We are all talking around the wheel and not realizing that the world is
now "JOINT" - so there can be labor management but the mechanisms today
allow the Army to own a lot of ships and a lot of flying vehicles.

But you are right in the pinning down of "ownership" - and I think what
we are suggesting is that an aviation assault ship, even a full deck
carrier refurbished to be one, will still have a Naval Officer as
Captain but the mission commander will be an officer reporting to the
Amphibious Expeditionary Force Commander and this guy could be an Air
Force three star but probably would not - it would be a Marine. What
would happen is that the physical ship itself would take a drastic
make-over as it switched from a naval aviation ship to a command assault
aviation ship. The mixture of aircraft. MV-22's, and helicopters would
all form a Marine Corps Air Group not a Naval Air Wing but they may
still call it a CAG - stuff like that


"Henry J Cobb" wrote in message
news
Arved Sandstrom wrote:
For decades we have had a mismatch in who owns what. To be honest,
and this is just my humble opinion, the Marine Corps should own the
ships that they need to use their primary aircraft. In fact, they
should own every gator, and it wouldn't hurt if the NGF situation got
a little more resolved either by having truly dedicated USMC
gunships.

No.

There is no place in the USMC for a program to train marines to
operate and maintain large ships.

The Marines need to stay focused on the riflemen and those that
directly support the riflemen.

-HJC