Posted on 07/13/2020 2:26:03 PM PDT by NRx
More than 400 sailors are working to put out the massive fire that continues to rage aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard in San Diego and Navy officials are unclear how long the blaze might continue to burn.
The fire has brought down the amphibious assault ship's forward mast and caused other damage to the ship's superstructure that rises above its flight deck.
"There is a tremendous amount of heat underneath and that's where it's -- it's flashing up -- also forward, closer to the bow again there's a heat source and we're trying to get to that as well," Rear Adm. Philip Sobeck, the commander of Expeditionary Strike Group 3 said at a news conference Monday in San Diego.
More than 400 sailors are working to put out the massive fire that continues to rage aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard in San Diego and Navy officials are unclear how long the blaze might continue to burn.
The fire has brought down the amphibious assault ship's forward mast and caused other damage to the ship's superstructure that rises above its flight deck.
"There is a tremendous amount of heat underneath and that's where it's -- it's flashing up -- also forward, closer to the bow again there's a heat source and we're trying to get to that as well," Rear Adm. Philip Sobeck, the commander of Expeditionary Strike Group 3 said at a news conference Monday in San Diego.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
I’d guess the flight deck is closer to 60 feet above the waterline. That was the case with the LPHs of the 1970s
I would not even attempt to argue with you on that point. I
https://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-infamous-grounding-of-uss-missouri.html
Thank You FRiend! :D
Probably lack of ground facilities. Kaneohe MCAS is not all that large, Barbers Point is shut down, and Honolulu/Hickam is too busy.
It may have been that they had to take part of the system apart to remove/refit the flight deck and therefore had to deactivate it.
The three major incidents in world navies that caused people to decide that maybe aluminum wasn’t a great idea for ships was:
1975 USS Belknap collision with USS Kennedy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Belknap_(CG-26)#Collision,_fire,_and_reconstruction
1979 HMS Amazon engine room fire - this was caused by a fuel leak that ignited. The superstructure wasn’t involved, but the aluminum ladders in the engine room space melted and made the fire much more difficult to fight due to the resulting access issues:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Amazon_(F169)
1987 USS Stark incident where Stark ate two Exocet missiles but managed to stagger back to port: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Stark_(FFG-31)#Missile_attack
However, by the time the Stark was hit, the US Navy had already discovered that the Oliver Hazard Perry class frigates’ aluminum elements had some severe problems. The aluminum superstructures were working and cracking, in some cases severely enough to allow significant water ingress in any but the most placid sea states. The OHP successor was already to have a steel superstructure as a requirement long before Stark sucked up two Exocets. The Stark just served as a reinforcement to lessons already learned.
The bottom line is that nobody actually learned that aluminum was a bad idea for surface combatant superstructures through actual combat, and the only combat incident where aluminum actually materially contributed to the damage control problem was the Stark, where it was already known to be a problem.
I just happed to catch the movie Mr Roberts yesterday what you describe was brilliantly put to film
Finding out the ship you served on in the Navy has been decommissioned can make a feller feel kind of old.
Every ship has a dedicated fire-fighting team. In my day they were called, "flying squad". They don special gear with a breathing apparatus and train their ass off, at least they use to. The flight decks have/had a special unit called the "crash crew" They wore those silver reflective suits. If they couldn't kill the fire immediately, the entire flight deck crew were called into action with sea water hoses. One of more fight the fire and one that sprays down the crew as they move in. I went through countless training on my flight deck, and I was just an ABF wearing working uniform, plus the head gear everyone has seen and a inflatable life preserver.
There were and probably still AFFF foam systems that hosed down the deck. The trick is not to wash the foam away with the water hoses. Someone help me out here if I have it wrong - too many years.
I read the Halon system was down for maintenance. It was the perfect storm just waiting for ignition.
I had to make that point to someone here or another thread who said "how can it spread when the walls are made of steel?"
You're correct. The air squadrons don't join the ship until it's way clear of the harbor, and do the reverse when a ship is pulling back in. Not sure why you saw a CVN with the air squadrons on deck pulling into Pearl. Might have been a Fleet show of some kind.
So you were an aviation mech? What was your rating if I may ask?
Don't know about the LHD or LHA, but that is a good guest for my LPH-11 (USS New Orleans) back in my days. You could actually break your neck if blown overboard at that height.
I apologize for the length of this response, but...it got me thinking to why I am so grateful to be an American, and why I will ALWAYS be grateful to my country for what it has done for me.
I was E-5 when I got out after four years which I thought was pretty good at the time back in the Seventies...I went as far as I could go.
I wasn’t a no-load or slacker before I went in the USN, but I had pretty poor self confidence. I was an awful student, got consistently poor grades, and basically felt pretty stupid overall. I wasn’t in a great place mentally when I got out of high school, from a future perspective.
Growing up, I had a few teachers who took special interest in me, likely because I was so poor a student. My parents hired a sailor to tutor me in math, but I spent each session with my head resting on my arms flat on the table, face down because it was incomprehensible to me. It was awful, school was absolute torture to me. I was pretty stupid, I thought. The best day of my life was graduating high school and leaving it behind.
When I got in, I found out to my surprise, that if I was motivated enough to learn, and had subject matter I could absorb that wasn’t dependent on things I DIDN’T learn before (the way it generally works in public education) I did quite well.
I got confidence in myself, and coupled with my pre-existing stubbornness and persistence (two traits I did possess in more than healthy amounts) I did well enough to advance through jobs and rates with increases in responsibility and paygrade.
When I was in boot camp, they chose me as a boot camp “petty officer”, which even though I was only the Laundry Petty Officer, somehow I was selected. I went from plane captain, to mechanic, to flight deck troubleshooter, to liaison for a special project with one of the jet engine manufacturer reps who was aboard (from Rolls Royce-Detroit Diesel Allison) a guy named Jerry Wouters.
I learned a lot, was working on a Mainframe computer (DEC PDP-11) they had brought aboard for the project, and I learned a lot.
Jerry Wouters changed my life in a significant way. I spent a lot of time with him during that deployment, and we became good friends. When he asked me what I was going to do when my enlistment was up, I told him I wanted to go to college for some field in science, but given the highest grade (after years of having to go to summer school) I ever got in a math course was a “C”, I didn’t think I would be able to do it. I was pretty downcast about that, too. The Navy wanted to keep me in, and even offered to send me to Nuclear school IIRC, but I didn’t want to stay in. I wanted to be with my friends and family.
I was pretty downcast, and he cheerfully said that, since he was teaching a college level algebra course aboard during the deployment, if I signed up for it, he would personally tutor me through it.
I couldn’t add fractions or even do complicated multiplication or division at that time, but when I was done, I got a “B” in the course, which changed everything for me. I realized I could do what I wanted to do, and that changed everything.
The reason I tell you all this, is because it was the US Navy (and by extension, my country) that changed my life. They gave me an opportunity and training, and let me go as long as I could advance myself.
That is why I have so little sympathy for those who say people who are disadvantaged economically or scholastically growing up have an insurmountable burden placed on them, and thus will never amount to anything without government assistance.
Well, I got government assistance when I became an adult at the age of 18, in the form of the US military. It is an option open nearly anyone, if you reach out your hands and take it. All you have to do is reach out and take it. Makes no difference if you were an ignoramus like me, or came from a ghetto. You could join, and if you wanted to, you could get ahead and better yourself.
And that is one reason I love this country. It did THAT for me. My country didn’t give a crap what the color of my skin was, what my religion was, or anything. It wanted me to serve, and gave me the opportunity to better myself and serve my country at the same time.
And that is why I am filled with anger at those who want to destroy it. I am not angry, per se, at foreigners who want to destroy it, I expect that from some quarters, and realize we must fight it.
What fills me with anger, is those who are legally citizens, profess to be citizens, and reap the rewards of what this country offers to EVERYONE but who wish to bring it all down in flames...it is THOSE people, those ungrateful assholes and scum, that I feel anger towards on a daily basis now.
they sunk mine dd 806
It is a famous story about Admiral Chester Nimitz, who, as a young LTJG was put in command of a rickety destroyer (USS Decatur) out in the Philippines and ran her aground. After trying furiously to free her without success, a passing vessel was able to pull him off.
When he reached port, he dutifully reported the incident, and was subjected to a court martial which found him guilty, but he successfully argued that the charts were obsolete and that, as a destroyer captain, he was obligated to operate his ship aggressively.
That got him off with a mild letter of reprimand that took those factors into account, and his career blossomed.
Later, as the Captain of a cruiser approaching a pier, he took the helm from a young OOD to bring the vessel in himself and very nearly smashed into the dock.
Crestfallen, he turned to the young officer and said (I am paraphrasing, I don’t remember the wording): “Lt. Jones, tell me what I did wrong.”
The young officer gulped then said “Sir, you didn’t judge the wind correctly, you didn’t adjust for the current, you came in at too sharp an angle and with too much speed.”
Capt. Nimitz fixed his blue eyes on the young officer and said “That’s right. When you bring a ship in, never forget what I did wrong.”
It was said that, through his career, he always tried to be fair in various judgments, and one of his favorite sayings was “Every dog deserves a second bite.”
Gotta love that man. No wonder people served so hard and faithfully for him.
If you look at pictures of carriers arriving in Pearl, they all (or most) seem to have the air wing aboard.
Mine is in the ROCN. Still floating!!!
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