I said "F**k Me" 6 times during your presentation. This was considered a viable operation? Maybe they should have kept a few LST's around instead of expending them as targets.
@@therchas Right - but they failed at the 'political optics' goal because they failed at the viability and effectiveness of the operation. I don't exactly "watch the news" at this point, but I haven't noticed any media trying to put a positive spin on this.
@@RyTrapp0I think you are right. The need has not lessened at all, so the end of the operation implies that they've failed in the optics objectives. Most of the food is just sitting on the end of the pier because Israel has targeted food aid trucks and killed food aid workers multiple times
Someone needs to take a look at the Matson ops leaving the West Coast for Hawaii. A tad over a million POUNDS a day is sick. And the cargo is stacked onshore waiting to either rot or be stolen by guys with guns. What a waste of money and personnel for virtually zero.
Polly Anna here. Maybe the humiliation will motivate the government to address this massive void in our future capabilities. Shoot if we can't quickly put up a functional pier we are probably not ready for a major conflict.
So, they decided to use a tool that wasn't made for this situation in the first place, so, naturally, lets launch an investigation. A news report I read either yesterday or the day before said, one of the problems is once the supplies are moved onto the beach, they're just sitting there. The aid trucks that were moving the stuff inland were getting attacked, so they're having trouble moving it off the beach. If that's true, it wouldn't matter if you were able to move more onto the beach.
Hamas is in bedded in the aid trucks and are using them as cover to attack Israel. Also, Hamas steals all the aid. This was a known disaster before it ever started
@@bosshog8844 ... So you're going to take one high profile incident and extrapolate that out to - Israel is attacking all food trucks? You're smart, wow.
Small tugs are loaded with causeway. Not sailed across the pond. Thank you for the updates on your channel. 👊 Retired Army Master Mariner / Master Diver
My guess is that Biden made the decision to send the pier and was committed to it. But, from a strategic point of view of our ally Israel, they don't want Gaza to be resupplied. So no effort is being made to make this efficient.
They are being pretty selective about what they put into that $230M dollar amount. When you figure in fuel for the ships, salaries, wear and tear on equipment there is no way in hell that whole schmozz only cost $230M. The true cost will make airborne drops look cheap. Rushed plan, rushed gear...bad outcome.
Brit here. Yes, it might be a drop in the ocean, but it is $ 230 million dollars that is not available for aid for the Palestinian people or to help homeless people in America. I suppose the best that can be said is that the Democrats tried, whereas the Repugnants would have done bugger all.
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@@keithhigh7773 It was a scam from the very beginning.
@@blshouse Cant believe there are such imbeciles watching this channel, this pier is an effort to send in humanitarian aid ONLY to a region which is having aid blocked by a US ally, instead of you know, just telling Israel to stop fucking blocking aid and if it refuses, block all non essential military aid to them (which is already forbidden under US law which is currently being brokeN)
Moving stuff by pallet is a standard for us navy operations. Most people are trained and experienced in only pallet operations. Container operations are simply not practical for carrier and replenishment at sea operations that the navy does. So I’m not surprised to see this being continued on this peir even if containers would be more efficient in this case
You can't starve a population if you have a reliable delivery system. By pretending this pier was going to be a workable solution, they were able to keep all the humanitarian aid out of this area.
Not sure if you are being "naive" or very cleverly showing what a disaster this devious, desperate scam is... Oh ffs... Does anyone really "think" that the pier has anything to do with "a concern about getting humanitarian aid to Palestinians"?!?!?! When will all the "experts" cut the crap and cut to the chase - this is ALL about trying to get the Palestinians out of the region to clear the way for the full control of the off shore GAS ZONES in a desperate bid by the nazionist/anglo/american/ nato and bankster parasites to retain some hegemony in the region and control of major future energy supplies to their bitch slapped nato stooges in Europe! But like their murderous scam in Ukraine, it is collapsing as well...
The recent commemorations of D-Day made much of the Mulberry floating harbours, and how they were set up in a day or two, and handled thousands of tons of supplies daily to keep the allied forces supplied. That was in the English Channel, not the (relatively) calm Mediterranean. Have we just lost the ability to do that?
The mulberries were prefabricated in the UK, and hauled over the Channel. As to the sea state of the Channel, one of the Mulberries was destroyed by a storm a few weeks after it was set up.
Hard to believe our government would pick the least efficient, most expensive and dangerous way to do something. I'm sure the administration didn't have ulterior motives for doing any of this🙄.
It's no worse than a school district that gets four and a half billion dollars a year; still not be able to afford air conditioning or get rid of asbestos.
Great report, Sal. You should share it with Congress, especially the budget committees We are pouring money out with no success or reason. Look at our leadership. .
Thanks Sal for another really informative and interesting video. This is what happens when Politicians call the shots, they are not known for taking reality into consideration. Hats off to all the Servicemen that have had to try and make a Politician's fantasy into a reality.
I was always under the impression that the deliverables of this mission was not to move the needle on tons of aid transported, but rather to generate photos/videos of US soldiers doing something for Gazans so that US voters who sympathize with Palestinians can be placated. I’m pretty sure that’s the criterion by which decision on continuing the mission will be made.
@deansawich6250, I'm glad for your post. It most closely matches my sentiment. The episode's live videos show a how hazardous the operation is. The U.S. military designed an inadequate system for proper throughput. The Israeli military further jeopardized the humanitarian aid operation when they used the beach by the pier for a military evacuation. The pier is a worsening political failure. The pier should be shut down safely, to minimize injury or worse, to U.S. servicemen. Political pressure should be applied to Israel, to open the ports for aid to flow at higher throughput.
It's a show, of course, and tonnage is gonna be reflected in grams on all the award citations. But I'm proud of all the Army sailors who are having to pull this mission out of thin air. And how DID that tug get there?
Half a billion dollars wasted, anyone that knows anything about the Navy and Army mobile pier systems knew this was a disaster to begin with. How the flack did anyone not realize this wasn’t going to work and it needless put American Service men and women at risk.
We do infact have doctrine regarding mobile pier operations. I would call this a failed Beta test. And expect funding to replace this with a more viable system with next year's budget.
Not really, there will have been lots of lessons learnt form this and it will likely inform future developments and capabilities that are developed, you often learn more from relative failures than you do from success. At least they tried.
@@tomriley5790 This was done to appease the Arab population in the US. Given that US troops were not allowed to set their feet on the sand, this pier could not be properly installed and maintained. Great job Biden....And face it, this was just deliveries into the hands of Hamas, since they run the place.
Sal, very informative particularly with your maritime background. (With tongue-in-cheek) Look out the Senate investigative committee will have you up giving testimony on the latest rounds of political sniping.
Good video, neutral, objective analysis, thank you. Is that a ‘willomy pine’ (from Australia) in the background? If so, awesome! Excuse the spelling, please.
I've seen eucalyptus when I was in Israel, the Wollemi Pine, would surprise me, they are native to only a small and specific area of the Blue Mountains just west of Sydney, and access is not permitted to the general public. That said, given how endangered the pine is, they can be purchased from nurseries to help prevent their extinction. Would be interesting to see if they were transported to Gaza in case something happened in Australia that killed the tree off. (sorry for going waaay off topic if you meant a different pine)
@@carneeki Thank you for your concise reply, carneeki, I thought I recognized is from the very rough bark and the rather primitive, disheveled branches and ‘leaves’. I am aware of the protected status of that grove of plant life in Blue Mountains Australia, and I am interested in having a plant of my own when they become available. As far as I know, there are samples at the KEW and at a museum in Hamilton, Ontario Canada.
Sal, you called it correctly from the get-go when this operation was announced, what 5 months ago!! You should provide the investigators a copy of your episode from months ago! You're a class act for not saying "I told you so!"
Can’t stack containers high on these vessels. Pallets moved by forklift makes more sense. Especially when the marshaling area is completely full anyways even with the limited throughput achieved and the internal distribution in Gaza is not keeping up.
I always thought it was a bad strategy but I’m sad to see it really didn’t work well. Those people are so desperate for aid I was hoping it would help more.
Then they should stop starting fights with israel, and violating the Treaties they begged for after starting said fights with Israel; better yet they should GTFO of Israel as they have ZERO CLAIM to it.
That operation wasn’t about delivering aid. It was a “show”, failed spectacularly, and will soon disappear down the “memory hole” to avoid how incompetent they were to even think of trying it.
There is a repeated misconception about number of tracks before and after 7 Oct. The number before is tracks carrying everything. Building supply, Manufacturing supply, Food... The number post 7 Oct is just humanitarian aid. e.g food and medical supply.
@@Onequietvoice Correct that said however what food does come in does go their fighting forces first as is customary in this part of the world. Another example of us supplying our own enemies with war material.
I’m prior Amphibious transport Navy. I noticed two things in your excellent video. One, I’ll take this as all other operations as a Training exercise. The second was the Aid coming from the UAE. One could derive a lot of intelligence from this operation. IMHO. 😎🇺🇸👍🏻
The Emiratis wouldn't be foolish enough to send illicit supplies through that channel, I think. They have plenty of tunnels built by the Egyptians to use for that. But you're right, it's great training but I suspect the outcome of the exercise will be that the military has learned to not use systems in conditions they weren't designed for. Or so I hope.
Nobody is learning anything of value here, other than it sucks to be a marine. Even if they did, they sure as hell won't put that knowledge to good use in the future. The whole operation was a PR stunt designed to distract the population from focusing on complicit US involvement in the Gaza incursion.
Doomed to failure even before it began. Anyone who bothered to ask the weather folks for information about wind, tide, and sea state, would have known not to attempt setting up this pier on that unprotected beachhead. The world watches us embarrass ourselves, and takes note.
This was a weird mission from the start. Why make an amphibious landing when Egypt could open a border crossing directly into Gaza? Lots of politics. Big international relations. This one could suspect this pier was just a decoy to avoid the Gaza-Egypt crossing becoming a flashpoint and somewhere someone issuing an ultimatum.
Mr Rain It is a requirement set out years ago by Israel. They then turn back an entire container-worth / truckload at a time for any reason whatsoever, in violation of the relevant Geneva Conventions, when a single pallet is deemed "out of order". The USA could force them to back down but is unwilling to challenge Benjamin Netanyahu on the matter.
This is honestly worse than I expected, this is ridiculous. Moving PALLETS at a time? Transferring PALLETS multiple times between various vehicles before they touch ground? This is just absurd. "...an investigation is about to be launched into the pier..." - Can't wait to find out who they scapegoat for this one
14:00 - Your comments reminded me, and I searched and bought the book "Tug Of War", about the author's experiences during WW-II sailing a US fleet tug from the US East Coast, thru Panama, to the South Pacific. Wonderful book that I read many years ago.
Think of all the money they saved by not paying the crews involved hazardous duty pay while sending them into a bonafide war zone! So, we have that going for us.
It was never met to be used on an open coastline but in “protected” waters. This was purely political and meant to gain brownie points, not help. “Hey, look what we’re doing!” You ask anyone who actually put hands on that thing and they will tell you. Thanks Sal!
This is rather less about weather or equipment or ability than it is about politics. Political will would see enough resource - even blockships against the weather! - put into place. BUT the one side can't guarantee safety or accept foreign military ashore, and frankly WANTS to continue the difficulties for it's people. And the other doesn't seem to want to facilitate the use of a proper port eg Ashdod , then onward road distribution.... (And that ignores the central land access and Southern port access from Egypt!) I truly feel sorry for the US Army and Navy here..... professional people - and this is not their fault!! As for Mulberries..... the lesson is that any facility intended for more than a very short (a day or two) term operation requires ENORMOUS planning and support and security - and that means allied political will. Nice update Sal, thanks you.
@@Onequietvoicethey should be happy they got $1 or pallet one? Hamas brought this on themselves and the people of Gaza. And once they even got the aid, they withhold hold it from the people.
Brit here. You are probably right about the political will. All the "heavy lifting" for Mulberries was done in 1942/43/44. All the designs are readily available, and given the time the Gaza pier was in the planning, the concrete caissons could have been fabricated in Cyprus and shipped across. The block ships (gooseberries in Mulberry speak) could have been substituted by more caissons.The Mulberries were designed to handle a much greater rise and fall of tide than 3 feet. Historical note, some concrete caissons are still visible just off the beach in Arromanches, Normandy, France. I live just a few miles from where many caissons were fabricated here on the south coast of England and in this 80th anniversary year of D-Day, we will shortly be erecting a monument commemorating Mulberries and all the people engaged in their manufacture.
@MartyrAlmo Duuude, there are only 4.45 million Muslims in the US. That is about 1.3 PERCENT of the total population. Use Google before you quote a number.
@MartyrAlmo Where do you think the Google numbers come from? That is U.S. Census & immigration data, i.e. those are SELF-REPORTED numbers. Individual Muslim households put their hands up to be counted. Now, the numbers aren't perfect, and they do the Census only every ten years, and do projections between those times, and it isn't going to account for illegal immigration or people that duck the surveys for whatever reason, but it isn't going to be off by "50 to 70 million". That would be every eight American. If you had said 500,000 or a million extra I might have believed you.
*Let us NOT FORGET the, amazing & beautiful, quote that our, very strong & full of life, President Biden gave us regarding the Red Sea, Israel & the Houthi's....* *"We beat the war against MEDICAD!!!"*
This whole thing was a fool's errand. If we (the US) were going to "do something," then we should not take half-measures to try to look good politically. Want to run a JLOTS mission? Great, send over a MEU/ARG, establish a beachhead (with CG/DDGs parked offshore and B-52/B-1 support on-call for force protection), send the Army/Marines/Seabees necessary to support the pier and the transload area, crank up the MLPs to do the job they were designed for, and move some serious tonnage. If we didn't think the mission was worth the potential risk to our "boots on the ground," then we should stay home. This kind of half-measure nonsense is idiotic. And is what brings us things like Mogadishu/Black Hawk Down. Act. Or don't act. Have the fortitude to make a decision and follow through.
You said that the cargo that has been delivered is mostly sitting on the beach, waiting for the UN to distribute it. As in, if this operation became much more efficient, it wouldn't matter to the people of Gaza, because it is the UN that is the bottleneck here. Also, I'm sure containers are more efficient than pallets, but can the UN actually handle containers in Gaza?
at least 224 humanitarian personnel have been killed in Gaza during the ongoing conflict... probably 5x more were injured. The UN have an impossible task and they are not the one being a problem in this conflict.
It's kind of hard to distribute food ; when your U.N. workers are busy being terrorists....
3 місяці тому
@@raymondnoel6053 It is well documented that Hamas has thoroughly infiltrated virtually all of the "humanitarian" organizations in Gaza. They essentially work for hamas and provide cover for their fighters, which makes them legitimate targets.
Thanks for this analysis, Sal. I’ve been wondering how exactly they were actually handling stuff on the pier. Would be interested to hear your take on what this operation might mean for the sealift command moving forward, given the talk of it being wound down before this deployment?
I am confused. Why can't they ship the supplies into an Egyptian port near Gaza, then truck it to the Egyptian/Gaza border? Is there something I am missing? This seems like a simpler, easier method.
Yes, that would have been the proper way, the down side is that at the time the decision was made, until mid May, Hamas had control over the areas near the Gaza/Egypt border, so Hamas, other groups and local gangs robbed food convoys.
Why are the trucks at the Rafah and Egypt crossing not allowed to enter, there are many trucks waiting and I think they are no longer edible because they were ruined and rotted from the heat
The Israeli authorities are allowing Israeli civilians to vandalise the loads and trucks. IDF and Israeli police giving the nod to protest groups and then standing by doing nothing.
Egypt closed the Rafah border on their side when the IDF took control of the Philadelphi corridor. The Egyptians don't want to appear to be working with the Israelis together, so they just shut it down.
@friedrichrubinstein2346 it was shut down before that. The Israelis want to inspect the cargo before entering Gaza. Doesn't matter , Hamas is attacking and confiscating the shipments as they enter. That shooting of aid trucks a while ago , they had been high jacked by Hamas .
I said "F**k Me" 6 times during your presentation. This was considered a viable operation? Maybe they should have kept a few LST's around instead of expending them as targets.
Fortunately, the government is always ready to F-you. And they’ll do it with money they took from someone else they’re also F-ing.
This operation wasn’t for viability and effectiveness but for political optics
@@therchas Spot on!
@@therchas Right - but they failed at the 'political optics' goal because they failed at the viability and effectiveness of the operation. I don't exactly "watch the news" at this point, but I haven't noticed any media trying to put a positive spin on this.
@@RyTrapp0I think you are right. The need has not lessened at all, so the end of the operation implies that they've failed in the optics objectives. Most of the food is just sitting on the end of the pier because Israel has targeted food aid trucks and killed food aid workers multiple times
I felt from the beginning this was a half ass effort. Publicity stunt that didn’t work.
The big guy needed to get his 10% cut.
Bail is going to be a lot, 10% may not cover it.
Got biden votes
My question...given how susceptible the pier is to weather ( 3 ft waves max) does the entire system have any practical use in military times?
It didn't work because Israel burdened it with too many inspections. All that inefficiency is so they can vet every pallet -- while people starve.
Someone needs to take a look at the Matson ops leaving the West Coast for Hawaii. A tad over a million POUNDS a day is sick. And the cargo is stacked onshore waiting to either rot or be stolen by guys with guns. What a waste of money and personnel for virtually zero.
Polly Anna here. Maybe the humiliation will motivate the government to address this massive void in our future capabilities. Shoot if we can't quickly put up a functional pier we are probably not ready for a major conflict.
They don't want to succeed here, that's the point. It's just a way to spend some money whilst supporting Israel.
Graft is the point. Efficacy is meaningless.
So, they decided to use a tool that wasn't made for this situation in the first place, so, naturally, lets launch an investigation. A news report I read either yesterday or the day before said, one of the problems is once the supplies are moved onto the beach, they're just sitting there. The aid trucks that were moving the stuff inland were getting attacked, so they're having trouble moving it off the beach. If that's true, it wouldn't matter if you were able to move more onto the beach.
Hamas is not attacking aide trucks. Israel has been launching missile strikes on food aide workers though.
@@bosshog8844
Yeah.... sure... and Hamas didn't rape and butchered all of those Jews too.... Do you really think this is Al Jazeera audience?😂
@@bosshog8844 Liar. They were terrorists operating under cover as "aid workers". In other words, legitimate targets.
Hamas is in bedded in the aid trucks and are using them as cover to attack Israel. Also, Hamas steals all the aid. This was a known disaster before it ever started
@@bosshog8844 ... So you're going to take one high profile incident and extrapolate that out to - Israel is attacking all food trucks? You're smart, wow.
Small tugs are loaded with causeway. Not sailed across the pond.
Thank you for the updates on your channel. 👊
Retired Army Master Mariner / Master Diver
please elaborate... what's a causeway in this context? Thank you for your service, sir.
@@garymartin9777 The causeway is the technically correct name for the "pier".
It was never intended to be an viable solution, doesn't take an expert to know this was for P.R purposes
Maybe it was all a false show of support never meant to succeed so as to make us look magnanimus..
I think you got it
Bingo
Should have read your comment before making mine.
Nailed that
My guess is that Biden made the decision to send the pier and was committed to it. But, from a strategic point of view of our ally Israel, they don't want Gaza to be resupplied. So no effort is being made to make this efficient.
The word "impotent" comes to mind
I can think of two words, Charlie Foxtrot.
SNAFU perhaps 🤔
Who and/or what are you claiming to be impotent?
Yeah it turns out that this a complex and delicate situation and no amount of snippy one liners from the UA-cam content section is going change that.
@@fmccloud Dont defend a disgusting political move that helps Israel starve people
They are being pretty selective about what they put into that $230M dollar amount. When you figure in fuel for the ships, salaries, wear and tear on equipment there is no way in hell that whole schmozz only cost $230M. The true cost will make airborne drops look cheap. Rushed plan, rushed gear...bad outcome.
But also consider the training opportunity and effectiveness assessment of a platform with limited operational history
Keep in mind you’re paying the warship crew salaries either way.
Those navy divers, are pissed .
You only get pay if under 1 fathom ~
I would imagine the govt just walks away from that pier, look what they left behind in Afghanistan. 230 million is a drop in the Mediterranean.
Too many camera phones
Brit here.
Yes, it might be a drop in the ocean, but it is $ 230 million dollars that is not available for aid for the Palestinian people or to help homeless people in America.
I suppose the best that can be said is that the Democrats tried, whereas the Repugnants would have done bugger all.
@@keithhigh7773 It was a scam from the very beginning.
@@keithhigh7773yup, and you better get ready to cry in November, cause all this nonsense will be going away.
looks like d day
I'm a nobody. And I knew that pier was NOT going to work out.
Yes, the military is pulling it. But, I'm not talking about the pier.
You understand nothing, it was never intended to work, it was just a political move to save netanyahu from the ICC
@@afterglow5285 You mean to save Brandon from the pro-Hamas wing of his own party.
@@afterglow5285 says the guy supporting TERRORISTS; let that sink in, 🤡
@@blshouse Cant believe there are such imbeciles watching this channel, this pier is an effort to send in humanitarian aid ONLY to a region which is having aid blocked by a US ally, instead of you know, just telling Israel to stop fucking blocking aid and if it refuses, block all non essential military aid to them (which is already forbidden under US law which is currently being brokeN)
Moving stuff by pallet is a standard for us navy operations. Most people are trained and experienced in only pallet operations. Container operations are simply not practical for carrier and replenishment at sea operations that the navy does. So I’m not surprised to see this being continued on this peir even if containers would be more efficient in this case
We are not doing a replenishment operation of a ship.
@@WALTERBROADDUS yes but standard operating procedures have a tendency to used for operations they shouldn’t be used for in bureaucratic systems
@@therchas there's no cranes to lift containers. And I don't see any longshoreman.
It should have never ever been constructed !! They should ask why Egypt has 1000s of aid trucks on the Egyptian border side !!!
You can't starve a population if you have a reliable delivery system. By pretending this pier was going to be a workable solution, they were able to keep all the humanitarian aid out of this area.
Israel controls the border and won't let them through.
Israel actually guards that border.
Maybe it's because the Egyptians are busy building a border wall? 🧱
Not sure if you are being "naive" or very cleverly showing what a disaster this devious, desperate scam is...
Oh ffs... Does anyone really "think" that the pier has anything to do with "a concern about getting humanitarian aid to Palestinians"?!?!?!
When will all the "experts" cut the crap and cut to the chase - this is ALL about trying to get the Palestinians out of the region to clear the way
for the full control of the off shore GAS ZONES in a desperate bid by the nazionist/anglo/american/ nato and bankster parasites
to retain some hegemony in the region and control of major future energy supplies to their bitch slapped nato stooges in Europe!
But like their murderous scam in Ukraine, it is collapsing as well...
U mean sisi is busy@@WALTERBROADDUS
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
Damn you beat me to it
lol
Absolutely the crews really deserve a lot of kudos for doing the best job they could in impossible conditions, both weather and political.
The recent commemorations of D-Day made much of the Mulberry floating harbours, and how they were set up in a day or two, and handled thousands of tons of supplies daily to keep the allied forces supplied. That was in the English Channel, not the (relatively) calm Mediterranean. Have we just lost the ability to do that?
The mulberries were prefabricated in the UK, and hauled over the Channel.
As to the sea state of the Channel, one of the Mulberries was destroyed by a storm a few weeks after it was set up.
That requires a lot more money and infrastructure.
@@dongiovanni4331 Still shows what can be done when there is a genuine will to do something.
@@dongiovanni4331
CORRE THE U.S. PIER BROKE UP !
No
Hard to believe our government would pick the least efficient, most expensive and dangerous way to do something. I'm sure the administration didn't have ulterior motives for doing any of this🙄.
It's no worse than a school district that gets four and a half billion dollars a year; still not be able to afford air conditioning or get rid of asbestos.
Hell no
Blame Israel for them having to do use this method
@@DefaultProphet" I will bless them that bless you, I will curse them that curse you" said The Lord,
Remember this is the administration that screwed up the Afghanistan withdrawal. This shouldn’t be surprising.
Great report, Sal. You should share it with Congress, especially the budget committees We are pouring money out with no success or reason. Look at our leadership. .
Thanks Sal for another really informative and interesting video. This is what happens when Politicians call the shots, they are not known for taking reality into consideration. Hats off to all the Servicemen that have had to try and make a Politician's fantasy into a reality.
I was always under the impression that the deliverables of this mission was not to move the needle on tons of aid transported, but rather to generate photos/videos of US soldiers doing something for Gazans so that US voters who sympathize with Palestinians can be placated.
I’m pretty sure that’s the criterion by which decision on continuing the mission will be made.
Strange, it was the military that planned and executed this operation.
@deansawich6250, I'm glad for your post. It most closely matches my sentiment. The episode's live videos show a how hazardous the operation is. The U.S. military designed an inadequate system for proper throughput. The Israeli military further jeopardized the humanitarian aid operation when they used the beach by the pier for a military evacuation. The pier is a worsening political failure. The pier should be shut down safely, to minimize injury or worse, to U.S. servicemen. Political pressure should be applied to Israel, to open the ports for aid to flow at higher throughput.
Thank you Sal.
Thanks for the update Sal.
It's a show, of course, and tonnage is gonna be reflected in grams on all the award citations. But I'm proud of all the Army sailors who are having to pull this mission out of thin air. And how DID that tug get there?
The ST912 was definitely loaded onto another ship and carried over.
Half a billion dollars wasted, anyone that knows anything about the Navy and Army mobile pier systems knew this was a disaster to begin with. How the flack did anyone not realize this wasn’t going to work and it needless put American Service men and women at risk.
This was a glorified exercise to see how well the JLOLTS really work in a real life situation. The marine Corps are making a decision!
Turns out...
Same as mulberry, the weather is bloody pain.
Hopefully we haven't built doctrine around these.
We do infact have doctrine regarding mobile pier operations.
I would call this a failed Beta test. And expect funding to replace this with a more viable system with next year's budget.
This system would work fine (if a bit expensively) in an environment for which it was designed.
Another complete waste of US taxpayer money so a politician can say He cares.
Not really, there will have been lots of lessons learnt form this and it will likely inform future developments and capabilities that are developed, you often learn more from relative failures than you do from success. At least they tried.
@@tomriley5790 The lessons learned from this could have been learned by simply thinking it through instead of spending hundreds of millions..
@@tomriley5790 This was done to appease the Arab population in the US. Given that US troops were not allowed to set their feet on the sand, this pier could not be properly installed and maintained. Great job Biden....And face it, this was just deliveries into the hands of Hamas, since they run the place.
Man I'm here on one of these ships and it's a real shit show total waste of our money
@@elhueso4330 Getting any harassment from the locals?
What a waste, but I can't say I am surprised.
This is the most dumbstruck idea I've ever seen. And im a former marine.
Subtle humor. I like it.
Enjoying a reliable update. Appreciate the UNCOLA - no hyperbolic adjectives or adverbs on this channel
Another Herrick...
Very informative. Well done.
One can see why some are calling for the halt of this boondoogle.
Sal, very informative particularly with your maritime background.
(With tongue-in-cheek) Look out the Senate investigative committee will have you up giving testimony on the latest rounds of political sniping.
Thanks for showing this.
Wonder which political family partnered with the contractor providing pier materials.
oow oow pick me !
Considering they are probably older than you are, none.
It sounded like there were distribution issues once it was ashore too. Little point in piling it up on the beach if it goes nowhere after that.
Good video, neutral, objective analysis, thank you.
Is that a ‘willomy pine’ (from Australia) in the background?
If so, awesome!
Excuse the spelling, please.
I've seen eucalyptus when I was in Israel, the Wollemi Pine, would surprise me, they are native to only a small and specific area of the Blue Mountains just west of Sydney, and access is not permitted to the general public. That said, given how endangered the pine is, they can be purchased from nurseries to help prevent their extinction. Would be interesting to see if they were transported to Gaza in case something happened in Australia that killed the tree off.
(sorry for going waaay off topic if you meant a different pine)
@@carneeki
Thank you for your concise reply, carneeki, I thought I recognized is from the very rough bark and the rather primitive, disheveled branches and ‘leaves’. I am aware of the protected status of that grove of plant life in Blue Mountains Australia, and I am interested in having a plant of my own when they become available.
As far as I know, there are samples at the KEW and at a museum in Hamilton, Ontario Canada.
Love your channel, Sal. The "L" is silent in Moultrie. Properly pronounced "Moo-Tree".
At time 7:43, I really enjoy seeing DoD is still using "left handed, metric shipyard wrench" not a properly sized wrench.
Sal, you called it correctly from the get-go when this operation was announced, what 5 months ago!! You should provide the investigators a copy of your episode from months ago! You're a class act for not saying "I told you so!"
I think they're not using containers because of transparency. You can hide anything in a container. Less easy on pallets.
You don't have any cargo cranes to move containers.
Can’t stack containers high on these vessels. Pallets moved by forklift makes more sense. Especially when the marshaling area is completely full anyways even with the limited throughput achieved and the internal distribution in Gaza is not keeping up.
Great report, thank you!
I always thought it was a bad strategy but I’m sad to see it really didn’t work well. Those people are so desperate for aid I was hoping it would help more.
Hamas is a terrorist organization. I would send no aid.
Then they should stop starting fights with israel, and violating the Treaties they begged for after starting said fights with Israel; better yet they should GTFO of Israel as they have ZERO CLAIM to it.
Grat show! Thank you.
That operation wasn’t about delivering aid. It was a “show”, failed spectacularly, and will soon disappear down the “memory hole” to avoid how incompetent they were to even think of trying it.
Great video, thanks for sharing and giving us the explanation. Charles
No one reported on how the tug got there?
Several reported that it was hoisted aboard.
Good Reporting. Thanks.
There is a repeated misconception about number of tracks before and after 7 Oct. The number before is tracks carrying everything. Building supply, Manufacturing supply, Food... The number post 7 Oct is just humanitarian aid. e.g food and medical supply.
As usual Sal thank you for the update.
seems that the whole thing was a pr stunt after all, that or we can't figure out aid, but then the arms are still moving well enough
When the destination nation wants the arms and not the aid...
@@AtomicBuffalo The destination was Gaza.
@@Onequietvoice Correct that said however what food does come in does go their fighting forces first as is customary in this part of the world. Another example of us supplying our own enemies with war material.
@@Onequietvoice If Gaza was a nation we wouldn't still be dancing around a two-state solution.
@@AtomicBuffalo Jordan is the two state solution.
What a difficult situation. Frustrating for the staff working over there.
I’m prior Amphibious transport Navy. I noticed two things in your excellent video. One, I’ll take this as all other operations as a Training exercise. The second was the Aid coming from the UAE. One could derive a lot of intelligence from this operation. IMHO. 😎🇺🇸👍🏻
The Emiratis wouldn't be foolish enough to send illicit supplies through that channel, I think. They have plenty of tunnels built by the Egyptians to use for that. But you're right, it's great training but I suspect the outcome of the exercise will be that the military has learned to not use systems in conditions they weren't designed for. Or so I hope.
Nobody is learning anything of value here, other than it sucks to be a marine. Even if they did, they sure as hell won't put that knowledge to good use in the future. The whole operation was a PR stunt designed to distract the population from focusing on complicit US involvement in the Gaza incursion.
Doomed to failure even before it began. Anyone who bothered to ask the weather folks
for information about wind, tide, and sea state, would have known not to attempt setting
up this pier on that unprotected beachhead. The world watches us embarrass ourselves,
and takes note.
Thanks!
A CF of the first order. I really feel for the US military personnel who are tasked with making this CF work. Kudos to them.
What a horrible abuse of taxpayer money squandered upon a ‘famine’ that never was.
Thanks for the informative video. It makes reading between the lines a lot clearer on what is really going on here.
$230 million dollars!! Good lord what a waste of money. How is that even possible that it could cost even close to that? What a freaking joke.
With the 8,332 pallets delivered thus far, it comes to $27,604 per pallet.
The good news is that at least the people involved are getting plenty of hands on experience. Both with what works and what doesn't.
@@philhatfield2282I prefer to think of it as $15 a pound
because the UAE payed for it not the US.
It has been a learning experience for our military 🤔
This was a weird mission from the start. Why make an amphibious landing when Egypt could open a border crossing directly into Gaza? Lots of politics. Big international relations. This one could suspect this pier was just a decoy to avoid the Gaza-Egypt crossing becoming a flashpoint and somewhere someone issuing an ultimatum.
Does Egypt doesn't want them. And is building a border wall to keep them out.
It's not weird at all. This has more to do with politics than Logistics.
Israel has closed the border and been preventing aid trucks from getting into gaza since before the war even started
Great update
The ONLY reason I can think of for break bulk vs containers is security. Easier for dogs to check everything for bombs?
yes, I had the same thought
You are taking stuff off ship. Not putting it on?
@@WALTERBROADDUS Irrelevant. This is humanitarian aid, not military materiel.
Mr Rain It is a requirement set out years ago by Israel. They then turn back an entire container-worth / truckload at a time for any reason whatsoever, in violation of the relevant Geneva Conventions, when a single pallet is deemed "out of order".
The USA could force them to back down but is unwilling to challenge Benjamin Netanyahu on the matter.
@@DrewNorthup Apparently, those in charge don't agree.
I am completely speechless. My God. What an abject disaster.
Your restraint in not yelling out "I told you so dummies! ' was remarkable !
Thanks Sal for another timely update and analysis.
Don't promise what you are unable to achieve.....
Remember whose idea it was to begin with. An entire political career has been built on not worrying about the final outcome.
@@marvinwestern4276 💯 %
This is honestly worse than I expected, this is ridiculous. Moving PALLETS at a time? Transferring PALLETS multiple times between various vehicles before they touch ground? This is just absurd.
"...an investigation is about to be launched into the pier..." - Can't wait to find out who they scapegoat for this one
Is anyone reporting on the mortar and rocket attacks on the pier?
14:00 - Your comments reminded me, and I searched and bought the book "Tug Of War", about the author's experiences during WW-II sailing a US fleet tug from the US East Coast, thru Panama, to the South Pacific. Wonderful book that I read many years ago.
Think of all the money they saved by not paying the crews involved hazardous duty pay while sending them into a bonafide war zone! So, we have that going for us.
Fr no hazard pay???
It was never met to be used on an open coastline but in “protected” waters. This was purely political and meant to gain brownie points, not help. “Hey, look what we’re doing!” You ask anyone who actually put hands on that thing and they will tell you. Thanks Sal!
This is rather less about weather or equipment or ability than it is about politics.
Political will would see enough resource - even blockships against the weather! - put into place.
BUT the one side can't guarantee safety or accept foreign military ashore, and frankly WANTS to continue the difficulties for it's people.
And the other doesn't seem to want to facilitate the use of a proper port eg Ashdod , then onward road distribution....
(And that ignores the central land access and Southern port access from Egypt!)
I truly feel sorry for the US Army and Navy here..... professional people - and this is not their fault!!
As for Mulberries..... the lesson is that any facility intended for more than a very short (a day or two) term operation requires ENORMOUS planning and support and security - and that means allied political will.
Nice update Sal, thanks you.
You've already put about $300 million into this. And you wanted to put more infrastructure?
@@WALTERBROADDUS How does that compare to the Military aid given to Israel to create this crisis?
@@Onequietvoicethey should be happy they got $1 or pallet one? Hamas brought this on themselves and the people of Gaza. And once they even got the aid, they withhold hold it from the people.
Brit here.
You are probably right about the political will.
All the "heavy lifting" for Mulberries was done in 1942/43/44. All the designs are readily available, and given the time the Gaza pier was in the planning, the concrete caissons could have been fabricated in Cyprus and shipped across. The block ships (gooseberries in Mulberry speak) could have been substituted by more caissons.The Mulberries were designed to handle a much greater rise and fall of tide than 3 feet.
Historical note, some concrete caissons are still visible just off the beach in Arromanches, Normandy, France.
I live just a few miles from where many caissons were fabricated here on the south coast of England and in this 80th anniversary year of D-Day, we will shortly be erecting a monument commemorating Mulberries and all the people engaged in their manufacture.
Also, the work of Merchant Marines!
$230,000,000 that we don’t even have…to pour down someone else’s drain. What happened to this once great country? Unreal.
prime example of the leadership of military and government of usa , not good
sorta like Trump letting 5000 taliban terrorists go free to kill our troops?
If the report says anything other than "politicians shouldn't pick maritime logistics solutions" its a sham.
Its the Army. They disassembled the tug, every soldier put a piece in their ruck, then they reassembled at sea.
But it then became a large anchor.
Not efficient you say? Hmmm never would have thought our govt could do things inefficiently, so surprising.
Good training. Very informative when compared to D day and the ensuing logistical problems you outlined in previous emissions. Thankyou.
When it comes to securing votes in Wayne County, Michigan. No expense is extravagant.
Dearborn area?
@MartyrAlmo Duuude, there are only 4.45 million Muslims in the US. That is about 1.3 PERCENT of the total population. Use Google before you quote a number.
@MartyrAlmo Probably just hypnotized by certain media echo chambers and didn't check.
@MartyrAlmo Where do you think the Google numbers come from? That is U.S. Census & immigration data, i.e. those are SELF-REPORTED numbers. Individual Muslim households put their hands up to be counted.
Now, the numbers aren't perfect, and they do the Census only every ten years, and do projections between those times, and it isn't going to account for illegal immigration or people that duck the surveys for whatever reason, but it isn't going to be off by "50 to 70 million". That would be every eight American. If you had said 500,000 or a million extra I might have believed you.
*Let us NOT FORGET the, amazing & beautiful, quote that our, very strong & full of life, President Biden gave us regarding the Red Sea, Israel & the Houthi's....*
*"We beat the war against MEDICAD!!!"*
Will this affect Joes new job data?
350 million wasted, can't even use it as a training exercises, unless it's to show what "Not" to do.
Tell you what though… ain’t this a fantastic display of the team work, discipline and sheer greatest of you all volunteer military…👍 go the 🦅 🇺🇸
Whatever the decision, it will be based on optics and political considerations. Never mind if it works or not.
Those huge Waves in the Med Pond would destroy anything, they must have been 3ft high.
This whole thing was a fool's errand. If we (the US) were going to "do something," then we should not take half-measures to try to look good politically. Want to run a JLOTS mission? Great, send over a MEU/ARG, establish a beachhead (with CG/DDGs parked offshore and B-52/B-1 support on-call for force protection), send the Army/Marines/Seabees necessary to support the pier and the transload area, crank up the MLPs to do the job they were designed for, and move some serious tonnage.
If we didn't think the mission was worth the potential risk to our "boots on the ground," then we should stay home. This kind of half-measure nonsense is idiotic. And is what brings us things like Mogadishu/Black Hawk Down.
Act. Or don't act. Have the fortitude to make a decision and follow through.
This reminds me of some of the decisions made by upper command during Vietnam war. Just another SNAFU!
You said that the cargo that has been delivered is mostly sitting on the beach, waiting for the UN to distribute it. As in, if this operation became much more efficient, it wouldn't matter to the people of Gaza, because it is the UN that is the bottleneck here. Also, I'm sure containers are more efficient than pallets, but can the UN actually handle containers in Gaza?
at least 224 humanitarian personnel have been killed in Gaza during the ongoing conflict... probably 5x more were injured. The UN have an impossible task and they are not the one being a problem in this conflict.
Not when UN workers are busy playing Terrorists.
Unrwa was the only organisation doing an effective job of distributing aid so naturally the US stopped funding it,
It's kind of hard to distribute food ; when your U.N. workers are busy being terrorists....
@@raymondnoel6053 It is well documented that Hamas has thoroughly infiltrated virtually all of the "humanitarian" organizations in Gaza. They essentially work for hamas and provide cover for their fighters, which makes them legitimate targets.
Thanks for this analysis, Sal. I’ve been wondering how exactly they were actually handling stuff on the pier. Would be interested to hear your take on what this operation might mean for the sealift command moving forward, given the talk of it being wound down before this deployment?
That pier only existed to shore up the Hamas vote in Detroit and Minneapolis. Purely political.
That's the impression I got.
As if voting matters when you live in an oligarchy.
Muslims does not equal Hamas... your comment is racist!
This does have all the makings of a West Wing of the White House operation. And of course like Afghanistan, no one will be Held accountable.
Casual and unnecessary slander of the populations of Detroit and Minneopilis.
I think I remember a guy saying this wouldn't work immediately after it was announced.
I am confused. Why can't they ship the supplies into an Egyptian port near Gaza, then truck it to the Egyptian/Gaza border? Is there something I am missing? This seems like a simpler, easier method.
Israel effectively controls the borders between gaza and egypt. Another question is why not via land from Israel? The whole project is a joke.
At the moment, the border crossing is closed.
Israel shut down Rafah crossing
Yes, that would have been the proper way, the down side is that at the time the decision was made, until mid May, Hamas had control over the areas near the Gaza/Egypt border, so Hamas, other groups and local gangs robbed food convoys.
@@ef2718 nice story
“This has been a learning experience and we consider it a great success”
Another example of the military upper echelon screwing up.
They're doing exactly what the script tells them to do.
Thanka was a good story, and showing what all us beibg done.
It is not efficient ON PURPOSE. A foreign Government who controls the US Government does not want ANY aid in Gaza. This is their remedy.
White House was advised this was a bad idea, deployed it anyhow.
Why are the trucks at the Rafah and Egypt crossing not allowed to enter, there are many trucks waiting and I think they are no longer edible because they were ruined and rotted from the heat
The Israeli authorities are allowing Israeli civilians to vandalise the loads and trucks. IDF and Israeli police giving the nod to protest groups and then standing by doing nothing.
Egypt closed the Rafah border on their side when the IDF took control of the Philadelphi corridor. The Egyptians don't want to appear to be working with the Israelis together, so they just shut it down.
The Egyptians want nothing to do with Hamas. They were bombing the Sinai, and are an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood
@friedrichrubinstein2346 it was shut down before that. The Israelis want to inspect the cargo before entering Gaza. Doesn't matter , Hamas is attacking and confiscating the shipments as they enter. That shooting of aid trucks a while ago , they had been high jacked by Hamas .
At the moment, it's a combat zone.
Great talk!!!❤❤❤❤🎉
Would have been a lot better to just give the cash to the Gazans and have them order uber eats or doordash...
I'm surprised they didn't give amount of cargo moved in ounces.