The tragedy of the USS Cole is that we could have avoided this incident if the Navy hadn’t scrapped its entire class of ships that were not dependent upon fossil fuel to haul high-tech munitions. These ships were the CGNs, or nuclear-powered cruisers. We have scrapped our entire nuclear combat fleet beyond the aircraft carriers and submarines. This is foolish and false economy.
An “oil burner” is tied to refueling ships or port facilities for its life blood. I was aboard USS Nimitz in 1980 when we were ordered to the Persian Gulf in support of the Iranian hostage incident. We were accompanied by our battle group for the first leg through to the Straits of Gibraltar. The only two escorts that could complete the trip with us were USS Texas and USS California (both scrapped nuclear-powered cruisers). We arrived at Gonzo Station in record time ready for action, unfortunately resulting in Jimmy Carter’s botched hostage rescue attempt.
In 1994 I was aboard USS George Washington. We were ordered from operations off Bosnia to the Gulf to play with Saddam Hussein. The only ship that could keep pace with us was a ship like the Cole. We had to refuel it almost daily to keep it within combat fuel specifications. We were unable to keep our high speed and arrived late to the scene.
The nuclear-powered Texas would not have been tied to a refueling barge in Aden to be attacked by crazy terrorists, and we would still have 17 sailors looking forward to homecoming.
The false premise of the cost of refueling (once per 13 years) a nuclear-powered ship is phony economics. Refueling also includes upgrade of systems and other modernization that all ships undergo during shipyard repairs.
Giving into the anti-nuke crowd just cost us 17 of our kids. How many more will die for political correctness?
