Reserve part of NECC could grow, admiral says

Reserve part of NECC could grow, admiral says
By Andrew Scutro - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Sep 27, 2007 22:34:59 EDT

NAVAL AMPHIBIOUS BASE LITTLE CREEK, Va. — To listen to Vice Adm. John Cotton, chief of the Navy Reserve, the world is flat but gone to hell. Who gets to fix it? The ever-shrinking U.S. Navy, of course.

In a high-flying presentation that crossed the globe, bounced around and got back in just over two hours, the recalled-to-active-duty airline pilot told sailors and a few Marines that Cold War notions are dead, an ever-hungry China will dominate the global economy, poor nations make lots of babies, Islamic fundamentalists hate us, but really everyone just wants to live near the coast and chat on a cell phone.

No matter, he told them. The U.S. must be ready for any crisis and bloody human conflict has no end, but taxpayers can’t afford a large military force, so a chosen few will be asked to do more, even in a disaster or attack at home.

~snip~

Indeed, the NECC sailors, reservists included, will be called on for missions in the highly populated, highly trafficked and potentially conflicted parts of the world like the Gulf of Guinea, the Horn of Africa, the Persian Gulf, Caribbean and the archipelagos of the Pacific and Indian oceans. These are also the nodes of high-demand raw materials, primarily oil.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/09/navy_cottonnecc_070927w/