Latest news with #Battleship
American Press
21-05-2025
- General
- American Press
Daniel 'Danny' Kingston Johnson
Daniel Kingston Johnson, affectionately known as Danny, passed away peacefully on April 30, 2025, in Pensacola, Fla., at the age of 64. Born on May 25, 1960, in Lake Charles, La. A proud graduate of St. Louis High School, Danny went on to earn his bachelor's degree from Tulane University, where he was a proud member of Kappa Sigma fraternity. He later settled in Pensacola, where he built successful businesses as the owner of Dixie Health of Pensacola, Inc. dba Smoothie King. Danny married the love of his life, Apryle Johnson, on Jan. 11, 2002. He was a devoted father to Jeremy Johnson (Cierra Urso) and Isabella Johnson, and while never seeing him in person, loved his grandson, James Urso. He also spoiled and had fun with his new furbabies, Bijoux and Liloux. He loved grilling the perfect steak, savoring a good cigar, sipping fine wine, and passionately discussing politics, especially while watching Fox News. He was an opinionated Republican, a faithful Catholic, and a straight shooter with a sharp wit and a warm heart. A proud Louisianan at heart, he remained a member of Our Lady Queen of Heaven Catholic Church before relocating to Florida, where he worshipped at St. Paul Catholic Church in Pensacola. He is survived by his wife, Apryle; his children, Jeremy (Cierra) and Isabella; his grandson, James; his sister, Cassie Watson; and his wide circle of in-laws and extended family, Harley Shuff, Richard LeFranc, Josh (Erica) LeFranc, Ricky LeFranc, Kimberley Shuff (Natalie McCauley), Stacie Shuff (John Hymel), Jenny (Charles) Elbert, and Zoie LeFranc. He is also survived by his cherished 'framily,' Laura Darbonne (Marciano), and numerous nieces and nephews, whom he loved dearly; Maegan Burrage (Brad), Marissa Terry (Jesse), Landon Watson, Saije Shuff, Deven Shuff, Zoe Perkins, Emmalee Granger, Lanie LeFranc, Joshua LeFranc, Kaleb Belton, Noah LeFranc, Kynlee Hawkins, Slade Hawkins, Indie Shuff, Venise Shuff, and Ahna Traske. Danny was preceded in death by his parents, Dixie and Al Johnson, his mother-in-law, Connie Shuff, and his dearly loved pup, Olivia. His favorite movies were Battleship and Guardians of the Galaxy, and no song got him going like AC/DC's Thunderstruck or Jimmy Buffett's Volcano. He lived his life unapologetically and with passion. His heart was as big as his opinions, and his love for his family was boundless. He will be deeply missed and forever remembered by all who had the honor of knowing him. Family to celebrate his life on what would have been his 65th birthday in the chapel of Johnson Funeral Home, Sunday, May 25, 2025 at 3 p.m. Visitation to be held Sunday, May 25, 2025 beginning 1 p.m. until 2:30 p.m., with a Rosary to be prayed at 2:30 p.m. We invite you share a fond memory or sentiment of condolence on our website
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Why this Marine general says it's okay to lose your wargame
Marine leaders emphasize wargaming to foster learning and adaptability in troops. Wargaming helps Marines understand adversary tactics and adapt to emerging technologies. Marine leaders say it's important to embrace losing. A Marine Corps general said this week that officers and troops can't shy away from wargaming, tough exercises in critical thinking. They also can't be afraid to lose, he said. "Why isn't everybody wargaming today, right now?" Brig. Gen. Matthew Tracy, the commanding general for the Corps' Education Command, asked Tuesday at the Sea, Air, and Space symposium, a big annual event for military and defense industry insiders. "We know it's the best way to learn," Tracy said. "We know they need to get some reps." Some military leaders might be holding back from making wargaming more common because they fear losing in front of fellow Marines, including junior troops. It will take some bold leadership to help overcome fears of embarrassment, he said. "We have to get down behind the weapon and show that it's okay to fail." That's key to leadership. Thoughts of military wargames might bring to mind images of senior military officers clustered around a table with figurines representing maneuvering units. That's not wrong. Such games are still important for wargaming. But nowadays, wargames also come in boxes, on computers, and even in the form of plain flash cards. Some are also played in the field with red and blue teams and aggressor squadrons. They're for all ranks, but not as commonplace as some would like to see. Leaders like Tracy don't just want to see colonels sweating through these mental gymnastics. They also want to see the trigger-pullers at the lowest tactical levels involved. At the symposium, a young Marine officer demonstrated the latest computer-based wargame while nearby cadets from the Naval Academy played an almost human-size version of a game that resembled the classic board game "Battleship." Other games included increasingly complex elements for troops to consider, such as friendly and enemy nations' economic and diplomatic concerns, or how another country's civilians might react to the presence of US troops. "When you have the time to think, it gives you the muscle memory about things to consider," explained retired Marine Lt. Gen. Lori Reynolds. She previously led the service's Cyber Command and also participated in Tuesday's event. According to Reynolds, wargaming "improves your ability to understand adversary tactics and capabilities." The tests force players to constantly check their assumptions about what's happening on the battlefield, she said, making it an ideal environment for learning by failure. "It's important that we lose when it's okay to lose," she said. Better at the table than in battle. Amid the Corps' efforts to modernize for a great-power fight in the Pacific after decades of war in the Middle East, checking old assumptions is even more important. "When you think about Marine Corps Force Design efforts, we're going to be in a more distributed laydown than ever before," Reynolds said, referring to the Corps' initiative to cut mainstays like tanks and sniper units to build a force for combat on the island chains in the Pacific. The geography of the Pacific — with its remote islands and varying degrees of infrastructure availability — has had war planners spinning their wheels in recent years to discern what the logistics support for such a war might look like. Wargaming has previously forced planners to confront uncomfortable realities about Pacific warfare. For the rank-and-file, it could help troops to grapple with other emerging issues, like drone warfare and advancements in electronic warfare. "The ability to teach at the lowest levels, not just what the capability of these emerging technologies can do, but how to properly employ it," makes wargaming more critical, Reynolds said, especially for the most junior ranks. The notoriously rigid Marine Corps is known for favoring decentralized command structures to foster decision-making in the most junior ranks. The idea is that when far removed from high-ranking leadership in combat, even the most junior enlisted troops can understand what's going on and make sound decisions to lead their small squads effectively. "Each year's wargaming efforts should surpass the last in complexity, challenge, and effectiveness," Tracy told Business Insider in an email after the symposium. Part of the complexity that he envisions for thornier gaming could come in the form of AI-assisted games. By including AI in wargaming scenarios, "you can look at a whole lot more potential outcomes, and you can look at them a whole lot faster," said Steven Wills, who moderated Tuesday's event and who serves as a research scientist at the Center for Naval Analyses. "Being able to examine a wider problem set, the thought is that we can think and operate faster than the bad guys and get ahead of their decision-making." Good wargaming, he explained, exposes unforeseen consequences of decision-making, setting off more complex chains of events. But it doesn't give a participant a road map for winning. "It lets you play through a whole lot of different outcomes so that when you think about an actual fight, you have an idea of what the outcomes might or could be," Wills said. "It's all about trying to get you to think about the problem." But thinking about those problems is going to take a level of vulnerability from Marine leaders, Tracy said. "Creating a culture of wargaming starts at the highest levels, where leaders set the example by participating directly, making themselves vulnerable, and demonstrating a willingness to lose in order to learn," he told BI. If you're always winning, you aren't being challenged, Reynolds explained. "It's okay to fail in a safe place that teaches growth." "It teaches the importance of being a learning organization," she said. "You don't learn if you constantly win." Read the original article on Business Insider
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Spring lights to illuminate Battleship NC for the Azalea Festival. Here's when to see it
Battleship North Carolina is ready to get into the N.C. Azalea Festival spirit. The USS North Carolina Battleship Commission, in partnership with the Friends of the Battleship North Carolina, announced that the Battleship will be lit to impress with spring colors to celebrate the festival, according to a news release. Here's what to know. The Battleship's uplighting takes center stage throughout the extended weekend from Thursday, April 3-Sunday, April 6, from 7:30-9 p.m. The best place to enjoy the uplighting is from across the Cape Fear River in downtown Wilmington. Viewers and photographers on the Riverwalk, as well as the hospitality locations in downtown Wilmington, will have prime locations to enjoy the illuminated Battleship. Look for pops of pink, purple, and yellow to highlight the Battleship's historic silhouette. "As the official sponsors of the Azalea Festival fireworks, we are honored to contribute extra brilliance for the event series," said Dr. Jay Martin, Executive Director, Battleship North Carolina Memorial, in a news release. "Seeing the uplighting in-person is a memorable experience for both locals and visitors, so we are thankful for our outstanding partners with the Azalea Festival." Battleship grounds, parking lot, and SECU Walkway are closed every day at 5 p.m. and will be closed during lighting. Saturday's Boom & Bloom Fireworks Bonanza is a ticketed event. No outside parking will be available, with grounds and walkway closed. Battleship North Carolina is a decommissioned World War II warship, permanently moored as a memorial and state historic site on the Cape Fear River at Wilmington. The Battleship commemorates the heroism of U.S. sailors and soldiers from North Carolina during World War II. Cheryl M. Whitaker covers community news for the StarNews. Reach her at This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Battleship NC in Wilmington to get uplighting for Azalea Festival
Yahoo
08-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Archaeologists Discovered the Pieces of a Fifth-Century Board Game. They Tell a Big Story.
An excavation in modern-day Turkey near what was once a Roman fortress revealed a pair of carved bone disk-shaped pieces likely used for a strategic board game. Each of the pieces is shaped the same, but with a different symbol carved onto the token. The game in question isn't known, but experts believe it was a popular military strategy game of the day. When Roman soldiers weren't out doing real soldiering, they were spending at least some of their time learning military strategy through fun and games. A team of archaeologists recently confirmed this by uncovering pair of game pieces carved from bone in the ancient city of Hadrianopolis (in modern-day Turkey). 'The discovery of strategy games in Hadrianopolis further solidifies the presence of a military unit here,' Ersin Celikbas, an archaeologist at Turkey's Karabuk University, said according to the state-run media Anadoula Agency, 'as it is known that bone pieces were used to play ancient strategy games such as Ludus Latrunculi and Doudecim Scripta.' The two small bone objects are disk-shaped, about size of a half-dollar coin, and date to the fifth-century A.D. Each one a symbol etched onto it, Celikbas said, according to a translated statement from the university. One token features a symbol with four arms and the other depicts eight arms (both have punctuation marks at the end of the arms). 'These are actually symbols that help the person playing the game pieces determine their strategy,' Celikbas said, adding that the symbols could have marked the worth of each piece in the game. The games in questions could be either Ludus Latrunculi or Doudecim Scripta, both of which were known board games played with bone pieces by Roman soldiers in the fifth century. Celikbas said both are based on military strategy, and may be similar to modern strategy games like checkers or Battleship. 'When we compare the games played with these stones in ancient times and the games played today, we can say that there are actually similarities,' Celikbas said. He noted that military strategy of surrounding and conquering opponents is present throughout centuries of gameplay. Ludus Latrunculorum translates to Game of Mercenaries, according to Smithsonian Magazine, and is a two-player strategy game that was born from the Greek game Petteia and popular throughout Roman culture. The full rules aren't known, but a 1994 essay from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland explains that players would have attempted to surround a piece and cut it off from the rest of their opponent's pieces to capture it. The Doudecim Scripta game board was similar to backgammon. The pair of game pieces provide a richer picture of Hadrianopolis—a city known for beautiful and complex mosaics of animals on the floors of various structures. Locating the game pieces has experts believing that the Roman forces thought to have been headquartered in the city starting in the second century A.D. may have remained into the fifth century. 'The presence of a Roman headquarters and a Roman unit in Hadrianopolis, from the second to the fifth century A.D., as well as the existence of the Roman fortress, are clearly supported by these findings,' Celikbas said. With work at the site ongoing this year, archaeologists may one day be able to construct a fully formed game of Ludus Latrunculi or Doudecim Scripta. You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Archaeologists Discovered the Pieces of a Fifth-Century Board Game. They Tell a Big Story.
An excavation in modern-day Turkey near what was once a Roman fortress revealed a pair of carved bone disk-shaped pieces likely used for a strategic board game. Each of the pieces is shaped the same, but with a different symbol carved onto the token. The game in question isn't known, but experts believe it was a popular military strategy game of the day. When Roman soldiers weren't out doing real soldiering, they were spending at least some of their time learning military strategy through fun and games. A team of archaeologists recently confirmed this by uncovering pair of game pieces carved from bone in the ancient city of Hadrianopolis (in modern-day Turkey). 'The discovery of strategy games in Hadrianopolis further solidifies the presence of a military unit here,' Ersin Celikbas, an archaeologist at Turkey's Karabuk University, said according to the state-run media Anadoula Agency, 'as it is known that bone pieces were used to play ancient strategy games such as Ludus Latrunculi and Doudecim Scripta.' The two small bone objects are disk-shaped, about size of a half-dollar coin, and date to the fifth-century A.D. Each one a symbol etched onto it, Celikbas said, according to a translated statement from the university. One token features a symbol with four arms and the other depicts eight arms (both have punctuation marks at the end of the arms). 'These are actually symbols that help the person playing the game pieces determine their strategy,' Celikbas said, adding that the symbols could have marked the worth of each piece in the game. The games in questions could be either Ludus Latrunculi or Doudecim Scripta, both of which were known board games played with bone pieces by Roman soldiers in the fifth century. Celikbas said both are based on military strategy, and may be similar to modern strategy games like checkers or Battleship. 'When we compare the games played with these stones in ancient times and the games played today, we can say that there are actually similarities,' Celikbas said. He noted that military strategy of surrounding and conquering opponents is present throughout centuries of gameplay. Ludus Latrunculorum translates to Game of Mercenaries, according to Smithsonian Magazine, and is a two-player strategy game that was born from the Greek game Petteia and popular throughout Roman culture. The full rules aren't known, but a 1994 essay from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland explains that players would have attempted to surround a piece and cut it off from the rest of their opponent's pieces to capture it. The Doudecim Scripta game board was similar to backgammon. The pair of game pieces provide a richer picture of Hadrianopolis—a city known for beautiful and complex mosaics of animals on the floors of various structures. Locating the game pieces has experts believing that the Roman forces thought to have been headquartered in the city starting in the second century A.D. may have remained into the fifth century. 'The presence of a Roman headquarters and a Roman unit in Hadrianopolis, from the second to the fifth century A.D., as well as the existence of the Roman fortress, are clearly supported by these findings,' Celikbas said. With work at the site ongoing this year, archaeologists may one day be able to construct a fully formed game of Ludus Latrunculi or Doudecim Scripta. You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
