Representatives, prior to proceeding any further with its impeachment investigation into President Trump, to vote to initiate a formal impeachment inquiry;
  2. calls on the House of Representatives to provide President Trump, like every other American, with due process, to include the ability to confront his accusers, call witnesses on his behalf, and have a basic understanding of the accusations against him that would form any basis for impeachment; and
  3. calls on the House of Representatives to provide members of the minority with the ability to participate fully in all proceedings and have equal authority to issue subpoenas and other compulsory process."
Faced with this new reality, Speaker Pelosi suddenly ended months of avoiding a vote on the impeachment process and announced today that the House would vote this week.

As a practical matter, the House Democrats had no choice but to bring the impeachment process to a vote. They were faced with a Trump administration that refused to cooperate with a secret investigation which lacked rules and authorization by the full House. They were also faced with a Senate that was prepared to reject a kangaroo court-style secret approach.

However, the next test for Speaker Pelosi and the House Democrats will concern the kind of resolution they bring to the floor.

The House Democrats have a clear model of a fair, systematic bipartisan approach in the rules adopted by the Democrats in 1973 and by the Republicans in 1998. Former Democratic Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Peter Rodino of New Jersey developed a bipartisan set of rules in 1973 during the Nixon impeachment proceedings. Rodino's rules allowed the White House Counsel to be present at all hearings-including those held in secret. They also allowed the Republican minority to offer subpoenas to bring in the witnesses they wanted in addition to the witnesses the Democrats wanted.

When we were faced with an impeachment process in 1998, we sent a congressman to interview then-retired Chairman Rodino, and we literally adopted all of his rules.

So, there is a bipartisan precedent for a fair, orderly approach to the impeachment process.

If Speaker Pelosi offers a resolution which includes these precedents – and if her resolution answers the 10 questions Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy has written posed to her – then it is possible the impeachment process will be back on a bipartisan track.

If, however, Speaker Pelosi introduces a resolution to continue the secret kangaroo court-Star Chamber-partisan approach Representative Adam Schiff has adopted, then the vote will be meaningless.

If the House Democrats fail to heed the warning of the Graham-McConnell Resolution, they will be setting up all their efforts to be dismissed out of hand by the senators who have called on them for real reforms in the current impeachment process.

Graham and McConnell have already had a big impact in just a few days. They are now poised to judge whether the Democrats' proposed rules represent real fairness and real bipartisanship or are simply more of the same dishonest, secretive, one-sided baloney Schiff has served up so far.

It will be very interesting to see what kind of resolution Speaker Pelosi brings forward."

Friday, November 1, 2019

COAST GUARD WWII POW TO FINALLY RECEIVE BURIAL AND A MARKED GRAVE

Lt. James Crotty as lieutenant junior grade aboard a Coast Guard cutter. (U.S. Coast Guard)

                      Lt(jg) James Crotty PHOTO : USCG

Lt(jg) James Crotty PHOTO : USCG



Lt. Thomas James Eugene Crotty ("Jimmy") USCG was a defender of  the Philippines after the Japanese invasion and the only Coast Guardsman to be taken as a POW by the invading Japanese Forces. The story of how he died as a prisoner is recounted below.  His remains were recently discovered in a mass grave in the American Cemetery and Memorial in Manila ,Philippines.

 His remains are being brought back to America to be buried with full military honors in Lawanda, New York  next to his parents. The Commandant of the Coast Guard Admiral Karl L. Schults is expected to attend and present to the family the Filipino Veterans of WWII Congressional Medal of Honor, a special military award that commemorates the bond between the Filipino partisans and escaping Americans who fought the Japanese Imperial forces during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. 

 Lt. James "Jimmy" Crotty is thought to be the only active-duty Coast Guardsman in the Philippines when the forces of Imperial Japan attacked there three days after Pearl Harbor.
Crotty was the one known Coast Guardsman on Corregidor. His single handed service was was pivotal in earning for the Coast Guard the Philippines Battle Streamer. The Coast Guard would not return in numbers to the Philippines until the return of General McAuthor's forces in which the Coast Guard provided many of the assault boat crews. .Crotty could be said to have single-handedly engaged in "joint operations" of the services, now the hallmark of today's U.S. military,  The sneak attack  at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, and the surprise on Manila on Dec. 10 had tested the nation's resolve, Crotty appeared to made of sterner stuff. He fought the invaders from the deck of the Navy minesweeper Quail. He also participated in raids with Marines of the 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment. Crotty fought the enemy from Army artillery positions on the island fortress of Corregidor, ("The Rock."). 
The out-numbered and out-gunned U.S. troops on the Bataan peninsula in the Philippines were ordered to surrender in April 1942, This surrender led to the  the brutal "Death March" to the infamous Cabanatuan prison camp . Under relentless bombardment, Corregidor surrendered in May. Crotty was sent with thousands of others by cattle car to Cabanatuan,  where, according to camp survivors, he died of diphtheria in July 1942,. He was 30 years old at the time of his death. 
Lt, Crotty's remains  ware buried in a mass grave at the Cabanatuan . After the war the commingled remains from Grave No. 312 Cabanatuan were transferred to the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial. For more than 70 years, Lt. Crotty was listed as an "unknown."
The incredible work of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) succeeded in identifying Crotty's remains in September 2019. Lt. Crotty is believed to be the last Coast Guard POW/MIA (missing in action) from WWII whose remains will be identifiable.  There are about 600 others, but almost all were lost at sea.

 This recovery of  the remains of an American hero is another in a stunning series of recoveries and identification of military remains by a specialized unit headquartered in Hawaii called the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office (DPAA)  . This office  was established in 2015 after the Joint P.O.W./M.I.A. Accounting Command and the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office were merged.  D.P.A.A. is responsible for locating and identifying the bodies of the tens of thousands of American military personnel who died as prisoners of war or who were considered “missing in action” from World War II to the present.  They are doing amazing work.

Members of the Defense P.O.W./M.I.A. Accounting Agency removing an aircraft wing during a recovery mission to locate a missing Navy pilot in Palau in 2015.
Credit...Defense Department photo

 The case of Lt. Crotty has drawn more attention than most of their cases because of the unique story behind the demise of Lt. Crotty.  Crotty joined escaping Navy, Marine Corps, Army personnel and Filipino  partisan groups which in turn helped create the Philippine guerrilla resistance. Only one Coast Guardsman was taken prisoner by the Japanese and he did not survive the experience. Lt. Crotty whose body is finally coming home.

 The work of the DPAA may never be finished. From the Korean War, there are more than 7,600 still missing. World War II,counts close to 73,000 missing. Vietnam, has 1,597 missing. DPAA estimates that  30,000 are deemed “recoverable,” that estimate excludes the deep-water losses like ships and submarines as well as aircraft that crashed at sea. Such wreckage is sometimes serendipitously found and when it is, the DPAA goes to work to individually identify any remains recovered. Today the number of missing in action or unidentifiable combat dead in our 20 years + of Middle Eastern combat is very small. Generally the battle field dead were wearing "dog tags" and their bodies recovered within hours of their deaths. The enemy has rarely controlled the battle field for very long in these conflicts.  The "fog of war" in the Middle Eastern conflicts has been centered on distinguishing  friend from foe , and reducing "Collateral Damage". This seeming "lull" in MIAs provides the DPAA with some breathing room for clearing their back log of cases. We never know when a different kind of conflict will result in more traditional "Fog of War"with the greater number of MIAs that goes with it. Time to thank Almighty God for the return of LT. Crotty's remains and congratulate the DPAA on a job well done.