The Emerald Rose

I always had a hyper curious mind and I am always trying to expand my knowledge base, my educational levels, and all the other parts of life and the world I can possibly squeeze into the time I’ve been here, going on 73 years now!

When I was in the Navy in the 60’s, I was heavily involved in Anti-submarine Warfare, in a number of different facets, as a Second Class Petty Officer, or equivalent of a Sargent, I was both a dry sponge, when it came to seeking and learning about every aspect of ASW, equipment, strategy, implementation, and the interrelationship and aspects of Oceanography which were keys to making success of it.

I was even asked, by the Admiral, When I was on his staff of the entire ASWEPS, (ANTI-SUBMARINE WARFARE PREDICTIONS SERVICES) Commander, when my divisions Lieutenant  fell and broke his hip he would be out for several months,  if I could handle his job, when I was, only the Leading Petty Officer of the division, until they could find a replacement for him. It required a Master’s Degree in Oceanography, and various scientific aspects like “Sound Propagation in Water” etc., etc. Long story short we received orders after that to be decommissioned in a year, thus my shortest stint as a “Division Commander” in the U.S. Navy.

But several years ago, I got a copy of “U.S. Naval Proceedings” magazine and it had some great articles, so I signed up for a subscription, and I love it. Most of the Articles are written by Active Duty or Retired Officers and Chiefs, (maybe I’ll send a couple in, what’s the worse that an happen they get rejected.). But there was an interesting article this month (July 2017)  , titled “Where are the Cyber Warriors?” By Captain William J. Toti, U.S. Navy (retired).

It’s topic was “Who is actually fighting these Cyber-Wars today”? The  first third of the article was about  was about a call President Franklin D. Roosevelt made in 1939 to the Chief of NavalOperations because the war drums and the seeds of war were germinating in 1939 when this happened. Roosevelts question was as to how the CNO, four star Admiral Harold Stark as to how they would employ our 39 year old Submarine Force if we were pulled into , what would become World War II!

The answer was that Submarines were a very technical area, and the Chief of Naval Operations, was not up to speed on them, But he would ask the Pacific Submarine Commander, a Rear Admiral. When he got the CNO’s call Com SubPac was asked “how the plan for “unrestricted submarine warfare” was coming??” ComSubPac told him he had a man with him now who was his ‘expert’ on it, and passed him to a Captain, who basically told him the plan was to shut down the Diesel engines and go water tight and stay submerged and in fact “crash dive” , and stay submerged until it was safe to surface again, but currently that strategy had a problem in that the “head valve, VH-1” didn’t shut quickly enough to implement the tactic.

The CNO asked the Captain to put the PacSubCom Admiral back on the line. “Yes sir,” replied the Rear Admiral. The CNO went on to tell him that he never got an answer on how to use the submarines in combat, and that the technicians sounded like they were running the show. He closed with the advice to the Rear Admiral that, “I think you need to get some warriors on your staff!”

His point was very simple IF we have too do war, make it happen and win it, PERIOD! Much like today , not too much changed since 1939  when that call transpired! If we really think about it our most successful “war” types, they are committed and know how to win and why they are doing it,……so RECOGNIZE THEM, ENCOURAGE THEM, and LET THEM DO WHAT THEY DO BEST! So to paraphrase Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939, “How are we handling this ‘Cyberwarfare stuff?”

Sound like President Donald Trump’s Philosophy and strategy of “WAR” with the liberal factions eating out country alive,.. otherwise….the factions that will passively ALLOW our great nation, and our new generation of “powers that be” will be the first generation  to LOSE A WAR for AMERICA!!!

Cyber warfare is the way of the future, let the “Warriors” of this generation do the job that only they can do! The engineers can solve problems with the “valve that won’t close”, the logistics gurus will figure out how to get them made, shipped and installed, and the AMERICAN SPIRIT OF OUR WARRIORS WILL MAKE IT BECOME A “WIN”!

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