Bonhomme Richard flight deck unfit for flight operations, could delay next deployment

Stars and Stripes ^ | 22 Aug 2014 | James Kimber

[cva66snipe]

You were lucky to be below the Hanger deck! I was in V-2 Catapults and our berthing was only ONE deck below the Flight deck, just below the arresting gear! When we finished our launches for the night, we’d just be starting to get some sleep and the aircraft recovery would begin, with the planes hitting the deck plates about 4-5 feet above our compartment.

LOL Believe it or not I berthed up there as well while in the yards. In the yards I went TAD to Fire Department which was full time rather than a fire party during yard periods. In 1980 it became a permenant division. In Oct 80 I got out EAOS.

[cva66snipe]

There are quite a few pictures floating around of 4 & 5 carriers at N.O.B. One have them has a carrier in shipyard posture. IOW tents and huts on the FD.

[Mariner]

Sasebo is a GREAT yard.

Should probably blame USN schedulers and the rain.

[aumrl]

I’m not quitting.
“IT IS better to light a candle than curse the darkness”
The utes of today got that way because of us AND that ‘greatest generation’.
G.I. - G.O.

[GATOR NAVY]

This was 30 years ago, perhaps the process has changed.

It hadn't by the time I got out in 2006. It was a royal PITA process for regular decks and flight deck resurfacing was even worse as far as the standards it needed to meet.

[cherokee1]

Yes but not just Poor Richard’s. Ben Franklin spent a lot of years in France, was well known and quite popular there and had his own French version of the Almanac, When the US Navy went to name a ship after him they used the French nickname. Then in the early 60’s, while the carrier was still in service, they named a class of missile subs after him. The class boat SSBN 640 was named the Ben Franklin but was called BonHomme Richard by its crew. That part is slightly confusing but I actually worked on the boat a couple time while it was stationed at Pearl and knew some of the crewmen and they all called it the Bon Homme-— even tho the carrier was still in service.

[Robert A Cook PE]

That would have been the original aircraft carrier B. Richard, which regularly served off of Vietnam.

This is a newer class amplib/helo/vertical takeoff Tarawa class LPH. Comparable to WWII era carriers in size, but oriented to Marine amphib landing and vertrep planes.

The Navy’s STOL/VSTOL F-35 could work off of them though - Probably a major reason the Navy wants the F-35 so badly, even though it doesn’t work as well as it should, is heavier than promised, and is less fuel efficient when operating in VTOL mode.

[Robert A Cook PE]

The USS Schenectady (LST, back in ‘75) was the Skinny Titty to those on board her.

[Robert A Cook PE]

rlmorel

I always wondered why someone thought they could put sleeping quarters below the flight deck right there,...
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I think it was because it provided us a quicker access to our battle stations during general quarters, instead of being several decks below. There were passageways along the port side and catwalks that permitted us to move from the berthing compartment to our stations forward much faster than having to climb ladders. (I carry scars and dents in my shins from the edges of hatch combings while running in near dark to travel about 600 feet to my station during GQ)

Nope. I mean, yes, the people sleeping up there are closer to the flight deck for GQ, but the more important reason for putting a couple of decks between the flight deck and hanger deck that can be loaded up with lightweight stuff like berthing compartments is to provide a bomb-deck: A semi-armored series of flat deck plates and armored deck plates so the bomb and rocket blasts coming from above or penetrating the flight deck DON’T get all the way through to the hanger deck before exploding. A rocket blast that does explode up high gets diverted and spread out as it tries to go through each deck: Again, saving the planes and people working down on the hanger deck.

It is nice that berthing spaces are cheap, needed, and lightweight: All good reasons for a ship designer to put them up high above the waterline. Bad for the crew though.

At Midway, our bombs DID get through the flight deck to the hanger deck - which was clogged with planes refueling and re-arming as the Japs tried to shift between AP bombs and GP bombs and torpedoes. That lesson (that killed the Japanese) saved our nation in WWII.