Republican Presidential candidate criticizes Biden’s removal of U.S. Naval assets from Black Sea prior to Russian invasion.
Press Release –
updated: Nov 30, 2022 11:30 MST
DES MOINES, Iowa, November 30, 2022 (Newswire.com)
– Former Montana Secretary of State and current Republican presidential candidate Corey Stapleton says the United States needs to be significantly more involved in both the defense and rebuilding of Ukraine following its February invasion from neighboring Russia.
While crediting President Joe Biden for publicly sharing numerous intelligence reports showing the buildup of Russian troops prior to the invasion, Stapleton was critical of Biden’s decision to vacate U.S. naval forces from the adjoining Black Sea prior to the telegraphed conflict.
Turkey has since closed off passage into the strategic Black Sea for ships not homeported there.
Stapleton, a former U.S. naval officer, cited the Marshall Plan as a model for both rebuilding the infrastructure in Ukraine and providing comprehensive assistance to the devastated nations facing energy and food shortages heading into winter. The original Marshall Plan was passed in 1948 by the U.S. Congress following World War II, to help finance the rebuilding of Western Europe.
“The Western front may be further East now,” said Stapleton, “but genocide and war are just as real as then.”
Stapleton called on President Biden and the U.S. Congress to pass Marshall Plan II, providing an infrastructure and financial roadmap for war-torn Ukraine, coordinating with European and NATO allies and ending the Russo-Ukrainian War.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — In a story published Nov. 22, 2022, about a shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, The Associated Press erroneously reported the rank of U.S. Navy Information Systems Technician Thomas James. He is a Petty Officer, Second Class, not an officer.
NORFOLK, Va. — A military appeals court has ordered a new sentencing hearing for a U.S. Navy SEAL who got 10 years in prison for his role in the hazing death of a U.S. Army Green Beret while the men served in Africa.
Prosecutors failed to disclose that a U.S. Marine who testified against the SEAL — and who participated in the hazing — had asked for clemency in exchange for his testimony, the court ruled. The SEAL’s defense attorneys missed the chance to question the Marine about a “potential motive to misrepresent events.”
The United States Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals published the ruling last week, nearly two years after Tony DeDolph received his decade-long punishment.
DeDolph, a Wisconsin native, was a member of the elite SEAL Team 6. He was one four American servicemembers — two SEALs and two Marines — who were charged in the death of Army Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar, a Texas native.
The hazing occurred in 2017 while the men served in Mali. Charging documents don’t state why they were there. But U.S. Special Forces had been in Africa to support and train local troops in their fight against extremists.
The case offered a brief window into how some of America’s most elite servicemembers have addressed grievances outside the law.
DeDolph testified during his 2021 court-martial that the four men were trying to get back at Melgar and teach him a lesson over perceived slights. In particular, some were upset that they missed a party at the French Embassy in the capital city of Bamako because Melgar and the others got separated in traffic.
DeDolph said they plotted an elaborate prank for Melgar known as as a “tape job.” That included binding Melgar with duct tape, applying a choke hold to temporarily knock him out and then showing Melgar a video of the incident sometime later.
DeDolph said his role in the prank was to cause Melgar to temporarily lose consciousness by placing him in a martial-arts-style chokehold. DeDolph said the “rear naked choke” restricts blood flow in the neck and is used in the military.
“I effectively applied the chokehold as I have done numerous times in training,” DeDolph said.
Melgar lost consciousness in about 10 seconds, but failed to wake up after the typical 30 seconds, DeDolph testified.
“Usually by that time, the individual has gotten up,” DeDolph said. “And he did not.”
DeDolph pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and hazing, among other charges. A sentencing hearing followed, during which one of the Marines testified on behalf of the government. The appeals court used a synonym to identify the Marine in its ruling.
The Marine’s role in the hazing included raising the mosquito netting around Melgar’s bed and binding his arms and legs with tape, the appeals court wrote. The Marine offered a detailed account of the assault, including the methods that DeDolph used to render Melgar unconscious.
DeDolph’s attorneys knew that the Marine had already pleaded guilty to charges that included negligent homicide and hazing, while agreeing to testify against DeDolph, the court wrote. But DeDolph’s attorneys were unaware that the Marine was also requesting less prison time, specifically two years instead of the four he got.
“The fact that (the Marine) sought additional clemency … in exchange for his testimony is clearly information that tended to demonstrate (his) bias, and bore on his credibility,” the appeals court wrote. DeDolph’s attorneys were denied the opportunity to examine the Marine’s potential bias and whether he had a “motive to exaggerate his testimony.”
The Marine’s sentence was later reduced from four years confinement to three years.
“(T)here is a reasonable possibility that the outcome of the trial would have been affected by the disclosure of the clemency request,” the court wrote.
BEIJING — U.S., Japanese, Australian and Canadian warships are currently staging extensive joint drills in Japanese and international waters, the U.S. Navy said Wednesday.
Without mentioning China directly, the 7th Fleet said the two-week biennial “Keen Sword” exercises include scenarios designed to “challenge the critical capabilities required to support the defense of Japan and stability of the Indo-Pacific region.”
Growing Chinese assertiveness is seen by the U.S. and its allies as the key military challenge in the region.
The drills also come as heads of the Group of 20 leading economies were meeting in Indonesia, among other high-profile regional forums.
The G-20 gathering allowed the first face-to-face meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping since Biden took office, leading to hopes of a start of a reduction of tensions that have lately spiked over trade, technology and Taiwan.
The drills include extensive anti-submarine warfare drills, and the guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold fired its 5-inch gun on Sunday as part of live-firing exercises, the 7th fleet said in a statement. Three Japanese destroyers, two Canadian frigates and one Australian destroyer also took part, it said.
Participation by the Australian and Canadian navies this year helped “enhance readiness and interoperability to support the security interests of allies and partners in the region,” it said.
“Regional security is a team effort now more than ever,” Cmdr. Marcus Seeger, commanding officer of the Benfold, said in the statement. “We share a sense of collective resolve. The first wave of crisis response will share the same allies present in this year’s Keen Sword.”
China has the world’s largest navy by number of ships, which it has been using to assert its claim to virtually the entire South China Sea, a crucial route for global trade.
China has eschewed formal alliances but has taken part in some multinational drills on a very limited level. It has established its first overseas base in the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti and is believed to be working with Cambodia on establishing another such facility facing the Gulf of Thailand. Both countries have denied the allegation.
China has also signed a security agreement with Solomon Islands, raising concerns that Chinese forces will gain a foothold in the South Pacific.
Mutual exchanges between China and the U.S. have been especially tricky for reasons including deep mutual suspicion and Washington’s support for Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory to be brought under its control by force if necessary.
China reacts strongly when the U.S. sails naval ships close to Chinese-held islands in the South China Sea, many of which Beijing has equipped with landing strips and other military facilities.
Attempts to implement agreements on avoiding unexpected incidents at sea and in the air have had limited success, and the U.S. disinvited China from a major biennial exercise known as Rim of the Pacific because of the militarization of its South China Sea islands.
Last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that China has accelerated its timetable for taking control of Taiwan, and the Navy’s top officer said that a military campaign to achieve that outcome could begin as early as this year.
But the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told the Senate Armed Services Committee in April that “we are trying to modernize the force for the future operating environment—2030 and beyond.”
What’s wrong with the picture is that the Pentagon’s modernization plans are strikingly out of sync with the timeframe in which Beijing might present Washington with its biggest military challenge in decades.
An Air Force variant of F-35. The service has slashed its annual purchases of the world’s most … [+] advanced fighter despite the rising threat posed by China.
Wikipedia
By the time the joint force begins receiving a new generation of weapons designed for great-power conflict, the Taiwan show could be all over.
Last week’s comments aren’t the first time the Pentagon has heard such assessments. The previous head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral Philip Davidson, warned in 2021 that China might attack Taiwan within six years. That estimate was so widely noted in military circles that it has come to be called the “Davidson window.”
However, there is little sign that the warnings have provoked a sense of urgency within the Pentagon, at least as far as force modernization is concerned.
In fact, the Navy has repeatedly delayed plans for a new class of light amphibious warships designed to cope with threats in the China littoral, and in its 2023 budget request seeks to cancel one class of large amphibious warships while stretching out procurement of another to twice the optimum duration.
The end result of these machinations is that the Navy would possess far less amphibious lift than the minimum the Marine Corps says it must have to meet warfighting requirements. The first light amphib wouldn’t reach the force until 2028—after the Davidson window for preparing to defend Taiwan has shut.
I have previously expressed doubts about the light amphib concept, but it is the centerpiece of Marine plans for deterring and/or defeating China.
You don’t have to be an admirer of current Marine Corps plans to see the larger meaning here. In funding its shipbuilding priorities, the Navy is behaving more like a bureaucracy than the lead service charged with blunting Chinese aggression in the Western Pacific.
Consider the example of its next-generation destroyer, designated DDG(X) in naval nomenclature. The service says it needs a bigger hull than the existing Arleigh Burke class in order to host exotic weapons like high-energy lasers and hypersonic missiles. That’s debatable, but even if it were true, the plan is to fund the lead ship of the new class in 2030—again, outside the Davidson window when Chinese action against Taiwan is most likely.
Meanwhile, the service plans to reduce the size of the fleet—a force that has hovered at just below 300 warships for 20 years—to around 280 as a way of saving money for the gee-whiz weapons of the future. One way it proposes to get the ship numbers down is by retiring old amphibious vessels for which no replacement will exist. It says it wants to study what the right number of amphibs is before buying more.
Things aren’t all bad in the Navy. Submarine production is robust and the service is migrating to a more capable carrier air wing as the lead ship in the Ford class joins the fleet. But it would be a stretch to say current shipbuilding plans reflect a sense of urgency about the near-term threat that China presents in the Western Pacific.
The Heritage Foundation probably got it right when it described the U.S. Navy as “weak” in its most recent index of military power. Washington spends more than any other country on its navy, but China is building warships at a much faster pace and has the advantage of preparing for war on its own doorstep. America must deter or defeat the threat thousands of miles from home.
And then there is the Air Force, which Heritage describes as “very weak.” The air service really is at a low ebb in terms of numbers, a fact traceable to underfunding of modernization by every administration since the Soviet Union collapsed. That’s why many of its bombers and tankers are over 50 years old.
The service is now trying to catch up by modernizing every major type of aircraft it operates at the same time. But when it comes to exhibiting a sense of urgency about the China threat, the Air Force too seems a bit too sanguine.
Consider the Air Force variant of the F-35 fighter, the version that has proven popular with overseas allies and partners. The Air Force said for years it would buy 60 of the stealthy aircraft every year in the current decade, but once President Biden took office it decided that it only needed to buy 48 in 2022 and then requested a mere 33 in its proposed 2023 budget. That number is not expected to rise appreciably until the 2026, and maybe not then.
Why is the Air Force buying so few F-35s? Because it says it doesn’t want to spend too much money retrofitting the latest technology upgrades onto aircraft already in the fleet. It would rather wait until the upgrades can be installed as the fighters are being built.
Here again, we see a military service behaving like a bureaucracy rather than a community of warfighters confronting imminent danger. It only costs $2.7 million to retrofit the first increment of upgrades, called Technology Refresh 3, onto each existing F-35, and the process requires a mere 14 days of downtime.
So, to save an amount of money equivalent to 3% of the original production cost for each fighter, the Air Force plans to limit purchases of its most capable tactical aircraft. It will have to wait until 2027 to begin acquiring the full panoply of upgrades (beyond the Davidson window for influencing events in the Western Pacific), but don’t be surprised it that too becomes an excuse for depressed levels of fighter procurement later in the decade.
Meanwhile, the service proposes to retire many hundreds of aged aircraft in the years ahead to free up money for new systems that won’t reach the force anytime soon. You’d think that with the China threat looming, it might consider equipping some of those older aircraft (like the B-1 bomber) with long-range antiship missiles, but so far its head appears to be elsewhere.
Of course, all of these decisions are driven by the availability of funding, so if poor choices are made then the blame ultimately lies with Congress and the White House. But Air Force and Navy leaders aren’t straining to warn Washington’s political leaders how current plans could lead to American defeat in a war with China.
F-35 airframe prime Lockheed Martin LMT and engine prime Raytheon Technologies RTX contribute to my think tank, as do the nation’s two largest naval shipbuilders—General Dynamics GD and HII.
Navy SEAL recruits on California’s San Clemente Island were blanketed in a cloud of tear gas while being ordered to sing “Happy Birthday” so they couldn’t hold their breath during training last year, according to a video obtained by CBS News. Exposure to tear gas is a standard part of SEAL training — but the video raised questions about how that training was carried out.
The admiral in charge of Navy SEALs ordered an investigation when he saw the video. He told CBS News it raises questions about “the lawfulness of the behavior.”
The investigation is examining whether the gas was administered at too close a range for too long. It’s also looking at whether the instructors were simply not aware of the proper procedures or whether they meant to abuse or punish the SEALS, which could be a criminal offense.
Tear gas is a right of passage for almost all military recruits, usually when they are taught how to properly don a face mask and what happens if they don’t. But regulations for tear gas use in SEAL training require the instructors to stay at least six feet away from the recruits to avoid the danger of burns and to use the gas for no more than 15 seconds.
The video shows the gas lasting for more than a minute, and recruits, who have already proven themselves tough enough to complete two-thirds of the selection course, crying out in pain. One appears to pass out, which the regulations warn is what happens when you try to hold your breath.
“I think this type of training is really senseless,” said Sven Jordt, a Duke University associate professor who studies tear gas and its effects. “It looks more like a form of hazing.”
The video was obtained by investigative reporter Matthew Cole, author of “Code Over Country,” a recent book about Seal Team Six.
“I got this video from some SEAL students who are trying to become SEALs and felt that the instructors and the SEALs were abusive and very careless with their health,” Cole told CBS News.
The video raises more questions about the abuse SEAL candidates endure during the grueling selection process.
Last month, the Navy ordered an investigation into the selection course after the death of SEAL candidate Kyle Mullen, who had just made it through the infamous “Hell Week.” Mullen died of pneumonia, which his mother attributed to the time he spent submerged in the cold water off the coast of Southern California during Hell Week.
U.S. Navy officials launched an extensive investigation when the USS Bonhomme Richard went up in flames in San Diego in 2020. Seaman Recruit Ryan Sawyer Mays was officially acquitted of charges Friday accusing him of setting fire to the $1.2 billion warship.
Mays was facing a life sentence if convicted of the aggravated arson and willful hazarding of a vessel charges, according to The New York Times. The 21-year-old wept as a Navy judge read the verdict and found him not guilty on all counts after a nine-day trial.
“I can say that the past two years have been the hardest two years of my entire life as a young man,” Mays said outside the courtroom, per NPR. “I’ve lost time with friends. I’ve lost friends. I’ve lost time with family, and my entire Navy career was ruined. I am looking forward to starting over.”
The USS Bonhomme Richard burned for more than four days starting July 12, 2020, and was the worst warship fire in Navy history outside of combat. After suffering heavy structural, electrical and mechanical damage, the warship was scrapped entirely — costing the Navy billions.
The prosecutors claimed Mays was angry about his failure to become a Navy SEAL and started the fire after being assigned to deck duty, according to The Washington Post. However, they failed to present physical evidence against him, and Seaman Kenji Velasco — a key witness — kept changing his story.
The USS Bonhomme Richard burned for more than four days and was the worst warship fire in Navy history outside of combat.
U.S. Navy via Getty Images
Gary Barthel, a former Marine judge who represented Mays at a preliminary hearing, told the AP the lower vehicle storage area “became a junkyard, and I believe throughout this entire process, the Navy was attempting to clean up their mess by accusing Seaman Mays of these allegations.”
The USS Bonhomme Richard was undergoing $250 million in repairs at the time of the fire. Prosecutor Capt. Jason Jones admitted in court that a 2021 Navy report concluded serious gaps in equipment maintenance, fire preparedness, and extensive command failures.
The report found only 15 out of the 807 fire extinguishers aboard were working. It also revealed two firefighting teams tried finding a working hose at one of the ship’s 216 fire stations, but only 29 of them worked, before adding the fire was “completely preventable.”
The Navy ultimately disciplined 28 people, including three admirals, alongside Mays for the incident. One captain, an executive officer and a top enlisted sailor were given letters of reprimand that limit promotions — and typically lead to dire ends for Navy careers.
The U.S. Navy set off an explosion near the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier off the Florida coast Friday. The explosion, viewed from several locations, was part of a “full ship shock trial,” which is done near warships to check whether they can withstand harsh conditions. Read more here.
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