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Women to join sub crews

Although I agree that women should not be placed on subs, I find it interesting that the male point of view is that women get pregnant just to get out of going on ships [“Opinions diverse, but strong, about women’s sub service,” Oct. 12].

Women do not get pregnant all by themselves. Maybe the issue here is cultural — a culture of sex, sex and more sex. Being female on active duty for more than 18 years, I have been on board ships, deployed to the desert and at shore commands, even school commands, where sexual irresponsibility seems to be an issue. I completed a three-year tour on an aircraft carrier where I was told that it would be a miracle if I could complete my tour without getting pregnant.

Not all women can be batched into the same group. There are women who could probably perform better in some situations where men are traditionally at work. Do I think situations aboard submarines are among them? No.

I think the answer is to require women to sign a Page 13 [stating] that they will not get pregnant during this duty station or they will be reprimanded and charged with inability to meet contract requirements.

Family planning is very simple, with all of the choices available to control pregnancy.

HMC (FMF/SW/AW) Tiffany Jones

Sneads Ferry, N.C.

I am deeply appalled that the secretary of the Navy and chief of naval operations did not go for the whole enchilada and also end the ban on assigning women to SEAL teams. This would truly end discrimination of women and give women equal rights and responsibility, commensurate with rank and pay.

There is one caveat, as my executive officer warned: “If you volunteer, you cannot unvolunteer yourself.”

YN1 (SS) Juan Molina (ret.)

San Antonio

Focus on lean manning

The Fleet Reserve Association commends Navy Times and writer Philip Ewing for drawing attention to the Navy’s manpower shortage [“Sailor shortage,” Oct. 19].

As a representative for the career enlisted force, concerns about diminished Navy end strength have been referenced in FRA’s congressional testimony and legislative advocacy since 2002.

The most sophisticated platforms and most advanced technologies are useless without adequate personnel to develop, operate and maintain them. Inadequate end strengths, coupled with demanding operational commitments, are taking a toll on sailors and their families and threatening military readiness.

MUCM Joe Barnes (ret.)

national executive director, Fleet Reserve Association

Fairfax, Va.

Please tell me how you all write this [manning] article and fail to draw the direct correlation to Andrew Tilghman’s article “Report outlines concerns over new pregnancy policy” [Oct. 26]?

Your article doesn’t even mention pregnancy, let alone allude to the deleterious effect when a lean- “manned” ship loses crew members to pregnancy for effectively two years. It is not a politically correct topic, but it is germane and entwined with personnel shortfalls at sea nonetheless.

When a female crew member gets pregnant, she is gone from shipboard service from virtually the moment she is disclosed as pregnant. That hole in the crew remains long after the female crew member disappears. Navy records in the early 1990s showed that the pregnancy rate for female sailors E-4 and below during their first tour was 64 percent. Further, prior to a unit’s deployment, pregnancy rates spiked close to 80 percent.

The shore establishment would be hard-pressed to replace the pregnant sailor, just as the detailers have limited assets available for short-fused fills. Often the system robs a warm body from another ship, exacerbating rather than correcting the problem.

Make the Navy leadership quit playing politics and face the issue head on, before the submarine force starts falling apart as well.

Capt. M.S. Joyce (ret.)

Jacksonville, Fla.

Solution for VA backlog

It is obvious to the most casual observer that the Veterans Affairs Department is incapable of dealing with requests for service on a timely basis. Not only have applications for the new GI Bill been delayed significantly beyond the VA estimate, but they are not able to certify disability ratings in an expeditious manner, either.

One possible solution is to accept applicants’ word that they are eligible for the benefit being sought, and amp up the penalties for fraud significantly.

I suggest that any amount of fraud be considered a felony — and a federal crime, to boot — and be accompanied by mandatory jail time.

RMCS John Franklin (ret.)

Peterborough, N.H.

Longer deployments

It is outrageous for the Navy to continue to be tasked with more and more missions with a decimated fleet of ships. An orgy of decommissionings since 1989 has taken us from 212 surface combatants to 110. Considering we have no plans (even a congressionally mandated, 30-year shipbuilding plan) to build any cruisers or frigates in the near future, and we are decommissioning the remaining Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates, the numbers will not improve, given that all we are building are more Burkes, littoral combat ships and three Zumwalt-class destroyers (which probably will never join the fleet).

Pundits will argue that the Burkes are more capable and are each de-facto replacements for two Perry-class frigates. This sounds good, but one ship can only be in one place at one time. Fewer ships mean fewer places they can be.

Apparently this logic hasn’t taken hold as our amphibious fleet continues to shrink (61 ships in 1989, 34 ships in 2009) and our auxiliary fleet has disappeared (save two sub tenders).

As for Europe, isn’t it high time we stopped paying for their protection? World War II has been over for almost 65 years, but Uncle Sam is still bleeding American taxpayers to fund the massive military industrial complex, which tries to protect not only Europe but the rest of the world.

Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain are five of the top 12 richest countries in the world. They are more than capable of defending themselves and their European neighbors. European missile defense should not be on the backs of U.S. troops or out of the pockets of U.S. taxpayers.

Reserve EMC (SW) Jerry Sykes

Jacksonville, Fla.