The Perry's helped us surge toward 600 ships.
We need another 50+ of the same weight class, and we need them SOON.
Maybe there we can SURGE to a 300 ship Navy.
One even participated in the defection of the Red October even tho it would not be commissioned until two years later.
http://www.moviemistakes.com/film636
A truly capable vessel. It may not have been America’s strongest, but definitely was one of America’s finest.
After repairs, USS Iowa joined us in the Med. Nothing like manning up a jet and seeing a BB plowing through the water right next to you.
Damage control and firefighting are part of the basic training routine for every Navy recruit. There are designated DC and firefighting teams on every ship, but every sailor is expected to pitch in if the situation demands it.
I served on the Simpson when we sunk the Joshan. It was April 18th. We had a SEAL detachment onboard and the blew up an Iranian oil platform. After the missile hit we were order to sink it and we fired ten rounds from our 76mm gun.
Hope that they stripped off the Phalanx systems and put them on other ships, or are using them as static defense for valuable land targets. THAT is a hellishly good system.
My first at sea assignment was onboard FFG 60 Rodney M. Davis as the CIC Officer/Electronic Warfare Officer. Ended up having Anti-submarine officer tacked on when we were short manned. Chief somehow managed to turn our mess cooks into supplemental operation specialists plotting ASW contacts. Everyone had more than two jobs, but we got stuff done.
Only thing everyone seemed to hate was there was no real Ship’s wheel in the pilot house - instead they had this little rinky dink wheel mounted to the console. It wa like driving with an RC controller - lol.