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USS Fitzgerald Combat Team Unaware of Approaching Merchant Ship Until Seconds Before Fatal Collision
U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings ^ | May 10, 2018 | :Sam LaGrone

Posted on 05/13/2018 2:59:41 PM PDT by Retain Mike

The sailors who were manning the combat nerve center of USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) did not know they were on a collision course with a ship almost three times their size until about one minute before impact, according to new information revealed in the preliminary hearing for two junior officers accused of negligent homicide for their role in the collision that resulted in the death of seven sailors.

Lt. Natalie Combs, the tactical action officer, and Lt. Irian Woodley, the surface warfare coordinator, were both on duty in the windowless combat information in the belly of the guided-missile destroyer on early on the morning of June 17 as the ship moved southwest from the coast of Japan less than a day out of port.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.usni.org ...


TOPICS: Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: collision; fitzgerald; navy
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To: Chode

Great. She gets pushed into this assignment and only during the court martial does she realize the gaps in her preparation. She ends up being a theatrical prop for a social engineering program, but she not the DOD elites get to live with the deaths of those sailors.


61 posted on 05/13/2018 4:35:40 PM PDT by Retain Mike
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To: Chode

http://militarycorruption.com/hollygraf2.htm

They still haven’t corrected the errors since Holly Graf.

A white male would have been washed out.


62 posted on 05/13/2018 4:36:02 PM PDT by Snickering Hound
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To: centurion316

I saw somewhere that Hillary toured this ship and praised its diversity.


63 posted on 05/13/2018 4:40:11 PM PDT by ebshumidors
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To: Retain Mike

She didn’t even know enough to know she was in over her head with no help. At that point, she could have pulled the ‘trump card’, ordered ‘All Stop’ and thrown up the Red over Red Nav lights.


64 posted on 05/13/2018 4:44:21 PM PDT by GreyHoundSailor
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To: ebshumidors

Search Hillary you’re USS Fitzgerald images.


65 posted on 05/13/2018 4:47:18 PM PDT by ebshumidors
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To: Retain Mike

Along with the men, there’s a few female officers there. They obviously couldn’t hack it, and now sailors are dead for it.


66 posted on 05/13/2018 4:51:43 PM PDT by wastedyears (Americans are dreamers too.)
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To: Snickering Hound

>>Living conditions on a Fletcher class destroyer in 52’.

I was on a Skipjack class submarine.

I’ve been on a modern frigate and a modern submarine. These Snowflakes don’t know how good they have it compared to your Fletcher and my Skipjack.


67 posted on 05/13/2018 4:52:40 PM PDT by Bryanw92 (Asking a pro athlete for political advice is like asking a cavalry horse for tactical advice.)
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To: Snickering Hound
50 shades of Kara Hultgreen
68 posted on 05/13/2018 4:56:19 PM PDT by Chode (You have all of the resources you are going to have. Abandon your illusions and plan accordingly.)
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To: Old Yeller
Maybe it’s not good to name ships Fitzgerald, what with the Edmund Fitzgerald fate.

It's the same with R101.

69 posted on 05/13/2018 4:57:08 PM PDT by wastedyears (Americans are dreamers too.)
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To: PLMerite
The better IJN Carrier Kaga.


70 posted on 05/13/2018 5:05:42 PM PDT by wastedyears (Americans are dreamers too.)
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To: Retain Mike

For lack of a swabby with a pair of binocs.


71 posted on 05/13/2018 5:18:51 PM PDT by Kartographer ("We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.")
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To: Retain Mike

wi a mere slap on the wrist


72 posted on 05/13/2018 5:22:53 PM PDT by Chode (You have all of the resources you are going to have. Abandon your illusions and plan accordingly.)
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To: Chode

The Navy has done a great disservice to all of these sailors, living and dead. I worked with Naval Security Group sailors for years, and they were some of the most switched-on people I knew.


73 posted on 05/13/2018 5:32:53 PM PDT by PLMerite ("They say that we were Cold Warriors. Yes, and a bloody good show, too." - Robert Conquest)
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To: PLMerite
as a man once said, hell of a price for being stylish
74 posted on 05/13/2018 5:35:56 PM PDT by Chode (You have all of the resources you are going to have. Abandon your illusions and plan accordingly.)
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To: ebshumidors

The Left views the military as another welfare program for people who are incapable of doing a real job in politics or in the unions. For them, it’s perfectly reasonable to use it as a platform for their pet social justice programs.


75 posted on 05/13/2018 5:42:47 PM PDT by centurion316 (Back from exile from 4/2016 until 4/2018.)
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To: Retain Mike
That was a nasty little horror story to read. Once upon a time I was a CIC instructor for FLETRAGRU San Diego. It's painfully apparent that a bridge watch of already questionable competence was essentially steaming blind. CIC had no functioning surface search radar because of what? "Clutter"? Excuse me? And they sat there and saw only a handful of the 200 contacts the bridge saw and did nothing about it? That single fact would have failed the ship during REFTRA and the training crew would have been damn glad to get off the thing alive.

For those curious about the lookouts, it was at night and what they actually see is lights. Not hulls, just lights. The way it's supposed to work is that CIC keeps the big picture and feeds the bridge crew a distilled version that the bridge matches up with what it sees visually. The lookouts are part of that, and they need to be fed a little help of what it is they're looking at. It's supposed to be a team effort - it has to be a team effort in congested waters and this sounds more like a gaggle of unrelated individuals wandering around with not a clue about the outside world and not talking to one another to make it any better. The lookouts can't help you when you're in extremis.

Apparently they froze when it became apparent what was about to happen - the collision alarm was never activated and nobody had even the seconds that would have offered to brace themselves or get out of the spaces. Seven sailors died for it.

The idea that the TAO was on watch to back up a weak bridge crew is scary enough by itself - this is not, or wasn't, usual procedure. Any bridge crew that suspect should have had the Captain or XO on the bridge to back it up, especially in those waters, not somebody in Combat who was essentially blind, and worse, did nothing about it.

What the hell has happened to my Navy?

76 posted on 05/13/2018 6:08:03 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: Paine in the Neck

You won’t even know they are on a collision course if you aren’t tracking them.


77 posted on 05/13/2018 6:10:19 PM PDT by dila813 (Voting for Trump to Punish Trumpets!)
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To: Chode
A SWO qualified ENSIGN? Really?

Do they expect me to believe that she graduated SWO Basic, job school, plus qualified as Engineering Officer of the Watch, CIC Watch Officer, & Officer of the Deck in less than 2 years? Were they ever in port?

The CO, XO, and the Department Heads need to be relieved for cause and cashiered if not imprisoned.

I qualified SWO in 1981 after one and a half deployments and it was a grueling process. Nevertheless, such a situation would not have happened on my ship or on my watch. I also qualified as TAO shortly thereafter.

"Ceterum censeo Islam esse delendam."

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)

LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

78 posted on 05/13/2018 6:19:05 PM PDT by LonePalm (Commander and Chef)
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To: rktman

Too much dependence on electronics?


79 posted on 05/13/2018 6:22:17 PM PDT by redangus (actually hit her?)
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To: Retain Mike

Bring back flogging round the fleet.


80 posted on 05/13/2018 6:25:05 PM PDT by Jim Noble (The more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers)
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