I feel kinda bad for even starting the thread; I didn't realize there was this much past acrimony...if it helps (and it may not) my thoughts are that while a not-insignificant portion of the USN probably still exists (10-20%) it is, as noted, in very poor shape. A lot of it may be run aground in ports too shallow to have supported the ships in the first place, as acts of desperation by captains trying to get badly damaged ships home and not having a home port to moor at. Some of it may have made it to adequate port facilities and a possibly depleted crew suddenly finding themselves facing the ire of civilians who'd seen their city suffer because of the war in general. Again, as I said in the OP, some of it may be serviceable, but without fuel, POL, food for the crew, armaments or depleted crews, those ships are effectively "beached" until further notice.
I'd imagine a good portion of the rest of the world's navies are in just as bad a shape.
The sortie of the John Hancock to support OpOrd Omega may well have been a mighty, mighty push by the USN to scrape together one crew, enough POL for one ship, and get them to and from continental Europe (plus a stopover in England). I don't have a mind for an "America triumphs over all" vision, that's not what I'm getting at. But just as there is some armor remaining in just about every nation's military, and just as there are some flyable combat a/c and fuel for same left in every nation's military (see the RDF sourcebook), there's some ships, too.
My thoughts were more broadly speculative than an insistence that the USN be this mighty, world-shaking force - by 2015 or 2020, there may well be an operable blue water USN of not inconsiderable (comparatively speaking) ability, if nothing else to stave off pirates and commerce raiders while reestablishing vital, vital trade lines.
That's all, that's all I meant. I wasn't saying anything like there should still be destroyers providing off shore fire support in everyone's campaigns or a gaggle of operational carriers and a/c and you're doing it wrong if you don't have that, or whatever.
I guess I might have simplified a bit just by saying that "world navies should have slightly more operable ships they can scrape together during the post-war construction period, 2001ish onward."
Sorry for any drama.
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