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Letters to the Editor

ADVICE NOT HARD TO FIND

While your article [“Outlook 2011,” Dec. 20] tries to provide useful information, I disagree with your assessment that “getting any inside information on your rating can often be difficult and, when you do get it, confusing.”

I am a trained career counselor, and it is my responsibility to provide sailors with the information they seek when making career decisions. In most cases, career counselors are highly visible, frequently sought-after subject-matter experts who provide the “best intel on advancement and other career details.”

The career re-enlistment objective group listing in your article can be found by navigating to the Perform to Serve “Quick Link” located on the Navy Personnel Command homepage. The CREO listing is especially important as it pertains to Perform to Serve. It is the authoritative source letting sailors know the status of manning in their respective ratings.

ET1 (SS) Michael K. Grier

Naples, Italy

REFRESHING ROLE REVERSAL

I thought it was pretty neat to see [Rear Adm. Dave Thomas] impersonating a deck seaman [“2-star in disguise,” Dec. 20], and I hope it gave at least one of our Navy bosses an appreciation of what it’s like to serve as a junior enlisted sailor. I’d also recommend more Navy brass become an enlisted sailor for a day, as well as some chiefs who’ve forgotten what it was like to be a junior enlisted sailor.

SK2 Benny Foster (ret.)

Norfolk, Va.

CUT SECOND F-35 ENGINE

Special interests in Congress have kept the extra [joint strike fighter] engine alive despite the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps rejecting it as unneeded and so costly to develop that it will significantly reduce the number of F-35s.

The extra engine will not be ready to compete with the current engine until 2017 at the earliest. The current engine, built by Pratt & Whitney, is meeting all of its cost and performance numbers.

The military aircraft in production today — the F-22, F/A-18, V-22, C-17, T-6, C-130J, and Apache and Black Hawk helicopters — don’t have extra engines for good reason: They never pay their way. They also add complexity and cost to logistics because of duplicate supply, maintenance and depot support systems required.

The F-16’s extra engine was a one-time anomaly in the history of military aviation under conditions that no longer fit today. There is no study that says it saved dollars. I prefer to trust the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, which don’t want the extra engine.

This is a sham competition, a giveaway to industry and a colossal earmark. It is driven purely by GE, Rolls-Royce, their K Street lobbyists and friends in Congress.

The new Congress is committed to cutting irresponsible spending. It should start by eliminating the extra engine for the F-35.

Gen. John Michael Loh (ret.)

Williamsburg, Va.

Loh is a former Air Force vice chief of staff and commander of Air Combat Command. He consults for several defense companies, including Pratt & Whitney.

KEEP CAMMIES UNIFORM

In Vietnam, we all wore the same green uniform [“Corps wrong on cammies,” Editorial, Dec. 27]. The only distinction was the “U.S. Navy,” “U.S. Air Force,” etc., on the right chest.

Why now do we all have to have our own fighting uniform? The same uniform worked in Vietnam.

Cmdr. Theodore Storck (ret.)

Surprise, Ariz.

MORE THAN ADMINISTRATORS

I would like to respond to Army Col. Kenneth Lewis’s letter [“Marine cammies for all,” Jan. 3].

He starts off by insulting every sailor by calling the Navy “administrative and supportive in nature.” Is he serious? Please make me, and all of our sailors, understand how this is remotely true. Since when is a seven-plus-month cruise on a ship “administrative”? How about our riverine squadrons, with which my son and son-in-law have made three tours to Iraq — supportive?

Sailors die, just like soldiers. What an insult. Sailors have been dying alongside soldiers and Marines since Day One of these conflicts, so don’t you dare diminish their contributions with your narrow-minded and ignorant [comments].

The second part of the letter deals with the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and the “introduction of possible sexual tension” into a war situation. It’s 2011, not the Stone Age.

You don’t have to like the policy, or even agree with it, but it is your sworn duty to uphold the Constitution, as well as the policies set forth by those above, including our commander in chief.

The Navy will implement whatever changes are needed. Sailors will do the right thing because we live with honor, courage and commitment.

NCC (SW) Steve Shepard (ret.)

Baltimore

REPEAL WON’T AFFECT d.c.

The true irony to this entire “don’t ask, don’t tell” debate is that neither the president, secretary of defense, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, nor any esteemed member of Congress who voted for the repeal will be directly affected by it. They will not be called upon to use any of their considerable leadership skills when dealing with the aftermath of this repeal.

That junior officer, noncommissioned officer or petty officer will. And may the good Lord bless and protect the first one who makes a mistake; he or she will be vilified and crucified, and not one of the above-mentioned people will take any responsibility nor raise one voice in protection.

It would be interesting to find out how many millions of man-hours and taxpayers dollars will be spent on sensitivity training in the coming months.

FORCM Mike Baker (ret.)

Fairfax, Va.

‘DON’T ASK’ FALLOUT

After all the surveys and politics, the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy has been repealed. Now the consequences begin. But the survey I filled out never asked what the fallout from the repeal might be. It only asked if I cared if a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered person served next to me. I replied the same way most service members did. I said I know who they are and if they do their job like everyone else, I won’t have a problem.

Now that it is passed, I feel for our equal-opportunity representatives.

Army Capt. Gwen Whitcomb

Columbus, Ga.