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 ...
Let’s suppose the captain of the ACX Crystal really wanted to ram the Fitzgerald. Wouldn’t he be moving ahead at flank speed? Combine that with the weight of the Crystal, and I’m thinking the the Fitzgerald would crumple, then sink.
And there doesn’t seem to be any scraping marks on the Fitzgerald. That seems to indicate that the did not Fitzgerald did not turn away.
My totally wild guess: the Crystal hit the Fitzgerald by accident, then went into full reverse. It might have even been in reverse when contact was made. Otherwise, how could the Fitzgerald survive?
Veeeery interesting!
Someone uses those ship tracking sites should be able to check out the transponder being on or off.
What is that?
It would be interesting to see who was the duty officer in our new, inclusive Navy at the time of the accident if an honest, open court martial or inquiry were to be held. Of course we, the taxpayers, will never know what really happened and who was responsible.
How do you all of a sudden surmise that it was a “gal” on the bridge as OOD? I haven’t read anything suggesting that... Maybe I missed that in all the reports?
I tuned into CNN (thanks to a posting on Free Republic) and saw the 2nd place hit. The CNN talking head actual said ‘another plane just accidentally hit the World Trade Center’. That’s when I realized how stupid the news media was, two accidental hits in broad daylight, really?
I sailed a small boat across the Pacific with two other people.
Before setting out we got some advice from an acquaintance who was also a small boat sailor.
He was also an experienced captain on a merchant ship with a large, well known company sailing regular routes back and forth across the Pacific.
He said that in his experience many merchant vessels do not keep a constant lookout or radio watch at sea in spite of the law requiring them to do so.
He recommended on taking evasive action immediately upon sighting a large vessel.
He said when he is sailing his sailboat and spots a large vessel, especially a merchant vessel,
as soon as he can discern their course he alters his course to about a 90 degree angle to theirs.
It puts as much distance as possible between the two vessels and eliminates any doubt on the
other ship as to your course and intentions (assuming they have a lookout).
Especially at night.
And that turned out to be good advice as we encountered large vessels at night with no effective
visible lights and no answer to our radio call.
Thankfully we had a small boat radar and could pick them up, calculate their course and take evasive action.
Not long ago out west a yacht owner decided to leave the bridge unattended while he took a crap.
He lucked out and only got toed by a ferry that had thrown its engines into full reverse.
At the time I commented that he was really lucky that it wasn’t a navy ship otherwise they may have been jumping to conclusions about who was behind the wheel of the smaller boat and why he was ignoring their attempts to warn him off.
Military Corruption will post quite a bit of otherwise embargoed information.
I’m a landlubber, so I’m depending on folks who know way more than I do. But 2 thoughts: If I have hostile intent, would I approach at flank speed, knowing that might tip off my target to my intent? Especially since my mass matters more than my speed. Second, ram implies, to my mind anyway, an intent to t-bone, which would be impossible to do by coming up from behind the target. All that’s needed is a collusion.
In the old military the word SNAFU was common. Same as Normal...All F__ked Up.
There was no way in hell that the alarm systems, radar systems and lookouts did not see the ship coming at them! However, we will never know the real story because top brass protects top brass.
Collision. Though I wouldn’t rule out collusion, especially if this was a hostile act.
Given what little I know about the incident I’d have to conclude that the crew of the USS Fitzgerald was negligent/incompetent/improperly trained. Or some combination of those. All boaters know that it’s the primary responsibility of the smaller, more maneuverable watercraft to avoid collisions on open water regardless of the circumstances that brought the larger, less maneuverable watercraft into close proximity.
I’m reading all posts with interest but have no comment to make.
Really? I knew it wasn’t a Cessna that hit the world trade center like CNN was initially reporting after the first tower was hit. I knew immediately it was an act of terror.
“How do you run into a cargo ship?”
First, the SLOW MOVING cargo ship RAN INTO THE DESTROYER AMIDSHIP! The truth is that the destroyer had to have passed directly in front of the cargo ship. Have any idea how much room it takes to turn a cargo ship of that size. How about the turning radius of a destroyer.
That makes the story given by the skipper totally unbelieveable.
I think the Fitz is scrap. Look at the dockside images. Her bridge has a serious tilt and it is very possible her back is broken.
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