Somebody’s Got Some ‘Splainin’ to Do . . . Again
This time, it’s be the captain and some of the crew of the USS Jacksonville, an SSN (nuclear attack sub) who need to do a bit of ” ‘splainin’ “. Seems the USS Jacksonville ran into something in the Persian Gulf the other day, sustaining minor damage.
Thankfully the collision was apparently a minor “brush”. The other vessel – believed to have been a fishing trawler – did not stop, did not indicate distress, and indeed did not even indicate it even realized there had been a mishap. The USS Jacksonville, however, lost one of its periscopes – which was sheared off during the collision.
The collision occurred at 5AM local, just after the USS Jacksonville had passed through the Strait of Hormuz.
There were no reported deaths or injuries. But I’d guess several careers may well end up casualties.
If you’re thinking this sounds kinda familiar, it should. This is the second collision in the Persian Gulf between a US warship and a merchant vessel in the last five months.
Category: Military issues, Navy
My first thought is that that cross eyed SEAL must have been driving, but I forgot he is the XO of the Alabama.
Maybe they couldn’t be seen because of their blue ACUs (or what ever the Squids call them)?
We were at a Marine base yesterday for sick call and my bride (of many decades) asked why the corpseman (HT Obama) was wearing a blue uniform. I replied that it was the Navy’s way of concealment on the sea. She replied that one would think that the big grey boat they were on would give them away first.
The Navy uses aquaflage, so that if someone falls overboard, he can easily be found in the drink.
It’s “corpsman”.
Only HYT Lance Corporals and the President spell it corpseman.
#4: I know that thus the reason I gave a HT to Dear Leader for the spelling. I was trying to be a wise ass.
Don’t forget that our uniforms now burst into flames at the drop of hat…Can someone please get their SH*T together at the Pentagon.
SJ, Edward1811: I always though the NDU’s blue/grey/black pattern was one of the dumber uniform change decisions of all time (but not the dumbest – the late-1990s Army Greens change-out IMO takes that dubious title).
But given the fact that a fire on a ship is a no-shit deadly matter, I’m simply amazed to find out that the Navy OKed a cotton/nylon mix for shipboard use. IMO approving a cotton/nylon mix for any shipboard uniform was absolutely dumb as hell. Nylon melts as it burns. And it sticks to whatever it lands on as it’s burning and melting – including skin and flesh.
http://hamptonroads.com/2013/01/navy-uniforms-are-flammable-and-military-knows-it
@7- I was, as generations before me, taught in boot camp that the advantage of our bell-bottomed dungarees was that they could be used as flotation devices. It worked, too. We were drilled on it in the pool, and we had to float with it for a time to see that it worked.
Two years later, they shitcanned the bell bottoms for some bullshit nylon and polyester gas station attendant uniform.
Though not as stupid as the recent camo pattern thing, it was mindblowingly retarded. The new working suits were hot and didn’t breathe as well as the denim (that’s critical down in the plants, where it can get near 160 degrees in some areas), and yet they also couldn’t serve as flotation devices like the old denim pants could.
The navy has been screwed up for awhile.
Hondo: I still can’t get over seeing folks in Dress Blues in a work environment. Every time a see one of the GO’s on the Hill in Blues, I think they stopped on the way to the club. Yeah, I’m a geezer.
Yeah, SJ – seeing soldiers wearing the ASU for routine duty vice at a format event certainly takes some getting used to. But at least that change in some respects made sense. It reduced the number of different uniforms required.
On the other hand, the late-1990s Army Greens change-out was IMO 100% nonsensical. In that fiasco, the old and new uniforms were identical except for a very subtle difference in the shade of dark green color used for the fabric. The two uniforms literally could not be told apart unless laid side-by-side and the colors compared, and even then the change was barely discernible.
IMO that was THE stupidest US military uniform change of all time. The change to the NDU is close, but that at least changed something besides color. YMMV.
I can only say from my experience I had no problems with dungarees inport and poopy suits (FR at that) underway.
Plus dungarees were cheap and easily maintained, even the FR ones.
Can’t imagine how the crews on the boats like them now, especially with all the other crap they have to haul with them on deployments.
As far as Jacksonvill goes, I’ve been in similar types of conditions (WAY shallow) but never in the Gulf itself. A lot of transiting in the Gulf is at periscope depth (PD) and as any bubblehead will tell you, coming to and being at PD is a hairy operation. Doing it at night is about 100X worse, and in the goat rope that is the Strait of Hormuz, it must be absolutely ass-puckering.
The only ‘splaining to do is how the newly retired former skipper will bring value to the interviewer’s business. It’s a real tight economy out there.
That too. Verily, oh verily, I say unto thee–many and varied are the ways in which a CO can step on his crank and end an otherwise stellar career.
Bending your boat being high on that list.