In recognition of the U.S. Navy

Today I want to recognize the United States Navy's birthday (October 13) and the traditional Navy League observance of Navy Day (October 27), and to celebrate the storied history and many accomplishments that weave through the fabric of our national identity. I suppose I could go on and on recounting the battles, sacrifices, and heroism displayed by centuries of United States sailors; instead, this is a snapshot of a typical day in the Navy around the world. All of these events took place this past Saturday, October 24, 2009:

• On Oct. 24, 329,390 active duty officers, Sailors and midshipmen; 109,222 ready reserve Sailors, with 6,427 reserves mobilized, and 193,875 civilians are serving in the Department of the Navy.

• 285 active ships are in service. 138 (48%) including three carriers and five large-deck, amphibious ships are underway.

• 10,556 Individual Augmentees, 5,299 of which are mobilized reserves, are deployed on the ground around the world in support of overseas contingency operations.

• USS Makin Island (LHD 8) is commissioned at a ceremony at Naval Air Station North Island, Calif. Dubbed the "Prius of Navy warships," Makin Island is the final amphibious assault ship built in the Wasp class, yet is the first built with gas turbine engines and electric drive. The Navy projects that this advance will save nearly $250 million dollars in fuel costs over the ship's lifetime.

• USS George Washington (CVN-73) and Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 5, along with USS Cowpens (CG 63), USS Mustin (DDG 89), USS Shiloh (CG 67) and USS O'Kane (DDG 77) conduct strike training in the vicinity of Okinawa, Japan.

• USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) completes the Timor Leste portion of Marine Exercise 2009. During the ten-day exercise, they conducted a series of military to military training with Timor Leste's armed forces and International Stabilization Force personnel to enhance interoperability and communication between the U.S. Navy and Timor Leste forces.

• The crews of USS Cleveland (LPD 7) and USS Rushmore (LSD 47) complete the Indonesian portion of Marine Exercise 2009, training with the Indonesian Marines in jungle operations, platoon live-fire and maneuvers, bilateral reconnaissance, the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program, military operations in urban terrain and the Amphibious Assault Vehicle.

• USS Anzio (CG 68), the Combined Task Force (CTF) 151 flagship, and the Turkish ship TCG Gokova (F 496) conduct anti-piracy patrols along the internationally recognized transit corridor north of Somalia. Meanwhile, other task force vessels USS Pinckney (DDG 91) and HMS Cumberland (F 85), monitor pirate activities along the eastern coastline of Somalia.

• USS Hopper (DDG 70) patrols the northern Arabian Gulf in support of Combined Task Force – Iraqi Maritime. Hopper is providing security and maritime domain awareness in the vicinity of Al Basra Oil Terminal, which is the main source of Iraq’s oil exportation program.

• Maritime Expeditionary Security Squadron Detachment 823, currently deployed to 5th Fleet to protect and defend oil platforms, trains with Iraqi Marines focusing on small boat attacks and swimmers attempting to gain unauthorized access.

• Navy Individual Augmentees (IA) at Camp Buering, Kuwait, prepare for duties in support of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. After their initial reception and gear issue, IAs receive training in areas like small arms and vehicle egress. All of these lessons help transform them from sea-going to boots on ground Sailors.

• 30th Naval Construction Regiment is deployed to Afghanistan, providing command and control of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 22 and NMCB 74, an Air Force Expeditionary Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineer Group, and two Army engineer battalions. NMCB 74 is also providing a large detail of Seabees to support multiple special operations units operating throughout Afghanistan.

• Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 1 Platoon 1-0-1, operating in the vicinity of Al Asad, Iraq, assists U.S. Marines in the disposal by detonation of unserviceable ordnance, destroying more than 28,000 munitions.

• USS Tortuga (LSD 46) is en route to Subic Bay, Republic of the Philippines, for a port visit after just completing Amphibious Landing Exercise, training with Sailors from the Republic of the Philippines.

• The City of Corpus Christi (SSN 705) arrives in Laem Chabang, Thailand. The crew will be participating in theater security cooperation events during their port visit by hosting ship tours and conducting community service projects.

• The USS Nimitz (CVN 68) and embarked Carrier Air Wing 11 arrive for a scheduled port visit, marking the third time that a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier has docked pierside in Bahrain. The Nimitz Strike Group is deployed to U.S. 5th Fleet in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, as well as regional maritime security operations.

• Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 8 Platoon 801 participates in Exercise Northern Coast, a multinational exercise with the German and Swedish navies. The training is focused on mine countermeasures as well as counter improvised explosive device defeat.

• A seven-member detachment from the Navy’s Fleet Survey Team conducts a safety of navigation hydrographic survey of Port Gentil, Gabon, to update nautical charts for future visits by U. S. assets and commercial shipping.

• USS Wasp (LHD 1) is deployed to the 4th Fleet area of focus on Southern Partnership Station-Amphib with Destroyer Squadron 40 and a Security Cooperation Marine Air-Ground Task Force embarked. Southern Partnership Station is part of the Partnership of the Americas Maritime Strategy that focuses on building interoperability and cooperation in the region to meet common challenges.

• USS McClusky (FFG 41), a Navy Reserve frigate, conducts counter illicit trafficking operations in the Eastern Pacific, which consists of intercepting human and drug traffickers within the 4th Fleet area of focus. McClusky deployed from San Diego on October 2nd, and has already made one successful interdiction, recovering approximately 560 kilos of cocaine on Oct. 7.

• The attack submarine USS Virginia (SSN 774) is underway in the Atlantic Ocean for the first scheduled full-length deployment for a Virginia-class submarine.

• Two Returning Warrior Workshops are being held in Palm Desert, Calif., and Baltimore, Md., to assist some 400 Sailors returning from Iraq and Afghanistan as well as their families.

• Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego, Calif., continues good stewardship of the environment by saving more than 60 kW of energy with newly installed photovoltaic cells.

• Naval Air Station Whiting Field, Fla., celebrates its 66th anniversary of providing base support to naval aircraft, their squadrons, maintenance and support staffs and the Sailor and their families.

• Fleet replenishment oiler USNS Kanawha (T-AO 196) is off the coast of Egypt providing logistics support to ships participating in the amphibious exercise Bright Star 2009, a biennial combined exercise that includes 11 countries and 70,000 personnel.

• Three U.S. Navy ships conduct multiple theater security cooperation port visits in the Baltic region following exercise Joint Warrior. These visits included the USS Cole (DDG 67) in Helsinki, Finland; the USS Ramage (DDG 61) in Riga, Latvia; and the USS John L Hall (FFG 32) in Klaipeda, Lithuania.

• The current Africa Partnership Station (APS) platform, HMNLS Johan De Witt (L 801), a Royal Dutch ship with U.S. Navy Sailors embarked is in port Tema, Ghana, conducting training.

Quick thoughts on health bill

As the Senate Finance committee bill for healthcare reform continues to be debated...

- Note the penalty ($750) for choosing not to sign up for some sort of health insurance. Whether this fine is actually a tax is subject to some debate, but like many, I must conclude that people around the country will decide to forgo the cost of a health insurance plan and instead pay the fine (note that it is in the interest of the right to call it a tax and in the interest of the left to call it anything but. Without wading into partisan waters, I consider this penalty for inaction a fine). A healthy person who rarely has need for medical services could decide that a $750 fine is a better alternative to a $1,200 healthcare plan. Of course, that person assumes the risk of not having insurance when he or she requires emergency medical services - but don't people all around the country today take that risk, then burden federal and state budgets when they show up at a hospital's ER in need of care? Those people get the care they need, so do they really assume any risk by not purchasing insurance? Young adults generally visit the doctor less frequently, so they are more likely to choose the fine. This situation poses problems for many players in the healthcare sector.

- Some Senate Democrats are proposing a compromise to get some form of a public option (essentially, a health plan administered by the federal government) in the final bill. That is an option for states to choose whether to participate. This choice would likely be made through action by the state legislature and governor. The nuance you should watch for is whether that option is framed as an “opt-in” or an “opt-out.” In other words, which avenue will require legislative action? If the public option is made as an opt-out, those who oppose that additional health insurance plan will have the uphill battle to convince state legislators to act, or “opt-out” of participating.

- Whatever plan passes through Congress will not result in 100% coverage (see, for example, my first point above). A few months ago, the number of uninsured in the U.S. was quoted by the President and others to be around 45 million. That number included approximately eight million illegal immigrants who would not qualify for an insurance plan partially subsidized by the federal government. Republicans rightly called foul on using an estimate that appeared to inflate the number of uninsured by including a population that would not be eligible for the proposed solution. Now the key number is shaping up to be 25 million, which is the estimated number of people that will be without insurance under the Senate Finance Committee’s bill. That number includes the same illegal immigrant population, but now opponents are using it to inflate the size of the issue. To his credit, Republican Senator Jim Bunning, in his statement to the Finance Committee on September 22, used the 25 million estimate, but also said that about a third of that is illegal immigrants. Not everyone makes that distinction. So the same tactic from a few months ago is now being employed and all the roles are reversed. Isn’t political gamesmanship fun?

The Fiscal Gap: more is not better

Good news. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) came out with their Fall 2009 update to the Federal Government's Long-Term Fiscal Outlook today.

Bad news. Social Security and Medicare are still projected to bury us under a pile of debt over the coming decades.

This should not be a surprise, especially to those who read my earlier post following up on the soda tax discussion. I want to zero in on one of the starkest measures of how far behind we are falling - the fiscal gap. I mentioned in that earlier post that we as a country are $56 trillion in debt when taking into account expected obligations over the next 75 years (the promise that the government will pay for things like Medicare, Social Security, and interest on the national debt). With the GAO update, that number is now $62 trillion (adjusted for inflation to 2009 dollars). This increase does not have much to do with current increases in discretionary spending, including ARRA (the stimulus act) or TARP. It primarily arises from revised calculations that account for the economic downturn over the last year.

That $62 trillion number is the fiscal gap. It represents the amount of money (in 2009 dollars) needed just to maintain our current level of debt over the next 75 years. So for you deficit hawks out there, we need to cut spending, raise taxes, or both, over the next 75 years to the tune of $62 trillion just to maintain our current debt level relative to the country's gross domestic product (GDP, a measure of the country's total output of goods and services in dollars - $14.3 trillion in 2008). Revenues, spending, and debt are often spoken of relative to GDP, and are usually expressed as a percentage (GAO projects annual budget deficits in excess of 7% of GDP).

Note that the 75-year outlook assumes revenues (from things like payroll and corporate taxes) and discretionary spending (for things like national defense, federal highways, and national parks) remain at their 40-year historical average.

I think it's important to spread this knowledge, particularly when an obscure report like this is published. I recommend you to stay informed on this topic by also checking out the Peter J. Peterson Foundation. The Foundation's president, David Walker, was the United States Comptroller General from 1998 to 2008 and has spent the last several years getting this message out.

I know it's hard to get too upset about this, as the numbers are so big and the projection covers so many years that it almost moves into the realm of the abstract. But every year we delay real action on this problem, it just continues to grow. Our children and grandchildren will certainly see the effects of this problem, so the sooner we start working on it, the better for everyone.

A Brief Thought on the Nobel Peace Prize

The unfortunate aspect of President Obama being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize is all of the commentary that will be ensue about both him and the Nobel Prize committee. By assessing the worthiness of recipients, an individual tacitly asserts qualification to do so. However, I suspect that few of those individuals have ever felt compelled to offer commentary on any other recipient – how many people in the U.S. do you think even knew the Prize was being awarded?

About ten years ago, I learned about the 1992 recipient, Guatemalan cultural and civil rights leader and indigenous Maya Rigoberta Menchu, who struggled in the face of extreme violence to shed an international spotlight on the horrible ravages of civil war in her native country. I wondered at that time why I had never heard of her. This opened in me a world of interest about the people selected by the committee to receive the prize. Aung San Suu Kyi (1991), who you will read about in this space soon, is still held captive by the military regime in Burma that prevented her from taking office as Prime Minister, a post she won by election in 1990. Hers is one of the most heart-wrenching but inspirational stories I have found among recipients.


I will not pass judgment here on whether President Obama should have been named 2009's recipient. What credentials do I have to do so? Does it seem a little strange? Well, yes. It's a topic worth discussing. But as I sit in the lobby of a hotel in Idaho, I suspect the guy next to me, who has been ranting about how undeserving the President is, could not name last year's recipient (Finnish peace negotiator Martti Ahtisaari). At least he is voicing his opinion among a small group of people. The talking heads who will grace us with their commentary in the coming days will assume that air of legitimacy that demands people listen and respect their opinions. At least the partisan battles fought on the airwaves are generally carried out by the people who work in politics (or work in offering commentary on politics). I submit that many of the people who pass judgment on this year's Nobel Peace Prize recipient (both in public and private) are likely not familiar enough with the prize to come to the table with a full perspective. What we should all do is take this opportunity to learn a little more about past recipients. Whether the President truly is "worthy" of the prize is a subjective opinion - an opinion that, like others involving complex issues, should be reached with a concerted effort at self education. At that point, we can move past any debate - both sides can claim a legitimate victory.