What started with a photo op, is ending with a photo op.
At the bar after a long day of cleaning up trash left behind by Hurricane Katrina�s massive storm surge, some seem bitter that the military was already making plans to pull out again four days after our warships first anchored off Biloxi, Miss.
�It�s all about the PR,� said one sailor. �Stand in front of the camera and look nice.�
To many sailors, the humanitarian mission has obvious political overtones.
�It doesn�t matter to us,� said one naval officer. �We get paid to serve, so whatever the country wants us to do, we do.�
To be fair, lots of people who went ashore from HMCS Ville de Quebec, HMCS Toronto and HMCS Athabaskan did plenty of good work in the area Katrina hammered two weeks ago. They cleaned up a church, a seniors� home, a sports and recreation centre and helped out at an emergency food distribution centre. And the Halifax-based coast guard buoy tender Sir William Alexander will surely be useful as it starts assisting the Americans to put their navigational markers back in place.
But the U.S. Navy � which was in charge of organizing the Canadian work parties � seemed ill-prepared to assign the Canadians major tasks.
�I get pretty pissed off when I don�t have something to do,� said one frustrated Canadian sailor. �Maybe they don�t trust us.�
[…]
The ships will pull out of here tomorrow, after a weekend visit from Gen. Rick Hillier, chief of the defence staff.
As they touch up paint in preparation for Hillier�s tour, some sailors are unhappy they aren�t getting the chance to do more before they leave Mississippi.
�I just can�t believe we�re leaving as early as we are. There�s so much to be done here,� said one sailor.
�It�s really sad. I know one thing � we were working like dogs down here.�
While the official line is the Yanks are happy as heck for the help from their favourite neighbour, things aren�t always so rosy in the real world. Some of the U.S. crews responsible for running the slow-moving landing craft that take more than two hours to get Canadians ashore grumbled the Canucks were difficult to manage. Some were downright surly.
�It�s like herding a bunch of f—ing cats,� said one American sailor.
Canadian brass say ships were the only way to bring supplies and muscle to this region without placing additional burden on the already taxed infrastructure.
But that argument�s a tad weak when you see how much the Americans have done for the Canadians.
They feed the visiting sailors lunch, bus them around and ferry them back and forth to the warships anchored about 40 kilometres from shore.
To his credit, the task group�s commander said the operation would have run better if he�d had a large amphibious ship that could carry its own landing craft and trucks to get around in once sailors get to land, rather than relying on the Americans. That�s the ship the navy has been talking about acquiring all year.
�I need to be able to move people and equipment quickly to shore.� said Commodore Dean McFadden.
Via Via Nealenews.
And the whole PR effort–which is all this was–failed dismally. I have seen no coverage in US media of our ships (though there may have been some limited coverage). So much for impressing the Americans with the Canadian government’s great good will.
What a silly waste of the Navy’s and Coast Guard’s time and money.
Mark
Ottawa
Have you ever had a friend offer to help with some project but doesn’t have the knowledge or the tools.
They become more of a burden than a helping hand.
If 2 billion here and 2 billion there that went on military expendatures and procurment rather hairbrained scemes like gun registry, ad scam and I guess now we have TPC scam? We could get in do the job and instead of posing for pictures actually do something of worth, value and honor. Instead of always bieng a burden and bragging about how great we are.
PMPM was making a speech the other day to the UN and it wasn’t 1 min into the speech and he’s going on about the Canadian plan. Lord don’t these people ever do anything without self promotion. Just spit out your idea what you agree with what you don’t or a viable alternative and get on with the job. All this me me me stuff how great we are is nauseating.
Tell me and the world how great you are when you actually accomplish something of substance with effiency and expediancy. Not to mention honest economic implemetation. No kickbacks to your buddies or make work projects for government employees.
Exactly! Started with a photo-op and ends with a photo-op. Ranks right up there with sending our DART team on a tsunami relief thing, at a cost of twenty-five million bucks !?! for one month- by renting Russian airlift to get them there.
I, for one, would like to thank the Canadians for their offer of help. My 80 year old mother and her 84 year old husband live two blocks off the beach in Pass Christian, MS and just returned to their still standing (unbelievable!) house Thrusday evening. She told me that the number of army and volunteer helpers is staggering and so appreciated. A group from Arizona feed them. A medical crew gave them tetnus shots. Ice and bottled water is being given away. A search and rescue crew from Illinios checked their house for survivors and bodies. The only thing missing from their house was some liquor which they were glad to donate to the cause. LOL! I am sure the help from the Canadians was just as appreciated in Biloxi. I don’t think they even had to do anything to be appreciated. Remember the saying “It’s the thought that counts.”. In this case, it truely is.
Not when it impedes those with the tools and the skills to actually help rather than drain those resources so others might look like they are doing good.
The Canadian effort is simply a self serving photo op.
The people that actually went had, obviously, very good intentions,ability and an eager willingness to do an excellent job. As usual they were hamstringed by a government more interested in how it looks than actually accomplishing anything. Can you say optics
Hey this is soft power at it’s core…it isn’t neccessary to actually help…it’s the symbolism and the gesture that matters…Canada’s geo-political power is all about symbolism…it has to be. 😉
BTW my congratulations to JTF2 in the Afghan theater….the Canadian hunter-sniper special ops squads are as feared by Al Queda as the Vandoos were by the Nazis….Thanks guys for keeping and exporting one true Canadian value….effective military squads skilled at neutralizing a hostile enemy.
AdScam Martin & Librano$$$, how shall one say it, “screwing” the Canadian taxpayers again:
the orgy never ends; the supply of bribes is inexhaustible: your taxes, suckers:$3.7 billion dead & buried, written off. Bombardier, EDC, Pratt & Whitney,CIDA, all whores for the Librano$$$$$$.
EDC: http://www.edc.ca/index_e.htm
CIDA: http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/index-e.htm
The twins of Librano$$$$$$$$ corruption.>>>>
Saturday, September 17, 2005 Page B5
Reuters News Agency
MONTREAL — Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp. owe Export Development Canada $3.7-billion for aircraft financing, but the federal agency says it hopes to keep the jets flying at the insolvent airlines.
“We’re going to be working with the airlines as they develop their credit proposal plans,” said Phil Taylor, spokesman for EDC, which provides trade finance and risk management services for Canadian exporters. “What we’re going to do is try to keep the planes in the air, that’s really the plan.”
Delta and Northwest, the third- and fourth-largest U.S. airlines respectively, sought bankruptcy protection on Wednesday, becoming the latest victims of a long-term downturn in the global industry.
The EDC provided the financing to the two carriers mainly to help them buy jets from Canadian plane and train maker Bombardier Inc., but also for engines from Pratt & Whitney Canada Corp.>>>
bourque.org
I think that Canadian sailors have been paid a disservice by their leadership. I have no doubt that the ships would have personnel who could run a water taxi back and forth between the ship and the dock.
It would have been quite easy for naval authorities to arrange for such a craft to be put at the disposal of the Canadian Navy during their humanitarian efforts. It would have been equally as easy for leadership at the top to make sure that a truck or two was allocated to them.
Sometimes in the military this sort of thing is called a clusterf**k, and it’s almost invariably the result of masterpieces of mismanagement at the top. Old Squid posts up here pretty often, and I’m sure he could tell us a thing or two about where the blame should actually go.
And the ships the Navy wants are rather like the “hybrid aircraft carriers” the Conservatives advocated at the last election–and which the Liberals shamefully and inaccurately ridiculed in their TV commercials.
See also this from the Toronto Star: “Aid mission highlights need to beef up navy”, Sept. 17
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1126907414285&call_pageid=968332188854&col=968350060724
Excerpts:
‘ONBOARD HMCS ATHABASKAN�The Canadians gazed enviously at the USS Bataan, an American amphibious ship that rose like a mammoth, grey office block out of the sea.
Helicopters buzzed off its flight deck and headed to shore. Massive troop-carrying hovercraft floated out of its rear deck well and zipped to land in a spray of salt water.
And the Canadians?
They could only watch as the hovercraft disappeared across the Gulf of Mexico as they endured their own two-hour sea trip to Biloxi and the heart of the disaster, carried on a plodding U.S. landing craft that moved at the pace of a sea turtle…
Arriving two weeks after Katrina hit, this mission was as much about propaganda and waving the flag as it was about helping local residents. When the sailors first stepped ashore Tuesday, they found the residents had made good headway on the clean-up.
There was a quiet frustration among some sailors that there wasn’t more work to do…
Still, this brief hurricane mission highlighted one fact: if Canada is going to respond to international crises and do it independently, it’s going to need the big “honking” ship pitched by Canada’s top general.
Gen. Rick Hillier, Canada’s chief of defence staff, wants a new vessel that can anchor offshore from a trouble spot or disaster zone and move troops and equipment quickly to land…’
maz2: Thanks for your post just above. One wonders how much further coverage this pouring of money down a drain into Quebec will get.
Mark
Ottawa
maz2: More from the EDC story:
‘…”We’re in a senior and protected position. All the risk is mitigated by the security in the aircraft,” Mr. Taylor [EDC spokesman] said. If the planes were to come back to the EDC, it would remarket them, something the agency has done in the past, he said…”‘
And if anyone buys the planes, then that simply cuts into Bombardier’s already badly sinking sales of regional aircraft. Nice trick.
Mark
Ottawa
Even if the sailors were only there for a week, let’s not forget that the US was extremely grateful for all the emergency supplies dropped off in Florida.
Realistically, our military is crippled, and this attempt to provide assistance is proof of that.
In the absence of support in Iraq, though, I think the effort probably went a long way in smoothing ruffled feathers.
Canada: Except, as I said, I don’t think very many Americans even noticed. The Liberals can’t even do a PR stunt right.
Good grief.
Mark
Ottawa
Sorry: “Candace”.
Mark
Ottawa
There was a article in of the American papers
stating a big thank you for Canada, said by
President Bush.
This was done in the middle of the crisis.
If we, as Canadians do not see the class this took after our continual, “hate Bush bashing”
I do not know what is.
We are in the wrong with our lack of equipment
and supplies. Our soldiers have been mentioned
a few time by the people of the crisis and being thankful they were there to help.
This is sad to say, but this was the best effort,
other than Afghanistan for years, many years.
We all know why that is, the liberals.
When I think of all the money sent to Quebec,
and simply wasted or stolen from us, I am very
angered at seeing our soldiers have to be
embarrassed by the lack of leadership and
having to have a feeling of being the poor cousin
in the family and not feeling they are doing
a good job. They always do a good job and
we take that for granted and treat them like
dirt.
Do you think there is a chance we will change
the leadership in Canada? Or will the eastern
voters again vote only liberal? I wish I could
say they seem to be disgusted at THEIR party,
but I doubt if caring about the forces or anything else about Canada will be lost in their
greed.
Maybe if we talk nice to Uncle Ralph he would spring for the big honking ship and a fleet of usable helicopters. One time expense for Alberta, and a big bitch slap to the Liberals.
Greg (outside Dallas)
I almost threw up when I read that the ships are waiting for a visit from Gen. Rick Hillier.WTF is with him? There is absolutely no need for him to go there. If he wants to pat the troops on the back, he can damm well wait until the ships are back in Canadian ports! The troops are obviously pissed off right now and Gen. Rick’s going there will not improve morale by one iota. It will, however cost the Canadian taxpayer for him to go there and I guess that’s what this is all about… Making a photo op out of a photo op. I know for certain he won’t go alone. He will have at least one Canadian Forces photographer with him (more tax $$$$)Then, of course, there will be the “must attend” mess dinner for the General, footed by the taxpayer AND the pockets of the pissed off crews.
Who do I blame? Martin, Graham, Hillier.. not the Americans. And I’ll tell you something else, had the powers that be, allowed one Canadian CPO and one American Master Chief to get their heads together for twenty minutes, they would have been able to accomplish more that the Brass has been able to in four days!
Squid out!
“And I’ll tell you something else, had the powers that be, allowed one Canadian CPO and one American Master Chief to get their heads together for twenty minutes, they would have been able to accomplish more that the Brass has been able to in four days!”
Old Squid, I will definitely say Amen to that!
Readers who have not had military experience may not understand that actually the military is run by the NCOs (non-commissioned officers). If the NCOs all pulled out tommorrow, the military would not be able to find its posterior with a flashlight and a roadmap.
90% of the time when something goes right, it is controlled by the Chief Petty Officers, the Master Chiefs that Old Squid talks about, and the Sergeants (depending on the respective service).
90% of the time when something goes wrong, it’s because of the Brass.
We do, in fact, appreciate Canadian efforts.
As for the comments of the sailors of both countries remember, “A bitching sailor is a happy sailor.”
Old Squid, Exactly, when I was in the RCN, the pats on backs were very rare and only took place in home ports.
Greg, so correct about practical NCOs and immature Rhodes officer / boys. We had a young first on the HMCS Lauzon who liked to swing past Soviet fishing vessels, leaving them to bob in our wake.
Now, I ask you. Is that stupid or what? These young jerks from wealthy families were provoking during the cold war. During Cuban Missle times.
Lucky for us some crafty fish-capt didn’t manage to stick a timed charge on our hull during a close swipe.
Sure the fish boats had lots of antennae and were *listening*, but everybody *monitors*, so what. That kind of action was childish and embarrasing to me a 20 year old.
So much for Brass shining *brightly* in the great RCN.
Those Soviet crewmen were no more evil or sinister than we were. People have to wake up to the fact that it’s Governments who do the pushing. We, the deck hands in life are much the same decent people regardless of nationality.
Although, I admit that Jihadist fundamentalist bombers seem to be an exception. 73s TG
you are right on the button old squid I’m just finishing 21 years of service ( they are releasing me due to injuries getting ready to go to the gulf of Oman )But the Navy is just jam packed with a bloated officer core that couldn’t orginize a one man race to a two hole shitter.Talk about your nintendo generation.Sometimes I just want to weep for my country.
In my experience, operating with a couple of services, it is all the same. Whether we’re talking about a Command Sergeant Major in the Army, a Gunnery Sergeant in the Marine Corps, or a Chief Petty Officer in the Navy.
It takes quite a number of years to move up the enlisted ranks to achieve one of the ranks I’ve listed above. By the time one has done so, they have encountered a wide variety of military situations very possibly involving combat, and sometimes a lot of it.
The fact that they’re still around and still taking responsibility for the troops is the testimony of a very seasoned military operator.
Then into the fleet or the front, depending, comes the most blessed creature that God ever bestowed on humanity. A brand new Ensign or a brand new 2nd Lieutenant with shoes spit-shined and his brass polished after a number of years of being pumped full of all sorts of theoretical notions about warfare and leadership, and he frequently shows up ready to straighten everyone out.
Now of course by this time, the Sergeants and Chiefs have spent half their life in battle conditions and learning everything from the point of view of hands on experience.
At this juncture, it becomes the Sergeant’s or Chief’s job to try to keep this little 23-year old Ensign or 2nd Lieutenant alive long enough for him to learn something. If he is successful in this job, and our young new prima donna is able to put aside his ego for long enough, he might, just might, develop into something useful.
Should he develop into something useful, he might actually do something helpful that doesn’t impede the war effort. Or on the other hand, he may spend his time trying to move as quickly as he can into the ranks of the pencil pushers.
Just an observation drawn from personal experience.
Greg,
The officer type I loved to hate was the “guy with a plan”. Invariably it involved how many years he planned to spend in each rank. It didn’t matter how many asses he had to kiss (or the other thing)the plan would be adhered to. It Canada it usually started with a request for French language training and then the request to move to a base in Quebec. Extra points on the PER, right? Then, the projects. My God, how many of these projects were we forced to work on and they never went anywhere. But the guy with a plan had his signature on the bottom of the final report and, guess what? More points, Right? By the time he had reached a certain rank, and BTW, by now he would be called a “Streamer” all he actually could do was manufacture paperwork and sign his name. He didn’t have a clue what was going on, but By God, the plan had worked. It’s no wonder guys like Matt Stopford had to take command in Bosnia.
It’s an even bigger wonder that Canadian Forces members can get the job done working AROUND assholes like that. And God bless the RSMs, the CPOs, and CWOs who held it all together and suffered ulcers and heart attacks because of pricks like that.
God Save The Queen!