Observing the Daily Discussion

CDR Salamander is soon to complete a 1 week off the grid, but the conversation at his place rages in the open thread. The comments represent one of the most interesting Surface Navy conversations of the last several days, if not last few weeks. The only thing we have really learned is that nobody has much support for current plans.

SteelJaw Scribe is discussing Quantity vs Quality in context of fleet size and the Maritime Strategy. I contend SJS, as a retired sailor who once spent some time in the N3/5 office, represents one of Navy's the best under utilized resources on the internet for a public discussion of the Maritime Strategy. CHINFO needs to step up. We observed recently that the CHINFO News Clips, which used to be public, has been moved to private. This strikes me as another step backward in Navy communications. At what point does less exposure to Naval centric news become a good idea for promoting issues in the public related to the Navy?

The submarine cable discussions are still active. Bubblehead weighs in, as the only blogger we know who served on the USS Jimmy Carter, tin foils would be wise to observe his comments on the subject. Lex and Vigilis are observing as well.

Our favorite Political Science professor weighs in on Super Tuesday, and offered some interesting projections before the results were in. Our opinion is unchanged, I don't care if Obama wins more delegate's heading into the convention, unless he is way ahead in the count, Hillary will be the nominee. 28 years of Clinton history, a lot of it personal, backs up this claim. If McCain adopts Huckaberry's "Fair Tax" he'll probably have my vote, money, and time. If Obama can overcome the Clintons, which I believe is not just unlikely, but impossible, I'll retract my vote from McCain and give Obama a chance to discuss the military outside the scope of Iraq. It is the one aspect of Obama that still hasn't sold me he is ready for the big chair, but on every other issue he has Clinton by the proverbial balls in my opinion. Too bad for Obama she is the one with the testicle lock box leading into the convention.

Is Army too COIN now? Thomas Barnett asks a good question, and aims it for Senator Reed.

Tell us, senator: Where do you see the major ground wars that require lots of heavy forces?

We have another question, where do you see the major amphibious assault in the future? Are we building the Sea Base and DDG-1000 with huge cost for Major War? If so, against who, so we can invade China and put a 14,000 ton "stealth" destroyer off the coast of the worlds largest air force? We never see good questions asked of political leaders, and the combination of access and poor questions is my only big beef with the media of today.

DarkSyde of the DailyKos has a post on Hire Heroes USA that is a great read, a very important Veterans issue. My wife has told me many times that she believes my only regret in life is never serving in the military. She uses this blog and the fact every employee I have is a veteran as proof. She is wrong.

This blog reflects my professional and personal interest in the Navy. My hiring practices reflect that I tend to interview a lot of people who have similar resumes, and usually the only major difference is where someone went to college. Considering I never went to college, and started my first business at 18 years old, where someone went to school carries little weight with me. The reason I have hired Veterans when given the choice is simple, Veterans almost always have qualities that you won't find on a resume. Work Ethic, Loyalty, Honesty, and Reliability are not individual metrics that can be listed on a resume, but are individual metrics often found when a resume includes military service.

Chap observes the British, and asks a good question. How many Tommies will we have in ten years? Good question.