Posted on 03/29/2002 10:27:59 AM PST by Pancho13
Rumsfeld Blasts Top Brass General, admiral had complained publicly
By RICHARD SISK Daily News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ripped two four-star officers yesterday for saying U.S. service members were tired and running out of a key weapon in the war on terror.
Rumsfeld also announced the death of a Navy SEAL, who stepped on a land mine near Kandahar, Afghanistan.
In a rare public rebuke for the top brass, Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, used a televised Pentagon briefing to criticize Army Gen. William Kernan and Adm. Robert Natter, commander of the Atlantic Fleet.
Rumsfeld said Kernan, chief of the Joint Forces Command, was out of line for telling a House panel two weeks ago that the troops were tired because "we are busier than we have ever been."
Rumsfeld said the 1.4 million men and women on active duty don't "begin to fit that characterization."
Natter came under fire for saying the Navy had run short of joint direct attack munitions, or J-DAMs, and had to borrow some of the satellite-guided bombs from the Air Force.
"We damn near ran out in Afghanistan," Natter said three weeks ago.
"The inventory is not depleted," said Myers, who then got into trouble himself. "Even my wife understood this one."
That drew oohs from the media crowd.
"You're in trouble everywhere now," Rumsfeld said in mock horror. "When you say, 'even my wife' — even I know better than to say that."
Myers sheepishly sought to recover by saying, "Mary Jo, turn off the TV."
Uncertainty Persists
After giving an overview of the war, which they said showed steady progress, Rumsfeld and Myers bristled at questions about the troops' readiness.
But concern is widespread at the Pentagon that U.S. forces may be overextended by worldwide commitments.
Top Pentagon officials also have acknowledged that they are pressing manufacturers to churn out more J-DAMs.
Retired Rear Adm. Eugene Carroll said the rebuke of two top officers was highly unusual.
"Reprimands are usually done in private for going off the reservation," he said.
In other developments:
Chief Petty Officer Matthew Bourgeois, 35, a Navy SEAL from Tallahassee, Fla., was killed when he stepped on a land mine during a training exercise near Kandahar. Another serviceman, who was not identified, was wounded in the blast but was expected to recover. Pakistani police arrested more than 30 Islamic militants, including some alleged members of Al Qaeda, in raids in the cities of Lahore and Faisalbad in Punjab province. One suspect was killed and four wounded in shootouts during the raids, the Interior Ministry said.
Original Publication Date: 3/29/02
This is 2002, not 1902. Everytime we deploy to some crappy 3rd world country to feed the starving or prop up somebody or to police somebody else, that chinks away at our military might and everybody in the world finds out about it.
If you read the newspapers and the web, you'll know we are spread thin, our forces are everywhere. It's not a strategy, it's called technology. Anything that happens anywhere in the world can be found out easily enough.
Your right. He didn't solve eight years of neglect overnight.
Nope, and unfortunately, it was estimated that for every year of neglect and cut-backs, it would take upto 2 years to get things back to the way they were :-( I for one am glad we have our nukes.
As to the JDAMS, our military can operate w/o them if necessary, and you don't broadcast that kind of problem.
Agreed. But I highly doubt Admiral Natter was one of them. He started off as an enlisted sailor, got an appointment, and was junior officer in charge of a Naval SpecOps detachment in Vietnam. He's got a bronze star with a combat V, and a purple heart. I doubt this one's a 'bad actor'. Read on:
Admiral Robert J. Natter, United States Navy, was born in Alabama in 1945. He enlisted in the Naval Reserve at the age of 17 as a Seaman Recruit. Following one year of reserve enlisted service and four years at the Naval Academy, he was graduated and commissioned an Ensign in June 1967. Admiral Natter's service at sea included department head tours in a Coastal Minesweeper and Frigate, and Executive Officer tours in two Amphibious Tank Landing Ships and a Spruance Destroyer. He was Officer-in-Charge of a Naval Special Warfare detachment in Vietnam and commanded USS CHANDLER (DDG 996), USS ANTIETAM (CG 54), and the United States SEVENTH Fleet.
Shore assignments included Company Officer and later Flag Secretary to the Superintendent at the U. S. Naval Academy; Executive Assistant to the Director of Naval Warfare in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (OPNAV); staff member for the House Armed Services Committee of the 100th Congress of the United States; Executive Assistant to the Commander in Chief, U. S. Pacific Fleet, Executive Assistant to the Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, during Desert Storm Operations in the Middle East; Assistant Chief of Naval Personnel for officer and enlisted personnel assignments; Chief of the Navy's Legislative Affairs organization; and Director for Space, Information Warfare, Command and Control (OPNAV N6). Most recently, he was the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Plans, Policy and Operations (OPNAV N3/N5). Admiral Natter was a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Naval War College. In May 2000, he was honored as the fifth recipient of the Naval War College's annual Distinguished Graduate Leadership Award.
His personal decorations include the Silver Star Medal, three awards of the Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, five awards of the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star Medal with Combat V, Purple Heart, two awards of the Meritorious Service Medal, Navy Commendation Medal with Combat V, Navy Achievement Medal with Combat V, and various unit and campaign awards.
"NO GENERAL EVER HAS ENOUGH TROOPS"
Come on, the military is just a job like any other, except for the few(5,000) who have actually faced combat, none of them needs any rest. Only the stress of combat can cause the weight loss and emotional drain which requires R&R. While the Admiral may have had a point about JDAM stock piles, the JDAM can be replaced by other weapons, and I doubt the military will touch their reserves except in an emergency. Laser guided and TV guided bombs and missiles are more labor intensive than the drop and forget JDAM, but are just as accurate. The thing we should all remember is that "NO GENERAL EVER HAS ENOUGH TROOPS" which is what the complaining is all about.
Shame on Rumsfeld and Meyers. They have repeatedly disgraced the Pentagon and the men and women who serve there by their low standards of truth and morality, and have failed in their responsibility to the Constitution and the people of the United States in the bubbling, deceiful and ineffective war they have pretended to lead. They have arrogantly led us into a fools trap, and when others attempt to alert them to the inevitable strategic suicide they have opted for, they react with childish invective, angry machismo, more insincere frantic flag waving than Democratic convention!
One wonders if Prsident Bush will finally wake up to the fact that his blind anger and quest for a bloddy revenge has made him as predictable as man with a hard on and as easily led to his own political and military downfall. Bush needs to find his General Grant, before his own Burnsides and McClellans turn to gore him in the side like the finale in a Mexican bullring.
As a follow up, all generals truly believe that God is on the side of the bigger battalions. And dispite the proven fact, that technology has given the american soldier a 100 fold power advantage, the generals would still like to out number the enemy.
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