Posted on 08/21/2017 6:46:06 AM PDT by rktman
Vessels from several nations are searching Southeast Asian waters for 10 missing U.S. sailors after an early morning collision Monday between the USS John S. McCain and an oil tanker ripped a gaping hole in the destroyer's hull.
The collision east of Singapore between the guided missile destroyer and the 183-meter (600-foot) Alnic MC was the second involving a ship from the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet in the Pacific in two months.
Vessels and aircraft from the U.S., Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia are searching for the missing sailors. Four other sailors were evacuated by a Singaporean navy helicopter to a hospital in the city-state for treatment of non-life threatening injuries, the Navy said. A fifth was taken to the hospital by ambulance after the destroyer arrived in Singapore under its own power, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore said.
The McCain had been heading to Singapore on a routine port visit after conducting a sensitive freedom-of-navigation operation last week by sailing near one of China's man-made islands in the South China Sea.
The Navy's 7th Fleet said "significant damage" to the McCain's hull resulted in the flooding of adjacent compartments including crew berths, machinery and communications rooms. A damage control response prevented further flooding, it said.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
Maybe some other explanation but it simply cannot be coincidence.
Both the Fitzgerald and the McCain were run into by other ships.
They did not run into other ships.
Are these Naval ships actually “manning” a watch or relying primarily upon sensors?
There are many ships equipped to run “minimally” crewed vessels (as a cost savings) but that terminology was scrapped as it held a negative connotation and was changed to “adequately” crewed. The ability to run a ship that was “adequately” crewed relied on the use of sensors.
Early efforts to embrace this great leap of faith was met with consternation by the captains of these vessels which resulted in the overextending of crew resources in order to conduct watches that were labor intensive. Which in turn, fatigued the crews because there were fewer people to go around for said WQ&SB duties.
So in the late 80s and into the 90s the crew basically had to suck it up and move along. Three year tours on board these “adequately” crewed ships took a toll on the crews who were being stretched in all things there onto pertaining to WQ&SB assignments to RAS/FAS etc... All these onboard chores are/were now done with fewer and fewer crew members but the tasking remained at the previous levels of fully crewed vessels.
I do not know if these ships that are colliding are running on sensors with just a few watch standers present 24/7 or if they are fatigued crewmembers standing watches who just are not able to mentally focus on the tasks at hand that come with a vigilant watch requiring complete situational awareness by All Hands standing those watches.
> Is it possible that someone is messing with navigation programs? <
Perhaps. But in the old days there used to be sailors with binoculars stationed as watches. I can’t imagine that the Navy stopped that practice. So this sure looks like another ghastly human error.
No. They take care of each other.
Yes, I understand that.
Why? Because of a trend instead of a random incident. Four collisions in one year in the same Pacific Fleet Command.
A national disgrace in my book.
PING !!!
Is it likely that the top navigation officers were messing with some of the sailor-ettes when they should have been paying attention to the ship?
The standards in the military have been dropping. Warriors are pushed out via the peter principle and a$$ sucking REMFs take over. Snowflakery is growing. Same thing happened after WW2. When the Korean War started many troops sent over from Japan couldn’t assemble an M1 Garand. The military was too busy worrying about their PR with civilians.
This is the result of rewarding incompetence.
Two merchant ship strikes on 2 US warships in virtually the same area of the ship when damage indicates the US warship appears to have been virtually dead in the water?
What a coinky dink
The etiquette of Free Republic is that a post to Post 1 on a thread is a post meant for everyone.
It was not meant for you personally.
Ditto. May not take out a fleet commander, but a squadron commander will be sent packing, IMO..
Apparently the Obama administration promoted quite a few incompetent naval officers. They must have been good partisans however..
It’s either them queer boat drivers or the new mines that the slants have come up with. The admirals don’t want to admit that either one is the real cause.
Even if this is a hack by Ruskies/Chicoms/Norks the Navy is not going to make that public.
Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice...
“2 huge ships collide in a vast ocean. “
The Strait of Malacca is one of if not the most heavily congested sea lane in the world.
Whaaaaa. I’m offended and demand a safe space STAT! LOL! Gator hide. ;-)
“Both Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers and both in Asian waters. And both accidents within just a little over two months.”
It’s like the Chicoms know that war is coming and they’ve already taken out two of our forward ships.
If I remember correctly, there is a live link someplace as to the current traffic in that area. It used to be a YUGE piracy issue in the area as well.
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