Here’s why Sal is one of the best sources for maritime news: he can make a quick video (while on vacation!) about the current news and his analysis is deep, thoughtful and informative. Truly a subject matter expert.
My dad was Navy. He used to say "life is an education. Some lessons cost more than others" I hope all service personnel and civies can take this as a lesson well worth what it taught us. My dad would be proud of them. Thank you ❤
@@medfadlakmedfadlak2288 what’s worse, it was only for one news cycle. Now there’s not even an attempt to reflect on why/whether it was wrong to begin with. Biden has had much more important news cycles to worry about.
It wasn't meant to work to begin with, optics from the word go. Israel was convinced they'd be done with Hamas in a few weeks so this would counterbalance the terrible PR problem of providing them with the war msterial they were using on civilians. Senior military brass may have seen it as an opportunity for realistic training & recognition from political masters.
This wouldn't be the first time that a government agency intentionally deployed a known-to-be-weak resource to demonstrate the need for more attention & funding.
That is giving them more credit than they deserve. I think the decision was made that no boots shall touch the ground, and it all went downhill from there.
In 1968 at Camp Vayama in Thailand, the Army was using a DeLong pier at the munitions port. I actually graduated from the US Army's Transportation school at Ft Eustis harbor craft boatswains program. We trained on LCM8, LCU, Small Tugs and Large tugs.
This kind of stuff scares me. As a civilian logistician and someone who wrote his thesis on military logistics ahead of ODS vs. OIF, it pains me seeing the universality of how low logistics is on the totem pole, yet how necessary it is to overall success. I hope we learn a lot of lessons from this, because someday we may need to do this in a war, and we need to have equipment that works and people who know how to do everything.
If you want to know what's going on with all things related to ships and systems, Sal is the go-to source. You won't hear anything like his analysis on the "mainstream media" who bring in "experts" to talk about issues. Thank you Sal, for putting complex issues clearly even for those who haven't been to sea in anything bigger than a ferry!!!!!
Ryan McBeth sent me here. I’d heard about JLOTS but wasn’t aware of the specifics or the constraints. Your experience with maritime and military logistics really shines through. Awesome summary!
McBeth is 1000% awesome. Though there does seem to be a different outlook between you about the place of logistics in the armed forces - where you view it at the bottom and he says that the "army is a logistics operation that happen to dabbles in combat" (paraphrasing). I'm not trying to "catch" either of you or say either is "wrong" - just interested in the difference in perspective! Also maybe you've already discussed it somewhere and I'm not just not aware. Of course also appreciate the video, which was very interesting!
Once again a situation where someone, at a high level, "gets a good idea" without a clue of how to do it. It brings to mind the axiom: "There is no task too difficult for those who don't have to do it."
Have and do valued you good comments on shipping matters. Thank you. Continue. Your experience adds value and weight to your videos. Enjoying your series on MSC. Fare winds and following seas.
My uncle taught me the difference between a ship and a boat. You can put a boat on a ship, but you can’t put a ship on a boat… a very wise old mariner 😊🦅
I've heard that before, but never in any type of official capacity. Even the Navy didn't have an actual definition of the two. One of the ones I liked best was that it depends on if the vessel heals in or out of a turn. Bottomline, it really makes no difference.
I started out being mightily confused by you stating you were near Vancouver island with a lifeboat with Zaandam and Rotterdam emblazoned on it (both places in the Netherlands, just about the other side of the globe). Apparently the MS Zaandam is a cruiseship owned by the Holland America Line with home port Rotterdam. As to the video, informative as always. Thank you for keeping us updated
Hope you enjoyed some time in Metro Vancouver and checked out some things before sailing to Alaska. Either that or hit it on your way back. I'm not sure Port Metro Vancouver officials realize they have a shipping celebrity influencer rolling through. 😄
Thanks for the rundown Professor. This thing was ill conceived from the start. Terrible to put our personnel in harm's way for this cluster of a PR stunt. They should get campaign ribbons for this at least, and other decorations as demonstrated.
Either Napoleon or Frederick the Great first popularized the idea that logistics matter, and this became the saying, "An army marches on its stomach." Sadly, we keep ignoring that very basic principle.
One big point of failure was the whole "help the enemy" situation. I can bet that in any other war, attempts to supply the enemy would be similarly challenged. The logic says, defeat the enemy and subdue all resistance, then you can help the non-combatant civilian population. The enemy is still there, to this day. Smoke and mirrors, unclear goals and targets, this gets soldiers killed.
wtf is happening in this comment section, well thanks for the information, seems this video got recommended to alot of people that have had their brains rotted by politics and cant even digest the info you provided
To my fellow army transportation members you guys did as best as you could be proud I am of you. You were set to fail but you still kicked ass. This army transportation veteran is proud of you
thanks for taking time to make this, seems like the understanding of JLOTS capabilities and limitations was not well understood at the joint chief level.
I still don't understand how all the so called "experts" didn't see this coming. Everyone in those MOS's, Occ Specialties, or civilian jobs, that do this for a living had to have been just totally cringing the entire time. Thinking I TOLD YOU SO! "Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk Logistics"...Omar Bradley
Good piece. Ultimately the responsibility is political. It was a window dressing exercise. Zero expectation of success on the part of the initiators from the start.
@@captainwin6333indeed. This was a capability that we lost. We used to be able to do these things. But through incompetence, mismanagement, lack of care, and the rot that all of this causes, we are in our current situation. This is systemic. It's unlikely to get fixed just because of a few reports.
Good video, I was at ACB-ONE for 2 years working with causeways, back then we had what was called ELCAS, elevated causeway system, basically we could drive steel pilings into the bottom and elevate the entire causeway system out of the water, designed for rough water areas.
When these assets left the states , I remarked that this was doomed to failure from the start..pontoons have a poor record of success and the Med can cut up rough. I was the beach master for the Royal Marines for three years and have watched all the failures of this sort of evolution. The staffing of this was chaotic and without a hope.
I'm actually a longshoremen from Prince Rupert B C here, both my grandfather's were longshoremen 👊😎👍.nice work, good job I love it, wish I could be there
From go to woe, i.e. may 17 til june 28, less than 9,000 tonnes of aid went ashore. This was equivalent to ONE day's delivery by trucks pre oct 7. So our suspicions of ulterior motives seem totally justified. The red herring morphed into a white elephant.
When I was a Marine assigned to the USS's Peleliu's ship's company working on support equipment I would call it a boat just to annoy my coworkers. Navy guys hate hearing boat.
. . . because, "Duh." Cargo ships carry cargoes for fucking _reasons!_ _"Why don't all those Chinese exports the U.S. imports just come by trucks on roads, it wouldn't be that hard to build a bridge across the Bering Straight!"_
Actually... I was saying "when does this friggin movie end?" After the movie, I swore not to countenance any production with Decaprio in it ever again.
The US Navy generally refers to subs as boats, and the Air Wing calls the carrier a boat. I found one explanation that the difference if if the vessel heals in or out when turning. Bottomline, I have never found any concrete difference in the definition of either boat or ship.
Even at the command level, you work with the tools you have, not the tools that you would like to have. This will be a lesson for why we weren’t doing it before, long before.
1. It never mattered if it worked. 2. They did something so to them it looked good. 3. Some government contractor made a lot of money so who gives a rats whisker.
It was a matter of a politician deciding how to employ a capability/system. Not the competence of the guys/gals on the ground. Like me trying to tell a doctor what to do with a patient.
Unfortunately, our government hasnt learned anything, nor has the Navy or the Army. The US Mariner and their jobs are in intensive care and on a very old ventilator. In the 30's to come, US mariners will be akin to Namibian mariner numbers. We are dying as an industry.
Amateurs talk about tactics, but professionals study logistics. If logistics truly is a low priority, that is a damning commentary on the current batch of generals and admirals.
@@Dennis-vh8tz It doesn't put you on the fast track getting a star on your shoulder. No one's paying to watch Top Gun :Maverick. The story of Pete Mitchell; C-130 pilot.
Sal, hope you enjoyed you vacation up here in our beautiful Saratoga passage, beautiful BC and 24hr daylight of summertime Alaska. As a Navy vet, great video. It's good to see someone layout the truths/facts. All too often the public see and certain congressional individuals blame the boots on the ground, sailors at sea for these failures that are out of their control. When you have incompetent congressionals holding up appointment of military leaders, shifting funding priorities, these events will only increase. This Gaza fiasco, as well as the war in Ukraine should be a wake up call. You cannot have a strong defense if you don't have strong support systems.
Or you, those who would maintain it would have to be Gazans... and while great at buildings underground... When it comes to infrastructure, they are 'better' at pulling it out. Rather than maintain.
I get it! It was not a crew issue. They don’t know that the civilians will see the bad decisions so they need to shape up. We look so dumb. Love to you. Hope you and your family had a good vacation. ❤❤❤❤
The poor sods who had to make it work will not be acknowledged in any way that counts. Meanwhile, there will be promotions and back slapping much higher up.
I love an ocean view cabin with an obstructed view. BTW working at the shipyard (for 40 years), we always went down to the boat, be that a submarine or aircraft carrier. Same for all the Navy crew.
Welcome to the Modern Military Logistics Systems. If it needs done it get contracted. How else will those defense contractors make money? Meant to be a tad bit tongue-in-cheek but the truth hurts.
I remember the Lt. Bobo from desert storm. Was part of a small group of marines that had to unload it and load it back up one evening to secure our equipment. No one else would do it at the time.
I have a friend from wilmington nc, he was in 10th Mountain for bhd. They got cibs 30 years later and nothing for recovering bodies a week before from Courage 53.
Every military that fails to understand and fails to implement logistics fails. It is as real as gravity, and for them to not recognize the absolute indispensable nature of logistics is criminal negligence. There is no environment of conflict or logistics does not play an overwhelmingly, divisive and decisive role. When you outrun your supplies, you stop running in fact you start movingbackwards. This is foolish for the military to not place logistics just behind war fighters.
This isn't military logistics, it was supposed to be humanitarian aid. There has been no issues getting military supplies to Israel. The US is extremely competent at logistics when they want to be.
That whole thing seemed like a failed concept, deployed in the real world. It was the wrong design, for the wrong purpose, unmaintained because it was known that it is trash, by people who could not know what they were doing.
Unfortunately since this is seen as a failure, the military would rather neglect and ignore those that served there rather than give them the recognition they deserve. Hope I’m wrong
Exact same thing was said after Mogadishu . The military tells you what gear is available for your disposal , you dont get to fill out a wish list for your mission gear . Well you can but it gets ignored .
