Welcome to the Fray, Mr. Secretary

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus meeting with the President of Gabon

Our fearless leader Galrahn posted a piece yesterday entitled "FY13:  The Year the Navy Sprinted in Circles" in which he lauded Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus for remarks made last week at the National Defense University in which the Secretary sounded the alarum about readiness, operations and maintenance fears in the face of the nation's current fiscal mess.  Raymond seized upon what he considers to be "daylight" between the Secretary and the CNO with respect to his (Raymond's) sense of the latter's evaluation of the same circumstances.  Raymond and I had a brief chat on the matter yesterday in which I took the position that the CNO has indeed already been talking about these issues, specifically with respect to the opportunity costs of maintaining our forward commitments...i.e. non-deployed readiness and surge capacity.  But I'm not writing this to defend the CNO.

This post is written to extend my gratitude to the Secretary of the Navy for the remarks he made and the strong positions he took.  These are rocky times for the country and the Navy, and his personal interest in and active advocacy of these issues is crucial.  Furthermore, I would urge the Secretary to follow through on his newfound interest in Seapower and the strategic centrality of the Navy by becoming a strong and consistent voice for both in the remaining years of his term.  Mr. Mabus should put aside collateral interests and occupy his bully-pulpit to relentlessly remind the influential circles in which he travels that no force on Earth is as critical to our national security and prosperity as American Seapower. 

Bryan McGrath