Posted on 05/27/2015 8:23:51 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The National Park Service says tours on the USS Arizona Memorial are suspended after a vessel struck and damaged the memorial's dock.
Spokeswoman Abby Wines said Wednesday that boats are taking visitors to a spot near the memorial where they may view it from a distance, but visitors are not being taken on it.
Wines says the ramp and handrails connecting the dock to the memorial are mangled. Park service and Navy divers are expected to assess the damage from underwater Wednesday.
The incident occurred when the hospital ship USNS Mercy and a civilian tugboat contracted by the Navy were maneuvering in Pearl Harbor. Wines says either the tugboat or the Mercy hit the dock.
Wines says it's unclear how long tours on the memorial will be suspended.
Mercy me having been there it’s not invisible someone is in big trouble
Joseph Hazelwood?
Sounds like a setup to close off another part of American history to the public one little bit at a time. In the interest of preserving it for ‘future generations’.
OOpS!! I didn’t see it there!
My ass...
More like Scott Waddle...
The Feds cannot do anything right, nothing! Help us please; God, heaven, RATS, anybody. s/
Active Duty ping.
Crissake, they have a turning basin there and get Nimitz class carriers turned around. Someone screwed the pooch and it sounds like the tug driver. The big ships are not under way in there.
I toured the memorial just last Saturday. It was my first time at Pearl Harbor and the Arizona memorial. Very sobering and somber. So sad to hear about this ridiculous accident.
“Capt. Melanie Merrick”
Appears that the Mercy hit the dock while backing up.
Heck - I just replaced a taillight on my wife’s van. Again.
That was my first thought, but Commander Merrick seems to be in charge of the hospital staff and the harbor pilots were responsible for safe navigation in the harbor.
Maybe you can say your better half is in charge of the Homefront and is absolved from taillight damage.
“...and is absolved from taillight damage.”
Heh. I used to get all upset. But that only made her more upset. Now its “Oh - that happens. I’ll take a look at it, it can’t be THAT bad!” (To be fair, I can “only” think of seven times).
Like I tell my kids (learning to drive) “When I’m in my truck I hit things in back of me fairly often - but I’m going REAL slow so no damage to my truck or the object (fence, rock, tree, etc.) I don’t play that game with other cars!
LOL...when our kids were little, we got a Suburban for me to drive. I knocked the driver side mirror off twice (over a few months), backing up/in to areas. Hubby was not happy (at $250.00/pop), and just could not understand how I could (repeatedly) do that.
He was backing the beast out of our garage one day and - crunch - off went the (newly replaced) driver side mirror! We got rid of that Suburban, soon after.
Woman driver/navigator? I want names!
“Sounds like a setup to close off another part of American history to the public one little bit at a time.”
That was my first thought as well.
Does not make sense why such a large ship should be trying to maneuver there. Far too tight. Amazing it did not hit the Arizona. Clear from the pic it was very close. The hexagon at the bottom the GE screenshop is the white object just below the red cross in the posted pic.
That’s what I think. The pilot, the Captain of the tugboat, or whoever was managing the process...didn’t manage it.
You are correct Merrick only commands the medical department personnel. The ship is operated by civil service civilian mariners. The “captain of the ship” is a licensed master. Don’t know how responsibility is determined in the case of USNS ships. On a regular USS naval vessel the Captain is always responsible for the safe navigation of the ship, even when a pilot is embarked. The only time in Navy Regulations that a Captain is not responsible for the safe navigation of the ship is when entering a dry dock or when transiting the Panama Canal. Then and only then is he relieved of responsibility for pilot misjudgments or accidents.
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