The US Navy just released an article touting its Pacific Partnership Missions. Read the whole thing but here's a blurb...
After 13 days of working with local medical, dental and engineering professionals in Papua New Guinea, serving close to 11,000 people, Pacific Partnership 2011 concluded its mission May 31 and got underway aboard amphibious transport dock ship USS Cleveland (LPD 7).and this...
Since the first mission in 2006, Pacific Partnership has visited 15 countries, treated more than 230,000 patients and built over 150 engineering projects in 15 countries. During this year's mission, the Pacific Partnership team has treated more than 21,000 patients, participated in thousands of contact hours of formal SMEEs, and built classrooms and water catchment systems in all three of its mission ports.I have no problem in helping others...but if the Chief of Naval Operations wants to 'get the Navy story out' then perhaps he should start at home.
Imagine if this same effort...the medical and engineering assistance was turned toward our own crumbling schools and poor. Imagine how the citizens of this country would look at its Navy!
Quite simply. The US Military should not be globe trotting providing medical services overseas and doing building projects when we have severe needs here at home.
UPDATE:
Check out this press release. Seems like Missouri Disaster Medical Assistance Team is having to call in a civilian company to provide services that the US Navy is doing for free in other countries. If you disagree fine. But this is shameful. How this can go unnoticed at the highest levels of our military...talking to you Admiral---or have you already packed up for the Vice Chair position?--is beyond me.
your principal is a good one, the choice of platform is questionable. FACT: the T-AH 19 & 20 have very limited capability to work ashore. I was an unconcieved design flaw back in the '80s.
ReplyDeleteA much better choice to help American in trouble would be what was called Navy Fleet Hospitals. They are easily transportable (the FH has their own Seabee unit/vehicles attached). They were scaleable and they were prepositioned. I would have to research how many are still in service in CONUS?
P.S. when the USNS Comfort went to the Gulf after Katarina, the medical staff had problems with local medical regs getting in the way of navy docs operating in "their" state.
ReplyDeleteyour idea works but i was trying to tweak all the fleet week bubbas....want to see a worthwhile fleet week? put some SEABEES and Medical personnel on a ship, have them tow whatever to the community and turn them loose...you'd get such good publicity it would blow the pentagon away.
ReplyDeleteoh and if they did do this their isn't a US Congress Critter that would get in the way of it.
"Quite simply. The US Military should not be globe trotting providing medical services overseas and doing building projects when we have severe needs here at home."
ReplyDeleteWhat severe needs? You don't live in a third world country and those ships have been used at the homefront, as Leesea mentioned.
Those ships do more good for the United States when they are deployed, not staying at home.
Hell, even China has started a similar thing, so what does that tell you about the value of such missions if they are doing it?
ya know what? to be quite honest i don't care what a Canadian has to say about a policy that i'm putting forward to my own country men.
ReplyDeletenext. i'm so fed up with the US taking care of the worlds problems and then have the rest of the world talk shit (sorta like you're doing now)...
next...i don't give a damn about what China's doing.
next...i explained the deal with the ship. additionally if you followed the link and read the fucking story then you would notice that the mission was conducted by an amphib.
just a note to my critics. on some things i'll debate. heck, if you convince i'm wrong then i'll even update the post and correct it.
this isn't one of those times. on my blog and in my heart its America first. that means taking care of AMERICANS FIRST.
if that means that some villager in a country dies because we're feeding, teaching or rebuilding our country then so be it.
AMERICA FIRST DAMN IT!
Only a credit downgrade is going to stop this non-stop giveaway of borrowed money.
ReplyDeleteyou may like this sol.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.agd.state.tx.us/articles/archives/current/080110/