This Relatively Young Military Sealift Command Ship Is Absolutely Caked In Rust

The War Zone ^ | December 5, 2020 | Tyler Rogoway

[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

[Mariner]

“I never saw a US Navy vessel that corroded.”

Did you ever see a ship that spent 200 days at sea without a port call?

[CodeToad]

One thing the Air Force has as leadership training is that unless you have groomed someone to take your slot, you ain’t going nowhere; no promotion, no new assignment. The Air Force believes two years is plenty of time. At one year, they look for that replacement so orders can be planned and cut. Staff development is till one of my favorite and daily practices.

[Sequoyah101]

It would be better if it were that simple.

It is a breakdown of the system instead. Rot from within.

It is a visual manifestation of the failure of our nation.

[Drew68]

I know that, in pre-posting it would not work on the Burke ship, but it did on the supply ship.

Yes, I’ve seen images that for whatever reason just refused to resize. Don’t know why. Doesn’t happen often.

[blam]

"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."

I agree. They can do the chip and paint while underway.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

it seems this entire nation has lost its collective mind with COVID, a bug that is dangerous to a very small few and less than dangerous than the flu to most others.

No, not the nation. The government. The common denominator with all the Covid insanity is that the government is acting like it has lost its collective mind, only it hasn't. This is all intentional. All planned, with the destruction of the Constitution and society as the goal. The New World Order will NOT be denied. "Never let a crisis go to waste", as Clinton's butt-buddy Rahm Emannuel once said. The Chinese screwed over Trump by dropping this Covid bomb on the world in an election year to help the Democrats seize power so the New World Order could march on unchecked.

[Mariner]

“Did you ever see ships that looked that slovenly?”

After 100+ days at sea on the USS Tarawa in the early 80s, she looked similar.

[A Navy Vet]

"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."

Don't know if there is a Deck Department anymore, but yes, that's what Seaman Apprentice and Seamen used to do - cleaning work inside and out, plus mess duty. In my day that included Airman Apprentice and Airmen and Engineering types in those low rates.

It was pretty much an extension of Basic Training to further their discipline, follow ship board orders, and hard work ethic. Plus E-4's and above were working their ratings. Someone had to do it. It sucked.

[RandallFlagg]

I remember when my ship pulled into Freemantle in ‘94 having been assigned to side cleaners. I was in the paint punt scraping seaweed off before painting the lovely Haze Gray on.
My LTJG yelled from the pier, “No! We don’t have time to scrape it! Just paint over it!”

I sighed and said, “Yes, Sir,” and did as ordered.

Five days later, we sailed away.
And saw a nice trail of Haze Gray paint stuck to chunks of seaweed floating in our wake.

Ahhhh.... Clinton’s Navy.

[CodeToad]

“No, not the nation. The government. “

I’d say greater than 50% of this nation is nuts.

[Mariner]

All this conjecture from people who have not spent substantial time at sea.

Some even suggesting it’s a sign of the nation’s collapse.

Silly.

Ships at sea rust. All of them.

The amount of surface rust is proportional to contiguous days at sea.

[Mariner]

“They can do the chip and paint while underway. “

Only above the main deck.

[rlmorel]

Surely, in my time, not a military one. I have readily asked for the opinion of those that have.

[A Navy Vet]

"After 100+ days at sea on the USS Tarawa in the early 80s, she looked similar."

I had a deployment for 10 months on the USS New Orleans (amphib) in 1976. While we did get some port calls, I would also see the deck hands chipping and/or painting while in calm seas and with no propulsion.

Question: What is with the waterline on the USN ship? Hard to tell from the photo, but it looks like way beyond first stage oxidation (surface rust). It appears to be advanced corrosion to me.

rlmorel, I was also an Airdale (Grape) - flight deck duty around the clock, plus watches. Those hard ass bunks always looked so good...ha. What Air Dept. Division were you and what ship?

[fuente]

I am much more concerned about what is happening with the ballast tanks...that’s the corrosion unseen. The Navy has moved to a new coating system called polysiloxanes. My folks developed that technology at the Navy Research Lab about 10 years ago. I don’t think that it has made it to this fleet yet.

[rlmorel]

Heya...I was attached airwing on the USS JFK 1976-1979 time frame, did three deployments two to the Med, one to the North Atlantic in 1976.

The waterline was just one of the areas. The look was bad. I mean, money was tight back then, but as others have pointed out, being at ship for 200 days without a port call (I didn’t check if that was true, but not hitting port in a 7 month deployment...ack!)

I’ve read a lot of your posts but never thought to ask what you did....you were a Grape then!

Funny...I was just describing the stupid curtains they gave us that were about 2-3 feet long, so that you could put it up near your head (I guess I should have been grateful for that! Those guys who had hammocks...) When I was in, there was not only a brisk market for people willing to sell theirs or acquire them outside the supply chain, but also people who stole them during the day or night when you were at work.

People would try to rig them up in some way all around their racks to string them all around for privacy...

[rlmorel]

Corrosion is a pain in a salt water environment, no doubt. Back in the day, they had Teredos...and less metal. Now they have no Teredos and all metal...:)

[A Navy Vet]

"Only above the main deck."

I forgot to include, "on the sides of the hull down to the waterline". I saw it and was glad I was flight deck personnel even with all the hours and dry bologna sandwiches during flight operations. Depending how long, we sometimes had to pee off the side and get permission to go below for a dump. Us flight deck types were also fire-fighters when the aircraft weren't flying. Exhausting work, but turned me into a man.

I often wish military draft was re-instated now that we're winding down our stupid nation building. It would square away a lot of the Millenials and Gen-Z no-loads. Our volunteer Spec-Ops types can and are dealing with the Jihadists, especially when we get a leader's whereabouts.

I know they will keep replacing them as long as they are Muslim radicals, but our SEAL, Delta, ground Air Controllers, drones, are killing the head of snake almost every week. We pretty much got their number now and know how to infiltrate, except for individual suicide cells around the world. I don't see an end to their religious terrorism, but I do see us curtailing major plans, as reported often here and other boards.

Thank you both for protecting my family and Country.
Fair Seas and Happy Holidays.

[Mariner]

“While we did get some port calls, I would also see the deck hands chipping and/or painting while in calm seas and with no propulsion. “

3 Westpacs and I never witnessed the screws stop turning except along side the pier, or at anchor.

Certain, chipping and painting is a constant process and there’s a crew engaged any time the ship is stopped.

But it’s now routine for ships to spend 100+ days at sea.

And I know that sucks ass.

[atomic_dog]

Several remarks.

I served as a First Lieutenant on a small surface combatant. Unlike the other military branches, in the USN, First Lieutenant is not a rank, rather a job description. Here is the Navy's own statement of the duties of a First Lieutenant (highlight mine).

9242 - FIRSTLT AFLOAT - First Lieutenant, Afloat

First Lieutenants, Afloat supervises deck force in performance of seamanship functions and evolutions. Prepares work schedules. Directs mooring, docking, anchoring, fueling, towing and transferring of personnel and cargo at sea. Directs operation and maintenance of deck machinery. Arranges for cargo handling. Assigns boats and boat crews. Maintains readiness of boats and survival equipage. Directs cleaning and preservation of weather decks, ship's exterior, running gear, ground tackle and boatswain's stores. Approves watch, quarter and station assignments.

So it a ship looks like that the First Lieutenant is too blame.

However that is NOT a Navy ship!

When you see USNS before the name instead of USS it stands for United States Naval Ship. They are almost completely manned by civilian mariners and usually provide auxiliary services like hospital ships, oilers, ammo and this one which is a dry cargo ship. It performs underway replenishment where it runs alongside another ship and hooks up lines and passes tons of stuff over. Along with fueling alongside from an oiler, it is one of the complicated and dangerous maneuvers a ship can engage in. It is something to see; one of these ships underway, with ships on both sides passing supplies to them both. And they do this all day and sometimes at night as a battle group cycles through filling up.

A ship is basically a piece of metal floating in salt water and let me tell you it's going to rust. And let me tell you, keeping it under control is full time work. This ship probably doesn't have a First Lieutenant with a deck department to keep it shipshape. And it has probably been underway continuously passing supplies to Navy units. As soon as it docks they will have people alongside cleaning and painting. I have been on a ship that looked like that after a long time at sea with no opportunity to maintain.

So give em a grace period to fix it up.