We need more - not fewer experienced military professionals to start another chapter of service in Congress. Without informed Congressmen, those who control the purse strings are at the mercy of the competence of their staffs, the K-Street hordes, and opaque Flag officers.
Especially for the Navy - we need it like you read about. Those "Navy" types in the House and Senate that come to the front do not play to their full potential for the Navy. Sen. McCain (R-AZ) is nice, but his information is dated, his focus is elsewhere - and we don't even see him that concerned with USNA. Ditto Sen. Webb (D-VA). He is more focused on stovepiped rice-bowl issues than the big picture - at least that is how is reads from the cheap seats. In the House - well there is Rep. Sestak (D-PA). Mostly focused on his favorite topic - Joe Sestak.
So, what do we do?
I would cry for more Navy Captains & Commanders - but we aren't doing that well.
UPDATE: CORRECTION: Congressman Massa is a retired Commander as is Cunningham; not retired Captains. I dorked that up in the original post; bad on me - so I modified the above a bit to reflect that. Ok, no CDR/CAPT. The Flag Officers aren't doing that well either. It isn't supposed to be this way - we are much better than this.
Captain Commander Cunningham (R-CA) - we know how that worked out. CAPT Schrock (R-VA) - that made us all feel like we need a bath with a bar of lava soap. Now we have Captain Commander Massa (D-NY).
I would cry for more Navy Captains & Commanders - but we aren't doing that well.
UPDATE: CORRECTION: Congressman Massa is a retired Commander as is Cunningham; not retired Captains. I dorked that up in the original post; bad on me - so I modified the above a bit to reflect that. Ok, no CDR/CAPT. The Flag Officers aren't doing that well either. It isn't supposed to be this way - we are much better than this.
As usual - I think we are going to have to go to the Chief's Mess and the CWOs to fix this.
