Why Byron REALLY wants to SLEP the FFGs

If Skippy was a SWO, I think his FFG Command tour would be something like this ....


Of course, the Dutch Navy does it better ....

On a serious note, Admiral Burke is not amused.

Hat tip MilPhotos.

Diversity Thursday

CAP'n posted an oldie but a goodie the other month;

“There is no black Navy, no white Navy—just one Navy—the United States Navy.”

Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr. USNA ’43,
“Equal Opportunity in the Navy”(1970)

.... and Admiral Zumwalt cried.

I found myself in Byron's backyard a little while ago, and I was tooling down Roosevelt Blvd towards 295 when the dark blue, dare I say Navy Blue, Trans Am behind me ripped over to the left and passed me in the outer lane. Then I noticed the license plate.

BLK AV8R

That is what we get when from commissioning we soak these officers in debunked 70s era racial theory. We divide ourselves, promote conflict, and debase our entire organization.

Imagine a plate that had "WHT AV8R" and was parked in a XO or CO parking spot. Would that be good for the USN? Why is BLK AV8R belonging to any officer or enlisted member any better?

Shame on all of us from the CNO on down - and shame on that JO's leadership from his XO on up for not explaining that plain fact of the racist nature of his vanity tag to him.

12 steps ....

About that post from 01 APR - a little more on the subject from Chris Hunter's book Eight Lives Down.

STEP 1 Speech:

• Time should never begin with a zero or end in a hundred. It is not “zero five thirty” or “fourteen hundred.” “It is five thirty” or two o’clock.”
• “Fuck” cannot be used to replace whatever word you can’t think of right now. Try “um.”
• Grunting is not talking
• It’s a phone, not a radio. Conversations on a phone do not follow a set procedure and do not end in “out.”

STEP 2 Style:

• Do not put creases in your jeans.
• Do not put creases in the front of your dress shirts.
• Do not iron your collar flat.

STEP 3 Women:

• Being divorced twice by the time you’re twenty-three is not normal; neither are six-month marriages, even if it is your first.
• Marrying a girl so that you can move out of the barracks does not make financial sense.

STEP 4 Personal accomplishments:

• In the real world, being able to do push-ups will not make you better at your job.
• Most people will be slightly disturbed if you tell them about people you have killed or seen die.
• How much pain you can take is not a personal accomplishment.

STEP 5 Drinking:

• In the real world, being drunk before 5 p.m. will get you a reprimand and formal warning, not a pat on the back.
• That time you drank a full slab of beer and pissed in your wardrobe is not a conversation starter.

STEP 6 Bodily functions:

• Farting on your co-workers and then giggling while you run away may be viewed as “unprofessional.”
• The size of the dump you took yesterday will not be funny, no matter how big it was, how much it burned, or how much it smelled.
• You can’t make fun of someone for being sick, no matter how funny it is.

STEP 7 The human body:

• Most people will not want to hear about your balls. Odd as that may seem, it’s true.

STEP 8. Spending habits:

• One day you will have to pay bills.
• Buying a $40,000 car on a $20,000-a-year salary is a really bad idea.
• One day you will need health insurance.

STEP 9. Interacting with civilians:

• Making fun of your neighbor to his face for being fat will not be appreciated.

STEP 10. Real jobs:

• They really can fire you.
• On the flip side, you really can quit.
• Screaming at the people who work for you will not be normal. Remember they really can quit too.
• Taking naps at work will not be acceptable.
• Remember, 9 to 5, not 0530 to 1800.

STEP 11. The law:

• Non-judicial punishment does not exist and will not save you from prison.
• Your workplace, unlike your command, can’t save you and probably won’t; in fact, most likely you will be fired about five minutes after they find out you’ve been arrested.
• Even McDonald’s does background checks and conviction isn’t going to help you get the job.
• Fighting is not a normal thing and will get you arrested, not yelled at on Monday morning before they ask you if you won.

STEP 12. General knowledge:

• You can really say what you think about the President of the United States.
• Pain is not weakness escaping the body, it’s just pain.
• They won’t wear anything shiny that tells you they are more important than you are, so be polite.
• And lastly, read the contracts before you sign them. Remember what happened the first time.

Hat tip LBG.

Why modern buildings blow ..

ninme alerts us to a nice write up in the Evening Standard (UK) about the latest narcissistic attack on our eyes by modern architecture.  Referencing The Prince of Wales (this is one of the few areas I agree with him about), I think this sums up the problem quite well.

Faced by greedy developers and an arrogant architectural establishment that despises classical design, it requires the occasional influential voice to stand up to them. Let us hope that on this occasion his voice prevails and London ends up with a development to rival that of Wren.

Bingo. The modern architectural establishment is infested with people who don't care about the context of the city they build in, it is all about them and their desire to snub their nose - with material that is both cheap and non-resilent - at everyone else.

Democrats pick another winner

Is that Congressman Spaulding?

Cadet - I found your future wife....

....any of you fellas under 30 ... ummmm under 40 .... errrr, under 45 need to find this woman and marry her .... now.

Sigh.

Hat tip GE06.

Brown shirts and rainbow flags

Most of you know that I am very much in favor of ditching "Don't Ask - Don't Tell" for "Don't Care."

I have no problem with homosexuals serving openly, just expect to be treated the same as anyone else when found utilizing a fan room in an unauthorized manner.

I have received some very kind emails over the last few years from those in the gay activist community - and a few other negative emails on my views, but mostly I leave the subject alone. The reason is that the gay community is letting the fascist fringe take the lead.

Look at the reaction to Miss California. Look at the Prop8Maps, and finally look at what it has created. People in the public arena feel they no longer have to talk about the issue - they can just joke about killing those who happen to have a valid and honest disagreement with them.

Shadow leader of the House of Commons Alan Duncan was appearing on BBC comedy show "Have I Got News For You" when he made the gaffe.

Mr Duncan, who had earlier in the show revealed his ambition to become Home Secretary, was discussing American Beauty Queen Carrie Prejean's belief that same sex marriages were wrong.

And the MP called her a "silly b***h" and said "If you read that Miss California is murdered you will know it was me".

The leading supporters of homosexual rights have become what they accuse others of being; violent, close minded, intolerant fascists. Silence is approval - and the homosexual community is silent on this, to their great shame.

So, I do not address this issue often for that reason. If the reasonable people will remain silent, then so will I.

Oh, another reason to be careful what you wish for - if the Diversity Bullies get hold of the post-DADT reality, then I will regret everything. If they rub it in everyone's face as opposed to just letting everyone get back to work - then you will have a problem. If everyone just gets back to work, all will be fine. Something tells me though, given the institutional cowardice we have shown towards the Diversity Bullies and their debunked theories, that a post-DADT Navy will not have a smooth transition. Hope is my plan.....ungh.

Maritime Strategy Monday: Influence?

As I am entering a period of limited time to blog (about a week and a half at first guess - one of those short notice things - I'll blog some, but not more than one or two short posts a day max) - this will wind up being a bit shorter than I wanted, but here we go.

---

When an organization finds itself at a pivot point in crisis, it naturally looks to its leadership for direction and a viable plan forward. The Navy is at such a point, and has been for the last two years.

A problem we have, however, is that we are on the tail end of a lost decade of false hope and forgotten promises where those in the Navy now have little faith in their leadership's ability to honestly build a Fleet, discuss its challenges, and direct a course towards a successful future. Much of that has to do with the fact to a large measure, our senior leaders have taken the Soviet model of a unified message. Essential in wartime, but in peace a sure recipe for stilted group think.

If you look at the complete cock-up that is DDG-1000, the rest of the Tiffany Navy as represented by the schizophrenic LCS Corvette, the Titanium-gilt LPD-17, the too-heavy-to-go-anywhere ACS, the "no slack because all we have is light attack" FASKE-18A-G, rolled around "1/3 good, 2/3 babble by committee" updated Maritime Strategy - looking to our senior leadership for clear direction and guidance, with a few exceptions, is about as helpful as dropping to your knees in the Temple of Jupiter and praying for the king of the gods to deliver you from the harpies that haunt your life.

An organization in need of ideas will not accept a vacuum. Into the gap will come more more junior officers, Sailors, industry, and concerned citizens with ideas to try to find a way out of the hole we find ourselves in. CDR Henry J. Hendrix Jr is one of those officers. You don't have to agree with all his ideas, I don't, but you owe it to yourself and the Navy you love to read them and think about them.

It is the ideas and proposals of smart, thinking, and thoughtful officers like CDR Hendrix that the Navy should be welcoming and examining - regardless of what discomfort they cause. Jerry comes from a line that traces its lineage to Admiral Sims. It is never an easy thing to put your ideas out there with your name attached to it - to accept the slings and arrows that come with it.

With that dose of love thrown Jerry's way and to take up the assignment from last WED - on with the show.

As a reminder, in this month's Proceeding, CDR Henry J. Hendrix Jr, has an article titled Buy Ford not Ferrari - that is what we are going to discuss today.

Let's take that thing apart and spread the bits on the table and talk about what we have here. Not a full fisking, I don't have the time (feel free to hit areas I don't in comments) - but let me comment on those areas that jumped out to me.

Like I said earlier - I don't agree with all the author puts out there, but I could be all wrong and he could be all right. Not the point - the point is that he has some solid ideas worth looking at. With our maritime future challenged going forward with very real fiscal terrain issues, his ideas need to be taken in and chewed on.

In many ways, that is the great underlying strength the article - it offers options that are realistic given the limited amount of money we have to put hulls in the water and get ships underway. The time of the PPT program has past. That wiggle room is gone. It is time to put up or shut up.

The problems that will have the most impact on the Navy's future force structure are large and can be categorized in two groups. The first is the growing expense of building new ships. The costs involved in research, development, and production of destroyers, cruisers, and carriers, each of which fields new, leading-edge technologies, have placed the price of the future force out of reach, even with four percent of the gross domestic product funding the Department of Defense.

Second is the growing mismatch between the Navy's strategic vision and its acquisition plan.

Correct. A Fleet should meet the Strategy. As we have outlined here - hope, wish, and desire have prevented that up to now.

At a conservative estimated price tag of $30 billion to construct and a daily operating cost in excess of a million dollars, carrier strike groups are quickly becoming prohibitively expensive to both build and deploy. When these characteristics are considered alongside rising threats and increasingly challenging operational environments, even more questions arise.

If this idea holds for 10-11, it holds for 9 - but I think I know what he means. This is one of the weaker parts of the article. It does not match with the later CVN numbers he proposes, but from a cost-mitigation perspective it holds. CVN, for all their issues, are still the only global sustained strike capability we have. I don't think his CVN critique is fleshed out well and may be worth a dedicated article - but let's move on.

Talking about SS,

Torpedoes launched from these boats, and shore- and ship-based missiles can sink outright most of the world's surface combatants and would, at least, significantly degrade the mission effectiveness of American super-carriers.

Spot on with the threat. For ASCM, it isn't the Exocet, Silkworm, Harpoon and the other subsonic threats that bother me - it is the supersonic ASCM and ASBM that keep me up at night. They are not insurmountable, but need more attention than they are getting.

The venerable deep-strike A-6 Intruder and the long-range F-14 interceptor have vanished into the boneyard with their spots on the flight deck taken by the F/A-18 Hornet variants, which were intended to be replacements for the A-4 and A-7 short- and medium-range light attack aircraft. ... we find ourselves in a circular argument reminiscent of the late Admiral Hyman Rickover, that "I must defend my force, Sir, so that I can defend my force." The CSG is, remarkably, a construct that can operate effectively only in a permissive environment, or be committed to an anti-access environment only under the most extreme conditions when national interests compel leadership to risk what amounts to a significant percentage of the Navy's annual budget in a single engagement.

The loss of a dedicated carrier based tanking asset remains a critical failure by Navy Air. Just short sighted in the extreme. Buddy tanking is a joke - doesn't count. What follows is the pull quote.

What is needed is a Navy cheap enough to be built in large numbers while remaining sufficiently effective to defend American interests on the high seas. We need Fords, not Ferraris.

Hi-Lo; the only way to go. Can't argue with him in any way on that point, however ....

Step one is to abandon the idea of a Navy built around 11 or 12 carrier strike groups.

Only for the money reasons in my book - for the reasons stated before. A larger DoD question is how do you replace the national need for global strike as the B-3 now is pushed to the right? Give it up? Tough problem.

Next, in a word, ungh.

A key tenet of post-9/11 strategic thought is that extremist religious terrorism is avoidable. Societies with infrastructural resources such as electricity, clean water, public education, and some modicum of medical care do not generally incubate extremist groups in their midst. Naval forces that have basic abilities to police the sea lines of communication while also seizing port call opportunities to build the basic communal building blocks of productive life ought to be an important component of the future Navy.

I am sorry my friend - this is just plain wrong and debunked. Read here, here, and here to start - but I cannot let that comment stand. The 911 hijackers, OBL and almost all of Al Qaeda's mid-level and higher leaders and operators are well educated sons of the middle to upper classes. Lack of opportunity, frustration, and envy resulting from living in a culture that denies basic human desires compared to the best of western culture is more of the cause. The Navy cannot do anything to counter that.

All the things that the author offers that the Navy can do helps in a broader extent our national image - on the margins - but will do nothing to negate the source that breeds Islamist terrorism. A port visit by every USN ship to Karachi doing nothing but charity work will do nothing to change what is going on with the larger cultural and religious trends in Pakistan driving terrorism.

The next step on the Navy's path to a new future should be the creation of "Influence Squadrons" composed of an amphibious mother ship (an LPD-17 or a cheaper commercial ship with similar capabilities), a destroyer to provide air, surface, and subsurface defensive capabilties, a Littoral Combat Ship to extend a squadron's reach into the green-water environment and provide some mine warfare capabilities, a Joint High Speed Vessel to increase lift, a Coastal Patrol ship to operate close in, and an M80 Stiletto to provide speed and versatility.

Sounds like a tailored Task Force, but the use of the phrase "Influence Squadron" (INFRON) is very problematic as its very name creates a significant STRATCOM problems.

Most of the leaders of the nations we would like to influence will have nothing to do with any USA force that publicly advertises that it is there to influence them. Influence is a loaded word that opens you up to charges of paternalistic imperialism. If that is what you are after, fine, just don't advertise it.

On balance though, the substance and mission of the "INFRON" as presented and constructed,

The hypothetical Influence Squadron would, in part, be composed of (clockwise from top left): an amphibious mother ship like the USS San Antonio (LPD-17); a guided-missile destroyer like the USS The Sullivans; a Littoral Combat ship like the USS Freedom (LCS-1); an M80 Stiletto; and a joint high-speed vessel like the USS Swift (HSV-2).

... is interesting and deserves to be looked at from a budgetary and sustainability standpoint - but it needs a new name out of the box.

These forces, operating every day around the world, would represent the preponderance of visible U.S. naval power. Their understated capabilities would epitomize America's peaceful, non-aggressive intent, and would carry out the new maritime strategy's stated purpose of providing positive influence forward. However, the Influence Squadron, carrying credible firepower across a broad area of operations, could also serve to either dissuade or destroy pirate networks that might seek to prey upon increasingly vulnerable commercial sea lines of communication.

Creating 16 of these squadrons, ten in the Pacific, six in the Atlantic, would allow the Navy to forward deploy six to eight squadrons at any given time, expanding American influence around the world. Pacific-based squadrons would routinely deploy to the east coast of Africa, the Persian Gulf, the waters off Malaysia to include the Strait of Malacca, the archipelagic waters of Indonesia, the waters in and around the Philippines, and the regional waters near Japan and Korea.

Atlantic-based squadrons would visit the Caribbean, South America, the north and western coasts of Africa as well as pushing up into the Black Sea to visit Georgia, the Ukraine and other partners in the region. Sometimes, however, Influence Squadrons, no matter how well they are placed, will not have the necessary concentration of capabilities to meet the emergent challenges. It would be at this point that the next force along the scale of naval response would be dispatched.

Well, that looks a lot like a modern day version of colonial fleets - which have a long and successful history of doing just what is proposed for the INFRON. All that being said though, I go back to the author's critique of the vulnerability of the CVN - and INFRON's are exceptionally vulnerable. Vulnerability isn't a deal killer for me, everything is vulnerable if you have a smart guy under the Red Hat, it is what you do to mitigate it that is important.

After sending spit-balls teacher's way for a while, here is where I warm up to some of the other parts of the article.

If it is accepted that the aircraft carrier, with its aviation strike packages, represents the sledgehammer of America's arsenal, then the ESG, with its Tomahawk-firing cruisers and destroyers, as well as its scalable squad-to-battalion Marine force, represent the wrenches, screwdrivers, and pliers within the nation's war on terrorism toolbox. When the introduction of the MV-22 Osprey and the short take-off/vertical landing (STOVL) Joint Strike Fighter is factored into the strategic equation, the ESG represents a force that is ideally structured to counter terrorist actions anywhere from oceanic blue water to ground operations 150-200 miles inland. The flexibility of this unit makes it the ideal candidate to serve as a critical response force, capable of dealing with threats short of those large enough to justify a surge force deployment.

Merge some of the INFRON concepts with an expanded and scalable ESG concept, and there you have something I can very easily embrace.

Instead, the aircraft carriers (nine or ten for the sake of this discussion) and their support ships and airwings will remain in home waters, exercising as required to maintain six CSGs in a high state of combat readiness. The assumption underlying this force is that one carrier will be involved in reactor upkeep, one will be coming home from either a regional deployment or a major international exercise, and another will be on her way out. This leaves roughly six carriers in standby, ready to surge at a moment's notice. Where they surge from is a critical question. A smaller carrier force needs to be redistributed to get the most out of a decreased number of ships.

Most of America's strategic interests in the decades to come will be in the Asian Pacific region, and that is where the majority of the nation's aircraft carriers should be as well. Of the force of nine or ten carrier strike groups, six should be home ported in the Pacific; two in Bremerton, two in San Diego, one in Japan, and one in another forward base to be determined. The remaining east coast carriers should be strategically dispersed between Norfolk and Mayport. This distribution scheme will both help ensure the survivability of the force against surprise attacks, and cut the transit time to crises around the globe. The bottom line is that the United States should always have six carrier strike groups ready to surge to a point of conflict within 15 to 30 days.

Here we go. Solid, solid - and you know he had me at "...carriers should be strategically dispersed...," but wait - it gets even better from a Salamander perspective.

Another critical component of the surge force will be the Expeditionary Strike Groups and their light amphibious carriers. Long considered to be the central core of the amphibious force, these highly capable aircraft carriers can serve in new roles within surge operations. Assuming one is in dry-dock for maintenance, a force of ten LHAs can provide nine small flattops for surge operations. Five of them will go to sea with their embarked Marine Expeditionary Units serving as their primary strike assets (again, the assumption would be that two of the MEUs would either be deploying or returning from deployment at any given time) while the remaining available LHAs deploy with each of their decks and hangars populated by two squadrons of STOVL Joint Strike Fighters.

Return of the CVS/CVL? Yes, yes .... solutions, yes.

Now, you 1120's get your inhalers ready,

Another area of focus for the future force should be in undersea warfare. Perhaps no place poses a greater threat to the current U.S. force structure or suggests the greatest potential for improvement in a future Navy than the underwater environment and the vessels that populate it. The first major proposed shift is the inclusion of diesel-powered submarines that incorporate air-independent propulsion (AIP) technologies. These submarines can be purchased for a fraction of the cost of a nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine such as those of the Virginia class.

Diesel/AIP boats are very quiet, and can be equipped with effective torpedoes, antisurface missiles, and even antiair missiles. These relatively inexpensive yet highly capable subs should replace the Virginia-class boats in the shallow-water environment alongside the new Influence Squadron surface force, allowing the Virginias to concentrate on their antisubmarine warfare mission in the blue-water environment. The one significant drawback of the non-nuclear design is shorter patrol intervals because of limited fuel supply. But this can be offset by forward-basing them near their patrol areas. A number of nations may welcome permanent basing of diesel/AIP submarines but have rejected nuclear-powered submarines in their ports for political reasons.

Ick. -1 point for Jerry. It is ASW not USW. Anti-X isn't bad, it is clear ... but I'll give you a pass. Let us not speak of it again. Besides that, major golf-clap - you know my 6/6 LANT/PAC split of SS/SSK dream.

Another proposed area of change is the permanent inclusion of guided-missile submarines (SSGNs) in the U.S. inventory. The advantages inherent in the deployment of these concentrated strike packages either in conjunction with a strike group, or by operating alone are only now being recognized. However, the U.S. Navy has made a mistake along the path to an SSGN force by tying the capability to a back-fit program for Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarines. Future guided-missile submarines should be built new as adaptations of the Virginia class, perhaps offsetting the decreased buy of Virginias as the diesel/AIP boats come online.

More yummy stuff. This will be essential to bridge the initial deep strike gap that you will have with fewer CVN and tankers to bring the Light-Attack-Little-Legs carrier aircraft deeper .... though as all TLAM guys know - all the VLS cells in Christendom cannot match the sustained combat power of a gaggle of CVN off an enemy's shore ... SSGNs are good - even if they are not perfect. I'll never see a flight deck of new production F-14D and A-6G - so I will take what I can get.

More goodness follows,

Rampant "next-war-itis" needs to stop, and the Navy needs to commit itself to fighting the very real, and very relevant conflict of today. To be sure, the Navy will need to retain its current, high-end capabilities in such numbers and at such readiness as to dissuade future competitors from entering into conflict with the United States. The data suggest that if the Navy were to pursue a future fleet as described here, with both high- and low-end capabilities in an appropriate ratio, it could have 320 hulls in the water within 12 years for three quarters of the acquisition budget it intends to spend. This represents a net savings of almost five billion dollars a year. Again, I say the Navy needs to buy Fords, not Ferraris.

Bring back Hi-Lo? Yes, Great Caesar's Ghost, Yes!

So, there we go. That reflects some of my thoughts, how 'bout yours? Remember, you don't have to like all or agree with all. CDR Hendrix has a thick skin and the confidence in his informed decisions. Remember, creative friction without conflict.

As a side-bar, let me approach again a topic I brought up at the top of this post. We need more idea and solution pieces like the author's out there to discuss. Closed door processes and blind obedience to personal, not professional, loyalty is what got the Navy to the point it is at now. Aggressive discouragement of thought and publication needs to stop.

CDR Hendrix is the exception - he puts himself out there, not the rule. I tip my hat to him and the chain of command that supports him.

I get email all the time from Active Duty and civilian personnel who state, "I would like to bring this up, but .... " and what follows the "but" is a common story of fear of retribution, or a command/community policy that anything published must be in full alignment with official policy or community diktat.

That is sad, and in spite of Admiral Stavridis' plea, it is a reality in our Navy more often than not. I wish more of our leadership shared Admiral Stavridis' understanding of the critical importance of debate,

The process of reading and writing is important, he said, because the nation faces an “innovative” enemy like the Sept. 11, 2001, attackers and South American smugglers who transport drugs at sea in semisubmersible vessels.

“The most important reason is that the people who want to do harm to this country are doing so,” he said. “They are thinkers.”

Either through published works or through weblogs, the goal is an exchange of ideas, knowledge and information — such as on the participator-driven Wikipedia, he said.

“No one of us is as smart as all of us together,” he said. “

- but they do not - and they let their subordinates know they do not.

We should exchange ideas, and we should take those ideas apart into their constituent parts; feel them, smell them, hold them up to the light. Embrace those that we think fit and are workable, discard the perfect pipe dream, and argue publicly about what may or may not be a good idea. Whatever we do though, we need to publicly talk. More creative frictions without conflict - less Borg-like group think.

Well outside the demands of "Shut Up" we need to talk. We don't do it enough.

I mean absolutely no disrespect with the following, but it tells a story: everyone has their reasons and I do not walk in his Corframs. However, in a time when we are going to violate law on CVN numbers, we have a limited-duty non-multimission Corvette called LCS, a Fleet rotting pierside due to years of bad maintenance and oversight - we have a non-traditional enemy growing at sea and new conventional powers on the rise (just to mention a few challenges) - what do we have the Chief of Naval Operations focused on and discussing with the Fleet?

While visiting the Annapolis High School Navy Junior ROTC program yesterday, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead said his top long-term priority is increasing diversity in the officer corps.

In what is believed to be the first-ever visit by a CNO to a high school JROTC program, Roughead told the roughly 90 cadets that the ethnic diversity of the officer corps must parallel the makeup of the fleet.

"If you looked at the Navy, you would say it kind of looked like America - it has the right mix of whites and African Americans and Asians," Roughead said.

But take a closer look at the officer corps, he said, and "you would see the complexion ... change to largely white male."

He isn't just saying that to the kids - I have stood 10 feet from the CNO as he told a room full of Sailors and Marines the same thing. Take that and do with it what you will. I have to work today, I have a very long two-week thingy coming up, and it is too early to drink.

Last note - CDR Hendrix has a book out - give it a look-see - if you noticed, his article is Bu11sh1tBingo free (more or less ;) ) - I would bet you a round at Trader Johns pre-Tailhook his book is even better.

Sunday Funnies

Feeling the coming straw ...

Mark Steyn and Steve Schippert owe me beer. Lots of it - they've got me funk'n.

First, everyone's favorite picnic skunk - Mark - comes at me,

What’s the greater likelihood? That, in ten years’ time, things in Pakistan will be better? Or much worse? That nuclearization by basket-case dictatorships from Pyongyang to Tehran will have advanced, or been contained? That the bleak demographic arithmetic at the heart of Europe and Japan’s economic woes will have accelerated, or been reversed? That a resurgent Islam’s assaults on free speech and other rights (symbolized by the recent U.N. support for a global Islamic blasphemy law) will have taken hold in the western world, or been forced to retreat?

A betting man would check the “worse” box. Because resisting the present careless drift would require global leadership. And 100 days into a new presidency, Barack Obama is giving strong signals to the world that we have entered what Caroline Glick of the Jerusalem Post calls “the post-American era.” At the time of Gordon Brown’s visit to Washington, London took umbrage at an Obama official’s off-the-record sneer to a Fleet Street reporter that “there’s nothing special about Britain. You’re just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn’t expect special treatment.” Andy McCarthy of National Review made the sharp observation that, never mind the British, this was how the administration felt about their own country, too: America is just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. In Europe, the president was asked if he believed in “American exceptionalism,” and replied: “I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.”

Gee, thanks. A simple “no” would have sufficed. The president of the United States is telling us that American exceptionalism is no more than national chauvinism, a bit of flag-waving, of no more import than the Slovenes supporting the Slovene soccer team and the Papuans the Papuan soccer team. This means something. The world has had two millennia to learn to live without “Greek exceptionalism.” It’s having to get used to post-exceptional America rather more hurriedly.

Then Steve hits me with this.

The assault is relentless. It is enraging. And today, the Obama administration's assault on those who dare to defend America from terrorist thugs who rejoice in publicizing beheadings, mass murder, and pure evil are on notice: "You will be punished. We're coming after you."

The target audience now includes the American Warrior. The Obama administration has abdicated the Warrior's defense, refusing to appeal the 2nd Circuit's decision that more photos should be released from investigations of the detention of enemy fighters from the battlefield. The Obama administration has sided with the ACLU and abandoned our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines. This cannot stand.

Brace yourselves for the Obama administration's full on assault on the American psyche, while we in the Warrior Class gear up, strap up, and engage in our defense and our nation's defense by taking the fight right back to its source.

Ungh. Remind me why I am doing this again.

The basics of humor ... and a sane freedom

Why there is drawmohammedweek.

Go ahead; call me a geek

I don't care.



...and you can chew on this too ....

In praise of Rep. Murtha's sacrifice ...

I guess.



Hat tip K-Lo.

Fullbore Friday

A proper Fullbore Friday book.

Being that we are going to pick on him next Monday - it is time to throw some unconditional love his way.

CDR Hendrix is, IMAO, of the exceptional officers we have with the right eye towards history and its critical position in understanding the challenges today, and on top of that he is a hail fellow well met. He also has a book coming out. Order yours now.

Product Description
Theodore Roosevelt's Naval Diplomacy examines President Roosevelt's use of U.S. naval seapower to advance his diplomatic efforts to facilitate the emergence of the United States as a great power at the dawn of the twentieth century. Based on extensive research, the author introduces a wealth of new material to document the development of Roosevelt's philosophy with regard to naval power and his implementation of this strategy. The book relates Roosevelt's use of the Navy and Marine Corps to advance American interests during the historically controversial Venezuelan Crisis (1902 03), Panama's independence movement (1903), the Morocco-Perciaris Incident (1904), and the choice of a navy yard as the site for the negotiations that ended the Russo-Japanese War. The voyage of the Great White Fleet and Roosevelt's initiatives to technologically transform the American Navy are also covered. In the end, the book details how Roosevelt's actions combined to thrust the United States forward onto the world s stage as a major player and cemented his place in American history as a great president despite the fact that he did not serve during a time of war or major domestic disturbance.This history provides new information that finally puts to rest the controversy of whether Roosevelt did or did not issue an ultimatum to the German and British governments in December 1902, bringing the United States to the brink of war with two of the world s great powers. It also reveals a secret war plan developed during Panama s independence movement that envisioned the U.S. Marine Corps invading Colombia to defend the sovereignty of the new Panamanian republic. Theodore Roosevelt s Naval Diplomacy brings new understanding to how the U.S. Navy was used to usher in the American century.

About the Author
Cdr. Henry J. Hendrix, USN, is a career naval officer currently assigned to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. In his twenty years of active service he has made six operational deployments and earned advanced degrees from the Naval Postgraduate School and Harvard University, as well as a PhD from King s College, London. A Naval Historical Center Samuel Eliot Morison Scholar and the 2006 recipient of the Alfred Thayer Mahan Award for Literary Achievement, he is the author of numerous articles in professional journals. He lives in northern Virginia.

Both the man and his book are unquestionably Salamander approved. ....and yes; Jerry's book is a Naval Institute Press book .....

Losing Pakistan

While we reinforce our front lines - the enemy is heading after our baggage train - if you don't understand the tactic - consult the spirits of Isambart d’Agincourt and Robert de Bournonville.

See the full report by Bill Roggio at LongWarJournal.

Here is the question for you - if this trend continues - how do you extract the nukes? You do need to extract Pakistan's nukes, right? Yes, my friends - you do. If not - time to build these.

---

Hat tip Rusty.

...and Nimitz cried.

This explains a lot .... but does has he ever been to a big outdoor Earthday event? I have. I felt for sure I would pop positive due to all the second-hand pot smoke.

Oh well ... at least he is focused on the important stuff in a time of war.

40-09
22 April 2009


Today is Earth Day

Twenty million people celebrated the first Earth Day in 1970. Since that time, leaders throughout our country have stood up for preserving and protecting the planet we all share.

NAVSUP is no different. We are constantly striving to ensure hazardous materials are disposed of properly, that we do not pollute our oceans, and that we procure energy efficient, biobased, and
recovered products whenever possible.

Please take a little time today to learn more about Earth Day, remember the importance of preserving our natural resources, and renew your efforts to keep our planet green.

Please visit http://www.earthday.gov/ for more information.


[REDACTED]
RADM, SC, USN

Hat tip Chop spy.

Diversity Thursday

Ummm.... isn't this sexual discrimination?

A pilot initiative, known as the NavyWomen eMentor Leadership Program, has gained momentum, exceeded expectations and helped build productive relationships for females in the fleet.

"We were somewhat surprised at the number of women who immediately signed up," said Lt. Hope Brill, deputy director, Navy Women's Policy Program. "It became quickly apparent that this was not only going to be popular, but that if it was successful, we'd have to find ways to expandaccess."

Upon entering the one-year pilot program, participants took part in customized Web-based matching to establish relationships. They then were able to access electronic communication capability, newsletters, mentoring guidance, references and other online tools with which to develop those relationships.

Of course, it would be if there were a men's program - right? Hmmm, that would be where?

Then again, we could just have a NavyBlue mentoring program, like - you know - we do for all our Sailors regardless of their DNA; right?

Hypocrisy?

---

As an extra bonus, check out the goodie LBG sent from the WaPo of all places. Much more cowbell.

Happy Earth Day!

Your welcome, Iraq.


From IBD.

Pirates, Politics, & 'pologies: Part 3

I almost titled this, "As Cassandra Stood Crying" or "Byron has an Aneurysm" or "Calling Admiral Lombardi" or even another edition of "... and we aren't doing this now because ..." but none of those seemed to fit as well as " 'pology" as in apology. Our senior leadership owes the Navy and the nation an apology; and apology for ignoring the lessons of decades and selling quasi Six-Sigma, Just-in-Time, Shipbuilding-is-new happy talk to explain their pet theories and throwing away ships today for a PPT tomorrow that all proved false.

One of the most important concepts to any marriage is the apology - that and the ability to unconditionally accept an honest apology offered. It is also something that, sadly and to our great detriment, we almost never hear from our senior leadership unless it is for something that they cannot be personally held accountable for. Not to apologize for plain, egregious wrongs is to make yourself out to be perfect. If anyone thinks that our Fleet plan has not been worthy of an apology worthy and therefor is good - please tell my how and why. BTW, I am in alignment with those in the Hill who do not trust anything they are told by the uniformed Navy about shipbuilding and Fleet plans .... you are you in alignment with?

OK, maybe that was a bit too much in the last paragraph ... but I will leave it as a marker of my scab being ripped off. Here is what pulled it.

The day before I fell off the grid, I had a chance to read Philip Ewing's bit from the 23 MAR NavyTimes that just left me - well - sad.

The Navy's first office dedicated to keeping ships around as long as possible will stand up at East and West Coast waterfronts by early May and begin to provide details for how to get the most good our of the fleet.

The Surface Ship Life Cycle Management Activity, which will fall under the aegis of Naval Sea Systems Command, will determine the best ways for ships to reach their full service lives ....

More on the "Surface Ship Life Cycle Management Activity" can be read here and here.

As a great American poet and son of a great Navy man once said,

"What have they done to our fair sister?"

As I thought of all the good officers who where told to "sit down and shut up" and "get or board or I will throw you overboard" and all the other threats that were made against those who cautioned over the last decade and a half that we needed to make sure we got full life out of what we had because a PPT is not a program - my first flush of anger had to do with the usual,

"Well what the h311 else have you been doing instead of "get(ting) the most good out of our fleet." at NAVSEA? Instead of having our SES planting trees and the mindless bleatings in rambling emails about Diversity CYA feel-goodism, how about do the job that you should be doing. Where are you getting the BA/NMP for those billets? Hopefully out of hide ..."

... and so on. Again, a bit too much and some anger I should pray on.

However, I just feel sad. All the decades from FRAM on up that we have had experience with getting every year out of our ships we could. All the happy talk, self-delusion and bad ideas of the last decade on WRT "recapitalization of the fleet" that has left us with very little capital to build a fleet with. All the outstanding FFG sold off to nations from Bahrain to Turkey. All the DD sunk with years of life left - if we had our fundamentals down right.

Especially with the SPRUANCE, I don't want to hear excuses about the condition of the ships. That is like a person with herpes blaming the virus for their inability to find a steady "relationship" and vivid s3x life. No, the problem is with your personal behavior - behavior that we see has not changed.

I see our incredibly shrinking Fleet and the mad rush by many for ideas to find something to fill the void until sanity returns - and I see that the source of our problem all revolves around fundamentals and the failure to know and practice them.

If we cannot maintain our ships - and NAVSEA is only now talking about and trying to get back to basics - then we have an incredibly challenging and long climb out of the hole we have dug for ourselves. Classifying INSURVs just advertise the size of the hole we can no longer hide. Adding on top of that is the very flawed Maritime Strategy as well - and are in quite the pickle.

As part of the mad rush out there I mentioned earlier, there are a lot of proposed solutions being floated to fill the intellectual gap left by senior leadership. That is where your homework assignment is coming from.

In this month's Proceeding, a friend to this blog, CDR Henry J. Hendrix Jr, has an article titled Buy Ford not Ferrari. If you are naughty and do not subscribe to Proceedings or cannot find a copy, email me and I will send you a PDF. Here is the assignment. I want you to read article, unpack the ideas, and then come back on Monday to discuss them for a new edition of Maritime Strategy Monday.

No cheating by starting your thoughts on commets to this post either. Hold your fire until Monday. In addition to the base article, CDR Hendrix's ideas were discussed last week in the Washington Independent and the Boston Globe. Read them as well.

Hey fatbody!

Yep - time to cut the low hanging fruit .... again - and let's shame them too! Quality - pfaw! CNP is not a fun job is it?

Issue: PRIMS/FITREP Check of Officer Promotion Results
Discussion: FY 2009 selects were checked for Physical Fitness Assessment (PFA) failure against data in the Officer Assignment Information System. Few officers were identified with PFA failures that were not previously identified in the PFA Separation Process that commenced in September 2008. Beginning with the FY 2010 O6 Line and Staff Select Lists, the following process will be implemented: Once the Select List is announced via ALNAV, the names/last four SSN will be checked against Physical Readiness Information Management System (PRIMS) check and FITREP PFA entry data check to determine status. If either the PRIMS or FITREP data reflects a PFA failure, promotion will be delayed until such time as the discrepancy is corrected or the member is in compliance with PFA policy.

Desired Effect: Ensure officers with failures registered in PRIMS are not promoted without further adjudication.

Action: None. FYSA only.

Plan Salamander advances?

Hmmmm .... in a sane world.

Some Pentagon officials now want to formulate policy to encourage more daring commando raids, according to US military officials. They say a mix of special forces and conventional navy assets would be able to pinpoint pirate gangs on land and attack them once they moved on to water.

"Whatever happened to punitive expeditions?" said a senior military official, who is involved in discussions about Somali strategy. "That used to be part of what we did."

The official contended there once was more of an appetite for such missions. President Bill Clinton in 1993 ordered the bombing of Iraq's intelligence headquarters in retaliation for an attempted assassination of former president George H.W. Bush, and president Ronald Reagan attacked Libya in 1986 for its alleged involvement in the terrorist bombing of a West Berlin disco.

More Cowbell!

Nix Annapolis?

This should stir the pot (which is what WaPo wants) - so let's play.

Thomas E. Ricks (of Fiasco and The Gamble fame) on Sunday threw this red-meat into the pit,

Want to trim the federal budget and improve the military at the same time? Shut down West Point, Annapolis and the Air Force Academy, and use some of the savings to expand ROTC scholarships.

After covering the U.S. military for nearly two decades, I've concluded that graduates of the service academies don't stand out compared to other officers. Yet producing them is more than twice as expensive as taking in graduates of civilian schools ($300,000 per West Point product vs. $130,000 for ROTC student). On top of the economic advantage, I've been told by some commanders that they prefer officers who come out of ROTC programs, because they tend to be better educated and less cynical about the military.

Of course, we have all sorts of interesting reactions by retired US Army LTG Ulmer, Ed Ruggero, and retired Navy CAPT Bob Schoultz. Heck, I didn't even know it until I got the email from them, but the WaPo even has a dedicated leadership page. That I like.

I have voiced it before, and I will do it again. I think the way we do our military academies is wrong. In many ways, I agree with Ricks, but with this change. We should keep them, but turn them, post ROTC and undergrad, into something in line with the way the Brits do things - i.e. Britannia Royal Naval College - but stretch it to a year. None of this "we'll give you a Masters too..." BS either.

No. Full frontal, full time, fullbore soaking on what a Naval Officer needs to know and what he must have in his head to lead Sailors. Let the Army and the USAF do the same.

That is a recipe for quality Junior Officers. Oh, and build a metric butt-ton of YPs and another Tall Ship to go with it.

I do think he is a bit off here though,

We should also consider closing the services' war colleges, where colonels supposedly learn strategic thinking. These institutions strike me as second-rate. If we want to open the minds of rising officers and prepare them for top command, we should send them to civilian schools where their assumptions will be challenged, and where they will interact with diplomats and executives, not to a service institution where they can reinforce their biases while getting in afternoon golf games. Just ask David Petraeus, a Princeton PhD.

No, we need them but there is one change that needs to be made as soon as possible. No one should go to the Naval War College or her sisters until post CDR Command. Too many great O3-O4 and pre-Command O5s are at War College where they are best placed either working on their PhD at a civilian institution like Ricks likes, or better yet - honing and executing their tactical level warfighting skills in their prime like the taxpayer expects them to.

I know Major Staffs better than I wish I did - and there is no reason someone needs to be at a War College prior to CDR Command in order to function at a Major Joint Staff or higher in the positions a LT or LCDR or non-CAPT(sel) CDR will fill. Full stop.

That is a change that no one, no one in 10 years, has convinced me would be a bad idea.

Pirates, Politics, & 'pologies: Part 2

Changing course a bit from Part 1 - I wanted to take just a little time to talk about one more thing that bounced around my head while I was off the grid. Some things that burned through from the few minutes of news I saw on background TV.

Let's review a bit though. The Democrat Party has the Executive Branch. They have the House and the Senate. They have the majority of State Governors. The 4th Estate is designed, by their definition, to keep the politicians honest and provide a check on power - I guess.

That isn't what I saw.

I was reminded how I got to where I am now; where I now get almost all my news from the internet and/or newspapers/magazines. It didn't start that way - I was raised a news junkie.

I grew up watching CBS News. 6pm local followed by national, every night. What a geek I was at 12, yelling at the TV with my Dad. That ended in '88 when Dan Rather ambushed Bush 41. I shifted my flag to ABC until about halfway through the Clinton Administration when they just would not engage. I then shifted to NBC until, well, they just lost my interest. By '98 I was watching, no longer at 6pm, NewsHour on PBS of all places and as I did through all this time - I always checked in with CNN Headline News. By the time 2000 came by though - I couldn't take that anymore there either. I left CNN and PBS. I just could not find something that would give me both sides of the story.

So there I was watching the TV in the background earlier this month when this goofy ABC news show is on and all they want to talk was Carl Rove and his response to the VP. Zip, zero, nada discussion of the validity of the VP's statement or the issue at hand - just attacking Carl Rove for being there absorbing O2.

Next time MSNBC is on and they are talking about the federal spending orgy and all they can do is attack SC Gov. Mark Sanford. No discussion of the issues at hand, just attacking the man non-stop. That is what bloggers, ahem, do - not what our betters in the MSM are supposed to do.

Then there was the whole teabagg'n thing. Pathetic. The only thing that made watching the mindless partisanship worthwhile was seeing Anderson Cooper kind-of come out of the closet. How do you know it is hard to talk Andy? Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Seriously. Here we are - where is the check on power?

Judging from the adds, Hollywood isn't much better. The only political adds I saw - in an incredibly short time nonetheless, were for Frost Nixon and W.

It was just plain other-worldly to see such a non-stop stream from one side.

President Obama has no excuse for not getting done what he wants to get done. I don't think we have ever seen a President and his Party have such a tailwind before.

The intertubes are about it to get alternative opinions and ideas out there - and to check power - I guess.

Get involved.

Get out your checkbook. Vote. No one is going to watch out for you but you.

Ask your CO: What are our plans?

I am not all that thrilled with the length of the message and some of the agenda items (ethos selling) thrown in - but this is the right direction.

FM CNO WASHINGTON DC//N00//
TO NAVADMIN

UNCLAS//N05750//
NAVADMIN 116/09
MSGID/GENADMIN/CNO WASHINGTON DC/N00/APR//
SUBJ/NAVAL HISTORY AND HERITAGE COMMEMORATION - BATTLE OF MIDWAY//
RMKS/1. THE U.S. NAVY SEIZED THE STRATEGIC INITIATIVE AND INFLICTED IRREPARABLE DAMAGE ON THE ENEMY DURING THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY FROM 4 TO 7 JUNE 1942. JUST SIX MONTHS AFTER PEARL HARBOR, THIS BATTLE PUT THE UNITED STATES BACK ON OFFENSE AND HELPED SET THE CONDITIONS FOR ULTIMATE VICTORY IN THE PACIFIC. MIDWAY HAD MANY HEROES - THE CODE BREAKERS THAT GAVE US THE DATE AND LOCATION OF THE BATTLE, PEARL HARBOR SHIPYARD WORKERS WHO REPAIRED YORKTOWN IN 72 HOURS FOLLOWING HER NEAR DESTRUCTION AT CORAL SEA, THE AIRMEN AND MARINES WHO FOUGHT FROM MIDWAY, AND THE SAILORS WHO FOUGHT AT SEA IN TASK FORCE 16 AND 17.
2. JUST AS THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY SET THE CONDITIONS FOR VICTORY IN THE PACIFIC, INNOVATION AND RESILIENCE DURING THE YEARS FOLLOWING THE START OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION IN 1929 SET THE CONDITIONS FOR VICTORY IN THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY. FROM 1930 TO 1934, THE NAVY STARTED CONSTRUCTION ON A QUARTER OF THE 19 SUBMARINES AND HALF OF THE 26 SURFACE COMBATANTS, INCLUDING TWO OF THE THREE AIRCRAFT CARRIERS, THAT FOUGHT IN THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY. IN THE 1930S WE PERFECTED UNDERWAY REPLENISHMENT, WHICH GAVE US THE ENDURANCE AND AGILITY WE WOULD NEED IN THE PACIFIC THEATER. AND WE SPIRAL DEVELOPED OUR SHIPS AND AIRCRAFT TO GIVE US THE WARFIGHTING CAPABILITY THAT DELIVERED VICTORY.
3. WITH THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY COMMEMORATION QUICKLY APPROACHING THIS JUNE, NOW IS THE TIME TO RENEW AND BUILD UPON OUR OBLIGATION TO PRESERVE OUR RICH NAVAL HISTORY AND HERITAGE. AS THE WORLD WAR II VETERANS PASS FROM OUR LIVES, WE MUST CARRY THEIR LEGACY FORWARD BY SPEAKING TO OUR SAILORS AND TO THE PUBLIC ABOUT THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE NAVY AND TO THE NATION. IN THAT SPIRIT, I DIRECT THE FOLLOWING ACTIONS:
A. COMMANDING OFFICERS AND OFFICERS IN CHARGE: USE NAVY HISTORY TO EDUCATE AND MOTIVATE OUR SAILORS. IN LINE WITH MY 2009 GUIDANCE AND OUR NAVY ETHOS, COMMANDING OFFICERS ARE THE FRONT LINE IN COMMUNICATING OUR MISSION, SPIRIT, AND HERITAGE. WE ARE A PROFESSION WITH COMMON GOALS, COMMON PURPOSE, AND STRONG CULTURE THAT IS A FORCE MULTIPLIER. EACH YEAR, SAILORS FACE CHANGE; THEY GROW, DEVELOP, LEAD, AND MOVE ON TO NEW CHALLENGES. THE MISSION, THE CULTURE, AND THE BONDS OF SERVICE REMAIN. COMMANDING OFFICERS LEAD DEVELOPMENT OF THOSE TIES TO PROFESSIONAL ESPRIT DE CORPS. USE NAVAL HISTORY AND HERITAGE COMMAND (NHHC) PRODUCTS MADE AVAILABLE ON THE NHHC WEBSITE, AS OUTLINED BELOW, TO ENGAGE YOUR CREWS AND STAFFS. EXECUTE CHINFO PUBLIC AFFAIRS PLAN AND PARTICIPATE IN PLANNED COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES AS OPERATIONALLY FEASIBLE.
B. NHHC: DEVELOP AND MAKE AVAILABLE TO COMMANDING OFFICERS A BODY OF LESSONS LEARNED AT THE TACTICAL, OPERATIONAL, AND STRATEGIC LEVELS FROM THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY; PLAN OF THE DAY HISTORICAL NOTES FOR EACH WARFARE COMMUNITY FOR THE WEEK LEADING UP TO THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY; AND POST LESSONS LEARNED, PLAN OF THE DAY NOTES AND NHHC POINT OF CONTACTS ON A DEDICATED WEB PAGE AVAILABLE THROUGH WWW.HISTORY.NAVY.MIL.
C. CHIEF OF NAVAL INFORMATION (CHINFO): DEVELOP A BATTLE OF MIDWAY PUBLIC AFFAIRS PLAN AND PROMULGATE TO SHORE AND AFLOAT COMMANDS BY 8 MAY 2009. THIS PLAN SHOULD INCLUDE NAVY'S STRATEGIC MESSAGE AND TALKING POINTS FOR THIS EVENT; A COORDINATED WREATH LAYING CEREMONY AROUND THE WORLD ON 4 JUNE 2009; AND PLANNED COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES IN EACH FLEET CONCENTRATION AREA THAT COMMANDERS CAN PARTICIPATE IN.
D. NAVAL DISTRICT WASHINGTON (NDW): CONTINUE YOUR TRADITION OF SPONSORING A WREATH LAYING CEREMONY TO HONOR THE HEROES OF MIDWAY. I WILL HOST THE WREATH LAYING AT NAVY MEMORIAL WITH NDW SERVING AS MY EXECUTIVE AGENT. NAVAL DISTRICT WASHINGTON'S CEREMONY WILL SERVE AS THE MODEL FOR OTHERS TO FOLLOW, AND AS THE OFFICIAL CEREMONY FOR THE CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS. ISSUE VIP INVITATIONS IN MY NAME. COORDINATE YOUR LESSONS LEARNED FROM THIS CEREMONY WITH NHHC FOR OTHER NAVY REGIONS. IN 2010, I INTEND FOR EACH REGION TO HOST A SIMILAR CEREMONY AS A FOCAL POINT FOR THE COMMANDS IN THEIR AREA AND FOR THE COMMUNITY AT LARGE.
4. IT IS OUR OBLIGATION TO PRESERVE OUR RICH NAVAL HISTORY AND
HERITAGE. HISTORY IS THE MAGNET GUIDING OUR CULTURAL COMPASS. UNDERSTANDING THE IMPORTANCE OF OUR PAST IN HOW WE VIEW THE CHALLENGES OF THE FUTURE IS FUNDAMENTAL TO BUILDING AND OPERATING THE NAVY OUR NATION REQUIRES.
5. RELEASED BY ADMIRAL G. ROUGHEAD, CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS.//

I just wish this attitude was around when we were trying to get a "Trafalgar Night" attitude towards "The Battle of Midway Dinner" thingy in the '90s. More of those guys around - and we had one of the Dive Bomber as a guest speaker.

With his talk, perhaps a Command's topic could be, "The importance of blind stupid luck in victory."

I'll take this though.

Hat tip LBG.

Internal STRATCOM failure

An email from an exceptionally solid First Class Petty Officer who is a long time friend of this blog outlines the internal STRATCOM failure on our part the last couple of weeks. This isn't the first I have heard of this - what is your take?

... if you have even paid attention to nearly all the talking heads in all of media is basically asking “Where is 5th Fleet, the world wonders?” (to paraphrase a famous message). If I was NAVSEA, the VCNO for ship building, or even the CNO himself. I would be on all the Sunday shows, in front of congress, and with various editorials in main stream papers; basically going “Well golly geez, America I would love to protect our shipping, but…” and throw out the numerous reasons why we need to have better ships, more people, more ships, hell maybe even bring up the idea of the sea basing again from “Seapower 21” as a place to have berthing facilities closer to the region in question. Instead everyone is playing the classic CYA game, ....

We all know what the USAF would do with this opportunity ....

Maggie; twittering with the enemy

Maggie, thine heart not be true? Say it ain't so! Not, them!

Next thing you know she will be kidnapping goats or sump'n.

Armitage gets his a55 beat by a girl

One of the great political cowards of this decade is the poseur Armitage - long time readers know what I think of him. Mrs. Carville spanks him real hard.

Pirates, Politics, & 'pologies: Part 1

14 days.
Two weeks.
One fortnight.

Off. The. Grid. This was an even pre-first-term Clintonian off the grid; no email, no internet, no TV (except as background beyond my control), no radio, no newspapers (not even EarlyBird). If someone really needed me, they had to know where I was or get me via a close-held phone number.

Hopefully my scheduled posts kept everyone busy and happy - it looks like it did. As for me, I am refreshed in a way. As a info junkie, it was surprisingly easy to do in hindsight. It helped that I had little mental whitespace to fill for that fortnight and was as busy as can be - but that is most days really - so in a way if was nice to know that regardless of what Mrs. Salamander may think, I am not addicted to info - I just have a predilection for wanting more.

Where was I? We'll, just doing something to make you a feel as if that the money you are borrowing from your grandchildren to pay my bills was not going to waste. That's all I will say.

What does going off the grid gain a man? Perspective for one - a re-centering for another. Not so tanned - but rested and ready am I.

As mentioned in the beginning, I did get a little TV. Stations selected by others, on sets not my own, at times not of my choosing - just playing in the background for what was an half hour max over two week if tied together. It did give me the "Politics" part of my thoughts on coming back - I'll cover that in Part 2 on Tuesday. I also did get a few sheets of paper (single digits) of news clippings of a fashion - but just a few; none of which again I either chose or asked for. They just kind of found their way to me so to speak. The last "real news" I read before I went off the grid will form the basis for Part 3 on Wednesday - and in that case I want everyone to come back on WED at least (though you should be here every day) as I have a homework assignment for you that we will revisit next Monday on a new edition of "MARSTRAT Monday."

With that out of the way, let's get to one of the three things I came back on the grid to; pirates.

---

Part 1. Pirates.

Boy, did I miss a NavMilBlog moment or did I? No bigggie really; as usual your first stop for all thing pirates is Eagle1 - regardless of what time of the year it is.

Why this is at the top of my list of three things that bubbled out during my time away isn't the specific story of CAPT Philips and his crew - no, it was the inane OP-ED and opinion it spawned from the great and the gilded as reflected in their MSM publications.

If some wonder why complaints about bloggers just run off my back - let these be examples 1,001 and 1,002 of why. For some reason, we continue to think that just because someone was once a never-was-has-been that they somehow are experts in area X.

Have the right degree from the right institution and get appointed to the right position, and unless you are careful, you will find yourself surrounded by either yes men or are so fully impressed by your brilliance that you don't ask anyone else for their thoughts on your work. There is no failure on your own part that cannot be cured by trying to repeat it. If first you don't succeed, just do the same thing harder and you will. Rinse, repeat. It isn't the results that are as important as your intentions. Act with your heart, not your head. If it isn't in your national interest, it is. If you act in your national interest, you are imperialist. You know the type.

As a result, sadly for them, they are rarely challenged or asked the 2nd or 3rd level questions about their ideas. More often or not, we can find these people and their ideas in the NYT or their sister publications - usually in their hilariously Onionish opinion pages.

Let me just give you a couple of examples. Both of these are from the "well meaning, nice and good people; but wrong" category - and perfect examples of the above. First, William Pfaff; and his bit - Exporting Piracy.

A Muslim fundamentalist movement grew up a half-dozen years ago which actually pacified the country. But the War on Terror frowns on Muslim fundamentalism, and the United States paid Ethiopia to once again invade Somalia. But Somalian chaos, nationalism, religion (the Ethiopians are mostly Christians), warlords and general disorder drove the Ethiopians out last year.

In the meanwhile, a hungry fisherman, watching the ships go by, said what about piracy? Fantastic! Great idea! Within months the fishermen were millionaires. The money poured in. They didn’t have to hurt a fly, merely to cut the victim ships’ fire hoses. They treated the crews chivalrously, locked them up, fed them nicely, gave them videos and television to watch, and shook hands all around when the money arrived.

American diplomats today are reported to be keen to take over from the military in putting order back into the world. Why not a big international effort to get an EU, UN or NATO-policed agreement governing who can fish in Somalian waters; one more try to put together a provisional government, an agreement by the big countries and Somalia’s neighbors to keep their hands off, and to let the Somalians be Muslim fundamentalists if that is what they want?

And a big international fund set up by the world’s principal shipping companies to help the Somalians get back into the export business?

Ok. Now for another puzzler, Charles R. Stith and "No Silver Bullet for Somalia."

The United States must make an "investment" in our allies in the region so that they can increase their capacity to counter such threats. This is another part of the world where there are no "go it alone" options to deal with imminent threats. Engaging regional leadership means supporting regionally originated solutions to respond to the deeply rooted problems of the area. It means increasing our allies' capacity to deal with security problems on land as well as on the sea.

Moreover, the Africa Strategic Command, which was launched during the Bush administration, must be fully embraced and given new marching orders by the Obama administration. Although the key to our engagement in the region must be diplomatic, there is clearly a military aspect to some the challenges. While AFRICOM has met some resistance, this latest hostage-taking involving an American might be just the opportunity to jump-start conversations about how AFRICOM might be more effectively engaged.

Piracy off the coast of Somalia has been a front-burner issue in Africa for some time. It has endangered and slowed commerce and has had a significant adverse impact on East Africa. Many leaders want to resolve, or at least contain, the problem. It presents a clear opportunity to further bilateral cooperation on the military front in the region.

Given the excellent way the Navy deployed special-services personnel to end the hostage crisis, there were clearly some lessons learned on how to defuse future similar situations. But the real lesson we should take from this situation is that if we are going to effectively deal with the problem of "pirates gone wild" and the instability of the region, we need a comprehensive policy agenda rather than just stellar police action.

That is only a taste of his work. Forget nit-pic'n the little wrong details like the "African Strategic Command" and "special-services" (someone introduce him to someone that understands the US military, please) that any Junior Officer knows is incorrect (AFRICOM stands for "U.S. Africa Command" and they are "Special Forces" or if you must, "Special Operations Forces") - look at the substance of what is referenced as a valid and knowledgeable opinion.

Be brave me fellow MilBloggers - at best we are no worse than the worthies!

Enough of that though, this post is going to be long enough anyway.

Back to being off the grid and piracy; in a way, not even getting a newspaper worked out fine as I did not feel the need to give daily updates on something that my take on is really rather simple, and that perhaps I will roll into a dedicated cross post at USNIBlog next week if I have the time. For now, here is the executive summary of Phibian on Piracy in late APR 09.

Right now we are crippled from meaningful action by LawFare, Internationalists, hesitant Civilian Leadership and a risk-adverse Senior Uniformed Leadership, combined with a large degree of "it just isn't that big of a problem yet and isn't worth the trouble" attitude that has been an aspect of anti-piracy since the beginning of time. Rarely, you see, have the rulers, their livelihoods, and their children been a victim of piracy. Once they or their pocketbook do become the focus, as you will see in a bit, there is action.

The template for dealing with pirates are well known, simple and direct - and they have worked for centuries. Pirates at sea are to be chased down and killed. Those captured at sea should be given a fair trail and then given the maximum legally and politically acceptable punishment - preferably capital. Their leadership, bases, finances, markets, and logistic nodes need to be identified and eliminated by force. Previous examples of anti-piracy operations in the Maghreb, the Caribbean and other locations - as well as the Royal Navy's 19th Century anti-slavery operations - supply a valid template.

Though in our tender age only a few of these tactics can be used - indulge my fetish a bit and let me give you a little foundation education on anti-piracy. Julius Caesar knew the problem, up close.

In 75 (bc), Julius Caesar was captured by Cilician pirates, who infested the Mediterranean sea. The Romans had never sent a navy against them, because the pirates offered the Roman senators slaves, which they needed for their plantations in Italy. As a consequence, piracy was common.

In chapter 2 of his Life of Julius Caesar, the Greek author Plutarch of Chaeronea (46-c.120) describes what happened when Caesar encountered the pirates. The translation below was made by Robin Seager.

First, when the pirates demanded a ransom of twenty talents, Caesar burst out laughing. They did not know, he said, who it was that they had captured, and he volunteered to pay fifty. Then, when he had sent his followers to the various cities in order to raise the money and was left with one friend and two servants among these Cilicians, about the most bloodthirsty people in the world, he treated them so highhandedly that, whenever he wanted to sleep, he would send to them and tell them to stop talking.

For thirty-eight days, with the greatest unconcern, he joined in all their games and exercises, just as if he was their leader instead of their prisoner. He also wrote poems and speeches which he read aloud to them, and if they failed to admire his work, he would call them to their faces illiterate savages, and would often laughingly threaten to have them all hanged. They were much taken with this and attributed his freedom of speech to a kind of simplicity in his character or boyish playfulness.

However, the ransom arrived from Miletus and, as soon as he had paid it and been set free, he immediately manned some ships and set sail from the harbor of Miletus against the pirates. He found them still there, lying at anchor off the island, and he captured nearly all of them. He took their property as spoils of war and put the men themselves into the prison at Pergamon. He then went in person to [Marcus] Junius, the governor of Asia, thinking it proper that he, as praetor in charge of the province, should see to the punishment of the prisoners. Junius, however, cast longing eyes at the money, which came to a considerable sum, and kept saying that he needed time to look into the case.

Caesar paid no further attention to him. He went to Pergamon, took the pirates out of prison and crucified the lot of them, just as he had often told them he would do when he was on the island and they imagined that he was joking.

You can move up, ohhhh, about 18 centuries give or take a few dozen years, and you have another example of what can be done when things get too out of control.

In the fall of 1718 Blackbeard returned from sea to his favorite hideaway off Ocracoke Island. He hosted a huge, wild pirate get-together with dancing, drinking, and bonfires. Other famous pirates sailed in for the days-long event.
...
News of the pirate bash reached Alexander Spotswood, the governor of Virginia. He decided that the time had come to stop Blackbeard once and for all. He spent the next several weeks planning Blackbeard's capture.

SPOTSWOOD SENT TWO SLOOPS, small swift ships, commanded by Lieutenant Robert Maynard of the Royal Navy to Ocracoke. Seeing the navy's sails, Blackbeard and his pirates knew they were trapped. Only sandbars lay between them and the navy. By morning, the tide would rise, the sloops would glide over the submerged sandbars, and the attack on the pirate ship would begin.
...
In the morning Blackbeard didn't try to outrun the navy sloops. Instead he waited at his ship's wheel. His crew was puzzled. Finally, when Maynard's sloops started moving toward the pirates, Blackbeard ordered his crew to set sail. He seemed to be steering the ship directly toward the beach! They were going to crash!

But then Blackbeard eased the pirate ship through a narrow channel between the beach and a barely visible sandbar. Chasing the pirates, the navy sloops crashed into the sandbar.
...
One navy ship lay destroyed. Maynard's sloop was battered. Maynard ordered his men to throw food and water barrels over the side to lighten the ship. It worked. Floating free of the sandbar, Maynard's damaged sloop edged toward the pirate ship. Maynard ordered his men to hide below decks with pistols and swords ready.

Blackbeard's men hurled grenades onto the seemingly deserted navy sloop. The pirates boarded the ship easily. Suddenly, Maynard's men rushed the deck, firing pistols and wielding swords. The pirates turned around, completely stunned—they had been tricked into thinking the navy crew was dead. A battle began. Screams and cries of pain filled the air.

Pistol in one hand, cutlass in the other, Blackbeard came face-to-face with Maynard. They both fired pistols. Blackbeard missed. Maynard hit his mark.

Shot, Blackbeard still managed to swing his cutlass and snap off Maynard's sword blade. Maynard drew back. Blackbeard raised his arm for a finishing blow. Just in time, a navy seaman came up from behind Blackbeard and slashed his throat.

AS A WARNING TO OTHER PIRATES, Blackbeard's head was cut off and suspended from the bow of Maynard's sloop.

Pirates and people don't change all that much - just the means and methods - and will.

No, I don't think we can take a "hang them up and gibbet their heads" approach now - but the concept is valid. No quarter, full accountability, removal of the threat that lesser leaders did not have the will to eliminate.

In that train of thought - I stand with President Jefferson.

As Jefferson wrote to Adams in a July 11, 1786, letter, "I acknolege [sic] I very early thought it would be best to effect a peace thro' the medium of war." Paying tribute will merely invite more demands, and even if a coalition proves workable, the only solution is a strong navy that can reach the pirates, Jefferson argued in an August 18, 1786, letter to James Monroe: "The states must see the rod; perhaps it must be felt by some one of them. . . . Every national citizen must wish to see an effective instrument of coercion, and should fear to see it on any other element than the water. A naval force can never endanger our liberties, nor occasion bloodshed; a land force would do both." "From what I learn from the temper of my countrymen and their tenaciousness of their money," Jefferson added in a December 26, 1786, letter to the president of Yale College, Ezra Stiles, "it will be more easy to raise ships and men to fight these pirates into reason, than money to bribe them."

Unlike President Jefferson's time - but more in line with Rome and the VA Gov's position - our pirates are not state actors; they are not governments; they are not normal criminals or criminal enterprises either - they are not to be dealt with like they are.

Pirates operate in a well established niche on the global stage. They prey on the fair and free passage on the open seas (if you call it Global Commons in front of me I'll B1tch Sl@p 'ya), therefor they impact the livelihood of individuals, companies, and nations throughout the world. They take hostages. They murder. If allowed to fester and grow, they will grind the efficient transport of trade to a halt as alternate routes are devised to avoid them.

If appeased, they will grow. Their primary goal is to avoid the strong, and prey on the weak. They are ultimately motivated by money - regardless of what other excuses they or their apologists may wrap them in. They will expand in the direction of lawlessness and weakness. They will avoid the ships of those nations that endanger their enterprise and will instead search out the ships of those nations that supply them with the greatest risk/reward opportunity. Economics, not diplomacy or sociology - is the best way to understand pirates.

The last half decade has proved my long held position that there is no international solution to this problem if you want to protect American lives and property. There is only the discrete application of unilateral action and/or the ad hoc "Coalition of the Willing" operations that will address this problem - and the international will does not exist for a united front. We cannot make the Somali pirates fear all ships - but we can make them fear and avoid any ship that has the USA flag on the stern. Fix the security situation for your own citizens first - then try to make the other nations do the right thing.

Sometimes it can take decades. Let's go back to Jefferson,

Thomas Jefferson, United States minister to France, opposed the payment of tribute, as he later testified in words that have a particular resonance today. In his autobiography Jefferson wrote that in 1785 and 1786 he unsuccessfully "endeavored to form an association of the powers subject to habitual depredation from them. I accordingly prepared, and proposed to their ministers at Paris, for consultation with their governments, articles of a special confederation." Jefferson argued that "The object of the convention shall be to compel the piratical States to perpetual peace." Jefferson prepared a detailed plan for the interested states. "Portugal, Naples, the two Sicilies, Venice, Malta, Denmark and Sweden were favorably disposed to such an association," Jefferson remembered, but there were "apprehensions" that England and France would follow their own paths, "and so it fell through."
... it was not until the second war with Algiers, in 1815, that naval victories by Commodores William Bainbridge and Stephen Decatur led to treaties ending all tribute payments by the United States. European nations continued annual payments until the 1830s.

A few examples of what I am talking about.

The executive summary of the CAPT Philips adventure,

Five, four, three, BANG!

In that split second, three bad men die, a good one is saved and concentric ripples start to spread. At the tactical level, threats are removed and the hostage is rescued. At the operational level, the Somali pirate network now has a new risk factor to plug into their "cost-benefit model" (as in piracy can get you killed). At the strategic level, those shots echo far and wide. Unintentionally or not - remember, the tactical commander made the call - they send a message. America can still reach out and touch someone.

The French understand.

Three suspected Somali pirates have been charged with hijacking and false imprisonment, French prosecutors say.

The three were captured by French commandos in a hostage rescue operation in the Indian Ocean on 10 April and brought to France to face trial.

Two pirates and the skipper of the yacht Tanit were killed and four hostages freed in the operation.

Don't sneeze at the French and trials either - we do that too.

The Somali pirate captured during the rescue of a U.S. cargo ship captain held hostage in the Indian Ocean is expected to stand trial in federal court in New York, according to senior administration officials familiar with the investigation.

Now we look at what happens on the multi-national front.

Commandos from the Dutch ship, the De Zeven Provincien, pursued the pirates, who were on a small skiff, back to their "mother ship", a hijacked Yemeni fishing dhow.

"We have freed the hostages, we have freed the dhow and we have seized the weapons... The pirates did not fight and no gunfire was exchanged," Fernandes told Reuters. The Corte-Real is also on a NATO anti-piracy mission.

He said the hostages had been held since last week. The commandos briefly detained and questioned the seven gunmen, he told Reuters, but had no legal power to arrest them.

"NATO does not have a detainment policy. The warship must follow its national law," he said.

"They can only arrest them if the pirates are from the Netherlands, the victims are from the Netherlands, or if they are in Netherlands waters."

National law and multi-national operations, especially in NATO, means the lowest common denominator.

There is a reason that we have a CTF-150, CTF-151, NATO, EU, China, Russia, Japan, India and other "national" operations going on. National interest and political reality. We should accept it and then do what we must.

Play the multi-national game while using our national fist when needed. The danger is when that method is forgotten and twisted by the theorists who ignore the facts of piracy. If the national is absorbed into the multi-national - then you have the Dutch model of anti-piracy (a Continental default position for a few thousand years, BTW). That is a formula for more piracy, and more dangerous piracy.

At land and at sea, the multi-national/UN approach has a long and bloody history of being little more than bureaucrat full employment exercise, NGO Food Trough, and belly-button picker CYA while, literally, millions die. For those who believe that we should go that route - I would ask them to review how the International Community performed in Rwanda, Congo, and Darfur - better yet - ask those who survived what they think.

The pirates have taken hundreds of sailors and dozens of ships off the Horn of Africa. This does not have to be the case. All it takes is will - political will. As Julius Caesar and Governor Spotswood knew, the military was ready - all they were waiting for was the order.


Hat tip The Good Jimbo for the pic.