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As I assume
office as your new national president let me first, on behalf of all Navy
Leaguers and his many friends and admirers throughout the sea services,
thank Jack Kennedy for his superb leadership over the past two years.
Today, our Navy
League faces perhaps its most demanding task in the past several
decades--namely, educating our fellow citizens, the Congress and the
administration, and the media about the importance, even in peacetime,
that the United States maintain a strong and globally deployed maritime
presence second to none. The U.S./NATO air campaign against Serbia ended
successfully, and for that we should all be grateful. Nonetheless, the
Kosovo operations clearly demonstrated, once again, that almost 15 years
of defense downsizing have imposed such a severe strain on the personnel
and equipment of all of our armed forces that their continued ability to
meet all of the nation's strategic defense needs is now in doubt. It will
be our task--for many years to come, in all likelihood--to work with the
sea services, with the Congress and the media, and with other civic and
patriotic organizations to help rectify the present imbalances.
Fortunately,
Congress has taken action on its own initiative, both last year and this,
to provide increased funding for military personnel and for defense
procurement and RDT&E (research, development, test, and evaluation)
programs. Earlier this year, moreover, the president also proposed
additional spending for national defense (most of it, though, in the
outyears of the long-term defense budget plan). Unfortunately, even if the
modest increases now projected are approved by Congress, all of the
nation's armed services will continue to face severe funding shortfalls
for years to come.
The needs are
numerous, and resources are limited, but there are several programs and
budget accounts of particular importance to the sea services that in my
opinion deserve full and continuing support from all members of the
Navy League. Among them are the following:
1. A major
increase in pay for all members of the nation's armed services, and an
equitable adjustment of the so-called "Redux" retirement
system. Our military people are this nation's most important defense
asset. They put their lives on the line for us and for our country every
day, and endure hardships and sacrifices that have no equivalent in
civilian life. It simply is not right that they also are underpaid--and
have been for many, many years.
2. A bigger,
steady, and sustained shipbuilding program--enough to sustain an active
fleet of at least 300 ships, the minimum level recommended by the Joint
Chiefs of Staff. The current and projected shipbuilding program will
sustain a fleet of only about 200 ships.
3. Sea-based
area, theater, and national missile defense systems, all of which could
use the Navy's already fielded Aegis guided-missile cruisers and
destroyers as their baseline platforms. The global proliferation in
recent years of weapons of mass destruction--and of the cruise and
ballistic missiles that could be used to carry them--makes this a
particularly urgent priority.
4. Early, and
full, deployment of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, and accelerated
procurement of the other fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters needed to
maintain the operational readiness of Navy and Marine Corps tactical
forces.
5. Full funding
for the long-delayed Marine Corps AAAV (advanced amphibious assault
vehicle), also urgently needed to complete the Corps' "mobility
triad" of AAAVs, LCACs (landing craft, air cushion), and Osprey
tiltrotor aircraft.
6. Additional
funding for Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarines, which will
be required in greater numbers than now projected if our nation is to
maintain its current undersea superiority in the 21st century.
7. Additional
sealift ships and airlift transports. America's forward-deployment
defense strategy puts a heavy strain on the armed services' logistics
assets, but they are just as essential for combat success as the much
better publicized (and almost always more expensive) warfighting
platforms.
8. The Coast
Guard's innovative Deepwater project, which seeks to recapitalize and
rebuild the multimission service's aging and overworked ships, aircraft,
shore facilities, sensors, and electronics/avionics systems in one
closely integrated and cost-effective program.
The preceding
list could be much longer. But it is appropriate at this point, I think,
to shift subjects and point out that the Coast Guard celebrates its 209th
birthday this month--I encourage all Navy League councils, and individual
members, to join in the celebration.
The Coast Guard
is America's seagoing 911 force. It also is the premier lifesaving
organization in the world. It plays an increasingly important role in
national defense, particularly in an era when the Navy itself is so short
of ships and now very hard-pressed to carry out all of its assigned
missions.
What many
Americans do not realize about this gallant service is that it is quite
possibly the most cost-effective agency of the federal government,
returning several dollars in services to the taxpayer for every dollar
appropriated by the Congress for Coast Guard operations. In an average
recent year the Coast Guard: saved over 5,000 lives and more than $2.5
billion in property; maintained a network of over 50,000 aids to
navigation; interdicted over 100,000 pounds of cocaine and more than
100,000 pounds of marijuana; carried out safety inspections on almost
1,100 offshore drilling platforms; inspected more than 42,000 U.S. and
foreign merchant vessels, and licensed 36,000 merchant mariners; responded
to almost 14,000 incidents of water pollution or releases of hazardous
materials; boarded almost 12,500 fishing vessels to enforce U.S. fisheries
laws; and facilitated the safe passage--into, within, and through
congested U.S. ports and harbors--of well over a million commercial
vessels of all types and sizes.
That is just a partial
list, I should note, of the many missions the Coast Guard performs for
American taxpayers--despite not having enough ships, enough aircraft, or
enough people. It is quite possible that the Coast Guard is the most
overworked and underfunded of all of the nation's armed services.
The Coast Guard's
budgetary, personnel, and programmatic needs are addressed in greater
detail both in the Navy League's annual Maritime Policy Statement and in
the annual Almanac of Seapower. I will close, therefore, simply by
noting that the Navy League's relationship with the Coast Guard has been
particularly close in recent years. This is because, in many cities
throughout the country, NLUS councils have been the principal civilian
organization supporting the Coast Guard and, as such, have played a key
role in promoting close working and personal relationships between the
Coast Guard and the local civilian community.
So Happy
Birthday, men and women of the U.S. Coast Guard! And, to my fellow Navy
Leaguers: I look forward with pleasure and enthusiasm to working with you,
and for you--and for our nation's sea services--during the next two
years.
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