🚨Latest information has part of the Trident Pier now coming ashore in Israel. The section is probably either the beach or sea end of the Trident Pier, with a load of equipment and vehicles on board. See the images and my analysis at: twitter.com/mercoglianos/status/1795165551024607743🚨
Do you have any info about a cargo ship sinking in the Caribbean? Apparently this was a sail vessel that got in a Storm off the Bahamas? 2-crew missing.
Brit here. In any parlance it is a clusterfuck. I hope your military has a truly open de- brief when this fiasco is over. I cannot believe that we are 80 years beyond DDAY, no lessons seem to have been learnt. Heads should roll.
In my time in the Navy, we called this a FLAIL-EX. A bunch of military officers running around in ever decreasing circles until they disappeared up their own asses.
I remember the phrase "group grope" - A bunch of people or ships milling about smartly for the designated period of time. After which everyone would return to their home port, and if no one was killed, regardless of mission outcome, it would be declared "Successful!!!" (with that number of exclamation points).
Engineer here. I was really disappointed to see that they went with this non-elevated (aka floating) pier system. A floating pier with no break-water protection has trouble written all over it (in my opinion)
I've stayed in hotels along that shoreline for intelligence conferences in Israel before, and I am also a former sailor. Had my own sailboats for thirty years. When I saw the planned CONOPS, all I could imagine were all the moveable parts along with objects on top of them and vessels alongside pitching in the heavy wind and sea states. That along with incoming HAMAS rockets. What a, well, cluster fuck!
You don't need to be an engineer to see how idiotic this is........ There are roads/border crossings leading into Gaza from both Israel and Egypt. Both are countries the US gives billions of per year to. They need to just deliver through the literal border crossings be closed by Israel.
The piers sole purpose was to funnel 300 million dollars of tax payer money to a Biden Billionare donor. Hence, making it well constructed was never a consideration.
@ericluffy7970 I was just reading about how the one they build in Kuwait in 03 took 75 seabees, 13 days. 32ft wide, 1800ft long. But the one they tried to build on anzio beach was like 72ft wide and can go out as far as 3000ft. No time table given. Just a start month. The other relevant point...in 2015 there were only 80 sailors qualified to do the install...given the threat profile of our adversaries/potential adversaries....I would assume since then that number has gone up...but...if we got rid of the system ...that wouldnt matter much...I would hope they have a replacement in mind orrrrrrr...........maybe a contractor solution??
I was an amphibious beach unit expert with the Royal Marines ; we never beached our landing craft without a BARV…Beach Armoured Recovery vehicle, its job was to push beached landing craft or pontoons which have broached or aground.
@@mrjumbly2338 . The BARV was a modified centurion tank , the barrel was removed and a “ Bull nose “ fitted to the bow : This gave a pushing power of 52 tons and was ideal for these sort of operations. The crew were a mix or Army and Royal Marines. The BARV was used during the landings in the Falkland Islands..
@@paladroYes. But despite being a maritime society, the majority of Americans have no idea what is there, how supply lines work, etc. Many don't even know we have an internal shipping system. They get their stuff delivered and the curiosity ends there.
I am another student. 😊 It is this whole, entire , bizarre alternate universe. I am having a good time learning about it. My offspring is going to college for management in a steel business so I am educating myself on it too.
The "expert" bureaucrats that planned and are running the operation are more concerned with notoriety and the visual aspect than really getting anything done in an efficient manner. "See we fixed it! See how great we are!"
This looks to have been set up by the same people that sent helicopters not rated for desert ops in Operation Eagle Claw that failed to rescue our Tehran embassy hostages.
Thank god these "expert" bureaucrats had nothing to do with the Normandy invasion (other than the idea to put skirts around the Sherman tanks to which none of the 40 made it to the beach.)
the most expensive and least effective, volume wise, this is a symbolic act. Gaza received 1000 trucks a day, overland, to feed it population before this military catastrophe.
Yep, there's THOUSANDS of trucks absolutely full of aid waiting at the Rafah crossing trucks being refused entry and turned away by the IDF, including US military trucks. All Biden has to do is say let the trucks in or the money and weapons stop and the crisis will be over in 20 minutes. This is a completely absurd boondoggle putting our servicemen in harms way and costing us billions for nothing other than virtue signaling with absolutely no value whatsoever - and Israel has been refusing to allow aid in from the pier too!
Brit here. It is very easy to be judgemental about Generals and Admirals. But you do have to wonder about today's crop. In their defence, many of the Generals and Admirals in WW2 had been "battle hardened" by WW1 just 21 ISH years earlier. The last "real war" for America could be Vietnam, 50 years ago. But hardly on the scale of WW1 and WW2. I wonder if ANY of today's serving Genls or Admls saw service in Vietnam? Afghanistan etc were just incursions and a dreadful waste of life.
@@keithhigh7773 Good point. General Norman Swartzkov was a Lt in Vietnam. He was the architect of the "Hail Marry" offense that invaded Iraq in Desert Storm. Now we have the leaders who brought you the Cluster F. of all exfils in Aghanistan.
The commanders are nothing but political lackeys taking orders from armchair hacks in Washington and living in fear of their jobs. The personal are overworked, underfunded, under-trained, using broke down equipment. This is a typical SNAFU -- Situation Normal All Fucked Up
the causeway system isn't designed to operate in sea state higher than 2. Imagine being in sea state 5 when it could have been avoided hours prior by going to safe harbor due to high leadership that doesn't listen to the SMEs
@@kimber3865 My brother retired as a US Army W4; he went from Pershing missiles to intel analysis. One of his stories is about setting up a headquarters radio tent while an approaching thunderstorm was on the horizon. The Enlisted guys told the Colonel it would be most advisable to hold off until the storm passed. Colonel said no waiting, do it now. The entire assortment of communication equipment needed replacing but at least nobody got hurt.
Screw Normandy.. All I am having is horrible thoughts of these JLOTS trying to work in the Pacific theater against China. What an unmitigated disaster!
more than likely senior leadership not listening to Causeway SMEs when the storm was known to be incoming. Keep the causeway where it is instead of sending it to safe haven when the sea is relatively calm. Same thing happened in Austrailia except the causeway warping tug wasn't beached. This is more than anything a major fuck up from leadership that do not know how to employ a system telling the SMEs what to do instead of listening to their experience. Yet these mistakes keep on happening until someone gets hurt from those decisions. I wouldn't be surprised if a certain general somewhere in the chain of responsibility wanted the causeway personnel to stay on the causeway pieces and rough it out in sea state 5 instead of evacuating onto the LMSR. Obviously they didn't decide to let them sail to the safe haven hours prior to the storm coming in.
US MIL OPS? During Vietnam I served aboard a Destroyer Tender with 6 month rotation between Long Beach and Pearl Harbor. The "bean counters" did not allow a proper hull inspection prior to rotation, hence while transiting Pacific Missle Range we went dead in the water 24hrs. No changes since!
It's been said that amateurs talk tactics but professionals talk logistics. And we keep giving up our logistics capabilities. That doesn't say anything positive.
That we allowed this capability to atrophy was the WORST way to save money on military spending. The ability to deploy naval and air forces over seas should be our specialty. Yet we forget this lesson after every single big war. Took a bit longer after WWII but we forgot it after the cold war.
100% agree. This country has a fantastic history of fighting a war, winning, then immediately forgetting how to do anything. Look the Pacific campaign in WW2 for example. Japan mopped the floor with us because we didn't have our ducks in a basket.(Yet.)
Amphibious warfare is like the kings discipline of warfare, but many argue it's not even worth it anymore due to the ever present SIGINT giving away any bigger landing _way_ before it's about to happen, and can most likely be countered rather low cost with drone swarms.
@@n3rdy11 Strategic surprise has not been possible even since before D Day. The Germans knew, everyone knew, there was going to be a large Anglo-American landing. Heck Japan knew that the Mongols were going to land at Hakata Bay in the 1300's. At best at best you can keep them guessing about the precise time and exact location. That is still doable now.
This is great exercise to highlight the issues we have with sealift and the need for new ships and need for better funding for Army watercraft logistic operations.
@@Colinpark Which makes it more than worth it since a mere training exercise would be ignored. Never forget for a second most people are completely incapable of understanding anything but drama. Intelligence is neuro-divergent so emotions must be used to guide human processes.
I was about to comment something similar, this has been great training for the crews. Lots learned, including highlighting areas that need improvement.
@5:00 I flipped off a couple of Czechoslovakian's in a guard tower, in 1986. They were taking pictures of me, taking pictures of them, taking pictures of me... When they put the camera down, I flipped, The camera whipped up again, and I was waving... Interestingly, I was an E-4...
OK. I am not good at math but US$329,000,000 spent so far for 1000 tons of aid. Each ton so far has cost US$329,000 per ton. Thats expensive wheat. Next they will be using mulberry harbors. Wait that has been done before.
That's Pentagon math. The amount spent on food is likely far less. It sounds like they are including the operational costs of all the ships and staff involved, and that gets paid for even if they aren't in use.
During Vietnam the US Army had more watercraft than the Navy and more aircraft than the Air Force. In 1967 I was in US Army medical corps and visited a US Army dive barge in Tokyo bay who was responsible for the under water fuel lines from shore to middle of bay to fuel US ships without them docking. Not all “dog faces” are in foxholes.
Thanks, Sal, for another timely episode and your analysis. Your experience was a big help in explaining to us landlubbers the overall situation. As a former soldier, I just shake my head about the Army getting rid of their salvage tugs before getting replacement. Sadly, this seems to be happening with all our armed forces. The Marines deactivating their tank and artillery units was especially devastating to force posture and future combat operations.
I really enjoyed this video, but to me, it's especially depressing. Especially when you mentioned the Army getting rid of its Tug fleet. With the Army also downsizing its fleet of boats, they had to get rid of a lot of the crews or retrain them for other jobs, so all that experience is gone. Even if the Army decides to revamp and regrow its watercraft capability, it takes a long time to train the crews, which require in unbelievable number of certifications (and licenses) in order to serve on those boats.
We recognised Palestine. In contrast to the USA who are paying for the Genocide. The Germans used Zyklon B to murder 154 children per day in Auschwitz, the Israelis are using American donated 2,000 dumb bombs to kill 72 children per day in the Gaza extermination camp. Two of the highest courts in the world have this week charged Israel and Netanyahu with committing Genocide.
So a temporary pier, meant for a lake, fell apart when installed in an unprotected ocean beach. Each day, 500 transport trucks of aid are required for Gaza and the West Bank. Call that 500 containers, and the US government has spent $500,000,000 for 1/10 of ONE DAYS REQUIREMENTS. Then it came to an immediate halt.
That’s ten million per container delivered. It was not distributed. It’s being “warehoused” by the Israelis. So at this point, two million Palestinians received SFA and the US is a half billion more in debt. Go Navy.
What do you mean. CNN reported this on the 23rd "By Tuesday, however, the Pentagon said that none of the aid that had been unloaded from the pier had yet been delivered to the broader Palestinian population." A good chunk of the early cargo delivered was stolen. They are running into the same problem the land based aid has, which keeping it from being stolen by Hamas or by UNRWA employees to sell on the black market.
I’d love to see you cover topics concerning Naval Architecture and marine engineering design firms in America. The state of ship design in America, your favorite design firms, and not so favorite firms. Programs your excited about and programs that you’re concerned about. Love the content Sal. It’s been an interesting year so far.
The Army and Navy had to cut those assets so they could build their new toys that weren't proven yet. Litoral ships , Ford class carriers, the Ospray. Then throw in the Air Force with the F35.
GWOT rot happended and SENIOR UNIFORMED LEADERSHIP FAILURE happened over DECADES. Armed forces programs outlive mere POTUS who have far less influence than plebs imagine. Failure to speak up is why we have Sal having to do that while politicians in uniform concentrate on their careers knowing that public ignorance shields them from scrutiny.
I have just watched a TV series about how the Canadians supply all their remote towns in the arctic from ships. They make this whole Gazza setup look like a joke...
As a Canadian shipping company we offered to supply Gaza from Cyprus in October 2023..We wanted to use the existing pier in Gaza Port for a small ship - lifting 450 tons on a draft on 3.5 M with a turn round time of about 5 days and equipped with cargo handling gear - After 7 months we still waiting for a response from various governments ( including our own ! ) and almost every NGO involved in Palestine /Gaza j may eurocanadian maritime group ltd. - vancouver - canada
@@dotmurphy7279 My grandfather was a Seabee in WW2. He was all over the pacific and was awarded the bronze Star. I read his diary from his time overseas. Okinawa: "We are to go out tonight. They tell us that we are to face the Japanese imperial guard. None of them are under six feet tall and are master swordsmen"... His next entry... "Got two last night". That was his last entry in his journal word for word. Damn. That's a heavy thing to go through. His day job was doing what Seabees do. Aweful proud to come from his loins.
My Daddy was on Guam WWII, my youngest brother in Viet Nam twice. Youngest brother also sent to lake in the Andes Mtns to build a hospital ship for the people of Bolivia and Peru.
Funny, I've noticed that since this conflict they give aid numbers in weight measurements not truck loads. They are not even close to the pre-war number of 500 trucks a day
I really wish my government would abandon this project. It is too complex, it is too expensive and you know that the food and aid will end up in the hands of the guys with the most guns.
I'm just a pedestrian of the US , plain Jane citizen. I am disgusted my tax dollars 💸 are paying for this . And putting our US military in harms way . I read there are over 1k aid trucks 🚚 sitting in Egypt, not moving to distribute aid . Millions of dollars worth of aid ....
@@Kim-J312the aid is being blocked by Israel. Note Israel have extracted billions of your tax dollars for decades. Israel have free healthcare, free university, paid for by you. Two of the highest courts in the world have ruled that Israel are committing Genocide…paid for by you.
@@sciencewarsveteran6424 The name was chosen for me by a prominent Democrat loser and all-around sleaze. To completely fill out the tag, I am also a Christian, a redneck, and qualified Expert Rifle(mil) & Pistol(civ).
Whaa,.. it didn't work, whodathunkit!!! Oh well, perhaps when they get it to the port of ashdod, they can ask around and see if there's any kind of permanent coastal boat parking type thingy anywhere near.
Imagine ie. a super power nation decides to throw an entire FLEET away without completion of its replacement. You would think WW2 battles in the pacific documentaries would have been in their libraries.
Not quite following you. WW2 in the Pacific was won with a fleet that was built immediately preceding and during the war, so the lesson of that is not what you appear to think it was.
In high school a rich friend's dad was a gentleman farmer, got a tractor stuck. My 17 yr. old friend went to work, got his 65 Impala stuck in the mud, then his dad's pick-up stuck, then the neighbors bigger truck stuck, then a tow truck stuck. We'd drive out and look at the fleet of vehicles sinking into the swamp. 4 months of summer and some professionals finally cleared my friend's embarrassment. Lotta money!!
Thanks Sal. The E-4 Mafia can be difficult to deal with. This Memorial Day, please take a moment to remember our absent friends and those still on Eternal Patrol.
As another commenter stated: SNAFU. While some of the restrictions deemed by brass or the Administration may be ideal, these edicts without understanding of the process simply screwed the pooch. The equipment limitations per sea state were well known a priori and should have squelched their use. Pitiful.
Sal ; You are the man of the hour! Misusing the specific design Vessels of the JOLTS system is like playing chess thinking Pawns can be used as Knights!?!?! Blessing Bro, Grancrappy
Interesting thing. I'm a USMC enlisted veteran from the early 1990's. A few days ago I was only in a online chat group and had an interesting discussion with a group of other veterans from all over the world. Veterans from both sides of the old Iron Curtain, junior enlisted to junior officer ranks. East and West. From every continent. Dozens of us veterans. We shared different stories of things we did and things that happened while we were in the military. After about 2 hours of discussion, we all came to one shared conclusion. The Military senior command and senior leadership of all nations is filled with a bunch of damn idiots. It seams that after someone makes the rank of Colonel they forget how to do things. How things actually work or how,
Better to practice failure in peace than to learn in time of need. I was in the Navy and went to salvage a landing craft beached on a sandy beach. We geared up on the mike and another LCU pulled the beached craft off the beach.
