Editor, Gazette-Journal:

An article appearing last week on the acceptable sea trials shows the problem with our carrier fleet. The propulsion plant is controlled by people from the Naval Reactors office and, because of the standards of that office, no one allows problems to occur in their system. Our carriers can go to sea and sail to any port that can handle their shore power needs and remain at sea for many days at a time without problems.

The propulsion plant works flawlessly and takes care of the basic needs of the ship while its air wings sit on shore awaiting some wild idea for a new launch program and arresting gear and a means to load weapons from storage to the flight deck. What is needed is a change of plans to cover these systems similar to the controls of the propulsion plant so they work when needed.

A carrier without a good propulsion system is as useless as an airplane without wings. Many of the problems with the flawed systems are they are never fully tested and appr...