The USS Fitzgerald, a US Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, was in a collision over the weekend with a Filipino container ship. Seven sailors are dead.
“It won’t be just the navy that gets the lash here,” said John Kirby, a retired rear admiral. “Careers will be dashed. People will be punished. Short of battle at sea, navy warships are not supposed to hit anything – not the ground, not each other, and certainly not container ships in the middle of the night.”
11 comments:
Being a navy veteran, {Operation Specialist 2nd class in the Combat Information Center], who's ship was in a collision with a U.S. Naval oil tanker off the coast of Puerto Rico in 1977, the last thing you want to hear is the collision alarm and the resulting slam and sound of twisting steel. Even worse, you don't want to wake up to this in the middle of the night with all the confusion and have hatches closing and locking for the integrity of the ship. My heart sincerely goes out to ones left behind and died. RIP brothers!
A sad day for America.
My heart breaks for the shipmates and families of those lost. Fair winds and following seas to those who made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our nation.
Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bidd'st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!
didn't we loose an armada a couple months ago?
Not a Navy veteran, however I can't imagine how with millions of dollars in radar and other equipment there was no sufficient warning. Can anybody advise?
This is Trump's navy.
Josh, you make a very good point. The closest point of approach, or CPA, is always figured for all traffic approaching the ship. Each ship has night orders, by the Captain, to awaken him if the CPA comes within a set range, [say 2 miles or 4,000 yards]. This works well in open sea, however in busy shipping lanes, entering or leaving a port, this practice somewhat suffers. The captain should be awake and on the bridge during this period. According to the damage assessment, it appears that the cargo-ship was on the starboard [right] side of the destroyer, on a constant bearing decreasing range course [CBDR] and for some unknown reason turned fatally left into the destroyer. Most cargo-ships are on automatic pilot and only revert to human control when the CPR is close. Apparently this time, too close! However, the captain and watch officer on the bridge were either apathetic or negligent in their actions.
Agreed. This hardly presents the image of an invulnerable Navy.
Rules of the open sea, the larger ship always has the right of way.
@ 0409 hours, a typical alt-left response: Blame Trump for everything! The truth of the matter is that the keel was laid in 1994 [Bill Clinton], it was commissioned in 1995 [Bill Clinton] and the Captain that was appointed to command the Fitzgerald was appointed in 2016 [Barak Obama]. Also, the Fitzgerald did not receive upgrades in surface search, [SPS-67 a,III] due to sequestration [2012 to present][Barak Obama]. So much proof provided by this liberal ideologue.
This is Trump's Navy, as 4:09 says, but what happened could not really be laid at his doorstep. I believe the skipper better have a real good explanation.
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