("Jacksquat" for those who have never seen the skit...)
Posted on 09/02/2007 1:09:49 PM PDT by kristinn
This might just be another BS moment at the Kos - they’ve had so many of them I’ve lost count. But if this is legit we just had a serious breach of national security.
“I have a friend who is an LSO on a carrier attack group that is planning and staging a strike group deployment into the Gulf of Hormuz. (LSO: Landing Signal Officer- she directs carrier aircraft while landing) She told me we are going to attack Iran. She said that all the Air Operation Planning and Asset Tasking are finished. That means that all the targets have been chosen, prioritized, and tasked to specific aircraft, bases, carriers, missile cruisers and so forth.
I asked her why she is telling me this.Her answer was really amazing. ….”I know this will sound crazy coming from a Naval officer”, she said. “But we’re all just waiting for this administration to end. Things that happen at the senior officer level seem more and more to happen outside of the purview of XOs and other officers who typically have a say-so in daily combat and flight operations. Today, orders just come down from the mountaintop and there’s no questioning. In fact, there is no discussing it. I have seen more than one senior commander disappear and then three weeks later we find out that he has been replaced. That’s really weird. It’s also really weird because everyone who has disappeared has questioned whether or not we should be staging a massive attack on Iran.”"We’re not stupid. Most of the members of the fleet read well enough to know what is going on world-wise. We also realize that anyone who has any doubts is in danger of having a long military career yanked out from under them. Keep in mind that most of the people I serve with are happy to be a part of the global war on terror. It’s just that the touch points are what we see since we are the ones out here who are supposedly implementing this grand strategy. But when you liason with administration officials who don’t know that Iranians don’t speak Arabic and have no idea what Iranians live like, then you start having second thoughts about whether these Administration officials are even competent.”
(So much for the “apolitical” moniker)
“I asked her about the attack, how limited and so forth.
“I don’t think it’s limited at all. We are shipping in and assigning every damn Tomahawk we have in inventory. I think this is going to be massive and sudden, like thousands of targets. I believe that no American will know when it happens until after it happens. And whatever the consequences, whatever the consequences, they will have to be lived with. I am sure if my father knew I was telling someone in a news organization that we were about to launch a supposedly secret attack that it would be treason. But something inside me tells me to tell it anyway.”
I asked her why she was suddenly so cynical.
“I have become cynical only recently. I also don’t believe anyone will be able to stop this. Bush has become something of an Emperor. He will give the command, and cruise missiles will fly and aircraft will fly and people will die, and yet few of us here are really able to cobble together a great explanation of why this is a good idea. Of course many of us can give you the 4H Club lecture on democracy in the Mid East. But if you asked any of the flight officers whether they have a clear idea of what the goal of this strike is, your answer would sound like something out of a think tank policy paper. But it’s not like Kosovo or when we relieved the tsunami victims. There everyone could tell you in a sentence what we were here doing.”
“That’s what’s missing. A real sense of purpose. What’s missing is the answer to what the hell are we doing out here threatening this country with all this power? Last night in the galley, an ensign asked what right do we have to tell a sovereign nation that they can’t build a nuke. I mean the table got EF Hutton quiet. Not so much because the man was asking a question that was off culture. But that he was asking a good question. In fact, the discussion actually followed afterwards topside where someone in our group had to smoke a cigarette. The discussion was intelligent but also in lowered voices. It’s like we aren’t allowed to ask the questions that we always ask before combat. It’s almost as if the average seaman or soldier is doing all the policy work.”
She had to hang up. She left by telling me that she believes the attack is a done deal. “It’s only a matter of time before their orders come and they will be sent to station and told to go to Red Alert. She said they were already practicing traps, FARP and FAST.” (Trapping is the act of catching the tension wires when landing on the carrier, FARP is Fleet Air Combat Maneuvering Readiness Program- practice dogfighting- and FAST is Fleet Air Superiority Training).
She seemed lost. The first time in my life I have ever heard her sound off rhythm, or unsure of why she is doing something. She knows that there is something rotten in the Naval Command and she, like many of her associates are just hoping that the election brings in someone new, some new situation, or something.
“Yes. We’re gong to hit Iran, bigtime. Whatever political discussion that are going in is window dressing and perhaps even a red herring. I see what’s going on below deck here in the hangars and weapons bays. And I have a sick feeling about how it’s all going to turn out.”
I passed this post on to the ONI AG - Office of Naval Intelligence AG to have a look-see and see if they can find this young lady - if she exists and have a chat. An active duty officer on a ship preparing for operations giving out the op plans to said operation is called - treason.
Again, considering the source (Kos), buyer beware, but if true the poster who goes by the name “Maccabee” - will be having some visitors.
People will die...just as long as they’re the right people...
Omigosh. Twins, separated at birth.
ping to you
Thanks for your in-depth insight. Either way, it stinks that Kos is so totally bereft of morals and love of country that they put this junk out there to stir up another wasp’s nest.
For all we know, there could’ve been a sting operation designed to reveal the identity of suspected leakers on the ship.
Thank you very much for your service. God bless our CIC and awesome troops.
Thanks radar....fascinating reasoning and reading!!
("Jacksquat" for those who have never seen the skit...)
My nephew (82nd, Gulf War I vet) said the same thing about the USAF except they kept making him jump out before the plane landed. ;)
Yep. Out two in the Army have said that too. If you ask them why they jump out of a perfectly good airplane, they answer "there is no perfectly good airplane".
They speak Farsi, not Arabic, in Iran. The sentence is accurate in that sense.
ROTFLMAOTIPMP!!!!
BTT
I agree this is a hoax. But, we need to take out Iran. They are a terrorist state developing nuclear weapons. I believe President Bush will order an attack on Iran before the end of his term. It is the only solution.
I really botched that reply. It had less meaning than the article.
Good work.
Yes, I botched that reply, big time.
Great post. Thanks.
Agreed. And where precisely is the Gulf of Hormuz? Straits of Hormuz I know about and the Gulf of Oman I also know, not to mention the Straits of Hormuz - and Musandam peninsula, around which I flew for many years.
Some officer. Treat this with utmost caution. Content and source are cr*p.
Agreed, Ma’am.
An Officer and Gentleman would not use that expression.
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