Theodore's World

When I gaze at all the WW II US naval ships at the former Philadelphia US Naval Shipyard, I'm in awe how we kicked Nazi, Jap and Meatball ass
in three and a half years - from 1942 to 1945 - after Pearl Harbor was attacked on 12-7-41!
Now the panzies in the Pentagon won't let the dogs of war loose! So pathetic and disheartening.

"Don't give up the ship!"

Tradition has it that Captain James Lawrence said these heroic words after being mortally wounded in the engagement between his ship, the U.S. frigate Chesapeake, and HMS Shannon on 1 June 1813. As the wounded Lawrence was carried below, he ordered "Tell the men to fire faster! Don't give up the ship!"

The pendulum is always swinging in Defense funding. After the end of the Cold War and prior to Gulf War 1, we were on the fast track to downgrade heavy ground forces. Then we found a great need for quantities of heavy armor.

9/11 has shown us the need for light infantry and Special Forces, heavily backed up by high tech toys. As a former Special Forces trooper I say you can never have enough, but the quality must be maintained(years of training).

China is going Blue Water Navy and is spending our WalMart money building a huge military. We need to maintain our multi-ocean Navy to counter this potential rival. Right now I don't worry too much about Putin's boys as they are the Keystone Kops of major military forces.

America is way ahead in technology, if we can secure it and keep it from being stolen, or sold by Clintons. We have the best Air Force and strongest Navy. Our Army and Marines are unmatched, but too damned small. We should not be deploying the same troops to combat three or four times in five years. We need more manpower.

We also need honest Generals and Admirals who don't waste Defense dollars on unnecessary pet projects. And honest Defense contractors who don't underbid, then have cost overruns. And honest Congressmen(impossible) who don't waste Defense dollars on unneeded items just to receve kickbacks and votes from their districts.

Darth, that is neat, my Dad took me there when I was a kid.

Steve love it, thank you.

Tom, AMEN and a big ole ditto to what you said.

... you're right for where have the Chesty's and Bull Halsey's gone... and Hap Arnolds? Too many REAR Admirals and Paper Lions / LIARS now in Alexandria. Bolshevik Up 2007!!!

May I suggest a new slogan for our military?

"Do NOT f*ck with us;
You WILL NOT win."

Simple, yet eloquent.

Rick, ATCS, USN, (Ret.)

I am presently active duty in the U.S. Navy and i am feeling the pinch from the budget cuts in manpower and purchasing power. They are taking away bodies left and right and not replacing them. We are doing more with less and then they are asking us to maintain our training readiness with little or not funds. How can we properly maintain these ships if we can't get the training to fix them. Never mind the fact that we don't have the money to fix them. I have been on ships that can't afford to order office supplies but get a complete overhaul of the galley or recieve 15 new plasma's for the mess decks and the officer's stateroom. But don't worry about it because it is all from a seperate pot of money. This article is right on, if we lose our sea presence what do we have? Land and air will not cut it. We have to dominate Land, Sea, and Air to keep the rest of the world in order. We set the standard accross the world, many of these contries don't like us, but they damn sure won't' mess with us. We downsize the navy, whats next? Army, Airforce, Marines. Less ships means less marines that we can transport at any given time. What happens to the Corps, they will be next to get downsized. This is the beginning of something nasty.