Since I missed the first poster to you, I didn't realize that
he had bashed the military in your estimation. I'm not. I'm bashing the
response to this disaster by all governmental parties involved- and if part
of that was in not calling the military in soon enough, that blame has to be
attached to the people whose duty it was to make that call. You talk a great
deal about taxes and pork. Well, we, as a nation, have spent at least 7.5
trillion in 2005 dollars on the military in the past 25 years. That's
$7,500,000,000,000 - an amount that eclipses by a factor of 30 that highway
transportation bill (which I agree was a pork-fest) We deserve something
back from THAT investment as well, a return more than tanks (or more likely
unarmored Humvees) deserted in sandstorms in a disaster of a poorly planned
war/peace/war in Iraq. The soldiers and sailors appear more than willing to
help in this kind of natural disaster, if given the command. If the
commander-in-chief is incompetent and has put incompetent people in charge
of deploying the forces that were built with that 7.5 trillion dollars,
their heads need to roll, in my opinion. And yes, I vote, and I write my
congressmen, and my voice goes unheard nonetheless.
"Roy Starrin" wrote in message is an Air Station,
Gulfport is a CB
.. But, please see the above story. That
means that your requirements were met. Actually, the requirments were
more fully met, not to protect the coasts, but to meet the pork barrel
needs of Congressmen---"See all the money I'm bringing to you". You
will note in the above story that Pascagoula has been nominated for
closure. These remote home ports proved to be horribly expensive and
a (ship) maintenance nightmare. Pascagoula endured in my mind because
Trent Lott has more horse power than most, and because there is a
private shipyard there that could help them (at great expense).
As far as the homeports in the Gulf, there are also a grunch of mine
sweeps in TX---great at what they do, very small, cluttered, and very
short legs.
http://www.navy.mil/navydata/ships/lists/homeport.asp

I was attempting to respond to the O.P.s erroneous statements that it
was going to take up to 2 weeks for the Navy to get there.
And I will refer you to this interesting article re the military's
performance in view of its relationship to FEMA:
Red tape keeping much of military on sidelines
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...me.xml&items=6

I couldn't agree with this more. Whose job was it to cut through that red
tape?
Not mine, nor the C.O. of any of those ships/units. My main purpose
in addressing any of these issues is that that bashing the military is
national sport for many. As a C.O. my job was to take whatever part
of national policy was assigned to me and implement it. We had a
deal, I didn't tell the then president how to run the country; he
didn't tell me how to run my ship. If folks don't like national
policy they should direct their comments to those folks who set
them---Congress and the President. (How many of you sent
letters/emails to them to not pass/sign the recent highway bill, which
had billions (of your money) of pork in it? In fact---how many of you
even bothered to vote in the last election?) Think---that money could
have gone along way to help sort things out on the Gulf Coast---an
effort now running between $#.5B-$.7B per day, for which we all will
be taxed.. Remember. the government has no money of its own, they
spend your money.
Everybody here, take a step back, and sent your vitriol to them.
http://www.virginianewssource.com/link-39.html
I leave you with this:
Sailors, Medics, Helos, Ships Join Katrina Relief Efforts
http://www.news4jax.com/news/4921404/detail.html
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starrin