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I got out in '98, Clive. I agree with him, there is absolutely nothing to keep people in the service. EM's are supposed to be a 12-man division (counting chief and LPO). We routinely ran with somewhere between 6 and 9 of us. I lived on Mt. Dew and Excedrin. An average day consisted of only two Excedrin in the morning, and two at lunch. A bad day....well, lets just say that I kept the fine makers of various pain relievers in business. Guys who'd been in for 15 years were getting out because the jobs outside were better...better benefits, better pay, better hours...it wasn't worth it to stick around and actually retire, Thank You Very Much Mr. Clinton. Seawolf was just coming online when I was gettin out, so the only things we heard about it was that they were CONSTANTLY cleaning and hosting dignitaries for 6-hour in-and-out trips to show off the new toys.
You have a point....But I still don't like it....Why would we threaten them?
1. This has been done for years.
2. They have done nothing wrong. They are in international waters and have every right to be there. They are not threatening us by doing so. Should Italy threaten us everytime we send a boat in to the Med?
Think about it...
Justin is hoping that they decide to start decomming the 688 class starting with the lowest numbers and working upwards to make more personnel available in the long run. Obviously much of the crew would be needed to decom the boat in the short run."Extended Training Missions in International Waters". That's what they call it these days. And as long as nobody does anything stupid, its kinda an unspoken gentleman's agreement that yes, we know you're there, yes, we know you know we're there, but if you play nicely in my pool, I promise I won't piddle in yours. ...but I'm not turning my back, cuz I know you had alot to drink before you paddled over here.
One of these days they're going to find themselves either so undermanned that they will not be able to do anything, or the standards required for qualifying for certain technical jobs will be lowered so much that they'll notice a sharp increase in accidents and "incidents". heck, I probably wouldn't've made it through the training if I'd've gone in ten years earlier than I did. I can't help but think that there's going to be a wake-up call for the gov't and the military, and its going to cost someone some blood to do it. One would think that 9-11 would've opened eyes in Washington, but it doesn't sound like it.
their subs may not be undermanned, they have a draft.I'm not so sure having an under-manned Soviet Nuke Sub off my coast is such a reassuring thing
Why would we threaten them?
1. This has been done for years.
2. They have done nothing wrong. They are in international waters and have every right to be there. They are not threatening us by doing so. Should Italy threaten us everytime we send a boat in to the Med?
Think about it...
I think we should let Ted Nugent go kick their commie butts.
Do you realize there is a big difference between "Russia" and the USSR who was communist?!?!?I think we should let Ted Nugent go kick their commie butts.