Institutional Abuse of our U.S. Sailors


They took an oath to serve and to endure hardship.  They did not sign up for institutional abuse. Unless it has changed, deployment rotations are generally six months aboard ship and six months home with family.

 https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cyvl2d5j52lo

I went to Ghana, W. Africa with the USNR one month after 9/11. We entered under a science and technology treaty.  I was part of the main body and spent seventeen days in Africa.

The debriefing among officers at Fleet Hospital Dallas HQ was quite pithy. There was one issue which was addressed which had to do with troop welfare on the ground.  And I have never forgotten one statement by a senior officer:

A morale problem is a leadership problem.

The Pentagon has a leadership problem which must be addressed.  And when the ship returns to port, it will be interesting to see how many sailors will enlist again when their enlistment is up.

Tammy Swofford

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Charlie Kirk Marcus Aurelius "Meditations" would not exist if he had been assassinated for his thoughts at age thirty-one. I would have never read Alexander Solzhenitsyn's "Gulag Archipelago" if he had been assassinated for his political thoughts at thirty-one years of age. Winston Churchill would have never written "Hinge of Fate" (one of my favorite selections) had he been assassinated at thirty-one years of age. Ernest Hemingway was fifty-three years old when "The Old Man and the Sea" was published. Leon Uris was thirty-four years old when his novel "Exodus" was published. The average age of the delegates at the 1787 Constitutional Convention was forty-two.  Benjamin Franklin was 81 years of age at this time. The famous Persian poet Ferdowsi began writing "Shahnameh" when he was 37 years old and did not complete it until he was about seventy years of age.  This would be a tremendous loss not to have access to his though...
Read more
Image
Mohamed Elhassan He is powerful, made up of imperceptible layers.  He was only in his mid-teens when he first heeded the call to political action traveling to the Republic Palace of President Jafar Nimeiri seeking justice for his family. He is a well-respected Sufi.  In June,  he was awarded a Masters Degree in Islamic Studies from Hamad Bin Khalifa University (Qatar).  A recognized leader of the Kwahla tribe - with 16 million members.   Fast forward to 2010 and 2015 when he ran for President of the Sudan.  In 2015, it was my privilege to serve in a minor advisory role.  In recent years, he has given an enviable one hundred interviews with Al Jazeera Mobasha (life).   His name is Mohamed Elhassan.  I merely call him "friend". Mohamed Elhassan is president of the Sudanese Gathering Accord.  He is a man who knows his business, takes care of his business, and more importantly, takes care of his people. Less than a month ago he tra...
Read more
State of the Union:  Live Blogging Tammy and Blackfoot will begin live blogging shortly.  Grab your favorite drink and your BINGO cards and get ready to settle in for two hours of our POTUS speaking at SOTU.  We hope to keep this fun! https://opinionbytammy.blogspot.com/2026/02/state-of-union-bingo-cards.html __________________ Here we go, gang! "Gang" in the friendly family way, not in the Tren de Aragua way. President Trump and Mrs. Trump have left the White House and are on their way to the Capitol. I'm sure these past few days have been chock full of leafing through journals and diaries, and holding meetings with the inner circle for messaging strategies. Regardless of how much input his team gives him, we can always rely on our POTUS to not mince words, to lay the facts on the table and give us straight talk. Recently saw Newsom talking about Trump being an actor, and that he's a different person in different situations. Once again, Gavin is projecting his weakne...
Read more