The SecNav seems ready to put the Combatant Commanders back in their cage!

via Breaking Defense.

How will the new Navy Secretary  get people to understand the fleet is being worked too hard? “Because we’ll start every conversation with 17 dead sailors,” Richard Spencer told reporters this morning in his first media roundtable as SecNav.

The 10 deaths aboard the USS McCain last month and the seven aboard the USS Fitzgerald in June have many causes, which Spencer addressed in a Senate hearing yesterday. But the fundamental problem is a collision between a shrinking fleet, growing operational demands, and erratic funding for training and maintenance.

“When I said yesterday that the Navy has a problem and we’re going to fix it, *that means) we’re going to have to come to…some sort of balance between supply and demand,” said Spencer. “The COCOMs (Combatant Commanders) are going to have to understand it, and the Hill is going to have to understand it.”

Story here. 

Wow!  This dude gets it!

IF the Navy/Marine Corps learn to say no.  If the SecNav is willing to run interference and push his thinking on Combatant Commanders requesting forces for no good reason, then we might see this drama sort itself out.

But Combatant Commander MUST be put back in those cages for this to happen!

What will we see if the SecNav has the courage of his convictions?  We should see an immediate and noticeable drop in the number of exercises worldwide. We should see targets hit for the amount of dwell time that our troops get.

Doing this one thing could help reset the force, reinvigorate personnel and maybe slow the rush to the exits that we're seeing now.

I hope this is more than just words but time will tell.