Defense Budget Cuts - As Usual, Marines Take Big Hits

I could have predicted the budget-cutting decisions by the Defense Secretary Robert Gates that are outlined below. As noted, the biggest and probably most important to our premier fighting force, the United States Marines, were directed at equipment for the Corps to save lives of those warriors as they fight our country's battles.

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As reported in an AP article in Fox News.com, January 06, 2011, "Gates Proposing Cuts in Military Budget" the Defense Secretary, is obviously still smarting from the leadership generals in the Marine Corps objecting strenuously about the problems that will be encountered with the repeal of the homosexual caveat, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Gates is not just cutting funds for a new expeditionary amphibious vehicle than can ferry troops to shore while under enemy fire from the landing area, but he is doing away entirely with that plan; and in addition to that loss of Marine Corps equipment that could potentially save many lives, Gates is also delaying funding for the Marine Corps F-35 Joint Strike Fighter for the Marine pilots, who provide close combat support while the Corps is engaged in ground fighting campaigns. It was well known that Gates was upset with the Marine Generals who strongly opposed the president's plan to repeal the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" strategy of allowing homosexual people to serve in the military as long as they kept their abnormal life styles secret to themselves. Now, in typical liberal Democrat mode, Gates is punishing the Marine Corps by removing funding for highly important, life-saving equipment badly needed by the Marines. Welcome to the socialist style method of putting our fighting forces in more danger unnecessarily while on the battlefield. Comrade Gates does not like to be upstaged by the superior thinking of military experts. His own "second guessing" always comes in dead last, which is where he is happy to put the Marine Corps budget. He wants his pet soldierettes to have many things they want, but the Marines have to take the cuts. The only other Defense Department budget cuts mentioned in the AP article were two non-battle specific cuts which involved trimming "the department's bureaucracy by disbanding an entire military headquarters in Virginia, called U.S. Joint Forces Command, and cutting back on the number of general officers that staff the Pentagon" which had been pledged by Gates last year. So the cuts to the combat specific needs of the Marine Corps are the only "new" slashes mentioned for this latest budget trimming story. Of course it is always an expected event when military requirements have to be reduced that the Marine Corps will take the biggest hits. It has been that way since the Marines have been in existence. Having been a recipient of these "take it from the Marines" cuts in defense budgets, I can give first hand testament to those claims. In 1942 in a 'hurry up' action to stop the island hopping and fast moving Japanese military machine in the Pacific, grabbing every piece of land possible between Japan and the southernmost country, Australia, the powers-that-be chose the Marine Corps to put a stop to the rapid advance. As luck would have it, I found myself with the initial group that was sent to the South Pacific in early 1942 to halt the Japanese juggernaut that had been storming southward in the Pacific, the First Marine Division. We met with their forces on the jungle island of Guadalcanal, of the Solomon Islands chain. Fitting as it may be, and probably because of more budget cuts, we were sent into jungle fighting combat conditions equipped with World War One type weapons, suitable for conflicts in open spaces such as single shot rifles, instead of automatic weapons for close in-fighting in jungle settings. This new Marine learned quickly about Marine Corps budget cuts. So OK, Gates do your cutting, but remember this: the Marines may have learned the hard way how to survive budget cuts and be able to bounce back successfully, but we didn't have the albatross problem of questionable and "different" mortals at our backs and the lack of more life saving equipment as our modern Marines will have to endure. I hope your conscience is strong. Ironically, a second Fox News.com article appeared in the Wall Street Journal on January 08, 2011 regarding the Defense Secretary's decision to cut this life-saving piece of necessary equipment out of the Marine Corps' budget, but the opposition to that decision was registered in our hallowed halls of Congress.

Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle: Save Lives not Jobs

The Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) is manufactured by the General Dynamics Corp., of Falls Church, Va., but they will be produced in their facilities in Ohio; so three Ohio lawmakers, two liberal Democrats that are normally opposed to anything for the military, Sen. Sherrod Brown and Rep. Marcy Kaptur, and Republican Rep. Jim Jordan sent a letter to President Obama "urging him to stop cancellation of the program." The irony of this situation is that their opposition is not registered so much because of the cancellation of much needed equipment for the Marines; it is being rescued to save jobs in the Ohio district where the manufacturing will take place. "Without the EFV, these facilities will be severely downgraded, hurting the local economies and eliminating hundreds of high-paying, high-skilled manufacturing jobs," they wrote in the letter to Obama. I'm sure the Marines are not fretting over the Congress people's political reason for trying to keep the EFV in production instead of for the life-saving features the equipment will provide for future landings in combat situations. But as one of their "brothers", I would have appreciated seeing the mention of a bit of compassion for the lives of the Marines who will be in those fighting vehicles.