Romney All Wet on Ships

[m***@facts.only.now]

Romney All Wet on Ships

The Romney campaign is moving full steam ahead with a new radio ad
that repeats a misleading debate claim by Romney that the size of the
Navy’s fleet is the smallest it has been since 1917. The number of
ships is actually up a bit since 2007 under President George W. Bush.

Moreover, Navy officials say it’s silly to compare the size of the
fleet in 1917 with that of today, because the mission and capabilities
of today’s nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines
are vastly different than that of the gunboats and coal-powered
dreadnaughts of 1917, when the shift to oil power was just starting.

The radio ad is running in Florida and Virginia — both are swing
states but also big ship-building states. The newest nuclear-powered
carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, is currently under construction in
Newport New Shipbuilding in Virginia, for example.

The radio ads use an edited version of Romney’s comments during the
third and final presidential debate: “Our Navy now is smaller than any
time since 1917. The Navy said they needed 313 ships to carry out
their mission; we’re now down to 285. … That’s unacceptable to me.”

There were 342 total active ships as of April 6, 1917, when the U.S.
entered World War I (the number stood at 245 in December 1916). And
there were 282 active duty ships as of April 2012, according to a
Congressional Research Service report in August. That’s down slightly
from the Naval History and Heritage Command’s count of 285 as of
September 2011. However, 282 ships is the same number in service
during George W. Bush’s last year in office, and a slight increase
over the number in 2007 — 278 — when the size of the fleet was at its
lowest since the early 20th century.

[Mark Hill]

Post by m***@facts.only.now
Romney All Wet on Ships

Obama still doesn't know our soldiers still use bayonets.


http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/23/bayonets-still-standard-issue-despite-obama-debate-jab/

President Obama made bayonets sound like buggy whips at Monday’s
presidential debate, but the fact is they’re still standard issue for
Marines.

The knives, which fit on the end of a rifle barrel and have been around
since the 17th century, are not just there for when the ammo runs out
and the enemy is close. According to the U.S. Army, the M9 bayonet
serves as “a hand weapon, as a general field and utility knife, as well
as a wire cutter together with its scabbard, and as a saw.”

Obama brought up bayonets by way of chiding Mitt Romney for calling
proposed military cuts devastating.

"You mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than
we did in 1916,” Obama said. “Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses
and bayonets, because the nature of our military's changed."


“The bayonet is still very much a useful tool. That was kind of a dumb
thing for him to say."

- Former U.S. Marine Doug Miller, of Hiawatha, Kan.


“The bayonet is still very much a useful tool," former U.S. Marine Doug
Miller, of Hiawatha, Kan., told FoxNews.com. "That was kind of a dumb
thing for him to say."

Miller, 64, a Vietnam veteran who served in the 3rd Battalion 11th
Marine Regiment 1st Marine Division, said the bayonet is indispensable
for Marines in urban warfare, where they may have to go room to room in
search of insurgents.

"You can't always swing the rifle into position, especially in close
quarters," Miller said. "That bayonet could save your life."

The M9 bayonet and others in the series have been manufactured for the
military by several companies, including Buck Knives and the Ontario
Knife Co. The weapon attaches to the M16 rifle’s M4 carbine. It also can
be used with the Mossberg 590 Special Purpose shotgun.

"Bottom line: The bayonet remains part of the individual Marine
equipment issue and Marines are trained to use it," retired Maj. Gen.
Ed Usher, president and CEO of the Marine Corps Association &
Foundation, told FoxNews.com.


Read more:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/23/bayonets-still-standard-issue-despite-obama-debate-jab/#ixzz2Ad1O6r7v