Crewman Dies Aboard U.S. Submarine That Ran Aground

Reuters ^ | 1/9/05

[Little_shoe]

People whose Careers are done.

Captain
XO
Navigator
Officer of the Deck

[MarshallDillon]

A sandbar in the middle of the ocean? Reef, most likely.

Maybe "aground" could actually be code for a Chinese Sub?

[brooklin]

The earthquake was over 7000 miles from where the sub hit bottom. It is extremely unlikely that this caused because of the earthquake.

[brooklin]

I can't believe all the people that are willing to think that the earthquake is the possible cause of just about anything now!

[brooklin]

7000 miles. not likely

[Rebel-without-a-pause]

X Navy, 25 years on three subs, two nukes one conventional. If it was an uncharted atoll, the skipper probably won't be relieved. If it was carelessness, the CO, Navigator and the Quartermaster of the Watch are history, especially since the collision resulted in a death. Nuke subs are usually going along at a pretty good clip when transiting. They come to periscope depth to check their position by satellite navigation occasionally and then rely on the ships compass, course and speed, basically dead reckoning (no pun intended).

[76834]

I can't believe all the people that are willing to think that the earthquake is the possible cause of just about anything now!

We think alike:

• I dont know anything about submarines (cept saw a few pix about them)
• Know even less about geology
• Dont have a clue about earthquakes, undersea currents etc

Several thing I have learned in my 59 years on this planet are:

• Dont go running your mouth about things you dont know anything about
• Dont go running off half cocked
• Dont jump to conclusions
• Opinions are just like a$$holes, everyone has one and they all stink........

People, lets just wait till all the facts are in

[Little_shoe]

Yeah your right. I wouldnt now much about subs since i didnt ever get to go on one during my middie cruise. I personally wouldnt want to "glow in the dark." Ill take my chances with crashing and burning.

[steve86]

They come to periscope depth to check their position by satellite navigation occasionally and then rely on the ships compass, course and speed, basically dead reckoning (no pun intended).

I didn't realize that no positive external reference for location existed while submerged (unless they are within sonar range of a known feature). Does an "inertial navigation" approach not work well for subs?

[steve86]

Are you sure about that 7,000 miles? Looks more like 1,750 to me. Heck, I remember flying from LAX to Auckland: The air mileage was about 7,000.

[Quanta_Chaos]

It works very well when they are using a navigation chart. Unless the navigation chart is out of date (as in the case of shifting underwater topography) Submarines always run in passive mode. Just listening. The never run in active mode (transmitting signals) That would give their posistion away.

[Gunrunner2]

Explain please.

[steve86]

Is that extremely low frequency radio program still in operation? I know it wasn't used for navigation, but it did enable some communication while submerged, correct?

[brooklin]

ELF takes a long time to transmit. They usually send out just three letters to get a sub to come to periscope depth and then they use other radios.

[Danae]

XO had nothing to do with it. He'll probably be promoted to skipper. CO's finished though. The navy has canned skippers for a hell of a lot less, in fact CO demotions are endemic in the navy right now.

It really depends on who had the boat at the time of the accident. If it was the XO as OoD, then he is likely toast. Nav for sure is fried. Nav ET's must be freaked... QM may well be screwed, Officer of the Deck is likely toasted. COW, is fine. What is a shame is that I would be willing to bet that all those guys busted their a$$es to save to boat from going down right after it happened. With out all of them kickin a$$ to save the boat, it would be on the bottom right now. Navy won't look at it like that though.

[Brytani]

the XO is in command of the bridge - and with a death from the accident he's toast as well.

As soon as I told hubby, an ex-bubblehead (fast attack subs) that their was a casulty, his first comment was the Capt, XO and Nav are toast.

[Quix]

WOW.

YEA for quick thinking and acting!

[PureSolace]

[Thud]

The term "group mind effect" originated on the now defunct GEnie Military Round Table, sysoped by Steve Cole, during Desert Shield. A fair amount of former military and wargamers (Cole owns & still operates Star Fleet Battles, while Jim Dunnigan was a participant) with common interests going back to the 1970's discovered that collectively they had a phenomenal amount of knowledge and insight into then-current military matters, especially pertaining to Desert Shield/Desert Storm.

It was later noted on the other discussion boards on GEnie, notably the writers' areas (romance, science-fiction, etc.) that the same knowledge base and insight pertained to whatever was the particular topic of interest to that message board. This covered a considerable area for the science-fiction round table, whose writers had questions ranging from Byzantine history (for Harry Turtledove) to firearms minutiae to advanced theoretical physics.

The most recent really major instance of the "group mind effect" was Rathergate when the blogosphere unravelled, or rather UnRathered, the forgery of purported National Guard memorandums concerning President Bush's military service.

[Gunrunner2]

Thanks.

In other words. . .the total is greater than the sum of its parts.

Got it (I am a simple kind of guy).