Comment on CDR Salamander: No problem getting volunteers ....

CDR Salamander: No problem getting volunteers ....

Make the dream complete. Station a bird-farm and cruiser at Freemantle and scatter some of the rest of the battle group. My LHA visited Freemantle and my CG visited Albany once and I would pack bags right now to be a J.O. in that town again. Albany is the farthest south you can get in Western Oz and it is where the Anzac mustered for the Gallipoli campaign. When Nasser took over Egypt he threw down the monument that had stood in Alexandria, the final jumping off point, which to me was a theatrical echo of Sauron destroying the monument of Numenor at Umbar. The Aussies rebuilt the monument on top of the cliffs over the harbor in one of the most beautiful memorial parks I have seen. The harbor is magnificent and from on top of the cliffs the Southern Ocean stretches out to Antartica. A quarter century ago the mayor cooked me dinner.


They explained to me that Perth/Freemantle was the most isolated European city on Earth. The closest sizable city of any nationality is Singapore, 2,400 miles away. You can get some good wine in the Swan valley near Perth and the local university has a lovely campus. There are still Australians who remember that the Americans saved them from invasion when we turned back the Japanese fleet at the Coral Sea. There is an advantage to having an older population that partially balances the demographic concerns of Mark Steyn.


Ideally we would forward deploy not only a CVBG, which we need twice as many of in a dangerous world, but also an amphibious group. The Australians may not be able to host a base of the size that would entail though. The fastest way to upgrade the Australian forces would be to give them 25 B-52 bombers instead of destroying them. with new engines and upgraded avionics those magnificent planes could serve for another 50 years as a counter to a potential Chinese thrust.