Wharf Rat's Home - A Shipmate Who Never Made it to Sea.

'It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.'

Preserving a piece of US Maritime History - invaluable

The USS Olympia is a cruiser that fought in the Spanish American War in 1898 and has been preserved in Philadelphia. She's a one of a kind ship, a national historic monument, and in danger. She needs approximately $10-15 million in repairs to keep her a viable museum for years to come. If you have the resources, or connections to those resources, please consider helping. (full disclosure - there is no financial benefit to me to ask the question - we need to save this ship for posterity). Please contact me at 612-599-1935 or bdskon@fedex.com if you have additional questions.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Gates took a shot at Nato - now here's the data - Take a look at this post at Cdr Salamanders's place

http://cdrsalamander.blogspot.com/2011/06/nato-nations-seriousness-in-pictures.html

ONCE they lobbied hard to join NATO. After Russia’s war with Georgia, they begged for coherent plans to defend them. But now the alliance’s eastern members are finding it hard to keep defence spending anywhere near 2% of GDP, the official NATO target they agreed to meet. ... But others are at 1% or even less, or are unrepentantly heading in that direction.
...
Slovakia’s prime minister, says bluntly that defence is “not a priority”.
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America's ... defence spending, which, at nearly $700 billion, is bigger than that of the next 17 countries combined.