BRAC’s Mine Warfare Horror Show

I loved the “Star Wars” metaphor you made of BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) in the June issue of Seapower. I know a large number of people living in the Coastal Bend area near Ingleside, Texas, would line up to see this horror picture show.

Naval Station Ingleside, the Navy’s Center for Mine Warfare Excellence, is on the chopping block. The base was originally planned for a carrier and battleship. Back in 1993, with the closure of the Charleston naval complex and the demise of the “600-ship Navy” idea, both the Lexington and Wisconsin were decommissioned, and the mine countermeasure and coastal minehunting ships were found a new home.

I served as an enlisted deck hand on the USS Nimble out of Charleston in 1965-66. My volunteerism in the local Navy League council and the USO have given me the opportunity to personally distinguish the vast differences in modern mine warfare technology versus what we had onboard those antiquated but lovable floating wooden dinosaurs.

And now, one of the driving forces for closure appears to be the Pentagon’s talk about what looks great on paper: organic mine warfare. Please, get real. The reality is that if not even the corporate world can escape the grasp of the bean counters, how can we expect the Department of Defense to successfully argue anything different? In my humble opinion; nothing will ever replace a dedicated mine warfare force, period.

So that we’re all on the same page, the DoD plans to save $48.8 billion in the next 20 years (that’s an average $2.45 billion a year). Folks, that is a spit in the ole bucket compared to what we’re spending a year ($60, $70, $80 billion? Or more?) in the present wars we’re fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan alone. Does the metaphor, “penny-wise/dollar-foolish” ring a bell?

I can just hear George Lucas holler, “Cut!” just as Chewbacca tells Han Solo, “Sorry, we have no warp-speed capacity.”

Vic Medina
Corpus Christi, Texas

BRAC ‘Fluff’

Call me hard nose, but naval service organizations (like the Navy League of the United States) should remain oriented toward mission (maritime services/defense support) — not rhetorically place priority focus on “fluffy” impacts like BRAC closures on surrounding civilian community infrastructure, etc. — especially when there are real defense implications to closure of military facilities (pro and con). Let realty organizations/publications accomplish that service.

Fort Ord, Cecil Field, Naval Air Station (NAS) Oceana, NAS/Naval Station Alameda, Fort Monmouth, NAS/Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Miramar, MCAS El Toro, Long Beach Naval Shipyard, new construction shipyards, etc., were frequently victims of inwardly collapsing residential/commercial development growth, profit-seeking developers and greedy tax assessors. Actual dollar savings from BRAC closures to other government programs are problematic, as fiscal reallocations to other budgets can easily be obscured and convoluted.

You would do well to return to emphasizing strategic imperatives — letting apologists for D.C. social experiments debate their veracity elsewhere! Admittedly, NLUS tries to balance its affiliation between attracting civilian sector support, while satisfying military readers, but, after all, the publication is titled Seapower!

Paul M. Hoffman
USN (Ret.)
Former president, Monterey Council
Indialantic, Fla.

Historic Coincidence

It is an interesting coincidence that two young black Americans, both named Brown, were striving toward their dream of a naval career simultaneously.

At the time when Midshipman Wesley Brown was working to make his mark at the Naval Academy (Ship’s Library, May issue), Aviation Midshipman Jesse Leroy Brown was working to prove that he could meet the standards required of a naval aviator.

Oct. 13, 1948 — his 22nd birthday — flying an F6F Hellcat, he made the required six arrested landings aboard USS Wright. The last hurdle had been cleared. Eight days later, he became the first black American naval aviator. Dec. 4, 1950, Ensign Jesse L. Brown, USNR, died near the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea — another first.

William H. Koenig,
USN (Ret.)
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