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He is correct...I assume you were reading early reports.

Aliska, do you know that interpretation of the course of the ACX Crystal is completely and totally wrong?

That the information as you referenced it is completely outdated, and was outdated within a day or two of the actual collision?

I would have fumigated for real bugs from the last administration before I swept for electronic bugs.

I think FredZarguna’s post said it best, but I know what you mean. Many quarterbacks run because they can’t read, but talent can look downfield while they run.

I think FredZarguna’s post said it best, but I know what you mean. Many quarterbacks run because they can’t read, but talent can look downfield while they run.

I had to explain to someone recently about “contrail spraying”.

The person, a very intelligent person in my estimation, had never heard of it, and asked me about it.

As a former jet mechanic, I know there would have to be some kind of fillable subsystem to produce the “poisonous streams of vapor” and therefore, maintenance personnel would have to know about it, as would airplane designers, pilots, crews, et al.

I had to say something to the effect of “Number one, if there were a conspiracy, how would all these people be in on it and keep their tongue? Second, how many of these people had loved ones and families of their own they would willingly allow to be poisoned?”

It saddened me to have to spell it out, and then I explained to him how contrails were formed. This was an intelligent person who probably would have noodled it out on his own, but...sigh.

I see the same thing with this. “Okay. Assume the NAV systems are hacked. How does it get executed in the path of another ship without someone timing it in real time who has access to ship’s itinerary, course, speed, etc.

You get answers that display just how strong the conspiracist mindset is.

I heard Kordell Stewart (QB, Pittsburgh Steelers 1995-2002) on a podcast where he said one of his main gripes with non-guaranteed contracts in the NFL is that players cannot take part in social justice protests and such because their contracts are not guaranteed and they could be cut loose because of it. I had three thoughts when I heard it:

1.) I didn't really have any negative feelings about him before I heard that. But I do now.

2.) That was one of the dumbest and stupidest things I have ever heard from a professional sports announcer.

3.) He says they don't have guaranteed contracts as if it is a bad thing.

Thanks for the comment-I must admit, I always thought RGIII had more pure passing ability than Kapernick, but thought once he got injured, was unable to get his mechanics right and became more erratic and inaccurate. (It was his knee, IIRC)

Either way, you cannot last in the NFL as a running quarterback, Fran Tarkenton, Bobby Douglass, et al not withstanding. College, yes. Pros...no.

I'll post this for anyone interested. Apparently, some people think there isn't PC, anti-American crap going on in college, and that is fine if they want to fool themselves with holier than thou crap. It is their time. But this is why Kapernick is unsigned, if anyone wants to talk intelligently about it. (I think you have already seen this, Red Badger)

WHY COLIN KAPERNICK MAY NEVER PLAY A DOWN OF USEFUL FOOTBALL AGAIN

I heard a great explanation from Scott Zolak (former Patriots quarterback) on Boston radio on why Colin Kapernick is unemployed. I have to paraphrase a bit here, because I don't have the transcript.

When Kapernick came into the league, and started the last five games of the 2012 season, the San Francisco offense was built to exploit him using the read option. It hadn't been used in the pros as more than a novelty or gimmick, he was tearing up a league that wasn't ready for him. He was nearly unstoppable because defenses hadn't paid attention to the scheme.

But eventually teams figure you out. Zolak talked about how after other teams had enough film on Kapernick and the option, coaches would widen the tackles, putting them further off center, getting linebackers to fill the gaps, and taking a more patient approach, steering the quarterback into lanes where they would be able to tackle him. (Zolak says that defensive coordinators don't get enough credit for that aspect of the game. The negative performance is often heaped on the quarterback, when the truth is, defensive coordinators get paid to figure out ways to neutralize opponents strengths. And it is a copy cat league. One team does it...they all do it. It is a scheme adjustment, and once they figured it out (by the end of 2014/beginning of 2015 seasons) Kapernick's days were numbered. He just didn't (and doesn't) know it.

Once teams figured out how to defend that, Kapernick realized he wouldn't be able to run anymore, and his coaches knew it too, they knew he had to become more of a pocket quarterback.

But Kapernick lacks two major assets to make that work.

WHAT CRUCIAL SKILLS KAPERNICK LACKS TO BE AN NFL QUARTERBACK:

1.) He has no touch. He could throw long bombs, but anything else would get delivered, inaccurately, at high velocity. He had and has zero touch for a quarterback.

2) He can't read a defense. Zolak said the book on him was to simply watch him when he got the ball and dropped back. Watch the stripe on his helmet. When he gets the ball snapped to him, he looks to the right or the left. Good quarterbacks like Brady, Rodgers and Brees look straight up the field when they get the ball. Kapernick looks. He can't break the habit. And defensive backs got the book on him. The defensive coaches said: "Watch the helmet stripe."

In summary: Kapernick cuts the field in half for the defenders. And when he can't get the first read, he is lost. He can't progress through his reads and what makes it even worse for him, he has no touch, so dumping it off is a real challenge. He is hot and inaccurate on those kinds of passes. When he goes to his safety valve (usually a running backing the flat) after his initial reads fail, that back is dependent on getting the ball delivered in a way that allows him to catch it in the simplest possible way so he can begin running, usually because someone is on him immediately. Often there are defenders nearby, so the quarterback may have to loft the ball a little to clear outstretched arms. Kapernick can do neither of these, so the ball arrives at the safety valve running back too hot to catch, or the ball is batted down by a defensive player. That's Kapernick the quarterback in a nutshell.

And there are more impediments for him:

NON PERFORMANCE REASONS KAPERNICK IS NOT SUITED FOR AN NFL ROSTER SPOT, EVEN AS A BACKUP:

1.) He fits very few schemes. Seattle might have been a backup spot, but he was apparently asking $9 million a year. This is the precise reason Miami didn't sign him. Cutler has his issues, but he is a plug-and-play guy for the Dolphins. They would have had to completely revamp their offense for Kapernick. Not enough time. Cutler with his issues is a better fit.

2.) His off field BS does have an effect. Backups should be invisible, create no waves. Kapernick will be pursued after any team activity, and it will be a circus. Not worth it.

Lastly, in my opinion, He is a douche. Wearing the Fidel shirt just confirmed for me what I already knew. I don't think he is a particularly bright guy, and to make it worse, he has a woman leading him willingly around to use him as a social justice tool. That is more important to him than football.

So, when the GM or Coach is told to evaluate Colin Kapernick for their team they watch the film on him, look at his toxic personality and issues:

Nope. Not worth it. I think he won't play again in this league, even if someone gets desperate. And it won't be because he is being blackballed.

It will be because, in today's NFL...he simply cannot play the game it is being played.

YES.

YES.

YES.

YES.

YES.

YES.

Don’t get me wrong. I hold the Captain and crew as accountable as I would hold a surgeon.

If a surgeon performs a procedure and forgets some key step resulting in harm, it doesn’t make any difference how or why the step was skipped. There are no excuses. It is their job, and we depend on them to do it.

But yes...people do make bad decisions. Heck, if we have a B-2 bomber and a error is made by a pilot, crew, or maintenance, you can be out a number of lives and a billion dollars right off the bat.

Actually, I think the Fitzgerald had left her home port (Yokosuka) around midnight and was heading to the southwest to Subic Bay...but I might be remembering that incorrectly.

"...I suspect that the Fitzgerald was "doing circles" waiting to pull into her home port the next morning..."

There were several of us Freepers wondering about that, and that was similar to what I postulated...she was in a holding pattern of some kind on one side of the sea lane, then made the move to exit and head south when the trouble began.

Here is the variant I have simply begun posting in response to these things...

I regret that there are some people who may get miffed (if they are astute enough to recognize the spirit in which the image is posted) but I feel like that old proverb about teaching pigs to sing...

"...All this talk of hacking and conspiracy makes me cringe as it deflects attention from the most likely cause, "familiarization breeds contempt"..."

I agree 100%. It is making me irritable and angry.

(Thanks for your service, btw) Your input on things like this is invaluable, since you have experience as an OOD and understand completely how these things can go wrong.

I just sent this email to a bunch of people I know:

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

In light of the recent collisions of US Navy ships in 2017, there are many questions about how this kind of thing could possibly happen.

In 1969, the Melbourne–Evans collision was a collision between the light aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and the destroyer USS Frank E. Evans of the United States Navy (USN). On 3 June 1969, the two ships were participating in SEATO exercise Sea Spirit in the South China Sea. At approximately 3:00 am, when ordered to a new escort station, Evans sailed under Melbourne's bow, where she was cut in two. Seventy-four of Evans' crew were killed.

Wikipedia: Collision between the HMAS Melbourne and USS Frank E. Evans

In response to this, the US Navy created a training film that describes this accident, and the bridge and watchstanding procedures that should have prevented it: "I Relieve You, Sir"

Even though technology changes, many of these ritualized processes (some that date back hundreds of years) still apply even today. *********************************************************************

I agree 100% and I have also wondered if that has any effect. I was a letter writing machine at sea (if you didn’t write any letters...you didn’t get any letters)

I have also assumed that it would be strictly and completely verboten to have a laptop, tablet, or phone on any kind of watch, no matter what (unless it was some desk watch in a building while ashore or something) but I don’t know anything about that.

I wonder if some other Freepers who have more recent experience could enlighten us.

There also seems to be unverified statements going around that Navy ships at sea no longer have exterior deck watch lookouts, and I simply refuse 100% to believe that unless someone can verify that with evidence. But that is the nature of the Internet now, people are repeating that, without evidence, in a number of threads.

On a lighter side, how I remember buying those rolls of quarters...and the “dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...dink dink...” as you entered them in, all the while there might be someone on the other end going “Hello? Hello! Hello?”

Hehehehe...then in the middle of the discussion the recording “Please add another dollar twenty five to continue the conversation...”

Don’t miss that. You know what I do miss, though? Wanting to be home so bad I could taste it! Actually, not the actually wanting to be home, but the way the anticipation racked up the experience so far, you couldn’t help but have fun. I just talked to someone recently who said that when I came home, nobody slept for the entire time I was home, because I wouldn’t let them!

See, still snickering as I re-read your post...

Sigh. Probably the juvenile in me coming out, but, hey...funny is funny!

Consider yourself stuned!

Heck. Everyone knows the military is not only far from perfect, it is frequently stupid and nearly always inefficient. But warfighting organizations by their very nature are not often efficient, they are by nature wasteful and destructive, because they are supposed to be destructive.

I often think back to stupidity, and I remember one night (Barcelona maybe) where men were lined up in the pouring rain on Fleet Landing, drunk and unruly because they were having trouble running the liberty launches due to high seas.

We went out, launches were filled I am certain far beyond any safe limit (packed in like sardines) as it poured rain and the boat pitched, yawed and rolled, going around and around waiting to approach the platform at the stern of the carrier.

Drunk men peeing over the side, barfing, yelling “F**K THE SHORE PATROL!” (As I saw my buddy strip off his Shore Patrol armband), fights breaking out, all that. They had some canvas coverings, and the water would pour off them in waterfalls onto anyone unlucky enough to be stuck in that opening between them.

When we finally approached the platform, it was crazy. They didn’t tie up to it, but simply maneuvered next to it, as a few drunk sailors leaped from the launch onto the platform. Bang, bang, bang, they would all jump in a short interval as people on the boat and the platform exhorted them onward.

Then, the sea would rocket the boat up where you were looking five feet down at the platform, then plummet down until you were looking five feet up at it, and would go through several iterations of this, until by chance, the platform and the launch were roughly on level with each other, and three or four drunk sailors would leap from the launch to the platform, bang, bang, bang, then the boat would heave up and down again, and the cycle would repeat itself.

It was wild. Drunk sailors were landing on the platform after jumping in a wide variety of stumbles as people would try to catch them.

I was gritting my teeth and sweating, I had to go so badly I was gripping my member with a death grip in my free hand to keep from going in my trousers.

The point is...it had to be one of the stupidest things, even in my drunken state, that I have ever seen. What possessed ANYONE in charge to try to get those launches out to the ship? They should have simply made us all wait there on Fleet Landing, in the rain, if need be.

It amazes me nobody fell in between the platform and launch to be crushed.

But that is the way things happen sometimes in the military. Sometimes people simply make bad decisions. People are tired. People are lazy. People cut corners.

And sometimes people get killed because of it. And that is, with nearly 100% certainty what is going on with this spate of mishaps involving our ships. It isn’t some asinine hacking.

Those of us who have been in the Navy, around the Navy, and have knowledge of the Navy’s processes and procedures understand full well that this isn’t “The Chinese did it” or whatever.

This is going to be poor seamanship, poor execution of processes, poor training, and poor leadership, exacerbated by factors such as extended operational cycles and PC crap thrown in for good measure.

That’s it. Those who know better understand fully that these incidents are the result of just that.

On this one thread, there are people speculating that the Korcoms/Chicoms/Russians did it, a series of disgruntled crews did it, and the only thing missing is that aliens did it.

People need to get a grip here.

Some of these conversations look ignorant at best, and downright evil at worst.