I Come to Bury CRUDES, not to Praise Her

Decline Changes Your National Language

Did you catch this from yesterday’s Pentagon presser?

Q: Thank you. Can you bring us up to date on the number of attacks and wounded in Iraq and Syria against US troops? And also, can the Defense Department name which cruisers were sent to the Middle East? I don't think I've seen those ships named. Thank you.

MAJOR GENERAL RYDER: Yeah. Thanks, Jeff. In terms of the injuries that were at Rumaila and landing zone, I think you were briefed on Monday, 11 personnel had been treated for TBI and smoke inhalation. All 11 of those, to my knowledge, have returned to duty. In terms of the cruisers, just to clarify something, so within the Department of Defense, we have an acronym that we typically use, CRUDES, which stands for cruiser destroyer.

And so there was some information out there in terms of cruisers going to the AOR. Right now, there are no cruisers in the AOR, but we often use that term also loosely to refer to destroyers. So CRUDES, cruiser destroyer, so we do have destroyers in both the Yukon and the CENTCOM AOR. Hope. Hopefully that helps to clarify.

We cannot have CRUDES without cruisers and it is embarrassing to pretend otherwise.

Words mean things.

We need to get ahead of what is coming. For the first time since the late 19th Century, in the next 36-months we will be a navy without cruisers.

No more shorthand of “CRUDES” for “Cruiser-Destroyer.” CRUDESGRU already left the lexicon 20-years ago.

We only have 12 of the 27 Ticonderoga Class CG left, and either USS Chosin (CG 65) or USS Cape St. George (CG 71) will be the last one decommissioned in 2027.

Maybe we’ll be lucky and have the Arleigh Burke Flight III reclassified as CGL. As they are now CAPT and not CDR commands, I could make that sale … but alas, probably not.

No more “CRUDES Sailors.” Nope. Sad, really.

CG(X) - still an undertold story - with as it DC’s habit failed with no accountability - will get its last swipe in.

h/t Jeff Schogol.