Pier One should be a retailer, not an Army boondoggle
Let’s look at the infamous Hamas pier one last time.
The pier was announced by President Joe Biden in his State of the Union address in March.
Deputy Commander of US Central Command, Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, told reporters in July that the pier helped deliver 19.4 million pounds of aid to the desperate population in Gaza.
“A temporary pier would enable a massive increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance getting into Gaza every day,” Biden said.
But in the end it was only operational for roughly 20 days at a cost of the $230 million and did little to alleviate the grave humanitarian situation in Gaza as the war between Hamas and Israel, which has claimed thousands of civilian lives, continues.
No need to detail the actual pier any more; we’ve discussed it and it’s failures at length. More to the point – the Pentagon is asking for bids for someone o bring the three Army watercraft involved back to the US.
Retired Marine Corps Col. Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the CSIS International Security Program, estimated that the contract would go for $300,000 per float-on/float-off vessel, which would be used to transport the three boats. The contract description says it is for “multiple awards up to two vessels or until the Government’s needs are met,” meaning it could come out to roughly $600,000 total if two vessels are required.
A retired warrant officer who served as a chief engineer on Army watercraft told CNN that the boats being brought home by contracted vessels indicates they likely need significant maintenance.
“The only things that would stop [7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary)] from sailing are mechanical problems or manning,” the retired engineer said. “Unless the whole unit is deploying somewhere, that means these boats are in rough shape.”
It’s not entirely uncommon for the US military to use float-on/float-off vessels to transport smaller ships across large distances, or if a US military vessel is badly damaged, Cancian said. He added it’s “very plausible” that the boats are not in a state to make the journey back after their work on the pier operation.
“They’d probably make it but, again, it’s a matter of risk,” he said. “They don’t want one to get halfway across and have the engines break down and have it floating around.”
Maintenance of the Army’s vessels was a concern throughout the mission of the temporary pier, which ended in July. A US official previously told CNN that the watercraft involved in the mission have not been maintained “to the level they need to be,” primarily because “they lack the funding to get the repair parts in a timely manner.” CNN
So we sent them over in vessels not maintained due to lack of funds… they have $600,000 to get them back. Bet they had funding for DEI. Seems to be a habit – remember when we didn’t have the funding to build a border wall, and how much has been spent on illegals since they got here?
Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Army, Israel
Some more 24K incompetence from the clown crew in charge!
19.4 million POUNDS? Who the heck measures sea-borne cargo in pounds? Why not claim 310 million ounces transported? That’s way more impressive. Better yet, in keeping with the international nature of the activity… 8.8 billion grams!
19.4 million pounds delivered for 230 million $s? I think UPS or DHL coulda done it cheaper.
This is why we can’t have nice things. But hey…The Big Guy got his 10%.
It’s like Super Troopers:
“What did you find out at the weigh station?”
“ My cruiser weighs 16,000 kilograms..”
19.4 million pounds sounds better than 7258 palllets.
An average of 2673 pounds per handling unit. And average cost per handling unit $31,689.17.
Anyone know what the cost would be using commercial intermodal containers shipping to Gaza via Hifa?
All hand stacked.
Why is anyone surprised. It is just further indications of the incompetence of the current administration. When DEI is more important than actual performance this crap is what you get. You can bet our adversaries are paying more attention to our readiness than the meat puppet and the ho are.
Yes, this ain’t going un-noticed by the Chicoms.
Artificial reef?
“the Pentagon is asking for bids for someone to bring the three Army watercraft involved back to the US.”
In addition to space rescue missions, does SPACE X do maritime salvage recovery?
Probably be cheaper to scrap in place.
They could send a Norwegian ship. Majesty of the Seas. They could pull that Army ship behind. Party Time!
This will soon be Trump’s fault.
Kamala promises to fix the pier on day 1.
They could have saved a whole lot of effort if only they took the cash spent on relief supplies and deploying this pier and sent it directly to the Hamas leadership in Qatar, because it all ended up there anyway.
And they would have invested it in the future of their people.
Via their Cayman bank accounts.
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I don’t have to know Jack Shit Dick Wad-a-Doo-Dah about how this is supposed to operate…I just have to have a vague idea of how it goes…and I quote:
“Um…so, what we doin’ here?”