Posted on 10/18/2020 4:46:00 AM PDT by C19fan
The USS Stout and its crew lived up to its name after spending a record-breaking 215 consecutive days at sea after the coronavirus pandemic made it unsafe to pull into ports around the world.
The destroyer left Virginia's Naval Station Norfolk in mid-January and finally ended its grueling nine-month deployment when it returned home on October 11, the US Navy said.
Along the way, the USS Stout traveled more than 60,000 nautical miles, completing multiple strait and choke point transits as it crossed the Atlantic Ocean while operating in the US 2nd, 5th and 6th fleets carrying out various missions including ensuring the free flow of commerce.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Wow! There are some guys that deserve some time off. Wonder if Biden will greet them?
She still looks great, and deadly. A huge big thank you to the entire crew. I hope there will be medals and ribbons for all the sailors and some well deserved shore leave too!
I was thinking about the voyage of the Russian 2nd Pacific Squadron during the Russo-Japanese war. The voyage took seven months from departure to destruction at Tsushimna. The squadron did make stops on the way but those ship much have been in horrible shape.
I didn’t realize a ship deteriorates so quickly. I know saltwater is highly corrosive, but man the sea is a mean b!tch.
So, how long will this be in dock getting cleaned up and painted?
I was shocked too. I was thinking that could not happen so fast with modern day materials.
That’s why sailors would jokingly call their ships “rust buckets.”
Yeah, I mean, as nice looking as our ships normally appear, do they require more maintenance time in dock than they spend deployed?
Questions left unanswered in the article:
The ship left before the pandemic.
1) Was there a case on board?
2) Then was it herd immunity?
3) If there never was a case, did they have to wear masks?
4) And last have to ask in today’s Navy: How many pregnancies?
Just curious.
Looks like the same copy, but the the UK newspaper dressed it up with more photos and repeated themselves, as the DM likes to do.
So - good job posting the "best" source of this event, and thanks for the pics.
At least our US press did cover it, if only in So. VA.
The cosmetic stuff can be given a face lift in short order. Pneumatic chipping hammers and battleship grey paint do wonders. As far as mechanical maintenance, routine preventative maintenance is a constant ongoing job of the crew whether at sea or docked.
“ I was shocked too. I was thinking that could not happen so fast with modern day materials.”
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The rust is superficial surface rust and barnacles. There’s no damage to the integrity of the hull or ship in general. We as Americans are just not used to seeing one of our navy ships appearing so shoddy. But, it will spend some time possibly Newport News and get a refit and good sprucing and all will be well again.
Chipping and painting the hull in drydock could provide fantastic social distancing jobs.
The ship was commissioned 25 years ago. All that rust probably was impacted by lack of maintenance during the Clinton and Obama misadministrations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Stout
bump
Ho-lee-crap. I did 93 days in (primarily) the Indian Ocean on CVN65 back in the 80s. It was very unpleasant. I feel for these guys.........
We spent 210 days in the Persian Gulf, Med, and Atlantic and our boat didn’t look like that. Painting duty was regular order. Seems the Navy’s cutting back on maintenance...
How does this compare with deployments during WWII?
Why can’t they do maintenance such as painting while underway? That captain needs to get his ass kicked for the condition of his vessel!
Now those surface squids know somewhat how is feels to be a bubblehead on a boomer, except they got to see the skies, daylight, moonlight, etc.
I was wondering that too. No chipping irons and paint aboard?
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