Military Intelligence

A recent article in the Kansas City Star could not help but catch my attention. Having only recently returned to the Kansas City area, I had little invested in reading the press release from the Rep Ike Skelton that , " ... the Navy plans to move a construction battalion to Whiteman Air Force Base near Knob Noster in western Missouri. The Naval Mobile Construction Battalion-15 currently is stationed at the former Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base in south Kansas City area." 


It did however make me curious. I could easily understand the economic impact that 17 active duty personnel (full-time jobs) and that the 497 reservists (part-time jobs) would be a loss to the Kansas City area. I could also understand that this Construction Battalion probably serves a needed function in the greater scheme of the military. My difficulty arose however when looking at the broader picture of its location. 


While I have relatives currently serving actively in the military, I make no claims to understanding either the military mind or the logistics of construction battalions. I like to think however, that I can bring logic and reason to bear on most if not all of the situations that I consider. 


I have yet to reach a satisfactory conclusion however on the concept of moving a Navy construction battalion from one Air Force base to another, especially when both locations appear to be about as far from an ocean as you can get in the continental US. 


There may in fact be an excellent reason for this naval battalion to operate out of either location (and perhaps someone will point one of them out through comment); but at best the situation has all of the earmarks (pun intended) of a public relations nightmare waiting to happen for the armed services in general and the Navy in particular, and at worst it may be yet one more example of a member of Congress attempting to strong-arm one of our armed services in the name of pork and keep some of the taxpayers' money at home ... no matter how ridiculous such an attempt may appear.