Admirals and Generals

"The Ships Are Gone

 

"There are 12 carriers, by law.  Today they are all nuclear powered.  The last two conventional carriers, Kennedy and Kitty Hawk, were decommissioned several years ago.  My son-in-law decommissioned both ships.

 

"After all arrangements were made to decommission "Kitty," he was instructed to call the ceremony something else because its replacement had not passed sea trials and therefore the Navy would violate the law by having only eleven operating carriers.  So they had a legend ceremony.  Shortly after, only the CO and one or two sailors remained.  Four months later the last crew member, the CO, received a message to transfer from the ship.  So for four months the Navy had a commissioned carrier, dead and no crew.

 

"Now to the meat.  If you were to ask our citizens, "How big is our U.S. Navy?" you would receive all kinds of answers.  Most would be large numbers, like 1,000 ships.

 

"Actually, it is 278, plus or minus -- the smallest number in some 80 years.  There are 340 admirals, plus or minus a few.  The Sixth Fleet has one ship* and I don't think it has any guns or missiles.

 

"The No. 1 priority for our Navy, as demanded by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mullen, and the Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Roughead, is diversity.

 

"They are busy doing other things.  Our people have been put to sleep since the 1993 base closures, when the Navy lied to us about the size of the fleet.  It was then 450, and nobody said anything when it dropped below 300.

 

"Where are the Kings, Halseys, Nimitzes and Burkes?  We now have no warriors. Only managers.

 

JAMES A. KENNEY

Capt., U.S.Navy (Retired)"

 

*Note: The one ship of the sixth fleet is USS Mount Whitney, a  Command, Control, Communications, Computer, and Intelligence ship. From 1981 to 2005,Mount Whitney served as Flagship for Commander Second Fleet/Commander Striking Fleet Atlantic. In this role she spent much of her time berthed at Norfolk rather than underway, earning her the nicknames "Building 20" and "Pier 11½".

 

  I quit laughing when I looked it up and found that the USAF/USAFR/ANG have a total of 123 Flying or Space Wings or Groups - each normally commanded by a Colonel - and 436 Generals to supervise them.  When you also consider we have more Colonels than Chief Master Sergeants, it starts to get really depressing.

 

 

 

 

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.