Yo bitchcakes, That's just an access opening to get to the shaft I think......that is the shaft you see running vert in that window.... OH....I see it now, yea, a little handtruck....even the frikkin bolts involved here weigh a lot....That may even be a cart to haul the frikkin wrenches! Cool man...well keep us posted on the USS Fitzgerald. Proximity makes for good scuttlebutt. I wanna see the damage the bulbous bow did to the hull. NSWC....Weps?...if so awsome stuff. I'm over at Drydock now, BAE Mayport is a ghosttown......I'm in Quality, main admin building....stop by if you are on site. I was just walking the dock, and walked under the Keel.....the blocks were around 10' tall. Theres a story on yahoo about one of the guys who got shut-in.....he saved a bunch of folks beforehand....HERO material.
I'll be spending most of my summer between Norfolk and San Diego before getting a breather sometime in the early fall. We have another guy going down to Mayport in a couple weeks though to do a job pier side.
Post up any good info your co-worker gets while in Japan if you don't mind. I wanna see that thing high and dry.
I'm sure he'll send me some info. He was onboard it almost exactly 1 year ago. None of the sailors lost were ones he worked with though.
Friend of the family was on board and is not among one of the soldiers we lost. He hasn't been allowed to talk to his family yet. This is as of last night.
Soldiers are Army Sailors are Navy Airmen is Air Force Marines are well Marines Learned a long time ago how particular each branch is. Mostly the Marines. Worst mistake you can make is calling a Marine a soldier.
I love the Coasties. The Chief's mess threw all of the install teams onboard WMSL 754 a BBQ and refused money for anything!
Still way to early to speculate on the cause or chain of events that led to this. However, I wonder if an over-reliance upon automation is going to be a factor or not. That is becoming a larger issue in the aviation world, would imagine the same is possible in the surface world. Add to that the funding crunch which had erroded training, repairs, and man-power.
https://news.usni.org/2017/06/21/in...for-an-hour-before-distress-call-reached-help Best article on the situation that I've read. Possible twisting of the hull due to the blow. Wow... It's in the realm of does it make sense to repair in my opinion. The biggest issue is the Navy absolutely does not want to lose a destroyer out of its fleet. So hell or high water it'll be repaired.
An early pic had me seeing her twisted or sagging, so the talk of keel damage seemed plausible. That last linked article is a good one, thanx
The USNI article is a good article. After reading that, two things come to mind. How does on hit knock out all comms? Is this a design flaw that needs to remedied? How many ships do the Somali's have sitting around waiting to be ransomed? This is now proven to be a viable tactic, near vital shipping lanes, and choke points. I think we better see how many Harpoons it takes to put a few of these down.
Ship should be in dry dock now. Still potential that they'll move it elsewhere once they get a better look at things.
It's a given that he'll be relieved of his command. Most likely several others will too. Part of it is a message to the rest of the fleet and part of it is just how it works since the buck stops with him. Regardless of his direct involvement.
Where does a navy captain go once relieved of his command? Are they out of the navy or just without a ship any longer?