The Lewis and Clarke class dry cargo ship USNS Washington Chambers (T-AKE-11) pulled into San Diego Bay on Friday, December 4th, 2020
Posted on 12/05/2020 6:46:27 AM PST by PIF
The Pentagon is pushing its naval fleet to the brink and this is manifesting itself in its vessels appearing run-down after sustained operations.
The Lewis and Clarke class dry cargo ship USNS Washington Chambers (T-AKE-11) pulled into San Diego Bay on Friday, December 4th, 2020
(Excerpt) Read more at thedrive.com ...
““Absolutely Caked In Rust...”
Hyperbole much??”
Really? That’s your takeaway on the article? You disagree with the literary license?
This neglect is likely caused by civilian contracts. My grandpa was a sailor and they did their own rust removal and painting out side of drydock. Now it’s probably contracted to the civilian shipyard to fix it.
Chinese steel - that’s what I was thinking!
Were they civilian or military ones you worked on? Thing is, I have seen plenty of civilian ships looking like that, and far, far, worse. REAL rust buckets.
I just don’t recall seeing an active duty USN vessel that looked like that.
And there is also in my opinion, a difference between a civilian vessel and a military one in the effect that corrosion may have on it, with respect to exterior sensors and weapons systems.
Again, I admit I could be wrong, especially in the last fifteen years, but that is a bad look.
A couple of issues...minimal manning of ships has a real and serious cost. This is one. Second, because of the change in manning and maintenance paragdigms much of the painting and such happens on port, often by third parties or with considerable third party support of the war fighters. Without more port time and substantial third party support, this issue will continue. BTW, I held the contract for such with a dozen teams around the globe. I have also been a prioponenet of extending this to secondary naval installation using indigenous folks as part of the teams.
Have Americans paint them instead of third worlders. Anybody can get a crappy paint job do the right job maybe the last longer
As I said in my first post, I thought it was a bit of hyperbole on the physical state in rust (even though it was caked around exterior hull fittings and such, where it is susceptible to corrosion) but in no way do I think the point is made with the image alone that there is something more fundamentally troubled in the US Navy.
That is my takeaway.
I do understand the diminishment of the yard cycles, the philosophical difference in maintaining a ship, etc. For example, I had someone tell me they don’t have active duty sailors chipping and painting the vessel, but contract civilians when in port.
I can’t see how a ship could be maintained in that fashion, but that is what someone told me. I last spent time on a ship back in 1979, so I have no idea how it works now.
The Navy has been under pressure to keep a high operational tempo. It is why they haven’t performed exterior maintenance like they usually do.
The liberal media won’t cover what Trump has been doing overseas, but this is the visible result. It isn’t a statement of intentional neglect or a lack of funding, just a Navy working 24x7x365.
It was 100% because of Covid, and nothing else.
Do they have a Deck Department? Isn’t needle guns, red lead, green death, and battleship gray paint the entire reason for SA’s and SN’s.
““Absolutely Caked In Rust...”
Hyperbole much??”
Really? That’s your takeaway on the article? You disagree with the literary license?
Yeah, I do.
I did three West-Pacs on CVN-65. Also did side cleaning duty.
Ships rust. Superficial maintenance is performed when they return to home port from deployment. Deployments are months or sometimes over a year long.
Give these guys some slack. Those guys lining the deck have likely not seen their home in months
These ships are not “Caked In Rust”..
I wasn't a Navy guy but that description seems a bit over the top to me as well.
To change the size of any image, while keeping the same aspect ration, simply change the width.
For example, this image becomes this size simply by adding "width="650" (or "whatever number you'd like") after < img src=" https://www.thedrive.com/content/2020/10/32424356.jpg?quality=85&width=1440&quality=70%20width=720%20height=%20405" >
Like this:
< img src="https://www.thedrive.com/content/2020/10/32424356.jpg?quality=85&width=1440&quality=70%20width=720%20height=%20405" width="650" >
Ah. I didn’t see your post before I posted my last one.
I agree completely about the real and serious cost. So it is true, they don’t want the sailors to engage in labor like that. I understand their logic, but...being in the US military is really never just another job, even though it can sure feel like just another tedious job sometimes.
Sigh. I think that approach is a mistake in a few ways even if I take costs, recruitment, and retention into account.
I was an Airedale, so I readily admit there are a lot of ex black shoe sailors who might say “What, are you kidding me? There ain’t a friggin’ thing for a sailor that is worthwhile in chipping and painting!” but I do have an analogy, and I think it does apply: We did have to maintain our planes, and these things do apply at a different scale. I didn’t enjoy corrosion control, but you had to do it, and there was value in getting very closes eyes on the plane constantly.
First, I think doing tasks like that, while sucky, does force a person to see things with a different perspective. How solid some things are. How well built some things are and how they are put together. What good and bad welds and rivets look like, etc. I cannot see how doing that task could fail to make a sailor far more familiar with their environment.
Secondly, (again, in my opinion) the sailor takes ownership of the appearance and condition of the vessel, which has to raise morale. In the Navy, everyone knows that there are two things you can tell about a ship by its appearance: One, on ships that are poorly maintained and look bad, morale is substandard. Second, on ships that are too pristine and look too good (with exceptions) it probably isn’t a fun ship to be on. (not always true). In all walks of life, being able to live and/or work in a nice looking place generally has a positive effect on morale. And the obverse is true.
I recall one early job I had in high school, a small industrial startup, and it was in a dingy, old building. The offices had cheesy paneling on them with poorly cut plastic molding. It didn’t make you feel like it was going anywhere, but...it was a guy’s first company trying to get going, so I understood that. But still...
For a routine , informed opinion on things like this, check out the blog below:
https://cdrsalamander.blogspot.com/
Sure, I know all that. But we have had ships operating at high tempos before, my thoughts were more focused on the philosophical change of not wanting active duty personnel to perform those same tasks, and relegating it to contracted civilian workers.
And that is most definitely my personal opinion on that, I readily defer to any sailors who did have to chip and paint. I can’t imagine there was anyone who loved doing that!
This has nothing to do with President Trump and is the direct and entirely predictable result of the Navy's Optimized Fleet Response Plan, a schedule of manning and readiness implemented in 2014.
Now six years later, this O-FRP is starting to show some very serious cracks.
See:
“not wanting active duty personnel to perform those same tasks, and relegating it to contracted civilian workers.”
That could very well be true. The entire military has shifted from uniformed maintenance to contractors. Most officers I know bemoan that they are vendor managers more than anything else.
That is a great website, I bookmarked it...thanks!
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