I wish I could say that I'm surprised about any of this, but I'm not. Warships take a lot of TLC to keep in good condition. A decade ago, the Navy went to a concept called "optimal manning", which was a bureaucratic way of saying "not enough sailors to keep the ships up." From what I've read, a Burke class DDG had a complement of 290, yet the Navy sent those ships to see with the the crew size of a Knox class FF (or a Perry class FFG). Those two frigate classes displaced 4,100 tons, but a Burke class DDG displace between 8,300 and 9,500 tons.*
The Burkes are much larger ships. Those who thought that the Navy could send them to sea with the crew size of a smaller ship and not eventually pay a price had to have been drinking the Ft. Fumble Kool-Aid. The practice of not sending enough sailors to ships to properly man the ships was a factor in the grounding of the USS Port Royal.
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You can't fix a rotting ship if it isn't staffed properly. Bush/Cheney thought they could go to war on the cheap and this is where we've ended up 10 years later. Maybe, instead of buying the military new toys all the time, we might want to fix the old ones before they fall out from under our people.
I was informed that the new shed "looks naked" out there in the yard so we were at Home Depot this morning at 6. Me and the girls are headed out now to plant 6 new shrubs around it. Heh ...
2 comments:
Based on my observations during limited time in 3rd world countries (as a young woman), this is what a 3rd world country looks like - all show and no substance. Infrastructure in desperate need of repair, buildings crumbling due to lack of maintenance, weapons only semi-functional, manpower at bare-bone levels and most, if not all of those, poorly trained.
I could go on and on but you get the picture. I am pretty much convinced that a 3rd world paradigm was decided upon for our country and we've been seeing the ongoing project for the past 30 years. We have just a very few feet to go to make it a done deal. Just my opinion.
Jay in N.C.
That's the real plan, isn't it? 3rd worldisation (?) of the place.
My youngest son just retired from the navy, and was he glad to leave.
He was a medic, (both field medic and lab tech. Was assigned to marines in Okinawa and was in Falujah)never in twenty years had sea duty, but the same thing went on in all departments.
It was the same story, too few people, too little money, but the work-load stays the same or even increrases. And they always wonder why promising, intelligent first or second termers say, "see ya".
But that sort of thing has been going on at least since WWII, the navy had an unofficial policy of "25 hr" work days, and who can forget the "economy" kicks they used to have?
In Germany, in the late 1970s the armored unit I was assigned to didn't have enough money to operate the tanks and other tracks, so they were all put in "admin. storage". Still had to train, though. So we "simulated" it. We had to position ourselves like we would be in the track, and walk along with the TC giving orders, pretending to aim and fire.
I don't need to tell you how it worked out when we went to the field or during REFORGER.
Good thing the Russians were more screwed up than us.
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