Another Quick Post

I forgot to say in my last post that I had an article published in PROCEEDINGS on decomissioning the USS SAN FRANCISCO. I didn't want to put the text of it here until after it was published, but since it's been published, I'll post it. Here it is in its entirety:

Decommission the San Francisco (SSN 711)
Proceedings of the US Naval Institute February, 2005

While listening to the news, I heard the most horrifying thing an officer in the sea services could hear, “naval submarine runs aground.” The USS San Francisco (SSN 711) ran aground off the coast of Guam. Twenty three sailors were injured and one sailor died. I cringed as I heard the news, wondering how it would affect the future. As I thought more about it, I realized that the effect didn’t have to be a horrible future. Instead, we can take this tragic accident and make something good come of it. We can take the San Francisco and decommission her. Die-hard submariners and scores of Naval Officers are probably hissing as they read this, but in this day and age of transformation, reducing costs and getting more bang for our buck, this is the only feasible solution.

I have not heard any estimates of how much it will cost to fix San Francisco, but I can only imagine that it will be in the tens of millions of dollars. A submarine going 30+ knots running head-on into an underwater mountain is sure to cause a lot of damage. If we spend the money to fix her and put her back into service, how long will it be before we are ready to decommission her? San Francisco was commissioned 23 years ago. She’s done her service for her country and should be retired. The money we would save by not fixing her, sending her back to sea, and then decommissioning her in the future is money that can be used for other revolutions in the Navy—potentially even for developing the future generations of submarines and submarine weapons/sensor systems.

Leadership requires that we make tough decisions. The Navy has been backed into a corner by “transformation” and is being forced to make those tough decisions that in the past we would have thrown money at. We are scaling down our forces and pressing forward towards a leaner more effective—and less costly—fighting force. We have no choice but to make decisions such as the decision to decommission the San Francisco. By failing to make these decisions, we tie up money crucial to transformation in attempting to salvage a past that we are trying to move away from.

It’s time we start contemplating our future in the Navy and stop living in a past that we can’t afford. Decommission the San Francisco and start the Navy down the path of the future.
--------------------------------------------------------

I hope someone reads it and says to him/herself, you know, maybe we should decomission her and save that money for something more productive. We'll see--hard to tell what the future holds.