House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo., said today he worries that the American public does not appreciate the value of the sea services, and urged his audience at the Sea-Air-Space luncheon March 18 to help spread the word on their contributions to the nation's security and economy. The sea lanes, so important to the global economy, are safe because of the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard, he said.
Skelton also expressed his concern that the U.S. land forces, the Army and Marine Corps, are "stretched" by the continuous combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. "They are not hollow," he said, using the term applied to the post-Vietnam Army, "they are the best in the world. But they are stretched." The readiness to respond to another crisis is not there, he said.
