Spreading ship-naming head scratching

Back in March, I thought I was alone. No longer.

Christopher Cavas in The Navy Times is wondering what is going on as well. For those who don't subscribe, below are the tender bits.

DDG denotes a guided-missile destroyer, and today’s Arleigh Burke destroyers will run from DDG 51 to DDG 112. This makes DDG 113 the obvious choice for the new ship.
...
Some observers expected a 21st-century theme, citing the SSN 21 submarine and CVN 21 aircraft carrier. In any case, they couldn’t fathom the meaning of “1000.”

In a written response to a query, Navy officials said the new number “serves to highlight the ship’s capability and technological differences from the Arleigh Burke class.” They noted that the Spruance destroyer class, now retired, ended at DD 997.

“Starting the Zumwalt class at 1000 is appropriate for numerical consistency,” the response read.

But it’s hardly consistent to link the new DDG to a DD number. DDs are equipped with missiles for point defense, DDGs for longer-range strikes — though this distinction blurred when the Tomahawk cruise missile was installed aboard the Spruances.

So what?

One Capitol Hill source called the response “incoherent” because the service calls the Zumwalt-class ship a DDG, not a DD.

He said the official explanation “will only feed suspicions that the Navy chose DDG 1000 simply because it sounds flashy, and perhaps additionally because of a concern regarding potential triskaidekaphobia,” the fear of the number 13.

Sounds like he isn't a fan of the LCS marketing either.

Last year’s decision to designate the new ship type “LCS” annoyed some people, as the “L” prefix was previously used to denote ships related to amphibious warfare — a type that evolved from landing craft. The LCS is meant as a small combatant but has no amphibious capability.

And there’s an even bigger distinction to be drawn: the different designs of the Independence and the ostensible lead ship of the type, the Freedom (LCS 1).

LCS 1 is being built to a 378-foot, 2,860-ton monohull design by Lockheed Martin. LCS 2 is a 418-foot, 2,784-ton trimaran concept being built by General Dynamics. The two designs are nearly identical in function, but different in configuration and dimensions. Still, the Navy is referring to both designs as the same class.

“The name of the class — which includes both variants — is Freedom,” Navy officials said.

That doesn’t sit well with one analyst.

“‘Class’ means design, characteristics, dimensions, appearance,” said A.D. Baker, a longtime naval analyst and author of “Combat Fleets of the World.”

“It has nothing to do with type,” he said.

Referring to both ships as the same class “is not in concurrence with standard practice of any Navy at any time in the history of the world,” Baker said.

Many naval professionals simply shrugged off the lapses in practice. But Baker said he saw a darker meaning.

“It tells me the powers that be don’t pay attention to carefully drafted instructions that are supposed to guide them,” he said.

Ahhhh. Peace.

The Zarqawi bloopers

You really need to go here and look at the unedited video of Zarqawi's New Balance shoes and he and his pals poor muzzle discipline.

Gen. Barry McCaffery ONSTA report

Retired General McCaffery (Clinton Administration Drug Czar) gives a report from Iraq that is about the best, as far as being closest from what I hear is going on there right now, that has come from a “fact finding mission.” He did not go on a Republican dog and pony show, and you could not call him a "pro-Bush" general.

You really need to read the whole thing, I really believe this is a clear headed, honest report. What caught my eye, was one throw away line that I think is critical for our Republic….and one that I agree with, I see, and I will not let anyone forget.

Gen. McCaffrey also warns that "there is a rapidly growing animosity" among U.S. troops toward the press.

"The reason it bothers me is shades of Vietnam," Gen. McCaffrey said in an interview. "It took my generation 20 years to get over Vietnam, the sense that the press had been against us as soldiers."

Yep, we see what we see - and we hear what you report. You can BS some of the people at home, but what you are selling isn't being bought here.

Like I said, read the whole thing. Executive Summary: we have a victory, and can keep it for less and less cost each year - if we don’t quit early.

Flag Officer food fight

In his review of "Cobra II," retired Major General Robert H. Scales just tears the authors a new one on their historical tomfoolery. He hits it right where it belongs.

Their book appears about three years into this war. As I read, I couldn't help but imagine (given today's political atmospherics) how a book like Messrs. Trainer and Gordon's might have read had it appeared three years after Pearl Harbor.

Such a book would have hit the bookstores at Christmas time in 1944. Messrs. Gordon and Trainer would most certainly have written about the unconstitutional arrogance of an administration that violated international neutrality laws by taking sides with Great Britain against Germany. They would have recognized that Pearl Harbor was the greatest intelligence failure in American history. We would have read the whole horrific story of the humiliating surrender at Corregidor that signaled the shameful loss of the entire American Army in the Philippines.

The condemnatory tenor of the book would continue with depictions of the useless slaughter at "Bloody Buna" in New Guinea, the humiliating loss to the German Army at Kasserine Pass in North Africa, the failure of Dwight Eisenhower to trap the retreating Germans in Sicily, the horrifically wasteful daylight bombing campaign against Germany in 1943. Messrs. Gordon and Trainer would have reserved their worst for the conduct of George C. Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower in their abortive "Crusade in Europe."

We would have read about an Army unprepared to meet the Germans in the hedgerows of Normandy. Operation Market Garden would be depicted as a foolish "bridge too far" that left our bravest soldiers to die for a few square miles of Dutch territory. The useless slaughter in the dank wilderness of the Huertgen Forest would have shocked us. And of course the book would have appeared just at the time the folks back home got word of Hitler's greatest defeat of the Americans at the Battle of the Bulge, evidence of another grand failure of intelligence and a testament to the genius of German arms.

Of course there was no such book written at the time. There were no calls for impeachment, dismissal or relief. None of this happened because military men of that age understood war as the most unpredictable of all human endeavors. Our grandfathers realized that unlike lawyers or doctors, soldiers practice their craft infrequently and often get it wrong at first. Thus, even the greatest military men make mistakes that all too often cost lives.

Sure, soldiers of that era carped about the human shortcomings of their leaders but they kept their own counsel because they realized that there was, first and foremost, a war to be won. They forgave the difficulties experienced by an army that had no choice but to learn to fight by fighting, the most wasteful form of education in the art of war. And they came home to a grateful nation sure in the confidence that they had done their part to destroy a great evil.

Let's pass a hat for Lex

Oh, you know he wants one.

A Chinese businessman has bought an old MiG-21f fighter jet for nearly $25,000 (£14,000) on eBay to decorate his office, a Chinese newspaper reports.

Zhang Cheng bought the Soviet-made jet from a seller in the United States, where it is said to be in excellent condition though last flown in 1995.

Heck, if he was a P-3 guy, he could buy one in one deployment's per diem.

Hat tip Politburo Diktat.

Global Left’s answer: retreat and surrender

Rinse, repeat.

Remember, the reason Nazi Germany was able to slice through Western Europe like a bayonet through a baby is that the Leftist/Socialist governments of Belgium, The Netherlands, Denmark, and France starved their military until it was too late and/or appeased evil – and as a byproduct fed and strengthened it – to the point that they could never overcome their predisposition to surrender. First, from "friends" in Italy breaking bread with Comrade Prodi in the NYT.

The roadside bomb that killed three Italian soldiers in Nassiriya, Iraq, today quickly caused problems for the government being formed by Romano Prodi.

"This tragedy hits all of Italy," the prime minister-designate said in a statement.

Politically, it refocused Italy's antipathy to the war, which is strong even as the outgoing prime minister Silvio Berlusconi slowly withdrew troops on duty in Iraq from a peak of 3,200, to about 2,600 now.

Some coalition partners of Mr. Prodi urged an immediate withdrawal of the remainder.

"The right is using this serious episode of terrorism to justify the Italian military presence in Iraq," said Paolo Cento, a leader of the Green Party which is part of Mr. Prodi's coalition, "and therefore it is that much more opportune to arrive at a rapid withdrawal of the Italian military, not by the end of 2006 but even earlier." Vladimir Luxuria of the Reformed Communist Party — another coalition partner — also called for an immediate withdrawal, although its party leader, Fausto Bertinotti, said only that the attack "is one more reason to be against the war and terrorism."

Then to my friends the Dutch.

Dutch Minister of Defence Henk Kamp has warned that if Afghanistan becomes too dangerous for Dutch troops deployed there to continue their work, they should return home.

That's iron-spined leadership! But the Dutch MoD is full of that type.

There are some strong Dutch politicians of the strain of The Battle of Mill in '40 and The Battle of The Hague.

Hans van Balen is a member of parliament for the conservative-liberal VVD party. Although he accepts that the threat from the Taliban and al-Qaeda within Afghanistan is growing, he doesn't see that as a reason for the Dutch to withdraw from this mission:

"If we don't have a stable environment in Afghanistan, al-Qaeda and the Taliban can rearm, reinforce and threaten us. So things are not going very well […] but it's a reason to stay longer or at least to take that option seriously."

You can hear an interview with him here. BTW, I know he sounds soft from an American perspective, but for The Netherlands - this is Ahnuld stuff.

Forgetting history is one thing, flaunting it is another. They need to remember what most of the Muslim world thinks of Europe. They ain't helping.

Buy Pounds, sell Euros. Dollars? Heck, I don’t know, ask the Chinese and Gulf Arabs; they own us.

Keep shopping at Wal-Mart. Keep opposing ANWAR, wind farms, natural gas off VA and FL. Shut up and pay your gas card when you fill up. You have it cheap. Me? I need a slice of rhubarb pie.

Reaping roosting chickens on the Severn

Via a reader, this is just getting uglier by the day.

Lamar S. Owens Jr., last season's starting quarterback for the U.S. Naval Academy, will face a court-martial on rape and other charges, Navy officials said yesterday.

A second football player will also face a court-martial on charges of indecent assault and other offenses in connection with a separate incident, the academy said.

There is so much here; football player entitlement, wrong-headed sexual advice, un-accountable protected classes (some Midshipmen or more equal than others), and viotation of Salamandar's #1 rule - don't get sexually involved with a Shipmate.

There is a lot more here than meets the eye; for some more background you can look at my last post on it here. Let the GCM go forward: let everyone have their say. Let the jury decide. Fresh air and light will be good.