WEBVTT

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Welcome to mid Rats with Foal from
Commander Salamander, an Eagle one from Eagle

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

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all things maritime. And good afternoon, everybody. I hope y'all are having

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a beautiful quasi spring day. We
got a lot of rain yesterday and it

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was a little gloomy this morning,
but goodness gracious, what a beautiful,

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glorious day that we're having here.
I hope it's the same for you,

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and we appreciate you joining us for
another edition of mid Rats, especially those

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that are joining us live. We
got Ron and Paul in the chat room

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and while we're here this afternoon,
if you are with us live, go

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ahead and scroll down to the bottom
of the show page. You can join

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Paul and Ron there. And if
you have some observations you'd like to share

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during the course of the show,
but especially today where we don't have a

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guest, we have our free for
all format. If you have some topics

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you'd like for us to address,
or we want us to clarify something we

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may have talked about earlier, that
is the perfect place to do it.

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And with that going on, we
already cheated and talked ahead of time,

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so I think we know we're going
to talk about Eagle one. Good to

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talk to you again today, Thy
sal good afternoon. It's beautiful here where

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I am too, it's all glorious. Well, so far my bracket for

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the NCAA is going just fine.
But until you get through sweet sixteen,

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you never really know. Yeah,
well, congratulations all the weird teams that

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have showed up there in c State
has gone on a remarkable run, winning

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seven games twelve days. That's right. And at the NCAA tournament, I

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mean the the a SEC tournament,
I think they got you know, five

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games and five days, and you
look at all the it's almost back to

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the way it is in a just
world. ACC really has a lot of

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great teams in the tournament. It's
it's nice to see. There have been

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a while where there were just a
couple of ACC teams that were really something

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to talk about. But yeah,
the folks in the ACC have a lot

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to entertain themselves. This march I
almost I thought about it for a few

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years and maybe this is something we
conspired with next year. But a lot

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of people do similar stuff. But
I always thought it might be entertaining to

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do a a march. We can't
call it hack madness because that's already taken

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up by comfortably smug and the folks
are ruthless. But we ought to do

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like a the Navalist march madness.
I think we can find enough people,

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if people are interested up to vote
on that, see who who would flesh

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out on That might cause a few
a few bones of contingent, but that

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will always be I think we can
find what you need to buy sixty four

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people who write about navy terms.
Yeah, that's probably about right. And

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you know, we can also try
things like over an underzone, number of

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commanding officers, relief journeying, all
profits to go to davy relief. Yes,

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yeah, there you go. I
mean, so we justify all sorts

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of things. That's so so cruel. Oh, you know, talking about

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navy relief for the listeners. It
was kind of fun when we do.

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Unless it's a situation where I,
of course have my usual technical difficulties that

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can only dial in thirty seconds before
we go life. Sometimes that happens with

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guests. We're having our free for
alls are our our melee format. I

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don't know if there's a difference between
the two, it's just a different way

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of saying the same thing. Uh. We will try in the pre show

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to do what are you interested in
and you know, find some overlap see

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if there's a topic. And there
there was a topic today that I know

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for our listeners here, unless you've
been in Seer school for the last week,

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you've you've heard the story and it
was at the top of both of

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our list And I guess that's a
good thing to kick off on because for

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the majority of our listeners, you
know what engineering is. You know how

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complicated and hard it can be,
especially when you're deal with maybe don't deal

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with the with the grown work and
engineering. What they do know is our

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navy is at least a half dozen
amp short and with our long deck,

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our large deck amphibs. We really
seemed to have some challenges. We lost

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the bone Homer shard, and we
lost the box We had the report come

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out about some significant problems with the
Boxer, and I had a quote but

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it show, yeah, well you're
breaking up. But I think the short

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four is the quote that I said
that the it's in the It's in one

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of the cover letters for the for
the report, and I'll put the report

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location of for people in the chat
room. But the quote is the these

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failures had a direct measurable impact on
USS Boxer's upcoming deployment and impeded the overall

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accomplishment of the strike group missions.
The Navy specific fleet was less ready and

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less capable because of USS Boxers.
That is, that's not that's just damning.

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That's that's it is all focus and
if folks wanted to google it,

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and i'll when we put the podcast
up, I'll have a link on the

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show page that I'll add to it. But overall Maritime Executive they have a

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link to the large report too,
but also have some good commentary. It's

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titled am fib USS Boxer Sidelined by
general Complacency and Breakdowns. Now you mentioned

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the deployment and a lot of times
when there's engineering problems, Yes, there

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are human factors, but there's also
still kind of rightfully in many cases hedge

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things about certain material shortfalls. But
they're pretty pretty straightforward here. If they

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said USS Boxer the flagship of the
Boxer amphibious ready group or would have been

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under normal circumstances. However, she
has been in various stages of repair and

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preparation sin since twenty twenty two.
She missed her latest scheduled deployment in the

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Pacific, all because of human factors. According to the recent command investigation.

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That's that's pretty damning, and they're
pretty clear that it was. And as

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it is with usually with things such
as this, it is senior leadership.

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What you allow, what you inspect, what you reward, what you punish

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it. But they clearly say it's
the senior leadership in the engineering department.

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Yeah, they really hammered them.
And part of the problem I see it.

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I mean, in the report,
it notes that a lot of the

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senior you know, the captain XO
level, had no experience with steam powered

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ships. They all came from guests
turban ships, and you know, they

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didn't receive I guess, any special
training before I went to a ship that

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was steam powered and and it's a
different world. And if you're trying to

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supervise and figure out what's going on
with those guys down in the hole,

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you you you really, I mean
most of us cut training in the basic

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steam cycle when I was in midshipman. I'm not sure as they still do

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that because we don't have all that
many steam power ships. But it's just

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it's just, uh, it's frustrating
to have what would they say, a

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general atmosphere of complacency or something that
it's just it's just amazing. It's front

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I had a safe, fashional and
deedrially complant work in the engine department.

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He felt he had direct measurable impact
on USS Boxer's upcoming deployment and impeded the

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overall accomplishment of the group's mission.
Uh, it's you almost wonder because our

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CEO's of our air character are go
to school to understand and the power plant

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is running their carrier with steam power
plants no longer team what you deal with

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from your midshipman crews on. I
wonder if there's been some conservation that just

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like we sent our large deck aircraft
carriers to Neutral, maybe need to put

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our COXO through steam school wherever that
is nowadays. Yeah, i'd recommend that.

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I mean, uh, it used
to be that all our ships were

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steam power, so it wasn't that
big a deal. Or you did get

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the basic training as I said that, you know, basic steam cycle and

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most of us did a tour rolling
through the engineering department where we had to

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you know, play with the boilers
and all that good stuff. But I

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don't think that's done much anymore.
And with the gas turbines, I mean

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don't. I've never been on a
gas turbine ship except as a tourist,

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so but I understand a lot of
I mean I used to take we have

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to our chief engineers, we have
to going to light off the boilers,

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you know, hours before we got
out of our way, and now they

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just go press a button, and
I think pretty much or if you're moving,

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so it is a different world,
and I'm I would guess that's one

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of the lessons learned out of this
ought to be we've got to make sure

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our the senior level people above the
chief engineer and the uh the main propulsion

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assistant, have some some knowledge of
what's supposed to be going on down there.

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And we've also talked recently about some
of the challenges in industry where even

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if we want to expand our shipbuilding
and ship mat and our shipyards, that

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you know, we're going to build
up the trained civilian artisans, for lack

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of a better phrase, that are
going to do the welding and repair,

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and they kind of put the shipyards
on report a bit where they said,

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but again it goes back to supervisor
inspections, nasty call your office type of

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things. Quote, numerous deficiencies in
quote in parentheses, unconformed parts or quality

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controlled non OEM supervision end of purtecees
have been noted in recent overhauls. The

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repetitive over repair of full draft blow
on bar made indicator of court falls,

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cont experience necessary dot steam plant bears. Are you still there? I'm still

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here? Well, you were breaking
up, so I couldn't tell whether you

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finish. I don't know what I
don't know what's causing. That's weird.

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Yeah, the the the some of
the reports went off to on the on

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the on the m p A of
the made propulsion assistant and quite experienced guy,

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apparently over twenty seven years in the
Navy, but he was apparently standing

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by when a lot of these casualties
are occurring and wasn't doing the you know,

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the proper training to make sure they
didn't occur. And you know,

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that's where you get that either he
didn't know how to be a supervisor or

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he just wasn't interested. I have
no idea. But you know, the

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the amount of people forget how the
amount of training to do anything on a

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on a navy ship is ongoing.
You're doing it all the time, you

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know. You you get people trained
and then you run drills to keep them

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up to stuff up to snuff and
uh, you know, to have this

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level of of lack of interest in
the main thing they looked at was this

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that the rotation of the of the
main the they didn't they they ran the

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jacking gear and were turning the uh
the reduction gear without proper lubrication for a

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couple of hours, you know,
and that should never happen. You have

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checklists. It's not like this is
something that comes out, you know,

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falls out of the sky. Well, let's go down and uh and uh

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you know, run through the reduction
here just for the heck of it.

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No, this is part of a
routine maintenance and there's checklists for this stuff.

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And apparently they weren't following any guidance. So uh, you know,

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I see that the somebody has recommended
the uh uh TFC had discharged for cause

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against the mp A. You know, that's that's down low in the bowels.

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But You've really got to think that
the senior leadership, uh you know,

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who's doing the who's doing the p
QUS checking, who's signing off on

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this stuff? You know that they
have to go up to the to the

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at least the old ADEA to go
up to they've senior people in both the

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departments and above to get your p
QUS signed off. And if if the

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people at the very top don't know
what they're doing, it is a then

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you're signing off pqus they don't understand
either, So that that, you know,

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there's a level of problems here that
that really troubles me. I guess

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in some ways we're lucky that they
did not suffer a significant engineering casualty or

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another fire. I mean, how
how many how many anthibs can we burn

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up in San Diego? I don't
think we have any more fireboats than we

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did before. Yeah, I don't
think. I'm not sure that there was

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that much danger burn it up that
you could burn out, you know,

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lots of bearings and things like that
if you're not lubricating stuff. So uh,

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but you know, I mean it's
been taken for action. It sounds

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like they've they've taken it very seriously, it's too bad that it comes to

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this, because the otherwise the ship, if you look at the the you

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know, the other aspects of what
that ship is supposed to do. They

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were, they were going through a
lot of really good stuff. They had,

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you know, all kinds of awards
for excellence in all the other areas

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except for engineering, which says a
lot about you know, what happens when

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you don't know what the engineering plant
and how the engineering plant is supposed to

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be operated, and who's supposed to
be doing what down there is. Yeah,

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it was. One good thing about
it, though, is to our

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benefit that as an aavy, when
there is such substandard performance that we don't

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just do an investigation that's clear eyed, but we make it public. It's

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kind of the same reason why I
support returning to what the standard was before

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twenty ten, where we had our
inserves on class and available. I think

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that the general public and the taxpayer
have a right to see what its armed

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services is doing and its money,
and you can do it in an unclassified

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manner. If you need a classified
adendum, you can do that. But

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you know, stepping back from the
specific to the occasion, you're looking at

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where are some very good, positive
cultural things that we have in our navy.

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The fact that we make these publics
so you and I can Monday Morning

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quarterback it from a distance, I
think is something everybody should in a way

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be proud of. Yeah. I
agree. By the way, we should

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mention that Sal mccagliano, the other
Style as we'd like to call him,

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is celebrating the third anniversary of his
What's going On with Shipping program? And

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I think that's that's really impressive.
As we said, I think last month,

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last week, you know, he's
provided such a valuable resource and insight

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into matters that most people would have
no clue about. We're not for him

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and and guys like John Conrad and
some others who are who understand a lot

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more about the shipping industry than the
rest of us have probably ever learned.

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Can we brag that we had him
on mid Rats for years before he brought

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his own podcast. Yes, I
think it's like, you know, when

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Johnny Carson used to sponsor young comedians, not the salesman. Although although he

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is pretty funny, you know that
that that he could take pride that he

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introduced the world to UH to Steve
Martin or somebody, you know. I

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mean, it's it's uh, it's
I think that we can we can say

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that, yeah, we got we
gave him his start and show business.

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We'll take We'll take at least one
percent credit for that. And I just

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I just pulled up his page on
YouTube and he has two hundred and five

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thousand subscribers. And you know,
we talked about we had an episode on

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it last month about sea blindness.
A lot of people talk about, well,

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nobody's really interested in this business.
Well that's not accurate. Sal has

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got two hundred and five thousand followers
on his niche of niche maritime podcasts.

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One of it is he does a
very good job informing and he does it

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in a good manner. So again, you have to have the right messenger

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in that regard. But between him
and John Conrad, I think they are

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doing the majority of the public facing
communication on one of the most critical parts

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and most underserved parts of our economy, and they deserve a lot of credit.

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And they've both been at it,
especially John Conrad, for quite a

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while. Yeah, it's uh,
I'm beginning to see somebody in Congress is

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beginning to pay attention to some of
this. If you if you look at

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the budget that just came out there, there are some things in there that's

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suggesting some somebody's been paying attention to
some of the stuff that that John and

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Sal Fel the other cell have been
saying for years, and even some things

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that we've been saying for years.
So that's that's good. Yeah, it's

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good to see. And I do
know for a fact that there are people

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up on the hill, both members
of Congress, maybe a senator. I

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don't know as much visibility there.
I'm not fancy enough for the Senate,

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but there are some Senate staffers I
know for sure, and quite a few

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staffers on the Hill that do listen
to Sal and read John Conrad stuff.

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It does make it. And you
and I have talked about this for years.

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Is there is a conversation going on
out there, But are you part

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of it? Are you making an
effort to get out there? And you

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don't even have to be one of
the top ten twenty people out there.

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If you're writing good content on a
topic of interest, it will get attention,

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and it will get ears and get
in front of the right ear in

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the right eyes, and there's plenty
of room, not just in the maritime

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arena, but especially in the Air
Force arena and the coast Guard arena.

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There are some good army sources out
there, though they can be kind of

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limited. I don't know of many
as marines. But there is plenty of

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room in this space for people who
have the knowledge and the desire to join

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that conversation about these topics that it's
underserved. You know, here we are

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in twenty twenty four, I still
say this sector of the information space is

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underserved. And Modern War Institute does
a great job. There are other ones

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that do a great job as well, But there's still plenty of room out

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there. There are no walls,
there's no finite been for you to fit

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stuff the the the bin will expand
to match your bandwidth every time in this

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information space. Uh So it's it's
something everybody should go. This is good.

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We just need to have more good
people that are willing to sustain the

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effort. Uh Sal and you know
John Conrad and Sal and you know you

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and I as well. We didn't
just start doing this six months ago.

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You know, we were we were
content with with going with just a couple

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of people and it's it's grown over
the years for for most of the folks

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involved. As I always do,
I encourage a lot of people if you've

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got something to say, uh,
substact, don't cost anything, start typing

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away, type away uh, and
just remember friends come and go, but

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enemies accumulate. Yeah, And I
think that's another thing to play out.

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If you take a position on something, uh, somebody's gonna you know,

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you can find that somebody's going to
take the using view to what you said

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and it and in some cases,
if they're in a position to do things

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you will, you will find that
they will find a way to get to

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you somehow or issue somehow so that
you might You have to be aware if

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you're gonna if you're going to tell
the truth, they're out there. There

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are some people out there who don't
like that. And I would take,

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for example, the the saga of
the l c SUH that the Big Navy

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has realized I don't know when when
the light bulb exactly went off, that

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that they've uh acquired these things and
that they're functionally useless. Somebody was talking

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about why are there no literal combat
ships? Uh? In the literals fighting

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fighting, fighting, the hoofies.
You know, we all know the answer.

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They're not capable of doing anything,
and uh, you know it is

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it is when you look back at
the original concept of what that what the

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l c S was supposed to be, or what was proposed by the admirals

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that we were pushing the street fire
concepts and all that, it was completely

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different than what we ended up with
because because I noted in a X post,

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you know, the the LCS became
the horse designed by a committee and

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just you know, they got sold
some real we'll have this module ready for

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you kind of thing and uh no, that's not the way you do it.

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Yeah, And it's and part of
it, a lot of it had

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to do with the culture that Burne
Clark had in the early double zeros where

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you it was it was kind of
merciless if anybody opposed it simply. I

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mean, I've heard some people make
the excuse that, well, he didn't

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want Rumsfeld to yell at him.
How old are you? You know you've

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got four stars? What did you
get him for? But that that's water

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under the bridge. But a lot
of it also I think needs to go

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to Congress in congressional oversight and I
said earlier this week in a private group

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setting when the floor was open,
I said, in this question, this

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comment of mind is prompted by Paul
in the chat room, and a question

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that Paul put in a chat room
that kind of came into something I had

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talked about earlier this week. But
the last election cycle, we lost Representative

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Elaine Lauria, who, regardless of
her political party and her political stances,

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which I really don't care about,
what I cared about with her was the

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fact that she knew the Navy,
she knew her business, her mind and

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her heart were in the right place, and she held people accountable in the

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committee room. We haven't replaced her
on her side of the aisle, and

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I find that very unfortunate. This
cycle we're going to lose. Even though

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he's a marine. I won't hold
it against him. Representative Mike Gallagher from

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the Republican side of the House up
in the Green Bay area in Wisconsin.

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He is not going to be running
for re election after eight years. He

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also has been very direct in the
committee room. He's been very inquisitive.

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He's always had a very open mind. He had very good instincts. He's

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going to go on and do what
he needs to do. But it leaves

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a gap in Congress that we really
need, not just the name. All

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the military services need congressional oversight.
If we've seen anything over the last quarter

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century, especially in acquisitions, that
they cannot babysit themselves very well. But

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for congressional oversight to work, you
not only need people who care and have

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an interest with people that have the
knowledge in the background such that they know

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the right questions to ask and they're
not intimidated by a bunch of big guys

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in fancy uniforms on the opposite side
of the dais and who are there.

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There are a couple of people in
Congress that will have to step into the

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gap. But at the back to
back punch for those that are concerned about

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the navy, Luria and now Gallagher, it's unfortunate, but here we are

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well. But then also the our
friend Brian McGrath, a few of other

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folks were supposed to be on this
navy. I don't know what the re

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member. They have a commission to
study the Navy and Commission on the Future

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of the Navy. Here's for the
Navy, and we got two or three

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appointments, and then that just disappeared. And as it's run out of out

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of its period of potential operavidality.
I mean, how does Congress do that?

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You know? And I you we're
talking about acquisition. I think things

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like the F thirty five. One
of the selling points of the F thirty

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five was that pieces of it were
being made all over the country, so

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everybody got a piece of the pie. You know, this is not this

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is not the way to run things. I mean, you can't if you've

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got if the if the center of
excellence for building aircraft is in I don't

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know, southern California, then my
gosh, build them there. Do we

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really need to have components coming from
Upper East to Bikistan, Maine or whatever,

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you know, some remote hole in
the wall in Vermont. I just

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I just get appalled and everybody,
you know, there's something in for me.

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And I can tell people in my
district that that I got a piece

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of the F thirty five that if
we've got to change the way we do

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business and make sense out of it. I mean, if we're going to

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build ships in Cleveland, Ohio,
great, you know, let's build ships

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there. Let's make a center of
excellence. UH, it would solve some

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problems. If the Gulf Coast is
going to be a center of excellence,

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let's let's really work on getting people
there. If if Norfolk, which has

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a lot of assets now facilities now
UH is still looking for for workers,

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Let's let's let's spend the money and
get the workers and get the training and

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get people in there making decent money
doing doing the nation's work. Let's not

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worry about whether or not the people
in Bellevue, Nebraska are somehow impacted by

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not having a naval shipyard component in
there there in their town. Of course

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they have off the Air Force base. Yeah, I'll add I'll add a

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link in the comment section to the
podcast. But for those that are with

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us live, if you want to
go over to UH Bri McGraths substack,

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it's you can find a link on
my substack, but you can just do

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00:28:53.319 --> 00:28:57.720
conservative Wahoo dot substack dot com.
He did a post, i think it

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was last week titled a Lost Opportunity
where he talks about that because he was

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one of the members and let this
name names for a second, and this

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is where and I've seen this a
little bit and has really frustrated me.

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And I've mentioned this to people on
both sides of the aisle. A strong

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navy is a non partisan issue.
It should not be a partisan issue,

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but for some reason, people want
to make it that. I've seen people

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on both sides doing it, and
it's unfortunate because the Seas don't have a

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political party. But the committee started
off pretty strong, where the Senate Majority

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Leader Thomas Ross. Actually the Senate
Majority leader is Senator Schumer. He appointed

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00:29:45.839 --> 00:29:52.880
Thomas Ross in February of twenty twenty
three, the House Armed Services Chairman,

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who's Republican. He's one that appointed
Brian McGrath, the Senate Majority Leader,

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who at the at the time was
not It was not Schumer. It was

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the turtle from Kentucky. No,
I can't believe I forget his name.

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Anyway, you know what I'm talking
about. He appointed Mackenzie Eaglin, the

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Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member appointed
also a Republican, appointed Mitchell Waltman,

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the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Republican nominated Scott O'Neill. That was

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June. That was the something happened
in June where it was decided that they

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00:30:41.880 --> 00:30:45.079
were going to let this die.
The Minority Leader of the House of Representatives,

359
00:30:45.799 --> 00:30:51.680
Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat, didn't
nominated nobody. The House Armed Services

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Committee member, which I think is
Representative Smith, no nomination at all and

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very disappointing. The Senate Armed Services
Chairman, which is Senator Reid, who's

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00:31:00.720 --> 00:31:07.319
been very good on especially naval issues, he didn't nominate anybody. The only

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00:31:07.359 --> 00:31:11.480
reason I could see is sometime in
midsummers there is a political decision made that

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I don't understand. Maybe somebody else
can explain it to me. They decided

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00:31:15.359 --> 00:31:19.119
they did not want this to take
place, and as Brian points out,

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we've got a Middle Eastern contingency that
required two carrier strike groups to go on

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there. We are in a shooting
war with the Houthi rebels in a very

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interesting way that should be informing how
we build our future fleet. We have

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00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:48.519
embarrassingly bad problems with our submarine industrial
base that is also jeopardizing it appears aucus

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00:31:48.680 --> 00:31:53.759
being able to properly get fleshed out. There's lots of issues that could have

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00:31:53.839 --> 00:31:59.640
been helped by that committee, but
for the reason I go understand, it's

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00:31:59.680 --> 00:32:05.160
not going to happened. So so
unfortunate. Yeah, and you know,

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let's take the issue of what we're
what we should be learning from the Red

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Sea operations. I mean, first
thing is one of the things we should

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learn and ask constantly is what is
the in state we are trying to achieve.

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Set that side for a second,
and the issue becomes, what if

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if ships are so vulnerable, vulnerable
to these cheap, inexpensive, relatively speaking,

378
00:32:36.920 --> 00:32:47.240
missiles and and unmanned aircraft and unmanned
surface ships and unmanned subsurface things,

379
00:32:47.640 --> 00:32:51.759
we need to really rethink how we're
going to You know, it's kind of

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00:32:51.759 --> 00:32:55.200
like when the Russians, I think
it was the Russians whoever vented the first

381
00:32:55.640 --> 00:33:00.839
torpedo attack boats and took everybody by
surprise. We're at that stage we know

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00:33:00.960 --> 00:33:06.720
this isn't a surprise. Captain Wayne
Hughes warn't for years about we have to

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00:33:06.720 --> 00:33:09.039
worry about the missile threat from the
beach. That the Navy is no longer

384
00:33:09.119 --> 00:33:14.640
ships at sea. The Navy includes
all these assets ashore that can have an

385
00:33:14.640 --> 00:33:19.839
impact on your navy. And you
know that was learned driven upon it before

386
00:33:19.880 --> 00:33:22.680
the Napoleonic Wars. But you know, a ship's a fool to fight a

387
00:33:22.759 --> 00:33:28.200
fort, and a big enough fort
with enough supply of weaponry can cause them

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00:33:28.200 --> 00:33:31.480
real problems. And if the bad
guys are looking at the way we're responding,

389
00:33:31.759 --> 00:33:35.119
you got to figure the bad guys
are going, well, we see

390
00:33:35.160 --> 00:33:37.400
how they do this, what's our
response to the way they do this,

391
00:33:37.480 --> 00:33:42.559
so that they can't do that if
we decide to shoot the same stuff or

392
00:33:42.599 --> 00:33:45.279
better stuff at the next time.
And it's a cycle. We need to

393
00:33:45.279 --> 00:33:51.240
be really concerned about how this works. And I think it's not just the

394
00:33:51.400 --> 00:33:54.720
Red Sea. I think the Russians
should be learning a lesson and we should

395
00:33:54.799 --> 00:34:04.240
learn from them too about where you
base your military assets, including your ships.

396
00:34:04.559 --> 00:34:09.360
Yeah, the yesterday was a dark
day for the Polish built old cold

397
00:34:09.360 --> 00:34:16.000
warrior lse the Rapusha, if I'm
pronouncing it correctly. Looks like the Ukrainians

398
00:34:16.079 --> 00:34:24.599
using their British storm shadows, took
out two more and they they are specifically

399
00:34:24.639 --> 00:34:30.960
targeting those ships. Where people wonder
why they're doing it, is they're using

400
00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:36.000
that to transport weapons because they're like
I all amphibious ships that you and I

401
00:34:36.039 --> 00:34:40.360
have been talking about, I'm i
afgeot I linked to somebody else. The

402
00:34:40.400 --> 00:34:45.800
amid Rats We did episode five back
in twenty ten about the lessons that we

403
00:34:45.920 --> 00:34:51.039
learned from the Haiti operations back then. Yes, some nations always come up.

404
00:34:51.880 --> 00:34:57.360
The few things are more flexible than
an amphibious ship, and they're using

405
00:34:57.400 --> 00:35:05.960
these these rapushas to move equipment around, weapons around, and in addition to

406
00:35:06.119 --> 00:35:15.639
taking out the bridges and road networks, if the Ukrainians can take out what

407
00:35:15.719 --> 00:35:21.840
the Russians are using to move mini
material around by ship, it makes the

408
00:35:21.920 --> 00:35:30.280
logistics problem much harder and funnels it
into fewer avenues to deliver that logistical support,

409
00:35:31.159 --> 00:35:37.400
and that's why they're being targeted.
But in the larger contact you brought

410
00:35:37.400 --> 00:35:42.639
it right up another maximum next to
not attacking forts if you can help it,

411
00:35:43.760 --> 00:35:50.039
though I think Nelson actually attacked a
few forts in his day. But

412
00:35:50.039 --> 00:35:53.280
you do what you gotta do sometimes, is you do not have your air

413
00:35:53.360 --> 00:36:01.280
fields, are your pure side facilities
inside range of your enemies artillery. That

414
00:36:01.599 --> 00:36:07.400
has been true since the first flaming
arrow came out of somebody's bow. But

415
00:36:08.880 --> 00:36:14.360
you have to look at your missile
forces and even your air launched cruise missiles

416
00:36:14.400 --> 00:36:17.360
as an extension of an aircraft.
We're originally seen as just a different type

417
00:36:17.360 --> 00:36:22.599
of artillery. And the Ukrainians are
able to reach out and touch the piers

418
00:36:22.639 --> 00:36:27.719
and Sevestopol, which is why they've
moved some of their naval stuff further east

419
00:36:27.840 --> 00:36:31.400
to a place I can't pronounce,
near the Kersh Bridge and east of there.

420
00:36:31.480 --> 00:36:38.599
Even that, when we look at
the Western Pacific and we look at

421
00:36:38.639 --> 00:36:43.840
the Chinese missile force that they have
and are continuing to build, and then

422
00:36:43.880 --> 00:36:50.280
you overlay where our fixed air bases, supply depots and naval facilities are,

423
00:36:51.039 --> 00:36:54.480
you have a really really interesting challenge
on your hand. And you know,

424
00:36:54.519 --> 00:36:58.960
going back to what we've talked about
with the Red Sea and there are a

425
00:36:58.960 --> 00:37:02.960
little comment about the oral combat ship. One thing the literal combat ship can't

426
00:37:04.000 --> 00:37:08.760
do is it's still got a hangover
from the old Boghammer threat, which it

427
00:37:08.800 --> 00:37:15.639
could barely take care of even if
it wanted to. It cannot defend itself

428
00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:21.119
from any type of aerial threat of
any measure, much less some of the

429
00:37:21.159 --> 00:37:23.840
modern stuff, in spite of the
fact they're not small ships, they're large

430
00:37:23.840 --> 00:37:30.159
ships. They're just poorly designed by
bad theory, and they're they're too vulnerable.

431
00:37:30.639 --> 00:37:37.400
There are the French and even the
Italian FRIM frigates have been able to

432
00:37:37.559 --> 00:37:44.599
put on a good show, as
have the German large frigates, which are

433
00:37:44.599 --> 00:37:49.719
really destroyers, but they don't have
much of a number there to work with.

434
00:37:49.840 --> 00:37:52.960
I think the Dutch frigates have done
a good job. What are they

435
00:37:52.840 --> 00:38:00.519
They're large frigates. You could say
the FRIM is a regular sized frigate on

436
00:38:00.599 --> 00:38:06.159
your own lines, but they're multi
mission capable. They were designed to have

437
00:38:06.360 --> 00:38:10.119
a lot of tactical flexibility for whatever
threat they happen to be put in front

438
00:38:10.119 --> 00:38:13.920
of, which is really smart for
a small navy. He can't have a

439
00:38:13.920 --> 00:38:22.159
bunch of specialized ships. The Burk
is the same way when you actually especially

440
00:38:22.280 --> 00:38:30.280
some of the different flights of the
Arly Burks varsity football level anti submarine warfare

441
00:38:30.320 --> 00:38:35.519
capability, but they also have varsity
level anti air capability. That's one of

442
00:38:35.519 --> 00:38:39.119
the big takeaways. And I want
to send a note to a couple of

443
00:38:39.119 --> 00:38:47.800
our friends here. I really hope
somewhere somebody is already putting forth the requirements

444
00:38:47.840 --> 00:38:52.760
for the flight to Constellation, which
is our version of the FRIM based upon

445
00:38:52.880 --> 00:39:00.199
what we've seen the last twenty four
to thirty six months with Red Sea and

446
00:39:00.239 --> 00:39:07.239
also in Ukraine because I think the
Flight one it was designed to get the

447
00:39:07.280 --> 00:39:12.360
funding to get across the finish line, not unlike Arley Burke Flight ones,

448
00:39:13.119 --> 00:39:17.280
but I think we clearly need a
flight too, if for no other reason

449
00:39:19.039 --> 00:39:24.199
than even though that that design can
take a five inch gun. The seventy

450
00:39:24.239 --> 00:39:29.760
six milimeter gun Auto Malara has actually
been doing a very good job in the

451
00:39:29.800 --> 00:39:38.800
Red Sea when used by our allies
to take the lower tier level drones out,

452
00:39:39.000 --> 00:39:44.960
and also has a pretty good capability
against subsonic cruise missiles that would be

453
00:39:45.039 --> 00:39:50.639
nice to have as opposed to the
LCAF fifty seven millimeter up front. So

454
00:39:50.920 --> 00:39:55.599
yeah, there are lessons that I
hope are being taken on board right now

455
00:39:57.199 --> 00:40:01.280
that seem pretty obvious, at least
to me. Yeah, I mean some

456
00:40:01.280 --> 00:40:05.920
some The Royal Navy was for a
while pretty good about having I mean,

457
00:40:06.000 --> 00:40:10.039
they developed these anti air frigates I
guess there were destroyers. I mean they

458
00:40:10.079 --> 00:40:19.159
were they were specifically designed to take
on the defense of carrier group or whatever.

459
00:40:19.239 --> 00:40:21.880
As far as anti aircraft stuff,
you know, they were not so

460
00:40:22.000 --> 00:40:25.559
big on ASW because ASW was hard
from the surface a lot easier from from

461
00:40:25.800 --> 00:40:30.440
submarines. And so if you're going
to operate an area where you've got submarines,

462
00:40:30.480 --> 00:40:32.159
you really need to worry about protecting
your surface ships. You know,

463
00:40:32.400 --> 00:40:37.320
I'm not sure that's a bad idea. We just need to if we're going

464
00:40:37.400 --> 00:40:40.960
to make that. You know,
is it is it good to have general

465
00:40:40.960 --> 00:40:45.360
purpose ships or is it good to
have a whole bunch of ships to do

466
00:40:45.119 --> 00:40:51.320
one thing? You know, other
dips do one thing really well and and

467
00:40:51.360 --> 00:40:54.000
then you go from there. I
mean, it's that is always the challenge

468
00:40:54.000 --> 00:40:58.119
in trying to figure out what the
Navy should look like. I guess you

469
00:40:58.159 --> 00:41:05.000
know, the threatned ajure, especially
since these unmanned capabilities now are they're They're

470
00:41:05.039 --> 00:41:08.719
everywhere. It's not just the air
air, it's it you know, these

471
00:41:08.880 --> 00:41:15.079
these under sea things, the the
stealth boats that are i mean kind of

472
00:41:15.119 --> 00:41:21.320
mimic the the drug runners off South
America. It is it's a challenge,

473
00:41:21.360 --> 00:41:23.519
and we've got we've really got to
think hard about what we should be doing

474
00:41:23.800 --> 00:41:29.039
and where we should be doing it, how how close to if we're going

475
00:41:29.079 --> 00:41:31.079
to get that close to shore?
Uh, you know, what what is

476
00:41:31.119 --> 00:41:36.079
the what is the gain? And
that that's the other question. What are

477
00:41:36.079 --> 00:41:39.159
we what are we doing there?
Are we waiting for to uh you know,

478
00:41:39.159 --> 00:41:46.159
we don't want to do anything too
uh too dramatic in Yemen and by

479
00:41:46.199 --> 00:41:50.440
taking on taking out the hoo theies
with troops because we don't really want to

480
00:41:50.480 --> 00:41:53.199
invade yet another country and we don't
want to, so we're just trying to

481
00:41:53.280 --> 00:41:58.679
keep get them to keep their head
down. I guess until Israel can claim

482
00:41:58.719 --> 00:42:04.239
that Hamas is no longer a problem, and then we get these piers,

483
00:42:04.559 --> 00:42:08.639
these floating pier, fixed peer whatever
we're building going to send when everybody finally

484
00:42:08.679 --> 00:42:14.079
shows up, what we're going to
have off there to get supplies across the

485
00:42:14.119 --> 00:42:21.159
shore for the for the innocent civilians
of Gaza, and hopefully a mass will

486
00:42:21.199 --> 00:42:24.199
be toast by them. But I'm
sure that like many things like Isis,

487
00:42:24.199 --> 00:42:30.159
they keep rearing their uglyhead. Yeah
well yeah, ices cage Is reminded the

488
00:42:30.239 --> 00:42:36.400
Russians they're not going anywhere yesterday as
well. I also think that you know

489
00:42:36.440 --> 00:42:45.760
that planning assumption you just outlined that
once Israel gets through mobbing up in Gaza,

490
00:42:46.199 --> 00:42:50.559
that the Houthis are going to go
back in their box. And what

491
00:42:50.639 --> 00:42:55.559
if that planning assumption is not valid? One thing I don't understand. I

492
00:42:55.599 --> 00:43:00.840
know, I feel like I understand
why they're doing it, but there's no

493
00:43:01.639 --> 00:43:10.679
there's no logic to it. Is
why we are allowing all this money to

494
00:43:10.760 --> 00:43:16.840
still go to Iran, and in
many ways we are protecting Iran Iran.

495
00:43:17.320 --> 00:43:24.119
The Houthis are just an a different
branch of the Iran Iran Revolutionary Guard.

496
00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:32.119
Uh, it's the there are parallel
efforts in the executive branch, which I

497
00:43:32.159 --> 00:43:38.639
think is they think they're playing four
dimensional chess, but they're they're playing hopscotch

498
00:43:38.719 --> 00:43:45.239
with their their shoes tied together.
I don't see how this works out well

499
00:43:45.280 --> 00:43:47.880
as all. And if I was
Iran, I wouldn't. I would tell

500
00:43:47.920 --> 00:43:52.320
the Houthis do We'll do everything we
can to ship stuff to you, but

501
00:43:52.440 --> 00:43:57.039
you you just keep at it.
There's there's no downside. We even saw

502
00:43:57.119 --> 00:44:01.360
today where uh this morning I saw
where they actually hit a Chinese ship.

503
00:44:01.960 --> 00:44:08.920
I think some people assume that the
the Huthis have perfect, perfect knowledge of

504
00:44:08.960 --> 00:44:14.079
everything that's underway. I got news
for everybody. We don't either. I

505
00:44:14.119 --> 00:44:16.400
don't think they intentionally hit a Chinese
ship. I think they've probably thought it

506
00:44:16.440 --> 00:44:22.239
was something else. They don't have
the best maritime surveillance organization out there in

507
00:44:22.280 --> 00:44:27.880
the world. But I wouldn't read
too much in the fact that they hit

508
00:44:27.920 --> 00:44:31.519
a Chinese ship. Those things will
happen, but that's the exception of the

509
00:44:31.559 --> 00:44:37.280
rule. Yeah, they did promise
Russia and China free access through the through

510
00:44:37.320 --> 00:44:42.480
the Red Sea. So yeah,
either either somebody told gave them the wrong

511
00:44:42.480 --> 00:44:47.400
information for the Chinese ship was as
sometimes happens, We're I had an alterary

512
00:44:47.719 --> 00:44:52.480
a I s so who knows.
I mean, that's that's and then the

513
00:44:52.719 --> 00:44:57.159
maybe the Iranian ship that's just off
there and helps the houthis target made a

514
00:44:57.199 --> 00:45:00.039
mistake themselves. Things things happened.
Yeah, I agree with you. We

515
00:45:00.440 --> 00:45:06.000
seem to be very supportive of of
if you know, we're just dumping money

516
00:45:06.000 --> 00:45:08.280
on on Iran and everybody was,
well, no, they can't. They

517
00:45:08.280 --> 00:45:12.800
have to use that for humanitarian stuff. Money is fungible. If you give

518
00:45:12.840 --> 00:45:16.360
them eighteen billion here, then there's
eighteen billion that they didn't have to use

519
00:45:16.400 --> 00:45:21.159
for some purpose before that can be
used for some other, you know,

520
00:45:21.239 --> 00:45:24.159
some nefarious purpose. And it's not
like they like us. They got they

521
00:45:24.239 --> 00:45:28.920
they're they're pretty secure. They got
ninety percent of their oil outflow right now

522
00:45:29.039 --> 00:45:35.199
goes to China, So China has
a vested interest in keeping the stray of

523
00:45:35.199 --> 00:45:37.599
her moves open. But China doesn't
really you know, they're giving them money

524
00:45:37.599 --> 00:45:43.400
for this oil, and they're providing
them with models for some of their weapons.

525
00:45:43.440 --> 00:45:47.840
It's it's a it's a very bad
axis that I see with China and

526
00:45:50.840 --> 00:45:58.320
Iran and Russia and uh, North
Korea now, which seems to be a

527
00:45:58.360 --> 00:46:05.280
new arms pool for all these places. Yeah, they they they're The Hermit

528
00:46:05.440 --> 00:46:08.920
Kingdom is also just completely militarized.
So if you need a one hundred and

529
00:46:08.960 --> 00:46:15.280
twenty two one hundred and fifty two
millimeters artillery shells, Lord knows how much

530
00:46:15.480 --> 00:46:21.480
stuff they have stored away. There
was an interesting YouTube spot a few months

531
00:46:21.480 --> 00:46:30.960
ago where the Ukrainians actually captured some
of the they were grad rockets that had

532
00:46:30.960 --> 00:46:34.400
come from North Korea and they cracked
them open and they were pointing out all

533
00:46:34.440 --> 00:46:42.360
this all this shoddy workmanship where they're
they're not quite I think they would be

534
00:46:42.440 --> 00:46:46.760
the dent, the dent in blemish
selection if you're value shopping. They're not

535
00:46:46.920 --> 00:46:51.320
quite the quality control you would expect. But that's okay, that's that's not

536
00:46:51.440 --> 00:46:59.760
their their method of war, I
should get expected. I think that that

537
00:46:59.760 --> 00:47:04.920
that bringing of North Korea back into
the Russian fold. I don't know what

538
00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:07.840
type of deals they're making to get
weapons out of there, but it can't

539
00:47:07.840 --> 00:47:12.079
be good in the long run.
The onely thing positive is the fact that

540
00:47:12.159 --> 00:47:15.199
South Korea is stronger now than she's
ever been before, and she's getting stronger

541
00:47:15.280 --> 00:47:21.320
so North Korea. I don't even
the experts in North Korea really don't know

542
00:47:21.320 --> 00:47:23.760
what they're up to, but they
are getting some good money out of the

543
00:47:23.840 --> 00:47:30.280
Russians. The Russians are getting money
from India that buys their oil and they're

544
00:47:30.320 --> 00:47:35.320
turning that money around and probably giving
it to North Korea to are given North

545
00:47:35.360 --> 00:47:38.519
Korean food to get the weapons.
So they all had their own little side

546
00:47:38.559 --> 00:47:45.519
economy that they're running to keep that
war sustained. In Ukraine. Yeah,

547
00:47:45.840 --> 00:47:49.079
let me go back to something you
talked about earlier, which was the why

548
00:47:49.119 --> 00:47:52.239
the hookies are doing what they're doing. There was a pretty good article in

549
00:47:52.920 --> 00:47:55.960
Maritime Executive about why they do it. Here's just give you the headline,

550
00:47:57.360 --> 00:48:00.079
why hoot these attack in the Red
Sea? Why who the attacks? The

551
00:48:00.119 --> 00:48:05.760
Redseer likely to persist? They're popular
and that you know, every time it

552
00:48:05.840 --> 00:48:12.360
seems that that somebody attacks the West, there's a whole group of people who've

553
00:48:12.360 --> 00:48:15.760
got all excited and that's that they
think that's great news. And so as

554
00:48:15.760 --> 00:48:20.880
long as it doesn't really affect the
majority of the population around them, because

555
00:48:20.920 --> 00:48:23.920
we're not. We're driving very hard
not to take out moss and schools and

556
00:48:23.960 --> 00:48:29.639
all that stuff as we always do. Then you know, it's it is

557
00:48:29.679 --> 00:48:34.159
a game of cat and mouse,
and sometimes they like being the mice.

558
00:48:34.199 --> 00:48:37.760
They can scurry around and you know, we're not really impacting anything, and

559
00:48:37.800 --> 00:48:42.840
they're getting free stuff from mirand to
harass the West. Yeah, we are.

560
00:48:42.880 --> 00:48:47.119
We are really playing two different games. And eventually this this has got

561
00:48:47.159 --> 00:48:55.639
to come to a head because we
continued to hold account to global international order.

562
00:48:55.639 --> 00:49:00.239
Everybody keeps talking about we keep giving
a pass to other people. Well,

563
00:49:00.239 --> 00:49:04.920
that whole two tiers of justice on
the internationals, I think. Fast

564
00:49:05.039 --> 00:49:09.599
example, that is six hundred nautical
miles from Hainan Island, which is properly

565
00:49:09.679 --> 00:49:16.400
part of the People's Republic of China, you have some really incredible not trying

566
00:49:16.400 --> 00:49:23.840
to hide its seams of the Chinese
Coast Guard and some of their maritime militias

567
00:49:23.840 --> 00:49:32.480
well, being really aggressive with the
fire hoses against the Philippines trying to resupply

568
00:49:32.800 --> 00:49:38.679
their sovereign territory that's only disputed by
the People's Republic of China. It was

569
00:49:38.719 --> 00:49:43.079
really kind of sad to see.
It seems that each passing week too,

570
00:49:43.159 --> 00:49:47.760
that Malaysia gets closer and closer into
the Chinese orbit, where they just kind

571
00:49:47.760 --> 00:49:54.039
of shrugged at what is obviously international
bullying by the People's Republic of China.

572
00:49:54.039 --> 00:50:02.079
What worries me is where how do
you escalate past the fire hoses. I

573
00:50:02.119 --> 00:50:09.159
guess shouldering are ramming and then there's
fire. So we're kind of running out

574
00:50:09.159 --> 00:50:17.000
the clock here on Chinese aggressive versus
at least at this point Philippine steadfastness.

575
00:50:17.840 --> 00:50:22.960
And I don't know how that's going
to work out, but I do not

576
00:50:22.119 --> 00:50:28.079
see China deciding to de escalate because
they have no reason to right now.

577
00:50:28.840 --> 00:50:31.519
Well, it was it was the
project to cast light on this that we

578
00:50:31.599 --> 00:50:37.280
had Brent Frett Sadler on recently talk
about, and you know that embarrassed the

579
00:50:37.360 --> 00:50:43.559
Chinese, but then they now they're
they're showing the same uh images that makes

580
00:50:43.599 --> 00:50:45.119
them look bad. They don't care. They don't really you know, they

581
00:50:45.400 --> 00:50:52.960
they are not swayed by uh international
opinion. The first thing is they don't

582
00:50:52.000 --> 00:50:59.800
really care because they're the they're the
Middle Kingdom and everybody knows them. Obedience

583
00:50:59.840 --> 00:51:04.400
and cow towing and all that good
stuff. And it's just the way they

584
00:51:04.480 --> 00:51:07.280
operate. I mean, it's not
that they're they're not there for people who

585
00:51:07.360 --> 00:51:10.599
have a reputation for being subtle.
They're the least subtle people we've ever dealt

586
00:51:10.639 --> 00:51:13.679
with, I think, in so
many ways. I mean, when they

587
00:51:13.840 --> 00:51:15.599
cracked down on people, let's take
Tianam and Square. When they crack down,

588
00:51:15.679 --> 00:51:21.079
they don't they don't do it subtlely. They do it, you know,

589
00:51:21.639 --> 00:51:23.920
in a in a bold and bloody
way. And they and then when

590
00:51:24.000 --> 00:51:29.079
people mentioned Square, oh you know
you can't. You can't talk to us

591
00:51:29.079 --> 00:51:31.360
about that. Look at your own
you know, blah blah. It's uh,

592
00:51:32.360 --> 00:51:37.239
it is just the way they work. And you know, somebody proposed

593
00:51:37.280 --> 00:51:40.840
using the lcs's to assist the Philippines. You know, I don't. The

594
00:51:40.840 --> 00:51:46.519
Philippines have their own coast guard gets
surrounded by these these Chinese Coast Guard ships.

595
00:51:46.519 --> 00:51:51.159
Don't. If you've seen the the
videos on that where they weren't allow

596
00:51:51.239 --> 00:51:53.719
them to go. And then the
other day I saw that the the memory

597
00:51:53.760 --> 00:52:00.440
old uh anti submarine nets and used
to string across our fort entries in San

598
00:52:00.440 --> 00:52:04.800
Francisco and place like that keep subs
out. You know, now they're there.

599
00:52:05.119 --> 00:52:08.320
There was a boat out there pulling
along some kind of net or barrier

600
00:52:08.840 --> 00:52:14.920
to seal off access to that,
to that shoal where those Philippines sailors are

601
00:52:15.199 --> 00:52:19.440
living on that rusted out LSC.
I mean, you know, they're they're

602
00:52:21.400 --> 00:52:27.079
relentless in their pursuit of claiming that
that they are right and everybody else is

603
00:52:27.119 --> 00:52:31.719
wrong, and that the international decisions
against them and and it was wrong,

604
00:52:31.840 --> 00:52:35.760
and and they didn't even get a
chance to participate because they refused to.

605
00:52:36.239 --> 00:52:40.559
They then this is in perfect harmony
with the with the United Nations conventional law

606
00:52:40.559 --> 00:52:45.079
of the sea, because you know, this nine dash line existed from the

607
00:52:45.159 --> 00:52:49.920
time immemorial, and they've always fished
these waters, you know, And I'm

608
00:52:49.960 --> 00:52:53.599
just you just get that's and that's
I think a lot of these countries are

609
00:52:53.639 --> 00:52:58.920
they get worn out by this nonsense. You know, you can't challenge every

610
00:52:58.960 --> 00:53:02.880
every stupid line, every Global Times
report, uh it just you know,

611
00:53:04.000 --> 00:53:07.199
it'll wear you down. And that's
that's where we really do have to support

612
00:53:07.239 --> 00:53:12.960
the Philippines and the Vietnamese and h
and the Malaysians and and the other countries

613
00:53:13.000 --> 00:53:16.280
impacted by this stuff. Uh,
you know, we have to keep showing

614
00:53:16.280 --> 00:53:22.960
the flag, keep doing our It's
not freedom of navigation. We have the

615
00:53:22.480 --> 00:53:25.920
right to navigate through those waters.
It isn't a matter of us, you

616
00:53:25.960 --> 00:53:30.079
know, uh, tiptoeing through there. We should, you know, we

617
00:53:30.159 --> 00:53:34.840
need to be even bolder in our
efforts to say no, you know,

618
00:53:35.159 --> 00:53:37.320
we're not going to let you get
away with claiming the entire South China Sea.

619
00:53:37.599 --> 00:53:42.320
You have no right to it.
But we'll see how this goes,

620
00:53:42.719 --> 00:53:46.559
you know. And I'm not I'm
not enamored of the way we approach China.

621
00:53:46.840 --> 00:53:52.400
And I'm not sure any recent administration
has been where I would like them

622
00:53:52.440 --> 00:53:58.480
to be with it. You know, it's it's just pathetic in anyways.

623
00:53:59.039 --> 00:54:06.360
I think that's that's the big question
is. And we've made lots of mistakes

624
00:54:06.760 --> 00:54:12.639
west of the International Dateline in the
last decade of neglecting people, But we

625
00:54:12.760 --> 00:54:21.960
have a long standing historical relationship with
the Philippines that's pretty unique in the area,

626
00:54:22.000 --> 00:54:25.400
and they're not a rich country,
they're not in South Korea, they're

627
00:54:25.400 --> 00:54:32.599
not Japan. There's a tremendous and
we've talked about this when mid Rats before

628
00:54:34.400 --> 00:54:40.920
Philippine, the diaspora, everybody's got
a relative or two in the US that

629
00:54:42.760 --> 00:54:47.679
we really at this moment in time
when it appears probably not unrelated to this

630
00:54:47.880 --> 00:54:58.719
fact that the PRC has decided that
they're going to pick on America's little cousin

631
00:54:58.960 --> 00:55:06.280
neighbor, the Philippine and almost dare
us to do more to support them.

632
00:55:06.320 --> 00:55:08.400
And we should take them up on
the dare, because if we let them

633
00:55:08.440 --> 00:55:13.400
bully the Philippines, that's a message
one we lose face. But it also

634
00:55:13.440 --> 00:55:19.239
sends a message that if America won't
help out and support the Philippines, who

635
00:55:19.239 --> 00:55:22.159
will they support. They're not going
to support you, Vietnam. They still

636
00:55:22.159 --> 00:55:27.119
can't get over when you kick their
butt. You know, Japan, what

637
00:55:27.119 --> 00:55:30.199
are you going to do when we, you know, can control your lifeline

638
00:55:30.199 --> 00:55:34.519
to the rest of the world.
It just it the second and third order

639
00:55:34.519 --> 00:55:39.440
effects by not giving great support to
the Philippinos. I don't think they want

640
00:55:39.480 --> 00:55:45.320
us to do things for them,
but we can help fill some of their

641
00:55:45.599 --> 00:55:52.000
capability and material gaps and aurrounding error
from what we find in the Pentagon couches

642
00:55:52.039 --> 00:55:59.920
on a Saturday afternoon that I hope
smart people and hard jobs an important place

643
00:56:00.119 --> 00:56:05.039
is are working on that. I
haven't seen that in any of the budget

644
00:56:05.119 --> 00:56:10.079
documents, but we have an opportunity
here. It's not too late. But

645
00:56:12.159 --> 00:56:15.400
I thought was red If I was
wearing my red hat on this and I

646
00:56:15.559 --> 00:56:21.239
was red hatting for the PRC,
I absolutely would do all that I can

647
00:56:21.840 --> 00:56:28.639
to weaken and subdue the Philippines to
my will. I just hope that we're

648
00:56:28.679 --> 00:56:32.280
going to do more because you look
at the ships at the Philippines. Philippinos

649
00:56:32.280 --> 00:56:39.119
are sending out there. They could
do better. Yeah, it is a

650
00:56:40.840 --> 00:56:46.119
it's difficult for people to remember this. We have a treaty with the Philippines

651
00:56:46.159 --> 00:56:52.280
that provides that we will come to
their defense. And you know, I've

652
00:56:52.280 --> 00:56:54.840
asked this question signed. I think
now for a couple of years. When

653
00:56:54.960 --> 00:57:00.559
you begin to get these water hoses, you know injuring people, when you

654
00:57:00.559 --> 00:57:07.440
get these boats, you know,
coming either smashing into or or attacking assets

655
00:57:07.480 --> 00:57:13.280
of the of the Philippine nation,
not just their privately owned fishing boats,

656
00:57:13.280 --> 00:57:19.719
but I mean things like these boats
that they're sending out to get supplies to

657
00:57:19.800 --> 00:57:24.800
the Philippine Marines that are on that
lst. What point, at what point

658
00:57:25.079 --> 00:57:30.960
does war begin which will require us
to come to their defense? And what

659
00:57:30.119 --> 00:57:37.159
point is this is just bullying and
not and not war yet? You know

660
00:57:37.320 --> 00:57:40.199
that, that to me is the
And you know, I'm sure that we're

661
00:57:40.199 --> 00:57:43.559
trying to put the best face on
it here. Well we're not. They're

662
00:57:43.599 --> 00:57:46.840
not really doing anything of war like
yet, and I'm I'm not. I'm

663
00:57:46.840 --> 00:57:52.639
not convinced. I'm I think there
is. They're going to push it as

664
00:57:52.639 --> 00:57:55.440
close as they can until and you
know, see how far that edge goes

665
00:57:55.480 --> 00:58:02.480
before we do anything to really respond, I have to come in right now.

666
00:58:02.960 --> 00:58:09.239
Uh one thing that I absolutely am
humbled and greatly appreciate that. And

667
00:58:09.679 --> 00:58:15.599
it just tickles me because a lot
of our and former guests do listen to

668
00:58:15.639 --> 00:58:17.960
the show live. They won't wait
into the chat room, but now then

669
00:58:17.960 --> 00:58:23.119
they get messages and you have to
respect the entrepreneurial spirit. I just got

670
00:58:23.159 --> 00:58:28.119
a note from from Claude Barrabe.
Uh let me let me quote him directly,

671
00:58:28.159 --> 00:58:32.800
because I read all this stuff.
There was only quotes, if only

672
00:58:32.880 --> 00:58:37.519
there was a novel about China interfere
with the Philippines. And he's right,

673
00:58:37.639 --> 00:58:40.079
and we'll have to add a link
in the show page. We did that,

674
00:58:40.760 --> 00:58:45.840
Uh, the Philippine Pact by Claude
Barrabe. It came out in uh

675
00:58:46.400 --> 00:58:52.599
almost a year ago. Uh that
yep, and there's a a great picture

676
00:58:52.639 --> 00:58:57.679
on the front. Now we tease
Claude. He was he was talking about

677
00:58:57.719 --> 00:59:05.679
the problems around uh Boba Mandrel,
Barbara Mandrel, Bob no anyway, right,

678
00:59:05.719 --> 00:59:09.480
Worth mccaddell, part of our brain, Bob l mandrab anyway where the

679
00:59:09.519 --> 00:59:14.760
Huthies are making trouble right now in
his first novel. And by the way,

680
00:59:15.159 --> 00:59:22.519
Claude, with a new publisher,
has just put out the second edition

681
00:59:22.840 --> 00:59:27.639
of his books under slightly different names. So I'll embarrass him more, but

682
00:59:27.719 --> 00:59:30.480
he'll take the embarrassment because I've given
him a free plug. So just go

683
00:59:30.519 --> 00:59:34.599
over to Amazon and enter Claude Barrabee
and you'll see the second edition of some

684
00:59:34.679 --> 00:59:37.840
of his books that have come out
recently. But yeah, you know that

685
00:59:38.280 --> 00:59:44.679
another example where after we talked about
this once or twice, I hope is

686
00:59:44.719 --> 00:59:47.960
going on again. If it's not
right now, maybe the next administration will

687
00:59:47.960 --> 00:59:53.280
do it. Is after nine to
eleven, the Pentagon got a group of

688
00:59:53.320 --> 01:00:01.960
fiction writers together and had them brainstorm
where things could go. That is a

689
01:00:02.039 --> 01:00:06.000
great thing to do, and Claude
would always be on my short list of

690
01:00:06.039 --> 01:00:08.920
people. Plus he has a naval
background and he's got a preach and history

691
01:00:09.320 --> 01:00:12.599
from Leeds. I think I got
it right. If not, he's going

692
01:00:12.639 --> 01:00:17.960
to send me a nasty note.
But educated, smart people and authors who

693
01:00:19.280 --> 01:00:27.360
write fiction or study history, they
can help us interpret what requirements are going

694
01:00:27.440 --> 01:00:35.320
down the road in coordination with those
you usually would suspect because inside the uniform

695
01:00:35.360 --> 01:00:39.480
military and especially inside the military bureaucracy
of the civilian side, there's a lot

696
01:00:39.519 --> 01:00:45.159
of rice bowls, there's a lot
of parochialism, there's a lot of stale

697
01:00:45.239 --> 01:00:49.320
thought. But yeah, you know, Claude is one of those authors who's

698
01:00:49.400 --> 01:00:52.559
is kind of looked through his prison
into the future and has been able to

699
01:00:52.599 --> 01:00:58.119
locate some of those spots. And
the Philippines is clearly one. And you

700
01:00:58.280 --> 01:01:05.119
have to give a nod to the
decision makers in Beijing. They're not dumb,

701
01:01:05.239 --> 01:01:08.440
they're smart. They're picking the right
spots, So good on them.

702
01:01:08.800 --> 01:01:13.960
But it's us up to us if
we can't at least stay half a step

703
01:01:14.000 --> 01:01:17.920
in front of them, at least
robustly respond when they do find a little

704
01:01:19.239 --> 01:01:22.760
a little soft spot when they're poking
their band at well, they've been poking

705
01:01:22.840 --> 01:01:25.960
us too, I mean, uh, And but in light when you just

706
01:01:25.960 --> 01:01:30.320
said about gathering, the author John
Ringo and and one of his science fiction

707
01:01:30.360 --> 01:01:36.320
books called him before Battle, talked
about a gathering of science fiction writers to

708
01:01:36.400 --> 01:01:39.079
deal with a with a an alien
threat. So it's it. Uh,

709
01:01:39.920 --> 01:01:45.400
it is a good it is a
good way to approach things. Sometimes fiction

710
01:01:45.480 --> 01:01:49.079
writers have a better insight into the
minds of other people than than the guys

711
01:01:49.159 --> 01:01:52.519
are writing off orders. Yeah,
I mean they pushed us. Remember the

712
01:01:52.559 --> 01:01:58.320
stuff they did with some of our
uh us n S ships out there,

713
01:01:58.480 --> 01:02:01.559
and you know, we would capture
and also they would capture one of our

714
01:02:01.920 --> 01:02:08.480
unmanned uh uh undersea operation things and
they would fish it up and look at

715
01:02:08.519 --> 01:02:13.480
it. And we'll never forget the
EP three episode, right, I mean,

716
01:02:13.960 --> 01:02:17.000
the guy crashes into our aircraft,
they land, and then they go

717
01:02:17.079 --> 01:02:22.519
through the aircraft and discover all the
whatever'sented EP three So uh, they and

718
01:02:22.559 --> 01:02:25.440
they make us take it take it
apart to get it out of there.

719
01:02:25.480 --> 01:02:30.000
And again, if I was working
with the PRC, I would have done

720
01:02:30.039 --> 01:02:37.360
the same thing. That was a
gift. Yeah, well we did do

721
01:02:37.400 --> 01:02:40.280
the same thing. You know,
every time we got somebody's uh got somebody

722
01:02:40.280 --> 01:02:45.639
to fly the aircraft to freedom,
and we would get that somehow they would

723
01:02:45.639 --> 01:02:50.440
always end up in Nevadas. Oh
you flew your Make twenty five and in

724
01:02:50.559 --> 01:02:53.320
Japan. Well, the Japanese need
to do a customs inspection of it.

725
01:02:54.000 --> 01:02:57.800
They should be through with the customs
inspection a couple of weeks. We'll give

726
01:02:57.800 --> 01:03:00.679
it back to you, I promise. Yep, Well, think of a

727
01:03:00.679 --> 01:03:06.159
free guess we have gifted our listeners
and extra extra few minutes of time,

728
01:03:06.440 --> 01:03:08.440
so I guess we should wind it
up. We got through most of my

729
01:03:08.599 --> 01:03:13.599
lift. Did you have any saved
rounds you wanted to push down? Let's

730
01:03:13.599 --> 01:03:22.360
see. Uh No, we're good, We're good. Well, unless you

731
01:03:22.400 --> 01:03:27.559
want to mention isis in Russia?
Because it is interesting to me that Putin

732
01:03:27.639 --> 01:03:30.760
really is trying to blame that all
on the Ukrainians when it's clear of it

733
01:03:30.000 --> 01:03:34.760
that the Ukrainians had nothing to do
with it. But it also points out

734
01:03:34.800 --> 01:03:40.119
we need to be concerned about similar
things likely happening in our country. In

735
01:03:40.159 --> 01:03:45.039
both Russia and here, politicians know
the old Ram and Manuel phrase never let

736
01:03:45.079 --> 01:03:52.000
a crisis go to waste. Just
I think it should be obvious to everybody.

737
01:03:52.719 --> 01:03:59.920
It's not if, but when we
have the next large scale terrorist attack

738
01:04:00.760 --> 01:04:06.559
and the last thing we need to
do is to let politicians take the easiest

739
01:04:06.559 --> 01:04:14.960
short route and respond to external terror
threats by cracking down on the liberties and

740
01:04:15.079 --> 01:04:20.920
freedoms of American citizens as opposed to
going after the actual perpetrators. I still

741
01:04:20.960 --> 01:04:27.519
look at what we did with the
Patriot Act back after the nine to eleven

742
01:04:27.559 --> 01:04:31.360
attacks, and that's a classic example
of overreach that still hasn't been corrected in

743
01:04:31.400 --> 01:04:35.320
a lot of areas. But everybody
should gird their loins. What happened in

744
01:04:35.400 --> 01:04:41.920
Moscow will happen here. We just
don't know when, we just don't know

745
01:04:41.960 --> 01:04:54.119
where, and we make it even
I guess call it a night, Just

746
01:04:54.159 --> 01:04:58.880
call it a night. Next weekend, of course, is Easter for everybody

747
01:04:58.880 --> 01:05:02.320
to celebrate. Happy Sure, howe
of my Orthodox friends tell me that it's

748
01:05:02.440 --> 01:05:06.440
happening in the summer. I don't
know, And we do have guests lined

749
01:05:06.519 --> 01:05:13.280
up in April, and we appreciate
everybody join us and everybody in the chat

750
01:05:13.320 --> 01:05:15.239
room. We also appreciate you coming
in and sharing. And next time,

751
01:05:15.280 --> 01:05:31.280
I hope everybody has a great Navy
Day. Cheers Paddy. Mike Mooney wants

752
01:05:31.440 --> 01:05:40.280
to marry me and leave a friend
of condily for you being to blame for

753
01:05:40.639 --> 01:05:53.000
love love me, said, folding
all the name. It's a long way,

754
01:05:53.199 --> 01:06:32.639
It's a long way. It's a
long way. Well lit. Hi,

755
01:06:32.679 --> 01:06:38.079
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