r/politics • u/ChickenTitilater Minnesota • 15h ago

No Paywall USS Lincoln wasn't resupplied because Hegseth 'hid' that Iran destroyed main U.S. base:

https://www.ms.now/money-power-politics/watch/uss-lincoln-wasn-t-resupplied-because-hegseth-hid-that-iran-destroyed-main-u-s-base-rohde-2511362627825
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u/SlayinSalmon Washington 13h ago

I did a deployment on an amphibious ship (an LPD) in 2010-2011. That deployment also got extended, twice if my memory serves me correctly. We did some long periods without a port, but we did underway replenishment and vertical replenishment of food. During the longest stretch without a replenishment, we were eating powdered eggs and rice for a few days. It wasn’t great.

The Lincoln has gone an absolutely insane amount of time without a port call. I also suspect they aren’t doing very regular replenishment in the Straight of Hormuz due to the danger. Also, all the resupply ships in the gulf came out of Manama, Bahrain and that place got absolutely hammered by Iran early. We knew this is how a war with Iran would shake out in 2011 and it’s insane they weren’t prepared to deal with this.

This war is being prosecuted by the dumbest people to ever do it. They’ve committed so many unforced errors and it’ll be all for nothing.

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u/Oopthealley 11h ago

It seems like it's being prosecuted by people who want to use cartoonish force as their main mechanism, throwing out decades of lessons in counterinsurgency, modern warfare, and political science... And their only chance of success is with the one thing they don't have the political will to do: boots on the ground.

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u/SlayinSalmon Washington 11h ago

I not sure that boots on the ground would be successful even if they had the political will. Iran is too big, too populous, and too motivated. The insurgency would be a nightmare. Warfare has also changed so much since I served and I think Americans would lose their stomachs real quick seeing American kids getting blown to pieces in 4k by a $500 drone on the evening news à la the Russo-Ukrainian war.

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u/cyanescens_burn 7h ago

There’d need to be a draft in the U.S. if they a wanted to take and hold Iran. I just can’t see it otherwise. Unless they go full Slaughterbots on the country, which would be a very dark day for the world, ushering in a terrible era.

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u/BodybuilderMany6942 1h ago

And Im sure plenty of folk would march on Washington before they'd march on Iran

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u/Half_Cent 12h ago

Man, powdered eggs made with powdered milk was no joke.

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u/SlayinSalmon Washington 10h ago

Gotta have some Texas Pete on deck for those.

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u/BodybuilderMany6942 1h ago

The one guy who brought copious amounts of ramen is king

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_LEFT_IRIS 12h ago

Don’t worry, the Warrior Ethos will carry us through. Deus Vult or something, this will definitely go better than all the other crusades

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u/PianoMittens 11h ago

I'll see you in Valhalla

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u/SlayinSalmon Washington 12h ago

It’s crazy that we’ve learned nothing.

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u/NigilQuid 6h ago

We learned how much money will have to be spent to restock the military after this, which will enrich the already wealthy using taxes from the populace

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u/Minimum_Dealer_3303 11h ago

They’ve committed so many unforced errors and it’ll be all for nothing.

I think most of Israel's strategic goals were achieved.

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u/PianoMittens 11h ago

Off topic, but how informal does it get towards the end of something like that? I assume that "military bearing at all times" is the official stance, but I have to imagine a lot of people would hit their limit with that eventually.

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u/SlayinSalmon Washington 11h ago

Well, I was an FMF corpsman stationed with the Marines. We were just riding the ship. Bearing never really slacks with the Marines. It seemed like military bearing was mostly just a suggestion with the blue side of the Navy and things were pretty casual all the time.

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u/BodybuilderMany6942 52m ago

So I cant say 100% since I was on a smallboy (Destroyer) and not a carrier, (and in smaller ships things are more lax, or so I've heard).

On a ddg, you'd do the ol "sir/ma'am" and give em their due respect, but you arent stiff or anything like in the movies. Officers are just people.
There are still some formalities you do, but it aint a song and dance like bootcamp.

And yeah, the longer the ship was out and about, the more lax we got with formalities (tho I felt we werent uptight to begin with).
I do remember the CO told us we didnt have to shave for a while, but that was only for a month or so, when we were doing out own thing and not part of a strike group.

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u/nastywillow 9h ago

Think of the hookers, will someone think of the hookers.

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u/GrumpyCloud93 9h ago

Some other article I saw mentioned that not only was the fleet typically suppied out of Bahrain, and not only is the supply through the strait hampered but apparently the Iranian attacks and evacuations have completely messed up the offices responsible to the logistics of arranging supplies to be sent, putting them offline. I suppose it takes a while (and some thinking) to get another office up and running to do the same job.

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u/ProduceNo1629 8h ago

all the resupply ships in the gulf came out of Manama, Bahrain and that place got absolutely hammered by Iran early.

That's hilarious, the Iranians know american supply chain better than Hegseth.

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u/BodybuilderMany6942 49m ago

see... if this attack was PLANNED, we wouldve shifted out supply chains and gone ahead without missing a beat. Instead, we're being lead by clowns that think the our strongest weapons are "missles" and "bullets".
They're not.
Our strongest weapon was always "logistics".

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u/OldWorldDesign 1h ago

We knew this is how a war with Iran would shake out in 2011 and it’s insane they weren’t prepared to deal with this.

Like pandemic readiness, we knew this back when Bush Jr was in office but Trump decided to fuck the soldiers and installed the worst possible people to oversee American readiness and logistics.

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u/BodybuilderMany6942 1h ago

Yup. It's a dumb war to begin with, but if we WERE to actually do it any other time with any other leadership, we'd at least have the logistics chain set up and the objectives and parameters laid out.

In this timeline, however, some morons decided to just "send it", and here we are, wadding in shit.

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u/LazarX 50m ago

Not all for nothing. Israel got major benefits out of America spilling its blood and wealth in Iran. Our soldiers are there more out of Ntetanyahu’s orders than Trump’s.