Posted on 12/04/2017 9:46:01 AM PST by Retain Mike
USS LAKE CHAMPLAIN (CG 57) collided with fishing vessel NAM YANG 502 on 9 May 2017 in the Sea of Japan
LAKE CHAMPLAIN is a Ticonderoga Class Guided Missile Cruiser homeported in San Diego, California. Approximately 400 Sailors serve aboard LAKE CHAMPLAIN. LAKE CHAMPLAIN is 567 feet in length, 55 feet wide, and carries a gross tonnage of approximately 10,200 tons.
NAM YANG 502 is a fishing vessel with an unknown crew size. NAM YANG 502 is approximately 60 feet in length, 15 feet wide, and carries a gross tonnage of approximately 10 tons. NAM YANG 502 was en route to the Republic of Korea prior to the collision.
The collision between LAKE CHAMPLAIN and NAM YANG 502 resulted in no injuries. Each vessel sustained minor hull damage.
Summary of Findings
The Navy determined that numerous failures occurred on the part of watchstanders as follows:
• Failure to execute basic watchstanding practices.
• Failure to adhere to sound navigation practices.
• Failure to properly use available navigation tools.
• Failure to respond deliberately and effectively when in extremis.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.usni.org ...
I think the poor watchstanding procedures are a recurring theme, sadly.
Same with the USS Fitzgerald and USS McCain...virtually verbatim.
Sigh. It bothers me to beat up on the Navy, but...it has to be done. If we don’t fix these problems in peace (just cruising from point-to-point) how can we expect to engage in warfighting if we can’t even navigate?
This is a failure at all levels. We have to get this fixed or we are screwed in a war, our people will die and ships will be lost.
We have to fix this stuff.
I guess radar is too high tech.
Bring back the Surface Warfare Officers School, instead of handing fresh Ensigns a box of Cd’s.
Lots of metal at close quarters just presents a screen wide white blob. No doubt, it could be seen on radar at longer ranges - 12 miles if not a lot further, but lack of proper watch meant no one saw it. So all the tech in the world, including the standard eyeball, is useless if no one uses it. Which comes back to training and motivation.
Radar is a tool like any other. If you don’t use the tool correctly, you won’t get the intended results.
Naval watchstanding is overly structured (some people think too much so, as one civilian captain on FR commented) but I believe it is necessary to a warship (due to the possibility and procedure/functionality degradation due to casualties, etc.) and that is what all the other stuff relates to:
• Failure to execute basic watchstanding practices.
• Failure to adhere to sound navigation practices.
• Failure to properly use available navigation tools.
• Failure to respond deliberately and effectively when in extremis.
This is all a failure of training and execution of the use of radar, but is also a failure of training and execution of communication processes and bridge protocols as well.
I wouldn’t throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Ship Captains fare no better - getting only OJT on arrival at their ship.
All of the public incidents occurring this year sound exactly the same. IMO, they are probably spending all their time making sure their records are spotless and up to date with everything, and Sexual/Gender harassment and the stupidity associated with all that is considered just as important (or even more important) than things like watchstanding, damage control, equipment training, vampire drills, or...sea and anchor details.
True. Well said.
From the report...
“Watch team members were not familiar with basic radar fundamentals, impeding effective use. LAKE CHAMPAIGN did not hold radar track on NAM YANG 502 for sixteen minutes leading up to the collision, and it is possible that proper radar tuning would have prevented this problem.
Unbelievable. I wonder if crew training time was used in some B.S. classroom activities like transgender studies instead of fundamentals like basic radar.
In the modern Navy, a Millennial probably has his face in his iPhone and smoking dope while on watch.
“I read a lot of the details and it sounds like the bridge was manned by totally untrained and irresponsible civilians, rather then the ship’s sailors.”
Where are you getting that information? I’m pretty sure a front line, operational Navy combatant is not being crewed by civilians.
Very good school back in 1974. One of my classmates learned a hard lesson about relative motion one day in Narragansett Bay. I was conning a YP in slot #4 of a diamond formation when he was ordered to re-position himself from the port wing of the formation to the starboard. His decision to turn 90 degrees, regardless of the formation’s forward speed nearly caused a collision. Fortunately, I ordered “All back full” in time, but he got chewed out just the same. Pretty cheap lesson that day.
In the summer of 1970, we were cruising slowly from north to south along the shoreline off the III Corps in a Gearing class tin can when we collided with a stationery wooden fishing boat, the “Sally B”. She was of Australian registry and full of Vietnamese fishermen sound asleep at 0200 +/-. The seas were flat. The sky was clear with no moon. We had the fishing boat on surface radar at least 15 miles before the collision and visual on its running light at 10 miles. The collision splintered a few boards on the transom and scared the feces out of the Vietnamese. It tore a large gash in our bow just above the waterline. We had to steam very slowly to Vung Tau for emergency tender repairs. Needless to say, there was a change of command ceremony in Subic two weeks later.
“I think the poor watchstanding procedures are a recurring theme, sadly”
I wonder if possession of personal mobile devices is prohibited while on duty?
They could not link it to their iPhag smartphones?
“Bring back the Surface Warfare Officers School”
Are you kidding? They abolished SWO school?
I look forward to the time when the last leftist tumbles through the gates of Hell.
I understand the school was closed in 2003 for “Financial Reasons”
I bet that you could have run that school for 10 years for what it cost to repair McCain and the Fitz.
OOD: Seaman Smith! Do you see anything bearing down on us at 110 degrees?
WATCHSTANDER: (No answer)
OOD: Smith! Do you see a ship at four o'clock bearing 2 miles?
WATCHSTANDER: "LMAO UR NOT ON LIBERTY WHEN WE DOCK? SMH...:)
OOD: SMITH!
CRUUUUUUUUUUNNNNCH!
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