39 Comments

Thank God for ADM Paparo.

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Paparo is in the wrong role. He should be the CNO or in the JCS.

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He will be the next JCS.

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I don't know who it will be but if Vegas had prop bets of this type, I'd bet against him—and not because he doesn't have the chops.

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I was beaten to it. This is his campaign pitch

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I believe he's better served as being a combatant commander. They answer to SECDEF and NCS, not to JCS, however if I was in the newly elected administration who's looking to do some scouring of senior brass, I'd keep him close and find out who he trusts and looks towards as similarly minded.

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America needs a SECDEF SECNAV CJCS and CNO worthy of Admiral Paparo. Hopefully, that will happen come January.

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Nov 20·edited Nov 20

I think it's funny you want to play with your toys while we all know any conflict between ourselves and any other major power will escalate beyond conventional means rapidly. It's idiots like you that don't know how to seek and live in peace that consume all of our hard earned money. Are you going to go to Russia and visit all the static displays of NATO equipment and ask for them back?

We should send you to Ukraine to fight the Russkies since you seem to be an expert and want this to drag on.

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Nov 20·edited Nov 20

Actually just about everyone here has free postage time and understands what's going on in a far deeper professional and personal way than your superficial reading of this article and the bloggers intent.

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Jetcal - as the old saying goes "don't wrestle with a pig, you'll both get dirty and only one will enjoy it"

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IF you don't wrestle the pig, it knocks your knees out from under you, gores nine kinds of hell then eats you.

Not being willing to wrestle the pig is how we got into this mess. (All of it. Including the mess this article is about.)

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No reply.

Must be a bot as mentioned or a coward who lacks the conviction of their words.

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You’re new here.

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George, I would be careful about tossing around the word “idiot.” There is an incredible wealth of knowledge on this site.

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Nov 20Liked by CDR Salamander

George can't hear you. George is a BOT.

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But is it a bot that is happy when it hears Хороший русский бот?

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CDR Sal, greatly appreciate the pointers you provided. Have learned to distrust O'Hanlon and Brookings over the years; I'll leave it at that. Paparo comes across as genuine. Having personally witnessed the at times startling changes in demeanor and personality that occur in flag officers as they climb the ranks, would be interested in hearing from those who have worked with him over the years if he is largely the same or has...changed.

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To answer your question from my point of view having served in a watchstander capacity with him but not a direct acquaintance.

I served on Enterprise when then LCDR Paparo, was a Dept Head in VFA-15. We were deployed during the attack on Sep 11 and conducted punitive strikes against Al Qaeda in Oct 2001. We had a standing order not to allow a push when the parrot (IFF) was sour on any channel. This cost a lot of time and energy and capability in maintenance and deck labor to launch a plane that was determined to be sour and had to return to the ship. I was a TAO and LCDR Paparo was a COPSWO which meant CAG put a current operation watch officer in CDC to help execute the AIRPLAN. He was on watch the same time I was during the opening strikes on the first couple of days, when our strike ops ordered a section to hold in the stack because one of the aircraft was sour. No hand hold was then authorized. “Strike” works for ship CO or the TAO and Strike Ops. The COPSWO worked for CAG. Not a small distinction when executing carrier operations. Sam ordered on his authority to push the section over Afghanistan. It made sense. He acted on his personal authority. I recall he said something to the effect “this is F’ing stupid!, send them!” I knew he had the bandwidth and he was right. The battle orders changed as did the OPORD to allow the Air Wing to push on when at least one of the section was sweet / sweet. It saved a lot of maintenance hours, deck and air boss head aches, and brought ordnance to bear on the bad guys. Moral increased in those squadrons I am sure. He is the right man for this job and the job we will be faced with. I don’t recall if the airplane was his squadron or one of the sister hornet or tomcat squadrons. He may recall this.

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You know the signal is getting through when TPTB are upping the noise to try and restore the status quo S/N ratio. I am seeing both on internet/social media and face-to-face discussions. Keep pushing the signal ADM Paparo!

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Lots of stuff we already know. Interesting that at the 48 minute mark you can get a sense of his tactical cookbook brain thinking how as a commander, he disciplines his line of thought:

SUDA-See, Understand, Decide, Act. A nice Simple way of explaining OODA. Boyd would approve.

The Admiral is Uber intelligent yet has a way of explaining the problem in a layman’s term.

I sense the weight of the problem on Pappy’s shoulders. We are blessed to have him at this particular point in time.

Despite the Chinese Commie dude at 1 hour mark trying to imply the Admiral is at odds with incoming SECDEF woke shit. I don’t think the Admiral is going to be on any fire list. Just shows the incongruity between the woke non useful ballast we have in the services vs a warrior.

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The Admiral was very adept at addressing that Chinese Commie dude at 01:01:40 with regard to D.E.I. woke shit. We are, indeed, blessed to have him at this particular point in time. Hope he starts a trend of wearing SDB's at important meetings. He looked and sounded sharp.

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He looked like he sounded. Respectful of the tradition.

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Imagine that, a man in a good tailored suit looking sharp. Will wonders never cease?

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I’m glad to hear Admiral Paparo has a view on the employment of unmanned vessels which is grounded in reality. It’s not to say that such solutions won’t be available to in future fulfill combatant roles, it’s just that at this juncture they are not yet ready for the big game.

The application of offshore autonomy will come in more or less three stages:

Stage 1 - Augmentation of manned assets - assisting crews;

Stage 2 - Remote operation of assets - human still in the loop controlling;

Stage 3 - Complete autonomy, with or without human intervention

Today I would say we are somewhere between Stage 1 and 2. We still are at best 3-5 years at earliest from Stage 3 - that’s just reality and Admiral Paparo gets it.

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We let LCS lead us away from minimal manning and can now see other countries seemingly execute it successfully. We keep avoiding a middle ground ripe for growth.

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Speaking truth not just to power, but anyone who will listen... BZ, Admiral.

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Concur on Paparo. He should have been the CNO...but the POTUS made the switch.

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While he's deserving of being CNO, I believe his talents are better served being a combatant commander. He can better set the tone and air operational grievances easier from that position, than being a committee bound answering machine in DC as CNO.

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founding

The winds are becoming more favorable for navalists. The discussions are more pointed and relevant thanks to consistent discussion amongst thinkers (Thanks Sal and Company!), direct and credible communication by experienced/serious leadership (Thanks Admiral P!), and an election. The season for disrupters is upon us…and it offers so many opportunities.

Who would have thought 6 months ago that DEI would be under wholesale threat by December? Could Goldwater-Nichols be amended/repealed in the coming season of change? If we can’t have 355 ships, maybe the focus should be on real structural changes to roll back our Navy to a model that once worked while embracing meaningful immediate measures to put tubes in theater (Its the tubes Stupid!) to avoid an epic tragedy. One would hope that a significant portion of the ineffective officer class is shaking in their boots anticipating the disruption of their “world”, while the core of pros who have been toiling and pointing out the obvious will have their time.

Having spent a few rainy Puget Sound days rereading the works of John Lehman and watching interviews where he boils down how to build a Navy…it is explicit that a clear strategy is the start and a simple consistent communication of that strategy and its budget requirements is mandatory. Very thankful Admiral Paparo is where he is. Hope he gets some help soon.

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Point of interest that Paparo commissioned via AOCS, 1987. Many thanks to whomever was the drill Instructor for that class.

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It appears that the closer a GOFO is to the shooting, the less they believe in magic beans that defy the laws of physics.

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DON'T YOU TAKE OUR MAGIC BEANS!

MAGIC BEANS MAKE THE BAD ORANGE MAN GO AWAY!

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I hope the Deep State doesn't take Admiral Paparo out the way they took out General Petraeus.

They get nervous about any potential Man on a White Horse.

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"They" didn't tell Petraeus to take his dick out of his pants.

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7 hrs ago·edited 7 hrs ago

You meant McCrystal and Rolling Stone

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The part about magazine depth is especially notable when you are actually shooting the darn things.

Your theoretical fungible redeployable Patriot interceptor missile magazine-in-waiting gets real-world smaller every time Ukraine or Israel or our guys in Israel or our guys in Jordan shoot one of the things, and if you do not address production to thumb more rounds (actually, preferably speed-load more rounds) into your magazine, the fungible number you can redeploy just-in-time becomes zero.

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"...inherently it imposes costs on the readiness of America to respond in the Indo-Pacific region,..."

Well, what do we think Brandon and his handlers are up to? Using up the stock in Ukraine, weakening Russia so when Xi thinks his pet, Brandon, has done a good job, things will start heating up. Color me a jaded jacka**,but when the "leader"("" constitutes sarcasm) of the free world is bought and paid for by the countries largest and most aggressive rival, what else can it be?

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