WEBVTT 1 00:00:29.800 --> 00:00:33.560 Welcome to mid Rats with sal from Commander Salamander, an Eagle one from Eagle 2 00:00:33.640 --> 00:00:38.560 Speak at Seer Shore your home for a discussion of national security issues and all 3 00:00:38.600 --> 00:00:44.880 things maritime. And welcome Lord everybody. We're glad you've taken time to join 4 00:00:44.960 --> 00:00:49.679 us for another edition of mid Rats. We have our world famous, ever 5 00:00:49.759 --> 00:00:55.000 popular melee format today, no guests, just me you and we've got Paul 6 00:00:55.119 --> 00:00:57.840 in the chat room. And if you're with us live, I'd like to 7 00:00:57.880 --> 00:01:00.399 extend the invitation for you as always, scroll down to the bottom of the 8 00:01:00.439 --> 00:01:04.120 show page. That's where you will find a chat room. And you have 9 00:01:04.239 --> 00:01:10.200 some observations you want to share, our question, our issue you would like 10 00:01:10.239 --> 00:01:14.640 for to grab hold of over the course of the next hour. That is 11 00:01:14.719 --> 00:01:19.280 the perfect place to do that, and we look forward to seeing you there. 12 00:01:19.599 --> 00:01:26.280 Eagle one. Good afternoon, Heyzell. Well, it's better than I 13 00:01:26.359 --> 00:01:30.640 deserve. We've got a glorious day here in the Free State of Florida. 14 00:01:30.680 --> 00:01:34.159 I got no complaints. I'm hanging out my T shirts and shorts is my 15 00:01:34.760 --> 00:01:38.840 natural state. And they are cargo shorts, so the haters can continue to 16 00:01:38.959 --> 00:01:42.519 hate. But they're very handy. I get the store things in them. 17 00:01:44.159 --> 00:01:46.799 Well, I mean, you and I kind of solved all the world's problems 18 00:01:46.799 --> 00:01:49.040 in the pre show. I don't know if we need to talk about anything 19 00:01:49.040 --> 00:01:52.439 else, but I guess we could could share our brilliant ideas of everybody else. 20 00:01:53.319 --> 00:01:56.000 Well, we got Chris and Paul. You know they're going to listen 21 00:01:56.040 --> 00:02:00.280 to us, So I guess we can start with some hot topic. Hey, 22 00:02:00.400 --> 00:02:04.480 yeah, Chris, Chris Raleigh, it's great to see you again. 23 00:02:04.840 --> 00:02:10.639 And just a reminder to everybody. Uh, Elon Musk contracted some special forces 24 00:02:10.680 --> 00:02:15.199 people and extracted Chris Raleigh from that that deep hole that you had been hiding 25 00:02:15.240 --> 00:02:20.759 in over on x or slash Twitter. Uh So if you if you don't 26 00:02:20.800 --> 00:02:23.080 already, go find Chris over there. He's always a good person to keep 27 00:02:23.080 --> 00:02:28.000 track of, and he's glad to have him back on board today. Uh 28 00:02:28.479 --> 00:02:32.479 yeah, I think because it's been it's been the item above the fold all 29 00:02:32.560 --> 00:02:40.560 week, I guess we really should start off with which really was amazing video. 30 00:02:42.360 --> 00:02:47.800 Uh, the the dropping of the Francis Scott Key Bridge out of Baltimore, 31 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:57.479 making everybody in the belt waves commute just that much more interesting. Yeah, 32 00:02:54.080 --> 00:02:59.960 it's I mean, it shouldn't happen, does happen? You know, 33 00:03:00.039 --> 00:03:04.639 I love I love the conspiracy theories. It's uh space aliens, it's uh 34 00:03:06.719 --> 00:03:10.039 some kind of computer hacking job. You know, it's never you know, 35 00:03:10.039 --> 00:03:15.080 it's never as simple. Don't nobody ever applies as razors. Oh see, 36 00:03:15.120 --> 00:03:19.439 we had a breakdown. We couldn't are engine quit running and that powered everything 37 00:03:19.439 --> 00:03:23.479 else, and so we ran into a bridge. Yeah. It kind of 38 00:03:23.560 --> 00:03:30.560 goes in that category that some people need to stop reading science fiction and military 39 00:03:30.599 --> 00:03:36.039 fiction and maybe pick up a history book or read current affairs or stuff. 40 00:03:36.840 --> 00:03:38.759 You know, some of those things were straight out of some of the books 41 00:03:38.800 --> 00:03:45.840 that you can read if you want to. But when you have especially all 42 00:03:45.879 --> 00:03:51.000 ships have been this way from the dawn at time, but especially modern merchant 43 00:03:51.039 --> 00:03:58.080 ships and military ships, they're very complicated. They're real tightly designed ships that 44 00:03:59.080 --> 00:04:03.360 work great, work very efficiently, but when they have a breakdown, as 45 00:04:03.680 --> 00:04:10.680 all mechanical things made by humans will eventually break down, you just hope that 46 00:04:10.719 --> 00:04:15.039 they're breaking down in a place where you have some margin of error. I 47 00:04:15.080 --> 00:04:19.800 think I think was in New York we had a large merchant ship have a 48 00:04:19.839 --> 00:04:25.800 similar problem. In the general wedge of problems that the ship in Baltimore did, 49 00:04:25.800 --> 00:04:29.199 but she had time to drop anchor and hang out in a safe place. 50 00:04:30.120 --> 00:04:33.439 But even if you're only going I think they're going eight knots, that's 51 00:04:33.560 --> 00:04:41.240 pretty fast in a tight channel going through a bridge like that. It's just 52 00:04:41.360 --> 00:04:45.079 one of those cases that you have to if you're in one of these places 53 00:04:45.079 --> 00:04:49.680 where there's no margin of error, how good are your contingency plans? And 54 00:04:50.439 --> 00:04:56.319 this was one of those situations that I'm sure people talked about, maybe even 55 00:04:56.360 --> 00:05:00.720 planned. We'll find out when the final record is written this, but it 56 00:05:00.800 --> 00:05:08.319 was just force equals mass times acceleration, and it happened. It's a warning, 57 00:05:08.360 --> 00:05:14.360 I think to all of our major ports is to look at your procedures 58 00:05:14.439 --> 00:05:19.959 and your requirements. When are tugs optional, when are they required? How 59 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:25.959 many should a ship have? What's your contact looked? You know for US 60 00:05:26.040 --> 00:05:29.040 Navy guys, when was the last time you updated your op ref binder? 61 00:05:29.120 --> 00:05:33.800 That type of thing. So again, it's another warning for everybody that don't 62 00:05:33.879 --> 00:05:40.040 assume that the access you have is the access you'll always have. An active 63 00:05:40.120 --> 00:05:46.040 nature or an active man, either by accident or by intention, can change 64 00:05:46.079 --> 00:05:49.920 things. Luckily, we're a big nation. If you're worried about trade. 65 00:05:49.959 --> 00:05:56.399 I know there's localized economic issues Baltimore, that poor city. Last thing they 66 00:05:56.399 --> 00:06:02.519 made was this. There are plenty of sports either side of the Port of 67 00:06:02.560 --> 00:06:06.600 Baltimore. She's not really even a major porting more. I read somewhere she's 68 00:06:06.639 --> 00:06:10.319 like fourteenth. I could be wrong, but she's somewhere in the teams, 69 00:06:11.600 --> 00:06:15.199 so it won't be that big of an impact large for our navy, I 70 00:06:15.319 --> 00:06:26.120 mean our nation, but it's it's interesting to watch this procedure going down and 71 00:06:26.600 --> 00:06:30.240 I feel like they should they should be paying us a couple of shekels a 72 00:06:30.319 --> 00:06:33.519 show. But again, uh, there's a lot of things in their wheelhouse 73 00:06:33.560 --> 00:06:39.160 have been coming up, and I think, uh, Salimar Cogliano and John 74 00:06:39.279 --> 00:06:45.480 Conrad have and I know John actually went there in person with a couple of 75 00:06:45.480 --> 00:06:49.079 folks. We also know it's. Uh, those are always good people to 76 00:06:49.079 --> 00:06:53.759 to keep track of if you want a little bit of professional expertise, because 77 00:06:53.759 --> 00:07:00.480 that's definitely in their wheelhouse. I think Murphy's Law is gonna rear ugly. 78 00:07:00.560 --> 00:07:04.439 Head. You know, you never mean the whole point about Murphy's Law, 79 00:07:04.439 --> 00:07:08.240 as you don't know exactly when, but it'll be at the worst possible moment. 80 00:07:08.839 --> 00:07:14.000 So you know, it's not too surprising that if you have a casualty, 81 00:07:14.720 --> 00:07:16.759 you're just getting underway. Your ship's had a kind of a shaky history 82 00:07:16.800 --> 00:07:23.240 on some things that it's going to happen fairly early, and it's gonna, 83 00:07:23.319 --> 00:07:27.560 you know, just when when things do happen. And you've got that much 84 00:07:27.600 --> 00:07:30.639 as you already said, you got that much mass moving at a speed, 85 00:07:30.480 --> 00:07:33.480 it's really hard to stopping. And I think a lot of the people who 86 00:07:33.480 --> 00:07:36.439 were looking at this, you know, they didn't understand why the ship couldn't 87 00:07:36.439 --> 00:07:40.199 anchor. If you anchor going to that speed, you're just going to rip 88 00:07:40.279 --> 00:07:44.839 things loose, if you're going to go try and back all full. You 89 00:07:44.879 --> 00:07:46.839 know, you're not talking about something you can stop on a diamond. It's 90 00:07:46.879 --> 00:07:51.839 not just a twin screw destroyer with two hundred and fifty thousand chaft horsepower. 91 00:07:51.879 --> 00:07:55.759 It may have a lot of worse power, but it's it's also got a 92 00:07:55.800 --> 00:08:00.759 lot of weight to try and stop the momentum, and you know it's just 93 00:08:00.839 --> 00:08:03.199 not going to work. Turn on a dime, you know. And the 94 00:08:03.240 --> 00:08:07.279 other thing is that people have been I think misapprehending how complicated it is to 95 00:08:07.319 --> 00:08:11.879 try and start to recovery in this. You know, you've got water visibility 96 00:08:11.920 --> 00:08:18.920 that's terrible. There's a really good three dimensional uh picture that I I'll put 97 00:08:18.920 --> 00:08:22.000 a link up to in a minute that shows what the mess is on the 98 00:08:22.120 --> 00:08:24.680 on the on the floor underneath this bridge. So you know, they had 99 00:08:24.680 --> 00:08:28.600 to send divers down, they had to get pictures of the imagery. They 100 00:08:28.600 --> 00:08:31.759 had to get the cranes in place, they had to get you know, 101 00:08:31.920 --> 00:08:35.639 structural engineers in there to talk about the weight of the stuff that's sitting both 102 00:08:35.679 --> 00:08:39.120 on the ship. They didn't want to do anything would cause further pollution. 103 00:08:39.360 --> 00:08:43.799 The ship was damaged. It's got some pretty good chunks taken out of it. 104 00:08:43.279 --> 00:08:48.279 Uh. It's got a big chunk of metal, bunch of metals sitting 105 00:08:48.320 --> 00:08:52.200 on top of the of the containers. And we got all those containers on 106 00:08:52.240 --> 00:08:56.519 there. And and then to further complicate things, there's a gas petrol gas 107 00:08:56.519 --> 00:09:01.799 pipeline I think underneath the ship right now. So it's the ship is grounded, 108 00:09:03.960 --> 00:09:07.039 it's got some issues. They're beginning to move the containers off, but 109 00:09:07.039 --> 00:09:09.639 that's a really slow job. It's going to be one container at a time. 110 00:09:09.679 --> 00:09:13.320 I don't remember exactly how many containers run this thing. But that's going 111 00:09:13.399 --> 00:09:18.039 to be a painful exercise to try and get enough containers off so they can 112 00:09:18.080 --> 00:09:22.679 get this thing the ship floated. They have to get the metal off the 113 00:09:22.720 --> 00:09:26.759 bow, you know, and they've got to then go down and try and 114 00:09:26.759 --> 00:09:30.279 retree the stuff that's on the bottom. All that being said, the corp 115 00:09:30.279 --> 00:09:33.759 of Engineers has done a pretty good job saying, you know, here's our 116 00:09:33.759 --> 00:09:37.480 timeline. By the end of April, we want to have a thirty five 117 00:09:37.559 --> 00:09:45.919 foot depth channel two hundred and eighty feet wide to allow some passage of shipping 118 00:09:46.240 --> 00:09:48.519 in and out of the Port of Baltimore. And by the end of May 119 00:09:48.600 --> 00:09:54.600 we would like to have our fifty foot channel seven hundred feet wide restored to 120 00:09:54.840 --> 00:09:58.799 allow pretty much all traffic. Now that's you know, contingent on a lot 121 00:09:58.840 --> 00:10:05.720 of weather and other factors. But somebody has and you know, they've developed 122 00:10:05.759 --> 00:10:09.360 a plan. They have uh a group. This is the way it works 123 00:10:09.440 --> 00:10:16.679 under the National Incident Management System, that they have a group you know, 124 00:10:16.799 --> 00:10:20.480 that is working together to sort all this out so that you don't have a 125 00:10:20.519 --> 00:10:24.399 bunch of loan wolves out running off, running around in all different directions You've 126 00:10:24.440 --> 00:10:28.799 got a team being assembled between the coast Guard and the Navy, and the 127 00:10:30.159 --> 00:10:33.039 and the port authorities and the you know, all the other people of interest 128 00:10:33.080 --> 00:10:37.480 in the area. They have a plan to get this thing thing restored, 129 00:10:37.519 --> 00:10:41.240 and it's gonna you know, it's not a job unlike some people's expectations that 130 00:10:41.799 --> 00:10:45.039 you know, well, you have the bridge shop and we'll have it clear 131 00:10:45.080 --> 00:10:48.600 tomorrow that that's just not going to work. It's different than the ones where 132 00:10:48.600 --> 00:10:52.360 we've lost part of a bridge, a highway bridge, and they were able 133 00:10:52.399 --> 00:10:56.519 to slap something in place pretty quickly because you've got water involved here, and 134 00:10:58.200 --> 00:11:01.559 that is a and it's not it's not crystal clear water, so you've got 135 00:11:01.559 --> 00:11:03.879 all kinds of complicating factors as a result of that. But I think they're 136 00:11:03.879 --> 00:11:09.000 doing a pretty good job on it. Uh you know, nothing, there 137 00:11:09.080 --> 00:11:11.080 is nothing to be said that it can't be done better, but there's also 138 00:11:11.120 --> 00:11:15.759 a lot to be said it could it could be done much worse than what 139 00:11:15.799 --> 00:11:18.039 they've got. They've got, they've assembling the things they need to get it 140 00:11:18.080 --> 00:11:22.279 done, and I think that's really kind of the key issue at this point. 141 00:11:22.840 --> 00:11:28.600 And I think it's also you know, obviously this doesn't apply for the 142 00:11:28.799 --> 00:11:33.320 for the individuals and their families who were dyed, the folks that were filling 143 00:11:33.399 --> 00:11:39.720 up some of the potholes on the river when when it collapsed. But we've 144 00:11:39.720 --> 00:11:43.320 been really lucky in a lot of regards. You know that we've all been 145 00:11:43.320 --> 00:11:48.759 going over bridges at rush hour with with a big ship underneath. And I 146 00:11:48.799 --> 00:11:52.480 don't know about you, but I have to tell myself quit look at it 147 00:11:52.559 --> 00:11:56.399 the ship and drive, you know, because it's really neat to see that. 148 00:11:56.200 --> 00:11:58.799 But it was in the middle of the night, so it wasn't full 149 00:11:58.840 --> 00:12:03.960 of commuters or anybody like that. And the weather, hopefully it will hold. 150 00:12:05.080 --> 00:12:09.679 This isn't the time of the year where you're expecting one of those hurricanes 151 00:12:09.720 --> 00:12:13.399 to come screaming up the East coast. We've got, you know, a 152 00:12:13.440 --> 00:12:16.080 few months til we need to worry about that. Hopefully all that will be 153 00:12:16.120 --> 00:12:18.799 resolved. And you know, all the things you outline, they're actually underneath 154 00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:24.279 the ship. We're also lucky that none of that was ruptured. It could 155 00:12:24.360 --> 00:12:28.720 have been a lot worse. And it is an opportunity to because you have 156 00:12:28.759 --> 00:12:33.279 these incident plans that you have on the shelf, and you exercise them on 157 00:12:33.320 --> 00:12:37.039 a regular basis, and you talk about the whole a government approach, you 158 00:12:37.159 --> 00:12:43.679 have to have the department, Department of Transportation, Department of Defense, depend 159 00:12:43.759 --> 00:12:48.600 upon where you are, Department of Labor and Environmental Protection all got to work 160 00:12:48.639 --> 00:12:54.279 together to try to expedite and get things fixed and moving in the right direction 161 00:12:54.440 --> 00:13:01.279 in a safe way. And it is going to take time. But for 162 00:13:01.279 --> 00:13:05.480 those that have worked in emergency management incident response, I know that they're paying 163 00:13:05.559 --> 00:13:11.120 close attention to it because this is one of those opportunities that you have the 164 00:13:11.120 --> 00:13:15.360 theory and you have similar things that have happened in the past that you try 165 00:13:15.399 --> 00:13:22.679 to adjust your plans with. But there are smart people in hard jobs, 166 00:13:22.720 --> 00:13:26.840 important positions that are going to look at this in order to take some really 167 00:13:26.879 --> 00:13:31.159 good lessons away from this. So the next time we have something similar, 168 00:13:31.240 --> 00:13:33.960 not exactly like it, but similar that I have a similar set of challenges, 169 00:13:35.639 --> 00:13:39.480 their response will be be better. I guess that the key is I've 170 00:13:39.519 --> 00:13:46.480 got confidence that they'll put together a good lessons I'm confident that those people I 171 00:13:46.600 --> 00:13:52.840 ports I know you know some of those jobs and those individuals perhaps even that 172 00:13:52.919 --> 00:13:56.519 they're going to look at adjust their plans. I think that the tough follow 173 00:13:56.639 --> 00:14:01.000 through And I don't know how you hold this accountable is will it be Will 174 00:14:01.039 --> 00:14:09.200 the lessons learned be properly resourced from Congress and maybe even at the state level 175 00:14:09.799 --> 00:14:15.200 to make sure, Hey, they were able to do X in Baltimore because 176 00:14:15.240 --> 00:14:18.919 they had ready access to Y and Z. We don't have ready access to 177 00:14:20.159 --> 00:14:26.360 Y and Z or there were nobody thought that we needed W. We should 178 00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:30.799 really make sure and get W. But to take those lessons learned and to 179 00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:37.440 apply them, many of them, is going to require proper funding and resourcing 180 00:14:37.519 --> 00:14:41.399 from those that control the purse strings, and also the approval or disapproval of 181 00:14:41.399 --> 00:14:48.039 the plans. Yeah, and it run into people, you know, run 182 00:14:48.039 --> 00:14:50.679 around circles. Done. We don't have the somebody let us down. We 183 00:14:50.720 --> 00:14:54.679 don't have the giant greens we used to have. They well, what happened 184 00:14:54.720 --> 00:14:58.919 to all that stuff? And I'll say what happened is stuff aged. A 185 00:14:58.000 --> 00:15:03.799 lot of that equipment. Equipment got old, and it requires maintenance, and 186 00:15:03.960 --> 00:15:07.879 you, you know, user decide at some point, well, it also 187 00:15:07.960 --> 00:15:11.440 required humans to maintain it required humans to operate it. At some point you 188 00:15:11.519 --> 00:15:15.519 make a decision and maybe it's a good decision or a bad decision, but 189 00:15:15.559 --> 00:15:20.679 you make a decision that it's cheaper for the country as a whole to you 190 00:15:20.720 --> 00:15:24.559 know, let the salvage companies, the big salvage companies, bring in the 191 00:15:24.559 --> 00:15:26.879 stuff that they've got and let them deal with issues like this. Now, 192 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:33.799 you know, there's a lot of concern that we have some uh see transport 193 00:15:33.120 --> 00:15:37.759 ships I think stuck behind where this thing is. You know, that's not 194 00:15:37.440 --> 00:15:41.759 it's not fatal. It is an issue, but I'm not sure that if 195 00:15:41.759 --> 00:15:45.639 we had a huge train, one of the big ones we used to have 196 00:15:46.200 --> 00:15:50.240 sitting down in Charleston, that would have been that much faster to get it 197 00:15:50.360 --> 00:15:54.519 up and get it organized and set up in placed and made things, you 198 00:15:54.559 --> 00:15:58.759 know, that much quicker to get this resolved. You still have the issues 199 00:15:58.799 --> 00:16:03.840 that's surveying what what work needs to be done. You've got to put get 200 00:16:03.840 --> 00:16:06.919 experienced divers down to take a good look, and they can't see anything. 201 00:16:06.960 --> 00:16:12.080 They're being directed by people up above who have you know, uh uh side 202 00:16:12.159 --> 00:16:15.720 cans, side scan sonar or something that they're looking at to tell tell them 203 00:16:15.759 --> 00:16:18.519 where to go. And then you've got to figure out how to you know, 204 00:16:18.519 --> 00:16:22.240 how we're gonna how how big a chunk you can cut up of this 205 00:16:22.399 --> 00:16:26.799 bridge that's lying on the on the sea floor to get it up out of 206 00:16:26.840 --> 00:16:33.000 the way and not extrain the the crane you do have. So I think 207 00:16:33.039 --> 00:16:37.080 that you know, again that it's uh, it's easy to second guess that 208 00:16:37.519 --> 00:16:42.480 the the elimination of something equipment we had, and I certainly think we ought 209 00:16:42.519 --> 00:16:47.919 to have more, uh you know, at least more salvage capability internally in 210 00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:49.559 the Navy. But we you know, we have these we have we do 211 00:16:49.639 --> 00:16:53.279 have mudsou units and mobile diving and salvage units. You know, their work 212 00:16:53.360 --> 00:16:59.320 is not always as heavy as this. We do have an MSc some salvage 213 00:16:59.399 --> 00:17:03.480 tugs again, you know, but it's it's not like it used to be. 214 00:17:03.919 --> 00:17:07.279 But if you look at what happened after Pearl Harbor, the amount of 215 00:17:07.279 --> 00:17:11.880 effort that was put into getting those battleships uh turned around out of the out 216 00:17:11.880 --> 00:17:15.839 of the muck and mere there, and you see the equipment they used to 217 00:17:15.880 --> 00:17:22.559 do that. It was a massive undertaking probably something I don't think I've ever 218 00:17:22.599 --> 00:17:25.119 seen it quite like it when you really look at the pictures of what they 219 00:17:25.119 --> 00:17:27.240 were doing. So it's worth going back in the history taking a look at 220 00:17:27.240 --> 00:17:30.480 what it would really take, you know. And then we have examples recently. 221 00:17:30.519 --> 00:17:36.039 We had the with the sky Lane bridge down in Florida that got whacked. 222 00:17:36.400 --> 00:17:40.400 We have this car carrier that rolled over in off Savannah, I think, 223 00:17:40.880 --> 00:17:42.799 you know, and that the cruise ship off Italy. You know, 224 00:17:44.079 --> 00:17:48.880 these are big ships, they're big problems, and there is no fast solution 225 00:17:48.000 --> 00:17:52.160 to getting getting them back the way you want. But you know, as 226 00:17:52.200 --> 00:17:56.440 fast as you can clear this channel, which that's and then they're staying within 227 00:17:56.480 --> 00:18:00.240 a month or two, or give them the benefit of the doubt, say 228 00:18:00.240 --> 00:18:03.000 three months from now, they're going to have a channel. Floyints do there. 229 00:18:03.119 --> 00:18:08.400 And then then the second issue is rebuilding a bridge. Yeah, you've 230 00:18:08.400 --> 00:18:14.960 brought up a good point about you know, the a lot of the equipment 231 00:18:15.559 --> 00:18:21.000 aged out. It doesn't last forever. It's not you can't when when things 232 00:18:21.079 --> 00:18:23.680 get over depend upon what it is. You know, over thirty years and 233 00:18:23.759 --> 00:18:29.839 especially over fifty years old, it's just you. You you don't want it 234 00:18:29.880 --> 00:18:32.720 to get underway or you don't want to use it because you know something's going 235 00:18:32.759 --> 00:18:34.799 to break real fast and it could be more of a problem than it's there 236 00:18:34.839 --> 00:18:38.599 to fix. But I think part of it and we've seen this, and 237 00:18:38.640 --> 00:18:45.759 we've talked about a little bit from the Vonhomer Schard when it burned over in 238 00:18:45.839 --> 00:18:49.240 San Diego, and you can even look at you know, what we have 239 00:18:49.319 --> 00:18:56.079 at the Francis Scott Key Bridge is we have been we being the maritime sector 240 00:18:56.119 --> 00:19:03.799 in the US. We've been at peace for a long long time for decades. 241 00:19:03.119 --> 00:19:07.119 If you do in the sector of peace where people are shooting at you 242 00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:11.599 and blowing stuff up. You know, we had the USS coal that was 243 00:19:11.680 --> 00:19:15.400 hit, We had the Samuel B. Roberts that got hit. You know, 244 00:19:15.440 --> 00:19:18.920 we have onesies and twosies here and there that you can handle with. 245 00:19:19.519 --> 00:19:23.000 You know, hey, we need a heavy lift ship because we have this 246 00:19:23.160 --> 00:19:27.119 frigate with a big hole in it that needs to go back from Bahrain in 247 00:19:27.160 --> 00:19:30.559 to the East coast to get fixed up. You can do that because that's 248 00:19:30.599 --> 00:19:37.200 a peacetime thing. But for the first time, I keep calling it the 249 00:19:37.279 --> 00:19:41.240 edge of living memory, but it's really becoming outside of living memory. When 250 00:19:41.279 --> 00:19:45.119 you're talking about World War Two, it's not just the equipment that ages out, 251 00:19:45.160 --> 00:19:52.480 it's the institutional memory that ages out. Your quote Graybeard's unquote that you 252 00:19:52.599 --> 00:19:59.200 see around here. They're no offense. They're from Vietnam and the Navy, 253 00:19:59.200 --> 00:20:03.079 and Vietnam got shot at a little bit, but had nothing like their predecessors 254 00:20:03.519 --> 00:20:07.960 had their gray beers with the World War II experience. So you can have 255 00:20:08.079 --> 00:20:14.480 a group of people making decisions, none of them have that institutional memory of 256 00:20:15.319 --> 00:20:18.400 living through it. So we don't have enough fire boats, enough salvage, 257 00:20:18.440 --> 00:20:22.880 we don't have enough heavy lift cranes. If we are really facing what we 258 00:20:22.960 --> 00:20:27.319 think we are facing for the next couple of decades west of the International date 259 00:20:27.400 --> 00:20:37.039 Line, where if we get in a real fighting naval war, we're going 260 00:20:37.079 --> 00:20:44.480 to have lots of ships sunk, lots of ships significantly damaged that need to 261 00:20:44.480 --> 00:20:52.720 be repaired, hopefully an expeditionary manner. And yes, we have a challenging 262 00:20:52.759 --> 00:20:57.680 budget situation, but I'd always thought that a lot of these assets, and 263 00:20:57.720 --> 00:21:02.400 we've talked about this before, we have a little bit of jealousy towards the 264 00:21:02.440 --> 00:21:06.119 Air Force and the Army, and to a lesser extent, the Marine Corps. 265 00:21:06.160 --> 00:21:12.000 For this one reason is they do a better job of recapturing the experience 266 00:21:12.640 --> 00:21:18.200 of their people who leave active duty and decide not to make the actiduty career 267 00:21:18.279 --> 00:21:21.359 in the reserves, the National Guard, the Air Guard, et cetera. 268 00:21:21.400 --> 00:21:25.079 So forth, the Navy not so much. I mean, we had the 269 00:21:25.160 --> 00:21:30.720 Naval reserve, but I think there's a lot of these things we could have 270 00:21:30.839 --> 00:21:37.680 in the reserves if we could capitalize it a little better, that would be 271 00:21:37.759 --> 00:21:42.920 there for when we need them. If we are serious about contesting the waters 272 00:21:44.039 --> 00:21:48.680 against what is now the world's largest navy west of the International date Line, 273 00:21:48.720 --> 00:21:52.480 I think we need to look harder at that, because we have a different 274 00:21:52.720 --> 00:22:03.559 situation here in the twenty twenties than we've had pretty much in my lifetime. 275 00:22:06.200 --> 00:22:14.759 Yeah, it's interesting that the experience of loading the ships onto those heavy lift 276 00:22:14.759 --> 00:22:19.079 things was done under, if not totally, but under the guidance of an 277 00:22:19.079 --> 00:22:26.680 offstring Captain Greg Gant. And Greg Gant uh is a is a reserve officer. 278 00:22:26.119 --> 00:22:33.200 He's an jed oh. But he's the guy who supervised both the the 279 00:22:33.240 --> 00:22:37.720 stam Will B. Roberts and the and the the ship that got hidden in 280 00:22:38.519 --> 00:22:45.000 Yemen and getting him on the heavy lift ships. Now here's a guy who's 281 00:22:45.319 --> 00:22:48.440 my age, maybe maybe a little younger, but not much. And he's 282 00:22:48.480 --> 00:22:52.039 the guy who had that that internal knowledge. Now, is there another person 283 00:22:52.079 --> 00:22:56.119 who has acquired heavy lift in the United States Navy Reserve or in the unactive 284 00:22:56.200 --> 00:23:00.839 duty has acquired that same kind of death of ex answer, We're gonna have 285 00:23:00.920 --> 00:23:03.839 to bring Greg out of retirement and put him to work again if we have 286 00:23:03.880 --> 00:23:07.319 another one of these incidents. You know, I don't know the answer to 287 00:23:07.400 --> 00:23:14.119 that, And it's an interesting it's an interesting dilemmaphores. I also question whether 288 00:23:14.240 --> 00:23:18.400 sometimes what we look at is these ships now are so much more complex than 289 00:23:18.400 --> 00:23:26.160 the ships in World War Two that if you get a major hit and let's 290 00:23:26.400 --> 00:23:30.720 say on a on a DDG, you know, is it is it possible 291 00:23:30.759 --> 00:23:34.160 to salvage it the way we used to salvage ships during World War Two? 292 00:23:34.160 --> 00:23:41.880 Can you take it into some island and have a large floating drydock there and 293 00:23:42.079 --> 00:23:47.119 say, okay, we can fix this right up. But because I'm not 294 00:23:47.160 --> 00:23:48.839 sure that, you know, I'm questioning whether or not somebody has made the 295 00:23:48.880 --> 00:23:53.880 decision these things are so complex and so tough we can't we can't do what 296 00:23:53.880 --> 00:23:59.359 we used to do. We'd have to bring it back and and reassemble it 297 00:23:59.480 --> 00:24:03.279 in some major shipyard in the US, or maybe if we're lucky of Korea 298 00:24:04.119 --> 00:24:07.559 is around or or Japan is around at the time, we could take them 299 00:24:07.559 --> 00:24:12.359 there. But I I really I'm interested in how much it costs when we 300 00:24:12.519 --> 00:24:17.960 when we had those two d d gs, Uh, the McCain and the 301 00:24:18.160 --> 00:24:22.079 what was the other one, the you know they got they got they hit 302 00:24:22.440 --> 00:24:25.920 Gerald merchant ships or what yeah, Fitzgerald. You know, I don't know 303 00:24:25.960 --> 00:24:27.519 how much it costs to restore those things. But it was not one of 304 00:24:27.559 --> 00:24:30.079 those things where it was a you know, we can rush this thing back 305 00:24:30.079 --> 00:24:33.640 to the yard and have it back out and the uh guns of blazing in 306 00:24:34.119 --> 00:24:38.960 six weeks because we could do the work uh you know off bomb in a 307 00:24:40.119 --> 00:24:44.680 in a or in the ulify or the truck of toll or something. I 308 00:24:44.680 --> 00:24:47.720 mean, it's it's just, uh, I just think it's thinks. I'm 309 00:24:47.759 --> 00:24:51.119 wondering if somebody has has map, has gained that out and said, you 310 00:24:51.160 --> 00:24:55.440 know, yeah, we're just you know, these things are are very very 311 00:24:55.480 --> 00:24:57.519 important. We've done everything we can to protect them as well as we can, 312 00:24:57.559 --> 00:25:03.200 but once they're hit, they're pretty much toasts out of combat for that 313 00:25:03.440 --> 00:25:12.559 months. It's not that would be a great a great topic for a per 314 00:25:12.599 --> 00:25:19.480 congressional hearing. I mean, engineering duty officers aren't known for their theatrical presence, 315 00:25:21.039 --> 00:25:30.880 but that would be a really good congressional oversight exercise is to get that 316 00:25:30.960 --> 00:25:33.440 out in the open to discuss it, because that's really interesting. We do 317 00:25:33.519 --> 00:25:38.440 have a data point from the Fitzgerald, the McCain, and the Coal about 318 00:25:38.440 --> 00:25:44.160 our early burks that were robustly built, and you might have a good point 319 00:25:44.200 --> 00:25:48.160 about you know a lot of those. If your ship's designed to take multiple 320 00:25:49.319 --> 00:25:56.000 eight inch armor piercing shelves, they're probably pretty sturdy to repair, whereas our 321 00:25:56.079 --> 00:26:02.920 modern warships, even the early burks are historical standards of last one hundred and 322 00:26:02.960 --> 00:26:10.400 twenty five years, are pretty thin skinned. Maybe there is a warping that 323 00:26:10.559 --> 00:26:15.640 makes it much more difficult to repair. Also, all the electrical issues when 324 00:26:17.599 --> 00:26:22.240 it's one thing when your electrical system is all copper wire, but our modern 325 00:26:22.279 --> 00:26:27.440 electrical systems and the integrated computers, when those things get fried. Yeah, 326 00:26:27.480 --> 00:26:34.079 you're that's a real interesting exercise. It's not like you can just de water 327 00:26:34.359 --> 00:26:40.039 a space, do a little bit of painting and spot welding and turn on 328 00:26:40.119 --> 00:26:42.559 the light and you're up and running again. It doesn't work the same way, 329 00:26:42.559 --> 00:26:45.799 but that would be a very very interesting exercise. Of course, the 330 00:26:45.839 --> 00:26:55.440 follow up question there, it's okay, so what is our favorite triggering topic 331 00:26:55.480 --> 00:27:00.279 here? What is our shipyard repair capacity to be able to address that? 332 00:27:00.839 --> 00:27:06.519 Whether you forget forward, because we don't have the equipment to do forward, 333 00:27:07.279 --> 00:27:10.480 but if we're fighting west of the International Dateline, then we got to haul 334 00:27:10.559 --> 00:27:17.559 those things back to at least Hawaii or the West coast. You're right, 335 00:27:17.599 --> 00:27:22.680 it would be wonderful if we could have access to South Korea or Japanese yards, 336 00:27:22.519 --> 00:27:26.599 but they're so close to the game. I hope that we're planning that 337 00:27:26.880 --> 00:27:34.480 because of either enemy action are political action, that we will not have access 338 00:27:34.559 --> 00:27:40.319 to those and I don't think there's much capacity in Australia to cover that, 339 00:27:40.359 --> 00:27:45.440 which because it's a relatively small nation of twenty two million souls, I think 340 00:27:45.480 --> 00:27:52.319 it is with not that huge of a of a shipyard repair capacity. Yeah, 341 00:27:52.480 --> 00:27:55.240 I'm also looking at I mean, we just the Navy just came out 342 00:27:55.240 --> 00:28:02.680 with this or somebody revealed this chart of how where our construction stuff stands. 343 00:28:02.720 --> 00:28:04.160 A lot of it is not the Navy's fault, you know, Well, 344 00:28:04.240 --> 00:28:07.920 some of it is a lot of his Congress's fault because of this stupid continuing 345 00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:12.519 resolution stuff that goes on, and the inability apparently to say, okay, 346 00:28:12.559 --> 00:28:18.200 we're going to do a five year program of building Constellation class frigates and here's 347 00:28:18.240 --> 00:28:21.759 the money to do that, and we're not going to interrupt that for anything. 348 00:28:22.279 --> 00:28:25.319 So but you get a ship like the Constellation. Here we are buying 349 00:28:25.440 --> 00:28:30.720 this concept of the of the the ready design. All we had to do 350 00:28:30.880 --> 00:28:33.119 was put US flag on it, and we're going to have great little ships. 351 00:28:33.519 --> 00:28:37.559 And then what is it now? Eighty five percent of it or eighty 352 00:28:37.599 --> 00:28:41.440 percent of those ships now is his new navy design because and this is where 353 00:28:41.480 --> 00:28:47.359 I committed the question again about durability, because of the Navy, US Navy's 354 00:28:47.480 --> 00:28:55.039 higher standard of components that would ensure its survivability. And you know, does 355 00:28:55.079 --> 00:29:00.279 that mean again that the Italians and the French and the other folks involved in 356 00:29:00.279 --> 00:29:03.200 those things are just saying, well, yeah, they're they're mostly expendable, 357 00:29:03.279 --> 00:29:07.200 but you know, we want them to go do X and X and X, 358 00:29:07.240 --> 00:29:10.839 and if we lose them then we're you know, we're not happy with 359 00:29:10.880 --> 00:29:14.759 it, but we can't do anything about that. Here's here's where I have 360 00:29:14.839 --> 00:29:19.240 to find my find my center and do a little bit of meditation to control 361 00:29:19.359 --> 00:29:25.279 my rage. That you're right, they have completely flipped. It was originally 362 00:29:25.279 --> 00:29:30.279 supposed to be eighty five percent commonality. Now it's fifteen percent commonality. They 363 00:29:30.279 --> 00:29:41.759 complete you know, these selected the frem and I I mean one one reader 364 00:29:41.880 --> 00:29:47.359 got a little bit snippy in my comments, thinking I worked, I work 365 00:29:47.559 --> 00:29:51.359 think Cary or something. Again, I do not work for government. I 366 00:29:51.400 --> 00:29:55.519 do not work in the military industrial complex at all, full stop. Anyway. 367 00:29:56.440 --> 00:30:02.119 It was what I liked about the fram program and something that I started 368 00:30:02.119 --> 00:30:08.720 writing about literally in twenty ten, was we need a smaller combatant. LCS 369 00:30:08.839 --> 00:30:14.119 is not going to do it. We don't have time to do a new 370 00:30:14.200 --> 00:30:18.000 build. So what we needed to do was to contract build a successful existing 371 00:30:18.119 --> 00:30:22.440 class that for and I think back then I said, a run of twenty 372 00:30:22.480 --> 00:30:27.279 four to thirty six ships while we design our own ship to get it in 373 00:30:27.359 --> 00:30:32.599 the water, because that's the requirement. Everything is a compromise, everything is 374 00:30:32.599 --> 00:30:37.519 a trade off, and we already lost a generation with LCS and no reason 375 00:30:37.519 --> 00:30:40.519 to rehack that. However entertaining it might be to drag it out of the 376 00:30:40.519 --> 00:30:45.279 gip box and beat it a bit, but we don't have time to fiddle 377 00:30:45.319 --> 00:30:52.599 around forgetting what is the supported and the supporting operation here. We need to 378 00:30:52.599 --> 00:31:00.200 get ships in the water if we need to convert the firm class to what 379 00:31:00.240 --> 00:31:06.200 the US Navy says or requirements. If I was ever, I would have 380 00:31:06.200 --> 00:31:08.559 said, that's a great thing to do for flight two. But we don't 381 00:31:08.559 --> 00:31:11.240 have that luxury right now. We've got to get holes in the water. 382 00:31:11.839 --> 00:31:18.519 So eighty five percent is the floor, not the ceiling. Put flight one 383 00:31:18.559 --> 00:31:23.000 in the water, then you can do your adjustments for flight two. But 384 00:31:23.079 --> 00:31:26.839 we didn't do that for reasons that are best explained by other people who are 385 00:31:26.880 --> 00:31:32.559 paid a lot more money than I am. I think it's absolutely disgraceful, 386 00:31:32.559 --> 00:31:38.400 but I found really interesting because it ties into some macro issues about some institutional 387 00:31:40.240 --> 00:31:47.720 trouble with the truth is I think it was back in January the Navy reported 388 00:31:47.799 --> 00:31:55.000 that the Constellation would be a year late. Sixty days later they go, 389 00:31:55.119 --> 00:31:57.000 eh, no, let's see, I'm actually looking at the chart. Constellation 390 00:31:57.200 --> 00:32:02.319 lead class approximately thirty six months, three years for you and me. So 391 00:32:04.079 --> 00:32:07.160 all of a sudden it solid to the right twenty four months because of something 392 00:32:07.160 --> 00:32:10.960 that happened the last sixty days. That is the story for those in the 393 00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:16.720 military press who want to dig into it. Why who and why did we 394 00:32:16.759 --> 00:32:22.920 go from twelve months to thirty six months inside of sixty days. That's just 395 00:32:23.799 --> 00:32:29.759 I don't know, it's disgraat I'm disgraceful is probably a kind word. Yeah, 396 00:32:29.920 --> 00:32:31.880 I think we're still you know, we've talked about so many things that 397 00:32:31.960 --> 00:32:36.759 involve shipbuilding that you know, we don't have. We don't have the shipyards, 398 00:32:36.759 --> 00:32:40.759 we don't have the skill technicians. I'm really happy to see during these 399 00:32:42.279 --> 00:32:47.319 NCAA basketball games that you know, there's Bills submarine group wherever they are is 400 00:32:47.480 --> 00:32:53.599 out it's probably a submarine companies and manufacturing outfits. But you know they're out 401 00:32:53.599 --> 00:32:57.240 there looking for welders. They're out there saying this is the career, this 402 00:32:57.319 --> 00:33:00.359 is these are good jobs and your help in the country. Uh. I 403 00:33:00.400 --> 00:33:06.960 mean, I don't, I don't and I just don't understand Congress, I 404 00:33:06.960 --> 00:33:09.160 mean I don't understand the cancelation. I don't know. I guess you know, 405 00:33:09.279 --> 00:33:13.759 the the group that McGrath was supposed to be on, we talked about 406 00:33:13.799 --> 00:33:20.720 that. You know, why do they negate that who's whose fingers on the 407 00:33:20.880 --> 00:33:24.079 on the scale, who's you know, who's who's making things happen, making 408 00:33:24.079 --> 00:33:28.599 these things happen the way they do. And then then not to have the 409 00:33:28.680 --> 00:33:32.079 nerve after you cancel, I mean, after you send out this sheet saying 410 00:33:32.240 --> 00:33:38.519 here's the new delay. Summary's delayed, Frigate's delayed, and so on. 411 00:33:39.519 --> 00:33:44.640 Then there's a big expo put on by the Navy League, I guess, 412 00:33:45.319 --> 00:33:49.839 and they were supposed to discuss ship building, and two days before that was 413 00:33:49.839 --> 00:33:52.440 supposed to happen, the Navy says, no, we're not going to do 414 00:33:52.480 --> 00:33:55.319 that for whoever. I mean, they're not going to participate. Well, 415 00:33:55.440 --> 00:34:00.839 you know that doesn't look good if he's going to do if you're gonna do 416 00:34:00.880 --> 00:34:02.880 anything, stand up, go we we screwed up. Or you know, 417 00:34:02.920 --> 00:34:07.480 here's our problem. Our problem is with with Congress. And it's it's their 418 00:34:07.559 --> 00:34:14.159 fault, you know, I mean, it's it's uh a huge lost opportunity. 419 00:34:15.039 --> 00:34:17.320 Oh yeah. And and and the other thing is that you know, 420 00:34:17.400 --> 00:34:21.920 when we're we're on accent, we're going naval na naval lists, you know, 421 00:34:21.960 --> 00:34:24.679 worships la dah la la, uh, the army guys and the air 422 00:34:24.719 --> 00:34:29.719 Force guys are all all over us saying, oh no, you know, 423 00:34:29.800 --> 00:34:31.679 you guys have really screwed the pooch with your programs. I'm looking at the 424 00:34:31.800 --> 00:34:36.880 Army Crusader programs, all those other lost causes, going yeah, yeah, 425 00:34:36.960 --> 00:34:38.840 tell me about it. Why are you guys still getting the third of the 426 00:34:38.840 --> 00:34:42.559 money. I mean, we should be getting more money for for the one 427 00:34:42.599 --> 00:34:46.599 ass that everybody needs to have. And you know, but we're locked into 428 00:34:46.639 --> 00:34:54.519 this uh jointness and and uh stuff that you know, the way we do 429 00:34:54.639 --> 00:34:58.719 things, it makes no sense. Somebody is gonna have to go in there 430 00:34:58.760 --> 00:35:02.159 and clean how And one of the things that I thought of, speaking of 431 00:35:02.199 --> 00:35:07.119 cleaning house, is when you look at rickover rickover ran the Navy's nuclear power 432 00:35:07.119 --> 00:35:10.920 program and pretty much nuclear power program for the country in many ways. So 433 00:35:13.000 --> 00:35:15.679 how long was he in that office? He was in that office forever. 434 00:35:15.760 --> 00:35:21.119 If you look at the Russian admirals who got their first the fleet first build 435 00:35:21.199 --> 00:35:24.320 up, or he was in office. Yeah, whirscuff was there forever. 436 00:35:25.039 --> 00:35:30.239 Why don't we have a tzar of shipbuilding who was there forever? Let him 437 00:35:30.239 --> 00:35:32.920 build a damn empire. But if he's good at his job, you know 438 00:35:32.960 --> 00:35:37.159 we would if he was in private technology, had some guy who knew what 439 00:35:37.159 --> 00:35:38.679 he was doing, he wouldn't. You wouldn't run him out after two or 440 00:35:38.679 --> 00:35:42.239 three years, say oh, now it's your chance to become you know, 441 00:35:42.400 --> 00:35:47.280 Southcomb or something. Where where are our where's our TZAR for this? We 442 00:35:47.280 --> 00:35:52.400 should the Navy should have a TSAR for shipbuilding. And here's there for a 443 00:35:52.480 --> 00:36:00.320 long time. And here's why that is so important accountability. And hello everybody, 444 00:36:00.440 --> 00:36:06.480 Sorry about that. We had a little problem with our blog talk radio 445 00:36:06.800 --> 00:36:10.679 server. Not here something over a blog talk radio. So we chatted for 446 00:36:10.719 --> 00:36:14.360 a couple of minutes, and we're kind of picking this up just a few 447 00:36:14.360 --> 00:36:22.400 minutes later. So I'm not sure where we actually finished our before the server 448 00:36:22.599 --> 00:36:24.920 died, or if I'll even be able to recover the first forty five minutes 449 00:36:24.920 --> 00:36:30.039 of the show, but we think we have an idea when the server died, 450 00:36:30.119 --> 00:36:34.880 so I guess because I was prattling away and so Mark caught it. 451 00:36:35.119 --> 00:36:39.760 But we kind of covered that part of the grid. And one thing that's 452 00:36:39.920 --> 00:36:49.320 interesting about the delay grid that has manifested itself in another way is the submarine 453 00:36:49.360 --> 00:36:57.159 program delay and the last few years, one of the top issues related to 454 00:36:57.679 --> 00:37:01.880 the American submarine industry. Besides, same thing with the surface industry is finding 455 00:37:02.760 --> 00:37:10.480 enough properly trained craftsmen to build them. Has been AUCUST treaty, which when 456 00:37:10.519 --> 00:37:16.079 you back away from you know, we need to have so many new nuclear 457 00:37:16.119 --> 00:37:20.559 submarines commissioned each year of the United States Navy. When you look at the 458 00:37:20.719 --> 00:37:28.000 broader strategic implications and just playing good allyship with our British and Australian friends, 459 00:37:30.280 --> 00:37:35.719 I've always been concerned that some way we can screw this up. And there 460 00:37:35.800 --> 00:37:40.800 have been a lot of people who are very focused on just the US Navy 461 00:37:40.880 --> 00:37:50.960 numbers on a spreadsheet that are giving the Australians and those that are enthusiastic about 462 00:37:50.960 --> 00:37:53.920 the AUCUST program concern that we're not going to be able to follow through. 463 00:37:54.599 --> 00:38:00.760 And besides keeping our words and our obligations and what it can do to our 464 00:38:00.519 --> 00:38:07.920 allied relationships, I remain of the opinion that should we run into some problems 465 00:38:07.880 --> 00:38:15.639 that in a broader context, looking at the broader picture, that it would 466 00:38:15.719 --> 00:38:20.880 be better for the United States and its position in the world if to meet 467 00:38:21.119 --> 00:38:28.559 our obligations under Aucus, if that means that we have to take a submarine 468 00:38:28.599 --> 00:38:34.760 coming off the line and instead of being USS something, it's HMAS something else. 469 00:38:35.519 --> 00:38:38.480 Then that's what we need to do. It's going to be a long 470 00:38:38.519 --> 00:38:45.159 time to fix the problems that we have with our SSBN recapitalization and the new 471 00:38:45.199 --> 00:38:52.119 builds and the new SSN, all these things coming on. But our relationship 472 00:38:52.199 --> 00:38:57.840 with Australia and our British allies, I think is a lot more important than 473 00:38:58.199 --> 00:39:02.000 one or two ssn's line under the American flag. That's my initial blush at 474 00:39:02.039 --> 00:39:06.199 it as we try to figure out how we're actually going to get these things 475 00:39:07.280 --> 00:39:14.000 built. Yeah, I think that's a good idea. We have now some 476 00:39:15.800 --> 00:39:20.360 Australian some ringers who have gone through the nuclear power program, and there's no 477 00:39:20.440 --> 00:39:24.920 reason we can't and since it's in hockest thing, there's no reason we can't 478 00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.400 have like some kind of combined crew. I mean, we've got Brits, 479 00:39:29.440 --> 00:39:36.000 we've got Australians. The Brits are certainly familiar with operations of nuclear power and 480 00:39:37.199 --> 00:39:39.199 you know, if they wanted, and they used to do this, you 481 00:39:39.199 --> 00:39:45.639 know, the Royal Navy would take members of the Australian force and put them 482 00:39:45.679 --> 00:39:51.519 on their Royal Navy ships and put the command Royal Navy ships for that matter, 483 00:39:51.800 --> 00:39:53.960 and they would go operate together. Now, you know things, the 484 00:39:53.960 --> 00:39:58.079 world's a little different than it was back in the World War Two, but 485 00:39:58.960 --> 00:40:01.920 there's no reason we can't have combined crews for a while. Let them get 486 00:40:01.960 --> 00:40:09.119 the experience while we're sorting through the funding issues and the manpower issues we need 487 00:40:09.159 --> 00:40:14.000 to develop our shipyard is the way they should be developed. But yeah, 488 00:40:14.039 --> 00:40:16.039 I think it's I think it's a good idea, and I don't think it's 489 00:40:16.079 --> 00:40:21.599 not. It's not a net loss in submarines for US. It is. 490 00:40:22.039 --> 00:40:25.719 It is just trading, you know, it's just moving a submarine to a 491 00:40:25.880 --> 00:40:32.159 to a different locale with a different command structure. But it is it is 492 00:40:32.280 --> 00:40:39.000 still an Allied asset and that is not a net loss to US or to 493 00:40:39.039 --> 00:40:44.280 our alliance. In the last twenty four hours has been a bunch of news 494 00:40:44.360 --> 00:40:51.320 articles out as well that inside Aucus that there's talks to expanding Aucust with Japan 495 00:40:51.440 --> 00:40:57.880 as a likely candidate. You know me, I'm I'm a huge fan of 496 00:40:58.199 --> 00:41:02.000 all things Japanese, and not just their cute cartoons, their military. But 497 00:41:02.960 --> 00:41:10.320 why don't we concentrate on getting the Australian thing online. First, I don't 498 00:41:10.360 --> 00:41:16.039 know the Japanese are really interested in nuclear powered submarines. They build some of 499 00:41:16.079 --> 00:41:22.760 the world's best conventional submarines. I'd rather have them continue to do that real 500 00:41:22.800 --> 00:41:29.920 well, and we can build our relationship with the Japanese more if need be. 501 00:41:30.280 --> 00:41:34.440 I think the I think they were part of it. But you know, 502 00:41:34.480 --> 00:41:38.679 there are relationships that can build a lot now and in the near future. 503 00:41:38.760 --> 00:41:44.000 For instance, I believe it's not just the US the Philippines in Australia, 504 00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:49.519 but is Japan involved in those exercises off of the Philippines. I don't 505 00:41:49.519 --> 00:41:53.000 know if you've read something about that recently, but that's also a good thing 506 00:41:53.039 --> 00:41:59.480 to see. The more multilateral exercises that we can do, especially with people 507 00:41:59.519 --> 00:42:04.800 like the Phillopines that need some robust friends in their in their territorial waters is 508 00:42:04.800 --> 00:42:09.800 good. Yeah, that's uh. I think Japan is involved in that. 509 00:42:09.960 --> 00:42:19.239 And it's you know, it's a sign that that the Chinese bluggery is not 510 00:42:19.280 --> 00:42:21.880 going to work. These you know, people are going to resist this. 511 00:42:22.639 --> 00:42:24.159 You know, we this is the way it is. We say. It 512 00:42:24.239 --> 00:42:30.400 is mentality that the Chinese have now, you know, and usually a bully 513 00:42:30.519 --> 00:42:35.480 is is deeply insecure, you know, if you go to the school yard 514 00:42:35.599 --> 00:42:44.480 wisdom. But I think it's the it's the nature of their omnipotent government that 515 00:42:44.559 --> 00:42:47.599 they assume everybody's just going to fall in love because they say they're they're going 516 00:42:47.639 --> 00:42:51.280 to and by golly, we have pictures of you doing bad things. So 517 00:42:52.079 --> 00:42:53.880 you know, I don't I don't really care about all that. I just 518 00:42:53.920 --> 00:42:58.320 would like us to be a good ally. I think the I think you're 519 00:42:58.400 --> 00:43:02.760 right about the Japanese submarines. I'm not sure why they need an extended capability. 520 00:43:02.920 --> 00:43:06.920 You know, they don't have the Pacific Ocean to cross, or the 521 00:43:06.960 --> 00:43:13.599 distance between Australia and and off the coast of China. You know, these 522 00:43:13.599 --> 00:43:22.280 are these are issues for of time and distance. I don't think Japanese faces 523 00:43:22.320 --> 00:43:25.400 that Japan faces that. But yeah, they've got some terrific subs, and 524 00:43:25.519 --> 00:43:30.360 I would suggest that if they want to play with with the ocice idea, 525 00:43:30.039 --> 00:43:35.400 that you know, they may want to take a couple of their conventional subs 526 00:43:35.199 --> 00:43:39.599 and let the Australians play with those two. Yeah, I just uh, 527 00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:44.559 just checked the AP and AP report a couple of days ago. Japan has 528 00:43:44.599 --> 00:43:51.880 included so that's that's really good to see. It's something that you know, 529 00:43:52.079 --> 00:43:54.880 a couple of decades ago, or even less than that, a decade ago, 530 00:43:55.519 --> 00:44:05.280 that you you really wouldn't see the Japanese doing that, especially with some 531 00:44:05.320 --> 00:44:09.119 of the nations uh that they had a spot of bother with at the same 532 00:44:09.119 --> 00:44:14.199 time as we did. But again, that's that's fading out of living memory 533 00:44:14.280 --> 00:44:19.000 for a lot of people. And I think the more that Japan can be 534 00:44:19.119 --> 00:44:27.599 seen as a defense partner with the Philippines, Taiwan and even Vietnam, I 535 00:44:27.639 --> 00:44:31.360 think that's better for for everybody. It's better for the for the Japanese that 536 00:44:31.440 --> 00:44:37.480 we can we can get past the late unpleasantness and address the challenges that we're 537 00:44:37.480 --> 00:44:42.480 seeing here uh in the approaching the center of the of the twenty first century. 538 00:44:43.000 --> 00:44:47.159 Leave the center of the twentieth century to the history books. Yeah, 539 00:44:47.199 --> 00:44:50.679 you know, we all hope that's the case, but you know, people 540 00:44:50.719 --> 00:44:57.119 have we learned from the Balkans and the Middle East. People have long memories. 541 00:44:57.159 --> 00:45:00.800 And you know there Mike and and and thirteen eighty seven, you're you're 542 00:45:00.960 --> 00:45:06.159 great great great great great uncle Fred and insulted my great great great great great 543 00:45:06.840 --> 00:45:09.880 uncle, uh, uncle George and we're never going to forget that insult. 544 00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:16.840 So uh it is. You know, somebody was talking about the tribal nature 545 00:45:16.880 --> 00:45:21.519 of the Middle East. You know that that we we tend to think that 546 00:45:21.519 --> 00:45:25.239 that if you're Assyria and you're Assyrian, but you know that is definitely not 547 00:45:25.360 --> 00:45:30.760 the case. And if you're an Iraqi, you're in Iraqi. But Iraq 548 00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:36.119 is made up of a jumble of tribes and and they're there. It's a 549 00:45:36.159 --> 00:45:37.480 mess as a result. I mean, it's one of the nice things that 550 00:45:37.559 --> 00:45:42.360 used to happen in this country before we decided we would have all these groups 551 00:45:42.840 --> 00:45:46.440 that everybody should be proud of being whatever. And now I have problem with 552 00:45:46.480 --> 00:45:51.480 you know, if you're Irish or Botswanian and you want to you want to 553 00:45:51.480 --> 00:45:54.920 claim that that's great, but somebody, as somebody notes, you know first, 554 00:45:55.000 --> 00:45:59.719 you're being American first, and that's the way we used to to think 555 00:45:59.719 --> 00:46:01.880 about it, so it didn't matter if you were. We had a lot 556 00:46:01.920 --> 00:46:05.239 of prejudices going into World War Two, and a lot of them got resolved 557 00:46:05.280 --> 00:46:07.880 because people began to work together. So if you were an Italian or Irish 558 00:46:08.000 --> 00:46:13.000 or whatever, at least that was the time of some of the Great melting 559 00:46:13.039 --> 00:46:16.320 Pot really was World War Two, and we need to keep that in mind. 560 00:46:16.320 --> 00:46:20.920 But we're dealing with some of these other countries. Their memories go way 561 00:46:20.960 --> 00:46:23.440 back. Yeah, you're right, we could learn We can learn a lot 562 00:46:23.480 --> 00:46:30.599 of lessons here with our little experiment we've got running that those nations and cultures 563 00:46:30.639 --> 00:46:36.280 who are constantly picking at wounds that they never heal, and it just creates 564 00:46:36.800 --> 00:46:40.760 creates more violence and things. When you have well meaning people who are willing 565 00:46:40.840 --> 00:46:45.840 to go forward, you know, not the past, but not let the 566 00:46:45.880 --> 00:46:49.639 past the past warp the present, you know, things, things can move 567 00:46:49.719 --> 00:46:54.719 pretty fast. Like one of the big frustrations over on the on the NATO 568 00:46:54.880 --> 00:46:59.519 side of the house, Well, first of all, nothing, nothing will 569 00:46:59.519 --> 00:47:05.800 get your more than an angry bear. But the Norwegians have perpetually because they're 570 00:47:05.880 --> 00:47:09.920 kind of kind of spoiled with all of their hydrocardiom wealth. But they had 571 00:47:12.239 --> 00:47:15.079 their military is very good, but very small. They had always since the 572 00:47:15.159 --> 00:47:19.519 end of the Cold War, spent well below two percent. But even the 573 00:47:19.559 --> 00:47:25.840 Norwegians announced that they're going to by the end of this year bump it up 574 00:47:25.960 --> 00:47:30.400 hard to two percent, and they're going to be at two point seven percent 575 00:47:30.440 --> 00:47:37.400 of GDP by twenty thirty. That float folds in with the Polish announcement over 576 00:47:37.440 --> 00:47:39.360 the course of last year, which again the Bear has got their attention. 577 00:47:40.679 --> 00:47:45.960 They want to have NATO talk about, well, the two percent should no 578 00:47:46.000 --> 00:47:51.880 longer be the floor. I think I think they're trending towards four percent and 579 00:47:51.880 --> 00:47:54.760 they're saying maybe three percent needs to be where it is. So things when 580 00:47:54.840 --> 00:47:59.920 situations change and you have the right leaders and people who are making the right 581 00:48:00.199 --> 00:48:07.880 arguments with their with their elected representatives, you can see some some turning there, 582 00:48:07.039 --> 00:48:13.920 and that's been refreshing to see on the NATO side of the House that 583 00:48:14.559 --> 00:48:16.400 things that two or three years ago people say, Oh, you'll never get 584 00:48:16.440 --> 00:48:21.960 Norway to be at two percent. That's ridiculous. They're just not going to 585 00:48:22.000 --> 00:48:24.320 do it two point seven percent. Nah, they'd never do that. Well, 586 00:48:25.519 --> 00:48:32.480 things change and people respond to that. Change Norway if they will not 587 00:48:32.599 --> 00:48:37.480 If they will they maintain the same quality, Uh, that will be an 588 00:48:37.480 --> 00:48:42.280 oppressive bit of kit that they'll be able to purchase. Even though they are 589 00:48:42.280 --> 00:48:45.039 a small nation of I think somewhere between five and five and a half million 590 00:48:45.119 --> 00:48:51.039 souls, they're they're like in a lot of the Scandinavian countries. Though they 591 00:48:51.039 --> 00:48:55.760 have a lot of quality with the kit that they buy. It's not just 592 00:48:55.920 --> 00:48:59.559 not just a number of situation with them. So that was nice to see. 593 00:49:00.400 --> 00:49:04.079 Yeah, I was I always interested in looking at one of the other 594 00:49:04.199 --> 00:49:07.320 Scandavian countries. Denmark seems to have had a tough go here the last couple 595 00:49:07.320 --> 00:49:13.679 of weeks and ended up firing their defense chief. They've got a destroyer that 596 00:49:14.280 --> 00:49:16.280 radar doesn't seem to work the way it should, so they sent it back 597 00:49:16.320 --> 00:49:21.119 to out of the Red Sea to go home. And then they decided that 598 00:49:21.159 --> 00:49:23.159 while they were testing a harpoon they would go ahead and light off the booster 599 00:49:23.800 --> 00:49:31.480 and close down airspace and see space around Denmark for a while. It's funny, 600 00:49:31.480 --> 00:49:37.000 they're not funny, but the iv R I can't pronounce the last second 601 00:49:37.039 --> 00:49:40.400 part of the name Hergersfurt to her to her to, I don't know some 602 00:49:40.480 --> 00:49:46.800 Scandinavian vowel. They're always twist my tongue up. But that's a good example. 603 00:49:46.880 --> 00:49:50.880 That's not a new ship, that's not a new system, and it's 604 00:49:50.920 --> 00:49:57.159 funny. One of the radar is actually German, and the German contractor came 605 00:49:57.199 --> 00:50:00.440 out with very thoughts was not the problem without radar. Evidently it has to 606 00:50:00.480 --> 00:50:06.440 do at the interface. But I thought this was actually a good example because 607 00:50:06.639 --> 00:50:14.719 nobody got killed. But one thing that navies do in peacetime, and the 608 00:50:14.840 --> 00:50:17.440 US Navy's guilty of this too, So you know, I know, I'm 609 00:50:17.480 --> 00:50:22.840 in a glasshouse throwing rocks. Though we're better than we were before World War 610 00:50:22.920 --> 00:50:31.079 Two, you can't skimp on range day. You have to expend the weapons 611 00:50:31.800 --> 00:50:37.480 that you're going to ask your sailors to take to war at the range against 612 00:50:37.599 --> 00:50:42.480 realistic targets and a realistic number. You can't go through the magazine and cherry 613 00:50:42.480 --> 00:50:46.960 pick which weapons going to be fired and which isn't and then pamper that thing 614 00:50:47.320 --> 00:50:52.960 there is on this net. I won't discuss what weapon system it is or 615 00:50:53.000 --> 00:50:57.840 which service it is, but there's one weapon system in one service that is 616 00:50:57.960 --> 00:51:05.199 notorious for saying we had a great you know, great test here. Yeah, 617 00:51:05.320 --> 00:51:07.239 that was not a war shot you used, and everybody knows it's not 618 00:51:07.280 --> 00:51:12.079 a war shot you used, so your data set is worthless. You've got 619 00:51:12.159 --> 00:51:15.880 to do that, because I think the problems they had on the IVR can't 620 00:51:15.880 --> 00:51:21.000 pronounce the second word is it was a software issue, but they also had 621 00:51:21.039 --> 00:51:29.880 a hardware issue where they're NATO's favorite seventy six millimeters the auto Malera. Their 622 00:51:30.039 --> 00:51:37.559 fuses were old but were given the thumbs up, and a high percentage of 623 00:51:37.599 --> 00:51:42.519 them exploded right when it came out of the end of the cannon, which 624 00:51:42.559 --> 00:51:45.320 is something that I'm sure wakes you up on the bridge. That's why they 625 00:51:45.320 --> 00:51:49.679 were wearing their flashcar. I guess they were still able to engage with the 626 00:51:49.760 --> 00:51:54.159 drones and take them out, but they were very and again it goes back 627 00:51:54.320 --> 00:51:57.679 I gain as we get near the end of the show. I guess this 628 00:51:57.760 --> 00:52:00.760 is a great way to close the circle. Is what did the Danes show 629 00:52:00.840 --> 00:52:06.880 us? I know it was originally a leak of an email from the skipper 630 00:52:06.880 --> 00:52:13.960 of the ship, who was rightfully raging against the fact that he, his 631 00:52:14.119 --> 00:52:21.199 sailors, and his ship were in harm's way and they were given improper censors 632 00:52:22.159 --> 00:52:30.119 to fight in the real world, and they were given outdated fuses in their 633 00:52:30.159 --> 00:52:36.000 gun to go to war with and the Prime Minister didn't take too kindly to 634 00:52:36.119 --> 00:52:40.519 not being properly informed of these issues, so they fired very high ranking people 635 00:52:40.880 --> 00:52:46.599 over an incident that didn't even cost any lives. It didn't cost loss of 636 00:52:46.639 --> 00:52:51.360 the ship. It costs a little bit of losing to face, but there 637 00:52:51.480 --> 00:52:59.519 was immediate and public accountability a senior personnel, you know the old hang one 638 00:52:59.519 --> 00:53:06.880 person to beate a thousand situations. So thumbs down to whoever in Denmark is 639 00:53:06.920 --> 00:53:14.480 responsible for Range Day, but thumbs up to the Danish government and their swift 640 00:53:14.559 --> 00:53:20.320 and public accountability of a personnel to set an example. I think that's something 641 00:53:20.719 --> 00:53:23.960 that we could all learn from. Yeah, and as long as we're going 642 00:53:24.039 --> 00:53:30.440 to give out a positive things, let's talk about the CEO of the of 643 00:53:30.559 --> 00:53:37.039 the US S. Eisenhower, who has his cookie sailor sailor cookie moments, 644 00:53:37.559 --> 00:53:40.119 And I think it's just brilliant. He gets these you know all it's all 645 00:53:40.159 --> 00:53:45.880 over X and he gets young people who are doing a good job and gets 646 00:53:45.880 --> 00:53:50.039 them up on the bridge and the families get to see them get a cookie, 647 00:53:50.079 --> 00:53:53.000 and and it's a reward, and it's you know, it's it's it's 648 00:53:53.360 --> 00:53:58.400 putting a people we are doing good work in the spotlight. And it is 649 00:53:58.519 --> 00:54:02.599 really easy in the service. Sadly to eighty percent of your people are done 650 00:54:02.639 --> 00:54:06.280 a good job. But you tend to spend twenty percent of your time on 651 00:54:06.400 --> 00:54:08.440 that on that or one hundred and eighty percent of your time in the twenty 652 00:54:08.440 --> 00:54:15.440 percent. That is not working right. And it's nice to see a CEO 653 00:54:15.559 --> 00:54:20.400 take the time to pay attention to the good people. And Chauda has done 654 00:54:20.440 --> 00:54:24.000 what you and I have talked about have been frustrated with for a long time, 655 00:54:24.840 --> 00:54:30.880 is our navy has a great story. Our sailors are doing incredible things, 656 00:54:31.400 --> 00:54:38.519 but I don't know what our hundreds of pos are doing out there. 657 00:54:39.119 --> 00:54:44.840 But he has managed with his and he does more and just cookie pictures. 658 00:54:44.880 --> 00:54:51.599 He highlights his sailors. He has really opened a lot of eyes to a 659 00:54:51.639 --> 00:54:54.519 great story that is the day to day operations and the things that our navy 660 00:54:54.559 --> 00:54:58.960 does. If we can just get out there and find a way to tell 661 00:54:58.960 --> 00:55:02.079 that story, I think what has been really fun. I think a perfect 662 00:55:02.119 --> 00:55:10.159 example one of the nuclear machinist mates. I think she couldn't be like twenty 663 00:55:10.159 --> 00:55:15.000 two, twenty three years old. She was up there getting her cookie is 664 00:55:15.320 --> 00:55:19.719 you know originally people who know we're kind of teaser. It's like that's enough 665 00:55:19.800 --> 00:55:22.840 daylight for her and get her back down there. But it's also a great 666 00:55:22.880 --> 00:55:27.920 way to You would see that in the response to that in other posts where 667 00:55:28.480 --> 00:55:31.960 if you're a young man or a woman who wants to get some responsibility, 668 00:55:34.360 --> 00:55:40.199 especially if you're really really smart, there are things and opportunities in the Navy 669 00:55:40.400 --> 00:55:45.400 where you will be doing things at age nineteen, twenty, twenty one, 670 00:55:45.559 --> 00:55:50.280 twenty two that none of your peers are anywhere are going to be close to 671 00:55:50.400 --> 00:55:54.079 doing it. Doesn't mean you'd have to make it a career, but you 672 00:55:54.079 --> 00:55:58.199 know, a two year, three year, four year enlistment if you're not 673 00:55:58.280 --> 00:56:00.599 ready to go to college or college is for you, but you would like 674 00:56:00.719 --> 00:56:07.239 to either serve your nation or you just want to go out and do something 675 00:56:07.760 --> 00:56:13.559 there. He has managed to highlight that and some of the individuals at the 676 00:56:13.599 --> 00:56:20.760 different jobs they have. He also had a great picture of aviation Bosn's mate 677 00:56:20.880 --> 00:56:25.039 working on the catapults having a great time, none of whom look to be 678 00:56:25.079 --> 00:56:30.679 older than twenty five. That's the Navy that you and I have talked about, 679 00:56:30.679 --> 00:56:36.280 and you and I both know that never really gets highlighted well. And 680 00:56:36.360 --> 00:56:42.679 if it is highlighted, it's overpackaged, it's overproduced, as opposed to which 681 00:56:42.760 --> 00:56:46.000 career was it. It was over a decade ago where they had a documentary 682 00:56:46.039 --> 00:56:52.800 where they just let the reporters loose on a carrier and the results were outstanding 683 00:56:53.159 --> 00:56:58.440 as you would expect them to be with the quality of the sailors most of 684 00:56:58.519 --> 00:57:01.639 us know. So, yeah, you're right he should be pointed out as 685 00:57:01.639 --> 00:57:07.360 an example for others. Is there some danger in doing that? Yeah, 686 00:57:07.719 --> 00:57:14.159 yeah, yeah, maybe possibly, but it's worth it. He has done 687 00:57:14.239 --> 00:57:22.880 more I think, at least in that part of the information space then anything 688 00:57:22.920 --> 00:57:30.360 that's come out of the po open communication paths that I can think of. 689 00:57:30.400 --> 00:57:35.079 And what's really important about that The secondary impact is you can say what you 690 00:57:35.119 --> 00:57:43.039 want to about social media or x, but the media gets a lot of 691 00:57:43.039 --> 00:57:46.320 their ideas from that. You look at the major media sources who they follow, 692 00:57:47.159 --> 00:57:52.119 what they see, and how they interact. So he is getting the 693 00:57:52.719 --> 00:57:58.440 view from the carrier deck into the heads of a lot of people who that 694 00:57:58.480 --> 00:58:00.800 will be in the back of their head is write about our navy and they 695 00:58:00.840 --> 00:58:06.400 try to understand our navy as other stories come up. That's that good secondary 696 00:58:06.440 --> 00:58:09.440 impact. So I'm glad. I'm glad you brought up that. That's one 697 00:58:09.480 --> 00:58:14.840 of the nicer examples of the last a few months, even though I think 698 00:58:14.880 --> 00:58:19.280 his ship got extended on deployment. Yeah that happens. Yeah, well that's 699 00:58:19.320 --> 00:58:23.280 staking lobster night. Everybody got a full billy. I got the news. 700 00:58:24.000 --> 00:58:29.639 Yeah, now stand by for the good news. Yeah. I think it's 701 00:58:29.760 --> 00:58:34.719 uh yeah, we tend to forget. I mean when I was on visiting 702 00:58:34.760 --> 00:58:37.719 carriers on you know, I never served in one, but I got to 703 00:58:37.719 --> 00:58:40.039 be on a couple of them, you know, And you're watching the flight 704 00:58:40.079 --> 00:58:44.360 deck work. It's a ballet. It's beautiful, and the people aren't, 705 00:58:44.519 --> 00:58:47.480 as you say, eighteen ninety year old kids are dragging chains around. They're 706 00:58:47.920 --> 00:58:52.679 you know, you know, parking airplane so close together you think, you 707 00:58:52.719 --> 00:58:53.920 know, a quarter inch one way or the other. We're going to have 708 00:58:55.119 --> 00:59:00.519 a big bill coming up. But they just do a mag of some job. 709 00:59:00.559 --> 00:59:01.760 And I'm glad to see. And they're not the only ones. I 710 00:59:01.800 --> 00:59:05.679 mean, all the all the snipes on the on the d d g s, 711 00:59:05.800 --> 00:59:08.239 all the kids working on the on the PCs, if we still have 712 00:59:08.280 --> 00:59:13.039 any of those, uh, you know, and the amphib guys. You 713 00:59:13.079 --> 00:59:15.800 know, there are skill sets there that we most people don't even know about. 714 00:59:16.400 --> 00:59:23.119 And and I'll even throw in some bonus words for the the MSc crews 715 00:59:23.239 --> 00:59:28.239 who are doing the oilers and the and the replenishment ships. You know, 716 00:59:28.320 --> 00:59:32.960 that is a one of the more challenging aspects of driving a ship is taking 717 00:59:34.000 --> 00:59:37.840 a very large ship pulling within a couple of hundred feet of another one, 718 00:59:37.280 --> 00:59:44.599 and and staying side by side doing twelve or fourteen knots uh while transferring ammunition, 719 00:59:44.760 --> 00:59:52.639 fuel and and uh, you know, food and other items across that 720 00:59:52.639 --> 00:59:55.880 that space between the ships and the in the helopilots, many of whom are 721 00:59:57.000 --> 01:00:00.840 us N and some of whom are civilian who are doing on the vert reps. 722 01:00:00.880 --> 01:00:02.880 I mean that is that is a tremendously challenge if some of the hardest 723 01:00:02.920 --> 01:00:07.360 flying you can probably do in a in a helicopter, you know, And 724 01:00:07.400 --> 01:00:09.840 it looks simple if you're if you're just watching it because it's a ballet and 725 01:00:09.880 --> 01:00:15.199 it's it's it's fascinating to watch. But it is a tremendously difficult job. 726 01:00:15.559 --> 01:00:21.599 And we do it so well we don't even think about it. There are 727 01:00:21.599 --> 01:00:24.719 a couple of defense reporters who might think I don't like them if I if 728 01:00:24.760 --> 01:00:29.039 I propose this to them that I would love for them to be on one 729 01:00:29.079 --> 01:00:32.599 of those vert rep helicopters to see that evolution take place and to have their 730 01:00:32.599 --> 01:00:39.280 cameraman with them, just to see that from on board the helo. It's 731 01:00:39.280 --> 01:00:43.440 one thing to see it from the deck of a ship. It's another thing 732 01:00:43.480 --> 01:00:46.480 to actually be in the aircraft as it's doing it. Yeah, that would 733 01:00:46.519 --> 01:00:51.159 be a good show. I mean, we've come up a whole executive summary 734 01:00:51.320 --> 01:00:55.679 we need to get and again, is there danger here? Sure, there's 735 01:00:55.760 --> 01:00:59.840 danger here, but there's a lot more to be gained if you have confidence 736 01:00:59.880 --> 01:01:05.800 in your sailor and your navy is We need to get more people underway in 737 01:01:05.880 --> 01:01:14.159 more locations and to encourage and reward leaders like child to to get out in 738 01:01:14.199 --> 01:01:20.760 the public information space and to help people see what we do. It's a 739 01:01:20.840 --> 01:01:25.800 lot more valuable than any prepackaged advertisement that people may see on the TV or 740 01:01:25.880 --> 01:01:30.400 the inner webs or something like that. But hey, we are extra fifteen 741 01:01:30.400 --> 01:01:35.360 minutes. I think has gone twenty twenty five minutes. So all right, 742 01:01:35.400 --> 01:01:39.119 I'm sure your wife will be pounding on the door any minute. So yes, 743 01:01:40.320 --> 01:01:43.599 the back of my head is to the door, so I'm kind of 744 01:01:43.719 --> 01:01:49.920 vulnerable here thrown objects. But hey, I'm apologies to everybody for the break 745 01:01:49.960 --> 01:01:54.039 that we had. But sometimes on our software provider, their server will crash. 746 01:01:54.360 --> 01:02:00.039 But we have like all good folks, we have a primary backup and 747 01:02:00.119 --> 01:02:05.360 a ready spare, so our our backup was ready to go. And we'll 748 01:02:05.360 --> 01:02:08.480 catch you next week. And we should have a guest next week yea. 749 01:02:10.639 --> 01:02:14.320 And as always, everybody, thank you very much for joining us, and 750 01:02:14.360 --> 01:02:23.679 we hope you have a great Navy day. Cheers, my lonely want to 751 01:02:23.960 --> 01:02:37.159 marry me and Lisa friend codily for you being to blame me said folding your 752 01:02:37.639 --> 01:02:50.320 theme. It's a long way to it's a long way. It's a long 753 01:02:50.440 --> 01:03:07.199 way to enemy got in fair well listen, well, it's a long long 754 01:03:07.320 --> 01:03:12.679 way to get away. But my life, my na