The U.S. Army and Navy “did not allocate sufficient maintenance, manning, training and procurement resources to their joint logistics over-the-shore units,” the floating pier off the Gazan coast that then-President Joe Biden announced during his March 7, 2024 State of the Union address, according to a report from a Pentagon watchdog.
Biden said in the address to Congress that he was “directing the U.S. military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the Gaza coast that can receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelters,” and that after “a number of weeks,” there would be “hundreds” of truckloads worth of aid entering Gaza daily.
The $230 million pier, or JLOTS, was beset by problems and frequently needed repair. The U.S. military announced in July 2024 that the pier’s mission was complete. It previously stated that three U.S. soldiers were injured, one of them critically. It later emerged that one of the soldiers, Sgt. Quandarius Davon Stanley, 23, died, and two Israeli soldiers were killed securing the pier.
A report that the U.S. Department of Defense’s Office of Inspector General, an “independent and objective” watchdog with the Pentagon, released on May 2 reveals that U.S. Central Command admitted that “62 U.S. personnel suffered injuries during Operation Neptune Solace,” the floating pier mission.
“Based on the information provided, we were not able to determine which of these 62 injuries occurred during the performance of duties or resulted off-duty or from pre-existing medical conditions,” the watchdog stated.
The U.S. Navy reported $31 million in damage to 27 watercraft and Improved Navy Lighterage System (floating pier) equipment, “because of repair and maintenance requirements following Operation Neptune Solace,” per the report.
“The Department of Defense experienced several challenges during Operation Neptune Solace and while performing JLOTS exercises,” stated Michael Roark, the deputy inspector general for evaluations at the Pentagon. “The Department of Defense must improve and learn from these previous deployments and exercises to meet the demands of future JLOTS missions.”
“Virtue signaling can be very costly,” wrote Gerald Steinberg, founder and president of NGO Monitor.
