The Point of No Return

By Douglas V. Gibbs

When I was stationed on board my first ship in the U.S. Navy (USS Chandler, Guided Missile Destroyer - DDG-996 - on which I earned two Battle Efficiency ribbons) the General Quarters (all hands man your battle stations) drills basically followed a regular pathway. We fired, were fired upon, repaired damage, and so on. In the end we always won the battle, and worked hard at making ourselves better so that we could win the battles faster, therefore guarding against a larger loss of life.

My second sea going command was not such a bad-ass on the water. We didn't have a guided missile system, an intricate phalanx system, nor as big of gun turrets. The USS Peoria was a flat-bottomed Tank Landing Ship whose primary mission was to get the United States Marines to the beach. After beaching, lowering the ramp, and letting off the Marines, the USS Peoria (LST-1183) was tasked with closing up, reversing engines, and getting out to sea without being sunk. Without all of the weapons systems, the Peoria was not a warship. It was more like a. . . target.

General Quarters drills on board the USS Peoria were very different than the battle strategy style of the USS Chandler. During our battle drills aboard the flat-bottomed, slow moving, few weapons to protect yourself, amphib-Navy vessel known loving as an LST, the sequence usually went: be fired upon, be fired upon, be fired upon, abandon ship drill.

In fact, every General Quarters drill ended with an Abandon Ship drill.

I was not used to being a target like that. Not after serving aboard the technologically (by speed, maneuverability, and weapons) advanced USS Chandler. Concerned about the difference in battle drills, I talked to one of the officers about my dilemma.

"The Peoria is a target after dropping off the Marines," he said. "Historically, the life expectancy of an LST after disembarking the Marines is about nine seconds."

GULP.

I was willing to give my life for my country if need be. It was just that I would rather allow that to happen with a firearm in my hands, and engaging the enemy. Not by being gunned down while trying to run away from a hostile beach.

That night I began to wonder about where the point no return was.

What I mean about that is surely as the vessel approached the beach, there was a point at which even if the ship turned around before dropping off the Marines, it would not be able to get away.

Sort of like the Niagra River. Along the Niagra River is the world famous Niagra Falls. As you approach the falls there are signs along the way. One of them reads, "Approaching the Point of No Return." Further down there is a sign that reads, "The Point of No Return." Once you get to that sign, no matter how good of a paddler you are, no matter your conditioning, the forces of the current approaching the falls will be too much for you to escape, and you will die a violent death as you fall over Niagra Falls.

The cataclysm is not immediate. You still remain on the river for a while. But the end is inevitable, at that point, and there is nothing you can do to escape.

Our national economy is approaching the point of no return. The spending by the federal government is out of control, and with the compound interest, increased entitlement demands, and so forth, we are fast approaching the point of no return.

Personally, I really don't want to know where that point is. I believe if we don't turn the ship around now, we will not escape collapse. All of the good intentions in the world, the hope of saving lives as you really enslave people in a dependency on the government, will not matter if it all collapses and the government has nothing left.

Then, the battles will only have just begun. Without a government that can spend on anything, that means no military as well, and then the U.S. would be ripe for invasion.

The Point of No Return is more than an economic danger. It indeed would mean the eventual collapse of America.

The spending must stop now.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary