HASC Seapower and Expeditionary Forces Subcommittee Hearing

I attended the HASC hearing this morning discussing the requirements for the future capabilities of the United States maritime forces. As one who usually watches the video or listens to the audio, I was struck by how much one can miss when you aren't there. The reporters can start the discussion with their articles and I'll come back then, but a few things.

The opening statements were good. Dr. Loren Thompson impressed me. He is a serious expert on aviation issues, but has never really struck me as highly informed on naval issues. Today, he had a really good day. There were a few of those 'fireworks' moments where it looked to me like Dr. Thompson was trying to throw Dr. Barnett in under the bus, particularly when Dr. Barnett told some stories about the origins of LCS dating back to his time when he worked for Cebrowski. Interesting notes to come back to later on that.

Dr. Loren B. Thompson (pdf)
Chief Operating Officer
Lexington Institute

Rear Admiral William Houley, USN (ret) (pdf)

Mr. Ron O’Rourke (pdf)
Senior Naval Analyst
Congressional Research Service

Dr. Thomas P.M. Barnett (pdf)
Senior Managing Director
Enterra Solutions, LLC

The star of the testimony, in my opinion, was RADM Houley who in my opinion can't write enough of his ideas down. I know a bunch of you sub guys read here, and I see the 10,001 submarine blogs, but for the most part you guys are all about what you can't say.

We need more submariners who WILL say what they are thinking, and RADM Houley did exactly that. It was refreshing because it almost sounded new, even though it wasn't actually new.

My favorite moment was during Thomas Barnett's opening statement, which I thought was really good. Dr. Barnett said something along the lines of "I want allies with million man armies and I want them to be ready to kill people," which is strategically exactly right.

Well, what the audio and video won't show is the reaction by Maine Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D), who looked to me like she was about to either feint or have a heart attack when Barnett said that. It was a priceless moment of facial expressions as she struggled to cope with the idea he was expressing. Honestly, I'm still laughing writing about it here. It was only afterward I was reminded that she is co-sponsor in the creation of a new government organization.

The Department of Peace. But the irony is, her question was one of the best asked, at least I thought so. Too bad the panel never got a chance to weigh in due to time.

A lot more to come.