Posted on 06/18/2017 7:22:25 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
We received an email from a Navy Mother that raises serious questions. We will redact her name, while the rumors (and that’s how they must be categorized for now) reported by her son aboard the Fitzgerald are checked out. Here is what she wrote to us:
*snip*My son is assigned to the USS Fitzgerald. I am unable to share his rate with you.
The information is short and not so sweet. The implications are disturbing.
The ship is registered in the Philippines. We do not know who the owner is. The container ship neither had its running lights or transponder on. That is an action taken willfully. Furthermore, for the container ship to strike with such accuracy is troublesome. Given what some have done with cars in Europe, what a feather in the cap it would be to sink a U.S. Navy warship. Think on that.
My son missed being washed out to sea by the blink of an eye. He was on his way to one of the berthing areas that was rammed.
If there is any substance to this – that the ACX Crystal disabled protective systems and rammed the Fitzgerald at high speed aimed at crtical facilities (evident from the damage) –
PHOTOS
…we have to consider the possibility of an asymmetric warfare attack designed to disable missile defense of a carrier strike group, as North Korea demonstrates the ability to make exactly such attacks on a multibillion dollar warship carrying thousands of sailors.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
They didn't. The ship ran into THEM. Look at the photos, destroyer damaged under the brisge, ship damage at the bow.
Easy to make that assumption though as many papers headlined (underlines mine):
"US Navy Destroyer Collides With Container Ship" Reuters 06-16-17
"An American Navy destroyer Collided with a merchant container ship" WIRED – 06-16-17
"7 Navy Sailors Missing After U.S. Destroyer Collides With Merchant Vessel Off Japan" NY Times 06-17-17
"Seven Sailors Missing After US Navy Destroyer Collides With Merchant Vessel Off Japan" ZeroHedge 06-17-17
The usual slovenly reporting or the usual spin to make our military look bad.
Don't just insult people and run away.
Really...Stupid.
That said, an Aegis destroyer Captain is not unprepared for such as this.
And there is no chance, given the radar capacity of the USS Fitz, that this was an accident.
Cue the tinfoilhats. Yes a frikking container ship purposefully rammed a US Navy Destroyer. Right. A ship with a turning radius of an aircraft carrier steered into a Destroyer. Save us from conjecture by people with no understanding of the subject whatsoever.
WTF was wrong with the watch on that Destroyer? Were the lookouts having sex? It is a US Navy ship after all.
Oh sorry I had other things to do and decided to drop it, but I guess your ad hominum does not qualify as an insult. So I hugely apologize for forgetting to reply when none was needed.
This is fishy.
I realize now it was misplaced. There are still some worthless Freepers hereabouts.
No more comments from me...PIF.
Not necessarily. If the merchant was in an overtaking
position, it would have signalled the Fitz it’s intentions. If the Fitz was bearing to the left of the traffic lane, then the merchant would have signalled that it was overtaking on the starboard side. (correlates with damage). The Fitz was most likely at slow speed, waiting for first light to make approach to Yokosuka. The Merchant was making about 15 kts. If the bridge crew were signalled properly, and were in communication with the ship on bridge to bridge, they would accept the close passage to starboard. No reason to suspect anything outside a friendly port.
Then, as the merchant pulled just slightly ahead of the starboard beam of the Fitz, a quick sharp turn to port would have closed the distance in slightly over a minute.
Possible, though less likely.
I believe it was a Philippine cargo ship that rammed it. There are a lot of radical muzzies there, so that is plausible.
2:30 AM. Most likely cause was people sleeping on the bridge.
Jesus,that guy needs to move to a cul de sac.
Road noise was incredible.
Good video.
This looks like a deliberate ramming, an attack.
The usual slovenly reporting or the usual spin to make our military look bad.
COLREGS say if you get hit on the starboard side it looks bad because you were in the wrong place.
looks radar invisible to me
Look at the erratic course of the freighter 2 U turns, time of night. The freighter sustained little damage no loss of life vs the RAMMED berthing area of the Fitz. The Fitz had the Right of Way.
Article does not tell you the Captain’s quarters was also damaged and he was Med Vac’d out.
Two of the Fitzgerald’s berthing areas were flooded after the collision, which occurred at 2:30 a.m. local time Saturday, a time when most of the crew would have been asleep.
The Fitzgerald was about 64 miles south of Yokosuka when the Crystal rammed nose-first into the destroyer’s starboard, or right, side. It was a clear night, but the crash occurred in a busy sea lane.
Photographs showed the side of the Fitzgerald caved in about a third of the way back. The Navy said the collision inflicted significant damage to the destroyer above and below the waterline, flooding berths, a machinery area and the radio room.
Under international maritime rules, a vessel is supposed to give way to another one on its starboard side, and the damage indicates that the Crystal was to the Fitzgerald’s starboard, and therefore had the right of way.
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