Marines face "Uphill fight" to keep BB's
Bob Novak has a column today on the US Marines desire to keep the BB's USS Wisconsin & USS Iowa from not being converted into permanent Museums (the Wisconsin is here in Norfolk, VA). Apparently, it only costs $250,000 annually to keep the BB's in reserve status, ready for a 6 month retrofit back to active duty.
This article also appeared in today Pilot ON Line concerning (what I perceive as) the Navy's position on maintaining the fleet, which fails to mention the BB's at all. I know these ships are labor intensive, but we should have at least one on duty at all times in the Pacific as a deterrent to Chinese "ill intentions" towards Taiwan and Japan. A BB could also be very useful against N. Korea, as they were during the Korean War (My uncle served on the USS Wisconsin in that conflict)
posted by Spank That Donkey @ 12/06/2005 02:51:00 AM
1 Comments:
At 12/07/2005 02:52:00 AM,
RightsideVA said…
Unfortunately the BB's have been somewhat passed over since they are so big and probably hard to defend. The end of WW2 showed that the carriers with the airwings were the new kind of warfare and proved to be the way to go. I do agree that we should maintain at least one if not more just for intimidation uses. Remember when the New Jersey was lobbing the 16inch shells into Lebanon back when Ronald Reagan knew how to make a profound statement...
Post a Comment
<< Home