U.S. Navy sends ships to sea ahead of "Frankenstorm"

U.S. Navy sends ships to sea ahead of "Frankenstorm" By Phil Stewart | Reuters – 41 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy on Friday ordered all ships in the Norfolk, Virginia, area - including the nuclear-powered USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier - out to sea beyond the reach of approaching Hurricane Sandy.

It was just one of the storm precautions being announced by the Pentagon, which said around 61,000 members of the National Guard were ready to respond, if needed.

Sandy, dubbed a "Frankenstorm" by one government forecaster, has begun merging with a polar air mass over the eastern United States, potentially spawning a hybrid super-storm that could wreak havoc along the U.S. East Coast.

On its current projected track, government forecasters said Sandy could make landfall early next week anywhere between Virginia, Maryland or Delaware up through New York or southern New England.

The commander of U.S. Fleet Forces, Admiral Bill Gortney, ordered more than two dozen ships including the Truman to "sortie" out to sea beyond the path of the storm between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.

"Based on the current track of the storm, we made the decision to begin to sortie the fleet," Gortney said in a statement. "The current timeline allows them enough time to transit safely out of the path of the storm."

The Navy said ships in port that are unable to sortie could take precautions like adding additional mooring and storm lines and disconnecting shore power cables.

This sounds kind of late to be doing this. Where do they think they can move these in the next 48 hours?

In 48 hours? Well over 1200 miles away from the storm. The ships will go eastward or northeastward and circle back in behind the storm. The main thing is they don't want a carrier at NOB during the storm. The yards up river are more protected from weather and have necessary support to secure the ships that are there so those aren't a real concern. I saw a straight line storm come across Hampton Roads one afternoon that put several ships out into the channel.

I was in a storm in Dubrovnik Yugoslavia in 77/78 that came up suddenly and nearly caused us to run aground. We were anchored about three quarter a mile off coast. I was amazed at how fast a carrier could get underway.

I was referring to the “Frankenstorm” comment as a distraction by a media that is looking for one.

I know what you mean.

I was pretty dismissive of Hurricane Irene after NYC got a piece of it last year and they showed inconvenienced New Yorkers, empty Starbucks and litter being blown around.

But when it came up through Western Massachusetts and up into Vermont, I realized what a mistake that was. It had plenty of punch left, and caused some real damage up there.

I regretted belittling it.

So all these sailors have to scramble to get underway while leaving their families behind to fend for themselves? Hope the Navy is taking care of them.

Most sailors assigned ships company have permemant arrangements in place including Direct Deposit etc. I don't know what the actual days per year many are seeing at sea these days but when I was in we were underway a lot more than in port. s for the carrier? This order will only likely mean 2200 or so of the normal 5000 plus will actually go to sea. The air wings will likely stay put. Airwing crew does not remain on board in port like Ships Company does. They go back to their Squadron Base at one of the Naval Air Stations.

Those ships will likely be back in port by next weekend. The Navy has usually moved ships out in advance of huge storms of this nature. The exceptions usually are ones in the shipyard under repairs and the yards have the means to secure ships that the unprotected piers at the bases don't have.

Heh, well you coulda been on more than one, right? I was on the JFK and we went to Dubrovnik as well.

Great time...beautiful women with long hair...:)

I remember finding a little teeny, tiny french restaurant with four or five tables in it, right down on the water in a small cove. I was so proud of myself, that I had found this out of the way place with no other sailors in it!

I don’t remember if the food was good, but there were those french postcards with naked women all over the walls...

They made us wear our uniforms, which was not bad because the people seemed to really like Americans. I got into a pickup basketball game with a bunch of Yugoslavs, and scuffed the toe of my corofram so badly I had to buy new ones. (I tried to fix it by melting it a little with a lighter, but no luck!)

We did a late 1977-early 78 MED Cruise and stopped there. Everything was going fine till the storm hit. I mean we had almost no warning. The anchor started dragging and the Old Man got on the 1MC yelling get the ship underway get the ship underway now. Deckhouses were down. We'd sent the boats to the beach. I was also a Boat Snipe that cruise but was off duty when it hit. As the anchor and deck house came up the screws started boiling up and she began to back out. It was a close call. Our Captain was an ex-POW one of the longest held. He made Rear Admiral on that that cruise.

BTW when the Iranian Hostage Crisis broke out in 79 weren't you guys the ones who drew short straw at first? We were at NOB Norfolk waiting to go into drydock in another week or so. The ship went on alert and it was decided that night which carrier would deploy and we would go on in to Portsmouth. Now I'm not sure now which one had to go if it was maybe JFK at first and it then got rescinded. The ship would have been needed in the PG and back then that meant a trip down around the Cape and back up.

Two carrier groups were already on station in the MED back then. That night they finally released us. A bunch of orders came down in that time frame including they had ordered us to change home port to Mayport aafter the 1981 cruise I think. But I think Reagans Sec of Def rescinded that order because the change didn't happen. I was out in Oct 80 so it wouldn't have mattered.

Yea I remember Dubrovnik being a uniform only port. I walked around some in my Boat Crew coveralls near Fleet Landing. Another weird one a first for us was actually tieing up pier side in France either on that cruise of the 79 cruise for all the good it did us. We still had to steam due to electrical load issues.

My first deployment we took a trip down to RIO in mid 1977. Got my Royal Summons then my Shellback ceertificate LOL. I doubt seriously the hazing we took crossing the equator would be allowed today especially kissing the Royal Baby LOL. I know the hazing {iniation} we had in Engineering would be a Court Martial offense now. Things sure change.

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