Casey Coane posted on May 01, 2011 00:16
May 2011 - Navy
By RADM Casey W. Coane, USN (Ret)
This past February, the last surviving veteran of World War I, Frank Buckles, passed away. He was 110 and was interred here at Arlington. A lot of veterans were in attendance and I was sorry that other Association business that day kept me from being one of them. My father was a young artilleryman in WWI and it would have felt good to be there for him and for Frank Buckles. This month, Steve Rogers offers another thoughtful piece, “Make sure they never forget.” It is worth your read on page 28.
Last month, the Association’s Board of Directors held their second meeting in our offices. The day before the Audit Committee received the annual report from our auditors, Watkins Meegan. That was followed by a meeting of the Investment Oversight Committee. We try to minimize the Association business that we put here in the magazine, but I feel that it is important for you to know that these key elements of business take place on a regular schedule. As usual, our Auditors gave us high marks and our Investment Over- sight Committee was pleased with results as reported by Wright-Nichols Financial Group. Routine Association busi- ness can always be found on our Web site, www.ausn.org
This month, our theme is Naval Aviation and we are pleased to have as our guest columnist VADM Allen G. Myers, Commander, Naval Air Forces/Commander, Naval Air Forces, U.S. Pacific Fleet. At the very end of March, I was excited to make a trip to Boeing in Seattle to view the B-737 production lines where our C-40As are built and where the P-8 is being built. We bring you that update on page 20. Our other feature is a bit of Naval Aviation history. We have certainly come a long way during this centennial and there were some remarkable heroes who made that history possible. It was not an easy transition from the "Big Gun" Navy to a battle group shaped around the striking ability of a carrier air wing. As with all change, there were many who resisted the change of direction that has carried us from WW II to today. The current vision is for unmanned combat aircraft to be integrated into the air wing as one of its assets. Time will tell how this change will be accepted, but our sense is that it won’t be as difficult as leaving the big guns behind.
If you have been following Naval Aviation politics, you know that there has been an ongoing difficult discussion concerning which future aircraft the Marines would have aboard the carriers. CNO Clark and Commandant Hagee paved the way to reintegrate Marine squadrons into the carrier air wings as part of the decision driving the F/A-18 E-F buy numbers. As the F-35 program was developing, the Navy has resisted the idea of having the F-35B STOVL aircraft aboard the CVs and Marines have resisted buying anything but F-35Bs. Apparently, Secretary Gates decision to put the B model on probation coupled with the slip in planned B Initial Operational Capability (IOC) dates has serendipitously eased the problem. Faced with a decision to buy more F-18s to tide them over, the Corps has decided to buy eighty (80) of the Navy C model.
As always, enjoy the read.