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Saturday, 29 August 2009 |
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Russell Lyddane on the future of Dahlgren
We asked for an audience with Admiral Withington who was then the Chief of the Bureau. He gave us a good long time. He brought all of his staff along, and he listened. I made a pitch, and when I got through, Admiral Withington said, “That’s the best presentation I’ve ever heard.”
We tried to be as honest with him as we could possibly be. Here’s Dahlgren, and first of all, “What’s Dahlgren’s situation?” Well, we described its history very briefly. “And what does Dahlgren have?” This was very clearly organized along the three lines I mentioned previously. “What were our strengths? What did we have, and what could we do?” The last section was, “What can the Bureau do?” For example, the Bureau can go on with Dahlgren the way it is. We don’t recommend this because we’re sliding downhill. We are just getting a little bit less able each year as we go on with inadequate support, without a real mission, without the kind of support that is needed to keep a technical staff viable and producing. You would do better not to follow this course.
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