24 March 2008

The Destroyermen's Mission Statement

Here it is:

To deliver an authentic, unvarnished, informative and entertaining account of life aboard a U.S. Navy destroyer, report on USS RUSSELL's contribution to the Global War on Terror and execution of America's Maritime Strategy, and provide insight into the character of the American Sailor. 

Our first objective is to offer a true-to-life picture of what American Sailors do day in and day out aboard a warship, in port and at sea. There are, after all, more blogs out there detailing life of the ground-pounding variety than you can shake a cat-o-nine-tails at, but precious few that tell about American Sailors at sea.

Second, most Americans know few if any members of the military and little more about the military than its general role in society. So, one way to think of this blog is an unofficial civil-military relations project keeping the West Virginia miners, Montana ranchers, Iowa farmers and Boston software developers up to speed on what their Navy's all about.

Third, we hope to provide insight into the U.S. Navy's participation in the Global War on Terror and execution of America's Maritime Strategy. To date, the Army and Marines have been grabbing all the headlines (both good and bad), and there's been scant reporting about what the Navy's been up to for the last six years. From the Philippine Sea to the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Gulf, we're in it up to our main trucks and somebody's got to tell the story.

Enjoy!