UPDATED. who is https://cvn76.surfor.navy.mil/Lists/S…? Ahoy, the USS Ronald Reagan….

[cross posted at dKos]

One of these guys on the USS Ronald Reagan is an Over the Line, Smokey! reader.

One of the beauties of having your own blog here at WordPress is the availability of all sorts of stats. I look at them every day and try to figure out what they mean. Not being a computer geek, it’s kind of guesswork.

Today was pretty strange. Real big day. While I appreciate the sudden spike of page views at Over the Line, Smokey!, I am uncertain as to what to make of it. Hundreds of hits, with only one comment. Apparently someone has linked to this story on the mysterious mission of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, and to this one, which is also about our navy. The Reagan piece speculated that the aircraft carrier might be headed towards Iran, based on some comments I found on the internet.
So today, in looking at the referrer’s list, I see (in addition to the usual array of referrers), 4 hits from this URL: https://cvn76.surfor.navy.mil/Lists/S…. The URL was cut off there after the “S”.

When I clicked on the URL, I got a rather ominous message about what might be awaiting me if I clicked through. This Department of Defense site https://surfor.navy.mil seems to have some CA-7 certification issues. After a little investigation, (not a geek) I decided not to install the certificate on my Mac, but I clicked through to this (which is password protected), which I could now see in its entirety:
https://cvn76.surfor.navy.mil/Lists/SCUTTLEBUT%20DO%20NOT%20
DISCUSS%20SHIPS%20MOVEMENT/AllItems.aspx

now, SURFOR is obviously the office of the Commander of Surface Forces.

Commander, Naval Surface Forces (SURFOR) ensures surface ships across the fleet are properly trained, maintained and crewed to support military operations with other U.S. Services, and with friendly nations anywhere in the world.

SURFOR includes surface ships, support and maintenance commands and several staffs necessary to coordinate and operate the fighting forces.

Highly trained Sailors and civilians are teamed to constitute the true strength of SURFOR. They operate or support the 73 surface ships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet which are based in: San Diego; Pearl Harbor; Everett and Bremerton, Wash.; Yokosuka, and Sasebo, Japan. In addition, SURFOR oversees the 111 surface ships assigned to the U.S. Atlantic Fleet homeported along the east coast from Bath, Maine to Corpus Christi, Texas.

link

But who is cvn76? civilian #76? Carl Vance Nixon born in 1976? well, I’m not so dumb: CVN76 is the designation for the USS Ronald Reagan.

For proof of concept here is an analogous site for another vessel, the ACU 2; look at the URL. And yes, I did try plugging in cvn76 instead of acu2 and just got a “server not found” message.

So at least four page views came from a password protected part of what used to be, as least, the Reagan’s server. The rest of the the URL prints an emphatic SCUTTLEBUT DO NOT DISCUSS SHIPS MOVEMENT.

Scuttlebut means rumor. Is this the USS Ronald Reagan’s list of rumors, with a caution not to discuss ships movement? Not even with me?

Can anyone help me with this? Is the DoD or SURFOR or the skipper of the Reagan concerned about my posts? does that mean I hit a nerve, or what is going on? should I make tea and cookies, expecting someone from naval intelligence? They do have such nice uniforms. But all I know is what I read in the papers and what comes through the tubes…you know, the internets… so you’re welcome to the cookies, but don’t expect to find anything other than what I wrote.

Y’all come back and see me……you guys on the Reagan, you be careful out there and come home safe. We love ya. I see that you arrived in Sasebo, for five days, but it didn’t say where yer off to next….??? or shouldn’t I ask? oh, could you pick me up a Persian nice rug?

UPDATED:  Some courteous readers informed us that the site in question is one set up for spouses of the sailors on the USS RR. Tip of the hat and best wishes to all you folks.  I hope this crisis passes soon.