USS Fitzgerald?

I think it is interesting that the CO was injured seriously enough to be transferred by helicopter. Yeah, his career is over.

Hoping for the best for the 7 missing sailors...

SAR ongoing

I can't believe nobody's linked to this yet:

IIn reply to BrokenYugo:

I'd forgotten about that hull feature. Woof. Hate to imagine what it was like below when the collision occurred.

CNN just reported that they found the bodies of the missing sailors in the flooded compartments :(

I just read a google linked blog post supposedly from a crew member's mother claiming the container ship had running lights and location transponder turned off.

OHSCrifle wrote: I just read a google linked blog post supposedly from a crew member's mother claiming the container ship had running lights and location transponder turned off.

They've already posted the track of the container ship from GPS so they didn't have that turned off.

That's a real good point.

I'm sure the collision happened slowly and then all at once. It will be investigated thoroughly to figure out exactly who did what and when. Sad that sailors perished doing their jobs. There had to have been more than a handful of people on the bridge and in CIC that could've done something different in the hour leading to the collision that would've prevented the whole thing. I wouldn't like to live with that on my conscious.

Necro thread revival for an interesting article I found about the Fitzgerald. Lots of interesting details included about the wreck and the investigations. Pretty sad to hear the state of things in the Navy that could create these circumstances.

ProPublica USS Fitzgerald & Crystal crash

I read the entirety of the official investigation a few weeks ago and, it's really beyond "E36 M3show." I've been around the Navy my whole life, know countless SWOs (surface warfare officers), and heard a hundred stories of SNAFU that haven't made major media - but this ranks right up there with the Fat Leonard scandal in the dereliction of duty/incompetence level. 

Well, at least it drew attention away from the fact that two Navy ships had a (minor) collision at sea yesterday during replenishment operations - cause TBD, but let's hope it was something mechanical.....

Happily, I can report that this is not what is going on everywhere in the Navy. And it's not a new thing. You can go back and read about the Revolutionary War US Navy and the incompetence of some captains. Or read the book "Down With the Sea" about a lot of idiocy that lost a lot of lives in World War 2 at sea - and not due to combat. Just like any other large organization, the Navy has some areas that are a mess, and others that are ultra-professional. 

For bonus points, go read about the collision/grounding/sinking of the Norwegian frigate "Helge" last year - a good example of the difficulties of operating at sea at night, from a completely different (but also largely professional) navy. 

In reply to Mezzanine :

What a clusterberkeley.