WWII vet believed to be homeless had family

And it turns out that Edwin Cecil McQuiddy, 84, had lived in a nursing home and hadn't been homeless at all.

The revelations came Thursday at a funeral in Kansas City for McQuiddy, a Navy Musician 2nd Class who died March 10.

A group of Kansas City-area funeral directors who are part of the Dignity Memorial Homeless Veterans Burial Program organized his cremation and burial with military honors because no one knew he had any family.

But as the service was starting, funeral director Mark McGilley was told the man had a widow and had lived in a nursing home.

"Holy cow!" he said. "Are you kidding me? His wife is living?"

About that time, a car pulled up, and Lois McQuiddy stepped out. The two had lived together before health problems forced Edwin McQuiddy to move into a nursing home.

McGilley had intended to present a folded U.S. flag to a Gold Star mother, Shirley Hemenway, whose son Ronald died at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. But the funeral director had to revise his plans, so he pulled Hemenway aside to let her know about the changes.

"We didn't know anything about a widow," he told her. "We have to give the flag to her."

"We would have come anyway," Hemenway responded. "It's OK."

With folded flag in hand, Lois McQuiddy sat quietly during the service remembering her husband as he was before diabetes and amputations, when the two were members of the Bonsai Society of Greater Kansas City and sickness hadn't yet taken hold of him.

Now, she said, "it was time for him to be released from his misery."

When the funeral was over, she got back into the car, carrying her husband's ashes in a little pine box.

McGilley said a stepdaughter had asked if McQuiddy would qualify for a burial program as an indigent. She had said she wouldn't attend the ceremony, and no one knew about any other family members.

"We stepped in to help," McGilley said. "Otherwise, the county would have had to bury him in a pauper's grave. And that wouldn't have been right. Our commitment is to veterans, regardless of their circumstances. We will be there for them."

Troops, Franken honored at USO gala

"I'd like to make it simpler," he said. "The VA system is a good system. I think it's underfunded and I'd like every veteran to be able to get health care through the VA. I think that's a way of putting the pieces together for universal health care. The system is so complex."

Franken, a Democrat whose 225-vote lead over Republican Norm Coleman in Minnesota is among the closest in Senate history and the subject of a protracted legal dispute, didn't elaborate.

His comments came at the USO of Metropolitan Washington's annual black-tie dinner, where he was recognized for a decade of volunteer service with the organization.

The fund-raiser, which coincided with National Medal of Honor Day, drew more than 600 attendees, including 31 living Medal of Honor recipients, Hollywood stars and top military brass. The gala raised more than $600,000 for the organization.

The program also recognized active-duty combat veterans from each branch of service and the Coast Guard, including Army Staff Sgt. Christopher Waiters, Marine Staff Sgt. Joseph Perez, Air Force Staff Sgt. Zachary Rhyner, Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Christopher Barrows and Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Luis E. Fronseca.

Army Sgt. 1st Class Carlo DePorto, a veteran of World War II, Korea and Vietnam, received the first-ever Col. John Gioia Patriot Award memorializing John Gioia, a retired Air Force colonel and 20-year member of the board of directors.

Actress Renee Zellweger had just introduced and invited on stage four service members critically injured in Iraq and Afghanistan: Army Spc. Brent Hendricks, Air Force Tech Sgt. Israel Del Toro, Army Sgt. Kurtis Dellicker and Army Sgt. Jason Shepperly. The men, some of whom limped onto the platform, were still standing as Franken accepted his award.

"I certainly feel like the most deserving honoree tonight," Franken deadpanned.

Franken described his experience with the USO as "the most rewarding thing I've ever done." He is a veteran of seven overseas tours, dating back to Kosovo in 1999, and most recently visited patients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Bethesda Naval Hospital.

Franken said he initially struggled with the idea of trying to cheer up recovering combat veterans. But the soldiers and Marines put him at ease, he said.

"The first soldier I met was standing in the hallway. He was standing on crutches. He lost his left leg from just above the knee. I said, 'What happened to you.' He said, 'You know, I came in here for a vasectomy.'"

"What you learn, of course," Franken said, "is that they cheer you up and you leave getting more than you give."

If elected, Franken pledged to work on behalf of veterans and their families.

"I don't know what's exactly going to happen. We've been in this sort of ambiguous state for a while," he said. "But when I think of the families who don't know what's going to happen exactly with their loved ones, and when I think of these soldiers and Marines who don't know exactly what's gong to happen, all I know is that if I get to the Senate, I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that those families, and those soldiers or sailors or Marines or airmen or Coast Guardsmen … that they get everything they need."

Franken later said he said he bonded with entertainers of all political stripes on USO tours, including conservative country singers.

"It was actually great to do comedy that wasn't political at all," he said. "My first joke was, 'Well, this Army grub doesn't agree with me. So far I've had five MREs and none of them seem to have an exit strategy."

"[The troops] don't care what your politics are," Franken said. "They care that you bothered to come."

COURTESY OF USO Army Sgt. 1st Class Carlo DePorto, recipient of the Col. John Gioia Patriot Award, shares a laugh with Saturday Night Live alum and U.S. Sen. Al Franken.

COURTESY OF USO Actress Renee Zellweger poses for pictures with Army Sgt. Jason Shepperly. Zellweger previously visited

Navy Offers Bataan Sailor Path to Citizenship
3/31/2009
By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class (SW) Stephen Oleksiak, USS Bataan Public Affairs

NORFOLK (NNS) -- A Sailor aboard multipurpose amphibious assault ship USS Bataan (LHD 5) joined the Navy for the promise of becoming a U.S. citizen.

Machinist's Mate Fireman Sallyvidia Isiaho of Kisumu, Kenya, came to America and began living with his sister in July 2005 after he received a lottery visa. After arriving aboard Bataan, he quickly assumed the position of primary maintenance person for the ship's air pressure systems while working toward his dream of a better life.

"When I came to the United States, I had to leave my wife and infant son back in Kenya," said Isiaho. "At the time, there was a civil war that had broken out between tribes, and approximately 1,700 people were killed and 300,000 were left homeless, so now I'm struggling to try and help my family come here and get their citizenship as well."

Difficulties can arise said Isiaho, when attempting to work toward citizenship within a particular time frame. If the time frame isn't met, the process begins all over again. With Bataan scheduled to deploy later this year, processes like these can be very stressful.

"We are still trying to bring them here, and I'm hoping that since we are getting ready to deploy, that the [U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services] can expedite the process," said Isiaho.

Situations like Isiaho's require a lot of attention, which means spending a fair amount of time outside of his workspace, but his divisional leadership is more than happy to oblige.

"We allowed Isiaho the time necessary to complete all of his paperwork and make his appointments on or off of the ship," said Chief Machinist's Mate (SW) James Rush, Isiaho's leading chief petty officer. "I think the reason everyone is so keen to help is because even with everything that's going on in his personal life, he still manages to be happy, squared away and one of the best workers in the shop."

With the help of his chain of command, Isiaho has received the support needed to complete this process, but it was Bataan's legal office that provided the constant legal guidance necessary to work through the process.

"We facilitated a lot of the paperwork for Isiaho by setting up meetings and sending off a request letter to the immigrations office," said Legalman 1st Class Rachel Allen. "Our job was to try and expedite the process, which worked out well. After the request was sent to immigration, they immediately sent paperwork for his family over to the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya."

With a little luck and continued dedication, Isiaho hopes to have his wife and son in the United States prior to Bataan's deployment.

"This situation has put a real strain on my family, especially on my son and me, since I've only been able to return home once since he was born," said Isiaho.
"I'm very hopeful that the Navy will help me to get my family here very soon."

Bataan is the fifth ship of the Navy's Wasp-class ships. She was commissioned Sept. 20, 1997 and is the second U.S. Navy warship to bear the name. CVL-29 was an Independence-class light aircraft carrier that was commissioned in November 1943. After serving in both World War II and the Korean conflict, CVL-29 was decommissioned in 1954.

Afghan soldier's slaying of 2 officers stuns base

Then an Afghan Army soldier raised his military-issued weapon and fatally shot the two officers. A third Navy officer was also wounded in the shootings, said Air Force Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, a spokeswoman for U.S. Forces in Afghanistan.

The Afghan soldier fatally shot himself moments after the killings, Mathias said.

The shooting stunned the sailors and soldiers living on the base, who are there to "mentor" the Afghan troops.

"I really hope that this incident doesn't just pass as two more service members killed in Afghanistan. I want everyone to know how they died and why," said Lt. Michael Lucrezio, a medical service corps officer assigned to the base.

"The simple fact is that they were murdered in cold blood. The guy who shot them wasn't some random bad guy who snuck on base wearing a stolen uniform; he was an army soldier who had been vetted through the [Afghan National Army] recruiting process and trained to their basic standards," Lucrezio said in an e-mail to Navy Times after the shooting.

Afghan officials expressed condolences for the deaths. Afghan Minister of Defense Abdul Rahim Wardak said he was "saddened and deeply regretful this tragedy occurred," and that the incident was under investigation, according to a military press release.

Meanwhile, back at home, a Navy chaplain and senior chief knocked on the door at the Toner's family home in Rhode Island to relay news of the 26-year-old Seabee's death.

"The irony is that he loved those people," Sharon Toner, the officer's stepmother, said of Toner in an interview. "His heart just went out to the children over there because they weren't in school and they didn't have shoes. The poverty over there really hit him hard."

Toner's family had expected him home for leave the following week, his stepmother said.

Toner was assigned to Naval Facility Hawaii at Pearl Harbor, where he lived with his wife, Brooke. He was on a one-year deployment to Afghanistan to help oversee reconstruction projects in an area north of the capital.

Choe, 35, was a medical service corps officer assigned to Naval Medical Center in San Diego, where she lived with her husband, Lt. Cmdr. Chong "Jay" Choe, a urology resident at the hospital, and their 3-year-old daughter, according to a statement from the hospital.

She was born at the same hospital while her father was a career sailor, said Sonja Hanson, a spokeswoman for the hospital.

Choe contacted a Navy recruiter just days after Sept. 11, 2001, Hanson said. She also was on a one-year deployment in Afghanistan, where she helped run the medical station that served U.S. troops as well as Afghan troops and civilians, Mathias said.

Choe's family declined requests for an interview, Hanson said.

The Toner family is planning a memorial service at the Merchant Marine Academy on Long Island, N.Y., where Toner earned his bachelor's degree in 2006, his stepmother said.

Toner was voted prom king at his high school and played football in college, his family said. He sought a Navy career immediately after his graduation.

"He was going to do a full 20 years. His long-term goal was to someday work at the Pentagon. He loved, loved the Navy, loved the Seabees and he never had any thoughts about doing anything else," his stepmother said.

Sharon Toner said her stepson's death was a "freak event."

"I don't see that as a reflection on the Afghan people. In America we have people right here - you read it in the newspaper every day, people murdering other people and doing things like that. That doesn't reflect on the society as a whole," she said.

Photos provided by Naval Medical Center San Diego Lt. Florence Bacong Choe is shown here with her husband, Lt. Cmdr. Chong "Jay" Choe, a urology resident at Naval Medical Center San Diego, and daughter, Kristin. Choe and Lt. j.g. Francis "Frankie" Toner were shot and killed by an Afghan Army soldier at Forward Operating Base Sheehan. A third Navy officer also was wounded in the shootings. She is survived by her husband and daughter.

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea fired a rocket over Japan on Sunday, defying Washington, Tokyo and others who suspect the launch was cover for a test of its long-range missile technology. President Barack Obama said the move threatens the security of nations "near and far."

Liftoff took place at 11:30 a.m. (0230 GMT) from the coastal Musudan-ri launch pad in northeastern North Korea, the South Korean and U.S. governments said. The multistage rocket hurtled toward the Pacific, reaching Japanese airspace within seven minutes, but no debris appeared to hit its territory, officials in Tokyo said.

Four hours after the launch, North Korea declared it a success. An experimental communications satellite reached outer space in just over nine minutes and is orbiting Earth, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said from Pyongyang.

"The satellite is transmitting the melodies of the immortal revolutionary paeans 'Song of Gen. Kim Il Sung' and 'Song of Gen. Kim Jong Il' as well as measurement data back to Earth," it said, referring to the country's late founder and his son, its current leader.

But the U.S. military said "no object entered orbit." North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command officials said in a statement that the first stage of the rocket fell into the waters between Korea and Japan, while the two other stages, and its payload, landed in the Pacific Ocean.

The launch was a bold act of defiance against Obama, Japanese leader Taro Aso, Hu Jintao of China and others who pressed North Korea in the days leading up to liftoff to cancel a move they said would threaten peace and stability in Northeast Asia.

The U.N. Security Council approved an emergency session for Sunday afternoon in New York.

"North Korea has ignored its international obligations, rejected unequivocal calls for restraint and further isolated itself from the community of nations," Obama said in Prague, urging the North to refrain from further "provocative" actions.

He said the move was a clear violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718, which prohibits North Korea from conducting ballistic missile-related activities of any kind, and demands an international response.

"North Korea broke the rules once more by testing a rocket that could be used for a long range missile," Obama said. "This provocation underscores the need for action - not just this afternoon at the U.N. Security Council, but in our determination to prevent the spread of these weapons."

In Tokyo, Aso said the launch was "an extremely provocative act that cannot be overlooked."

China, North Korea's biggest source of economic aid and diplomatic support, urged all sides to maintain calm and exercise restraint. It offered to play a "constructive role," though some say it could use its veto power to block a unified response to the launch at the Security Council.

Russia, which shares a border with North Korea, also called for calm. "We urge all states concerned to show restraint in judgments and action in the current situation, and to be guided by objective data on the nature of North Korea's launch," a Foreign Ministry statement said.

North Korea says the launch of the "Kwangmyongsong-2" satellite was a peaceful bid to develop its space program.

But the U.S., South Korea, Japan and others suspect the launch was a guise for testing the regime's long-range missile technology - a step toward eventually mounting a nuclear weapon on a missile capable of reaching Alaska and beyond.

They contend it violates Resolution 1718, part of efforts to force North Korea to shelve its nuclear program and halt long-range missile tests. The European Union also "strongly" condemned the launch.

Japan's U.N. mission immediately requested a meeting of the 15-nation council, spokesman Yutaka Arima said. Mexico, which holds the 15-nation council's presidency this month, set the meeting for 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT), spokesman Marco Morales said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he regretted North Korea's move "against strong international appeal" at a time when nuclear disarmament talks involving six nations remain stalled.

"Given the volatility in the region, as well as a stalemate in interaction among the concerned parties, such a launch is not conducive to efforts to promote dialogue, regional peace and stability," Ban said in a statement from Paris.

At the United Nations, diplomats have begun discussing ways to affirm existing sanctions on North Korea. Envoys said permanent council members U.S., Britain and France are unlikely to secure agreement on new sanctions from veto holders Russia and China. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the discussions.

North Korea, which says its participation in a U.N. space treaty protects its right to send a satellite into orbit, took pains to alert international maritime and aviation authorities of the rocket's flight path, in marked contrast to 2006, when it carried out a surprise launch.

"Even if a satellite was launched, we see this as a ballistic missile test," Japan's chief Cabinet spokesman Takeo Kawamura said.

Japan had threatened to shoot down any debris from the rocket if the launch went wrong, and positioned batteries of interceptor missiles on its coast and radar-equipped ships in its northern seas to monitor the liftoff. Russia also scrambled fighter jets to monitor the launch, while U.S. and South Korea sent warships to nearby waters, reports said.

No attempt at interception was made because no debris fell onto its territory, Japan's Defense Ministry said.

However, Japan threatened to add more bilateral sanctions onto those it imposed after the July 2006 launch of a similar Taepodong-2 long-range missile that fizzled 42 seconds after takeoff.

South Korea, which technically remains at war with the North because their three-year conflict ended in 1953 in a truce rather than a peace treaty, put its forces on heightened alert.

North Korea, one of the world's poorest nations, is led with absolute authority by leader Kim Jong Il, who is poised to preside over the first session of the country's new parliament on Thursday. The appearance will be his first major public appearance since reportedly suffering a stroke last August.

Amid the controversy over the rocket launch, North Korea announced last week it would put two American reporters detained at the border with China on trial for allegedly entering the country illegally and engaging in "hostile acts."

N. Korean rocket launch a failure, U.S. says

President Barack Obama, faced with his first global security crisis, called for a international response and condemned North Korea for threatening the peace and stability of nations "near and far." Minutes after liftoff, Japan requested the emergency Security Council session in New York.

U.S. and South Korean officials claim the entire rocket, including whatever payload it carried, ended up in the ocean but many world leaders fear the launch indicates the capacity to fire a long-range missile. Pyongyang claims it launched an experimental communications satellite into orbit Sunday and that it's transmitting data and patriotic songs.

"North Korea broke the rules, once again, by testing a rocket that could be used for long-range missiles," Obama said in Prague. "It creates instability in their region, around the world. This provocation underscores the need for action, not just this afternoon in the U.N. Security Council, but in our determination to prevent the spread of these weapons."

Using a possible loophole in U.N. sanctions imposed after the 2006 nuclear test that barred the North from ballistic missile activity, the Pyongyang government claimed it was exercising its right to peaceful space development.

The U.S. said nuclear-armed North Korea clearly violated the resolution, but objections from Russia and China - the North's closest ally - will almost certainly water down any strong response. Both have Security Council veto power.

"Obviously today's action by North Korea constitutes a clear violation," said Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. "My government has called this a provocative act, and we have been in consultation today with our allies in the region and other partners on the Security Council ... to work toward agreement on a strong collective action."

Yukio Takasu, Japan's ambassador to the U.N., called the launch "a clear crime" violating U.N. Security Council demands that posed a grave threat to his nation's security. North Korea had warned that debris might fall off Japan's northern coast when the rocket's first stage fell away, so Tokyo positioned batteries of interceptor missiles on its coast and radar-equipped ships to monitor the launch. Nary a shot was necessary.

Obama warned the launch would further isolate the reclusive nation. But U.S. officials also called for pragmatism, especially with efforts to get North Korea back to the negotiating table for the six-party talks.

While the rogue communist state has repeatedly been belligerent and threatening - as it was when it carried out an underground nuclear blast and tested ballistic missiles in recent years - Pyongyang showed increased savvy this time that may make severe punishment more complicated than ever.

Unlike its previous provocations, the North notified the international community that the launch was coming and the route the rocket would take - although critics of North Korea leader Kim Jong Il claim he really was testing a ballistic missile capable of hitting U.S. territory.

Analysts say sanctions imposed after the North's underground nuclear test in 2006 appear to have had little effect because implementation was left up to individual countries, some of which showed no will to impose them.

Kim is reportedly a big film buff, and his strategy appears to have borrowed heavily from the 1959 movie "The Mouse That Roared," about a fictional poor country that declares war on the U.S., expecting to lose and get aid like the Marshall Plan that Washington used to help rebuild its World War II foes.

In a statement released just hours after the launch, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said North Korea had informed Moscow ahead of time, and Russian radars tracked it.

Russia urges "all states concerned to show restraint in judgments and action," Nesterenko said.

Despite its policy of "juche," or "self-reliance," communist North Korea is one of the world's poorest countries, has few allies and is in desperate need of outside help. The money that flowed in unconditionally from neighboring South Korea for a decade dried up when conservative President Lee Myung-bak took office in 2008.

Pyongyang has little collateral, and for years has used its nuclear weapons program as its trump card, promising to abandon its atomic ambitions in exchange for aid and then dangling the nuclear threat when it doesn't get its way.

It's been an effective strategy so far, with previous missile launches drawing Washington to negotiations. The North also has reportedly been selling missile parts and technology to whoever has the cash to pay for it.

Kim wants food for his famished people, fuel and - perhaps most importantly - direct talks and relations with Washington.

Right now, the main contact is through six-nation talks aimed at getting Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons program.

"We must deal with North Korea as we find it, not as we would like it to be," Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. envoy on North Korea, said Friday.

Kim Keun-sik, a North Korea expert at South Korea's Kyungnam University, said the launch would chill ties between Pyongyang and Washington, but likely not for long.

"Wouldn't they eventually come to hold talks? There is no other way," Kim said.

U.S. officials also are trying to obtain the release of two American journalists recently detained by the North along its border with China. Paik Hak-soon, an analyst at the Sejong Institute think tank, predicted they would be used as bargaining chips, with the North likely "to try to link them to the nuclear and missile talks."

Iran, which also has a contentious relationship with the international community over its nuclear program and is believed to have cooperated extensively with North Korea on missile technology, defended the launch.

"North Korea, like any other country, has the right to enter space," Iran's state TV said in a commentary, adding that the "pressure on North Korea to give up its undisputable right" was "unfair and dishonest."

---

Epic Fail: North Korean Bottle Rocket Assumes Underwater Trajectory

Northern Command reports:

North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command officials acknowledged today that North Korea launched a Taepo Dong 2 missile at 10:30 p.m. EDT Saturday which passed over the Sea of Japan/East Sea and the nation of Japan.

Stage one of the missile fell into the Sea of Japan/East Sea. The remaining stages along with the payload itself landed in the Pacific Ocean.

Sounds like the second stage never separated -or ignited- giving the birdie about as much thrust as a slab of granite. Hence the splish-splash just east of Japan. No doubt if we were the shooters, we'd call it a catastrophic success. Bureaucracy!

War demands put crimp in Navy's air, sea time

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Sailors assigned to Maritime Expeditionary Squadron 4, hurry to meet their family members
waiting in the Naval Station Norfolk Air Mobility Command terminal. (Michael R. Hinchcliffe | U.S. Navy)

Being popular has its price.

The recent surge in global demand for all things Navy has caused the service to burn through its funding more quickly than planned.

As a result, the service is tightening its belt for the rest of the fiscal year, which translates into fewer hours in the air and fewer days at sea.

"At the current rate of operations, if we didn't make adjustments, the fleets would run out of cash," said Lt. Cmdr. Phil Rosi, a spokesman for U.S. Fleet Forces Command in Norfolk.

Ships and planes already on deployment or preparing to deploy will be least affected by the cuts. There are currently about 100 ships deployed worldwide, including four carrier strike groups and their air wings.

The cuts are being driven by recent higher-than-projected expenses, Rosi said. These expenses are because of increased demand from combatant commanders around the world, as well as the increased costs of operations.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are still the Navy's main priorities, along with homeland defense, Rosi said, so they will continue to receive the bulk of funding. Non-deployed planes and ships will bear the brunt of the cuts, though the specifics are still being worked out.

Airplanes will see fewer flight hours, which means less fuel usage and lower maintenance costs. The Navy is also reviewing upcoming participation in air shows and flyovers.

For non-deployed ships, steaming days will be reduced by an average of one third. This means fewer ships will participate in community events such as Fleet Week. Last fiscal year, the Navy did 112 port visits. This year, it's looking to do about 70.

While these are all great ways to showcase the Navy, Rosi said, "the key is to be operational."

What these cuts will mean specifically depends on what you drive.

On the air side of the house, Lt. Cmdr. Joseph Cuba predicts squadrons may be scheduling more simulator time, particularly once Carrier Air Wing 8 returns with the carrier Theodore Roosevelt.

Cuba helps run the F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet simulators at Oceana Naval Air Station as part of Strike Fighter Wing Atlantic. He said the simulators are already at capacity since they're primarily used to train new pilots. Two new Super Hornet simulators are coming on line soon, which will handle some of the excess demand.

Cuba said that while pilots can use the simulators to stay sharp, simulator time doesn't count toward many of the requirements they must meet to keep current in their planes.

As the technology gets more sophisticated, the Navy is studying whether, and how, to allow simulators to substitute for cockpit time, he said.

Paul Harris, a retired Tomcat maintenance officer who now works with the simulators, said that while the simulators are useful, "the realism is not there."

The trick is balancing what's live with what's simulated, said Rear Adm. David Anderson, vice commander of U.S. Fleet Forces.

"We look at funding levels and figure out how we can continue to operate safely," he said. "There are red lines we can't go below. We have to make sure everyone knows where the red lines are."

Harris remembers coming back from deployments in the 1980s, and sidelining planes for months to save money. The problem, and expense, came when it was time to get the planes and pilots ready for the next deployment.

The same issue is at hand now, Anderson said.

"We have to say, 'Here's the cost if we park them.' We have to get up to speed again."

When it comes to non-deployed ships, the answer may lie in the Internet - more specifically in fleet "synthetic training."

In a synthetic event, while a ship is tied up at the pier, trainers feed a real-time war game into its displays, communications systems and combat systems. Multiple ships and planes can participate simultaneously from anywhere in the world.

In the past five years, the technology has "gone from Pong to Xbox" in terms of sophistication, said Michael Ogden, assistant chief of staff of synthetic training and technologies with Strike Force Training Atlantic.

The Navy currently uses synthetic training along with live exercises as part of a typical work-up for strike groups and individual ships preparing to deploy, he said. The exercises can run for days at a time and offer scenarios that would be hard to mimic during live training.

To compensate for the loss of time at sea, Ogden said the Navy is looking at ways to do more synthetic training this summer "to keep the muscle memory alive" for the crews of lower-priority ships.

It is too early to know what form the training will take or how many ships will be involved, he said. Since preparing a synthetic event usually requires nine to 12 months, he said it's likely the trainers would adapt part of an existing exercise instead of starting from scratch.

Looking ahead, Rosi couldn't put a number on what it would cost the Navy to resume normal operations, nor say what the service might request in a supplemental request or the 2010 budget, which is due out in about a month. The current fiscal year ends Sept. 30.

"We're not in a position to talk about what may happen in the future," he said. "We will continue to monitor operations throughout the year, and if additional funding comes available, we'll adjust."d, Rosi couldn't put a number on what it would cost the Navy to resume normal operations, nor say what the service might request in a supplemental request or the 2010 budget, which is due out in about a month. The current fiscal year ends Sept. 30.

"We're not in a position to talk about what may happen in the future," he said. "We will continue to monitor operations throughout the year, and if additional funding comes available, we'll adjust."