I took the last flight out of New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina and returned a few days later. The federal response was impressive in many respects, but I still believe we should have launched a full-scale amphibious operation. The U.S. military had the ships, aircraft, engineering units, logistics capabilities, and manpower to bring overwhelming relief to a devastated American city. Eventually we launched the US Merchant Marine’s disaster relief fleet but it was too late to do much good. That fleet went untested until Trump’s first term when we found that 60% couldn’t be deployed o short notice. @SecDuffy hasn’t even tried to test it. Fast-forward to Hurricane Maria. We dispatched Navy ships to Puerto Rico but failed to fully exploit the Army’s huge fleet of landing craft. Those vessels were built to move heavy equipment and supplies onto shores without functioning port infrastructure. Helicopters are fast but have very limited lift capacity so landing craft were Exactly the capability a shattered island desperately needed. When the Army got called out for sitting on the sidelines what did General Mark Milley do? He sold the bulk of the fleet at auction to avoid future bad press. Everyone saw what a disaster the Gaza Pier was but not a single Pentagon reporter drew the conclusion that if it doesn’t work overseas, it can’t help Americans at home either. Then came Maui and the Pacific Palisades fires. Local authorities refused to dispatch a single fireboat to help. Hurricane Helene? Everyone was shocked at the poor federal response in North Carolina but I didn’t see a single reporter ask the most obvious question? Where the hell were all the white and orange USCG helicopters? Turns out a large number of spares were down for maintenance. The Baltimore Bridge that Pete Buttigieg promised us the Army Corps of Engineers would have rebuilt pronto? They still haven’t cleared out the old bridge years later. My proposal is simple: America should maintain dedicated, forward-deployed maritime disaster-response forces on all three coasts, built around amphibious ships, Army watercraft Marines, Navy Seabees, Army Virps of Engineers, aviation, medical teams, and prepositioned emergency supplies. Not ships sitting in port awaiting orders. Forces already at sea, equipped and ready to respond. Imagine what a Marine Expeditionary Unit, supported by naval aviation, landing craft, combat engineers, and thousands of tons of supplies, could accomplish within the first critical days of a catastrophe. We should be able to put an extraordinary amount of American military power ashore not to fight a war, but to save American lives. And please don’t tell me we can’t afford it. @DataRepublican has found ~$39 Billion per year flowing through government-funded NGO networks organizations undermining the constitution. We’re willing to spend billions projecting military power halfway around the world. Why shouldn’t we maintain comparable capabilities to rescue Americans at home? I would gladly spend $10 million per family if that’s what it took to bring overwhelming relief to a devastated American community. Ships. Helicopters. Hospitals. Engineers. Water. Food. Shelter. Communications. Heavy equipment. Sealift. Airlift. Flood the disaster zone with everything we’ve got. Problem is no service except the USCG is eager to put the tab for relief efforts on their budgets and the USCG is struggling to pay for basic maintenance because it does. Now that we have increased DOW spending by 50% there is no excuse. Let’s put America First!