A Return to the Rust Chronicles?
it never sleeps
After years of coordinated public shaming by David Larter, Chris Cavas, ‘ole Sal, and others — you can revisit The Drift’s The Rust Dialogues for historical reference — it seemed that things were improving over the last couple of years.
Sure, you’d see an occasional ship not quite to Japanese Navy standards, but it was noticeable that we had fewer incidents like USS Fort McHenry (LSD 43) pulling in to Kiel in 2019.
Well, we have Indications and Warnings that things are backsliding.
Other nations do not have their navy consistently looking like this. The nation and its government would not allow the White House, Capitol, or Supreme Court look like this. Our friends and enemies around the world do see our warships.
Let me plant this marker at the start: appearances matter. “Showing the flag” matters. We are not at war. Just as we knew the Soviet Union was wobbly at the knees by the condition of their ships in the late 1980s, how our Navy’s ships look to the world represents the state of our nation. Public Affairs, Information Operations, Psychological Operations (not to mention recruiting, morale, and retention) is directly tied to if your navy’s ships look impressive, or look like a55. A ship’s external condition is a primary indicator of the readiness of the ship, its crew, its, navy, and the nation it serves.
When called on it, we just get excuses that no one believes. This from Naval News back in 2023 is a perfect example.
Naval News sent an inquiry in May 2023 to the U.S. Navy’s Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) seeking the truth to these questions and received a reply on June 5, 2023 from Jamie Koehler of NAVSEA Public Affairs.
“NAVSEA has worked successfully for decades to improve the corrosion-control performance of coatings while simultaneously reducing the adverse impact of coatings on the environment. In the 1990s, Navy tank coatings had a performance life of five to seven years, but emitted paint solvents when applied. NAVSEA worked with domestic and foreign commercial coating manufacturers to develop ultrahigh solids epoxy tank coatings that do not contain any paint solvent. Since these coatings were first applied in the early 2000s, many coated tanks have remained corrosion-free for 15 to 20 years. These coatings are required on all Navy ships and have contributed to extending the drydocking periodicities,” wrote Ms. Koehler via email.
“NAVSEA has had similar success in transitioning the fleet from silicone alkyd topside coatings that required reapplication, to new high-performance and environmentally acceptable polysiloxane coatings that provide extended service life. Because of the durability and color stability of polysiloxane coatings, ship’s force is able to use water solvent cleaning kits to clean paint without emitting harmful chemicals into the environment. NAVSEA also has adopted high-performance powder coatings for use on topside parts as powder coatings are inherently hard, durable, and color stable, and contain no paint solvents. NAVSEA maintains lists of qualified polysiloxane coatings to ensure price competition between suppliers.” Ms. Koehler continued, “NAVSEA is also the current world leader in adopting metal-based, thermal spray nonskid technologies. NAVSEA researchers are actively involved in efforts such as the National Shipbuilding Research Program that is investigating technologies like drones and robots for coating applications. To date, the most successful use of robotic processes to coat Navy ships has been associated with the metallic nonskid coatings. In this process, a robot is used to apply the thermal spray coating to the flight deck in a controlled, consistent manner.”
Just look at the contemporary photo of USNS Alan Shephard (T-AKE 3) Naval News used from gCaptain from the article.
So, that was then…what about now?
Thanks to the irreplaceable WarshipCam on X, we have USS John McCain (DDG 56) from Monday in Puget Sound.
She got home from deployment almost six weeks ago.
There are no excuses for this. None. Zero.
This is a problem not so much of the ship, but the Admirals who are responsible for ensuring the ships are manned and equipped to take care of themselves. That ashore maintenance support is there.
That someone has the big picture.
UPDATE: Our friend James Holmes is over at The National Interest bracketing the same target. Go give it a read.
Sal is correct.
Appearance matters. A lot.
We can start with uniforms.
It’s time Navy personnel wore Navy uniforms not fatigues.
If you look like you are in the Navy you might think you are in the Navy and you might act like you are in the Navy.
Furthermore, anyone serving on a major staff or at an embassy should be in SDBs or summer whites.
It might even be time to bring back dress khakis.
I remember fondly hanging off the side (yes, in a chair supported by a rope held by a couple of fellow hardheads) and slapping haze grey on the sides while steaming at 20 knots. It was a huge character builder for us, and a point of pride for the crew. We never pulled into a foreign port that we didn’t look like world-conquerers. Perhaps, Sal, the most important of the missing elements in this man’s Navy is pride mixed with self-confidence.