Now that USS Lincoln is heading home it is time to wonder, did all the caterwauling by the media and persons of no knowledge back home poison the reason why young sailors go to sea in the Navy or are they going to get to enjoy the good part? What you may ask, is the good part? I will tell you.
It's all about the getting there the return home again. In wartime you steam hell for leather to get on station. In both peacetime and wartime you would mosey home. The mosey in this case would/could include port calls of some duration in places like Thailand, the Philippines, Australia and who knows, maybe even a stop in Hawaii to pick up some family members for a tiger cruise back to home port. All of that gets left in the wake when the admirals and Congress screw up and leave more commitments on the table than there are ships to meet.
With obligations to get home as soon as possible in order to undertake necessary repairs and maintenance there is often nothing faster for a nuclear ship than to spin on a dime from Gonzo Station and head straight home at 24 knots without stopping. There is no delightful run ashore and liberty in a foreign port where you get to meet and interact with nice people on their own ground. Nope.
You just go straight home, to the Yards and then to another deployment without any time outbound to hit the nice liberty ports because, there's a ship that's been on station too long and those guys need to go back to the Yards and get repaired quickly so they can turn around and surge out to sea for another 8 month deployment.
This is the killer doom loop of long deployments with ZERO rewards and ZERO consideration for the men and women paying in the only coin that matters for their time in the Navy. Liberty ports softened the blow and made it more endurable. Guess what happens when you take away the one part that makes it all endurable?
7 comments:
Involuntary extensions, massive bonuses to prevent a mass failure of reenlistment.
Saw it before Desert Storm and during Desert Sheild.
It's nowhere near the same jobs environment. A lot of first termers will go but recall, that's precisely how the system is set up. It needs the 18 year old E-3 and below, not 24 year old E-3s.
Back when I was in the Air Force the one time enlistment rate was 50% and half that for a second re-up. Bonuses and mandatory extensions for critical career fields happened as need required.
That's the sweet spot in personnel management in something like the military. We need everyone but we need a lot of youngsters to learn and grow into the kind of specialists we need but we need far fewer specialists than first termers and so huge swaths are let go after their first enlistment. That is unless the damned bean counters get in and mix up what we NEED with what LOOKS good but doesn't work.
It appears as if she is going home via Phattaya.
The Marines turn around between deployments is even shorter? At least in regard to a MEU?
Jim
Thailand baby! I hope they get a good week ashore there and some time in Hawaii but I'm sure all the married sailors are just looking forward to being home. There is a constant tension between the married and unmarried sailors. Hopefully it never goes away.
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