Editorial: Corrosion of confidence

[unhappycamper]

Editorial: Corrosion of confidence

Over the span of two weeks in March, inspectors found two frontline warships in such eye-popping disrepair that they were deemed “unfit for sustained combat operations.”

Members of the Board of Inspection and Survey discovered guns that couldn’t fire, missile tubes that wouldn’t open, flight decks that couldn’t launch helicopters, anchors that couldn’t be lowered, instruments that didn’t work and corrosion from stem to stern.

And they found it all on two ships that should be among the fleet’s best — the 14-year-old destroyer Stout and the 17-year-old cruiser Chosin, which are supposed to remain operational for some 40 years.

Now the blame game will begin, and there is plenty to go around. Failure on this scale doesn’t happen without mismanagement at every level. From the deck seaman who let his machine fall into disrepair, to the leading petty officers, chiefs and officers who failed to ensure the job was getting done right, to the skippers, squadron commodores and type commanders who never caught wind of problems that should have been apparent and must have festered for an awfully long time before these inspections, there is no escaping responsibility for having allowed these ships to literally waste away while under their care.

~snip~

Experts fear that the problems aboard Stout and Chosin aren’t isolated cases, but rather could be the first of many to emerge after an extended period in which the Navy, strapped for cash in the midst of a land war, has put cost savings over readiness and virtual training over real, live hard work.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/community/opinion/navy_editorial_confidence1_042808/

[midnight]

1. So where is all the money going? Is it being invested in

luxury buildings in the Middle East?

[unhappycamper]

2. Big toys for big boys

12 billion a month in Iraq, F-22s, F-35s, new airlifters, LCS, subs, FCS, drones, upgrades, etc. etc. A billion or two here, a billion or two there. Eventually it all adds up.

The new embassy in the Green Zone only costs on 3/4 of a billion.