Veteran of the SSBN sub force here, and I'm kind of surprised that this is considered that big a deal. We've been doing trips in isolation this long since the 60s.

Then again, I suppose the group dynamics for 6 people are slightly different than for 110 people.

There is a flaw in your reasoning... Having lots of money does not mean you have the -skill- to make money, nor does it mean you are smart or even particularly skilled. See "trust fund babies".

lol Thanks for that link...

Oddly enough, I've had almost the exact same conversations while standing the mid watch...

As retired submariner, I can certainly get behind the idea of having more subs... The number missions they are tasked with every year never goes down (and usually goes up), but there are fewer and fewer submarines every year to do them (old subs are being decommissioned faster than new ones are being built).

I've also heard surface types saying we need more carrier battle groups, an I understand their reasoning. And the logistics corp can also talk about we don't have enough supply vessels to adequately take care of our ships -now-. But... Where does it all stop? We only have so much money... I think one of the greatest presidents of the 20th century said it best:

You should see who goes down in the radio room. Ba-dum-ding. Submarine jokes: there's a million of 'em :). --

There, fixed that for ya... ;)

Shipwack, another ex-bubblehead who really wishes he could read the accident/incident report on this one...

Not to mention that they don't prohibit lighter or matches on airplanes, which he was using to attempt to "detonate" the shoe bomb.

Why are matches allowed, but a can of soda is a security threat? Because the cigarette industry whined that the 2 minutes that a person couldn't smoke upon leaving a plane was costing them money, so an item that actually was used in an attempted terrorist attack is effectively unrestricted.

Having been in the military, and actually involved in real security duty, I can assure you that almost all of the TSA restrictions are theatrics to show they are "doing something", and counter-productive at worst, including the liquid restrictions. Small volumes of liquids can't cause catastrophic damage, outside of a movie or TV show. While there are liquid explosives, they are neither easily obtainable, or easily made outside a laboratory. But... let's say this magic substance existed, and that it was only the fact that you can't bring more than a quarter ounce of liquids on board that keep a terrorist from manufacturing them in flight. The TSA regulations are -still- stupid because nothing prevents several people from bring a quarter ounce each and combining them. Or one person bringing a quarter ounce in a shampoo bottle, a quarter ounce of "medicine", a quarter ounce of "toothpaste", etc...