Sunday, June 16, 2019

THE CHORDS OF MEMORY

I listen to the music on the car radio on the way in and out of Case and not ever the radio again for the remainder of the day. I used to have an extensive collection of records and CDs. All that was left behind without a backward glance. I used to listen to music a lot. To be honest, I still had my walkman and tapes even after I got my 6th dvd portable player, not one of which I have anymore. I go upstairs these days to listen to the rain and the music, quietly because the one I love most is sleeping below. I take the chance on bats flying in though I should really stir myself to put up the damned screen that is lying right there on the stairs but I love to listen to the rain.

As they do, my thoughts turned to the past as a I listened to the rain. My reading tonight led me to a past I had forgotten. I might have mentioned him somewhere near the outset but not since then. He was a rear admiral of the reserve navy and an architect. He was part of the rival organization mine was devoted to killing dead by any means but he was a good man.

The dirtbag then in command of that part of the Navy called on Mark one day and asked him when he planned to resign. What cemented the memory of him for me was his telling me his answer, never.

It really shouldn't take wars to clear out the dead wood at the top. To be honest, right now I don't know anymore. There is just one of my peers still in and he's a 3 star. I think the Army and Air Force have tested leaders who have led in battle, budgets and war. I'm afraid mine is going to be worthless. They got where they did like Dick Marcinko did and it's going to prove painful in the extreme. LCS, DDG crap, F=35, EM catapalts Carriers, Amphibs. Right now we are on a trajectory to the Brewster Buffalos at Wake and Midway.

12 comments:

SCOTTtheBADGER said...

USS MINNEAPOLIS SAINT PAUL was christened yesterday. I have a friend who is the head of the Navy League in MN, who attended the christening. I did not comment on his post in Facebook, because i cannot say anything nice about the LCS. It has neither offensive, nor defensive capability, nor even the ability to keep itself under repair, and operational. They are built in Marinette, here in Wisconsin. The ore boats that pass by the shipyard on their way to Gary, or Indiana Harbor have better radar set ups. All an LCS can do, is get it's crew killed.
They are the Brewster Buffaloes of the next sea war, you are correct. What a horrible thing to be correct about, but the Navy won't stop building them.

i am also very cynical about the EMALS on the FORDs. I can't see how that will not affect the health of the crews on the deck, or the electronics on the planes.

OldAFSarge said...

My own view is that the Navy is in deep doo-doo at the moment. There are no grown-ups in charge, merely petulant children who served their time and now it's their turn to muck things up.

I fear for the future.

capt fast said...

I don't have first hand experience with the NAVY leadership as you do, but I am not blind and deaf; yet,at any rate. It takes a short time to bring people to leadership roles if those meet the political criteria of those doing the promoting. And the same one's saw to it that those not meeting the criteria set forth by the political winds of change would not be available to promote in the future no matter which way the winds blow. we saw the same in the USAF and to be sure the ARMY was swept, too.
Standing outside the NAVY looking in, I realized there was a disconnect in the NAVY leadership when I saw the change in recruiting advertising shift from "WE are a fighting force set to defend the people of this country from all comers" to "we are a force for good". It seemed as if the NAVY was going to retire all it's fighting ships and replace them with cargo and hospital ships to aid disaster relief. it was a jaw dropping change in basic attitude of the military leadership that had always weathered the political sea changes that always happened.
Where does the NAVY go from here without it's battle tested warriors?

HMS Defiant said...

Annual trip to Maine coming up this week. We stay at a place near Pemaquid in New Harbor which, oddly enough, is just down the road a bit from Bath. We usually hit the Maine Maritime Museum and since I'm running out of t-shirts will again on this trip. Once one leaves the freeway to head up the road down the river in Bath, one is right there in the space of the best shipbuilding yard left on the planet. I always look to see what they're building. The last couple of years were the Zumwalt disasters but always, always, they have in the assembly buildings at least one DDG.

The next Pacific War is going to hurt a lot but we still have some very good ships and sailors and an Air Force that flies 80 year old Spads because they are even worse at procurement than the USN.

HMS Defiant said...

I'm a little more sanguine about it. As with December 7, the initial rollback will be devastating. I on the other hand, don't think we really got rid of the nuclear Tomahawks.

HMS Defiant said...

That's a very good question. And for no reason at all except it's been on my mind for that couple of days it reminds me of Admiral Halsey when he was asked about the Empire of Japan shortly after Dec 7 and he announced that in a year or two Japanese would be a language spoken only in Hell.

My whole time in was riding a crest of pure professionalism as we recovered from Vietnam and the wars I played in were pure walkovers. It's not going to be like that anymore. I remember dipping deep into the War Reserve stocks for material and none of that exists anymore. Most of what we built for the wars in SWA was shipped there and left behind. You will look in vain for a military base in America. The Defense Industrial complex doesn't exist outside that Panex plant in Texas that is still destroying nuclear weapons.

It's kind of interesting/funny. Americans still think of their country as a hyperpower. As with the USSR, all of the things they think they have no longer exist and we have about one regiment in Europe, maybe 3 ships, 6 planes.

I don't believe that most people realize just what that means. 99% of them probably think it means kumbayah and goodness and unicorns. They all pretty much fail to realize that the deterrent to war has now just about vanished leaving only the nukes. Some of the Btritish saw it when they accepted that about 18 years ago, OPERATION CORPORATE was no longer possible and anybody could attack them without any fear at all. We've sunk about that far now too.

capt fast said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
capt fast said...

pay no attention to the above. I just need a drink...

HMS Defiant said...

Hate when people do that. Now I'm left to wonder.

HMS Defiant said...

I'm sorry I missed it.

capt fast said...

I really like Adm. Halsey.
There was a officer who saw the changes in naval technology and explored them and adapted his doctrine to encompass all the good things that technology would bring into his decision making processes.
there was an officer who preserved his fleet in being and maintained his offensive capability in order to have the enemies of the nation honor the threat his fleet presented, putting them on the defensive.
I believe australians and new zealanders owe his memory a debt for the fact that they do not need to speak/read japanese today if they don't want to.

HMS Defiant said...

I liked both Halsey and the Quiet Warrior plus Arleigh Burke and Admiral Mitscher. What I liked about Burke and kept on my office wall for decades working at SPAWAR and other places was his saying about 'how he went to sea on destroyers as a young man and enjoyed it and then we got radios.' I added my addendum to say the same thing except adding, 'and then we got computers.' I was not all that popular in SPAWAR which is odd considering after 9/11 they pretty much left me in charge from after dark and until sunrise for months.