Thank You, Secretary Panetta

Yesterday, I read an article in the Navy Times regarding Defense Department cuts and the impact on the Navy.  Currently, my daughter is on a 4-month deployment for her, but an almost 11-month deployment for her ship.  The article was about the expected increase in deployment time for all ships going forward to be more in the 10 to 12 month range rather than the traditional 7-month time frame.  The increase is due to the number of ships that will be taken out of service by the Navy for budgetary reasons.  In my opinion, not a good time to reduce the size of our Navy as China is dramatically growing the size of theirs, as well as with all of the unrest throughout the world.  Anyway, with the downsizing of the number of ships to what some say is pre-WWII levels, comes the downsizing of the fleet.  Lo and behold, hundreds of Navy Chiefs were notified yesterday that they will be leaving the Navy.  This notification will be the first of many in not only the Navy, but throughout our armed forces.  Is this the smartest move at this point in time?  I guess time will tell.  By the way, what a nice Christmas present for those Chiefs and their families.