Time to Rethink a Tradition

I'm still catching up in email, so if you are waiting for something you might be #1504 in line (not including spam) and I'll eventually get to you. One email I got today was particularly smart, and hit me with a clever point that I really don't have any defense to.

If you can believe it, I have run a 5th Fleet Order of Battle every single week since I started the blog, and I have always avoided 3 specific types of ships where the omission was obvious enough to draw ire from the blog comment's on a number of occasions. I have never listed the USCG Cutters, nor the PCs, nor the MSC ships in logistical support of our national maritime interests in that theater, and yet I have always listed Ocean 6 for some reason, probably because I have a not so hidden affection for anything to do with a strategic idea of Sea Basing.

My omissions will be corrected next week. Springboard nailed it this week over on the USNI blog, and basically reminds me how much of the Navy's bureaucratic system is broken (insert modern rating system commentary here). Why have I not listed Coast Guard cutters? Because they aren't Navy ships... stupid answer. Why have I not listed PCs? Because the Navy doesn't count them on the official Naval Register as part of the 279 current ships ... another stupid answer. Why do I not list MSC ships when the Navy does list them in the official Navy register? I've always said it is because they have civilian crews, which for the record, is the third stupid answer. That's three strikes on me.

The real problem with my habits in this regard is that the absence of cutters, PCs, and MSC vessels doesn't align with what I believe, which is that we need to keep a register for a National Fleet. If I was building a strike group today to go fight piracy, and I have to go with the Navy I have instead of the Navy I want, my strike group starts with an amphibious ship, Coast Guard cutters, and High Speed Vessels, or put another way... I'm so screwed up right now that I wouldn't even list the forces I'd want first in my strike group in my own Order of Battle on the blog. That is messed up.

No more. Next Friday I self-correct some stupidity I've carried forward for the sake of tradition alone. Now, anyone out there have a full list of forward deployed PCs, Cutters, and MSC ships to the 5th fleet AOR? I'm not going to list TRANSCOM ships, which I may have to revisit in the future, but if I can get a list it is time to give them the recognition they deserve.