Nuclear Submarine Runs Aground South of Guam

The Associated Press ^ | Jan 8, 2005 | The Associated Press

[Jet Jaguar]

HONOLULU (AP) - A nuclear submarine ran aground about 350 miles south of Guam, injuring several sailors, one of them critically, the Navy said.

There were no reports of damage to the USS San Francisco's reactor plant, which was operating normally, the Navy said.

Jon Yoshishige, a spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Fleet based at Pearl Harbor, said the Friday afternoon incident is under investigation and the 360-foot submarine was headed back to its home port in Guam.

Details on the sailors' injuries were not immediately available. The sub has a crew of 137, officials said.

Military and Coast Guard aircraft from Guam were en route to monitor the submarine and assist if needed, the Navy said.

Guam is a U.S. territory about 3,700 miles southwest of Hawaii.

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On the Net:

U.S. Pacific Fleet: http://www.cpf.navy.mil

AP-ES-01-08-05 0343EST

[shubi]

LOL, must have had some Ensigns in command.

[IMRight]

Psssst. You might want to check his profile. Just a thought.

I noticed that too... :)

But really now... is service in the AF really that much different than being a civilian?

I'm just remembering how much easier the AF Academy was than the other service academies...

[WildTurkey]

In the mid-seventies, we were in one of Mare Island's drydocks with a bunch of holes, when we we told that we had to vacate the drydock immediately. The quickly put cofferdams around each hole in the pressure hull and stuck us back in the water. Shortly thereafter, one of the sneak-attack boats mentioned in "Blind Man's Bluff" took our place in drydock. They didn't even have all the lines across before they put a tarp over the entire sail. The whole area was crawling with heavily armed marines with no sense of humor. We were never told exactly why they were there, but the scuttlebutt was that they'd brought back some exotic new soviet paint for analysis.

That wasn't us. We went to Adak to get our paint cleaned off, among other things.

[RebelTex]

"Perhaps. If so, expect the UN to issue new undersea regulations that hamper operations by the USN and HRN shortly to 'level the playing field'."

LOL

So who listens to the UN these days, heheh.    ;^D

Seriously, I don't think China, Russia, or India would give a second thought to such UN undersea regs.   But, we might, if W was not in charge.   My impression is that W and his military advisors would use more common sense and sound military principles in determining what regs. to maintain, especially since knowing that potential enemies don't play by the rules.

[WildTurkey]

But really now... is service in the AF really that much different than being a civilian?

Yes. Civilians often get their clothes dirty.

[ShadowDancer]

Exaclty how many branches of the service did you serve in?

[IMRight]

Exaclty how many branches of the service did you serve in?

My memories of the AF academy come from attending the odd away game there...and having a HS classmate go there.

IOW... "one".

We DID have a transfer zoomie down the Hall for one semester... they can't march worth beans (which I stopped repeating when we had a whoop in company for a semester.... turns out WE can't march very well either).

[RebelTex]

Prayers for your sons and the crew of the SF.

May God comfort them in their grief, heal their hearts and their wounds, guide them back to us safely, and bless them and their families, in Jesus name we pray. Amen.

FReegards,
RT

[IMRight]

Yes. Civilians often get their clothes dirty.

:)

Gonna get me in trouble with my wife (her father flew F-4s and F-16s... and now builds the JSF).

[traumer]

Could it be a new sandbar/obstacle created by the earthquake that causes the tsunami ?

just my $0.02...

[shubi]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1317195/posts?page=2

[Robe]

I think that was answered about 400 posts back...(:^)

The quake was more than 1700 miles to the west

[Robert A Cook PE]

That was one of the ones I supervised repairs, work package development, changes, "improvements", extensions, etc on.

Sorry.

A lot of times, we didn't get much notification: about what went right, what went wrong, what needed routine repairs, or what needed emergency repairs.

I tried to keep DryDock 4 "saved" for emergencies, but I couldn't always just hold it empty for several weeks just because we "might" not need it. Then when the Parche went it for her long conversion and extension, it screwed up the schedule for years -> which affected the in-and-out schedule for DryDock 3 too!

[Bottom_Gun]

I remember that period with the Parche. I was there decomming the Shark (SSN-591) at the time.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Having the tender come out to meet you--that has got to be something really, really bad. :-(

Yeah - The tender stays alongside for so long they can't steer when they do get underway. 8<)

Seriously, I wonder about this: Mid-ocean, how are you going to take care of a boat from a tender when neither has a way to transfer men, equipment, repair equipment, and repalcement parts to the sloped, slippery, topside of a nuke that has almost no wave clearance anyway?

Sure, little (rubber-bottomed) boats could pull alongside, but it's very, very hard to climb up fromn one to the back hatch, and a swimmer's access ladder is really nothing more than a plastic tarp with hand holds on it. How are going to transfer a weld machine, or a pipe cutter, or a valve refacing machine, or all of the parts you need to repair the boat, or even a simple a plate heater (for HY-100/HY-80 repairs) or Inconel piping repairs to a boat by hand?

Bringing 15 knot tender out to mid-ocean is a reaction, not a repair action that will save time. Or make the boat safer. it will only delay repairs once both of them get back to harbor and get the boat tied up.

Or in drydock.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Did they tell you how we (FreeRepubic readers) could get help to other members of the crew's families?

[SS Guy]

Nuclear Submarine Runs Aground; 1 Dies
Sailor Wounded on Nuclear Submarine That Ran Aground Dies;
23 Crew Members Treated for Injuries

So Sad!...

There is a port of no return, where ships
May ride at anchor for a little space
And then, some starless night the cable slips,
Leaving an eddy at the mooring place...
Gulls, veer no longer. Sailor, rest your oar.
No tangled wreckage will be washed ashore.

Leslie Nelson Jennings
"Lost Harbor"

Hand Salute. Two! Rest in peace Shipmate.

SS Guy

[EricT.]

The Houston has a checkered career of "incidents". Many were too small for the general public to hear about, but I never dropped my guard when making repairs aboard her. I saw some of the damage pictures after they sank a tug boat then two days later snagged another vessel's fishing nets.

AS-41 R4 67H '91-'93

[SS Guy]

Nuclear carriers, when not conducting air ops, and in a hurry to get somewhere can crank it up to 35 knots plus. The only naval vessels capable of staying up with a nuclear carrier in a hurry is a nuclear attack sub running submerged.

It is more like this. Carriers restrick thier speed to the speed of thier escorts. The problem is physics. vesseles can only go as fast as the square root of thier waterline lenght times a varying factor which could be between 1.1 and 1.9. Any faster and the vessel just drives itself deeper into the water and would sink. (planing hulls excepted). When we had nuc cruiseres the speed of the escort group was a bit faster but not much.

SS Guy

[dakine]

hahahaha...ok...