H**l week, and how we got here

"How FEMA can be really the organization was intended to be. How (God forbid), if one of cities gets hit with a dirty bomb, or our nation suffers an NBC attack from either Smallpox or an EMP event - we know what to do."

It seems odd to refer to this week, the Holiest of Holy in the faith most of us share, with a frat term. And because it is Holy Week, I will not correctly use the term - just suggest it. But this is the week that the Surgeon General said would be our "Pearl Harbor", or our "9/11" week. Why? The "spike" is coming this week, and it will be knocking at the door of cities which can ill afford to put up with it. As the President said, "Lots of death this week". We are in a real mess folks. Now is a good time to look back on how we got here.

The story has it that in 2005, then President G. W. Bush just finished reading a book on the Spanish Flu of 1918, and how it killed so many people world wide. Since 2005 was not that long after the sucker punch of 9/11, Bush started to wonder if we could be "sucker punched" again - only this time by a virus. So he established a national stockpile of emergency equipment. If our nation was visited again by an unwanted virus, our cities, our nation, could be ready for it.

Bravo Zulu to President Bush. That lasted throughout this administration and into Obama's. The stockpile was used more than once, and the supplies contained therein were nothing less than life saving. Towards the end of the Obama Administration, the "cupboard" started looking a bit empty. It needed to be refreshed. It was not. That was a huge miss for Obama.

Then comes President Trump. The "cupboard" is still lacking the supplies it needed to be fully stocked. Whatever the reason, be it a hostile Congress, the endless impeachment BS, or other national priorities, our national "cupboard" remained short of the requisite supplies. Then came the Wuhan virus (now known as COVID - 19), and the rest is history. We are rolling into h**l week, with cities fighting with other cities for scarce PPE, vents, and medication.

When this is long over, when we have buried our dead, and treated our sick as best we could, will we have learned something? We better have, as this "shock" to our system could have been so much worse. What we have learned from Katrina, Super Storm Sandy, and COVID - 19 is simply this - the government can only do so much. And some time that "so much", ain't much. We need to rely on me, myself and I to protect our families as best we can. But when it comes to mass medical help, we do need a functional government which works, and does not resemble the Keystone Cops in an emergency.

My last official act in the Navy was constructing a lessons learned report for NSA about the First Gulf War (Desert Storm). As good as that war went for us, there was still plenty which never made the press, which could have gone better (from an intel perspective). I had lots to write about. I really hope someone high up in the food chain does a lessons learned report about this cluster called COVID - 19. How we can get a whole lot better, in a very short period of time.

How FEMA can be really the organization was intended to be. How (God forbid), if one of cities gets hit with a dirty bomb, or our nation suffers an NBC attack from either Smallpox or an EMP event - we know what to do. We can minimize the death count, rather than running around with our hair on fire like we are now. No - we have a long way to go. Like miles.

I hate the fact we are having this spike. I really hate the fact it is happening over Holy Week. Yesterday was the strangest Palm Sunday I experienced since being on active duty. We watched Pastor Jeffers on Fox Nation. That was our church service. It was good, and transforming, but it was not like being in church.

As we head towards Easter, we can only hope and PRAY this "spike" passes as quickly and painlessly as possible.