[GreenKeys] OT - was Oil, Navy, and well greased operations... (or something like that)

[Randy or Sherry Guttery]

Don Robert House wrote:
> As we used to say in the Navy... "The first liar never has a chance!"

I preferred the saying: "Want a challenge? start a rumor at the fantail 
- and running as fast as you can - see if you can beat it to the bow - 
you'll loose every time!"

I guess I am in something of a cranky mood of late...  "the Navy" as I 
knew it - is scheduled to die later this year. Change is, of course 
inevitable - and most change is for the better. I guess the true measure 
of one becoming obsolete is when one looks at "change" and sees nothing 
but disaster. I know - in the grand scheme of things - this particular 
change is of little consequence - but still many of us are both saddened 
and alarmed that the last remaining fully Navy manned Submarine Tender 
will pass from the Navy to the MSC (Military Sealift Command) and be 
primarily manned by civilians.  The USS EMORY S. LAND was "handed over" 
to MSC last February (as quietly as the Navy could manage it) - and just 
this week I received (finally) official confirmation that USS FRANK 
CABLE is also now scheduled to be turned over to MSC later this year.

This brings to a close a more than 100 year history of the US Navy's 
full support of the Silent Service through fully Navy manned and 
deployed tenders. It's been obvious since the early 1990s that the Navy 
has been making a strong effort to rid the fleet of Auxiliary ships - 
now the few remaining (less than 50 of all types of auxiliaries) are 
mostly research ships (most of those in the hands of civilians like the 
University of Hawaii) and such. ALL of the ARs ADs AGs and similar 
repair / support ships - save for 2 ASs -- have been retired / sold / 
scrapped... and those two ASs - as noted -- will primarily be MSC manned 
and operated ships. If a submarine gets in trouble in the Atlantic far 
from our shores - heaven help them - as there is no (US) tender "out 
there". LAND will be home ported out of Bremerton for the next two 
years; CABLE is in desperate need of an overhaul, but is still (for the 
time being) operating at Guam. Considering how badly we are outnumbered 
and out-gunned in the Pacific - that is not a comforting thought (not 
that the Atlantic is much better).

and so it goes.
-- 
randy guttery

A Tender Tale - a page dedicated to those Ships and Crews
so vital to the United States Silent Service:
http://tendertale.com