NAVY DISASTERS AT SEA-

NAVY DISASTERS AT SEA: TOO MUCH SOCIAL EXPERIMENTATION?

I read with shock yesterday (Sunday August 20, 2017) that ANOTHER US Navy ship was struck by another merchant vessel with again more loss of US lives.  Only a few weeks back, the US destroyer Fitzgerald was struck by a container ship with the loss of seven sailors dead, others seriously injured and the ship heavily damaged.

The USS guided missile destroyer John McCain (no not named for the Senator but for his grandfather and father both were Navy Admirals of that name) was struck late Saturday or early Sunday at sea by a Greek owned oil tanker in the Malacca Straits, a narrow body of water between the Malay peninsula and the Island of Sumatra northwest of Australia.  The Greek tanker drove its bow into the aft port side of the destroyer, punching a ten meter (thirty foot) hole into the side of the ship at the water line.  Five sailors were injured and ten are missing overboard.  Sadly the likelihood of their recovery alive is dearly hoped for but is not good.

As in the case of the Fitzgerald, there should have been a sailor on watch at the bow, and one at the stern.  There should have been several commissioned officers on deck closely  monitoring  the ship's radar and sonar (and other more sophisticated listening technology---after all remember this is multi billion dollar  US guided missile destroyer!)  What the hell was the crew doing?  Having a party?

This is not only a massive embarrassment for the Navy.  It also in an indictment of policies imposed on the military by several successive Democrat governments to try to have our fighting forces reflect perhaps too closely the culture of our nation's coastal and urban elites.  It too has been the military  service in the last decades which has been forced to engage in perhaps too much social experimentation with the make up of its crew.  Has it spent too much time and effort attempting to decide on which bathrooms or showers must crew members use?  Or what gender they are, or think they should be? With these efforts in the fore has it perhaps let its main function--readiness--lethality and war fighting-- drop to a lower rung on the ladder of importance. If so this is is a dangerous and worrisome trend.

These two disastrous accidents should raise our concerns about our readiness to defend ourself.  What is the message regarding our readiness and lethality we send to North Korea and China?    What ideas have we given ISIS terrorist cells?   Do they get the idea that a good night to sneak aboard a US destroyer for an attack is late on a Saturday night--when the crew are partying and the captain is sleeping?

Let us hope we can correct these recurrent "accidents".  It is not a Democrat or Republican problem...it is an existential American problem.