Heroes

It looks like sons of the CO may have located the remains of USS GRUNION, lost near the Aleutian Islands in the early days of WWII. In the month before her loss, GRUNION had sunk two Japanese submarine chasers and heavily damaged a third. Sailors, rest your oars.

Thinking of the men who fought so gallantly during WWII makes one wonder how our modern submarine force would aquit itself in battle. Would a 3 small skimmers for 1 SSN be an acceptable exchange ratio in today's risk averse environment (quick answer - no!)? Is there any situation in which we would risk losing a submarine? Or an aircraft carrier? Has the blue-water Navy become too expensive to be used effectively in battle?

One thing is certain, mankind has not seen the end of battle on the high seas. The U.S. Navy has not been really tested since WWII and, despite the ongoing War of Terror, remains at heart a peacetime navy, with the path to senior leadership paved with staff duty (vice operational assignments). Masters Degrees, Joint Service, ROI, and Lean Six Sigma will quickly become meaningless nonsense when the incoming ordnance is for real. Sadly, as in WWII, the first few months of our next major conflict probably will see high casualties until the careerists are flushed out (or killed - along with their crews) leaving the true operators in charge. 150 men and $2.2B per CO's mistake is a pretty steep price to learn we've focused on the wrong things.

Hope I'm wrong...

- Gee