Somewhere you have a Navy planner punching walls, kicking his beloved dog and developing a serious drinking problem because the Marine Corps can't make up its mind!

 via TMZ (story here)

Navy and Marine Corps leaders have recently come to the agreement that the Corps needs 40 amphibious ships to meet its goal of keeping three Marine Expeditionary Units (MEU) deployed at the same time. However, at the moment, the Navy has only 31 of these vessels, a minimum mandated by Congress, and now an effort is underway to convince lawmakers to increase the fleet.

MEUs, made up of about 2,200 Marines, are typically embarked on Amphibious Ready Groups (ARGs), which usually consist of an assault ship, two transport docks or dock landing ships. Support vessels, surface combatants and in some cases a nuclear fast attack submarine can make up the larger Expeditionary Strike Group.

Gents if you want to know why the Marine Corps is FUCKED UP then look no further.

We had one Commandant (Berger) that said we only need 31 amphibs but we needed 18 Landing Ship Mediums.  He looked the Congress in the eye and declared that with ten toes down.  No doubt.  No equivocation.  Almost a religious belief. 

The next Commandant (Smith) sung from the same hymnal.  Ten toes down.  "A righteous journey".  No doubt.  No equivocation.  Taking the "almost" religious belief and dialed that shit up to ten.

This is what the Navy is dealing with (and I'm sorry to say that they do).

In the span of less than 8 years the USMC has gone from saying we only need 31 amphibs to now 40.  

Think about what that does to the shipbuilding budget!  They're having to plan for their carriers, subs, destroyers and frigates...not to mention their support ships of all classes.

While trying to get their shit together to deal with that (which is a mess all its own) they have the Marine Corps chirping in their ear about big amphibs AND Landing Ship Mediums for what I believe is a flawed concept!  

Somewhere you have a Navy planner punching walls, kicking his beloved dog and developing a serious drinking problem!

The FMF is good to go.  Its HQMC that is fucked beyond recognition and needs to get its shit together.