I know that, given the ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, that funding for the Navy will tend to suffer, but damnation! Does it have to suffer this much?
The Balisle commission does warn of the dangers of an “it’s not my problem” ethos in the surface force, which it said will make the Navy’s troubles, from Aegis to corrosion, all the more difficult to fix:
“From the most senior officers to the most junior petty officer, the culture reveals itself in personal attitudes ranging from resignation to frustration to toleration. The downward spiral of the culture is seen throughout the ship, in the longstanding acceptance of poor housekeeping, preservation and corrosion control. Over time, the ignored standard now becomes the norm. Sailors watching their commanding officer, department head, division officer and chief petty officer step over running rust, peeling non-skid or severe structure damage long enough associate this activity as the standard.”
Click to read the whole story.
*sings* Some people claim that Obama's to blame,
But we know: It's all Bush's fault.
And really, since the period covered in the report extends from the end of Clinton's term to the present, then the responsibility for the maintenance during the Bush administration cannot be overlooked, and must fall on Bush's shoulders and those of Donald Rumsfeld, who apparently wanted to run the Defense Department on the cheap.
Update: got my first Tam-alanche with this one. Thanks, Tam!
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6 comments:
Disgusting. When I was serving, the fleet was bemoaning how it had shrunk from 800 to 600± ships ... but rust was NOT tolerated. The chipping hammers were nonstop during daylight hours (to which I attribute some hearing loss), and painting continued nearly around the clock. Even when we ran out of haze gray & had to use red lead for corrosion protection. I have pics of the destroyer looking like it's covered in scabs, from all the rust-colored paint swatches.
@Rev. Paul: and it's not as if the Chief Boatswain's Mates and BM1's are going to be out there chipping paint themselves due to the manpower shortages.
This makes me sad to read. :(
@Tam: It happened to the USSR Navy much more quickly after the end of the Cold War, and now it's happening to the US Navy. I think it would be better to downsize the fleet and use some of the savings for maintenance, myself, rather than present a 3rd world Navy to the world.
My ship didn't tolerate rust, but we had to just paint rust stop on it. Chipping was stopped to prevent "possible" lead paint pollution over the side.
I blame the whole attitude that started under Tailhook and never improved. Officers had to be too much of a politician and not enough of a no-nonsense leader to get promoted.
When Chief's initiations became "training", the writing was on the wall....
I forgot. The CNO and the SecNav either need to fix this or be fired.
I read the whole article now. If the bureaucracy is causing this, time to take some of those crats and put them on a ship. We either need to downsize or recruit.
word verification: chorbing
Sounds vaguely nautical.....
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