Hey, YOU!! Admiral!

I write an abundance of articles pertaining to the actual problems that the Navy is going through.  I offer well thought out soloutions, based on 40 years of deck plate Navy experience and a degree in Management.  I worked at the highest levels of the Navy's military and civilian leadership.  Briefed the CNO, the Secretary of the Navy, the Assistant Secretary of Defense, and numerous flag officers and SES civilians.  I am not a johnny come lately when it comes to the way the Navy is run and it's inherent problems.  Yet, I never hear from the actual people who can actually address and constructively change the way the Navy does business.  Yes, I remember this blog is supposed to be my remembrances of my Navy career.  But, I also have something to give to the Navy and I offer it freely!  You would think that at least one Admiral or SES civilian would reply and either agree or tell me I am full of hot air.  Yet, what I see is the senior leadership of the Navy maintaining the status quo, being political, and trying to cover their own collective posteriors.  No one takes on the military industrial complex.  The ED community continues to waste tax payer's money with the "Not Invented Here" mentality.  And our senior leadership is afraid to publicly say that the emperor has no clothes.

For instance, there is not enough money to pay for repair availabilities for our ships.  Instead of saying that, like we did 20 years ago, we pretend that everything is OK.  I remember  Flag Level briefs on the "Bow Wave" of deferred availabilities! We NEVER hear that today.  When I was in Bahrain leading a team of MARMC magicians repairing the MCM's that were in such bad repair that they failed INSURV, I got in a heated discussion with the One Start Admiral that was the Mine Sweeper Commander in Ingleside Texas.  She was angry that I was reporting to the Four Star Admiral, my boss, at Fleet.  She accused me of putting her on report.  I replied that I was just reporting the facts and that her inaction had put her on report.  She did not like that, but it was the truth.  She was taking care of the ships in Texas much better than she was the ships on the pointy end of the spear!

It is time for our senior leaders to stand up, grow a set of balls, and tell the unvarnished truth about maintenance, training, manning, ship design, weapon capability, everything.   Most of you are too young to remember that we had a serious problem with the fuze's used in torpedoes at the beginning of World War Two.  We would shoot a torpedo from a submarine and it would HIT the ship and not explode! A Navy O-5, a Lieutenant Commander, took on the Flag Officers and told hem the truth.  He found a way to fix the problem, and the rest is history.  I also remember the Commanding Officer of an Adam's Class DDG home ported in Norfolk, who, in the early 1980's, refused to deploy because he did not have enough qualified personnel to safely operate his ship.  He lost his command and his career, but his brave actions brought to light the manning shortage that everyone was dealing with.  It is time for today's senior leaders of the Navy take one for the team!   So, who's going to take the first punch?!