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During WWII our surface fleet saw a lot of battle and they deserve every medal they got; however keep in mind that during WWII the Silent Service consisted of 1% of the Navy and that 1% sank over 90% of all sank tonnage.
If you were to view Naval Warfare in terms of sunk tonnage 1% of our Navy did 90% of the warfare.
Yes subs do have a higher casualty rate, our living environment is hazardous. Everything we do is hazardous. Submariners get Hazardous Duty pay even during relative peace time.
Nothing on a sub is 'safe'. When I reported onboard my first sub, I was replacing a guy who had finished a patrol, he was in dress uniform with his seabag in hand crossing the brow leaving the boat when a crane dropped a pallet of supplies on him. The crane killed 5 crewmen. Even stepping off the boat after a patrol can be hazardous.
I remember an Intell briefing long ago, where they were discussing a new modification seen on a Soviet target ship and trying to figure out what it was for. At a high-level embassy dinner one of our admirals had asked a Soviet Admiral about this new modification, and his response was that 90% of the weapons systems on Soviet ships were anti-sub. Because our subs were the only thing the Soviet Navy really feared. So in this intell brief it was assumed that the new weapon system was another attempt at anti-sub warfare.
It makes a guy wonder though since 1% of the Navy does 90% of the work, what does the other 99% of the Navy do? Other then just target vessels who put noise in the water and muck it up for the combatants.
One of the nice things about subs is that on a sub we are nearly always within a mile from land.
We very rarely go anywhere that we are more than one mile from land. If we ever do wander to a place where we were more than a mile from land, we have only to go a bit deeper and we will be within a mile from land again [straight down].
During WWII our surface fleet saw a lot of battle and they deserve every medal they got; however keep in mind that during WWII the Silent Service consisted of 1% of the Navy and that 1% sank over 90% of all sank tonnage.
Very impressive record, but not quite this good; 2% of the personnel and 60% of total Japanese tonnage, both merchant and warship, sunk by American submarines. Give a little more credit to our surface and naval air forces. Still a remarkable feat, accounting for more than half of the enemy ship losses.
Hmm I dont know I got it from a plaque at one of the sub museums, I think the one at Groton. I do not know where they researched their numbers from, it is a archive upstairs.
( explaining to FB about aircraft carriers when he asks what does the other 99% of the Navy do )
True.
They did make a few subs that launched planes but it was a short-lived program. Carriers appear to be much better for that purpose.
The Regulus class was a series of boats that surfaced and had a hanger on top, they could do a surface launch of cruise missiles.
That was before we developed the whiz-bang torpedoes now in common use that swim for a programmed distance, then leap into the air and fly as cruise missiles.
In the middle of my career we had the Clinton Administration's 'Draw-down'. The Navy was being reduced to a projected 200-ship cap. In that 200-ship Navy there was going to be 95 subs. Which is certainly more than 1 or 2%.
Thankfully the military draw-down was scrubbed and we are no longer facing a 200-ship cap.
I have only seen carriers in the mothball fleet, I have never seen one that was operational. I do understand that they serve a vital role in operations; as do frigates, tankers, amphibs, tenders ...
A totally stupid idea.
Today we see that yet another skipper got canned because of an "inappropriate" relationship with another member of the crew. (read sexual relationship)
Sex has NO PLACE in the military. When you put Men and Women together in highly stressful confined quarters they are going to get together...they are going to copulate, have "sex". That is NOT the job of the military...to provide a time and place for people to grandstand their sexuality or engage in sex. You are in the military to SERVE not get "serviced". Our job is totally stressful ENOUGH with out adding the immeasurably stressful aspect of modern human sexuality to the mix....it's NOT needed....it does NOT make the job easier...faster...better....more efficient....more enjoyable....more productive. It ONLY MAKES IT WORSE!
You are in the military to fight....to prepare for and fight wars...battles. In order to do that you need to THINK ABOUT THE SHIP....not when you're going to get your next "lay"....Sex is like a drug...and people, particularly many young people who's hormones are raging...CAN NOT control themselves when that drug is made available.....if it's there people will take it....and when they are taking it....they ARE NOT DOING THEIR JOBS!!!
Time after time we have seen that this patently STUPID social-engineering experiment white-washed as some sort of measure of "equality" has in reality become an EPIC FAILURE...seen that it has resulted in nothing but chaos and a disastrous lack of professionalism in the military workforce the Navy Team and elsewhere. Who knows how much all this garbage really costs the Navy and the U.S. Military? All the lost time to "touchy-feely" EO training....courts-martial...JAG's running around ruined careers and idiotic sexual tension on the ship on the base that was never before an issue but now is going far to seriously erode the morale and effectiveness of our forces. For many many centuries...for many HUNDREDS of years we have struggled to eliminate as many of the variables involved with going to sea...and fighting battles at sea as possible...because all of the unknowns all of those variables COST LIVES....Men died because our ships were not good enough...our systems and procedures were not as good as they should have been. We took our beatings at the hands of crazed determined enemies....we learned our lessons and survived....got stronger got better and got SMARTER....Now we (or rather some dizzy fuzzy-haired politicians and liberal mutant "activists") are pushing to have the greatest unknown DELIBERATELY and FORCEABLY INTRODUCED into the military....that of sexuality and the end result of all that prima facie absurd politically motivated liberal mindlessness will be a serious weakening of our strengths and capabilities. The strongest part of our military is our PEOPLE and if we weaken them the whole system is the worse for it....and America will NOT be as ready to meet the next military challenge...
This social-engineering nonsense is best left to the college classroom....let the warriors do their job with out weighing them down with NEEDLESS and ENDLESS garbage!
Comparing the US military to "other" forces is nonsense. Other military forces don't have our track record of success in war or battle and they more often than not have different goals and lower standards. More often than not WE protect THEM so using the "quality" of their forces as some sort of model to be followed is not logical.
UCMJ is not perfect at enforcing behavior. Sure adults are supposed to act like adults....In a dream-land. In reality they do not. Many of the members of the service are barely out of their teens, and a LONG way off from adulthood. Time and again we see people who are supposed to behave but don't. Are we REALLY going to base the future of our National Security on the "hope" that people behave? ...Will we really continue to lean on the UCMJ as a knee jerk reaction to bad behavior after the fact? Why burden the system with all the ingredients of disaster and simply say...."the UCMJ will fix it"...don't set up our forces for failure....which is precisely what these PC policies are all about whether or not that was the intention.
Comparing the civilian world to the military world is absurd as well. Private sector firms must make a profit. If they burden themselves with endless "policies" that hurt their bottom line they go under. If they find a cheaper and less restrictive operating environment offshore that is where they go. The military can't be (should not be) outsourced. The military is not driven by the financial profit motive. Our mission is fighting battles, winning wars, ensuring the safety and security of the United States both with combat and humanitarian action, any other use of the military is not within the scope of our mission and honestly constitutes a miss-use of the military. We've been down this road before...that of using our forces as guinea pigs, and it was wrong, terribly wrong to have done so. The military in our free society is at the beckon call of the civilian government, however that does not justify the use of the military for all the patently non-mission essential uses of the military that politicians obviously have such a difficult time restraining themselves from engaging in.
The real bottom line....for us....
We will continue to suffer all this nonsense....and sooner or later it will cost us dearly. We'll continue to "deal with it"...and that is EXACTLY the attitude that will prevail postmortem these policies...and meet this unwelcome and utterly avoidable self-induced disaster with as much dignity as we can muster, but make no mistake about it no one is going to like it...not one bit and that attitude will be very thinly veiled in all of those that have to put up with this crap. Pure exhaustive exasperation. Not even those who are purportedly to benefit from all this will be happy because it will be painfully obvious to everyone what the "score" is and that will permeate the attitude of dang near everyone. Life on the boat will STILL be miserable and this will really make it tense...Thanks a whole bunch all you "politicians" and "sea-lawyers" out there......Very few if any of us are going to cheer when these patently idiotic policies get pushed on us. Again it will ALWAYS be the case of "dealing with it". It will NOT be some sort of sun-burst epiphany joyous moment when we can all breathe easy and rejoice that life on a warship has gotten easier....that someone inside the beltway made a move that ACTUALLY HELPED us reduced our stress our workload our tension. Nope......it will really end up costing us dearly.....That cost may be purloined off to some future generation of war-fighters who may not even be aware that the seeds of their loss were sown long ago....
I'll guess I'll pursue a policy of making the Chiefs deal with it all.....sounds good....I'm sure they've got the time....
'Happy' Cells - you do not sound very happy to me.
Maybe you should let it all out, tell us how you really feel. Don't hold back so much.
Yes, the military is used as a social engineering tool by 'those in charge'. Much social change in our culture is done via the military.
I served back when urinalysis was illegal. Then when the results of urinalysis results were not allowed to be used in court. Then when it did become allowed. And then when it became common practice everywhere.
It was used on the military first and that was where the legal changes occurred which eventually changed our society.
You know......Sex has been compared to running...."SO many miles" each time....
So technically, it is doing good....re-leaving stress......and other things.....
So before I would start complaining about sex and what is does to the military members......I would also look at the good things.....it ahhh does...well you get the point....or maybe she does.....
So anyway you hard nose killer.....be good and....
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