USS Kittyhawk or Dante's Inferno?

Charles Jannuzi b_rieux at yahoo.com
Sat Sep 7 18:05:34 PDT 2002


I think the demise was the demise of the commander, who probably complained, as have other military people that they are being forced to pull more missions in the run up to oust Hussein but that it is hurting morale. This then got interpreted as him being one of the 'Democratic' officers who should be asked to go.

As for the mayhem the sailors caused in Yokohama, certainly the events described aren't out of the ordinary for Yokohama when they go ashore there. Hey, some Japanese women think it's sexy!

I think the US is trying to crack down on the crime among US military in Japan, so that might be something behind the story. The handling of a rape case last year and the accident near Hawaii where a US sub surfaced under a Japanese fishing school ship and sunk it with considerable loss of Japanese life concentrated minds here. Especially after one officer claimed, I think we've apologized enough. Funny, most seem to think apologies are supposed to be given til accepted but that contrition doesn't stop with uttering the words.

About the race thing. Many minorities and women see the military as an equal opportunity employer that actually is, at least among enlisted ranks. The dangerous jobs and low pay positions are more a matter of prior socioeconomic status than race (though obviously there is overlap). Plenty of whites volunteer for or are shunted into the dirty and dangerous jobs. For one thing, white officers might not want to rely on an enlisted corps that was made up of just one group of a different race from them.

CJ

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