High resolution version here
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?
You post states that on the boat's chart there were no obstacles within three miles. That supports my position and defeats yours that the captain was not prudent.
How does 50% sound? The LA class boats were built 'the old-fashioned' way; the pressure hull itself was a series of cylinders welded together with bulkheads installed as approriate, and equipment installed as one went along.
The newer Virginia class boats are built modularly with, say, compartment 'A' built at EB in Groton and shipped down to Norfolk to be joined up to compartment 'B' at Newport-News.
Thank you for providing a link to that thread which you said I had not bothered to read. If you notice, I posted about 15 posts and was posted to about the same number. Strike TWO!
"The new information about the charting flaws "
Found AFTER the incident. I don't think the CO can be called negligent if it was not known to the Navy until AFTER the incident.
STRIKE THREE!
Except when you have a Russian sub headed straight for you at 30+ knots ...
Im currently attached to the boat. We went through an ERO before coming out to Guam, so fuel is the reason decomm isnt the "only" answer.
The boat does have 3 buckles in the superstructure running forward from about the capstan. Itll be a few weeks before we know the fate.
Educate yourself, Bozo, before you spout a comment like that. Read this entire thread or scan through the several other threads about the San Francisco incident.
My opinion, as an 11 year submarine vet? You're f***ing aye ditty bag, these guys are heros. Naah, I'll modify that slightly: these guys are superb submariners that got a nasty surprise, could have lost their boat and all hands, but dealt with the casualty and got their boat back to home port.
God bless 'em all.
True enough. :-)
Maybe. But let me relate a true tale: 1966, I'm on a carrier Kitty Hawk) in the Gulf of Tonkin. Long Beach manuvers along side for an unrep. (For non Navy folks, that's UNderway REPlenishment.) We highline them provisions, mail, some new movies, and ammo. Getting ready to separate, a bagpiper steps out on the port bridge wing of the cruiser and, when the connections are severed, begins playing Amazing Grace as she peels away.
All you hear (remember the Long beach is nuclear powered, so there's no combustion or stack noise) as the distance increases between us is the slowly fading sounds of the pipes and her wake noise. Makes me shiver just to remember it.
She wasn't ugly then. I cried... so sue me.
BTDT! ROFLMAO.
- Ex-RO
There was a couple of time out on patrol that the Schullers would pop out of nowhere and the soundings would be significantly off. Charts are pretty accurate but they are not accurately accurate.
I always hated shooting the transit box. the game was to always be on the front end of the box because 1 trip to PD would easily cause the boat to suddenly find itself at the back end of the box, especially if a new opord was coming in.
Heroes the crew is. I can't imagine the fright and the what the f*#$ was that.
I am shocked the pressure hull held up. I can't imagine wha would have happended if it was a VLS hull....
Good read brings back a lot of memories..
Scott
Nav ET (before the rate consolidation)
When I was in Charleston there was talk of adding a retiring 688 to the two S5W Moored Training Ships. Since all of the S5W boats were going away it seemed to make more sense to train the nukes on a more modern powerplant. I think you have just made the case to do this.
DR. Cook -- I agree with your post. Wasn't trying to minimize the damage at all. Just wanted the other FReepers to realize the outer portion of the boat is not the pressure hull.
Your point about the torp tubes is right on.
Bottom line, I wouldn't want to test-dive that boat after "repairs". ;-)
If they have the same car insurance company that I have...it is. Of course, a wrecked bumper, a fender, and a grill is considered "totaled" these days...
FWIW-
In the early 80s my nephew was 1 college credit away from a degree. He decided to join the Army. Of course, being one credit away I would have thought that the Army would have sent him to OCS.
El wrongo!
They had him driving some kind of personnel transport vehicle that kinda looked like a tank.
He's now an attorney in the Denver area.
I stand by my very first post on this subject as you have certainly proven it accurate.
Cdr. Scott Waddle admits that he screwed up. He wrote a book about it. And before this starts a flame war, I have a lot of respect for him. But consider this:
1. He allowed an unqualified Sonar Tech to man one of the watchstations.
2. No proper baffle clear.
3. No proper TMA legs to obtain solutions on the contacts.
4. Contact Coordinator station not manned and the sonar repeater in the Control Room was inop with no compensatory action specified
5. Periscope sweep was too short to ensure clear ahead for the Emergency Blow.
6. The ST was too intimidated to question the CO's "no close contacts" call and moved his solution on the Ehime Maru from 1800 yds to 10,000 yds without notifying anyone.
7. The Greenville was EAST of the Submarine Op Area by a large margin.
Bottom line: Cdr. Waddle cut too many corners and the Big Ocean Theory of contact avoidance didn't work that time.
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