Thank you for the excellent article on payday loans in the June Seapower and their dreadful effect on the military. I have a son and daughter in the Navy, and they have had sailors in their departments suffer from these programs. (I also remember when I lived from paycheck to paycheck on the puny salary I made as an RM2 during Vietnam.)

I think one option not mentioned is the budgeting, counseling and referral assistance Consumer Credit Counseling Service (CCCS) agencies can offer servicemen and women. CCCS agencies are the original nonprofits that can help soldiers, sailors and airman with advice that won’t filter back to their command.

Here in San Antonio, we offer educational programs on the Air Force bases about payday loans, and come across all the problems your article covers, including that no one in trouble wants to tell their command, because then they will be worse off and can possibly lose their clearance.

We also do find that some commands are reluctant to refer people to us, because they know we protect privacy and will not tell the command, but we believe getting professional advice at no charge from certified counselors offers options those in trouble may be unaware of.

George Merkle
President and CEO
CCCS of Greater San Antonio

An Emergency Response Proposal

Just a thought. [How about] either reactivating or changing over an existing military base located within the Gulf Coast hurricane area, the West Coast earthquake area and the Midwest tornado area?

These bases would be set up for search-and-rescue, evacuation, medical and crowd-control operations. This would be a new fast-reaction branch of the services whose job is strictly to help Americans in time of disasters.

The bases would be equipped with military engineering and construction personnel, medical staff and military police. Their sole purpose would be fast reaction to a natural or manmade disaster: to get in, rescue and help. They would be under military control, with reporting directly to presidential and Joint Chiefs of Staff groups.

Of course, this opens up problems with politics, pork-barrel spending, states fighting over who gets the base and the general slow movement of the government to do anything. But it has been proven that something along this line of thinking must be done. There will be another hurricane, there will be another earthquake, there will be another tornado.

Remember, the first job of the government and military is to protect and help us, not the rest of the world first and us second.

Vincent Menza
New York

Plea for the Port of Sacramento

The Port of Sacramento is surrounded by an industrial district. In that neighborhood there are lots of boxes sitting in yards and loading bays.

All came by truck. The port can’t handle containers.

The Sacramento ship channel was built in the 1960s. Today, it can still accommodate ships of the size and configuration prevalent in that era. It isn’t very busy.

It is possible to envision boxes on barges. Inland waterways are another sort of short-sea shipping (May Seapower cover story). But while the idea makes sense in consideration of the congestion on Interstate 80, I-80 is there.

Upgrading the river ports has to be paid for. At some point there may be truck restrictions on the interstate, but, at that point, will the Port of Sacramento still be there?

Charles B. Warren
San Francisco

Unflattering Portrait

What’s wrong with this picture (Washington Report, April issue)? Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter has his arms crossed in a gesture of not listening and the commanding officer has his hands in his pockets (where is his drill instructor now?) and apparently is not interested. The ensign is animated and looks like he has his ducks in a row.

Now Seapower can’t make the SecNav interested and can’t give the CO military bearing, but perhaps they could review their pictures with some of these aspects in mind.

William J. Overend
USN (Ret.)
Atlanta, GA

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