Posted on 09/22/2012 9:18:45 AM PDT by Sporke
I just finished watching the Commissioning Ceremony for the USS Fort Worth, on Facebook.
First of all, it was an outstanding ceremony. There is nothing quite like adding a new ship into our Navy.
Something happened during the ceremony that made me think our Secretary of the Navy might want to start looking for a new job.
The Secretary of Navy, the Honorable Ray Mabus, was making his speech. It was a typical speech for the most part. What got my attention, however, were a few comments he made. First, he mentioned President Bush once or twice, but not a single mention of Obama, which I found curious. Next, he mentioned a quote from President Truman, "Carry the battle to them. Don't let them bring it to you. Put them on the defensive and don't ever apologize for anything."
When I heard that I knew that Obama or his people did NOT get an advanced copy.
He said later in his speech again, that "this is not the time to be apologetic to the world."
I was floored. Maybe no one will notice in DC, but if they do, Mabus is about to be unemployed.
God Bless the crew of the USS Fort Worth....
>>I was floored. Maybe no one will notice in DC, but if they do, Mabus is about to be unemployed.
Or he’s auditioning for the new boss.
I hope you’re right but Maybus is an unapologetic lefty. Of course it’s possible he’s been mugged by reality in the last few weeks.
I read a blog or article the last week that said sometimes those speaking loudest are those not saying anything at all. Have we been hearing from the military or CIA the past week? About the only thing I’ve seen was a statement from the Marines regarding there not being Marines protecting Ambassodor Stevens ... “talk to the State Department” because State is responsible for the ROE (document with Hillary’s signature) is what the Marines said. Now, the Sec of the Navy is using this opportunity to make these comments - I’m guessing the Administration never thought they’d have to vet comments for a launching. I don’t think the armed forces are liking the way Omuslim and Hillary are (not) handling the mess they’ve gotten us into. It looked to me like the Marines were sharply defending their honor (and so they should).
Comments like that are guaranteed to be omitted from any stories in the dinosaur media... unless they run a special story about what a hateful racist he is.
But it’s completely true and accurate that we need to knock the enemy back on their heels and keep pressing until we achieve a complete and devastating victory and there should never be an apology from us for winning.
Yep, great pic. I hope those ships are safer than I think they are. As of now, I’m not a fan of LCS’s, but I do pray that I’m wrong. :-/
I was just there, and enjoyed it immensely. Those comments drew a rather large round of applause from those present. On Wednesday, I played hooky from work (personal day), and toured the ship. Small crew (40 or so), aluminum hull, 57 mm main gun, 21 missiles, plus various mission packages.
Some guy gave my daughters a ships coin, which was nice.
If anyone wants pics, email me at txbolt_man@yahoo.com.
Cool. I wish I could have been there. I haven’t been to a Commissioning since my old ship had the honor (vice president George Bush Sr. did the honors).
It is a nice lookin ship, and the crew has to be some of the Navys best, with all the cross-training they had to do.
I noticed on the broadcast that the lines about not apologizing went over well with the crowd, as they did with me. Another thing I noticed was when the crew brought the ship to life, there were only 3 or 4 noticeable female crew members. To me that is a total waste. Having separate berthing/bathing spaces for less than a dozen crewmembers. I’ll never understand putting women on combat ships.
SecNav Mabus was responsible for naming an LPD-17 class ship after that consummate scumbag Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA). This man was one of the chief accusers of fellow Marines of war crimes at Haditha, Iraq, before the facts of the case were known. He was aided and abetted in his accusations by Sen. John F’img Kerry (D-MA) — said to have served in Viet Nam, Laos, and Cambodia doing secret missions there. [How do we know this? Kerry told us and he’d never lie.]
Oh hell, after readin up on him a little, I’m not thrilled with him. He named a ship after Gabrielle Giffords too. Now I wonder why he had harsh words for obama. :-/
Now CROMMELIN is being decommissioned at the end of next month. With that, only one of the seven ships I was stationed on will still be active.
That was the blog! Very interesting stuff .....
I have a hard time thinking the new LCS’s will be very useful with a crew of only 40. :-/
Essentially, there are two crews (blue and gold). They sort of hopscotch, so one is on land and one is out to sea on the ship at all times. They rotate, from what one CPO told me. (I asked how the ship has two CO’s).
Oh! Also, because of the small number of crew to begin with, there I no more than 8 in one berthing space, but it’s a space as large as the galley.
I think I had 32 in my berthing space. It wasn’t bad though, because they arranged it where you’d only bump into maybe 3 people at a time. lol
I knew about the blue/gold thing. It’s done on all the subs. I don’t know why they would need two crews though, it seems like a waste. I know the shore crew will be doing more training but there is only so much someone can train.
I suppose I’m just too old-school. When I was in the Navy, I wanted to be at sea, not sitting in some classroom.
That’s just one of their many, many problems. I (and many others) fear this class of minimal capability ships will be a disaster for the Navy.
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