WEBVTT

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Welcome to mid Rats with foul from
Commander Salamander and the Eagle One from Eagle

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Speak at sea or shore your home
for a discussion of national security issues and

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all things from Maritimes. And welcome
on board everybody to our April Free for

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All. For those that are joining
us Live, most of y'all are regulars.

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As you know, a great thing
about our Free for Alls is we

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have open topic open phones. So
if you're with us Live, you go

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to the top of the show page. You'll see the studio line if you

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want to call and throw your question, or you can go into the chat

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room at the bottom of the page. And if there's some topics or some

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subjects that you would want to us
to talk about in the maritime and national

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security realm, that would be a
great place to do it. Because we've

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got our little list of things we
want to chat about. But maybe there's

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something to be in your bonnet or
burn your saddle that you wanted us to

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chat about, and you put it
in there, we'll do our best to

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get around to it. And I
always like to put the invitation out there

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that if you don't already, because
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will be ready for you at a
time better for your entertainment value. But

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hey, Eagle One, glad to
talk to you this afternoon. Hey sol,

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how are you doing. I'm better
I deserved, though I do have

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a little bit of a bone to
pick with North Carolina today. I usually

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try to keep our southern harmony in
focus, but I got a little bait

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and switch issue that it's kind of
disturbing. But I found I found a

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little bit of a way to recapture
a little bit of my lost honor here

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by this misrepresentation by the Tobacco state. On Netflix, I was trolling for

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something to look more interesting than anything
else being offered. In Lo and Behold,

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there was a limited run series called
Florida Man. I was like,

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okay, I kind of like C
list actors or a low budget and making

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fun stuff. Let's go see what
Florida Man is about. This is kind

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of a murder mister Elda work.
So I'm watching it, and I'm sitting

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there with my wonderful, impatient spouse
and we're going, okay, trying to

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identify these spots that could be over
in the Big Bend area, maybe similar

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between cedar Key and Alma sassa Are. Could that be around south of Daytona,

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maybe around Pillarsher Creek. I don't
recognize this stuff. Well, they're

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filming in North Carolina up in the
Outer Banks in Wilmington. So congratulations North

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Carolina. All the bad things about
floridamand you can now claim credit for Well,

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it's a it is a I hope
it's a revenue generator. But yeah,

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Wilmington is a pretty big spot for
for cinema and TV shows. K

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are A number of them were filmed
filmed there, none, you know,

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none of them. I think it's
kind of like I think it's kind of

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like Atlanta in the South. It's
something that it's affordable to go to.

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There's lots of different venues, there's
a friendly government. Um, they're not

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going to beach upside the head and
shoulders with taxes. I will say that

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because I've described for people for a
year, mostly in a culinary context,

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but culturally, I think it's accurate
too that there is a subculture in the

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south, the coastal South, the
Jimmy Buffet South. However you want to

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look at it, that kind of
goes from Wilmington, North Carolina, down

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the East coast to Daytona Beach,
and you can say it has a sister

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culture. I think from right north
of Tampa, going counterclockwise across the Big

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Bend to Florida, through Pensacola up
to Mobile, which is you know,

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the redneck rid of the area.
It's it's similar but different, different food,

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but that that coastal southern so it
looks the salt marshes of coastal Wilmington

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and the outer banks is not dissimilar
from that northern part of East Coast before

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you hit the mangroves of Florida.
So I guess it is cheaper than in

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Florida, and it nrbed a main
places uh left on the coast that you

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can kind of get some of the
filming they're doing. So anyway, I've

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only end into two episodes. If
anybody's looking for I wouldn't say it's marshmallow,

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but it's not high maintenance to watch. Everybody needs a little bit of

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fluff. Well, you're considering what
we usually talked about here on the show.

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We don't do the flu fluff topics
here. So yeah, I just

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because it's a free for all and
we own the territory, so to speak,

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I just thought I would I would
bring that up. But um,

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well you should also mentioned, I'm
interrupted, you should also mention that the

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the USS North Carolina is down in
Wilmington, and uh, that's that's a

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very good, uh, very good
ship to tour if you want to see

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what's the big old battleships for l
Yeah, I know Texas is in dry

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dock right now getting some work done, thank goodness. But yeah, that

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the Texas, the North Carolina,
the Alabama when you go through mobilele Um,

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those are those are just some great, some great warships, some great

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stories. And most people you know, think about the Missouri over in Hawaii

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and stuff. But if you want
to get on an old battlewagon, you

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don't have to travel that far.
You can if you're near Mobile, Houston

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or Wilmington. And I would I
would say that you as as North Carolina

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would be. If you had to
do a destination, I'd rather Wilmington is

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just I don't want to upset anybody
from Mobile, but um, Wilmington,

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North Carolina, in that area,
it is one of the more pleasant parts

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of the country to be in.
It's not as as crowded or have issues

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as you have with Houston. Um, it's it's definitely within striking range of

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norfolking places like that. It's a
it's a it's a nice place to go.

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A couple of friends of mine has
vacation houses off from the outer banks

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too. It's also a pretty good
giveaway. But I'll know, if you

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want to have to advertise and have
more people showing up, No, as

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long as they don't stay, it's
fine where we welcome everybody as long as

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they go home. Um yeah,
yeah, you know. The other the

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other place it's got some interesting shifts
is uh is Mount Pleasant, South Carolina,

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where Patriot's point is they have an
aircraft carrier and uh the USS leafy

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I think the one that the destroyer, that destroyer escorts that took six kamikaze

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hits a Roar two and came home. So for what it's worth, it

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would not think there you go.
Yeah, all right, so let's talking

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about let's talking about let's let's talk
about something meaningful. Well, let's let's

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just go ahead, go for the
top rungs that I speak. Um,

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I kind of went down a rabbit
hole this week that I hope everybody will

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will be be patient with me on. But I had a person tapped me

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on the shoulder this week when Admiral
Acquilina was up on the hill give you

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testimony in front of the House and
Senate, and I, you know,

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I got to generate taxable income,
so I was a little busy. I

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wasn't watching in a real time,
And since then I try to grab what

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I can based upon some of the
taps on the shoulder that I got.

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And Aquilino he's one of those guys
that I guess in a way you've got

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to you've got to tap your hat
to him, and that he's got a

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little bit of luck, a little
bit of hard work, I guess.

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But he was pack Fleet when the
Balhamer shard bird. He was also in

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the mix there and with the Roosevelt
in twenty twenty with the Covid kerfuffle,

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and he emerged from the both of
those events unscathed. Obviously, he was

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promoted up, but he had two
things that he commented on that I kind

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of wanted to talk about. One
was some questioning that he got from specifically

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Representative Gallagher about our inventory of weapons, something that we've talked about, you

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know, for years here, but
we've talked about it a few times in

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the context of the lessons that the
Russia Ukrainian War is trying to tap everybody

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on the shoulder about about what you
buy in peace versus what you need at

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war if you're going to go more
in seventy two hours. And the second

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issue had to do with a very
strange comment that he said in response to

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a question by the Lusio Pennsylvania representative. I'll get his name right during the

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Breakwell get my sheet. But I
got actually a little fancy here, and

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I got an audio clip that I
wanted to bring up, and then we

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can talk about the first issue,
and i'd ask everybody as they listen.

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The video is a little better because
you can get a little bit of facial

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tells from Admiral Aquilino, but you
can also hear the audio as well.

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This is an exchange. Representative Gallagher
had brought up some of the war games

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that they were going to be doing
and some of the lessons that they had

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specifically about inventory and are the depth
or lack there of our magazine there a

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little bit of talk about war gaming, but it's a comment towards the end

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that I want everybody to kind of
focus. One thing quickly becomes apparent.

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We go Winchester on critical weapon systems, we run out of long range fires.

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In particular, I would be curious
to get your view on that.

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What worried you about the stockpiles of
long range fires that we have west of

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the International Dateline, and what do
you think is our best way to start

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replenishing our stockpiles to make sure that
you have what you need in theater prior

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to the shooting starting. So thanks
Connorshman. First, let me just make

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sure I want to make sure how
you know I look at wargames right.

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Wargaming is a learning objective, So
when people talk about hey, who won,

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who lost, wargaming is not about
that. It's about learning and understanding

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vulnerabilities, strengths and helps you go
forward and figure out how to adjust in

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what you might need. So when
you go into this event, I hope

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they're looking at it in the same
way with regard to the Munician's piece,

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again, I like to talk in
a classified setting over the specific issues.

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That said, I'm not too worried
as it applies to our ability to deter

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and then deliver effective contingency operations if
required. You're not too worried, I

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am. I am not worried.
What I would like is the acceleration of

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those things identified in the budget,
and then in my twelve and fifty four

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report, I've made those requirements.
You know, also can key in on

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Representative Gallagher's tone. He's a little
bit incredulous, and I think for good

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reasons that we've discussed here and others
have talked about, and there's kind of

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a meta issue here besides this specific
issue. It's first of all, nobody

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who's knowledgeable with this issue believes that, and I don't think people think that.

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Admiral Aquilino believes that, and I
think what we're seeing and you know,

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this is an issue that it's hard
when you get at that level.

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Back at the end of March,
Chairman Joint Chief fact General Millie in an

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interview over a defense one a lot
of people wrote about it. At the

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time, he wanted everybody to lower
the rhetoric on China. I don't know

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if this is Aquilino taking marching orders, are interpreting that he needs to solt

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sell China and specifically whether we need
to be worried about China. That's part

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of lowering the rhetoric. There's a
problem, and you know, maybe we

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talk about recruiting and has something to
do with that. With the credibility the

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military, that we don't have much
capital left to be going up there and

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saying things, it just do not
reflect reality. I do not know a

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serious person who quote is not worried
unquote, And we know what we need

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in Congress is the one that's going
to cut the checks. So if we

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have our senior leaders in uniform for
apps going too far and aligning themselves with

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the political message of the day,
that's for the people who wear civilian outfits

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to do. You know, Congress
again is going to look at people in

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uniform is being handmaids to the politicians
that happened to being in the executive branch.

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If they want to downplay that,
and if you're not saying that you're

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worried, then why should Congress give
us any more money to build Tea lamps

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like wealth. What are we building
one hundred and seventeen next year? That's

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that's almost one third of a nineteen
ninety eight desert fox strike on Iraq.

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That's that's keeping a production line open. We can't talk about how we need

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to be serious if we're not going
to talk serious. I found tell me

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what I'm missing here. But in
his tone, I could almost tell that

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Aqualino he really just doesn't believe it. He just feels it for whatever reason

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he has to believe it. Yeah, I think his initial response is the

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key. Though, you know,
I'm not too worried. I don't know,

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you know, I don't know what
would you know, make him worry?

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But you know, in his position, he can't say, oh,

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yeah, you know, we've got
enough stuff to last an hour and a

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half. You know what, what
does that tell anybody who's who's uh will

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need to test us? You know
you I think he has to be asked

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in This is part of the problem
of being his position, I think is

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he probably had to be really careful
not to say, yeah, we're screwed.

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I mean, I would prefer that, you know, I'm sure in

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private and all the other things he
knows, but I don't think that it

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woves any of these senior officials about
to say, uh yeah, we just

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we're really screwed up in the past
and I'm just gonna take us ten years

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to catch up. You know,
we need to be you have to put

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a more positive spin on it to
that to be in his position. I

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think. So the position is I'm
not too worried, and if you give

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me all the money and the stuff
that they gave you on my list,

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then I'll be a lot less worried. But I think one thing, I

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just think, I think that's a
challenge. I think, and again,

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you're not being paranoided. People are
trying to get you, and you know.

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But there his mention of deter I
think is important because the Deputy Secretary

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Defense Hicks. She and others like
her have been pushing for years that the

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best way to address the threat from
China is to convince them that we'll defeat

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them in seventy two hours. And
when you have that construct in that mindset,

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okay, okay, what can we
throw at him and send me two

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hours? That's what we need to
have. The Russians thought they would take

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Kiev inside of seventy two hours you
always have to do. And what he's

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right about war games, Um,
they're they're teaching opportunities and they ask good

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questions. And one of the things
about war games is you challenge assumptions.

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So, Okay, this assumption that
we planned on is now invalid. How

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do we respond to that? What's
our our branch branch plan if this does

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not work? So at the seventyo
hour mark, really okay, Now,

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what are you going to do if
all you've done has been focused on de

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train by trying to look how scary
you are, which it's contrary to Chinese

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history that goes back thousands of years. Um. They make the Russians look

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sensitive about casualties. They're very tough, they can absorb a lot even with

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their demographics they have four times of
population that we do. Um. And

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talking what we've learned in Ukraine about
the fact that we have no Stinger production

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line, it's going to take a
while to bring it back on board.

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We're sending as much artillery ammunition other
weapons of high mars that we're spending,

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and people need to be careful about
looking at the Taiwan conflict if it comes

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to pass in isolation saying it's only
going to take place in Taiwan. It

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is where some people that I respect
have kind of been caught in this trap

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where they will say, well,
the Battle of Taiwan, if it gets

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to the point you're worried about high
Mars or something like that, then it's

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over. Oh no, that's not
true. You can't predict it like that.

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And also you cannot assume that a
conflict in Taiwan is going to be

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isolated to Taiwan. There are very
few occurrences in world history where two major

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hours got into a scrap over a
lesser power and it did not metastasize into

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other areas. And you know,
everybody here can pick whatever other flashpoint on

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the Chinese border it might leak over
to. And that's what we need to

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be thinking about. So I think
that I might say Aqualino is lying.

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I'm saying saying, though, that
his response requires the validation and the air

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tightness of a few very very brittle
assumptions that, should it fall through,

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could be very dangerous for our nation, especially if that is used to not

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purchase what we need to be purchased
in order to be ready. Again,

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it's it's it's I think it's another
lost opportunity where we could have advocated for

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additional high demand, low density hasset
out there that we're going to need.

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Yeah. Again, I just I
think that those questions make good political theater.

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Uh. And I don't see how
he could answer it, Um,

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you know, as honestly as as
you and I might wish that sometimes people

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would be honest in that position.
But you know, he's he's got he's

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got political and diplomatic responsibilities that I
think kind of forces force him into these

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um odd responses. You know.
Yeah, I'm not too worried. We

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have enough to deter deter what you
know, I mean, um, and

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how long do you expect deterrence to
last? If you know, if if

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you know, are the Chinese trying
to build us an overwhelming force that that

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that there is no deterrence possible that
we can't we know that they're going to

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be able to accomplish whatever it is
they choose. You know, I think

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there's somebody. I think it's just
a problem for the senior leadership. And

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we've seen what happens sometimes when our
senior leaders, both civilian and military,

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get a little too candidate sometimes and
it causes as many problems, if not

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more problems than if if they just
kind of put the best face they can

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on the situation they're in and move
along while hoping that Congress gives them the

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money to meet some of the needs
that have have been identified in other ways.

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And at other times, Yeah,
I think you're right. We felt

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a little example of that where he's
trying to he's in a difficult spot because

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in the background, and again I
reserve the right to be wrong here,

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I think the argument is being overplayed
on both sides about we can't give aid

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to Ukraine without critically undermining any ability
to help Taiwan defend themselves. Well as

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as Lincoln said, one war at
a time, there's a war that we're

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engaged in. It's a proxy fight. Everybody should be on board with that.

255
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Now we are having the Ukrainians minimize
the Russian military. They didn't start

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the fight, but we can help
them continue it. And Aquilino was also

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over at the Senate and Senator Ernst
asked him, quote, has our support

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to Ukraine depleted any munitions needed for
Taiwan? Unquote? That was kind of

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a setup question. He's kind of
in a corner, and Adam Aquilino replied,

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quote not at this time, unquote. It's been a great follow up

261
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question. Okay, at what time
does it? If you're looking at what

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we're sending from High Mars Javelin Stinger's
Patriots harpoons, now the ground launched small

263
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diameter bomb, which which is a
it's a sexy little thing, and of

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course all the one fifty five.
Of course it's making an impact. But

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I think he's he's worked with his
messaging people to go, well, you

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can't say that, because then they're
going to say, so do we need

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to stop giving aid to Taiwan?
So they're trying to they're trying to put

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him in a corner to be used
for political purposes. So I think I

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think you have a point that he's
kind of in a no win situation,

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but that doesn't stop people outside like
us and people who have larger microphones from

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perhaps pointing out some of these shortfalls
and in the argument it's being made,

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well, I think a lot of
it depends too and whether he's you know,

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we talk about a lot of stuff. The war in Ukraine is a

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is a land war, it is
there are you know, Riverine considerations.

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There is the Black Sea stuff,
but it is essentially a land war and

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the weapons you use for that are
different than the weapons I believe if there's

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an engagement involving Taiwan or uh in
China in any of that area out there,

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those are it's going to be that
isn't that isn't wasn't a long line

279
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from um in Harm's way. It's
a it's a mother loving navy war.

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I mean it is that is a
navy war. Do we are we seriously

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contemplating engaging in the land war Asia? And are we going to invade China

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if they invade Taiwan? I just
don't uh, you know, I'm I'm

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trying to wrap my mind around,
uh, why people are upset about equipment

284
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that uh is suitable for land war
stuff when we really need to be focusing

285
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on the fact that's going to be
a navy war. It's going to be

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a Navy and Marine Corps war.
Of the Marine Corps have their their distribution

287
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system the way they want to have
it. But and you know the other

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powers out there, the Japanese and
the and the UH, Australians and all,

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you know, they're I don't think
they're looking at that. Gosh,

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we've we've got to be ready to
send troops into Shanghai or whatever it's called

291
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down to h to protect what we've
got. I mean, we're trying to

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keep, as I perceive it,
we're trying to keep China from doing something

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really stupid and causing a lot of
harm to assist him, because they're they

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they you know, they've got a
mindset that their way is the way,

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and and they want everybody to conformed
to their standard. Well, good gosh,

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judging by the number of misrepresentations of
law and fact they make every day,

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I'm not sure they would be really
happy with the world like that.

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But uh, you know, I
think it's a navy thing, and I

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think that that is the focus that
Malaquilino is. If I were to guess

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what he's thinking, and this is
pure speculation on my part, is Look,

301
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you know, I've got ships.
They may not be all the ships

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I need. They may not be
as as somebody in the chat room says,

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not enough tubes. Lee says that
not enough tubes to shoot from.

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But he's got what he's got,
you know, And and if if we

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don't strip the forces from the Mediterranean
and from the other areas where involve avolved

306
00:26:00.319 --> 00:26:04.960
in then uh, and we can
do that, you know, we can

307
00:26:04.960 --> 00:26:07.640
get more tubes out there, but
there is it is a question of time

308
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because it is mentioned many times.
It's a big ocean, and it takes

309
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a long time to get there.
And I think somebody else, I mean,

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we're talking about the sustainment and stuff. You know, people keep telling

311
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me, well, we don't have
enough escorts to get the ships, the

312
00:26:22.279 --> 00:26:30.680
sustainment forces flowing to to to that
region. And and I've argued before,

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I'll continue to do this. I
don't think that the Chinese are going to

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00:26:34.799 --> 00:26:40.720
go out of their turf and try
and interdict a bunch of shipping from the

315
00:26:40.839 --> 00:26:45.160
west coast the US to Hawaii or
from Hawaii, uh sort of New York

316
00:26:45.160 --> 00:26:48.319
wam, you know. I mean, there's there's two thousand miles of ocean

317
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in there. But they've got to
come a long way to get to that

318
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point. And then they've got to
uh evade our various systems for detecting them,

319
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and then they've got to put up
with our marine patrol aircraft systems,

320
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the other equipment we have to make
their life miserable, I think, and

321
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I don't think I have any air
power that's going to go out that direction

322
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either, So I think the escortship
issue kind of we don't need that in

323
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the initial phase from the US to
Hawaii, and then the question is we'll

324
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how about Hawaii on and that's a
little tougher, but there is some point

325
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where you can draw a circle in
the ocean gain you know, this is

326
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this is the air we begin to
start to worry about that, and again,

327
00:27:34.279 --> 00:27:38.599
uh, you know, we got
these longer range MPAs that can be

328
00:27:38.640 --> 00:27:42.200
out there for a while at thousand
miles P eight I think is that at

329
00:27:42.200 --> 00:27:48.559
four hours is kind of their thing. But the distance between uh, you

330
00:27:48.599 --> 00:27:52.359
know, like Wake and Guam and
Guam and and Awake in Hawaii, it's

331
00:27:52.480 --> 00:27:57.279
enough that you could you could you
can run aircraft from both directions to support

332
00:27:57.799 --> 00:28:03.039
and escort any uh sustainment shipping.
And that's not to say that we have

333
00:28:03.160 --> 00:28:11.200
enough tankers and other assets we would
need. But I just think we worry

334
00:28:11.240 --> 00:28:18.160
too much about sometimes about the the
the or two model of the ESCORG and

335
00:28:18.240 --> 00:28:21.720
stuff that we're not in World War
two. Now we've got a whole different

336
00:28:22.039 --> 00:28:23.400
or whole different mess we need to
be planning with, and we need to

337
00:28:23.440 --> 00:28:30.839
be thinking about modern equipment. You
know, unmanned escort vessels UH, you

338
00:28:30.880 --> 00:28:40.359
know high high altitude electric big gliders, remember the gostomer condor or where everything

339
00:28:40.480 --> 00:28:41.920
is. You know, things that
can stay up forever. You know,

340
00:28:41.920 --> 00:28:45.519
we got all kinds of assets we
can throw on the path out there to

341
00:28:45.599 --> 00:28:51.319
detect bad guys, to who would
interfere with us trying to sustain our forces.

342
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The real issues of course, are
you know, guamas vulnerable? How

343
00:28:56.079 --> 00:28:57.079
far out you have to go?
Do you go to wake, do you

344
00:28:57.160 --> 00:29:03.880
try and revitalize? Are we going
to try and maintain some kind of presence

345
00:29:03.200 --> 00:29:08.640
and on the far reaches of the
Hawaiian Islands down and down and Johnson A

346
00:29:08.720 --> 00:29:11.759
Toll and all these other places that
they're out there. I mean, we've

347
00:29:11.759 --> 00:29:17.319
got enough issues to be looking at
uh and where we can place pace our

348
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versus if we really had to do
it. But I don't. I don't

349
00:29:21.759 --> 00:29:26.880
think escorting the initial escorting those sustainment
ships is a key issue right now.

350
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You can almost see a threat gradient
is the closer you get to UM and

351
00:29:33.720 --> 00:29:37.279
to come a real estarts changing when
you get west of Guam. But it

352
00:29:37.319 --> 00:29:40.759
even starts to starts to tick up
when you get the Guam and you know

353
00:29:40.839 --> 00:29:44.599
you made you made a comment about, you know, sustainment and our ability

354
00:29:44.680 --> 00:29:51.400
to uh keep the fight going west
of the International Dayline. And I think

355
00:29:51.440 --> 00:29:55.119
that was another opportunity that in a
different exchange. I don't have the audio

356
00:29:55.160 --> 00:29:57.200
for this one I look for.
I couldn't find it, uh that I

357
00:29:57.480 --> 00:30:04.200
talked about briefly at the beginning with
the representative Deluzio of Pennsylvania. He asked

358
00:30:04.200 --> 00:30:10.279
Aquilina, quote, where is our
sea lift capacity relative to the PRC,

359
00:30:10.480 --> 00:30:15.519
And Aquilino responded, in part,
we have a distinct advantage over the PRC

360
00:30:15.799 --> 00:30:25.880
in numbers, in capability. To
me, that is telling the person that

361
00:30:25.960 --> 00:30:29.799
gives you money, you don't need
to give me any more money traditional sea

362
00:30:29.839 --> 00:30:34.720
lift. I know of no serious
person who believes, especially with the interior

363
00:30:34.839 --> 00:30:41.039
lines that China operates under west of
Guam, do we have any distinct advantage

364
00:30:41.480 --> 00:30:48.119
over the Chinese in a conflict inside
the first island chain when it comes to

365
00:30:48.160 --> 00:30:52.920
sustainment and sea lift. Maybe if
you're looking strictly at gray holes, or

366
00:30:52.960 --> 00:30:57.039
maybe you're looking at global sustainment that's
fine, But when you're talking about getting

367
00:30:57.039 --> 00:31:04.079
close to China, they're merchant fleet
there there maritime militia. They've just they

368
00:31:04.160 --> 00:31:08.680
had so much of the waterway they're
flooded with their ships. I don't know

369
00:31:08.720 --> 00:31:11.599
what point he was making there,
but I don't think it was constructive for

370
00:31:11.680 --> 00:31:18.799
those that are trying to get additional
sea lift and additional auxiliaries to support the

371
00:31:18.839 --> 00:31:26.880
fleet west of the International to eight
one. I can't. I was trying

372
00:31:26.880 --> 00:31:30.960
to think of that that same after
I heard that quote, I went,

373
00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:33.119
well, how in the world do
you come to that conclusion? And I

374
00:31:33.759 --> 00:31:37.880
think you hit on part of the
entertry. Was it that he sees I

375
00:31:37.920 --> 00:31:48.279
think somewhere that he's got his own. If China's got these short what what'd

376
00:31:48.279 --> 00:31:52.279
you call it? The interior lines
of communication, he's saying, he's saying

377
00:31:52.279 --> 00:31:55.279
the same thing I've got. I've
got some kind of short interior line of

378
00:31:55.319 --> 00:32:00.480
communication here. If Guam holes,
if U Saipan can be used, if

379
00:32:00.759 --> 00:32:06.319
mog or Tinian can be used,
if if the Australia can be used,

380
00:32:06.359 --> 00:32:10.799
you know we're not having to It's
not always the the eight thousand mile UH

381
00:32:12.640 --> 00:32:15.960
line. Now, you know,
all the all the MSc guys and everybody

382
00:32:15.039 --> 00:32:17.680
understands the stuff goes, well,
yeah, but we're where those other ships

383
00:32:17.680 --> 00:32:21.680
gonna you know that get the stuff
to those places going to come from and

384
00:32:21.720 --> 00:32:25.599
that that is the question that bothers
me and I don't I'm not sure that

385
00:32:25.599 --> 00:32:31.759
that is well thought out by our
planners sometimes that they don't remember that during

386
00:32:31.799 --> 00:32:36.720
the durn World War two, that
that part of the Japanese effort was to

387
00:32:37.079 --> 00:32:40.440
if they could seize the Solomons,
if they could succeed in that, they

388
00:32:40.440 --> 00:32:45.839
could cut off Australia from US pretty
pretty well. So, uh, you

389
00:32:45.880 --> 00:32:50.799
know, I know other people have
studied World War Two and they understand that

390
00:32:50.880 --> 00:32:54.799
things how used to be, how
tough things used to be. But if

391
00:32:54.839 --> 00:33:00.759
we're talking big tankers coming out of
out of out of night Aligeria, out

392
00:33:00.799 --> 00:33:07.799
of out of Texas, they're going
to come around the uh, the the

393
00:33:07.920 --> 00:33:12.599
end of Africa and charged through the
Indian Ocean and get to get to some

394
00:33:12.680 --> 00:33:17.480
of our allies. I'm really curious
as to have what you know, again,

395
00:33:17.599 --> 00:33:22.839
not having seen the end, I
hope I never do see the op

396
00:33:22.880 --> 00:33:25.640
plans for this. I just I
know somebody's got to be thinking about this,

397
00:33:25.640 --> 00:33:30.160
and I don't understand what exactly what
his statement was meant to convey that.

398
00:33:30.279 --> 00:33:34.319
Maybe he thinks he's got an interior
lines of communication that work for him

399
00:33:34.319 --> 00:33:39.440
to although and I should have said
this earlier. Closure of the Red Hill

400
00:33:39.559 --> 00:33:47.440
facility in Hawaii, and I don't
think we've replaced that facility with with the

401
00:33:47.440 --> 00:33:54.160
the tanker out there to take the
place of that of that structure. I'm

402
00:33:54.160 --> 00:34:00.559
really struggling with how we're going to
sustain our forces forward, trying to do

403
00:34:00.599 --> 00:34:02.880
it the way that lets less.
Some genius has come up with a much

404
00:34:02.920 --> 00:34:08.519
faster and proder approach tonight. And
I'm looking at right now. Yeah,

405
00:34:08.559 --> 00:34:13.480
the you know, technology has changed
and things he advanced, et cetera,

406
00:34:13.519 --> 00:34:17.480
and so forth. But uh,
yeah, I can see Admiral rick Over

407
00:34:17.599 --> 00:34:22.639
laughing in the background. Um,
we have a conventionally powered fleet. You've

408
00:34:22.639 --> 00:34:27.000
got to keep them fueled, you've
got to keep them topped off, and

409
00:34:27.920 --> 00:34:31.280
you've got to get weapons forward.
I guess if you don't have any weapons,

410
00:34:31.280 --> 00:34:36.760
if you don't have a very deep
magazine depth and you have no ability

411
00:34:36.880 --> 00:34:39.119
to reload it, see, then
I guess you don't need the sustainment ships.

412
00:34:39.119 --> 00:34:42.920
To take them west because everybody's got
to back to San Diego. A

413
00:34:43.000 --> 00:34:46.599
little sarcastic, but hey, we
actually have a caller. So, um,

414
00:34:46.599 --> 00:34:52.360
Harry code six five one h you're
you're live on mid Rats. Do

415
00:34:52.440 --> 00:34:55.800
you have a question or were you
just listening? And I embarrassed you just

416
00:34:57.079 --> 00:35:02.480
listening for now? Okay, Yeah
we have that sometimes, but thanks for

417
00:35:02.519 --> 00:35:07.280
calling in anyway. Okay, so
we didn't have a question. We just

418
00:35:07.320 --> 00:35:09.119
had a listener. But that's okay. See, we do actually check if

419
00:35:09.119 --> 00:35:15.000
people call in. I did you
know one of my little little pet things

420
00:35:15.760 --> 00:35:22.840
that the Navy and We've had some
fun conversations over it that I've been kind

421
00:35:22.880 --> 00:35:27.159
of watching and you can go there's
a couple of places you actually see the

422
00:35:27.239 --> 00:35:34.920
video of it. But the I
think the utility and the use of riverine

423
00:35:34.960 --> 00:35:39.760
forces that I love to talk about, we're seeing playing under playing out this

424
00:35:39.800 --> 00:35:45.440
weekend. I kind of grinned a
bit when the announcement came out. For

425
00:35:45.559 --> 00:35:50.400
for those not familiar in the and
it's lower reaches than near its estuary,

426
00:35:50.840 --> 00:35:58.400
the dnepro. It's a big river. It's like the Mississippi River between I

427
00:35:58.440 --> 00:36:00.400
don't know, Memphis in New Orleans
and it's it's wide, it's big,

428
00:36:00.440 --> 00:36:04.519
and it has some pretty big reservoirs
up river as well. It's not it's

429
00:36:04.519 --> 00:36:07.480
not a creek by any straight it's
not the potonac Um. It's it's a

430
00:36:07.480 --> 00:36:14.519
big river. But the Ukrainians have
done a quote amphibious operation unquote where you

431
00:36:14.559 --> 00:36:17.599
know the old phrase, you do
an amphibious operation with the ships you have,

432
00:36:17.800 --> 00:36:22.280
not the ships you wish you have. And there's been a little bit

433
00:36:22.280 --> 00:36:27.159
of a video posted and what they're
doing, and from a distance they look

434
00:36:27.199 --> 00:36:31.800
like seven to ten meter ribs.
Some of them actually look like commercial boats

435
00:36:32.000 --> 00:36:37.559
loaded with with light infantry, crossing
the river from the Ukrainian hell to the

436
00:36:37.639 --> 00:36:42.800
Russian side. And basically they're just
pulling up the docks, some people's houses

437
00:36:43.239 --> 00:36:47.960
and unloading what they can carry.
But that it's just a little snapshot of

438
00:36:50.039 --> 00:36:55.719
and we've been given them. Some
of are left over are discarded river craft

439
00:36:55.760 --> 00:37:01.519
as we decomission that again. But
it does go again that if you have

440
00:37:01.679 --> 00:37:10.079
the ability to move forces by sea, it complicates your enemies calculus on how

441
00:37:10.079 --> 00:37:14.519
they're going to defend. They just
can't assume that that moat's going to last

442
00:37:14.599 --> 00:37:19.239
and when they're concentrating the forces someplace
else, it provides opportunities. I saw

443
00:37:19.280 --> 00:37:23.880
a couple of reports that the Russians
had to retreat back to a few miles

444
00:37:23.960 --> 00:37:31.400
inland, to another smaller river that
just looks you know, maybe fifty two

445
00:37:31.480 --> 00:37:37.840
hundred yards wide vice a half mile
wide. So that was just really interesting

446
00:37:37.880 --> 00:37:43.400
to see how that plays out.
But I'm hoping more video will will come

447
00:37:43.519 --> 00:37:47.880
up. And again one of those
things that I hope smart people are looking

448
00:37:47.920 --> 00:37:53.119
at the lessons that the Ukrainian war
is reminding us of, because I think

449
00:37:53.159 --> 00:37:58.119
that that plays into it as well. You can raise a lot of havoc

450
00:37:58.639 --> 00:38:02.119
on your enemy's plans and they can't
consider the uh, the maritime approaches,

451
00:38:02.239 --> 00:38:08.199
even if their fresh water is to
be insecure. Yeah, I think,

452
00:38:09.880 --> 00:38:15.920
um, I think Washington is something
about the Delaware River. Christmas Eve.

453
00:38:15.639 --> 00:38:20.480
I think I think he kind of
something, you know, he kind of

454
00:38:20.519 --> 00:38:22.400
surprised some people. You know,
I don't know why we have to keep

455
00:38:22.440 --> 00:38:29.639
warning these these these lessons, but
there's you know that there's a difference between

456
00:38:30.480 --> 00:38:34.559
the forces that do what the Ukrainians
are doing by gun across is the Nieper

457
00:38:34.679 --> 00:38:42.239
there and and what the Navy Riverine
forces were doing like in Vietnam and interact

458
00:38:42.239 --> 00:38:49.599
the interdiction of of UH in Vietnam, the interdiction of the viet Vietcong and

459
00:38:49.679 --> 00:38:55.800
North Vietnamese bad guys and UH and
interact the same thing, trying interdict people

460
00:38:55.840 --> 00:39:02.519
using the waterways for um had purposes
as far as our side went. But

461
00:39:02.760 --> 00:39:07.320
you know that I look at the
was a movie the bridget Ramagan when they're

462
00:39:07.320 --> 00:39:12.639
trying to get hold the one bridge, and uh, you know, then

463
00:39:12.639 --> 00:39:15.360
there's all these other places where there
were loading troops, army guys into army

464
00:39:15.400 --> 00:39:21.360
boats and trying to go across these
rivers to capture the other side in World

465
00:39:21.360 --> 00:39:22.519
War Two. I mean, it's
you know, I think it's a it's

466
00:39:22.519 --> 00:39:25.960
a different it is. I hate
to keep throwing things at the land.

467
00:39:27.000 --> 00:39:30.039
That's a land worth thing, but
that is a land worth thing as opposed

468
00:39:30.079 --> 00:39:36.239
to you know, the the the
Blue Water Navy certainly, and the and

469
00:39:36.360 --> 00:39:44.039
the inshore undersea world in the liberals. So uh there, it's cool that

470
00:39:44.079 --> 00:39:46.880
they're doing that, and I'm glad
that we gave them the assets, if

471
00:39:46.920 --> 00:39:52.280
that's what it is that they're using
to do that. But I don't right

472
00:39:52.320 --> 00:39:55.880
now. I wouldn't see a mission
and I understand why the Navy get rid

473
00:39:55.920 --> 00:40:00.679
of some of this stuff despite the
fact that it was really cool. Uh

474
00:40:00.840 --> 00:40:04.079
you know, what's what's the mission
that you foresee in the future for a

475
00:40:04.159 --> 00:40:07.360
forest like that? And where would
we use it? And that's how you

476
00:40:08.239 --> 00:40:13.320
look at yeah, exactly. Well, you know, you look at thee

477
00:40:13.559 --> 00:40:15.239
you look at the globe, you
look at any type of place that has

478
00:40:15.280 --> 00:40:22.920
a major riverine type environment. You
know, people said we would never need

479
00:40:23.000 --> 00:40:30.119
it again, and we decommissioned.
I think our last reserved rivery unit was

480
00:40:30.159 --> 00:40:36.800
in California in the late nineties.
And when we invaded into the Iraq in

481
00:40:36.840 --> 00:40:39.480
two thousand and three, you had
the Tigers and Euphrates River that we had

482
00:40:39.519 --> 00:40:47.880
no ability to securely project power on
until our army guys creatively acquisitioned a few

483
00:40:49.320 --> 00:40:54.960
fishing boats, and we're able to
help secure dams, help interdict um some

484
00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:59.000
of our opponents who are using the
waterways as are always used as a way

485
00:40:59.000 --> 00:41:02.960
to transport things, you can.
I've heard people make the argument that there's

486
00:41:04.400 --> 00:41:12.719
there's no job for these small ships
in a conflict with China. It depends

487
00:41:12.800 --> 00:41:17.280
on where that conflict goes, you
just don't know. There are too many

488
00:41:17.280 --> 00:41:23.440
places in the world that have an
nearshore environment that either we are our partner

489
00:41:23.559 --> 00:41:29.760
nations will need that capability turnkey and
ready to go, otherwise we'll have to

490
00:41:29.760 --> 00:41:34.840
recreate it again. I think we're
very bad where the next conflict will go.

491
00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:40.320
So all we can do is look
at a map and when you have

492
00:41:40.480 --> 00:41:47.159
major river systems in places, we
will probably be in a conflict and we

493
00:41:47.239 --> 00:41:51.639
either going to have that capability or
we'll just have to vision on the fly.

494
00:41:52.280 --> 00:41:57.960
And based upon our experience in Iraq, we developed a good group of

495
00:41:58.679 --> 00:42:04.000
a nice bit of kit with a
lot of flexibility. And now we're getting

496
00:42:04.119 --> 00:42:07.679
rid of it again. And I
can see the argument. I can actually

497
00:42:07.719 --> 00:42:12.280
make the argument if you want to
pay me to do it. But I

498
00:42:12.719 --> 00:42:17.079
don't think at the end of the
day, getting rid of that capability is

499
00:42:17.320 --> 00:42:22.920
going to be worth the price of
needing it again. I think in the

500
00:42:23.000 --> 00:42:30.880
last two hundred years are major conflicts. What do we not need that?

501
00:42:30.960 --> 00:42:36.320
In? Maybe World War One we
didn't need it, in we definitely needed

502
00:42:36.320 --> 00:42:38.960
it. World War two we use
it in Korea to a lesser extent.

503
00:42:39.679 --> 00:42:45.599
Definitely in Vietnam definitely in Iraq,
had no use support in Afghanistan for obvious

504
00:42:45.639 --> 00:42:52.199
reasons. But Spanish American War absolutely, US Civil War, Oh my gosh,

505
00:42:52.480 --> 00:42:59.400
huge, huge play. So it's
I just think it's it's an interesting

506
00:42:59.559 --> 00:43:05.199
discuss some point. And I know
that the Ukrainians can't get enough of their

507
00:43:05.280 --> 00:43:07.719
of their small ships because they've they've
gotten religion on it as well from a

508
00:43:07.719 --> 00:43:13.119
couple of things that I've read.
Yeah, you know, if I look

509
00:43:13.159 --> 00:43:17.719
at the river systems in Europe,
I don't know why I was trying to

510
00:43:17.719 --> 00:43:20.719
look at this up the other day. We're trying to find it. Well,

511
00:43:20.760 --> 00:43:24.119
gosh do they do who's got the
river patrol boat stuff that they would

512
00:43:24.159 --> 00:43:30.719
need to go down the Danube and
all these other fairly large river systems.

513
00:43:30.719 --> 00:43:37.760
And I donn't think anybody in Europe
maintains a river ene force of the kind

514
00:43:37.800 --> 00:43:42.880
we had because I guess, you
know, well, we're all we're all

515
00:43:43.079 --> 00:43:45.639
the EU now, we don't need
this sort of thing. But you know,

516
00:43:45.920 --> 00:43:47.880
uh I would I wouldn't be looking
at that, and I don't I

517
00:43:47.880 --> 00:43:51.599
don't know if they have, you
know, police patrol boats they think are

518
00:43:51.639 --> 00:43:57.599
adequate or what. But yeah,
I think that maybe our European allies will

519
00:43:57.639 --> 00:44:00.280
wake up a little bit to things
that could be an issue for and that

520
00:44:00.719 --> 00:44:06.000
having some kind of river forest might
be to their benefit. And and you

521
00:44:06.000 --> 00:44:08.360
know, I'm not I'm not against
the obviously against the small ships. I

522
00:44:08.639 --> 00:44:13.119
think we need tons of them,
and I think especially around the Philippines and

523
00:44:13.159 --> 00:44:19.079
they and the other archipelagoes out in
the in the near the South Finessee or

524
00:44:19.119 --> 00:44:22.960
the or the West Philippine Sea as
I like to call it. Um You

525
00:44:23.000 --> 00:44:28.199
know, those are those are really
valuable assets, just like that the PT

526
00:44:28.360 --> 00:44:31.679
boats UH in World War two were
an asset, and that in those very

527
00:44:31.719 --> 00:44:37.000
waters and down on the Solomons and
and other places where they could interdict Japanese

528
00:44:37.039 --> 00:44:42.320
barges and all kinds of stuff and
do a lot of damage at reasonably low

529
00:44:42.400 --> 00:44:45.599
cost, for low low risk to
a crew of what they have five or

530
00:44:45.639 --> 00:44:51.239
six guys on those things. Anyway, Well, I've got great news for

531
00:44:51.360 --> 00:44:55.599
you, um as you might be
aware. I troll the Austrian and German

532
00:44:57.519 --> 00:45:02.559
military YouTube channels. They put out
some good kit, some good stuff,

533
00:45:02.679 --> 00:45:07.280
and of course my Germans not what
it used to be. So I do

534
00:45:07.320 --> 00:45:10.159
the auto translate into English, which
does a really good job in translating.

535
00:45:10.719 --> 00:45:16.679
And about a year ago, I
think it was they Austrians put out a

536
00:45:16.719 --> 00:45:21.360
little video. They do have riverine
assault craft and they were showing one of

537
00:45:21.360 --> 00:45:23.800
their exercises and they use it kind
of like what the Ukrainians are doing a

538
00:45:23.880 --> 00:45:29.960
lot of and what was done a
lot in Vietnam, where you have special

539
00:45:29.960 --> 00:45:34.880
operations forces, you need to insert
somewhere or you need to extract somebody come

540
00:45:34.960 --> 00:45:39.679
up river, makes a big noise, breaks things, inserts or takes people

541
00:45:39.719 --> 00:45:46.119
and then returns back across the water
with you know, just lightly armored but

542
00:45:46.199 --> 00:45:51.360
heavily armed assault those crafts. So
I know at least the Austrians on the

543
00:45:51.440 --> 00:45:57.079
Danube had that capability. They actually
used to have they called it a navy,

544
00:45:57.119 --> 00:46:00.039
but they decommissioned it and the army
took over the responsibilities. But I

545
00:46:00.039 --> 00:46:02.920
think a lot of it just has
to do the fact that they're all in

546
00:46:04.000 --> 00:46:08.360
the EU. Um, you know, maybe the Serbians still have something significant,

547
00:46:08.440 --> 00:46:15.280
but there's a rudiment free capability there. Yeah, that's good to hear.

548
00:46:15.320 --> 00:46:19.440
I mean I was. I always
have fun when I go to Austria

549
00:46:19.440 --> 00:46:22.639
because I trained. What's the Austrian
navy. When when did they last have

550
00:46:22.679 --> 00:46:24.639
a navy? I guess when they
hit you know, so I didn't find

551
00:46:24.639 --> 00:46:30.840
any riverine patrol boats in the Austrian
navy. But obviously I wasn't reading and

552
00:46:30.079 --> 00:46:35.599
my germanist non existent, so I
wasn't reading about them. What's their army

553
00:46:35.880 --> 00:46:39.880
army was up to? So well, if you talked to a northern German,

554
00:46:40.280 --> 00:46:45.079
Austrian isn't real German anyway, so
I don't know that it would help

555
00:46:45.079 --> 00:46:51.360
you. Here. Here's here's something
else that I wanted to talk about today

556
00:46:51.360 --> 00:46:58.079
simply because I found the numbers interesting
and a bit shocking. Is the recruitment

557
00:46:58.159 --> 00:47:02.000
numbers came in, And I'll just
go ahead and and put it out there.

558
00:47:02.000 --> 00:47:05.800
The Marines, as the Marines do, they actually got one hundred percent

559
00:47:05.840 --> 00:47:09.760
of the recruiting goal. The Air
Force got eighty seven percent of their recruiting

560
00:47:09.800 --> 00:47:15.360
goal. I guess they include Space
force with that too. Who knows.

561
00:47:15.400 --> 00:47:21.559
The Army sixty nine percent, and
the Usnighty only got sixty percent of their

562
00:47:21.679 --> 00:47:25.519
recruiting goal. And you know,
you would think and actually wouldn't think it's

563
00:47:25.559 --> 00:47:34.840
true that all the barriers the services
space bringing people in ie you have a

564
00:47:34.960 --> 00:47:38.280
body of seventeen to twenty two year
olds. You're going to bring in his

565
00:47:38.400 --> 00:47:45.039
year enlist group plus a few people
that are older. You all have.

566
00:47:45.119 --> 00:47:49.920
That challenge is overweight, drug use, criminal record, desire to serve.

567
00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:54.960
That affects everybody equally. So when
you have such a disparity from sixty percent

568
00:47:55.039 --> 00:47:59.840
to one hundred percent and say,
well, all the Marines are a special

569
00:48:00.280 --> 00:48:05.079
true, and they're smaller, true, but not in the European sense.

570
00:48:05.519 --> 00:48:08.639
Okay, so you know, take
out, take out the Marines. Air

571
00:48:08.679 --> 00:48:14.840
Force is pretty big and the army's
pretty big, and they're doing significantly better

572
00:48:14.880 --> 00:48:20.360
than the Navy. So I read
a couple of replies from Navy Recruiting Command

573
00:48:20.400 --> 00:48:25.239
and it was just boilerplate, pao
production squid ink, no pun intended,

574
00:48:25.800 --> 00:48:30.960
doesn't really say anything. But I
would really be interested to see behind the

575
00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:37.039
closed door, what is causing or
what are the top three to five causal

576
00:48:37.119 --> 00:48:43.280
factors that makes the Air Force get
eighty seven percent and the Navy gets sixty

577
00:48:43.280 --> 00:48:51.400
percent. It's just a huge disparity. Well, I think a lot of

578
00:48:51.400 --> 00:48:54.440
it is with media coverage. I
mean, how many positive stories have we

579
00:48:54.519 --> 00:49:02.239
seen about the Navy in the last
years. I mean, I mean the

580
00:49:02.280 --> 00:49:06.599
Marines. The Marines are always gonna
they're gonna appeal to a certain group of

581
00:49:06.599 --> 00:49:12.320
people because of the way they and
they're advertising is just terrific. But the

582
00:49:12.400 --> 00:49:20.159
Navy, uh, I'm always reminded
of it. You know, joined the

583
00:49:20.280 --> 00:49:24.960
Navy and anyway, it's it's a
long time ago, but yeah, I

584
00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:29.119
mean, you know, we've got
collisions, we've got nearer collisions, we've

585
00:49:29.159 --> 00:49:34.400
got chips on fire, we've got
uh, you know, extended deployments,

586
00:49:34.400 --> 00:49:42.880
we've got uh, you know,
I mean the number of problems is lengthy.

587
00:49:42.960 --> 00:49:46.760
The number of positive spin stories is
pretty small. So uh, either

588
00:49:46.840 --> 00:49:52.119
our PAOs need to step up and
you know, reveal the good the good

589
00:49:52.119 --> 00:49:53.920
stuff. And I'm not talking about
the stuff that appeals to the politicians,

590
00:49:54.000 --> 00:50:00.199
but the stuff that would appeal to
your average eighteen year old kid who's thinking

591
00:50:00.199 --> 00:50:04.880
about joining that service, you know
the it. And it used to be,

592
00:50:05.039 --> 00:50:07.840
you know, we would recruit people
because well, we'll give you a

593
00:50:07.880 --> 00:50:12.000
career. You know, you come
in, we'll train you to do uh,

594
00:50:12.400 --> 00:50:15.039
this kind of work. I don't
think we even advertise that anymore.

595
00:50:15.039 --> 00:50:19.119
Maybe we do, but I don't, you know, I'm not I'm not

596
00:50:19.280 --> 00:50:22.679
sure I see it anywhere so that
one of the most positive movie recently is

597
00:50:22.960 --> 00:50:27.920
about the Navy is is uh popgun
Maverick? Once again, you know,

598
00:50:28.199 --> 00:50:32.719
we're dealing with a small, very
elite group of fighter pilots, and we

599
00:50:32.719 --> 00:50:38.719
don't mention enough about what the cruise
in a carrier. Uh see. I

600
00:50:38.800 --> 00:50:43.760
see air ops stuff going on,
but you know, not enough credits given

601
00:50:43.760 --> 00:50:46.559
to those those people and what they
were doing in support of what what Maverick

602
00:50:46.559 --> 00:50:52.000
and his kids were trying to do. And I think you mentioned something that

603
00:50:52.320 --> 00:50:58.800
I think has a lot to do
with it is a lot of what you

604
00:50:58.840 --> 00:51:07.039
see our navy doing, who they're
trying to talk to seems to be very

605
00:51:07.159 --> 00:51:12.519
very narrow. It's a narrow net
on a narrow group of issues. You

606
00:51:12.519 --> 00:51:16.679
only have a limited pot of if
you're a leader, personal capital or if

607
00:51:16.719 --> 00:51:21.920
you're a service institutional capital that you
can draw on. So you have to

608
00:51:21.960 --> 00:51:29.119
invest and spend that and you know, very very careful ways, and obviously

609
00:51:29.119 --> 00:51:34.039
we're not doing that well. And
our various ways of communicating to young men

610
00:51:34.039 --> 00:51:37.800
and women who might be interested in
serving, if we would would be closer

611
00:51:37.840 --> 00:51:40.039
to the Air Force as opposed to
being in the background, and you're right,

612
00:51:40.239 --> 00:51:45.400
image matters. We've talked about it
for years. Other people have as

613
00:51:45.440 --> 00:51:51.000
well. You know, nobody is
going to say I want to I want

614
00:51:51.000 --> 00:51:54.920
to serve on that ship when it's
rusting all over the place. Or you

615
00:51:55.000 --> 00:51:59.599
have leaders who say, well,
you know, nine months deployments are the

616
00:51:59.599 --> 00:52:07.960
new just because and you have retentions. Evidently the Navy's retention is actually a

617
00:52:07.000 --> 00:52:15.599
little bit better, but that's not
reflected. And those who are retaining convincing

618
00:52:15.639 --> 00:52:20.639
other people to come join us,
you know, the old hometown recruiters type

619
00:52:20.639 --> 00:52:23.679
of folks where you go back and
get and tell the Navy's story. So

620
00:52:23.760 --> 00:52:29.840
we're not talking to the right audience. We're not putting out the right messages

621
00:52:29.960 --> 00:52:34.480
to bring people in, and where
what we are doing is not going in

622
00:52:34.519 --> 00:52:39.440
the right direction towards a broad enough
audience to bring it in. That has

623
00:52:39.480 --> 00:52:45.599
got to be a very direct conversation
we have with ourselves, both our messaging,

624
00:52:45.679 --> 00:52:50.159
our conduct, in our leadership.
But I haven't I haven't seen that,

625
00:52:50.199 --> 00:52:54.320
at least in public. Hopefully it's
going to be something in private that's

626
00:52:54.440 --> 00:53:00.639
being done. I think that is
probably the next two The Naval Operations who

627
00:53:00.760 --> 00:53:07.920
his responsibility is to train man and
equip that maybe he can flop that and

628
00:53:07.039 --> 00:53:13.880
focus on personnel and recruiting and doing
it in a different way, because I

629
00:53:14.840 --> 00:53:20.599
sixty percent when the US Air Force
getting eighty seven percent inner service rivalries aside.

630
00:53:21.239 --> 00:53:25.559
To me, that's a red letter
underlying emphasis that what we're doing now

631
00:53:25.599 --> 00:53:30.079
we need to stop training time out, recruiting time out, and we need

632
00:53:30.119 --> 00:53:37.960
to do something that works well.
If two as an air Force sprout,

633
00:53:37.000 --> 00:53:39.679
I will tell you one of the
attractions of the air Force is they don't

634
00:53:39.719 --> 00:53:43.920
go anywhere. Well, you know
they have. We did travel a lot,

635
00:53:43.960 --> 00:53:49.719
and we moved a lot, but
you know the we did not you

636
00:53:49.840 --> 00:53:52.760
have a fixed base. For the
most part. Air Force people are not

637
00:53:54.039 --> 00:53:59.039
gone for six to nine months.
I mean they do t wise and all

638
00:53:59.079 --> 00:54:02.960
that stuff, but either generally not
gone for eleven month deployments as or ten

639
00:54:04.000 --> 00:54:09.480
month deployments or nine month deployments,
and they've uh it always seems to me

640
00:54:09.559 --> 00:54:16.079
that they were a little more I
think a little more technical, uh in

641
00:54:16.159 --> 00:54:21.440
their jobs than than some of the
positions we have in the Navy or had

642
00:54:21.440 --> 00:54:24.039
in the Navy. So uh that
which isn't true. We have you know,

643
00:54:24.079 --> 00:54:29.280
we have we have the eighteen year
old kid fixing jet airplanes just like

644
00:54:29.320 --> 00:54:32.639
the Air Force as eighteen year old
kids fixing jets as just that he's doing

645
00:54:32.679 --> 00:54:37.400
amount of carrier and under conditions that
are different. I always thought, like

646
00:54:37.480 --> 00:54:42.760
an Hunt for Red October, that
the real hero of that movie is Jonesy,

647
00:54:42.920 --> 00:54:45.400
the sonar man who detects this this
weird noise. He didn't know what

648
00:54:45.440 --> 00:54:50.320
it was, right, I mean
that where that starts. So let's play

649
00:54:50.400 --> 00:54:54.199
up the jones He's of of the
of the of the fleet. You know

650
00:54:54.320 --> 00:55:00.840
that Again, the stories out there
from these these young kids, these flight

651
00:55:00.920 --> 00:55:05.719
deck cruise, the people on the
submarines, you know, we those those

652
00:55:05.760 --> 00:55:08.599
are stories that need to get told. And and uh, you know,

653
00:55:08.639 --> 00:55:17.039
we keep focusing on on the the
airplane drivers and the occasionally, well we'll

654
00:55:17.079 --> 00:55:23.239
have some movie about swos fighting monsters
from outer space on a battleship that hasn't

655
00:55:23.280 --> 00:55:27.400
seen hasn't seen action in a hundred
years. But you know, other than

656
00:55:27.400 --> 00:55:30.239
that, we're doing great as far
as the recruiting stuff, you know,

657
00:55:30.559 --> 00:55:32.760
is jazz up our message. Not
everybody in the nag of Seal. That's

658
00:55:32.800 --> 00:55:36.519
that's fine. We don't need everybody
to be a seal, but there are

659
00:55:36.519 --> 00:55:40.199
those people who are doing really important
work that we need to just kind of

660
00:55:42.320 --> 00:55:46.920
and then and there must be some
some way to do that that that wouldn't

661
00:55:46.920 --> 00:55:53.480
come across as uh uh hooky.
But you know, I always love the

662
00:55:53.519 --> 00:55:55.480
Marines because the Marines stand. We
know, we get to go do all

663
00:55:55.480 --> 00:56:00.880
this this stuff. Who gets them
there? Who? Who? Who takes

664
00:56:00.880 --> 00:56:04.400
the Marines from point A to point
B so they can do those those things

665
00:56:04.400 --> 00:56:07.440
that you know, so they can
run to the sound of the guns or

666
00:56:07.480 --> 00:56:10.880
whatever their motto is. So uh
you know, that's the Navy mission and

667
00:56:10.960 --> 00:56:15.559
that's and we've managed to deliver them
successfully for a few hundred years now.

668
00:56:15.639 --> 00:56:21.920
So I need to tell that story. And we and we have a great

669
00:56:21.960 --> 00:56:25.159
story. You know, everybody could
sit around and tell ce stories all day.

670
00:56:25.519 --> 00:56:30.760
And we're not telling ce stories.
We're talking about other things. We're

671
00:56:30.800 --> 00:56:37.039
not we're not selling ourselves very well, um, either in Congress or in

672
00:56:37.079 --> 00:56:42.599
the public space. So I think
it's time to break that down to parade

673
00:56:42.639 --> 00:56:47.119
rest and rebuild it because it's simply
not working. And there's some accountability there

674
00:56:47.159 --> 00:56:50.320
too, which I think, Um, you know, we're gonna have a

675
00:56:50.360 --> 00:56:52.360
new CNO in the next year,
Yeah, I don't. I don't think

676
00:56:52.360 --> 00:56:57.159
the present CNO is going to do
much to change, being that this has

677
00:56:57.239 --> 00:57:00.400
kind of been on his watch.
But there'll be an opportunity for the new

678
00:57:00.440 --> 00:57:02.280
CNO, whoever that is. Hopefully
that would be one of their folks.

679
00:57:02.400 --> 00:57:08.159
Because if you don't have when you
don't have a bit a big enough pool

680
00:57:08.320 --> 00:57:14.039
coming in, you take what you
can, which means you're taking in a

681
00:57:14.119 --> 00:57:19.280
lower quality person. That's just the
way the math works. If you have

682
00:57:19.320 --> 00:57:22.880
no selectibility, then you're not very
selective. So we need to have a

683
00:57:22.960 --> 00:57:27.440
more a larger pool of people who
are interested to come in the Navy,

684
00:57:27.760 --> 00:57:30.800
so we can select the people that
we want to and we don't have to

685
00:57:30.840 --> 00:57:36.400
start changing standards simply to be able
to get people in there. And we'll

686
00:57:36.400 --> 00:57:38.239
have to make other adjustments to to
get that number. I just hope the

687
00:57:38.280 --> 00:57:44.199
response isn't Okay, everybody, you're
you're now not going to be manned at

688
00:57:44.239 --> 00:57:46.800
eighty percent. You're going to be
manned it's sixty. I don't think that's

689
00:57:46.800 --> 00:57:50.159
the answer. We've got to bring
the people in to do the job.

690
00:57:50.199 --> 00:57:53.719
Otherwise we know how that works out. In the end, one last stor

691
00:57:53.920 --> 00:57:59.320
on accountability, which I wanted to
bring to the listeners. We talked about

692
00:57:59.360 --> 00:58:05.119
a little bit in the pre show. I caught bits and pieces which you

693
00:58:05.159 --> 00:58:09.400
know, Russian podom. I remember
back in the Cold War days, the

694
00:58:09.440 --> 00:58:15.599
Soviet Pacific Fleet was kind of the
you had the red banner, Northern Fleet

695
00:58:15.719 --> 00:58:20.480
always got all the good stuff.
Then the Pacific Fleet, and then the

696
00:58:20.480 --> 00:58:23.159
Baltics Fleet came up third, and
maybe the Black Sea was fourth. I

697
00:58:23.159 --> 00:58:28.480
don't know. But the Pacific Fleet
commander, let's see if I can get

698
00:58:28.519 --> 00:58:34.159
his name right here, Admiral Sergei
Avancas. He's been in the job since

699
00:58:34.199 --> 00:58:37.199
twenty twelve. Well, they had
a couple of the media reports that they

700
00:58:37.199 --> 00:58:44.079
had a snap exercise. Nothing's snap
in Russia, but maybe they did.

701
00:58:44.280 --> 00:58:45.440
But they had the next use here
a few weeks ago. Well, when

702
00:58:45.440 --> 00:58:50.119
it was done, they relieved the
commander who'd been in the job for the

703
00:58:50.199 --> 00:58:55.320
last eleven years. I think they're
they're sending him off to the Russian equivalent

704
00:58:55.400 --> 00:59:00.239
from what I read of the junior
ROTC, and they're going to place them

705
00:59:00.280 --> 00:59:04.760
with the Baltic Sea commander who's only
been in the job for a couple of

706
00:59:04.840 --> 00:59:10.800
years. So it's either having learned
their lessons of not holding their their senior

707
00:59:10.840 --> 00:59:17.639
officers accountable for readiness, and Ukraine
is helping the Russians where you think how

708
00:59:17.679 --> 00:59:22.840
they hold their senior leaders accountable in
other places? Are there some palace entry

709
00:59:22.960 --> 00:59:27.280
going on? I don't think it's
palace entry because this guy was sent off

710
00:59:27.320 --> 00:59:30.679
to the Pacific Fleet in twenty twelve. There's no power base out there on

711
00:59:30.719 --> 00:59:36.519
the other side of Asia. I
just thought that was an interesting story that

712
00:59:36.880 --> 00:59:42.000
kind of bookends a fleet commander who
has less instellar performance. Oh it wasn't

713
00:59:42.000 --> 00:59:47.119
our navy, but it was a
navy. Yeah, you know, I

714
00:59:47.159 --> 00:59:52.000
want if you threw a readiness exercise
and and nobody showed up ready, I

715
00:59:52.000 --> 00:59:57.159
mean, it's the the story.
We have the same story when they did

716
00:59:57.199 --> 01:00:02.119
the readiness stuff on our on our
uh ready reserve lead or whatever it was.

717
01:00:02.199 --> 01:00:07.199
That that what feul You know,
I don't know if we held anybody

718
01:00:07.199 --> 01:00:10.280
account we fire anybody over that.
I mean, you know we did.

719
01:00:10.480 --> 01:00:15.000
I think what ten percent of our
ships were capable of getting to undersea?

720
01:00:15.039 --> 01:00:17.679
I can't remember the exact figures.
Sound mccargniano knows, but you know,

721
01:00:19.360 --> 01:00:23.719
Uh, where is the accountability from
for the leaders who are who are you

722
01:00:23.760 --> 01:00:28.760
know, for finding things aren't ready
and all that? Whose heads are being

723
01:00:29.360 --> 01:00:35.639
being sent to the junior ROTC billets
in kiakak Iowa. I don't know,

724
01:00:36.079 --> 01:00:42.000
but that's how you that's how you
get. People started World War Two,

725
01:00:42.559 --> 01:00:46.119
both army and UH and maybe went
through a lot of commanders who knew were

726
01:00:46.159 --> 01:00:51.880
probably really good at their jobs in
peacetime, but didn't exactly hack it during

727
01:00:51.920 --> 01:00:54.719
the during wartime. And I hate
to think we're gonna have to go through

728
01:00:54.719 --> 01:01:00.480
that again down the road, but
we'll see maybe how many programs when you're

729
01:01:02.800 --> 01:01:07.480
sorry, Yeah, we probably will. I think you're right, he's just

730
01:01:07.519 --> 01:01:10.440
gonna it's gonna take something like that. I have read a couple of articles

731
01:01:10.480 --> 01:01:15.559
in the last few months we were
talking about how you know the Russians as

732
01:01:15.559 --> 01:01:21.199
they do they are a learning institution
and maybe this is a maybe I'm giving

733
01:01:21.239 --> 01:01:23.320
them too much credit, that maybe
this is a manifestation of a new attitude

734
01:01:23.320 --> 01:01:29.039
they have towards UH, you know, quit quick gun decking your your readiness

735
01:01:29.119 --> 01:01:34.760
reports. We're going to do surprise
inspections UH like um and adimiral I once

736
01:01:34.840 --> 01:01:38.320
work for. He took over a
command from a guy who used to blow

737
01:01:38.360 --> 01:01:43.239
towards people who kaz rep and his
attitude was I want you to kaz rep.

738
01:01:43.239 --> 01:01:45.840
And it took them a long time
to change the attitude of people.

739
01:01:46.079 --> 01:01:49.920
It's like, why is it that
kaz Repp. Well, we didn't notice

740
01:01:49.960 --> 01:01:53.320
that kaz rep it. So again, it's all about attitude and leadership and

741
01:01:53.639 --> 01:01:57.880
things of that manner. As it
always says in this line of business.

742
01:01:58.519 --> 01:02:01.559
Um, well, hey, here's
an hour. We always joke that we

743
01:02:01.599 --> 01:02:06.519
have no problem filling up an hour. That's true, and because we can

744
01:02:07.239 --> 01:02:12.880
pontificate with the best of him.
And if everybody is sticking with us to

745
01:02:12.960 --> 01:02:15.800
this end, I'll let you know. Next week we're actually going to get

746
01:02:15.960 --> 01:02:22.039
We'll help you get your JPNE signed
off. We're going to go joint next

747
01:02:22.079 --> 01:02:27.599
week. We're actually bringing on board
definitely a US Army Lieutenant Colonel Matt Errol

748
01:02:27.719 --> 01:02:31.639
and may become some of his co
authors. I think a Marine Corps officer

749
01:02:31.760 --> 01:02:37.760
maybe joining us as well. He
recently wrote an article you can find over

750
01:02:37.880 --> 01:02:42.320
at I think Modern War Institute is
where you can find it. Graveyard of

751
01:02:42.360 --> 01:02:47.960
the command Posts, which I think
what he talks about in this article directly

752
01:02:49.000 --> 01:02:53.000
translates to the maritime and the air
domain. Really everything it has to do

753
01:02:53.119 --> 01:03:00.840
with one of the lessons that they
are taking out of the Russia Ukrainian War,

754
01:03:00.599 --> 01:03:07.920
and that is and anybody who has
served in our wars in the last

755
01:03:07.920 --> 01:03:13.639
twenty years know what I'm talking about. Our four deployed command posts have gotten

756
01:03:13.800 --> 01:03:17.800
huge, and they leak electrons all
over the place, and we've gotten a

757
01:03:17.840 --> 01:03:24.199
little complacent about how dangerous that can
be, and not just to our generals

758
01:03:24.199 --> 01:03:28.719
and our admirals, but for the
ability to command forces in the field.

759
01:03:28.719 --> 01:03:30.760
So they've looked at the challenge,
look at some of the things that we're

760
01:03:30.800 --> 01:03:34.039
doing, some of the lessons,
half a few things. So we're gonna

761
01:03:34.039 --> 01:03:37.400
have them on next week to talk
about that if you all wanted to read

762
01:03:37.440 --> 01:03:39.760
up ahead of time. Also,
if you're still with us, that tells

763
01:03:39.800 --> 01:03:43.800
me that you're you're a fan of
mid rat and you like hearing us talk.

764
01:03:44.159 --> 01:03:49.519
If you haven't already, please go
over to iTunes or wherever you get

765
01:03:49.599 --> 01:03:54.599
your your podcasts and give us a
five star review, put a couple of

766
01:03:54.679 --> 01:03:59.719
nice comments on there. Don't give
us a four star because you're modest reason

767
01:03:59.719 --> 01:04:01.559
why we want to do that,
not because we have tender egos, which

768
01:04:01.559 --> 01:04:04.679
we might, but because when you
give it a five star review and you

769
01:04:04.719 --> 01:04:10.760
say a couple of things that you
like about the show it in their search

770
01:04:10.840 --> 01:04:14.079
engine, it ups us in the
national security arena. And if you like

771
01:04:14.239 --> 01:04:16.719
mid Rats, you would want other
people to find us as well, and

772
01:04:16.719 --> 01:04:21.280
when they're searching for things involving the
Navy or the military, we're more likely

773
01:04:21.320 --> 01:04:25.760
to pop up above the fold,
and then they can come enjoy mid Rats

774
01:04:25.880 --> 01:04:29.800
like you do. So that's kind
of my altar call for for the day.

775
01:04:29.840 --> 01:04:33.159
You got anything else for us there? Ego one, No, just

776
01:04:33.440 --> 01:04:41.280
thank everybody for being here today.
We'll meet them down the road perfect and

777
01:04:41.320 --> 01:04:45.760
we'll see everybody next week. And
until then, I hope everybody has a

778
01:04:45.800 --> 01:05:03.800
great Navy day. Cheers like my
lonely wants to marry me and long believe

779
01:05:03.880 --> 01:05:11.920
the brand that we can't believe for
your being to blame my love faily wove

780
01:05:12.159 --> 01:05:21.760
me silly faulting your the dame.
It's a long way to differ, It's

781
01:05:21.800 --> 01:05:31.000
a long way to go, It's
a long way to differently. The greenest

782
01:05:31.280 --> 01:05:41.239
gn I know, don't by be
God healing. Well, let's talk.

783
01:05:41.360 --> 01:05:48.199
Swell. It's a long long way
to DIEP my lam it, but my heart b