Seven Dead Sailors 'Were Trapped ALIVE inside Flooding USS Fitzgerald after their Comrades [Trunc]

Daily Mail (U.K.) ^ | June 20, 2017 | James Wilkinson & Michael Fitzpatrick

[Cecily]

The Navy is investigating the horrifying possibility that some of those who died on the USS Fitzgerald when it sank may have been trapped alive in rapidly flooding compartments as emergency hatches were closed, it has emerged.

Cargo ship the ACX Crystal slammed into the side of the US destroyer off the Japanese coast while much of the rest of the crew were asleep on Saturday.

The cargo ship's bow, which protrudes underneath the water, punctured the steel armor of the ship, opening a hole into the quarters where more than 100 sailors slept.

Emergency hatches were closed on the compromised berthing compartments to stop the ship from sinking.

Now it's suspected that some of the seven men who died aboard the ship were locked in those rooms as they were flooded, Good Morning America reported.

[rlmorel]

Funny you would say that...I just posted this the other day on a thread:

*************************************************

"...A little off subject, but with the state of art of CGI, I wish someone would make a movie about that entire battle. There is so much in it, failure, desperation, triumph, and even a Charge of The Light Brigade by US destroyers in a virtual suicide mission, accompanied by an inadvertent reference to the same poem in communication to Halsey (as you know from reading it!) I wish it could be made without some POS liberal director managing to put his own spin on it..."

[Chgogal]

Clint Eastwood could do it. Spielberg maybe.

I had a former Navy man as a contractor finishing my basement off in 2010. He served on the USS Leyte Gulf. He said I was the only person who knew of that battle. Sad. : (

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Leyte_Gulf

[fortes fortuna juvat]

>>A moron wrote the article.The ship did not sink.These writers don’t know squat. Most are little pajama boys.

Well and truly said. I was in the printing and publishing business for 50 years and I can affirm that the quality of writing in the news media today is by far the worst I have ever seen.

[meatloaf]

Thank you for that. History counts!

[Tammy8]

This is something they should have more class than to report. Not only does the media have no journalistic skills any more, they have no class either.

Anyone that has read even one book about a ship sinking knows that must be done. Even common sense tells you it must be done. It is not something that needs to be talked about.

[Tammy8]

Is not likely to be true - considering the source of Good Morning America is not exactly “Real News” about US military hardware and naval ship design and damage control.

Correct. Until the Navy finishes their investigation and reports their findings no one, especially the media, knows what happened.

[Tammy8]

Yes he did update after it was reported the times given originally were off.

[central_va]

The water temperature was above 70 degrees. A Navy ship has a ton of life rafts that automatically deploy. Abandoning ship is not a problem nor dangerous for a Naval vessel.

[21twelve]

“Just consider yourself already dead.”

I was watching a bunch of bomber documentaries awhile ago. Real footage, the old vets recalling their experiences, etc.
Almost all of them said that - they figured they were going to die - so they just did their jobs. But many of them also said things like “Well yes, we all figured we would die up there - but in the same breath we would say ‘it won’t happen to me - at least not today.’ Odd how those two thoughts can exist at the same time.”

[Lou L]

Abandoning ship is not a problem nor dangerous for a Naval vessel.

I mean no disrespect, but that's one of the more naive, and ignorant comments I've read on this topic. Do you have any sea-going experience at all?

I suggest you go back and read some of the other posts, including mine. It was night time, and you're asking an entire crew to give up their ship, and resign themselves to not only secure life jackets, but to jump into a 70-degree ocean? At night? In hopes that enough life rafts appear so that everyone can board?

There's no guarantee that those sailors survived the initial collision. Your proposal is asking other mobile sailors to ignore flooding, to make their way back into a dangerous situation, in the dark, in the hope that they can find these 7 sailors? Oh, and by the way...hurry up because we've decided to let the ship sink.

That goes against everything the Navy prepares it's sailors to do in an emergency. You always save the ship. And your comments about this not being wartime are very pre-9/11.

[Bull Snipe]

#2 is probably the most realistic description of the of events. Posted by someone that has been there and done that.

[central_va]

Do you have any sea-going experience at all?

I was on a frigate for 4 years and we practiced abandoning ship ad nauseum. The ship had about 20 life rafts that automatically deploy plus a whale boat and gig. 70 degree water is a bath tub. Not dangerous in the least especially 50 miles form the coast of Japan in one of the busiest sea lanes in the world.

[Bull Snipe]

The design and construction of the Adams class destroyers started a few year before McNamera became SECDEF/

[Bull Snipe]

not really. Read about the Belknap v. JFK. The bridge and CIC lost track of an 80,000 ton aircraft carrier only 5K yards away.

[rlmorel]

If you have time, check this out: I Relieve You, Sir: US Navy training film about the USS Frank Evans-HMAS Melbourne Collision

This happened when I lived in Subic Bay in 1969 while my dad was the XO of the base, and they towed the aft end of the ship and moored it, where I saw it every day on my way to school.

To me...watching this is a classic portrayal of how exactly how these things go bad...it's dark, wee hours of the morning...people make mental mistakes, transpose numbers, don't follow proper procedures, make false assumptions, make bad decisions, and it ends up just as you think it will. It is like a slow motion train wreck, and the players don't have any Idea until within the space of about 30 seconds, everyone on the bridge realizes..."Oh crap. We are going to get screwed."

And they did...God rest their souls.

[rlmorel]

I was aboard the JFK in mid-1976...my first night aboard before we got underway, I was sitting near the island with AD3 Delgado, who was my mentor for getting qualified as a Plane Captain.

He was aboard the night the collision occurred, and while we sat there, he told me about it. Here is what he said:

"...I was standing on the flight deck, right about where we are right now, looking out over the flight deck towards the starboard side. I saw a little red light just above the flight deck, moving, and thought 'what the heck is that?" but before I could finish the thought, there was a huge shudder, ear-splitting screech of metal, then a pillar of flame shot a hundred feet straight up in the air. We watched her burn, there were rivers of molten aluminum as her superstructure melted which ran down her side, hissing into the ocean. We thought every single person on the Belknap had to be dead. We thought nobody could possibly survive that fire, it looked like her entire topside was aflame..."

She was a beautiful vessel, one of the most attractive, IMO...here is what she looked like before:

This is what she looked like the next morning:

Point is, so many people think "These warships are worth hundreds of millions of dollars, full of amazing electronic gear, it is impossible for this kind of thing to happen!"

The problem is, humans are involved. When we are involved, we become both the weakest link, and the strongest link. When we are the strongest link, you get The Battle of Midway.

When we are the weakest link, you get...the USS Frank Evans...the USS Belknap...and the USS Fitzgerald. I would like to be wrong, but I don't think I am.

[cherry]

its not a good thing, but a necessary thing to save the entire the crew....I think all sailors understand the risks....

God bless their souls...

[cherry]

how awful...and to think of all the American ingrates today...

[cherry]

but we’re talking about the fallibilities of dozens of sailors....how is that possible?...

[Drago]

Thanks for the story. There was also the USS Porter (DDG-78) in 2012...hit in almost the same spot near the bridge as the Fitz:

http://gcaptain.com/navy-destroyer-collides-japanese/

Or the Japanese DDG that collided with a container ship:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1223392/Inferno-Battle-extinguish-blaze-Japanese-naval-destroyer-hits-container-ship.html

“Stuff happens” unfortunately, and not all of it is due to intentional terrorism...ala “Hanlon’s Razor”: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity”.