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It’s no misprint and no time warp. It’s the new USS Spruance.

A headline I spotted a short time ago on the Navy Times Website declaring: “Destroyer Spruance commissioned in Key West” certainly gave me quite a start. For awhile, since I was pursuing another article of interest, I didn’t know whether I was in a time warp or had caught some kind of unusual online news site blunder.

I was confused because I seemed to remember that the destroyer U.S.S. Spruance had been decommissioned some time back and was sunk in a missile test. This is an end that, sadly, comes to more and more of our warships which have supposedly outlived their usefulness. The one and only ship on which I sailed lies in 400 fathoms on the Pacific floor some 150 miles West of San Diego thanks to such weapons testing back in 1982.

The newly-commissioned guided missile destroyer USS Spruance, DDG-111. US Navy photo by MC2 Michael K. McNabb

My ship, the U.S.S. Agerholm, and the destroyer Spruance, seemed so linked together in time since the “Aggie” was the oldest destroyer on active duty when it was decommissioned in 1978. The Spruance was the first of a new “Spruance class” or “900-class” of destroyer which would replace the World War II-era destroyers of which the Aggie was the last to serve actively.

But it turns out that the headline I read today was right even though I still find myself feeling as if I am in a bit of a time warp. The U.S.S. Spruance, the newest Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, was put into active service after a Saturday twilight ceremony in Key West.

A ship’s hull number — for those who don’t know much about naval vessels — further identify a ship and also gives a clue as to its history. Hull numbers are preceded by two or three letters which tell the ship type. Destroyers of the past were DD, as the Agerholm was DD-826. The first destroyer Spruance was DD-963. These are sometimes but not always sequential numbers. But the Agerholm was launched in 1946. The DD-963 Spruance was placed in action in 1975. The new Arleigh Burke-class are called guided missile destroyer, with a DDG hull identification.  The ship classification of DDG sets it apart from the older DDs which relied primarily on big guns for armament where the newer ship relies on a variety of missiles.

Actually, the older ships did not rely strictly on guns. The Agerholm also had torpedoes which were eventually fired as anti-submarine rockets (ASROC) from a vertical launcher. The Aggie is known for firing the first nuclear-tipped ASROC in 1962, which happened during testing in the South Pacific. The destroyer Spruance had two 5-inch guns, or cannons, somewhat similar to the two 5-inchers on the Agerholm. But the DD-963 was also capable of launching Sea Sparrow surface-to-air missile, the Harpoon anti-ship missile, the Tomahawk cruise missile as well as ASROCs and sported the Phalanx close-in-weapons system. The latter incorporates electronics and weaponry such as 20-mm Gatlin guns to provide a weapon of last defense against a variety of incoming threats.

The new DDG has one 5-inch gun — which still can pack quite a wallop — along with an assortment of new computer-guided missiles. The newest Spruance also has some innovations in its construction and engineering. It likewise uses the stealth technology that is seen in the ships of its class.

I can only guess the newer ship has more creature comforts than my old tin can had. Even the DD-963 had more individual space for sleeping in berthing areas than did the old canvas-hammock type “racks” we had for our nod time.

It is still kind of hard to imagine in retrospect that the “old” Spruance served 30 years at sea before being retired. She, as Navy ships are known as, was sunk in 2006.

One might still ask why, after only five years that the DD-963 has been under water, would the Navy name another ship the Spruance? Is it part of the 80s nostalgia fad? You know, as with the movies and their rampant remakes. Why, another “Footloose” will be released next week, for heaven’s sake!

Actually, the two ships’ namesake was a heralded figure in World War II naval history although perhaps not to the extent of the four fleet admirals the war produced, most notably Chester Nimitz and William “Bull” Halsey. Adm. Raymond Spruance played a large part in a number of the naval and marine operations in the Pacific including leading a task force during the Battle of Midway. He was also commander of the fleet in the Central Pacific, or Fifth Fleet, during the middle of the war. Spruance was named ambassador to The Philippines in the early 1950s by President Eisenhower.

In short, even though the Navy now wears essentially the same battle dress uniform that makes it hard to tell sailor from soldier from airman, it still is steeped in tradition. And perhaps more so than the rest of the services with the possible exception of maybe the Marine Corps, which is likewise a part of the naval service.

Thus, I guess in the “Navy way” it is fitting that the fleet not sail for very long without a Spruance.

 

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We no longer have to justify the war, so now we can be hypocrites

It didn’t take me long to miss my first televised GOP debate. I missed it completely. Thank heavens.

I just kind of let things slide when in previous debates the idiot crowd of radical Republicans cheered for Rick Perry killing 200 people in the Texas death chamber and hollering with joy at the thought of letting some old person die rather than give them government health care. I figured, they’re idiots, what can you say?

But when I found out that during the debate I didn’t see that the right-winged rabble booed a U.S. soldier speaking by video from Iraq because he was gay I kind of figured enough is enough.  The Tea Party jugheads can boo and hiss all they want to against someone for whatever reason. Dissing a person who is risking their life for their country is a different matter.

Whatever happened to the big “Support Our Troops” craze? I say craze because that is all it seems now to be. Maybe it was all just a reason to sell magnetic ribbons for cars. Like good ol’ John Prine sang of another war Americans forgot about in the latter 20th century, “But your flag decal won’t get you into heaven anymore/they’re already overcrowded from your dirty little war … “

Remember the outcry over the Dixie Chicks? They were boycotted because native Texan Natalie Maines said while onstage in London:  “We do not want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.”This sparked a controversy by right-wing talking heads such as Sean Hannity. The excuse for the ire was that the Texas-based Chicks were speaking ill of the president and commander in chief while the band was overseas during a time of war.

We’ve remained in war, at least in Afghanistan and we still have troops who still face danger in Iraq. Suddenly, it’s okay to boo a U.S. soldier in a country where violence still happens frequently; at least the vocal part of the GOP now says so. So what has changed? Let’s see, maybe it’s the party affiliation and the color of the president. You think?

Activists who spoke ill of the Iraq war when GW Bush was president were labeled “traitors” who should be punished, according to some right-wing windbags. Now one of the leading candidates for the GOP nomination recently labeled actions of the Federal Reserve chairman “almost treasonous.”

I understand it all, of course. It’s just that good ol’-time righteous hypocrisy the right does so well. It is the same kind of hypocrisy that allows Mr. Righteous to praise the Lord and testify on Sunday morning, then go home and watch the football game with his friends while getting s**t-faced and cussing up a storm and talking about all their sexual conquests and extramarital affairs and cheating their business customers out of their well-earned dollars.  You might as well boo the “fag” even though you yourself was far too chickens**t to join the military whether it be peacetime or war. Hell, you had things to do and money  to make.

Yes, brothers and sisters, give me that ol’ time hypocrisy, it’s good enough for GW and Cheney, it’s good enough for me.

 

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Being poor is okay, but …

But your new shoes are worn at the heels

and your suntan does rapidly peel

and your wise men don’t know how it feels

to be rich as a bitch. — With Apologies to Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull), “Thick As a Brick,” — 1972

 

The term “bitch” has no meaning relating to our beloved female species, nor dogs, nor female dogs. Rather in this case, in a parody of Jetho Tull’s melodic tune which means, I have no idea, the word is just a superlative. Rich as a bitch. That person is really rich. Be he a he or she a she or he a she or she a he. Nevertheless, they are rich. Really, really rich. Rich. As a bitch.

This parody was born of a Navy roommate, a Maniac named Dell. Yes, he was a Maniac, as in, from Maine. No Mainer. No Downeaster. Maniac. Before he left to return to Maine for good as far as I know, he gave me this cool bumper sticker. I still have it somewhere. It said: “Made in Maine. By Maniacs.”

When Dell and I hung out, in his little pickup or my little Corolla heading to the bars or to friends off the beach in Gulfport, we were both so poor we couldn’t pay attention. Like so many of my interesting co-workers, roommates, shipmates or just plain mates from the Navy, I never saw Dell after he left for home after his “separation.” As usual, I will give you more than you need or want to know. Those of us who signed up for four years in the Navy were “separated” when those four years were up. Most, or best I can recall, all, of us actually agreed to six years of service. Four years were active duty and two years could either be active reserve or inactive reserve. There were and still are variations, especially if you wanted to just go the active reservist track.

With the two wars going on these days since the last, forever, many active reservist and even a number of inactive reserves have been called up. When I served in the late 1970s, we were told it would take a world war before we would be recalled as inactives. I spent my two years inactive never giving a thought to being recalled. This included the beginning of my first year of college on the GI Bill. Oh sure, there were wars going on then as well as various military actions. Remember the U.S. hostages taken by Iranian radicals?

I wasn’t particularly worried about going back to the military, not that there was anything to worry about in the first place. I worked as a firefighter at the time, even though a number of my co-workers knew that would not protect you from going war. Our department had no civil service protection, so during the Vietnam War firefighters were subject to the draft. The lieutenant with whom I served the longest and several other firemen served in the National Guard rather than go to the infantry in Phuc Yu. Another lieutenant I served with ended up in the Marines in the not-at-all-demilitarized DMZ, still another was a clerk but that didn’t stop shelling and rockets from being permanent parts of his memory thus causing him forever to jump at loud noises. Not the best set of circumstances when those fire bells went off at night, but we all lived as best we could.

It was unthinkable that I should get called up in the inactive reserve from 1979-80 and I wasn’t. One really hot day, in the same kind of summer we are in now, I walked up to the mailbox and pulled out a big manilla envelope from the Navy. Inside was a nice, big, framable certificate that said I was “Honorably Discharged.” I was thanked for my service. I said: “You’re welcome.”

Okay, I’ve gone on here. That is so because I wanted to talk about a very important and extremely expensive portion of the U.S. Government, that being the military, of which very many of my relatives and friends and I was a part.

The military fed me, housed me, paid me, washed my uniforms more or less, gave me a haircut whether I needed it or not, gave me free health care, mostly kept me out of trouble and gave me a path toward becoming an adult, if I was so inclined to start walking down said path. But we weren’t paid very much. I remember selling my blood in between paydays. When I was on a ship, this being after Mississipppi, I would have to borrow some bucks from a shipboard loan shark. But hey, everybody has to make a living.

Beer could be purchased out of a machine in the barracks for 30 cents — if you liked Schlitz, Old Milwaukee and Olympia. I did, pretty much. But we weren’t getting rich, digging a ditch, as the old Army song said.

So my buddy Dell and I cruised down Broad Avenue off the Seabee Base in Gulfport, Miss., headed for the beach, down past where the Chimes lounge and John’s Laundromat and Bar gave the hard-core drinker like some of the old “lifers” a place to indulge at 7 o’clock in the morning. This was the old Navy, back in the 70s. People aren’t even supposed to drink in today’s Navy. I’m joking of course although not much. But as we headed toward the beach, or the bar, or Dell’s girlfriend’s trailer, we’d ride along, broke but yet happy, singing although skewing the lyrics from Jethro Tull.

“And your wisemen don’t know how it fe-he-he-he-he-he … heels

to be rich as a bitch.”

Warren Buffett, you may have heard of him, does know how it feels.

So I thought I’d just pass this along.

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Ah, to be represented by a hero in our great Congress …

“We can’t all be heroes, because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by.” — Will Rogers, (1879-1935) American humorist and actor.

One important element I learned in military service was to follow orders, if for no other reason than to not be punished. The law the military lives by, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, is not exactly your everyday law lived by everyone else in this great nation of laws called the U.S. of A. Those who have lived under this code might find this understatement worth a chuckle. Others who know not of what I speak can just kind of take the statement as is or however they choose.

A politician whom some say is a hero of the Iraq War is in a bit of a verbal tussle for speaking rather ill, unattractively and certainly impolitic for one who has the tag — whether or not deserved — hung around him as a hero. Republican U.S. Rep. Allen West, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, said some things that just seem out of place for a southerner who represents a Florida district which includes West Palm Beach. His target of ire is Democratic National Committee Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, who also represents a nearby Florida district.

The war of words came from, what else, the debt limit argument between the Ds and Rs.

Wasserman-Schultz said during a debate on the debt limit that she found it difficult to believe West would vote to cut Medicare benefits for thousands of his constituents who, as is the case in the congresswoman’s district, depend on Medicare. West, our hero, responded with an e-mail calling his Florida neighbor and colleague “the most vile, unprofessional, and despicable member of the U.S. House of Representatives.” Delivering a real blow as a southerner, the retired colonel told the congresswoman that “You have proven repeatedly that you are not a Lady, therefore, shall not be afforded due respect from me!” Yow!

So much for a person who was once commissioned by the Congress as “an officer and a gentleman.”

In fact, actions by West prove that he wasn’t much to write home about on the “officer” side as well.

You might or might not remember West as he was one of the first, perhaps the only, “right-wing” hero of the war that the right wing started in Iraq for no real reasons of national security. West was an artillery battalion command for the 4th Infantry Division in Iraq during a 2003 deployment. As was the case with other soldiers in Iraq during the war, West would incur duties that had nothing at all to do with his training or experience. In one instance, West was involved in the questioning of an Iraqi civilian police leader.

Heavily redacted investigations documents, show that West admitted that the police officer was beaten by the lieutenant colonel’s subordinates during questioning because the suspect was being “evasive and beligerent.” West admitted during his own questioning that he witnessed “sporadic body punches” given by his underlings to the man being questioned although West did not “allow (it) to get too brutal.” West finally unholstered his 9-mm pistol after the colonel said he had “had enough and this is where it would end.”

West said under his own questioning for his military law investigation that he fired his pistol about a foot from the Iraqi’s head after pushing the police leader’s head near a “clearing barrel,” used to “clear” a round in a gun in an unknown status by firing it into a barrel with sand before entering a building or other area. West admitted under questioning that firing his gun near the suspect’s head did not break his suspect. In fact, the Iraqi didn’t talk after his beating and having a 9-mm pistol shot into a barrel next to his head. West said the “man inside him probably did want to inflict hurt” on the Iraqi although he was just trying to gather intelligence for his men.

Superiors of West awarded him a “non-judicial punishment,” meaning not a court-martial and charges against the career officer were not considered felonies against the U.S. Government. West was find $5,000 and allowed to retire.

What a hero, huh? Maybe some say so, but that was not the way troops, especially leaders of West’s rank, are supposed to act. West became a Tea Party darling and now he hurls invectives at a fellow congressional member who is also from a neighboring district.

My complaints here aren’t so much of Allen West’s insults at Rep. Wasserman-Schultz. The congresswoman is a pretty tough lady, if you ask me. She went through a number of surgeries fighting breast cancer. A battle she has survived while serving in Congress. I think that’s pretty damned heroic in itself. The words used by West are pretty civil considering some debates I have had. But this is not the way folks are supposed to act in the U.S. Congress. If you think different, then perhaps you should get your lackey there to get it changed.

No, my main irritant is someone like West who is treated like a hero, yet he can’t pass the deportment grade in the military and puts other troops in danger with his cowboy actions. Plus the fact that this so-called hero shows his mettle by insulting a fellow member of Congress and a neighbor. If this is the kind  of “hero” you want ruling your country, perhaps you should consider moving even more South into the Banana Republics.

A note of interest I found while researching this story: A little Wikipedia Kung Fu was a-happening.  Allen West’s Wikipedia site had as a last sentence on the first paragraph stating that the congressman was to “the right of Genghis Khan.” That was changed before I concluded my post to something less excitable. I didn’t closely read Rep. Wasserman-Schultz’s WIki entry but looking at an entry about her congressional district I noted that it was represented by her and home to a high concentration of gay and lesbians, and gay neighborhoods. Whether that came from West or Wasserman-Schultz, I don’t know, nor do I care.



 

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Talk is cheap. At least for the moment.

If only life were like Hollywood movies so many of our problems would be quick to solve or would be even non-existent.

Rep. Jeff Miller, the Florida Republican who chairs the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, points to the new Tom Hanks movie “Larry Crowne” as an example of an unemployed 50-something Navy veteran who goes to college in order to catch up with those in industry with a higher education. Of course, I haven’t seen the new movie and Miller doesn’t suggest what happens to Crowne so Hanks’ character stands as a victim with no real solution to his problems.

Miller writes in the National Review Online that veterans have plenty to offer upon their returning from a tour of duty. To his credit, Miller voices his opinion for ensuring employers keep open the jobs which were left when overburdened National Guard and Reservists were called to duty during this country’s extraordinary “Ops Tempo,” or operational tempo, milspeak for military folks working their butts off during the last decade or so as civilian soliders. The House Vets chairman also opines that jobs should be there for military personnel who were medics who can transition to EMTs or how those who drove up-armored trucks could go to work for the nation’s trucking industry.

But what about artillery soldiers who spent their time riding sentry with a machine gun on a HUMVEE in Iraq or a Navy petty officer who specialized in keeping Tomahawk missiles in ship shape and ready at a moment’s notice? For at least the last 30 or so years I have been gone from the Navy, I have seen an ever-increasing desire to put more military veterans to work by either cross-training, retraining or translating jobs of former military men and women into careers that are realistic for them and their military training.

Too often though the types of programs put together for veterans — sometimes these are through government programs — are more a pipe dream.

One also must worry for the fate of new veterans with the current animosity the Republican Congress has for the federal government. Many veterans often find a better chance of matching their former military skills with jobs through the federal civil service. Yet, some congressional members would like to see thousands of federal jobs cut and those remaining jobs with small salary and little chance for advancement.

Well then, the Republicans always have their fallback to suggest, the private sector. Perhaps so, but if we are cutting jobs, why can’t we also cut jobs those which the GOP would say could be replaced by private sector employees? Why do we need a government anyway? Perhaps one reason would be to protect the security and safety of all those rich folks who should pay no taxes, if you hear the GOP talk about it.

The Republican Congress is talking out both sides of their cheeks. If House members like Rep. Miller want to help veterans, then they should get on the ball and start doing things to create jobs rather than blame the President for all our economic woes. If the Republicans want to displace our federal workforce — something I happen to be really, really against — they should start thinking beyond mere displacement.

Many veterans would probably be glad to tell Congressman Miller that talk is cheap. But things like food, gasoline, electric bills, medicine and transporation costs, that is a whole different ball of expenses.