2017 Apr 19^th

It would appear that the Department of Defense (DoD) has lost, or at least, severely misplaced a 97 thousand ton aircraft carrier and her three support ships. Well, that’s not accurate; the DoD knows where they are, at least they say they do, they are just misleading us about their location

I listened to Secretary of Defense Mattis tell an interviewer that while the carrier Carl Vinson had initially been headed to Australia to play war games, the exigencies of the country’s problems required a cancellation of that task and the sending of this task force directly to the sea off Korea. (Mattis didn’t say exactly that but that was the gist of what he said.) Other administrative honchos followed right along telling us, and the world, that this “armada” (Trump’s words) was headed right to Korea.

Now we discover that this battle group was not headed directly to Korea at all, it was eventually headed there but first it participated in war games with the Australians. This directly contradicts what Secretary Mattis told the press about the Carl Vinson’s location and direction. Sean Spicer fumbled all over himself desperately trying to make the facts fit the administration’s utterances. As usual, he couldn’t do it. (I remember Jack Kennedy’s press conferences; what a delight they were, especially compared with these daily disasters.)

Now the foreign press is chortling away saying that America has lost an aircraft carrier. That isn’t true and it doesn’t matter that it isn’t true; it’s still embarrassing. We really can’t blame Mattis here. He has to depend on what one of his underlings tell him, specifically the Secretary of the Navy who in turn must use information from some claque of admirals.

The Secretary of the Navy, pro tem, is Richard V. Spencer. Spencer has not been on duty all that long; he replaces Victor Bilden who withdrew his nomination for financial reasons. Spencer must be confirmed by the full senate. Much of the confusion about what’s going on in our military and elsewhere is the result of not having various assistant secretaries in place and that is the fault of Donald J. Trump who would rather play golf and show off his Mar-a-Lago guests than do his job.

As to aircraft carriers, we have one very impressive carrier, the Ronald Reagan stationed in Yokosuka, Japan. The Ronald Reagan also carries 90 fixed wing aircraft and is much closer to Korea than was the Carl Vincent. Maybe we’re keeping that carrier in reserve.

It is embarrassing for the country to have the world’s press all asking, “Where in the world in the Carl Vinson.” If you have just one aircraft carrier as the Russians have and the Chinese have, they are really hard  to lose. We have ten so losing one is a lot easier. Let’s be fair here.

In “The Importance of Being Earnest” Lady Bracknell is quizzing Earnest about his parents. Here is the dialog, approximately:

Lady Bracknell: And what of your parents Mr. Worthing?

Earnest: I am afraid I have lost both of my parents, Lady Bracknell.

Lady Bracknell: I can understand losing one of your parents, Mr. Worthing, but to lose them both sounds like plain carelessness.

Parents…aircraft carriers; it does seem like carelessness.