Posted on 06/19/2017 4:55:31 PM PDT by The Klingon
Per the USNavy's 7th Fleet public affairs office; USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62) was involved in a collision with a merchant vessel at approximately 2:30 a.m. local time, June 17, while operating about 56 nautical miles southwest of Yokosuka, Japan.
The merchant vessel was the Filipino-flagged ACX Crystal container-ship (IMO:9360611) and she did have her AIS transponder on at the time of the incident.
From the news footage below you'll notice an area of severe damage which looks to me to be from an impact at a perpendicular angle, and not a grazing strike, since there is no scraping or dragging down the length of the USS Fitzgerald. I'm not suggesting the impact was deliberate, only that the vessels would have deflected if they had hit with a glancing strike, where to me it looks like the bow of the Crystal embedded itself for a short period in the USS Fitzgerald. I originally thought the USS Fitzgerald was stationary before the impact, but I've since changed my mind, since I've been told that there would be no operational reason to be stationary near an area of high traffic, on a moonless night. Valid point. Then if she wasn't stationary, why was she crossing the path of the shipping lane and how didn't they notice the 30,000 Ton ship on a collision course with them?
(Excerpt) Read more at vesselofinterest.com ...
I think there is a good chance her back is broken. If so the Fitz is scrap.
I read somewhere that the DDG’s radio room was badly damaged. Not sure how that would impact regular maritime cooms.
cooms-comms
Miss, more coffee please.
The Crystal owners needs to be investigated. A U turn is an attack. It was aggression and the families should sue the company.
I believe in the absence of the actual plot of the USS Fitzgerald’s actual position, the time of collision (which has been fixed at around 01:30 AM local time instead of 02:20 as originally thought) can serve as a temporary proxy. I believe that is why the correction to the time plot of the ACX Crystal is significant. (Note the original time of the collision was thought to be at 02:20 local time, but it was discovered, due to the communications disruption caused by damage and flooding of the communications compartment, the command was not notified until nearly an hour after it happened.
It is interesting to note that much of that virulent hatred of the Japanese displayed by Halsey was for the benefit of the US public through the media. In private conversations, it was said he didn’t speak of the Japanese in that fashion other than to call them “Nips” or “Japs”.
Halsey had apparently made statements that said he did it because he understood it was what people needed to hear in 1941 and 1943, when the chips seemed somewhat down for a period.
I personally don’t fault him for it. It was war.
Ah. The ashtray...I can clearly see THAT in my head. My dad was career Navy, and an ashtray and Pall Mall were never far from his hands...nor a tumbler of ice.
That is the way it was for many Navy men of that generation...:)
Hm...don’t know. Perhaps it was an early designation of Cryptologist Technician or something? Never heard that one...but to be there at that point in history...that is really something!
Spent 25 years in the Navy, often with a cup of coffee in one hand and a Pall Mall in the other. Would never do it again, but would not trade those years for all the gold on the planet.
This is a very old Navy usage. I believe CX is how they refered to what we would call a 3rd class Boatwain mate (BM3) today. It stood for Coxswain. These junior petty officers were the small boat handlers for the ship. A battleship or a carrier may have between 15 and 20 Coxswains to drive the Admiral’s Barge, the Captain’s Gig and the many small boats necessary to carry the crew and supplies while the ship was anchored in harbor. Their insignia was an eagle with crossed anchors and 1 red strip, worn on the right sleeve of their uniform jumper. This is the current BM3 insignia except it is worn on the left sleeve today. The term is no longer used to refer to a 3/c BM and probably ended at the end of WWII.
Though the petty officer in charge of a small boat is still referred to as a coxswain when he is handling the boat.
Well, the captain of the Fitz is done, for sure.
Ahh...so you know that ‘look’! (Heh, WHO smokes filter-less Pall Malls nowadays???)
In the four year stint I did, I learned more about myself and life in general than I did in any other four years of my life, including (and it isn’t even close) college.
I am grateful for having been able to do it...and to not have had to serve in a time of war.
Check out the post at #74 on this thread...with what we now know, it looks like human error is the cause, not hostile intent.
There is no shortage of hostile intent in the world today, but I don’t think this is one of them.
Fortunate I guess, but in 25 years in the Navy, never went to GQ for anything other than a drill.
I would bet my annual salary on it. Goes with the job...
Just amazing.
Based solely on the video, it appears that the container ship passed close by the warship, proceeded on for awhile. then decided to turn around and intentionally RAM the destroyer.
Again, based solely on the video, no other logical conclusion can be arrived at.
WRONG! The angle of the collision is the exact OPPOSITE.
You know it. I can think of several examples, offhand. I knew the daughter of the AF guy in charge of the C5s when they went from 30 to 29. He got retired that day.
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