Sunday Funnies

Prepared for Syria OPS, but can you get it subdued?

Hat tip PD.

Fullbore Friday

By popular acclimation - there can be but one FbF this week;

He was at his post on the 44th floor of World Trade Center Tower 1 on September 11, 2001, when a psychotic madman flew a passenger airliner into the building. When the Port Authority came over the loudspeaker in the building and ordered everyone inside to stay put, Rescorla muttered "Bugger that Blimy Poppycock" (or something equally British) under his breath, and flipped his brain right back into Commanding Officer mode. It wasn't his first time dealing with a terrorist attack on his place of employment – in 1993, when a truck bomb went off in the basement of the Tower, Rescorla had evacuated his offices, helping everyone out until he was the last man to leave the building – and he wasn't taking any chances this time either. He grabbed a bullhorn and personally ran up and down the 22 floors that encompassed Morgan Stanley Dean Witter headquarters, quickly and calmly getting everyone out of their cubes and down the stairs. Rushing up and down the building despite the fact that he was 62 years old and dying from terminal bone marrow cancer, Rescorla didn't even consider slowing down until all 2,700 of his co-workers were safely out of the burning building. When he saw how terrified the men and women he worked with were, he went back to his old standby of singing British folk songs to try and cheer them up.

He was last seen on the tenth floor of the World Trade Center, headed up. Of the 2,700 people he had been charged with protecting, all but 6 survived the terrorist attack.

That is only a sliver of the story of a man.

Why you may wonder, do I have as the image the cover of We Were Soldiers Once...and Young? Well ... take a few minutes to read the full story.

So, you need a new Bob Work?

The "Under," like the Deputy Director of the CIA, it is a job with a lot more heft and importance than you'd think just by the title.

Agree or disagree with the former Undersecretary of the Navy on a specific issue if you like, there are a few things that are not in dispute; Bob Work had spent decades thinking hard and deep about the requirements of the being the premier naval power. He had the "street cred," was not afraid to engage his opponents, and had a depth of knowledge and passion about issues he knew intimately and instinctively. When he spoke, you listened closely. He was creative friction in the best meaning of the phrase.

If you were going to disagree with Bob Work - which by the way he was fine with - then you better do your homework. You had to respect the man's knowledge of his craft. People understood that from day-1 he was in office. Indeed, that is why he was chosen.

What was Bob Work's back-o-the-napkin CV before he became The Under?
- NROTC type, commissioned as a 2LT in the USMC in 1974.
- 27 years active duty service in the Marines. Commanded an artillery battalion, then Camp Fuji.
- The first head of the Marine Corps' Strategic Initiatives Group.
- Military Assistant and Special Aide to United States Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig; retired as a Colonel in 2001.
- Spent the 2000s at CBSA and played around at Georgetown, ONA, and OSD - including work on the 2006 QDR.
- Worked with the Obama transition team and served four years with energy and verve as The Under.
- More of a paper trail than you have time to read.

Well, the job has been gapped for awhile. Amazing, but the SECNAV had his reasons.

We now know who will take the parking space;

Jo Ann Rooney, a former university president and Massachusetts financial attorney with two years’ experience (sic) in the Pentagon, has been nominated to become undersecretary of the Navy, the No. 2 position in the Navy Department.

OK, let's get her back-o--the-napkin CV treatment.

- OCT 12 - present; Huron Consulting Group as a managing directors in the Huron Healthcare practice out of, ahem, Chicago.
- JUN/OCT 11 to JUN 12; Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness (acting): 8-months.
- JUL 10 to DEC 10; Mount Ida College, President. Student body 1,300.
- 2002 to 2010; Spalding University, President. Student body 2,000.
- 1996 to 2002; chief counsel, chief operating officer, chief financial officer, and partner of The Lyons Companies in Waltham, Mass. That firm maintained a national practice specializing in estate planning, capital advising, charitable planning, executive compensation, business succession planning, and benefits planning and administration for corporations, individuals and nonprofit organizations.
- Prior to that she was a tax lawyer.

Do with this what you will; I'm done.

I've spent a fair bit of time to see where she is coming from intellectually, and what she has been working on that will serve the Navy well as The Under.

No joy.

1st Sea Lord Goes Salamander

In the latest edition of DefenseNews, Andrew Chuter interviews Admiral Sir George Zambellas, RN.

He doesn't actually say, "LCS" - but as we know that LCS is actually just a Corvette; I think we know where he stands.

"At some point, you cannot offset quality for increased scale because if you do, you lose military authority for the utility force you have got. In other words, you are not credible. That is why I have no time for the concept of a police force at sea through corvettes,"

"If you are going to operate a relatively small frigate force, you need to achieve genuine operability across different tasks. lll The danger of the argument of those who say, ' Oh let's have more smaller, less-capable ships is, you immediately constrain your operational and terefore political flexibility. The irony is that the smaller your force, the more you need to invest in high-end, capable ships if you are to remain a serious player in defense,"

Oh, my stars and garters; I'm getting faint.

One final note. There is the #1 RN Admiral and he has four medals and a couple of other thingys. Unlike our 4-stars, he doesn't have a badge for everything and a salad bar going over his shoulder like a North Korean GOFO.

Something else I like about the Brits. Your end of tour award is your next set of orders.

Someone get URR's smelling salts. On a discussion of the lessons from Libya, after ISTAR he says,

The second example has to do with fires from the sea - missiles and guns. Modern precision munitions coming the Navy's way will have a degree of accuracy inland which means you must know exactly what is going on at the other end. ... We need to do better with naval fires ...

Can we get him to help with our strategic re-boot?

Raised in Rhodesia, helo pilot who commanded three surface ships. What's not to like.

The Beacons of New York

Another day in Bahrain when I saw the CNN pic of the tower out of my corner of my eye.

At first no one knew really what happened? Pilot error on such a perfect day ... and then the second plane came it. It all changed, and history woke up from its nap.

Is There an Ear of Wisdom for the Voice of Experience?

As we stumble and stutter our way to a decision in Syria, what are the members of Congress that are veterans of the Long War saying?

I'm discussing over at USNIBlog; stop by and let me know what you think.

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UPDATE: FWIW, I'll be live-tweet'n the CINC's speech. If you don't already, you can follow me on twitter @cdrsalamander.