 Hi, I'm Chris Curle, anchoring for our fifth edition of C&O Sitrep 30, a series designed to keep you abreast of developments in today's Navy. We will emphasize the people who make up our Navy, their experiences, their hobbies, and we will feature their special contributions to America's seagoing service. Today we visit with various Navy people doing exciting things in the cool temperatures of the Great Lakes, as well as in the warm climates of Florida and California. Not too long ago, a third-class petty officer literally took his ship to his hometown of Buffalo, New York. We filmed him showing off his ship to friends and guests. Not far from this scene at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center, we found a hard-pedaling ensign. He and his volunteer crew were attempting an entry into the Guinness Book of World Records, for a good reason, as we will soon find out. In the warm waters off the coast of Florida, we joined a first-class boson with a flare for fast boats, during, on, or off duty hours. Then in Washington, we found out what the Navy is doing for you and your family. We spoke with the head of the new family program branch. And finally, we headed west to join up with the men and women of the Naval Reserves in the San Francisco Bay Area. They were testing their readiness during one of the largest combined military exercises conducted by reservists. Right now, let's join our Citrep 30 camera crew as they catch up with a ship taking part in a recent Great Lakes cruise. Larry Luhman reports. Located 17 miles from Niagara Falls, Buffalo is the fourth port of call on the recent Great Lakes cruise. A former Navy man, now one of Buffalo's radio personalities who calls himself Shane, announces the arrival of the ships. Hi, now, hey, now. It ain't any beautiful day. Good morning, everybody. Cosmo Rock coming to you from Buffalo, New York, and I want you to dig this with your 8 a.m. cream and sugar. This is the big day I've been talking about for weeks. The United States Navy is coming back to town, and we're inviting you to share the day with us. Grab the kids and come on down with your friends and your family. Welcome the Navy back to Buffalo as the giant warships gracefully glide up along pier side with a special sea anchor detail set, and the Navy band playing anchors away. 9 a.m. estimated time of arrival, and you've got to be there. Captain Stephen Dewich and the men of the USS Ferry coming to see you. Captain John Hyatt and the crew of the USS Fairfax County are coming to see you. So it's damned the torpedoes Buffalo ahead. Welcome to Buffalo, New York, the home of chicken wings, celery, and blue cheese. That is according to some of the crew who lives here. Aside from this famous dish, Buffalo has some interesting things planned for us. Drips to Niagara Falls are scheduled each day. You can sign up at the quarter. Several of the eating and drinking establishments in the downtown area are having keggers for all sailors in uniform. Hi, I'm Vaughn Keller, Fire Control Technician, third class. I'm bringing my ship. Y'all have a ferry home to Buffalo, New York to beat the Stark. Buffalo's got a reputation as a friendly city, and everybody's come back and said it is about the friendliest place we've been so far. Keller's ship, the USS Oliver Hazard Perry, is a guided missile frigate. She is the first of her class and was designed to provide protection for military and merchant convoys. But for the moment, she serves the Navy by supporting recruiting goals in the heart of America. Like other sailors, Keller takes his turn as tour guide. Everybody on the ship is actually very proud of the ship. As you say, it is hard work to keep the ship up as well as we do. Everybody seems real enthused about it, you know, a lot of pride in the ship. And to show it off like we do, we can see people enjoying at least what we're doing. When in Buffalo, Keller took Lee to be with family and friends. It's nice to at least be home during this period. I haven't been home for five months now. My wife and I were both worried about me being here before the baby. And it's something we were both kind of wanting that I'd be here. We've known each other since high school. I've always told her what I've been doing and she's sort of gotten a feeling of what's been going on. So she knew what she was sort of expecting. And she's doing very well. We're very close and we're always writing each other, which helps quite a bit. And then we usually try to call as often as we can or as often as we can afford to. Now go to your stations, all the special C and anchor details. Make all the necessary preparations to get underway. With seven ports to go, the ship has to move on. Erie, Pennsylvania, St. Ignace and Detroit, Michigan, Chicago, Illinois, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and New York, and Quebec City, Canada. As a fire control technician, Keller repairs the ship's radar and maintains the electronics systems that control the weapons. At St. Ignace, the ship lay at anchor, waiting for a fog to lift. There, Keller received word that the baby was arriving. A Coast Guard cutter was dispatched to take him to port where he made flight connections. He arrived home the same day the baby was born. Son and Debbie now have a seven-pound, eight-ounce son named William. Even though you may not have been there since joining the Navy or you only return once in a great while, if your legal residence is in a state that collects an income tax, you probably are required to file a state tax return. Each Navy member is responsible for completing the necessary forms and paying any tax due. The Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act protects you from double taxation. However, the state where you are stationed has a right to know why income taxes are not being paid to it. Proof can be demanded that you are actually domiciled elsewhere. Normally, the state in which you lived when you joined the Navy is considered your state of domicile. A voting record is the best proof you can use to support a claim of residence. Of course, other forms of income may be taxable in the state where you are stationed. Failure to file a state tax return could result in severe financial penalties. For more information, see your personnel officer. From Panama City, Florida, Larry Lumen brings us up to date on the Navy's newest and most exciting amphibious assault craft, the Jeff Bee. At the touch of a throttle, Mohsen's made first-class Cecil Gruber hurls his fishing boat over the placid waters of a Florida bass lake at speeds of up to 54 miles an hour. Following the bass for the fun of it, he's a sailor who has made boating on Florida's watery open spaces an exciting pastime. But speed on water is more than just a pastime for petty officer Gruber. You'll find him at the helm of the Jeff Bee, the latest addition to the Navy's amphibious assault force. He and the Jeff Bee's other crew members are part of a research program in Florida that will revolutionize amphibious assault tactics for the U.S. and its allies. Slipping out of the belly of a mother's ship far offshore, this air-cushioned vehicle rides a five-foot bubble of air and has achieved 62-knot over-water speeds in the Gulf of Mexico. It can move from the sea, through the surf, and across the beach, skimming over obstacles that would ambush slower, conventional vehicles. It delivers its multi-ton payload of troops, jeeps, and tanks as much as a mile inland, then goes back for more. Although speed and boating are a way of life for Gruber, handling the Jeff Bee is a new, fascinating experience. He talks about the Jeff Bee. You know, I knew these traffic were supposed to go across land, it's still, it's not normal. You're driving a displacement vessel, you're used to that, and you see something, you turn. I'll brace myself for a big impact and everything, and if you'd had your eyes closed, you'd never know when you went across it. At the end of each successful test run, the crew brings Jeff Bee back to her base pad in Panama City, Florida. There Gruber, along with a special team of Navy and civilian technicians, put the Jeff Bee through stringent performance checks, proving its military effectiveness. There's a big desire and knowledge in knowing what it is, what it's going to do, how it operates, even down to my new details of what it takes to make it. Jeff Bee is an air cushioned vehicle. It operates six gas turbine engines, but at about 20,100 shaft horsepower to give it lift through the lift hands and thrust from the propellers. The same type is on the naval aircraft, the C-130. Checking on the B-boat here, you've got various areas, the hinge lines, you've got to check them for free movement, skirt flexes, you come up on the cushion and they're in place and it brings it up. The primary operator, the Jeff Bee, I'll make it go where it's going to go, the same is like a coxswain on a smaller craft, but this one is quite large, it's got a lot of horsepower, a lot of capabilities that the average boatman has never seen. Whether it's aboard the air cushioned Jeff Bee or aboard his own boat heading for another fishing hole, hurling over the surface at speeds above 50 miles an hour is a way of life for petty officer Gruber, a Navy man doing his thing in one boat or another. Everyone should enjoy their time off, just to take it easy and have some fun, but what happens if you get sick or have an accident? Military people are entitled to necessary civilian health care when no military, veterans or public health facility exists. When you identify yourself as an active duty type, you shouldn't be required to pay money directly to the facility. Have all the bills sent to you at your military address. When you return to your command and receive the bills, take them to your medical department representative. He'll take over and in most cases get the bills paid. For more information, check with your health benefits counselor. He can bring you up to date on all your health benefit programs. How does one Navy ensign call attention for all of us to conserve energy? Let's return to the Great Lakes and find out. Larry Luhman reports. At the Great Lakes Naval Training Center, ensign Perry Lagboun would soon be joined by others in calling attention to save energy. The young naval officer is using an exercise cycle to turn an old generator, a convincing way to show how difficult it is to produce energy. He hopes to keep the generator turning continuously for two days and two nights in front of the main exchange, banking on the support and legs of the Navy men and women, recruits, dependents and civilian employees. He also hopes to make an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records. The theme of this, the saving energy, everybody's job. We're turning this generator by paddling it. We're taking the energy and running it through a string of lights, dispelling out energy on our signboard. Essentially, we're going to accomplish a lot of public awareness. What we're doing here is getting the personnel aboard the base involved in this project so as to promote energy awareness and energy conservation. No, I definitely not use energy the same way. You know, if I had to make it myself. I wouldn't use my clothes to iron my dishwasher. What we're doing out here tonight is attempting to set a world's record in the area of energy conservation. To educate people, let them sit on here and pedal at five minutes. So next time when they're out in the house and they leave their lights on, they can think about something's working at least this hard to keep those going. Maybe realize how valuable energy really is. Five, four, three, two, one. Ensign LeBoon and his Great Lakes grinders did what they set up to do, sustain man-powered energy nonstop for 48 hours. The Guinness Book of World Records is now reviewing their bid for an entry among its coveted pages, a record in which its category has yet to be established. But no matter what the outcome might be, the exhausted cyclists are happy to have made their number and to have brought more awareness to conserving energy. The next person to need blood could be you or a loved one. To assure that the right blood type is there when it's needed, give now and encourage others to become voluntary blood donors. Don't wait, donate. The Navy family is getting special attention in the Navy Department, but this shouldn't surprise anyone. It's an old tradition, the care and training of naval personnel, especially the care. At about the same time these sailors were signing up, the people who looked out for their rights and benefits were moving into a temporary building going up in Washington. That old temporary, the Navy annex, is still there. Located near the Pentagon, it's still the headquarters for the Navy's ongoing interest in its changing family. One of the newest tenants in this building is the Family Program Branch. She visited with its director, Dr. Ann O'Keefe. The most important goal of the Navy Family Program is to improve the quality of life, improve the conditions for bringing about a better quality of life for Navy members and their families. Everything that we do in the Navy Program would be part of that goal. We're out to support families and make the Navy more aware of families, family needs and ways to meet those needs. Under the Family Program, we are concerned with married Navy members, their spouses, be those spouses, husbands or wives, and we're very concerned about single service members. I think that part of our job is to be on the lookout for many of the positive good things that are already going on within the Navy. For example, let's take child care. When we see an operation such as the Child Care Center in San Diego, we make it our business to try and alert others to the way such a child care is operated and run so that these good things that we see in the Navy that may exist in one location can be made more available throughout the Navy. We're always on the lookout for some good program, some good idea that somebody's already had in his youth. Another important goal of the Navy Family Program is to help the Navy make better use of what it already has, make better use of what already exists. And I might add, this is not just to make better use of what exists in the Navy, but also what exists in the civilian community. An example of this closer coordination is in the Norfolk area. We've been working really as a catalyst in many ways to bring these agencies together and talk together about how they can better coordinate their services on behalf of Navy families. For the sailor who's aboard ship, I think the greatest benefit there will be to him or her is the knowledge that there'll be a place on shore where his or her family can go and get the kind of help and service and support that might be needed at that time when the service member is away. This family program is here to stay. Buying a home is an important financial decision. Once you decide on a home you like, remember to carefully read your sales contract. It spells out exactly who pays what closing costs, you or the sailor. Hey Dad, watch me! Shop around for a mortgage lender. Some lenders charge lower rates than others. And don't forget your VA benefits. Shop around for legal representation too. While military legal assistance officers can give advice, they cannot represent you at any settlement proceeding. At the settlement you are committed to buy the property unless the seller has broken promises made in the contract. You are obliged to complete the settlement and pay the closing costs. All bargaining should be completed prior to the settlement, not at it. Be sure you understand the contract fully before you commit yourself. A home is a big enough responsibility by itself. Don't make any big mistakes when you buy it. And for our final segment, we take you to the San Francisco Bay area where the Naval Reserves Operation Ready 180 is about to begin. Citrep 30 salutes the Naval Reservists, people from all walks of life who work hand in hand with the active duty Navy. Peter Hackes reports. Mastered Arms Chief, Eric Linn, I'm a police officer for the city of San Jose. He and one Dean Borum, and a printer, UCSC. I'm Lieutenant Commander Peter Milkovich, I'm the city manager of Patterson, California. I'm Post-Mate Chief Fred Chase, management executive of Sears Robotkin Company. And this man, Don Albright, a prominent stockbroker in Monterey, California, is in charge of the entire operation. This reserve rear admiral commands both reserve and active duty personnel in Exercise Ready 180, which will test the readiness of the Navy's reserve components. We'll be testing our level of training readiness this weekend in a multi-threat environment at sea, undersea, on land, and in the air. We'll see how well we coordinate our operations between units of our own services as well as the other services. Why do they do it? These men and women who spend time away from their families, jobs, and recreation to train, ashore, or at sea to be ready for call-up at a moment's notice. We drive over 400 miles round trip to attend our reserve meetings. We've been doing this for seven years, so maybe that can tell you what we feel as far as the reserve is concerned. There are not that many free countries left in this world, and I think as long as we can maintain a good military reserve program that our country has a better chance. And that's why I'm in the reserves. I love the Navy, love what it stands for, and love serving my country. Money's tight today. Inflation is here, and sure, it's nice to get a paycheck in the mail from the reserve. I just enjoy the affiliation with the reserve unit as kind of a continuation of my former years on active duty. It's kind of like a family type thing. It's like a reunion once a month. One of the big things that I am trying to accomplish in this exercise is to coordinate all of these into one exercise that would be if the real thing would actually happen. I think, and I honestly believe we've got it very, very well planned, and I think it'll come off without too many hitches if the weather is just good. 5% extras is sailing, running at 50 tp per hour. These reservists can mobilize immediately to bring the Navy to its full strength in any emergency. My selective reserve officers are the pillars of strength as far as the bridge watch is concerned. A number of them have been serving in Tulare for four or five years. We do not have the two E's or nothing. We're one. One ship, one crew. The crew is really tight. You get to know everyone by face and even by name and you work close. And the fact is, you can keep your training up because you have to always be training a reservist. He comes on. You have to keep him familiar with what's going down so they can keep you ahead of the game. They know the bridge. They know the ship. We go back in history for a few years, the beginning of the Second World War. 75% of the personnel in the Navy at that time were reservists. Two weeks period, the reservists come over here once a year. I noticed that when the first day they come aboard, they're really very eager to work and they're really ready to do it. They take it as flat office, ship's office, personal office, with exception of barbershop. In any environment, in any group of people, you got your 10%. And we do have our 10% of our flight reserves that we could actually do without. And over a period of time, these people are weeded out. And that's what it means, select reserves. These are the elite of the reserves that we can get. If I were mobilized tomorrow, I'd be ready to go. And I might add that that's what I expect of everybody in my command. We're just ready to go. We are very, very ready. That's what we're getting paid for. I'm prepared to go. I feel what the training we've had, we're ready to go. If it happens, it happens. It'd be the second time in the mobile life. It's just part of the job. This new program has been brought to you by men and women of the Navy Internal Relations Activity and the Naval Photographic Center. Until our next edition, this is Chris Curl for C&O Sitrep 30.