I noticed in the published story that the Riverines, whether working with US Marines or Dutch Marines always tend to fall back to the insertion and extraction mission set.
That is rather unsat in my mind.
Riverines have an onshore mission. Patroling, route recon etc...or at least their advertising says that. Don't get me wrong. I like joint when joint makes sense, but if you can perform a mission independently that means that you're not tying down two units when one can get the job done.
Preservation of forces and all that jazz.
I'd like the Riverines to be prepared to get it on by themselves. Not to prove anything to the Navy or the Marine Corps but to the policy makers and the Navy brass. I will be following their deployment closely. I'm hoping for good things and hopefully their Commandant will push the boundaries to the stretching point.
The Riverines conducted combat patrols in Iraq and will do same in Columbia. The new "River Rats" can and should do more but for now they only been given boats for riverine assault and inshore troop lift (ex-USMC SURCs) and ihshore small ops (RCB). It is big blue navy's misunderstanding of combat ops and underfunding which limits NECC and the new Coastal Riverine Force. Not what the sailor want.
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