My daughter and I were power-washing the house on Friday when she came running from around the corner yelling about a moth.  Not just any moth.  An Atlas moth, known more commonly throughout the world as Mothra.

Most astounding of all, it was going to carry away my child to live among the tiniest women in all creation, sacred beauties of a lost tribe which worships a monstrous creature.  And there was nothing I could do.

Mothra vs. Citrus

Check out the snake heads on the tips of the wings! Only one of its many, many powers.

The Navy website prominently features the first recruiting commercial of a new ad campaign. It includes only one person identifiable as a woman. Oh, and be sure to see the CNO's diversity policy posted just below it.

The new Navy commerical featuring the slogan A Global Force for Good was previewed last night at the Navy Ball in Singapore.  It is an interesting shift in how the Navy appeals to potential recruits, a move away from the self-interest message of Accelerate Your Life to a call to public service.  

Too bad it missed an opportunity to appeal to women who might want to serve in the United States Navy.

After watching the new commercial my wife observed that she did not see any women  until about two-thirds of the way through the ad.  I watched it online and she is right.  

Excluding the historical footage, if you only count recognizable faces there is only one woman out of about 13 close-ups.  Forget the Navy’s aspirations for a more diverse force, this ad does not even represent today’s Navy today where about 15 percent of its service members are women. 

Clearly the ad agency, Campbell-Ewald, did not get the memo.  The Diversity Policy memo from the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) that is featured prominently on the Navy’s home page just below the new commercial.

I like this ad mainly because it demonstrates that the nation is finally being called to public service — whether at the local or national level — that we should have had immediately following 9/11.  It only took eight years, a new President, and a tanked economy.  But it is not a partisan issue.

During the presidential campaign, Obama and McCain appeared at the September 11, 2008 launch of  Service Nation in New York City.  AARP, my former employer, recently launched a national program called Create The Good to encourage volunteerism.  And just yesterday, President Obama gave a “glowing tribute” to President George H.W. Bush and commemorated 20 years since the launch of the Points of Light Institute. 

From the Navy Times:

“That call to service — that does resonate powerfully with millennials,” [Capt. Phil Altizer] said, referring to the generation born in the 1980s and 1990s, for whom computers and the Internet have always been around.

“We need to … let people know the Navy is a much more than a lot of folks who go out there and stomp bad guys — although we do that,” Altizer said. “You’ve got the ability to dial up from a hard power-focused message, all the way down to the soft power.”

That’s why footage of sailors delivering humanitarian supplies and a glamour shot of the hospital ship Mercy form big parts of the Navy’s first TV spot using the new slogan, which Recruiting Command is launching to coincide with the Navy’s birthday Oct. 13.

Another element in the commercial is footage of World War II-era sailors fighting in the Pacific, which Altizer said was to link the Navy’s heritage to today’s service — critical, he said, given that ever-fewer veterans are available to do that in person.

Sure, a few people have quibbles with the new slogan.  A handful gripe that the slogan does not scare the crap out of adversaries, others apparently do not want the military to be “good”.  

A few people think that the use of the word “global” is further proof that the United States is succumbing to shadowy government overlords but clearly they have jumped the gun.  Doesn’t everyone know that you must first be injected with the H1N1 vaccine to activate the chip that will be inserted by the President himself?  That is why the military will be among the first to receive the vaccine.  Now you know why FLOTUS Michelle Obama works on military family issues.  But I digress.

I would not be surprised if ads featuring humanitarian efforts appeal to women — who make up a large part of the medical corps – more than the guitar-rock montages of ships, submarines and aircraft.  (Some ads do not even have pesky dialogue to get in the way of the action!)

The Navy does a lot of humanitarian relief efforts, more than people realize.  (See last year’s humanitarian ad, produced by a different agency but most of the same footage.)   It will be interesting to see how these ads impact recruiting.

According to the Navy Times, the two SEALs who were recognized at the Republican National Convention “violated regulations against active-duty service members participating in politics” but it was not their fault and they will not be punished.  An agreement between the Navy and GOP was violated by the speaker, a former Marine POW named Swindle, who pointed to them in the crowd.

When it comes to using service members to garner public support, both parties play it as close to the line as they can get and cross it if they can get away with it.  Michelle Obama played it safe by meeting today with military spouses in New Mexico, although a retired Air Force General who was on the stage “suggested McCain’s policies stemmed from a ‘lack of adequate psychological care’ after his service in Vietnam.”  The Obama campaign quickly distanced itself from his remarks.

As a civilian spouse I am not subject to the military regulations on political activity that my active-duty wife must follow, although of course I have to answer to her if she finds out I am carting a life-size picture of her around Capitol Hill. 

Of the Republicans and Democrats I contacted to request a photo opportunity for the Flat Mommy book, the Edwards campaign contacted me almost immediately.  They were holding nationwide events to honor service members and veterans on Memorial Day and his staff wanted to include Flat Mommy on the website.

At first I thought it would be pretty cool.  I did not care about party affiliation:  I just wanted ‘famous people’ and politicians are about it in Washington DC.  You take what you can get.

With John Edwards running for President it quickly dawned on me that I would be viewed as participating in a political campaign despite my intentions.  I figured I might face the wrath of military spouses everywhere.  Not only from those who did not like him; it would also be mortifying to be a poster child for hardship when other military families have made much greater sacrifices.  This would not be lost on the military community and others, and it could get ugly.  I turned down the request.

Between now and the election it will be interesting to see how the candidates align themselves with military families.  So far we have received one campaign letter from a Republican who obtained a list of military absentee voters, but this guy was a bit different, a little too fervent.  Wikipedia shed some light:

Born in New York City, Beren states that he was raised in a nominal Jewish home and later became an atheist. From 1968 to 1990 he was an activist for the Socialist Workers Party and a defender of Fidel Castro.  By 1990 he quit the SWP due to exhaustion with it. After that he joined the Democratic Party. In 1995 he converted to Christianity. He remained with the Democratic Party until 2004. The September 11, 2001 attacks led to his turn toward to the Political Right and at 52 he became a Republican.

He has no chance of unseating Congressman Jim McDermott but has been described as a “rising star” in Washington State’s Republican party.  That might be a debate worth watching.

Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) went to Iraq, came back to his constituents and told a war story about how he wanted to go to the Green Zone gym and was turned away by a “two-bit security guard”.  That would be, of course, a servicemember or contractor who has spent months in a war zone away from their family. 

I am not proud to say the following words: 

This reminds me of an old JAG episode.

Yes, my secret vice.  Right up there with The Love Boat or Fantasy Island.  I do not own the DVDs. 

The episode, This Just In From Baghdad, featured a Department of Defense official who wants to play weekend warrior and winds up being a burden on the soldiers and gets in the way of the mission.  In the end he panics and runs out into the open, where he is gunned down by sniper fire.

In the real world, Rep. McHenry is not gunned down and has pretty much the lamest war story I have ever heard. 

[I first saw the video on kimbaland. and followed her advice to tell McHenry that he is a two-bit Representative.]

In the past few weeks, the Navy Times has had an online ad with the teaser, “As a Christian in the Armed Forces, What Does Active Duty Mean to You?”  I found it provocative, probably because I’ve been reading about the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. 

MRFF has not been able to convince the courts that there is a systemic DoD-condoned problem of religious intolerance but I can see why MRFF founder Mikey Weinstein believes that evangelicals are trying to “take over” the armed forces.  It is an understatement to say that Weinstein, a former Air Force JAG, is a grandstander who can make his critics sound reasonable. On the other hand, there is no dispute that chaplains are only authorized to provide spiritual guidance and are not allowed to prosyletize and that some have disobeyed their orders.

It turns out that the ad is for a school that trains veterans — not active duty servicemembers — to become missionaries.  Judging from their website, high-caliber weapons are apparently helpful in the program when the Bible is not enough.

Yesterday I was reading a little history about public support for World War II. It is remarkable how engaged people were in the war effort.  At one point, home Victory Gardens produced 40 percent of the vegetables consumed in the United States!

During World War II, the Army had a contract with Warner Brothers to produce short educational cartoons for the troops. Featuring Private Snafu, “The Home Front” (1943) seems utopian when illustrating the war effort back home.

Contrast this to today where, at the national level, all I can think of is the Treasury Department issuing patriotic savings bonds in December 2001 at the same time we were being urged to spend money to make America stronger. If anything, the war has divided the country when it could have pulled us together in some positive ways. 

Imagine if the country had been called to serve in a common effort, such as reducing our dependence on foreign oil. Maybe this is only plausible in hindsight but a national conservation effort could have tied nicely into today’s anti-global warming campaigns. Strange bedfellows, but all Americans united. Could it have happened? 

As for Private Snafu, he was created by Frank Capra.  Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel wrote several episodes and Mel Blanc provided his Bugs Bunny voice. As noted on Wikipedia, the cartoons were risque for the time and many of the other have racist depictions (by today’s standards) of Japanese and Germans.

If you’re a military blogger visiting this site, be sure to say hello:  navalgazer (at) navalgazer.com. 

I am still trying to figure out which other sites out there are very active.  Milblogging.com seems like a decent portal.  I apparently erred in joining a spouse web-ring (so ’90s!).  Only a handful of the sites are active and most seem to have animated red roses that drop from the top of the page and then, as roses do, bounce around.  Bad, but not bad enough to keep the link on this page!  It is a weak defense but all I can say is that I was drawn in by that folksy logo and wanted that home-sewn website look.