BEYOND THE HORIZON

SPECIAL EDITION

July 2023          #10

Due to an extraordinary amount of news, I decided to add a Middle of the Month blog. Another will be posted 1 July 2023.

CONTEST

  A few months ago, I held a contest for a book; but in the fashion of the World’s Worst Sailor, I forgot to mention the winner. Alan Dove from Massachusetts received the prize. Now ANOTHER CONTEST! Leave a comment at the end of this blog and win an autographed Noble Prize for Literature book, The World’s Worst Sailor.

GRAY FLEET

            In the War Games of 1932, Admiral Harry Yarnell (an Iowan) took 2 aircraft carriers northeast of Hawaii and launched a biplane aerial attack on Pearl Harbor on a Sunday morning around 0800. His fake bombs smacked the daylights out of the battleships lounging in the harbor. Referees overruled his surprise assault stating that no Japanese fleet could cross the Pacific without being spotted, U.S. fighters would have downed all enemy planes long before they reached Hawaii, and the new technological wonder, radar, would have spotted the planes nearly a hundred miles offshore. The only person who paid attention was an observer named Admiral Yamamoto. 

            Today’s Navy produces a monthly journal, PROCEEDINGS, that consistently features perspectives of its best and brightest, all who claim that war with China is inevitable and that the U.S. needs to develop better Marine Corps assault units, build more landing craft, and further enhance air/anti-air weaponry. Maybe they should also think about adding an extra mast, more sail, and stronger than wooden hulls!

            The old bromide that the military is always preparing for the last war seems pertinent. First, we are setting a mindset that war with China is an absolute given. The military seems to refuse acknowledgment that China’s import needs consist of grain, machinery, fuel, and pharmaceuticals to the tune of $151 billion.  They export over $575 billion in goods.  Neither economy can survive a war. Second, modern technology will be more electronically oriented than ever before. A techno-war will control the power grid, and the banking grid, and interfere with electronic weapons. Third, the Chinese desire hegemony in all of Asia through economics rather than military domination (like the Japanese tried prior to WWII).  Are U.S. interests in that great of danger?

            The war between Ukraine and Russia showed one example of techno-warfare. The Ukraine sunk a Russian frigate with an uncrewed, Surface vehicle (USV), guided by aerial drones forwarding signals from shore-based controllers. A war with China will not be a shoot-out between fighter jets or an amphibious assault by Marines.

            Not to beat a dead horse but the failures of the Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) need to be reviewed.  They were supposed to be multifunctional by dropping different modules on them that could be achieved in hours. They had two different drive systems: standard and jet pack. These would be used jointly to hit speeds of 40 + knots (and some say up to 70 knots). Politics intervened and we ended up with two totally different designs: the Freedom class and the Independence class.

            The beauty existed in that these technological darlings were inexpensive to build and cost-efficient to operate. In orgasmic delights, the Navy launched the first of these miracles only to discover that the two drive systems did not work together (think of it as a bad transmission design). 75 % of the ships suffered catastrophic failures. Worse, they could not repair them without significantly tearing apart the hull. Considering the repair costs, it was easier just to eliminate 9 Freedom class ships. But don’t you just love the Pentagon! They will continue to build 6 more! Navy spokespersons claim the new ones will be easier to repair and have a new transmission.

            As for the module concept that could change the ships from antisubmarine warfare to mine/counter-mine operations, the Lemon Fleet discovered that it took days, not hours, to convert for different missions. The Navy quietly decided to eliminate that idea and each ship will be built for a singular mission.

            On June 17, 2023, The USS IOWA (SSN 797) was christened in Connecticut. I was invited but could not attend due to family health issues. As mentioned before, it is a Virginia-class submarine.

            The Norwegians have a non-translatable word for “wow” or “Hmmm”: UFF DA. That may be the best way to describe the Navy’s relief of two ship captains. USS JOHN FINN (DDG 113) commanding officer, Commander Angela Gonzales, was fired by the 7^th Fleet VADM Karl Thomas for “lack of confidence in her leadership”. Her Executive Officer (XO) was also relieved. 

            Commander Jeff Applebaugh, CO of the USS STOUT (DDG-55) was relieved of command by the head of Destroyer Squadron 28 based in Norfolk. As always, the Navy merely stated that there was a “loss of confidence in his ability to command”. He makes the 4^th CO to be dumped this year. The Navy fired 17 commanding officers in 2022.

            The causes of the relief of a CO are usually very confidential but tend to be a failure of readiness. USS STOUT had just completed a series of tests and drills following a time in drydock. One might assume that the ship did not do very well in these. Relief of command usually indicates the end of a naval career, although they will hide the officers in some meaningless office until they are ready to retire.

ENVIRONMENT

            Wooden Boat featured an article about trees that certainly caught my attention. Living in the Driftless Zone, an area never leveled smooth by the Ice Age glaciers, remained the last of the hardwood forests of the Midwest until most of the bluffs were clear-cut in the late 1890s and early 20^th century. The elms, oaks, ash, white pines, and chestnut trees were cut for sundry uses ranging from furniture to heating. Only the weak ones were left to propagate and reforest the region. Unfortunately, these slower-growing trees left a virtual vacuum for invaders, the pesky maples that were not indigenous to the region but capable to send their little helicopter seeds many miles. The sugar, Japanese, silver, red, and field maples overran the bare hills and drowned out new hardwood growth. Worse, only the weak hardwoods survived and became susceptible to Dutch Elm, Ash Borer, oak wilt, and chestnut blight. Quality woods for boatbuilding is becoming harder to find and many of the great trees of old are becoming extinct. 

            Unfortunately, the only means of saving these trees is through cross-breeding and hybridization through DNA alterations. The Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, EPA, and Food and Drug Administration govern genetically modified organisms (GMO) and are handcuffed by a plethora of differentiating laws, mandates, rules, regulations, policies, and orders. The national government can hardly handle the Post Office or the Military, asking them to understand and handle tree extinction may be asking them too much.

Iowa Oak trees

            Iowa Republicans pulled the plug on environmental groups (including Sierra Club of which I am a member) that stood in the way of an intended 11,500 cow herd adjacent to Bloody Run Creek, a protected waterway replete with endangered flora and fauna. So, a GOP senator who is the father-in-law of one of the owners arranged to defund the 72 testing sites in Iowa, some of which are on Bloody Run Creek.

            After much gnashing of teeth, grumbling, and whining by the environmentalists, the 72 test equipment items were reinstated by the College of Agriculture at Iowa State University using their funds rather than directly paid by the taxpayer. Of course, Governor Kim Reynolds immediately reduced funds to the state universities in the next state budget.

            Truth be told, I was campus President of the Young Republicans in my college days when the party had liberal, moderate, and conservative wings. Think of John Lindsay, Nelson Rockefeller, Governor for Life Robert D. Ray, and a plethora of others. By 1980, the liberal wing and most of the moderates were exiled. I was asked to leave a Clayton County Republican convention because I was too liberal. And the gap widens. I now eschew politics!

            An Iowa State University study on fish kills within the state can be attributed to a variety of complications ranging from disease, parasites, poisons, and other problems. They noted that fully 1/3 of fish kills were caused by manure and farm chemical run-off. This spring, I watched Iowa farmers drown their fields with ammonia, chemical fertilizer, pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides. Studies indicate that Iowa farmers use about 1/3 too much of each. Ag Chemical companies and the Farm Bureau totally disagree, as does our Governor.

ALLISIONS AND COLLISIONS

            PABLO, a Gabon-flagged tanker caught fire off Singapore with the loss of 3 among the 28 crew.

            Few commercial ships have a better name than ALPHA OPTIMISM, a Malta-flagged vessel that caught fire off Spain. Tell me you don’t love that name.

            ATLANTIC, a tour boat sailing in India capsized killing 22. After the recent head-on collision of 2 trains in that country that eliminated over 200 people, this is not unexpected. Interestingly, India surpassed China as the most populous nation on our Blue Marble.

            LU PENG YUAN YU 028, a longline fishing craft from China, capsized and the crew of 39 are missing.

            Personally, I found the capsizing of a houseboat in Italy notably interesting. Evidently GODURIAcapsized killing four guests. The noteworthy news is that there were 25 people on board, many were intelligence officers. For the record, the boat had a recommended number of passengers listed as 15. Perhaps there is a difference between “intelligence officers” and “intelligent officers”.

            The Indonesian Navy’s landing ship KRI TELUK HADING caught fire 8 miles off Bira, Bulukumba Regency, South Sulawesi. Try pronouncing the name of the ship and the region of the fire 5 times really fast.

SUPERSTITIONS

            Sailors are superstitious? Naw, they’re too intelligent. Right? During WWII in the Pacific, Commander-in-Chief, Pacific (CINCPAC), Admiral Chester Nimitz created a new Task Group under VADM William Halsey to be named Task Force 1, and it was to sail from Pearl Harbor on the 13^th of the month. Halsey noted this to Nimitz who immediately changed the title to TF 16 and delayed the departure until the 14^th.

LAW

            The highly anticipated Supreme Court decision defining Waters of the United States (WOTUS) by a 5-4 decision on Sackett v. EPA with Justice Alito writing for the majority.  The original 1972 Clean Water Act left the definition of what was water that fell under the jurisdiction of the Environmental Protection Agency. This vague directive was further complicated by the 2006 verdict in Rapanos v. United States with a 4-4-1 decision Justice Kennedy opined that WOTUS was any property or wetland with a significant nexus to regulated waterways.

            Justice Alito noted “The uncertain meaning of the waters of the United States has been a persistent problem, sparking decades of agency action and litigation…By EPA’s own admission, nearly all waters and wetlands are potentially susceptible to regulations under this (significant nexus) test, putting a significant array of landowners at risk of criminal prosecution for such mundane activities as moving dirt.”

            He went on to claim that the original act’s intention dealt only with streams, oceans, rivers and lakes.  His new definition is the WOTUS is water that is “indistinguishable” from those bodies of water due to continuous surface connections. 

            I understand what he means. This week I was sailing and lost the main sheet while on a lee shore and was immediately pushed into a swamp full of weeds that halted all movement.  This would indeed fall under the definition. The Sackett’s, however, backfilled a wet area behind their house and were threatened with criminal arrest and a $40,000 per day fine until they put the wet area back to its original state. This was in 2007 and now in 2023, it was clarified. The Sackett’s were represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a small public interest firm with a long history of winning decisions in the Supreme Court. (Much of this was taken from David Murray’s article in Waterways Journal)

INLAND WATERWAYS

            The Mississippi River’s need for new locks and dams got underway with groundbreaking near Winfield, MO Lock and Dam #22. The old 600’ chamber will be replaced with a 1200’ lock. Due to environmental concerns, a $97 million fish passage was also built at Lock #22.

            Navigation and Ecosystem Sustainability Program (NESP) received a munificent sum of $7.9 billion from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that allows over 1,000 small and large waterway repairs over the next 50 years. This includes repairs to Upper Mississippi River Locks and Dams 11,13,14,15,17,20, and 21. 

            As a kid growing up alongside our grandest river, nothing is worse than trying to get your little fishing boat through the locks behind a tow of 15 barges that need to be split and progressed forward in pieces. It became time to hit a slough and fish for crappies (and drink some Nehi Strawberry pop).