An all-hands meeting, sponsored by the California Department of Veterans Affairs (CalVet), to provide veterans with topical information regarding their benefits and services, specifically for those recently returning from active duty.

In what is becoming an annual open house event at Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach, the USS Gridley welcomes public visitors this weekend. Gregg Smith, Public Information Officer for the base told www.OC180NEWS.com “What we’ve been trying to do over the last few years is have one ship per year that is available to come up and open its doors to the public.”

Local residents interested in commemorating Memorial Day will have two opportunities in Seal Beach this Monday. Services will be held at Navel Weapons Station Seal Beach at 11:00 am. The City of Seal Beach will hold a celebration starting at 1:00 PM.

A day of celebration at the Joint Forces Training Base brought family, friends, and fellow soldiers of Col. Lawrence A. Haskins together for his promotion to Brigadier General and the number two command position in the California National Guard. Brig. Gen. Mary J. Kight, the California National Guard’s Adjutant General, conducted the formal promotion ceremony on Saturday, May 1, 2010.

Sometimes extraordinary things happen in Seal Beach. This March 6th, a week from Saturday, for the first time ever in Orange County, a naval vessel will be commissioned. Commissioning a ship is a time-honored tradition, which celebrates a vessels' formal entry into service with the active Navy fleet. But, what does that mean to us as a community here in Seal Beach? Why should we care?

For those of us who like to look with wonder and awe at machines of war--be it the supersonic F-18 Super Hornet or the massive 18-inch guns of a battleship, today's navy ships can appear less than impressive. The guns with barrels wide enough to swallow a person are a relic of times gone by. That is, of course, only in appearances. Consider the US Navy's precedent setting guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold, which is offering a rare opportunity for public tours this weekend in Seal Beach.

The plans of BG (R) James Combs, of the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos, to run a composting operation on the base continue to create controversy among residents of Seal Beach, Rossmoor, and Los Alamitos. The plan ignited a firestorm of complaints from residents of College Park East at the Seal Beach City Council meeting on May 11. Last night, General Combs gave another presentation, complete with a tour of the composting site on the base. The plan he described last night varied in some significant details from the presentation at the Seal Beach city council meeting.

Our local Coast Guard rescued a man off a remote beach on the back side of Catalina Island early yesterday morning. The man's boat had caught fire the night before, so he abandoned ship. The sailor made it to shore in his dinghy. His personal locator beacon played a major part in the rescue.

A 62 foot dead fin whale was found floating in Cerritos Channel in Los Angeles harbor Friday morning. Coast Guard Station Los Angeles was on scene to assess the situation until members from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, National Marine Fisheries Service arrived.
According to Lt. j.g. Stephanie Young, "Once the whale was reported, Coast Guard sent their Station Los Angeles asset out to monitor the whale to make sure that there weren't any commercial or recreational vessels that would be damaged by hitting the whale and to be sure there weren't any other marine mammals in the area that could be harmed."

There’s a war going on out there—or, is it an earthquake, or a flood—either way, it is being simulated in a special training mission at the Joint Forces Training Base this week and next. If you have noticed more than usual activity at the base, that’s because there are about 1,000 soldiers engaged in a command and control trading simulation there.

As part of the festivities associated with the first ever commissioning of a navy ship in Orange County, host city Seal Beach got some newly planted trees yesterday. 33 members of the USS Dewey crew planted more than 50 New Zealand Christmas trees along Lampson Avenue as a community service project for Seal Beach. The navy’s newest and most sophisticated ship, The Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, USS Dewey (DDG-105), will be commissioned at Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach, on Saturday, March 6, 2010.

After serving the United States Navy for 33 years, the USS Los Angeles (SSN 688) will arrive in Los Angeles later Today for a final visit that includes a decommissioning ceremony Jan. 23. USS Los Angeles departed Naval Station Pearl Harbor, Jan. 14, and is stopping in Los Angeles en route to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for inactivation. The visit will include participation by the crew in numerous public events ongoing throughout the weekend.

Sometime last fall, General Combs of the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos decided he could conserve water and help meet environmental goals by setting up a composting operation on the base. Monday night at the Seal Beach City Council meeting, the peoples' representatives gave the much maligned project a big thumbs down. The problem, among other complaints, is the potential daily parade of 12 to 15 40 ton trash hauling 18 wheelers thundering down Lampson Avenue, a residential street.

A Chief Petty officer from Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach, Daniel Alcala , set a new record in the physical fitness test at the Orange County Sheriff's Regional Training Academy and was ranked as the # 1 recruit in his class. Master-at-Arms 2nd Class Daniel Alcala was also elected honorary class sergeant by the faculty staff and his fellow classmates and he led the graduates in formation during the ceremony marking completion of their curriculum at the academy.

The Defense Department announced that one of the five soldiers killed on Friday by a suicide bomber in Iraq was PV2 Bryce Edmund Gautier, 22 of Cypress California. He was killed along with four other soldiers when their Humvee was struck by a suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive device in Mosul, Iraq.  They were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment,
2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.  

Several hundred beachgoers and children from McGaugh Elementary were thrilled to watch a helicopter rescue demonstration by the Coast Guard yesterday at the Seal Beach pier. According to Mr. Anthony Turner, of the Public Affairs Department of Coast Guard Air Station Los Angeles, "It was a search and rescue demonstration. What was unique about it was that the Aviation Maintenance Technician (AMT) who was on board was sworn in while he was on the helicopter."