What Happened to the U. S. Navy?

As you know, the better part of humility is not offering opinions on topics you do not understand. Military preparedness counts among those that your humble blogger does not understand.

The same cannot be said by Ray Starmann, former U. S. Army intelligence officer, founder of the blog, U. S. Defense watch. A few weeks ago Starmann posted about what is wrong with the United States Navy. Considering the Navy’s recent collisions, the question is germane. (via Maggie’s Farm)

I report his analysis. You decide on its value:

It’s not Kim, it’s not China, it’s not Putin and it’s not Dr. No. It’s a lack of training, a lack of focus on what is important and it’s a complete abandonment of the Navy’s and the military’s mission which is to train for war and to win those wars when called upon to do so.

Starmann then made his case. He began with the embarrassing surrender of two Navy speed boats to the Iranian Navy in January 2016. You will notice that this incident took place during the Obama presidency. Could it be that Barack Obama liked to surrender and submit to Iran?

Starmann wrote:

In January 2016, two US Navy high speed Riverine boats from the 5^th Fleet were apparently underway from Bahrain to Kuwait when they strayed into Iranian waters, while attempting to contact a vessel to refuel. The Pentagon first said that they had engine trouble. Yet, if that was the case, why didn’t the other boat tow the boat with mechanical problems to international waters and safety?

Then, the Pentagon said that they had navigational issues. How was this possible in 2016, with each boat having an array of GPS and radar equipment? Even if one boat’s systems completely shut down, couldn’t they rely on the other boat’s GPS or radar?

Lieutenant David Nartker, commanding officer of the two US Navy Riverine boats, surrendered his men and his craft with superior firepower to a half dozen Iranian thugs in bass boats that looked like they belonged on Bill Dance’s fishing show. Nartker surrendered without firing so much as a flare. After boarding the Navy boats, Nartker and his men were ordered down on their knees while the Iranians trained machine guns and cameras on them.

Nartker doubled and tripled and quadrupled down on his disgraceful conduct by apologizing to the Iranians for a worldwide TV audience.

And then there was this: a baby was born on an aircraft carrier in September, 2016. You know who was commander in chief at that time:

Last September, a baby was born on the aircraft carrier, the USS  Dwight  David Eisenhower, which is part of the 5^th Fleet.

According to the Navy, “As the baby was born at sea aboard an operational unit, the main focus for the U.S. Navy, the ship and its crew is the safety and well being of the baby and the mother,” Cmdr. Bill Urban, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command spokesman, told The Virginian-Pilot. Urban continued – “While it would have been preferred to send her to her home port earlier, per policy, we are now focused on caring for the health and welfare of our Sailor and the newest member of our Navy family,” Urban said.

Absolutely, Commander Urban, the main priority of a Navy ship of war is post natal care. I mean why not, the Navy can’t do anything else right, why not just become a floating maternity ward.

Apparently an incubator, diapers and formula were flown out to the carrier following the baby’s birth.

Rather than blame it all on the Obamafied military, Starmann takes us back to the G. H. W. Bush era, when the Tailhook scandal was skillfully used by feminist radicals to undermine military readiness. One notes that Bush himself, a former fighter pilot, caved to feminist outrage and  sympathized with the victims of the male debauchery, thus fueling the attack on the Navy.

Starmann explained:

In actuality, the Navy has been sliding down the drain for 26 years, ever since the feminist slaughter house called the Tailhook Affair, when hundreds of US Navy and Marine Corps officers, including Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Frank Kelso, were keel-hauled by the Navy for drinking, carousing, indecent conduct and drummed up charges of sexual assault. Imagine that, aviators who drink and get laid; can’t have that in the military.

Tailhook became a catalyst for the left and for feminists to destroy the military through social engineering. As James Webb remarked, “When the Tailhook investigation began, and certain political elements used the incident to bring discredit on naval aviation as a whole, and then on the Navy writ large, one is entitled to ask… Who fought this? Who condemned it? When a whole generation of officers is asked to accept … the destruction of the careers of some of the finest aviators in the Navy based on hearsay, unsubstantiated allegations, in some cases after a full repudiation of anonymous charges that resemble the worst elements of McCarthyism … what admiral has had the courage to risk his own career by putting his stars on the table, and defending the integrity of the process and of its people?”

According to Starmann political correctness has diminished the United States Navy. For those who think, with Joe Biden, that gender diversity will make the military stronger, these events serve as a rebuttal.

Starmann concluded.

Since September of 1991, the Navy has slowly castrated itself with a pen knife, transforming the once proud service into the ill-functioning eunuch of today.

We now have a Navy that can’t fight, can’t navigate, and is largely without basic seamanship skills.

One must ask what the PC revolution has done to help the US Navy fight and win wars?

It’s done nothing except to put people’s lives in danger and to get people killed.

Expect more incompetence, more babies born on ships, more PC lunacy and more general misconduct. The US Navy is a total cluster.

As I said, I report. You decide.