Posted on 01/27/2005 12:42:24 PM PST by Boot Hill
The amount of damage is simply staggering!
That this boat ever made it back to port is a tribute to its designers, builders, and especially to the crew and captain. How does America keep finding men like these?
Like the sub, he has his nose repaired by young men in sailor suits.
Yes, I realize that. I still think it's a bad idea.
Their current "remote sensors" are clssified, but operate something like that.
They have a choice of high speed and noise and large cables, or deploy them at slow speed, get a long ways away quietly, and detect otehr subs easier.
They went the latter route.
No, I'm pretty sure they can fix it. Plenty of her sister ships have already been decommed.
The Kursk lost more than the sonar dome. If we had a torpedo explode in one of our submarines it would have a similar fate.
Yup. We did the same back in '61 on diesel boats. We blew the Essex (carrier) up six times in one day.
Amazing, ain't it? MBT-1B is laid wide open. And check out those torpedo tube shutters.
The case for "imprudently operating" could nonetheless be made.
I doubt that the skipper will face actual charges, but it's still pretty certain that he's not going to be commanding a boat anytime soon. It's also a pretty good bet that his career is over.
If I'm wrong, I'll be first to admit it. History doesn't indicate good things, however.
Should change the name to USS Streisand and get it a nose job.
I just prefer that we stay away from absolutes till the investigation is complete.
Certain things in life are allowed and don't count as flame wars. Nukes get to attack Sonar Techs and forward pukes, Seaman get to attack airman and jarheads (except when they are running down the passage way during an intrusion drill on a ship.)
Good call, see the hull buckling on starboard side.
--Boot Hill
That's no Trident hotel, that there is a real warship.
The captain was removed from duty, pending a court martial, according to one report.
And I'm sure you have more time admiring yourself in a mirror than I do breathing. Congratulations!
We had an exercise with a carrier group. We had a 3-D box of operation which didn't allow us to go deep or run around. They knew we were there and were active from the ships and sonar bouys. We sneaked in and fired a flare at the carrier, went under it and "disappeard" The exercise was to last for several hours but our part was over in minutes. We just sat outside the carrier group and waited for the "official" time to end.
The captain has been relieved of his command as a normal part of the process. I have a feeling he will never get a command again. I say "good."
He's WAY too valuable a person to lose to a normal career path. He should come out of this with a significant berth at "the trade school" (Annapolis) so that he can train others how to train a crew up to dealing with something like this.
He may have screwed up badly by running maxed out in less than perfectly charted waters. That's the luck of the draw and he probably knows it. On the other hand his performance, and the apparent performance of his crew, speaks volumes about his basic abilities.
He may not be the best choice to skipper a boat. Ironically that may make him one of the best to teach about it, and it might even make him spectacularly qualified to have his own flag and command others who actually drive the boats.
Rickover would never stand for it. It will be interesting to see how this one plays out as a view into the current Navy. This all assumes that my suppositions about what happened are even close to reality. Time will tell.
she's laid open like a tin can-show how hard she hit---and how hard the guys worked to save her. And the shutters---Damn, what LEFT of the shutters. stove in like that.
Kinda makes anyone wearing the dolphins sit a bit straighter, eh? Sure does that for me......
Click here and here for the high resoultion (>20MP) version of those photos. I've been unable to see anything that appears to be rock or debris from the seamount.
--Boot Hill
BTW, Wild Turkey is my favorite whiskey. When you come back on two engines after a long hop in bad weather, there's nothing that takes the chill off like it. On Keflavik deployments, there was always a bottle or two in my barracks room.
Fly a 13-hour mission up North in winter, at 300 feet in a storm with the heater broke. A wee dram after debrief was an absolute necessity.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.